After officially beginning her journey through the Dreamscape, what was the first thing Stelle did?
The answer was... commit insurance fraud.
She noticed that on the streets of the Golden Hour, there were these round vehicles that looked like giant tires, dragging colorful trails behind them as they zipped all over the roads.
It made her a little nostalgic, reminding her of the buses in Belobog.
Whenever she stepped onto the tracks and stood in front of one of those buses, the kind driver would stop the vehicle, then say something with a bright red face.
It was much harder to experience something like that on the Luofu. They used skiffs to transport both people and cargo, with dedicated flight routes and aerial rails.
Someone like her who couldn't fly had a hard time blocking one of those skiffs.
Those memories made something short-circuit in Stelle's brain, and she walked right into the middle of the road. But the drivers here weren't nearly as friendly as the ones in Belobog.
The moment they saw her, they didn't slow down at all. Some laid on the horn while making sharp turns to avoid her, then shouted a few colorful words. Others acted as though they couldn't see her and drove straight through.
After fighting the Doomsday Beast, Stellaron puppets, and Lord Ravagers, Stelle was, after all, a Trailblazer. Getting hit by a car only made her roll across the ground a couple of times. Even getting sideswiped only made her stumble.
If it had been any other tourist, they probably would've been kicked out of the Dreamscape from that alone.
Not far away, the owner of a small food stall stood on a chair behind his cart, staring at the scene in stunned disbelief.
The owner was a Pepeshi. He was shorter than Nero, and even seemed a little shorter than Qingque.
Although he looked like a little kid, he wore a mature-looking suit, had a beard, slicked-back hair with pomade, and a fluffy pom-pom-like thing on top of his head. It was impossible to tell whether it was decoration or an actual body part.
Being short was simply a racial trait of the Pepeshi. He had been running this stall in the sweet dream for many years, and this was the first time he'd ever seen a tourist like this.
And somehow he'd seen two of them in a single day.
The one in front of him got hit by speeding cars, rolled across the ground twice, stood up, dusted off her clothes, and acted as if nothing had happened.
The earlier one had been even more ridiculous.
Everyone else drove vehicles, but that white-haired... fellow who had visited his shop not long ago... no, maybe not the same race... had ridden down on a sword. Then some reckless driver who wasn't watching the road charged straight at the kid.
The result was that the car slammed into him, came to a dead stop, and the entire front end crumpled. The driver was launched straight out, rolled across the ground twice, and got bounced out of the Dreamscape.
The Pepeshi shop owner was still in a daze when Stelle walked over, bought a bottle of SoulGlad, took a sip, then turned and left.
The owner shook his head and let out a long sigh...
Thinking back on the two unbelievable things he'd witnessed today, he could only sigh in amazement.
"Holy shit, kids these days!"
Stelle continued walking through the neon-lit streets.
Strolling through the bustling city despite it being midnight gave her an indescribable feeling.
Suddenly, the little Stellaron spirit stopped in her tracks.
Like a robot, she snapped her head to the side. Her amber eyes locked onto the target with radar-like precision.
By the roadside, beside a streetlamp, she spotted a beautiful object.
Iron gray.
An opening.
Small...
It was...
A trash can.
'There are trash cans in the Dreamscape!?'
Almost instantly, she appeared beside it and reached inside.
Unfortunately, it was completely empty. There were neither treasures nor garbage inside.
Even so, the discovery still filled Stelle with delight, as though she were wrapped in a candy-colored dream with a lingering sweetness.
'Oh, wait.'
Stelle suddenly realized the trash can wasn't actually empty.
Dreamscape trash cans didn't just contain ordinary garbage.
Maybe they also held emotions people had thrown away.
It wasn't that she herself had become delighted.
She had found delight.
The thing inside this trash can was precisely that joyful emotion.
'How amazing!'
Stelle was genuinely happy.
She hadn't expected to find something she loved the moment she entered the Dreamscape.
She really enjoyed opening these trash cans. Each Dreamscape trash can hid different emotions, joy, anger, sorrow, longing, fear; sourness, sweetness, bitterness, spiciness, saltiness. It felt like opening blind boxes, making it impossible not to look forward to the next one.
Stelle also found a bird-shaped machine sitting on a street corner. All it took was pressing a button, and it would continuously spit out stacks of paper bills.
Money, maybe?
As expected of a sweet dream. It really was generous.
What made it even more interesting was that, even here, despite many of the tourists being wealthy tycoons, whenever those bills started flying everywhere, people still rushed over to snatch them up.
Yet very few of them ever used the machine themselves.
Although the money it produced couldn't be exchanged for Credits in the real world, it could still be used to enjoy almost everything inside the Dreamscape.
If they loved money so much, why didn't they just press the button themselves?
Stelle was puzzled.
'Is it because of pride?'
Later, Stelle discovered some self-moving billboards, along with balloons shaped like crocodile heads. They reminded her of Cirrus.
Back in the Fyxestroll Garden, Nero had turned that heliobus into a balloon too. Maybe she could become friends with these crocodile heads.
Every now and then, Stelle also came across broken clocks lying by the roadside. But as a professional who had studied under Serval (for less than a day), and a super player of the Xianzhou's Hexanexus, fixing those clocks was no difficult task for the helpful little Stellaron spirit.
And after she repaired them, the Dream Tickers happily rewarded her.
No baseball bat intimidation required (please ignore that).
Suddenly, Stelle spotted an extremely strange-looking telephone hanging on a wall.
It looked like a huge mouth, with red lips and a fish-like tongue. Standing on the tongue was a tiny little figure that resembled a peanut.
Curious, Stelle walked over and, almost on instinct, picked up the receiver.
A voice came from the phone.
[Ring-ring! Ring-ring!]
[Good evening, honored guest! Would you be interested in making a magical Dream-Peeping Call today?]
"What's a Dream-Peeping Call?" Stelle asked.
The Dream-Peeping Phone replied, [Excellent question, excellent question! Since you've just arrived, you don't yet know how amazing Dream-Peeping Calls are.]
[You only need to spend a tiny amount of Dreamjolt Troupe Coins... that is, Credits, and the Dream-Peeping Phone will automatically search your contacts to find one of your friends who is currently asleep...]
[Then you'll get to hear what they're dreaming about! Doesn't that sound fun?]
"I like this."< As she spoke, Stelle generously stuffed a thousand Credits into it.
[Beep... Beep... Beep...]
[Ring... Ring... Ring...]
[Dream-Peeping Call connected]
[You will now hear: Bronya Rand's dream.]
[Bronya: 'Ah... that definitely won't work... Seele, don't... don't use so much force!']
The familiar voice came through the phone.
Even without seeing the scene, Stelle could already picture it vividly in her mind.
The little Stellaron spirit slowly widened her eyes and covered her nose with her free hand.
Wasn't a scene like this a little too stimulating for a young Stellaron spirit?
"My goodness, this is my favorite episode!" Stelle exclaimed excitedly.
[Bronya: '...That box is full of handicrafts Mother gave me. They're very easy to break.']
[Seele: 'Oh, is that it... Then why didn't you say so earlier? Fine, I won't move it for now. You'll have to figure out how to carry it yourself later...']
The little Stellaron spirit clenched her teeth.
The story hadn't gone in the direction she'd imagined.
Feeling both annoyed and disappointed, she hung up the phone.
"Damn it... this is the saddest episode I've ever seen," Stelle muttered quietly.
[T/N: Before I start, LEAVE A REVIEW, NOW! Ahem! So, this month's review is up in both my p@treon and d!scord. I talk about what will happen to the works going forward and it matters if you don't want your favorite fanfic to get axed. D!scord invite is in my WebNovel profile. Have a great day~]