Fantasy Clock～Dream Ruler～

When he opened his eyes again, William knelt alone at the place where the crystal was teleported. He gritted his teeth and raised his head to look for Kazuhiko Sato. However, it was discovered that the body of Kazuhiko Sato, who was handcuffed to the bracelet, was gradually disappearing. Fluorescent blue petals floated from his body into the air one by one, pieced together into the shape of "5", and then all of them lost their light. Disappeared together with Kazuhiko Sato.

William knew what this meant. He had seen it in others before—it meant that the person "Kazuhiko Sato" had come to the end of his life, both in dreams and in reality.

He dryly opened his trembling mouth, but his throat lost his voice involuntarily. There is something that cannot be explained, and the words accumulated in the heart cannot be vented.

Pain dotted his scarlet vision, and William staggered to his feet on the ground. The sharp pain from being pierced in the abdomen last minute still lingered, so he had no choice but to hold his abdomen tightly and crawl to the front of the empty shackles. Only a few fluorescein blue crystals that were thrown away floated in the air without restraint. Even if you stretch out your hand and hold it tightly, it will pass through the palm of your hand out of thin air. William's mouth finally made a groan.

"Hey, William."

A sickly white hand roughly grabbed Willem's disheveled hair and turned his lifeless, empty eyes to the owner of the hand.

"...The result is that your companion couldn't hold it up first? Even though you kept encouraging him from the side, he still couldn't hold it. How dare this guy wake up in the prison arena forcibly stripping his consciousness? Adding a hundred times the weakness. Are you supposed to be smart? To be able to wake up here to some extent is considered an "excellent talent". Ordinary people can't do it."

"You bastard..."

The twisted William continued to look up, with a distorted expression, and punched the fiercely smiling face with all his strength. Absolute observation does not give any trace that the opponent will act, which means that the opponent will not make any moves. In fact, the fist actually bumped into Thief's cheek, leaving a bruise on his sickly white skin.

"Not bad hate." Pirates of Dreams began to applaud happily, but his eyes were mixed with different emotions, "But it's not as good as when Baitu Mei died, and I pushed her hard into this place." Your hatred of the endless abyss. This is the degree to which you will never value your companions."

The iron shackles pierced the sullen air again, sinking tightly into William's flesh and handcuffing him. William was roughly pulled upwards, leaving him dangling in the air. He stared at the Thief of Dreams, and stretched his head forward in the direction of the Thief of Dreams. This movement made his neck look extremely twisted, and his resisting hands and feet were squeezed into purple-black by the chains.

"Hey. Are you waiting for the time for the evil spirit to be born? That's why you've been refusing to die for so long, putting on such an ugly struggling posture... But let me tell you again, it's useless to rely on that kind of thing. I haven't participated in the full How could you, who is in charge of a war, know? If you don’t reveal your identity as the ruler, the evil spirits who haven’t noticed our breathing won’t come to the door in person.”

It was only then that William realized that the devil's paradise where he was imprisoned had become dim, and the surrounding doors and windows were closed.

It's like the four big characters "No Way Out" were engraved on the stolen dream king. William was trapped in this "Prisoned Arena" by the rope composed of these four characters. The ending that Sato will face is his own ending. The iron rod that would freeze the rhythm of the heart hit different parts of his body one after another, and the blood vessels were squeezed and paralyzed. William still stared at the man who was watching all this jokingly.

When the iron rod hit his knee and there were crackling and colliding sounds, William suddenly remembered that day when he stood on the balcony and looked out the window. Hit him on the chest. After Shirato Mei quit his life, William made up his mind to take good care of Chatter together with Mei,

However, even though he is also trying to fulfill this vow, he always feels that there is something vacant in Chalt's pupils, it seems that there is a hole that he can't fill no matter what he does, and only Shirato Mei can fill it.

The door to the bedroom in the living room was pulled open, and the doorknob slammed violently against the wall. William hurriedly turned his head, and Chalt came to the living room while putting on a sweater.

Probably the sound of the pile driver woke him up. William thought so. But his complexion looked particularly bad.

"I put breakfast in the kitchen, and I washed your wet clothes for you last night, you can take him out by the way, Chart." William didn't get a response from Chart, he frowned Eyebrows, holding the window sill tightly, poked his head out of the balcony, and added, "You can't get up too late when you are on holiday!"

"I know."

Chatter returned his disgusted eyes, and the irritability was mixed with loneliness, and William felt a gap in his heart. The sound of the pile driver was pounding repeatedly in his ears, and William impulsively wanted to vent his anger outside the window. But he ended up just closing the window and walking into the living room. Chart just put the breakfast on the dining table, gnawing sleepily the piece of toast that he tore in half with the fried egg with all his strength.

William looked at Charte, who had dark circles under his eyes, and thought: Maybe Charte had a nightmare, he might have dreamed of Baitu Mei again.

"So... do you want to go somewhere? How about the amusement park?"

"It's not a child in elementary school. My classmate and I made an appointment to go to my classmate's house to play games in the afternoon. You don't have to worry about it."

"But my vacation time is different from yours. I have to go to work tomorrow..."

"Don't tell me this, I didn't let you go. You go to work, and I do my own thing."

"Okay then... But luckily I have time next Saturday—"

William's words were interrupted by the "sizzling" sound of the chair being roughly pulled, and Charte raised the glass and drank the milk, and put the glass heavily on the table. Chart grabbed the shirt he had put on the table to dry just now, hung it on his right arm, and looked sideways at William.

"Since I usually prepare breakfast, you don't need to worry about it when you are on vacation-the fried egg tastes raw, I don't know if the toast was fried in the pan by you, it is too hard to swallow, and There are such light-colored clothes mixed with dark-colored clothes that will be stained.”

After leaving behind such a series of comments, Chalt picked up the shriveled schoolbag in his left hand and opened the door. William glanced at the clothes hanging on Chalt's right arm, the original white shirt looked a little red. At this moment, Chart suddenly paused.

"Thank you for your hospitality. I made an appointment to meet with the center at noon, so I set off first."

Before Chalt had time to call to stop, the door was slammed shut. An indescribable depression lingered in William's heart. William thought of that midnight a long time ago, when Charte, whom he thought he didn't know why, hugged himself and cried for a long, long time. Since that day, Chart is no longer the same as before, and William has also discovered that the distance between Chart and himself is gradually getting farther.

While William was also trying to adjust to the chores, Chart had learned them faster than he had. William is still in charge of a nine-to-five job, "taking care of Chart with Bai Tumei's share", which he has not actually done. He began to consider whether to accept the invitation of the magician who appeared in his dream.

Speaking of this incident, William at first thought it was just an ordinary dream. He saw the magician who called himself "Silver" for three consecutive days, and then he gradually believed what Yin said. As for things like dominating reality, he was dubious. William thought of the silver disheveled hair, the big black pointed hat that covered the eyebrows, the strangely straight and hooked nose, and every time he appeared on the scene, he would sit on a broom in the air and fall asleep dimly.

"How? Have you considered it?"

It was that hoarse voice again. William has been tired of listening to Yin's nagging these nights. But he never drove him away once. William felt that he might want to leave a way out for himself. In fact, he also understands that there are some things that he is destined to be unable to do, how can he replace his mother's position in Charte's heart. Therefore, even though William still doesn't believe that reality can really be controlled, he still wants to accept Yin's invitation to give it a try.

"I actually agreed. I thought I would spend a lot of time with you. However, there is one thing I must remind you: even in a dream, if you want everything to come true, you must fight for it yourself."

William lowered his head half-understood. He expected that there would be a turning point in his life in the future, but what he didn't expect was that when he stepped into the gap between dreams, something suddenly broke into the music score that belonged to his life. Random noises—such as Chalter's delay in waking up the next morning. After noon, William finally couldn't bear it and walked into Chartre's room.

"It's not okay to wake up so late during the holidays! If Mei is here, I won't allow you to do such nonsense...Hey, don't pretend to be asleep."

As William spoke, he pushed back the quilt roughly and shook Chart's shoulder. But Chalt followed this force and changed from lying on his side to facing the sky too easily. Even a sleeping person should have some strength, it is impossible to be manipulated so easily, it is as empty as if the bones have been removed. There was a sudden unease in William's heart, and he realized that something was wrong.

"You bastard...! What is going on with my son?"

It was midnight again, and Silver was punched by William for no apparent reason. The broom retreated more than ten meters weakly, but Yin sat firmly on the broom, as if they were connected as one. William took several steps forward, grabbed Yin's cloak, and wanted to lift him up, but he didn't expect the figure in the cloak to disappear suddenly, leaving only a cloak in his hand, and Yin appeared behind him in a blink of an eye.

"Well... don't act impulsively. Not only did I not do anything to your son, but I also saved the life of you, a non-lucid dreamer, from the collective nightmare."

William did not expect that such an unreasonable thing would happen to Chart. Rather, before this incident happened, he didn't believe in such ridiculous rumors like urban legends at all. Of course, William didn't know why the scholars from other core research associations he met during the internship would not ignore these rumors, but instead included them as part of the textual research.

"On the other hand...if you can agree to my invitation earlier, maybe you can save your son."

Early the next morning, William woke up alone in the empty living room. He rubbed his sore back lying on the floor with his backhand, and stood up unsteadily. Chaalte was rushed to the hospital by him yesterday. The doctor just "detained" Chaalte according to the hospitalization procedures and told him that he would be notified of any news. But he was still uneasy, opened the door of the house and rushed out——

"Mr. William, good morning."

The voice sounded strange at first but familiar. William instinctively raised his eyes, and looked furtively at the woman in front of him—she was wearing a loose white coat, with her five fingers hidden in the sleeves, but inside the white coat was a woman nearby. The uniform of the university, and the lower body did not wear silk stockings in accordance with the school's regulations. So William was really not sure if she was from that school.

"I am here on behalf of the Core Research Association, Mr. Chart Andres, who was sent to C-H Hospital for you yesterday."

"Chart..."

"Because his condition completely fits the "Sleeping Beauty Syndrome" that I will investigate, I would like to ask for your opinion..."

William's head was twisted into a mess, and he stared intently at this girl who didn't know whether she came from the school or the Core Research Association, trying to understand the meaning of her words.

"Do you agree to transfer Mr. Chartres to our nursing home for patients with the 'Sleeping Beauty Syndrome' phenomenon?"

The distraught William signed his name on the consultation form. Regarding whether there is a cure for this symptom of not being able to wake up, the girl’s answer is “With all due respect, the answer is not clear for the time being. We need a lot of information that Mr. Chatter and other patients can feedback, and try to find Find out their commonality...Moreover, this also requires your help, Mr. William."

Returning to the dream again, the appearance of Yin somehow aroused William's unknown anger, but William deliberately suppressed this emotion and sank his head.

"When will you be willing to leave my dream, and how many days will you stay here? A few months, or a few years?"

"I just want to make sure... After such an accident, is your answer of 'agree' to my invitation still countable?" I probably noticed the unsure look on William's face, Yin hastily added, "The so-called 'Sleeping Beauty Syndrome' is not unsolvable. According to my investigation, Charte was not sent to the gap between dreams to serve as a 'town resource', so he could only be" Collective Nightmare" This beast was thrown into a dream world that didn't belong to him, and he couldn't wake up because he was trapped there."

"Then tell me! What is the way to wake him up?"

"Because Chart is not trapped in the cracks of the dream, we can use the power that dominates reality to save him. Dream madmen will not interfere with things that have nothing to do with them."

"You mean...the method is to win in that game of dominators, right?"

"So far, this is the only way. It is very difficult to win, but there is still hope. What do you think?"

Watching William's reaction that seemed to be a promise, Silver wrinkled his wrinkled face like a witch, and smiled slightly. He snapped his fingers, raised his head towards William, and motioned him to follow him. Although William didn't understand what kind of medicine he was selling in his gourd, he reluctantly followed. On the other side of the door is an abstract world everywhere, and the surrounding environment looks extremely unreal.

"Why did you come here and refuse to let me go even in your dreams? Hypocrites."

William still clearly remembers the first words he heard after coming to this strange world. At that time, Chart was sitting in the center of this abstract and twisted street, his eyes full of hostility. In his hand, he held a photo of people he didn't know with William. In the photo, all the students smiled at the camera, but Chalt's smile was forced and mixed with an impurity called "incompetence". . It wasn't until later that William found out that Charte hadn't been asked out by his classmates the day before. How could Charte, who played the role of a victim of campus violence, be treated so kindly?

He didn't realize Chart's hatred for him until this moment. And the reason for the hatred is not Baitu Mei's body at all, but because William never noticed that he was injured and went home, or that his clothes were soaked wet by his classmates. He would not ask more questions, but always put on a " I care about you my way" attitude. This bored Chart, even—disgusted.

All the dissatisfaction suppressed in reality was vented out in the dream with incomparable frankness, hitting William's chest one after another. Chart still doesn't know that this is not his own dream, but a world abandoned by someone. He just thinks that the residents here are really like real living people. They will sincerely care about Chart and the people in the city. anyone. The world that is called "reality" is all falsehood.

"I am...a hypocrite...don't be kidding me...!" William's chest seemed to be tightly grasped by an invisible hand, he almost wanted to cry out, "you don't say anything How would I know!"

There was no need for Chalt to refute himself, his subconscious first laughed - Chalt would never mention anything to Baitu Mei, but Baitu Mei knew everything. It's not that Chatter didn't say anything, it's just that William didn't want to listen to the meaning behind his usual actions like Mei Shirato did.

The coldness and hostility in Chatter's eyes at that time were very similar to the eyes of King Thief of Dreams that almost hurt William's vision now. William tried his best to maintain his consciousness. Unknowingly, he felt that whether it was the Thief or Chart, they seemed to want to compromise on "something"-they probably wanted me to admit, yes I killed Baitu Yayi myself, using the hand and body of King Thief.

"Otherwise... let's end it like this. Since I killed her, let me die. I will accompany her."

The surroundings fell silent for a short while, and then came more harsh sneers. The hasty laughter and those sarcasm gazes tormented William's five senses, trying to destroy his world to the point of turning the world upside down. He simply raised his head, waiting to be stabbed to death again by the iron rod that was too cold to freeze his thinking, and then he would put an end to his life. There is no need for a musical score full of gibberish—

"Hey~ Didn't you promise to take good care of Chart for me? Don't fall asleep right now."

William suddenly opened his eyes. Mei's soft voice swelled to his chest through his ears, he felt that the voice was so gentle that he wanted to cry, but there was no sign of her in front of him, and there were still those pairs of eyes looking forward to his death. The sound just now seemed to be an illusion created by himself, but his eyes were suddenly attracted by the headgear of the bear doll that rolled to the side.

——"Persistence".

This is an item that symbolizes William's remaining obsession.

"Hey, let me say, why are you participating in this king's election?" William remembered someone asking him this question, and the appearance of that person was worn out in his memory. William only remembered that the man seemed to be the owner of a certain pawnshop, with a faintly conspicuous scar on his face, "Beforehand, I'm not very interested...just a random question. If you don't want to answer, you can leave me alone .”

"I want Chalt to wake up now... that's all."

"You didn't come here to revive your wife—this shows that you don't want to reverse life and death, don't want to do things that only care about yourself and blaspheme the dead." William still remembers that sharp look in his eyes, which made his back ooze now. Breaking out in a hot sweat, "So, I don't believe that you participated in the domination war purely for this kind of thing."

"What the hell do you mean? You're just a resident of the town, why do you know so much?"

"Everyone has selfishness, and perhaps what he thinks is righteousness. You won't blaspheme the dead, but I don't believe that you don't have selfishness. Similarly, I don't believe that you are the kind of person who doesn't have righteousness."

Indeed. It wasn't until the second time he participated in the domination war that William thought that what the man said was correct.

William was able to restrain his selfishness from blaspheming people's life and death, so after knowing that Baitu Mei had also participated in the domination war, his extended wish to comfort his guilt of not being able to revive his wife was to "fulfill Baitu Mei's long-cherished wish". Since she will be participating in the domination war, she definitely has something she wants to get with the final reward.

William also has a set of righteousness that he implements. As early as when the Core Research Association sent people to discuss with him, he had this idea-"to wake up all those who are sleeping in their dreams."

Even if I don't mention these things I want to do after winning, I have been looking for a way to wake up Chalt when I am not in control of the war. How can I surrender at this time? So what if Chalt called him a hypocrite? Even if Chalt feels that his righteousness is hypocritical, as long as he does it sincerely, he will understand one day.

"Moran... I told you not to talk to me with Shirato Mei's voice again..."

William looked at the woman standing not far behind the King of Pirates of Dreams with her back turned to him, and complained with a wry smile. He felt that those bright eyes that seemed to be smiling but not smiling were more like Baitu Mei's eyes... that's right, the dreamer was supposed to reproduce the appearance of the person that the ruler loved most in his heart, and it was right that he would be so similar to Baitu Mei .

"Well... I'm just the embodiment of your subconscious mind, everything you do is actually up to you~"

"I didn't decide this kind of thing casually... But, how should I put it... Thank you anyway."

Mo Ran smiled, and the phantom disappeared from William's vision. But he knew she was always nearby, waiting for his command at any time.

"You are already dying, what are you still muttering about?"

Heizi's tone gradually became more serious, he jumped up as soon as he stepped on his feet, and swung his fist heavily to hit William's left cheek. If he hadn't been trapped in this position by the shackles, William would have been flying a few meters away with this force when he caught the punch, and now his head hit the chain, and there was a fist-shaped left wrist. Visible bloodstains.

"Hey, you bastard... It's not that simple to want me to die," William forcefully spat out the blood stuck in his mouth, his eyes brightened again, he squinted at the Thief King, "Kazuhiko Sato is the kind of person who doesn't care if he dies with regrets, and ordinary consummation is enough. I am different from him!"

"Oh... is that so... I only heard that people who are about to die speak well, but I didn't know that people who are about to die will become long-winded."

"I originally wanted to die. Being tortured by you like this is not as easy as dying. But I remembered that there are many things that I have not had time to do, and there are many debts that I have not had time to settle with you."

The Thief of Dreams gave William a strange look. He always felt that William wanted to use dialogue to distract his attention from the pain. Thinking of this, he stretched out two commands and waved, signaling Heizi to continue to torture.

"The last time I participated in the domination war, I was instigated by you dream stealers. I still remember what you said at the time! What did you say, "In order for the domination war to go on, the dream maniac prevented many people in reality from waking up , Only if everyone withdraws from the domination war, they will not continue to expropriate the town’s resources.” You are not so kind.”

"Isn't it because you're too stupid and naive to be dismissed by such stupid words?"

"Yes... I also admit that the weakness of the weak cannot be attributed to the strength of the strong, but I don't admit that you are strong."

Heizi nodded provocatively, then bared his teeth and angrily raised the stick high up as if to hit it, but was stopped by the Dream Thieves King.

"Heizi! You don't need to have any conversation with him, just pretend you didn't hear him."

Maybe others didn't see it, but William, known as the "absolute observer", saw it clearly. The Thief of Dreams just glanced at Tito, who can remove the time of the ruler's death. Tito must have been a little overwhelmed by using his dominance continuously like this, that's why the King of Pirates of Dreams was hesitant to stop Heizi.

"Not only that—after I took control of the dream palace and left the dream world, you were the ones who took over my dream world, right? It really fits the name "Dream Stealer", but you changed the name to "Dream Capture" It would be more appropriate. This is the second account. The ruler’s clock was also destroyed by you, and this is the third, how much do you like stealing things, King Thief of Dreams?"

Thieves Dream King swallowed softly, turned around and sat on the chair, and a little restlessly tapped the table with his five fingers alternately, repeating this action over and over again.

"There are three accounts in total.. You didn't mention Baitu Mei in any of them. I really didn't misunderstand you, scum."

"Because that's not something to be settled..." William sneered, "It's the revenge that must be avenged! The deaths of Sato Kazuhiko and Baitu Mei will be returned to you one by one. I advise you to kill me here, Let me accidentally escape, whether you are in a dream or in reality, let me live in fear forever."

The Thief of Dreams just wanted to sneer, but suddenly noticed something with the help of "absolute observation", and couldn't help moving to the door of the tavern together with William's eyes.

——On the bleak street outside the museum, Kaede Watanabe trembled and walked back along the street a few steps away...