My avatar is the heroine

“We’re here to assist you, and I also have a few questions for you,” Tanjiro said.

"Go ahead and ask." Purgatory, who was in a fairly good mood, nodded.

"Do you know Hinokami Kagura, or the Breath of Fire? It's a dance my father used to perform when he was a child."

"Hinokami Kagura?" Mr. Rengoku was taken aback. "This is the first time I've ever heard of this."

……

---Dividing line---

P.S.: Pfft, I don't know how to say it, but whenever something happens in my life, my updates are affected (:∠)

Chapter 153 Dream?

“Only fire, water, wind, rock, and lightning are basic breathing styles; all other breathing styles are branches of these basic styles. For example, wind is green, and the white 'Mist Breath' is an extension of that.” Mr. Rengoku said, then suddenly asked, “What color is your weapon?”

"Black." Tanjiro said.

"Black, huh? That's a bit tricky. I've never seen a black swordsman become a pillar before, and I don't know which system to strengthen. But I love taking care of people, so why don't you come train with me?"

……

Right now, by the window next to me.

"Whoa whoosh whoosh whoosh, so fast, so fast!" He opened the window, and a gust of wind immediately blew in. Inosuke leaned out the window and exclaimed excitedly, "I'm going out for a run! Let's see who's faster!"

After saying that, he didn't care about anything else and started to climb outside.

"Danger! You idiot!" Zenitsu Agatsuma was speechless at the guy's stupidity. "Even if you're stupid, there's a limit. You're playing with your life."

"It's dangerous, you never know when the demon will come out," Mr. Rengoku said to Inosuke with a sly smile.

"Huh?" Zenitsu was the first to react after hearing that. "What did you say? Is there a ghost here?"

“Yes,” Mr. Purgatory said immediately. “More than forty people have gone missing on this vehicle in a short period of time. We also sent several swordsmen over, but they have all disappeared without a trace. So, as a pillar, I came here.”

"Huh? No way, is there really a ghost in the car? I don't want to go to a ghostly place, I want to get out!" Zenitsu Agatsuma shouted.

"Why are you shouting so loudly?" Yukino thought these guys were actually quite embarrassing, which made many passengers on the bus stare at them with a puzzled look.

Moreover, the purpose of everyone's trip was to exterminate the demons, so his words and actions are particularly strange.

Just then, a tall, thin male flight attendant approached the group with his head down.

Please show me your ticket.

Everyone handed their tickets to the other party one after another.

"Okay, all checked. Next." The man looked at each person one by one, and Yukino, who was sitting in her seat, noticed that the man's expression was a little strange.

"Something happened in the comic... At this moment, right, a ghost appeared, and there was a dream."

Nightmare's ability is to put someone to sleep, then use related abilities to kill them. This ability often kills silently, and if one is not careful, even a Pillar could meet their end because of it.

Just then, Tanjiro clearly smelled something unusual.

Besides his exceptionally hard forehead, capable of knocking someone unconscious with a single blow, he also possesses an incredibly sensitive nose—a unique advantage that others cannot imitate. He can detect any fearful, alarming, or dangerous odor with a single sniff; this almost superhuman ability is truly enviable.

As the flight attendant passed by Mr. Rengoku, the Flame Pillar suddenly stood up and blocked her behind him.

"Flight attendant, it's dangerous here, please step back."

Strange cries of "Ah ...

The passengers immediately screamed in terror.

"So it really is a demon." Flame Pillar gripped his weapon and said calmly, "A Blood Demon Art to conceal a massive body, and its aura is not easy to detect, but... if you want to point your fangs at innocent people, my Crimson Flame Blade from Purgatory will surely burn your demon bones to ashes."

Speak, and draw your sword!

"Flame Breathing - First Form, Shiranui!"

With a soft shout, a surge of scorching heat erupted, and his figure moved with lightning speed, instantly closing in on the ghost before him. Amidst dazzling special effects, he severed the ghost's neck with a single strike.

Blood flowed like a spring.

The sight of the ghostly corpse lying on the ground made everyone turn pale.

But... Tanjiro couldn't help but get excited.

"Big brother, you're amazing! Please take me as your disciple!"

Since the Flame Pillar had previously mentioned wanting to teach Tanjiro, he immediately made the suggestion.

"Alright, I'll train you to become an excellent swordsman," Flame Pillar said enthusiastically.

"Me too!" Inosuke and Zenitsu shouted almost simultaneously.

"No problem, I'll train everyone to become outstanding warriors!" Flame Pillar said confidently.

"Brother Purgatory!"

Several people cheered happily.

……

Yukino, leaning back in her chair, is a supporting character at this moment. Her purpose is to take action when the Lower Moon One and the Upper Moon appear later, to save the Flame Pillar's life and prevent the tragedy of the chain of pillars being destroyed from becoming a reality.

Anime that seems funny but actually has tragic elements would be difficult for anyone to face with such a lighthearted attitude if they experienced everything the protagonist went through.

"Perhaps this is what they mean by 'protagonist'."

As Yukino said this, the Flame Pillar turned to look at her: "So, are you going to learn swordsmanship too?"

“Of course!” Yukino nodded immediately.

Learn as much as you can; you never know when it might come in handy.

The path to improving one's strength is a never-ending one!

"Speaking of which, I hope I'm not already asleep?"

While pondering, Yukino began to observe everything around her.

This possibility cannot be ruled out.

After being enhanced, Lower Moon One's abilities have become far more terrifying. Once inside the dream, without a trigger or the protagonist's aura, discovering the problem would be extremely difficult.

When people are dreaming, they usually find it difficult to recall anything from reality, and even if it's illogical, they won't notice anything amiss. Nightmares, however, take this to the extreme, making people obsessed with the past events they most wish to experience.

"It doesn't seem too difficult to avoid it; all we need to do is create a clone."

Yukino thought for a moment and then had Sora appear as well, squeezing into the same spot as her.

Su Lin is male to begin with, and now he's inexplicably gained a bunch of clones, all of them female anime characters. Under these circumstances, the probability of him noticing something's wrong is even higher. Besides, his intuition is always very strong; he can sense danger from the slightest hint of something amiss.

There is actually a type of dream called lucid dreaming, in which the person regains consciousness and is aware of the dream. Many people have had lucid dreams to some extent, while others have never experienced them.

If a person becomes aware of their dream while dreaming, they may wake up due to emotional fluctuations, or they may turn their dream into a nightmare due to fear.

Controlling dreams is extremely difficult. In such situations, it's like being in an illusion. If you're not careful, you'll forget what you know about the dream and be drawn into the next scene.

---Dividing line---

P.S.: I'll start adding more chapters again the next day. The main thing is that I can't let the novel affect my real-life income... I earned a lot the past two days, it's unrealistic to expect to earn that much more from the novel (:∠)

Chapter 154 The Controlled World

Everyone around Su Lin was awake; no one had entered the so-called dream, which was clearly contrary to her understanding.

Furthermore, when Nightmare activates its illusions, it seems to create dreams so beautiful they lower the victim's guard, immersing them in them and thus reducing their vigilance. If someone is then allowed into this mental world and their core is destroyed, that person is essentially doomed.

However... Yukino and Sora hadn't encountered this kind of thing yet, which seemed a little strange.

Unless he has already entered a dream at this point.

"That strange ticket inspector from before seems to be the reason why everyone fell asleep. In the comic, it seems that he helped Nightmare so that he could have dreams of being with his loved ones."

Her memory was somewhat hazy; Yukino herself didn't feel like she was in a dream, on the contrary, she was very awake.

So she began to observe her surroundings.

I remember having a slightly terrifying lucid dream when I was in school, but in that dream, I didn't realize the specific problem at all.

At the time, I was still a student. In the summer, the school had long nap time, and we needed to go back to the dormitory to rest for more than an hour at noon. Naturally, Su Lin was asleep at that time.

When the alarm rang, I got up. Everything around me looked so real, and I couldn't find any flaws in any detail.

Washing his face and going to class was exactly the same as he remembered, but when he was about to leave the dormitory, he realized something was wrong.

A tiny, even negligible, bug.

Because... he found no books next to his pillow, whereas normally there should be two books next to it.

Normally, one would think it was a mistake, since one goes back to the dormitory every noon, so it's not unusual for the memory to be slightly off, and the reality of the dream at that time was not questionable at all.

But he remembered the details of putting the books down, and the more he thought about it, the more something seemed off. It took him a long time to realize that he was dreaming.

Then, the moment he realized what was happening, the alarm rang, and he was fully awake in bed.

Looking to the side, I saw two books next to the bed, just like the ones I remembered. The rest of the time was spent washing up and heading to the classroom as usual. I didn't find anything wrong or any plot holes inside, and everything seemed very realistic.

He breathed a huge sigh of relief.

But you're mistaken if you think this matter ends here.

What's truly terrifying is that he was still dreaming, and even in the classroom, class was about to start when the teacher came to collect homework and asked everyone to hand it in. Su Lin also took out his physics homework from his drawer, ready to hand it in.

Then it suddenly occurred to him: When did he do his homework?

As he prepared to turn the page, it seemed as if the dream was constantly being corrected. Whenever a problem was discovered, his memory was reshaped, and the bugs he had previously noticed were forgotten.

After several repetitions, Su Lin finally woke up completely due to severe emotional fluctuations.

Unprecedented realism... Yeah, right!

Although he found books nearby, he wasn't sure if he was dreaming. Sometimes, the things in dreams feel more real than reality. So much so that for a long time afterward, he wondered if he was in the third layer of a dream.

But just like those two times before waking up, even the biggest bugs might go unnoticed, and everything feels just like the real thing.

That experience made her start looking for bugs.

It's just too realistic. If she doesn't know when she started dreaming, then the transition between reality and dreams is too natural. Unless her memories of real-life experiences have been blocked.

Close your eyes and start to feel it.

"Ugh, this is terrible."

Try seeking help from the system.

Am I dreaming right now?

【Yes. 】

"..."

So why didn't you remind me?

Although she complained a little, she couldn't possibly blame the system that had always been helping her. Perhaps the system thought she should be able to spot the problem.

After all, my intuition is exceptionally high these days.

"How should I solve this?"

You can check other people's dreams first.

"Okay, how do I get there? Can you help me?"

[Entering someone else's dream, yes or no?]

"Yes!"

I seriously doubt that what I'm experiencing right now is a dream within a dream.

However, Su Lin herself was still sent into other people's dreams.

My wife Shanyi:

"Here, here, the peaches here are delicious, and there's lots of white clover too." Holding Nezuko's hand, they ran through the fields, both of them wearing happy smiles.

"He's thinking about peaches."

Fortunately, Tanjiro is unaware of this yet, but Zenitsu's interest in Nezuko is likely a recent development. Therefore, he isn't particularly focused on the clone of Sulin.

Of course, old habits die hard, and when this guy saw Yukino and the others, he still had some crooked thoughts.

"I'll make you a wreath of white clover, Nezuko. There's a river along the way, but it's shallow, is that alright, Nezuko?"