The voice sounded very familiar to Stelle. Following its direction, her gaze finally settled on a picture frame not far away.
She studied the frame in confusion but found nothing unusual about it.
Then, all of a sudden, a crack split open in the center of the frame, and a murky light shone through it.
The light didn't seem to have any effect. Stelle watched it for a little longer before cautiously reaching out to touch the frame and the opening.
The moment her fingertips made contact with the frame, the crack suddenly widened, and white light engulfed and swallowed her whole.
The Galactic Baseballer felt a powerful pull. Instinctively, she tried to draw her bat, but by the time she could move again, the scene before her had already darkened.
Stelle found herself standing on a red carpet in a corridor floating in the void. There were no walls on either side, and she could see shadows of all shapes drifting through the surrounding emptiness.
Ahead, the red-carpeted path led all the way to an upward staircase, and Misha was standing not far in front of her.
The young hotel attendant bowed politely.
"Ah, you're here! That's wonderful!"
"Welcome to the Corridor of Memories! You can think of this place as an entry passage leading to the Golden Hour, and I'm here to guide our guests."
Noticing the strange expression on Stelle's face as she looked around, Misha continued explaining, "This is only a temporary transfer station, so it looks rather plain... The Reverie Hotel in the dream is currently undergoing repairs."
"I'm sorry for the unpleasant check-in experience... But once you reach the Golden Hour, I'm sure all your troubles will disappear!"
Stelle looked at Misha curiously. She hadn't expected the kid to get anxious while explaining.
Afterward, she asked him for more information, including the state of the Reverie Hotel in the dream and the note she had found earlier, but didn't get anything particularly useful.
Following Misha's directions, she walked to the end of the corridor and reached out to touch the floating picture frame before her, heading toward the Golden Hour.
The next instant after being swallowed by white light once again, Stelle heard the sound of rushing wind.
Along with it came the feeling of weightlessness.
She suddenly opened her eyes and found herself falling toward the sky.
No, she was falling toward the ground.
Stelle struggled to turn herself around and adjust to the sudden change in gravity. Beneath her lay a midnight city glowing with endless neon lights.
The feeling of "flying" excited Stelle.
She thought this must be the first step of entering Penacony. It was certainly a pleasant surprise.
What she didn't notice was that the people on the streets below had all looked up. Watching the dark figure descending from the sky, they wore puzzled expressions.
Seeing she was about to hit the ground, Stelle prepared to pull out her bat and make a superhero-style entrance, just like she had back in Belobog's Underworld.
But then she suddenly realized something was wrong.
Her sense of direction was completely mixed up, and her body wasn't obeying her properly.
When she tried to raise her right hand, her left leg twitched twice instead.
When she tried to turn her head, her left arm swung twice instead.
In an instant, Stelle lost what little balance she still had and dropped straight down, crashing headfirst into the ground.
She lay face-down on the ground in a Le Ping pose for two seconds.
It was a rather embarrassing sight.
Although the solid memetic ground cracked from the impact, her body, capable of containing a Stellaron, wasn't injured much at all.
An ordinary person would probably have been kicked out of the dream by now for attempting a high-altitude skydive without a parachute.
Stelle then climbed to her feet and saw two familiar figures.
Robin had leaned over in front of her, looking at her with obvious concern, while Sunday stood behind her with narrowed eyes, looking somewhat speechless, as though he'd already seen this kind of thing before.
Helping Stelle to her feet, Robin asked, "Are you alright?"
Stelle blinked.
"Is this heaven...?"
Robin chuckled, "Don't worry. You've already arrived safely in the dream."
While Robin was speaking, the corner of Sunday's eye twitched violently.
Even with his self-control, he couldn't help complaining inwardly.
"Are all you Nameless so fond of attracting attention?"
It all started a little while earlier...
———
After Bailu, Hook, and Nero finished eating, the three of them wandered around the real Reverie Hotel for a while longer.
Every member of the Bloodhounds they met along the way was friendly, easy to talk to, patient, and even eager to give directions.
They had already been in Penacony for some time, and the others had probably already entered the dream. Nero and the other two planned to do the same and returned to their own rooms.
Before entering the dream, Nero waited in his room for a while longer.
Earlier at the front desk, Big Brother Aventurine had said he would take him out to have fun, but he hadn't said exactly when.
So Nero decided to wait a little while, just in case Aventurine came knocking while he wasn't aware.
After waiting for a while, no one came.
Thinking it probably wouldn't be today, Nero hugged Black Cutter, tucked Cirrus into his clothes, and lay down in the Dream Pool.
After closing his eyes, he felt momentarily dazed.
When Nero opened them again, he found himself high in the sky.
Clouds floated before him. Farther away were faint shadows and a few lights like stars.
When he rolled over and looked down, he saw a city below, glowing with colorful neon lights like a bustling metropolis.
Just then, Cirrus's voice sounded beside his ear.
"Haha, dropping from this high up? Penacony sure knows how to scare people!"
Nero frowned before shaking his head.
Before entering the dream, he had carefully read the precautions in the Dream Passport. According to its description, what he was experiencing now wasn't normal. A suicidal stunt like this would most likely get someone kicked out of the dream.
"I don't think so. This doesn't match the description in the Dream Passport," Nero said to Cirrus.
"Maybe the entrance to the dream was affected because three consciousnesses entered at once."
"After all, neither you nor Black Cutter is anything ordinary."
Cirrus blinked, holding back the words, "The most outrageous one here is you."
Even though he was falling, Nero wasn't worried at all.
Flying had long since become second nature to him.
Whether it was flying on a sword or walking through the air, both were completely ordinary for him.
He reached out and grabbed at the air beside him, muttering softly, "As expected of a dream. The concentration of memoria is so high!"
As he spoke, he reached out again. Part of the memoria flowed around his fingertips before turning into a trail of light that briefly illuminated the sky.
"Black Cutter, take a lap," Nero said.
The massive black greatsword let out two humming sounds and sped up slightly, changing from falling into flying.
It moved beneath Nero, supporting him, then began flying through the sky according to his directions.
Very soon, a steadily glowing pattern stretched across the night sky above the Golden Hour.
The people below were drawn by the sight. They gathered together, looked up, and watched.
After staring for quite some time, once the glowing trail became more intricate, they finally made out what it was.
It looked like a face.
But it clearly wasn't Penacony's Clockie.
Instead, it was some kind of creature with long ears.
A scene like this had never appeared in Penacony before.
Although Dreamweavers existed, this wasn't something they could accomplish. Besides, Dreamweavers would never carry out construction in public like this. If any work needed to be done, the Family would certainly send people to keep tourists away.
As a result, even Sunday and Robin were alarmed by the commotion.