“Congratulations. You have completed the mission to survive 180 days in ‘The Apocalypse’. The difficulty of this dream adventure is zero. Calculating points.”

“Calculation complete. In this dream adventure, you have acquired 50 points. We hope for you to work harder and obtain a better score in your next dream adventure.”

“Congratulations on passing your first dream adventure. Your rewards have been sent to your personal backpack. Please check and confirm.”

“Your next dream adventure will commence in a month. Stay tuned.”

Chen Xu asked, “What are the ‘points’ about?”

“Points are rewards you acquire after comprehensive evaluation based on your performance in the dream. Before the next dream begins, you can use these points to redeem some auxiliary items.”

After listening, Chen Xu was a little disappointed. From the looks of it, points could only be used to redeem items used in dreams. They could not be used in reality.

Because of that, there was nothing he was looking forward to in the reward he had acquired.

He opened his personal backpack and saw a card with a strange pattern on its back which immediately attracted his attention. He said, “Open it.”

The card turned over. On the card was a topless man in a hurler’s posture with a javelin-like thing in his hands.

“Congratulations. You have acquired the talent card: Throwing Precision. Do you want to use it?”

Chen Xu couldn’t tell the value of this card. He only wondered why they were making this like a game.

However, he had to agree after giving it some thought. This was indeed a stand-alone virtual game. He’d just cleared a level and acquired gold coins (points), and a skill book (talent card).

There was nothing wrong with it.

He said, “Yes.”

A ray of light discharged from the card, and the javelin in the man’s hands morphed into a shooting star, then flew towards him.

The piercing lights forced his eyes to remain shut. Subsequently, a rough voice sounded in his ears. “No matter how great your talent is, it will go to waste without hard training.”

A few seconds later, everything went back to normal.

He was a little surprised, “Those special effects are crazy. Perhaps this talent truly is a strong one. Mm, I’ll test it in my next dream adventure.”

All was done. He could wake up now.

……

Chen Xu felt like he had woken up from a very long dream. His head was a little groggy. He stayed in bed for a few more minutes before waking up completely.

He went to the window and opened it. He looked at the pedestrians downstairs and listened to the cacophony of sounds coming from outside. In the past, he always felt that the noise outside was too loud and disturbing.

But now, he felt that even the noise was so pleasant.

“It is indeed true. One will only cherish something if they lose it.”

He sighed. After spending so long in the empty world in the dream, he realized how precious the modern convenient lifestyle was.

He stood at the window for a few minutes and suddenly felt that something wasn’t right.

He had just experienced life and death in the dream. Why wasn’t he sad at all? Why was he still in the mood to leisurely gaze at the scenery?

Having that thought cross his mind, he discovered something even more peculiar. His memories of the dream have become very blurry. He could remember the overalls, but he couldn’t recall all the details.

“What on earth is going on?”

He was somewhat startled. If he couldn’t remember anything from the dream once he woke up, what would be the meaning of such a virtual dream?

“Be rest assured. This is the device’s anti-addiction mechanism to prevent the content of dreams from causing too much psychological shock to the user. For a period of time after waking up, your memories of the dream will become blurred. Over time, they will slowly recover.”

Chen Xu was somewhat surprised that this dream gear would take the initiative to answer his question. Before this, no matter how he summoned for it, it didn’t respond.

Could it be that after acquiring some points, his user authority had increased?

This thought merely flashed through his mind. He then asked a realistic question, “How long will it take for me to remember everything?”

“One month.”

One month wasn’t all that long.

Speaking of which, he felt that the anti-addiction mechanism was very much necessary. Otherwise, the dream would have a massive impact on real life.

Within a one-month buffering period, the impact would be less intense.

“I think I should find a chance to resign.”

Such a thought suddenly emerged in his heart. Although he couldn’t remember the details, he was still aware of what happened in the dream.

In the dream, he and Luo Xiyun lived together and even rolled in the bedsheets together.

But in real life, he and Luo Xiyun were strangers. If they were to meet, things might get a little awkward. What’s more, she had a boyfriend. Just the thought itself was irritating enough.

When his memories of the dream completely recovered, it might feel even worse.

“I never thought about how I should face her after the dream ends.” He was a little dispirited. He was literally giving himself trouble.

Nonetheless, it was too late to regret it. He would be better off thinking about where to find a new job.

Having thought of that, he gazed at a faraway building. As he kept on thinking, a thought came to his mind. He couldn’t help but ask, “Hey, is it possible that somewhere within the midst, the Luo Xiyun in reality resonated with herself in the dream and awakened the memories she had in the dream?”

“The possibility is zero percent. The characters in dreams are AIs with real humans as their blueprints. The hypothesis you mentioned is not possible.”

Of course, Chen Xu knew that this was impossible. He sighed.

“Alert, alert, system database error, entering self-test mode…”

Suddenly, a sharp warning sounded in Chen Xu’s mind that startled him. Various data streams were constantly flashing through his vision.

What’s going on?

He was bewildered.

He finally got his hands on a golden finger, thinking that he was about to reach the pinnacle of his life. Was it going to break so soon? Right after the end of his first dream world adventure?

He can’t be that unlucky, right?

His heart was crying, but he could do nothing but be anxious.

Over ten minutes later, the data stream hopping before his eyes finally vanished and the system reverted to the original interface.

“Is it all sorted out?”

He carefully switched around the interfaces several times. Everything seemed to be fine.

It was only that, no matter how he summoned for that voice, it would no longer show up.

“Is my user authority lowered again?” he smiled bitterly.

No matter what, he was already very grateful that the virtual dream gear could still work.

……

In a luxurious apartment in the city, Luo Xiyun woke up from her sleep. She touched her face and it was full of tears, “What’s going on?”

She sat up and held her forehead. Her head was a little drowsy as she felt like she just had an extremely long dream.

Abruptly, she remembered something. She picked up her phone and dialed a number. As she was overly nervous, even her knuckles turned a little pale.

“Hello—”

When a hoarse voice sounded from the phone, she turned on her waterworks.