Claude scans the shimmering paradise, but the speaker remains invisible, a phantom woven into the very fabric of the dream. The voice doesn't travel through the air; it vibrates deep within his skull. Beside him, Claudia is a picture of innocent joy, her golden hair caught in the sunlight as she chases a butterfly. Claude feels a pang of bittersweet resolve. He would give anything to keep that smile on her face forever.
*"Mortal,"* the voice booms, shattering the moment. *"Prepare to receive your punishment."*
Claude's eyes widen in terror. He drops to his knees, his voice cracking. "No! Please, my Lord! My sister and I... we stumbled here by mistake. We meant no disrespect!"
*"A mistake, you say?"* The voice muses, the tone shifting like cooling iron.
Claude nods frantically, his head bobbing like a panicked chicken. "Yes, Lord! A terrible mistake! We were hunted... we didn't know!"
*"If it was a mistake, then I must verify your heart. I shall peel back the layers of your memory."*
Claude freezes. He has heard whispers of the soul-devouring spirits from the Far West, where the Dream Side bleeds into reality. Yet, this voice lacks the jagged, bloodthirsty madness of an evil spirit. It is cold, calculated, and terrifyingly calm.
"What... what must I do?" Claude whispers.
*"Nothing. I only require your permission."*
A wave of dizziness washes over Claude, making the flowered field sway. Just then, he feels a tug on his hand. He looks down to see Claudia staring at him with curious blue eyes.
"Brother? Who are you talking to?" she asks, tilting her head.
Claude realises with a jolt that the voice is silent to her. He forces a shaky smile. "No one, Claudia. Just... thinking out loud."
Claudia narrows her eyes, unconvinced. "Are you fooling me? I heard you speaking."
The pressure in Claude's mind returns, a heavy, regal weight. He gently nudges her away. "Go on and play, little one. Brother is busy."
Claudia studies his face for a long moment before nodding. "Okay!" She scampers off, once again lost in the dance of the butterflies.
As soon as she is out of earshot, the voice returns. *"Your memories do not lie. You spoke the truth. However, the sanctity of this place has been breached. I cannot let you depart without a small punishment."*
Claude doesn't argue. He knows that against such overwhelming power, defiance is merely an invitation to a swifter death. But a desperate idea takes root in his mind. He has heard of commoners becoming followers of powerful entities, gaining terrible strength at the cost of their souls. He doesn't care about his life; he only cares about getting Claudia to the Emerald Tower. Only there will she truly be safe.
He bows low, his forehead touching the dream-grass. "Lord, instead of a punishment... I beg to become your follower."
The silence that follows is deafening. Then, the voice ripples with a hint of something new. *"My follower? Interesting. Very well."*
An icy sensation floods Claude's veins, and the paradise dissolves into blinding white light. He loses consciousness instantly.
*****
Claude wakes to the sharp, rhythmic chirping of birds. He snaps his eyes open to see the morning sun spilling into the mouth of the cave, illuminating the carpet of skeletons with gruesome clarity.
Claude focuses his mind, tentatively shaping the word in his thoughts: *Status*.
Instantly, a translucent pane of flickering light manifests before his eyes, displaying data that feels both alien and absolute.
*Name:* Claude
*Follower:* God of Knowledge and Digital World
*Level:* Knight Attendant (1)
*Condition:* Mild Hunger, Cursed
*Strength:* 1.4 (1.65)
*Agility:* 1.2 (1.61)
*Constitution:* 1.5 (1.92)
*Spirit:* 1.05 (1.07)
*Skills:*
* Basic Fighting: Mortal (58/1000)
* Basic Sword: Mortal (89/1000)
* Red Crane Sword: Mortal (11/1000)
*Technique:*
* Red Crane Breathing Technique (Stage 1): (85/100)
Claude's breath hitches. The "God of Knowledge and Digital World"? He had never heard of such a deity, yet the power was undeniable. His gaze lingers on the progress of his family's legacy. *I am only fifteen points away from the second stage,* he realises. *Fifteen points from becoming a true Knight Apprentice.*
Driven by a sudden surge of hope, he ignores the skeletons and crosses his legs in a meditation posture. He closes his eyes and begins the rhythmic, sharp inhalations of the Red Crane. But as the technique begins to draw on his vitality, his stomach knots into a violent, agonising cramp.
"Ugh!" Claude cries out, collapsing forward.
The cold reality of his mortality hits him. In his haste to advance, he had forgotten the first rule of cultivation: a breathing technique requires fuel. Without food, the technique would simply consume his own flesh. *I need to find a hunt,* he thinks, glancing at the bleached bones with a new sense of dread.
He turns to his sister, shaking her shoulder. "Claudia, wake up!"
"Brother?" she murmurs, rubbing her sleepy blue eyes. She sits up, but as the morning light reveals their surroundings, her scream pierces the quiet of the forest. "Ah! Bones! Everywhere!"
Claude quickly pulls her to her feet, his hand tight around hers. "I know, I know. We have to go, Claudia."
"We slept... we slept with the dead," she whispers, her face pale as she avoids stepping on a ribcage.
Claude looks to the sky, marking the position of the rising sun in the east. The Emerald Tower lies deep in the west, past the heart of the Wild Land. He points toward the rugged horizon beyond the hill of the cave. "The Tower is that way."
They begin the gruelling climb back up the slope they had rolled down the night before.
"Brother," Claudia asks, her voice small and fragile. "Are we really going to the Emerald Tower? Will we be safe?"
Claude looks at her, his resolve hardening. "Yes. Mother's friend founded that place. She will protect us."
The memory of his mother standing alone against the masked men flashes through his mind, but he shoves it down. He cannot afford to grieve yet. As they crest the hill and head west, Claude's eyes scan the brush, not just for the killers who might still be searching, but for any creature small enough to become a meal.
High above, perched on a gnarled branch atop the hill, the violet-eyed leopard watches them go. Lin Yu, the voice that spoke in the dream, remains motionless as he observes his new "follower." When he found the siblings stumbling into his bone-strewn sanctuary, a calculated plan had hatched in his mind.
Through his initial exploration, Lin Yu has realised that the Dream Side and the physical world are not entirely separate. While most souls can only enter the dreamscape through their spirits, there are places where the two realities bleed into one another, allowing physical matter to cross over.
He now understands the geography of this world: it is split into two primary landmasses. There is the *Eastern Continent*, where the Dream Side remains largely segmented, and this land, the *Dream Continent*. Here, seventy per cent of the land is a "Mixed Zone" where the dream and reality coexist in a chaotic swirl. Only the far eastern edge of this continent remains purely physical.
Lin Yu has deduced several theories for this phenomenon. Perhaps powerful Dream Creatures, weary of their ethereal existence, forced the Dream Side to "fall" into the real world to gain true substance. Or, more likely, it is the devastating consequence of a high-level Dream Magician failing a breakthrough.
He suspects that once a Magician reaches the Ninth Tier, the next step toward divinity requires them to merge their mental space with a portion of the Dream Side and anchor it into the physical realm. Success births a God; failure anchors a nightmare that never fades.
Regardless of the cause, Lin Yu sees an opportunity. He intends to turn this world into his own *Divine Kingdom*. The Digital Panel is his primary tool, not just a progress bar for a boy, but a Trojan horse. By spreading these "Systems," he will form a new, artificial Law that will cause turmoil within the world's underlying rule network. This friction will create the opening he needs to embed his *Digital Law* directly into the world's core.
For now, this remains his singular goal: to forge this world into a fortified stronghold within the sprawling expanse of the Dream World. He watches the golden-haired boy vanish into the thick treeline, a tiny, unwitting node in a network that is only just beginning to stir.
Lin Yu trails the boy and his sister with predatory grace. He cannot permit the boy to perish before the experiment yields results; only then can he begin to broadcast the Digital Panel across the continent.
Following them, he sees the pair halt at a silver stream. Claude snaps a sturdy branch from a fallen tree, sharpening one end into a jagged point with a jagged stone. With the desperate focus of a survivor, he begins to hunt for fish in the shallow currents.
Lin Yu settles onto a high, overhanging limb to watch the display. As he waits, he summons his own internal data to monitor the slow, agonising transmutation of his host.
*Skeleton Formation:* 0.00015%
*Leopard Body:* 17.019%
The leopard's flesh is responding well, but the foundation of his true existence, the skeleton, remains a glacial climb.