Chapter 38 Strength Depends on Appearance
In the world of Dreamwalkers, their appearance has almost become a stereotype, much like the 'programmers' in certain Dreamworld scenarios.
A programmer's skill is judged by their age and hair! The same applies to Dreamwalkers; their skill is judged by their age and appearance! When selecting
Dreamwalkers, those whose age and appearance are roughly equivalent
will definitely be less competitive than those whose age and appearance are completely mismatched.
Can a twenty-year-old Dreamwalker with the appearance of a twenty-five-year-old with the appearance of a fifty-two-year-old be compared?
Of course, those thirty-year-old Dreamwalkers with the appearance of a seventy-year-old are out of the question; they've already worked so hard, let's not make things difficult for these young Dreamwalkers.
Dreamwalkers who are almost in their coffins should be used sparingly; stop with research work, just make them transporters, that way they can live a few more years.
Due to lifespan limitations, the Bureau doesn't lack Dreamwalkers, but with more Dreamwalkers, their investigative work becomes less focused.
Take this investigation, for example: a Dreamwalker returned two hours ago, but had already been stuck in the alternate dream for five days.
While they certainly rested enough in the dream, assigning them another investigation immediately after their return is like using them as livestock.
Once a day is already too much; twice a day? That's mortal.
Therefore, in some investigation projects, whether it's the Bureau or corporations, if suitable wild Dreamwalkers are available, they prioritize them, only using their own Dreamwalkers when suitable candidates are unavailable. They use
suitable outsiders as 'consumables,' and their own Dreamwalkers as deliverymen.
Even so, the lifespan of Dreamwalkers inevitably accumulates.
During normal exploration of alternate dreams, one or two Dreamwalkers are always on standby, ready to escape at crucial moments and bring back information.
"The investigation should last at least two days, and timing should be accurate to the minute," Borre gave a final reminder, then opened the door of the mobile cabin, gesturing for Bai Mu to enter.
Inside, Bai Mu saw a man lying on a hospital bed, with a transparent isolation shield above him. The man had dark, rough skin, suggesting he worked outdoors for many years.
He had seen the personal information of this source of the strange dream; the man was a fisherman.
Scanning the interior, Bai Mu noticed the surveillance cameras… quite advanced.
"Alright, leave the rest to me."
"Good luck." Borre closed the door.
The cabin itself was made using technology to seal strange dreams, but the sealing effect didn't reduce time differences; it only suppressed the range of the strange dream's influence.
The 'coffin' found on Ster Street used similar miniaturization technology, as did the containers used to smuggle strange dreams. The
cabin also had corresponding surveillance cameras to confirm the life or death of the dreamwalkers.
When the dreamwalkers were alive and well, the cabin was stable; once a dreamwalker died within the strange dream, the cabin could detect the dream erosion.
There are only two possible causes for dream erosion: dream erosion flowing out through the holes created by the death of a dreamwalker, or dream erosion that a dreamwalker inevitably carries with them after leaving the alternate dream.
"Let me see what kind of alternate dream it is."
Upon entering the cabin, Bai Mu felt the same sensation he had when he found Torn's body in the sewers—a vague, indescribable feeling. Last time, Bai Mu hadn't understood this feeling and hadn't acted rashly.
Now, having learned more about the dreamwalkers, this vague feeling should be related to them. Last time, with many people around and being a novice, Bai Mu didn't do anything about the feeling. This time, however, he was alone, so he had many more options.
For example, could he subtly influence the sense of ambiguity?
Like some unclean things—if you can't see them, you can't touch them; if you can see them, you can influence them. The sense of ambiguity he felt should work too, right?
Bai Mu reached out, trying to dispel the ambiguity.
Whoosh—a ripple so subtle it was almost negligible appeared, and Bai Mu's figure disappeared inside the makeshift shelter.
A staff member in the monitoring room glanced at the monitor, and seeing that all the parameters inside the shelter were normal, casually looked away, picked up the communicator, and said, "Everything is normal."
When things were busy here, they saw similar scenes of people turning into living beings five or six times a day; they got used to it after a while.
The monitoring room of the processing bureau was full of strange things; turning into living beings was the most common. Occasionally, they would see other scenes, such as young dream walkers intervening in other dreams, or old people leaving them.
It was later confirmed that the returning Dreamwalker's gaze was indeed his, but... the Otherworld is pretty scary, right?
Otherworld.
Bai Mu quickly glanced around. He was on a beach, though he wasn't sure of the exact location.
There were still quite a few women in bikinis.
His clothes hadn't changed at all. This time, he hadn't hitched a ride on the Otherworld's source. Last time, he had, however, entered the Otherworld by hitchhiking, thus enjoying the benefits of the source—a pre-existing identity and a change of clothes.
That convenience meant additional burdens from Dream Erosion and the possibility of losing his equipment.
According to the information Bai Mu had seen, if he wore the same clothes he wore before entering the Otherworld after his investigation, he wouldn't experience Dream Erosion. But changing into local clothes and leaving the Otherworld would cause it.
Items brought into the Otherworld from reality can be taken out normally as long as they aren't lost or replaced.
Without hitching a ride on the Otherworld's source, he wouldn't have a reasonable or relatively reasonable identity upon entering, but the advantage was that he was now in his current state—all his belongings remained intact.
"The modern world is amazing!" Bai Mu felt the warm, humid air by the coast, then checked his pockets and found he had no money...
But he wasn't worried. The briefcase Borei had given him contained extra ammunition and some treated gold.
This kind of thing, as hard currency, would be useful in any normal world, unless gold was worthless.
This briefcase was very useful; otherwise, if Bai Mu had just shown up here carrying an M16, it would probably have caused chaos, right?
Judging from the people here, they were probably from the US, but even foreigners wouldn't be crazy enough to think someone with a gun was normal; someone would always come up to 'find out' the situation.
A handgun was easy to conceal.
"Hey, buddy, aren't you hot?" a curious young man greeted Bai Mu.
His trench coat, designed to carry more and conceal weapons, certainly looked out of place on the coast.
Judging from the reaction of this curious young foreigner, it seemed no one had noticed his sudden appearance here, which was good.
(End of Chapter)