Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

“Dreams contain a cycle of creation and perception. The Dream House designates the part where you intervene in creation, and that is your dream,” Xiangzi explained. “Then it designates me as the part of perception. Although it is your dream, the most important subconscious cluster here is my subconscious.”

She looked up and saw a small, gray head peeking out of a window of the building next door, holding up a sign.

Hello everyone!

That's Somniorum.

Xiangzi smiled in that direction.

"What's that?" Miao Meng followed Xiangzi's gaze and naturally saw the sign held outside.

“You don’t need to worry about the little sprites in my head.” Xiangzi shrugged. “Just think of them as security guards of my subconscious. Right now, they are not hostile to the invading dream master because I have completely let down my guard against you.”

"So you're saying this is my dream, does that mean I get to decide everything in the dream?" Miao Meng pursed her lips and pointed at Xiangzi's feet.

If she is the dream master, does that mean... she can have her wishes fulfilled?

Just like.

Something appeared under Xiangzi's feet.

Suddenly, a grating opening of an underground pipe appeared beneath Xiangzi's feet. For some reason, this place, which should have been a water inlet, was now violently blowing air outwards, creating an upward airflow. And since Xiangzi was wearing a skirt, naturally...

"ah--!"

=====

P.S.: Taking one day off for Chinese New Year.

The Tale of Reincarnation: The Path of Fall, the Road of No Return: Chapter 597 Of course, I'll do it myself!

"ah--!"

Xiangzi pressed down on her skirt with both hands. The plaid long skirt she usually wore was almost blown up by the sudden updraft, revealing the view under the skirt.

She hopped aside to avoid the air vent, turned around angrily, and glared at Miaomeng.

"Are you a pervert, Desuwa?!"

This guy started plotting before I even finished speaking. Isn't that a bit too much?

"Ah, I'm so sorry." Miao Meng clasped her hands together, closed one eye, and apologized sincerely. "I think I made a mistake. This is a water inlet, not an air outlet."

"I don't believe you could get this wrong!"

"Oh, it doesn't matter. Anyway, nobody saw anything, right, Hai Zi?"

“I was looking elsewhere,” Hailing said, bringing her gaze back from its wanderings. “Did something happen?”

"Ahem—!" Xiangzi cleared his throat, his face flushed. "No, nothing's wrong."

"Oh." Hailing nodded, then turned her gaze elsewhere. "Mu, look, this street looks a bit different from the real Reed Plain after you turn the corner."

"The film studio in Luwei Plain shouldn't be in this area." Mu looked at the rows of neatly arranged greenhouses in the distance. "Is this really a dream?"

"right."

"...Never mind, let's go that way. I also have something I want to tell you."

Xiangzi rubbed his forehead and breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, no one seemed to care about the dress.

As he spoke, Xiangzi turned the corner on his own, pretending nothing had happened, and led Hailing and Mu in the direction they had just pointed.

but......

"Hey, Hatsuko hasn't caught up yet," Meowme called out from behind.

"Chuhua? What's wrong?" Xiangzi blinked and turned around to look.

She thought something had happened to Chu Hua, but when she turned around, she saw a malfunctioning golden retriever.

Normally, Chu Hua would have already walked up behind Miao Meng with a smile and held the knife to her, but during the entire argument between Miao Meng and Xiang Zi, Chu Hua didn't say a word, which just didn't seem right.

The core reason that caused the system crash was that when the updraft appeared, Chu Hua happened to be standing at a very special angle and saw the mysterious treasure that only she could see.

In that instant...

The world in my eyes seemed to be filled with pink bubbles, accompanied by a mysterious "Wow~~~" sound effect.

Hailing and Mu poked Chuhua's face, but received no response. Chuhua stared blankly at the spot where Xiangzi had just stood, an unnatural flush on her face, her mouth slightly open, looking dazed.

It wasn't until the blurry blue outline replaced the traces left in her mind that Chu Hua's eyes gradually returned to focus.

"Chuhua, what's wrong?" Xiangzi asked with concern. "Did you feel uncomfortable in the dream? Senior Kasumi said that some people have a rejection reaction to other people's dreams, and these people usually have a hard time mastering the use of barriers..."

As he said this, Xiangzi's eyes dimmed slightly.

It would be such a pity if Chu Hua really had a rejection reaction.

"Ah..." Chu Hua finally snapped out of her daze. Facing Xiangzi's round face so close to hers, she waved her hand in an attempt to cover up her misunderstanding, "No, no, no! I was just spacing out! Nothing happened!"

"Really?" Xiangzi breathed a sigh of relief when he saw how energetic Chuhua was.

"Yeah, yeah! I'm fine!" To show that she was alright, Chu Hua even rolled up her sleeves and showed off her non-existent biceps.

Well.

It's not that it doesn't exist at all.

Chu Hua's figure, hidden under her clothes, is perfectly proportioned—slim where she should be, curvy where she should be, and with no shortage of muscle definition. When she wore a crop top for a performance, her abs captivated countless girls. Her standard performance outfit also revealed her shoulders, showcasing her well-defined muscles.

"No, it's alright." Xiangzi glanced at her a couple more times without realizing it, then turned away as if afraid of being discovered. "If there's nothing else, let's walk faster. An hour isn't much time."

"Mmm-hmm!" Chu Hua nodded vigorously as soon as she saw that the cover-up was done, and followed Xiangzi's footsteps with great enthusiasm.

After the little farce, back to the main topic, Xiangzi turned a corner and led everyone to the film studio on the next street.

“This looks like Hollywood.” Miao Meng exclaimed “Wow!” looking at the huge tents all around her. “I don’t remember there being anything like this next to the bar.”

“This is your dream, and of course it’s different from reality,” Xiangzi said. “Without you deliberately designing it, the environment presented in your dream is just the things that have left the deepest impression on you.”

"But I've never been to Hollywood."

"They don't look like they've ever been there."

"Haizi!"

“At least you imagined yourself going there, right?” Xiangzi pointed to the end of the street, to a slope leading uphill. “That’s Mulholland Drive, right? Actually, this road is below Hollywood Hills, it shouldn’t be here.”

"That's true, I've always wanted to go to Hollywood... How do you know so much about it?"

"I've been there," Xiangzi said nonchalantly, "though it was when I was a child, my whole family went together."

"Damn rich people..." Miao Meng chewed on a small handkerchief she had pulled out from somewhere.

"Xiangzi," Hailing suddenly asked, "If it's a dream, are the passersby around us also part of the dream?"

Since entering the dream, she had been observing the surrounding environment and the passersby. Every passerby here had complete facial features, the appearance of an ordinary person, and was doing something, whether running a shop, passing by, or pushing a cart to carry things.

“These are projections of my subconscious,” Xiangzi explained. “Have you noticed that some people occasionally look over here?”

"Ah."

Just as Xiangzi was speaking, Hailing made eye contact with one of the passersby. The passerby didn't look away and just stared at Hailing until the two passed each other.

"This is a subconscious self-protection mechanism. They've noticed you intruders, especially Meow Dream. If Meow Dream continues to do outrageous things, this kind of attention will only increase."

"A familiar?"

"Something".

"understood."

"What kind of behavior is considered outrageous?" Miaomeng asked.

"What you just did was an outrageous act."

"Ah, lift your skirt—"

"—That's not desuwa! I'm talking about your actions of altering the dream environment, desuwa!" Xiangzi raised his voice, drowning out the words that Miaomeng hadn't finished saying.

Suddenly, everyone around seemed to stop in their tracks as if a pause button had been pressed, and all eyes were focused on Miaomeng.

Countless stares made Miaomeng break out in a cold sweat, too afraid to move.

“Ahem, also, stirring up emotional fluctuations in the target themselves, making them suspicious of the entire environment, is also an outrageous act.” Xiangzi cleared his throat, and the surrounding passersby withdrew their chilling gazes and continued with their own business. “Of course, the subconscious thoughts appearing here are also a kind of 'information' that we can obtain. The intelligence you get from them is derived from the target's subconscious. This process of extracting information is what is known as—”

“—Dream Stealing,” Meow Dream said. “We need to infiltrate Medion’s dream and steal her thoughts.”

"Completely correct."

“But it shouldn’t be that simple.” Miao Meng put her hands on her hips and pointed to her brain. “Stealing thoughts is as difficult as Prometheus stealing fire from the gods. The complexity of thought is beyond our imagination. How can we find what we need from the mountain of subconscious information?”

“That’s why we need to design dreams.” Xiangzi’s eyes lit up as if he had found a kindred spirit. “We need to create a space where she can ‘store’ the most important things in her heart.”

"Like a safe, or the treasure at the deepest part of a maze or something?" Meow Dream continued to echo her.

“That’s right, Desuwa.” Xiangzi stood with his hands on his hips in the middle of Mulholland Drive. “Because we intervened in the process of shaping the dream, after the target’s subconscious sensed the already formed dream, it would automatically allocate information to the ‘logical’ places in the dream, which is what Miaomeng called the safe or the treasure at the deepest part of the maze.”

“We’ll create a dream specifically for her, pull her into it, and pry open the safe we ​​designed, which contains her most important possession.” Miao Meng crossed her arms, revealing a very interested, even obsessed, smile. “No matter how well hidden the treasure chest is, or how tightly the safe is guarded, we can still find a way in – because the dream itself is designed by us.”

“What if she realizes she’s dreaming?” Hailing suddenly asked. “Or let me ask a more specific question: what should we do if the target realizes she’s dreaming and tries to wake up?”

Upon hearing this, Xiangzi revealed a meaningful smile.

A rumbling sound suddenly rang out from all directions, causing the ground to tremble violently.

"what happened?!"

"Shh." Xiangzi raised his index finger. "It's about time, at the agreed time."

She glanced at the countdown on her watch; the hands were pointing towards twelve o'clock, and in just a few seconds they would completely overlap.

three.

Do you know?

two.

"Ok?"

One.

"Dreams don't necessarily have only one layer; you can dream within a dream."

Just as Xiangzi was speaking, a towering wave rose up behind her, instantly sweeping away everything visible in the dream, including the little ones who looked like ants in the face of the wave.

Glug glug glug glug glug glug—

Miao Meng felt as if she had suddenly fallen into the water. The salty and bitter seawater filled her mouth, making her feel nauseous and want to vomit.

"Ahem—!"

Miao Meng scrambled out of the seawater and wiped her face.

"Who is it! So reckless!"

“I’m so sorry, Xiangzi told me that when the time came, he would push you all into the water.” Rebecca, wearing a bikini-style swimsuit and sunglasses, lay on a sun lounger. “Welcome to the last stretch of Route 66, the California coast.”

California?!

Miaomeng wiped the seawater off her face and looked around.

Sunshine, sand, bikini-clad passersby, beach volleyballs flying back and forth, children building sandcastles, an abandoned dock used as an amusement park in the distance, and the occasional roar of car engines passing by...

"Is this also a dream?"

“Hmm, this is my dream, and I’m going to be watching you dream from within this dream.” Rebecca took off her sunglasses and shrugged helplessly. “Two layers of dreams, how does it feel?”

"Not good." Miao Meng wiped her face again. "Ptooey, ptooey, so bitter... Your morning call is really annoying."

It seems that Rebecca threw them all into the sea as soon as the time was up.

Falling into the sea, no wonder the last thing I saw in my dream was a strange, raging flood.

“A two-layered dream, if there are two layers of dreams, the other person won’t realize they’re still dreaming when they wake up, cough cough—” Miao Meng coughed twice, her throat still burning from the seawater. “You really are something, Xiangzi, to think of something like this.”

“Hehe, of course.” Xiangzi crossed his legs and sat down to the side. “This idea was highly praised by Senior Duohui.”

She looked much more elegant than Miaomeng.

Or rather, apart from Miaomeng, everyone else looked much more elegant.