"Fuck you!"
SV shouted but with no real bite. He simply ignored the BOSS and looked down at the mayhem in town.
The bangs and explosions had a kind of unique beauty to them. If one ignored the panic-stricken townspeople scattering around, that is.
SV stared for some time, and a question popped up in his mind.
"Won't they run out of Mana?" It had been so long, but they showed no sign of slowing down; well, at least it wasn't noticeable to him.
The BOSS chuckled and helpfully answered, "even back in the day, only weaklings cared about Mana consumption."
SV felt slightly irked at being called a weakling, but he probed further nonetheless, "shouldn't it be a universal problem, though?"
The BOSS shook his head, "you just need a few talents to accelerate your Mana recovery."
"Oh," SV nodded, then asked again, "how do you get talents?"
The BOSS merely smiled but didn't answer, "ask your lover."
"BOSS, we've had this conversation before," SV said. She wasn't his lover, for crying out loud.
"Yeah, yeah," the BOSS said airily.
SV simply shook his head speechlessly and looked down. He said conversationally, "BOSS, did you have a lover before?"
The BOSS surprisingly remained silent and didn't answer him.
SV raised a nonexistent eyebrow, thinking to himself that he had found a sore spot. He tried to open his mouth to tease the BOSS but found out that his mouth was zipped up again.
Speechless, both literally and figuratively, he continued to look at the massacre below.
—
SV stared and stared and stared.
For how long had he been staring?
Such a thought crossed his mind. It was already late into the night, so he must have been staring for at least a couple of hours.
Even the most beautiful women in the world would become another boring sight if someone were to stare at her for so long, much less a repetitive scene of mayhem.
That was how SV currently felt. Absolutely boredom.
He had been trying for who knew how long but did not manage to activate his talent. He did not even get an inclination that it would work.
He sighed as he glanced at the BOSS beside him. Honestly, was the BOSS just content with waiting? Did their mayhem have no adverse effects at all?
It seemed so. But he just felt that something was missing. He just couldn't quite put his finger on it.
He then frowned and turned to look at the mayor's house but couldn't see the mayor's body.
His gaze penetrated the ground, but he couldn't find the underground cavern.
It wasn't built yet?
His frown deepened. With the BOSS by his side, who was going to continue the plan before the festival? Had they not effectively prevented the dream from proceeding to the next event?
So why was the BOSS so calm?
No matter. It was obvious that he lacked key insights, as even Yun Jierou believed that the dream was a dead end.
Below, the group suddenly stopped.
Just as SV wondered if they had gotten bored too, under SV's astonished eyes, the townspeople who had been stripped bare by the stray attacks were suddenly fully clothed; however, they were frozen in place.
Then they started to move. It wasn't smooth or anything organic, but like puppets attached by threads, they were plucked from one place and placed in another.
Then, as if a button were pressed, they resumed their life, none the wiser. Their panic from the assaults disappeared like it never happened, and they were strolling around like they'd do on any other night.
SV blinked, confused, and then turned to Yun Jierou's group.
They gathered together and seemed to be talking about something. Then they approached the fountain in the square, and their expressions turned ugly.
The BOSS started laughing. SV gave him a sidelong glance and ignored him. He could finally understand what was going on.
Why the BOSS was so relaxed. Why there was no solution in the dream.
It truly was inevitable.
Dejected, but still not broken, the group once again scattered around the town while Yun Jierou soared to the sky.
SV raised a nonexistent eyebrow. It took her so frickin' long to come look for him.
As SV stared expectantly at her superlunary figure soaring to the sky, he wished his mouth wasn't forcibly shut; otherwise, he would be hollering right now.
It wasn't just him; the BOSS was staring at her too. SV wondered if the BOSS would make a move, but he couldn't discern anything from the BOSS's expression.
Yun Jierou kept soaring until she passed by them, leaving SV speechless.
No matter.
Just as SV wondered if she'd directly cross the atmosphere or something, she stopped and extended her palm to touch something.
Her palm landed gently on some invisible surface. The edge of the dream, SV guessed.
Then, she distanced herself from the edge and released a shocking lightning bolt. SV stared intently as the bolt simply crossed the edge and vanished.
Yun Jierou frowned and shot several more lightning bolts to no avail.
SV wondered if she'd just hack at the edge for a few hours, but then she stopped and stared down at the town.
She performed several hand signs, and a dark cloud crackling with purple lightning began to extend and hover just below the edge.
"Ridiculous," the BOSS muttered with barely contained envy in his voice.
'Ridiculous,' SV would've echoed the BOSS's sentiments if he could talk.
Aside from envy, SV felt some excitement; the dark cloud was extending over the sky, and he was already in range. If it released lightning down, there was no way he wasn't going to be affected, right? Surely, there was a chance of success, right?
Looking at the BOSS who simply stared at the power display, SV knew that there was barely any hope with Yun Jierou. His excitement was doused violently with cold water.
Fuck! This woman was useless.
SV couldn't help but curse, trying to rack his brain for a way to exit the dream.
What was he supposed to do?
He did indeed have a way to leave. A way even the BOSS was unaware of, and that was to scare himself to death. The gaming pod would detect his nerve signals and forcefully pull him offline as a safety measure.
But how was he supposed to achieve that? And honestly, even if he somehow did manage to scare himself to death, SV felt that this game might somehow block the gaming pod's attempt to rescue him. That would be a real disaster.
Truthfully, SV regretted it. He regretted many things. He regretted not targeting the formation. He regretted not putting a timer on his gaming pod so it would forcefully pull him offline in one hour or something. He regretted not paying attention to what the BOSS was doing.
Heck, even earlier than that. If he had checked whether the BOSS had died before making a wish, he wouldn't be in this situation now.
He sighed. As it stood, there didn't seem to be any danger to his life, but there didn't seem to be any hope for Yun Jierou and her group.
He didn't care much about them, but it left a bad taste in his mouth to just lose to the BOSS after going through all this. And, if the BOSS won, it was very likely that he'd be stuck in this trial space without being able to get out. Heck, he might still be stuck in place until he was forcefully pulled offline by the gaming pod for overextending.
SV tried stroking his beard, but unfortunately, his range of movements was very limited, so he failed. He mentally went through all that he could do as he simply scratched them one by one.
Nothing.
So all he could do was to try and blindly activate his talent. He let go of all his distracting thoughts, let go of his attempts to puncture the orb with his threads, and let go of his attention to the outside world. He focused all his attention on his hands to activate his talent.
The BOSS saw SV suddenly becoming quiet and simply sneered, thinking that he had probably given up.
The cycle of night and day continued, though obstructed by the ominous black clouds that have now covered the entire sky.
Suddenly, complicated lines lit up in the town below, and the purple lighting in the clouds seemed to intensify.
Suddenly, the world was consumed by purple lightning, a single massive pillar of lightning devouring everything between the sky and the earth.
SV was naturally consumed by the lightning, but the monstrous display of power unfortunately failed to achieve anything. It could not even tickle his shackles much less kill him.
At the heart of the clouds above was Yun Jierou, rapidly forming hand signs with gritted teeth. Clearly, it wasn't easy on her to maintain such an output.
Time passed slowly, and the lightning pillar gradually receded, but the clouds remained. Yun Jierou stared at the town that emerged unscathed, and her brows knitted tightly.
A look of hardened resolve flashed in her eyes, and she started pinching her fingers. Strands of silver began streaking her black hair.
Immediately, SV felt a force guiding him, momentarily freeing his fingers from the glove, allowing his ring and middle fingers to touch his palm.
—
SV found himself floating on the lake. He blinked and adjusted his swimming position to look around.
He didn't quite understand what the force was just now. He did have some guesses, but he couldn't care less at the moment. He quickly checked the timer of the mission.
[Duration: 02:29:11]
Thankfully, there was still time. He checked his talent and saw that the cooldown on it had ended, so he took a deep breath and started diving.
With his enhanced attributes, he encountered no pressure at all as he dove deeper and deeper.
However, he suddenly frowned and went back up again. He then quit the game, put a timer of one hour on the gaming pod, and reentered the game. This way, even if he failed to possess the formation and possessed the lake instead, he'd maybe have a chance to retry. Maybe. But it was always worth a try.
He took a deep breath again and dove back down. It took him no time at all to reach the formation. SV touched the formation but didn't hurry to activate his talent. He first mentally prepared himself before pressing his ring and middle fingers against his palm.
Immediately, he turned to bluish-white particles.
[Possession has been initiated.]
Following the system notification, he felt himself being attracted to the lake. But SV already had expected this, so he forced himself to flow into the formation.
Having had prior experience and having succeeded once before, SV managed to force himself into the formation. As he touched it, he felt himself leaving the real world and reaching a strange space. However, he didn't encounter a barrier this time.
[WLL check has been initiated. 0<85. Check passed. Possession successful.]
He felt himself becoming an object embedded on the lakebed. He was used to the loss of sense and nerves by now, but the inability to move was an unpleasant yet novel feeling. He couldn't do anything at all except for controlling his brightness, or rather darkness in this case.
No matter. SV checked his profile to see if he could do anything in this body. Surprisingly, two panels popped up in front of him. One was his panel, and the other was of the object he possessed.
======
[Name: ]
[Race: ]
[Sex: ]
[Lv: ]
[Class: ]
[Desire: 6583/10000]
[Obsession: 21/1000]
[Attributes: ]
[Talents: ]
[Skills: Sacrifice Lv3]
======
SV raised a nonexistent eyebrow. Ignoring how the panel was basically empty, he wondered why there was an additional Obsession category there. And why was the skill described as Sacrifice?
No matter, he clicked on the skill.
======
[Sacrifice]
[Lv: 3]
[Requirement: None]
[Description: Sacrifice to a greater being for blessings.]
[Effect I: Offer Desire and Obsession to a greater being to be granted a request.]
[Cooldown: None]
======
SV figuratively narrowed his eyes; he seemed to understand something.
But then again, how was he supposed to activate this skill?
He checked on the control setting and saw that he could assign a motion. He figuratively frowned and tried assigning the motion of darkening half of his body, and it seemed to work.
SV raised an eyebrow and immediately performed the motion. A prompt appeared in his eyes to select the amount of Desire and Obsession to be sacrificed. Without paying it any thought, SV directly inserted all the available Desire and Obsession.
He did think of leaving a certain amount for a second try, but he feared that not offering enough would cause the request to be realized in an unpleasant way, especially since he didn't have much Obsession left.
A prompt came up.
[State your request.]
SV thought about it and simply wrote in the 'Nightmare' quest objective.
'Destroy the dream. Liberate the wills.'