The moment I stepped into the castle, I was struck by its overwhelming grandeur. The sheer scale of it made me feel insignificant beneath its towering architecture. Endless pillars rose toward a sky that should not have existed indoors, glowing with distant starlight. From the outside the castle appeared roofless, yet inside, the heavens themselves stretched above me, casting a soft, dreamlike glow over marble floors and towering halls..
The entire place felt alive—ancient, watching, waiting.
With each step forward, a strange pull tugged at my chest.
At the center of the castle stood something elevated above everything else: a throne. The moment I noticed it, my heart began to race. I felt as if it was calling out to me, whispering my name from across the vast hall. My feet moved on their own, drawn forward as though enchanted by a siren's song.
[Host has entered the Dream of the Endless Castle. You are advised to form a connection with the dreaming.]
The system's voice snapped me out of my trance, forcing me to stop.
"What was that?" I murmured. It felt as though the dream itself had tried to take hold of me. The sensation was unsettling, almost frightening.
A darker thought followed. If the power of this dream could pull me so easily, then what else could it influence? My emotions? My thoughts? My future? The idea sent a chill down my spine.
And as if responding to my fear—
[The host does not need to fear the powers. The powers are tools the host can use to achieve their desires. The reason the host felt drawn to the throne was due to instincts formed from assimilating the powers.]
I exhaled slowly. At least I was not being controlled.
Remembering the system's words about forming a connection, I continued forward. Each step felt heavier, as though I were crossing some invisible boundary. When I finally reached the throne and sat upon it, something inside me shifted.
It felt as though a thread had formed between me and the dream—strong, unbreakable, and alive.
In that moment, I became something more than human.
I became the embodiment of the collective unconscious.
As I sat upon the throne, a single question echoed through my mind.
What does it mean to be the Dream of the Endless?
Did it mean I was now the ruler of all dreams? That I could shape the hopes, fears, and desires of every sleeping mind? The thought was overwhelming. The weight of it pressed against my chest as I stared out into the endless hall of stars.
As my connection to the dreaming grew stronger, information flooded into me. Countless thoughts, fragments of imagination, and subconscious wishes brushed against my awareness. It was like standing in the center of a storm made of minds.
Then clarity came.
To be the Dream was not to rule over dreams…
It was to preserve them.
To be Dream is to maintain and safeguard the collective unconscious.
That was the truth.
The system chimed in once more.
[Congratulations to the host for completing the hidden quest: "What It Means to Be Dream."
Reward: 10,000 SP.
Dream Sand Pack x1.
Gacha Point x1.]
A strange sense of satisfaction washed over me. My conclusion had been correct.
Morpheus—the Dream of the Endless—was not simply a god of sleep. He was the living vessel of all intelligent life's unconscious. Because of that, he was something close to immortal. As long as intelligent beings continued to exist and dream, so would he. Only when all life ended would the Dream finally fade.
That realization made me feel both powerful and fragile at the same time.
Suddenly, the dreaming world shifted.
The space around me expanded, unfolding into something far greater. A new realm took shape—a vast plane that served as the foundation upon which all intelligent beings' dreams would exist. This was the Mind Domain, the true heart of the Dreaming.
When I felt the sheer magnitude of what was being created, my breath caught.
Can I really handle this? I wondered.
The system responded instantly.
[The host does not need to worry. The Mind Domains will generate the dreams. All the host must do is provide the energy.]
"Do I need to sit on this throne forever to provide that energy?" I asked.
[The host does not need to do that. The connection to the dreaming has already been established.]
[The throne merely acts as an amplifier between the host and the dreaming.]
Relief flooded through me.
At least I wasn't trapped here.
I leaned back against the throne, staring into the infinite dreamscape. Somewhere out there, countless minds were dreaming—laughing, fearing, hoping—and now, unknowingly, they were connected to me.
I wasn't just a dreamer anymore.
I was the Dream itself.