Fantasy Clock～Dream Ruler～

A voice, a voice full of malice.

Booing applause.

The sound of fists colliding.

Heavy breathing.

Words such as "give me down" and "kill him" emerge in endlessly.

The laughter was suppressed for a long time and finally got the chance to burst out.

deafening.

where is this

prison. It is supposed to be a place where prisoners are held. In fact, not long ago, it was full of reform-through-labour prisoners who followed the routine, but now it is full of laughing and fun-seeking crowds, like a wave surging back and forth in the dark.

Some exposed their true colors as gamblers, shouting loudly who they thought would win, and put on a calm attitude that they could sit back and enjoy their success. There are also those who wantonly show their ferocious nature, and keep throwing sharp weapons on the stage. So other people urged the people on the stage to grab those sharp weapons.

prison. The prisoner's sidearm should have been confiscated. So these probably took a lot of effort to hide, but now everyone throws them away like a weapon tycoon. I have no intention of judging whether it is generosity or greed for the carnival in front of me.

Vision flickers. The man on the opposite side swung his fists in turn, stalking and beating me in the face. Should I be thankful that he didn't grab the sharp weapon next to him? But is his unarmed out of sympathy, or is it a gradual desire for tyranny?

"Hey, Su Luoyang. Do you think there is a so-called creator in this world?"

The more intense the pain, the slower the passage of time. What I saw seemed to be locked in the slow motion of the film. The audience outside the field is still carnival. Blood splashed to the skull helmet hanging above. The man's eyes sparkled with madness and excitement.

What kind of eyes will I have at this time? Compared with his eyes, I think they must look dull and dull, as if they were at the mercy of him.

We are finishing an unfinished battle.

This is not a prison at all, let alone an underground arena.

Here is the crack in the dream where both of us should have gone to the appointment long ago.

"If there really is a so-called creator in this world, then he is definitely not an all-knowing, all-powerful, strategizing old man, but a child with inexhaustible power. Otherwise, our fate cannot be so deliberate."

I smiled wryly. He was as close to the truth as I was, and he was even closer to the truth than I was. But we ended up here the same way, the difference is only in sequence.

yes.

We had no reason to fight here, and no reason to be here at all.

Put it all down to fate? As a result, even fate seemed to be deliberately done by someone.

Suddenly, the man's offensive stopped. The sound of punching was replaced by heavy breathing. I met his sight with difficulty, only to see that he slowly picked up a dagger, the silver light twirled two weeks between his fingers, and he held it with the tip of the knife facing me.

"I said, Su Ruoyang...go to die?"

＊＊＊

one day ago. I was imprisoned in this unusual prison for an unknown crime.

"Welcome to the place of repentance and repentance. Today, December 21, 2018, Beijing time—will be the dividing line in your life. You are about to go to the time zone of "isolation" to confess the sins you have committed."

The term of the sentence is unknown. The charges are unknown. Xia Yinci and her father's injuries are also unknown.

future. Officially step into the unknown land shrouded in fog. But Xue Xueer's letter left a gap in the mist. And what I saw when I walked into the gap was Lin Yu, whom I hadn't seen for half a year, but looked a little older than half a year.

He is like a subject that needs special control, blocked within the cordon and heavy railings, and guarded by iron chains.

"Yo... It's been a long time, Su Ruoyang."

I stared in disbelief at this old acquaintance who was so different from before. Although my heart was still beating at a faster pace and I hadn't recovered from the shock, I still adjusted my breathing rationally and looked at Lin Yu again.

It was as if he wanted to merge the Lin Yu in front of him with the Lin Yu in his memory.

"...Lin Yu."

Lin Yu was wearing a prison uniform like me, with a series of six-digit numbers on his chest. I can't say it looks familiar, but I have the impression that one of the strings of numbers on the note that the middle-aged man gave me before is exactly the same as Lin Yu's.

"Are you a follower of 'him' too? The man who planned to escape from here."

I paused. I don't know if my pause was because of the playful smile in Lin Yu's eyes, or because I integrated the information collected so far based on my intuition, so I came up with another answer that is more likely and incredible at the same time.

"Or, 'he' is you?"

Seems to have hit the bullseye. Lin Yu's eyelids twitched slightly, and he grabbed the railing even more forcefully, making harsh friction sounds unintentionally but intentionally.

"Heh... Let me tell you, your intuition is as slow as ever."

Sure enough. Lin Yu is "he"—the "he" who planned to escape but was thwarted, has many followers, and is closest to "successful escape". Prison escape is indeed in line with Lin Yu's style. There was a lot of him in the whole thing.

only.

If what the middle-aged man who has been imprisoned for more than 20 years is all true, how long has Lin Yu stayed here?

More than 20 years. Did Lin Yu spend more or less time in prison than this?

What about the tea cat?

One question after another followed. But did not wait for me to ask the exit. Lin Yu took the lead in parting her dry and white lips, and spit out words that seemed to have ulterior motives.

"You know, Su Luoyang? I have never hated your personality. Whether it is the occasional dullness or the frequent pessimism. Until now, I probably don't hate you as a person."

Sanity is regaining control. From this, I also gradually realized that the more or less weirdness of Lin Yu's body was not due to the time difference caused by not seeing him for half a year. What really created a sense of estrangement between us was something that actually happened to him.

"I never hated you. But. Who made you the chief culprit for my downfall? "Creator's beloved child"."

As soon as he finished speaking, the smile in Lin Yu's eyes faded away, so the ferocity hidden behind the smile was finally clear at a glance. I can't help but finally realize that there are some unspeakable contradictions between us.

"No... Lin Yu, what do you mean?"

I don't know how I became the sinner he fell here, and I don't know where his hatred comes from. I just feel that "the favorite child of the Creator" sounds a bit harsh. However, it was obviously Lin Yu who failed to keep the appointment that day, which led to the domination war not ending.

Perhaps I also have a strange, somewhat disgusting feeling for him, but not nearly as strong. We were like two poles on the same magnet, presumably seeing each other with doubts about each other.

"Do things that lead to misfortune, but don't know it? Hehe, I think this is the first time I hate your dullness so much."

"Wait...you give me enough time. You're the one who broke the appointment, right?"

I finally couldn't bear Lin Yu's unreasonable reprimand, and my tone couldn't help revealing my disgust.

"What's more, you are the one who left without saying goodbye and disappeared. How can you accuse me?"

Lin Yu narrowed his eyes, and the corners of his mouth twitched uncontrollably, as if he wanted to go through the heavy railings that blocked him and grab my collar.

"It seems that you have completely taken ignorance as innocence."

I instinctively wanted to refute his accusation, but I couldn't help but feel a little dumbfounded. Because I don't know if Lin Yu's unspoken meaning is referring to Xia Yinci and my father. I immediately lose my innocence just by relating to it.

"Oh... finally remembered something, Su Luoyang?"

I don't have an exact answer as to whether he is referring to what I think. But his pressing posture made it difficult for me to recover my momentum for a while. Fortunately, the lingering sound of Xue Xueer's words not long ago seemed to be still in my ears, and I cheered up.

"Lin Yu, I didn't come here to argue with you about these things. Since you have also thought about escaping from here..."

"Then why don't we work together to escape from here and discuss our conflicts later?"

Lin Yu spoke out what I was about to say expressionlessly, his dark pupils seemed to be as deep as an abyss. I couldn't help being temporarily at a loss for words, so I had to watch him and wait for his answer.

But a moment later, Lin Yu laughed hysterically. As if he had heard a big joke, he bent down covering his stomach, and beat the railing in front of him fiercely, with a few tears dripping from the corners of his eyes.

"Ah, let me tell you, Su Luoyang. I can't escape from here, and neither do you. We will fight in this prison for the rest of our lives. This is our destiny, understand?!"

Behind him, the bell rang that the lunch break was about to end. I, who didn't believe in fate before, now panic when I hear this word. I suppressed the trembling in my heart and approached Lin Yu anxiously, until I was stopped by the railing and couldn't get any closer.

"Tell me clearly, what are you fighting for?"

"What else could it be?!" Lin Yu laughed and threw himself to the railing. I clearly saw his hands trembling desperately due to excessive force. He glared at me, "The victory of the domination war. We will use this life to reveal the battle that will determine the outcome... Do you think that it will withdraw from our reality from now on without ending?! It will be engraved in our destiny forever!"

Hallowed and monstrous chants blared from trumpets throughout the prison. It was as if the melody of the medieval chant sounded at the right time, viciously engraving the word fate in my pulse, so the blood vessels in my whole body stepped into a weak rhythm.

[You will encounter the same thing countless times in the future, no matter how hard you try, you will only get the same result, powerlessness will continue with your life, but even so, you have to struggle~]

to mock. Creator's mockery. And her teasing of the word fate.

The roaring seagulls no longer make people think of the calm sea as before, but instead drag me into the rough waves, one wave after another, turning the cold waves on the skin into goosebumps.

And I was imprisoned in the pupil of Lin Yuru's abyss, trapped in eternal reincarnation listening to the baptism of chant from the infinite cycle.

"Who is there?"

The vigilant female voice broke into the world of Lin Yu and me, drawing a crack in my uncontrollable delusion. Realizing that someone outside the secret path noticed my existence, I quickly turned sideways and looked behind me. Lin Yu also finally released the eyes that had been locked on me all along.

Footsteps stepped into the secret path, and the blockade of "Keepingout" still shone with a strange light. The light from the flashlight swept in, breaking through the darkness that obstructed the opponent's vision.

"I will come to you again."

I just left this sentence for Lin Yu, then avoided the light and went back in the direction it came from. The flashlight was turned off by the other party not long after, and I dodged the other party more easily than expected, and my thoughts of running wild disappeared in the instant darkness.

The steps are not light, but the mood is tens of times heavier.

Before I left, what I said to Lin Yu seemed to him a bluff declaration, or a provocation against his unfree body? I don't know the answer, but I know it's going to taint against me anyway.

——In that case. And why do I have to drop that sentence?

Sure enough, it's because I still have expectations for Lin Yu. After all, when I met him again, I once thought that I could get rid of the situation of fighting alone. therefore. I really expected him to consider my request for his cooperation to escape from here.

After all, I still have the strength to resist fate, which is like a script written by a playwright. Even if fate is like a sickle hanging above me, I should have the strength to grasp it. Otherwise, how to make the name of the dark god of death worthy of its name?

Suddenly, a nostalgic figure flashed before his eyes. The awkward and cute shameful face under the black pointed hat that has never changed for thousands of years, the moment she raised her eyes, it suddenly made people feel that the so-called bright eyes and kind eyes were the words used to describe her.

【If you can win the domination war, please bring light to my world...】

Past promises wrapped in memories flooded in like a tide, I let out a long breath, and clenched the clothes on my chest, as if the pinched folds could share the tingling pain in my chest.

Back in my room, the bell rang for the end of the lunch break just ended. The prison door made of steel was quickly closed, as if afraid that the person imprisoned in it would have any thoughts of escaping the moment the door closed. I suddenly found it ridiculous, it was the kind of smile that is concealed when a stranger sees through his mind, and it is also the self-deprecating smile when he suddenly realizes that what he is doing is so difficult.

The line of sight was erratic on the prison door, and inadvertently drifted to the visible field of vision made of glass, penetrating outside the room, and finally saw a girl wearing a prison uniform.

At first, it was unusually conspicuous because of their similar age. Afterwards, a sudden sense of familiarity came over my face, and I couldn't help but meet my eyes.

Not only did the girl herself seem familiar, but even the scene similar to the one in front of her seemed to have been in her memory for a long time.

I glanced at her prison uniform, her cascading hair, and hair accessories that were obscured by the distance. So there was a brief pain in the back of my mind, and the picture from memory suddenly occupied my vision.

Once upon a time, I was standing in a relatively free position and accidentally passed an ultra-modern building. At that time, I looked into the other end of the glass out of curiosity, and found a girl in a hospital gown sitting against the wall.

It wasn't long before I learned that this building was the headquarters of the Core Research Society. That girl is Xiao Luoluo who participated in the domination war and was a teammate of each other. After a while she showed her true colors and shattered everything I believed in.

It turns out that the black cat with a more friendly smile than anyone else is the consistent betrayer among us than Kaede Watanabe.

If she hadn't intervened, would the domination war have a different ending?

The flashing red lights of warning lights in the distance pulled me away from my thoughts and back to reality. Perhaps it was because my gaze at her was inevitably a little hostile, and the girl took the lead in giving up the long stare with me.

In fact, it was only a matter of seconds, but it seemed to me an extremely long time. The client's perception of time is always extended several times, and it is an ambiguous and ignorant stone at the bottom of the river of time. Looking at the scenery that always changes the taste of the sky separated by several layers of water.

The girl put her hands behind her back, stepped back a few steps and approached the room with red light. The cherry red mouth opened and closed, as if telling me something. It was exactly the same as the picture in memory, she was the same at that time, whispering to me through the glass.

But this time I "heard" what she said... To be precise, I deduced what she said by the shape of her mouth. Thanks to this, I remembered to identify the hair accessories on her head, and remembered that Xiao Luoluo was not the only one with this pretty face.

So the white cat hair accessory told me instead of the girl, you have the wrong person.

Xiao Lulu seemed to smile at me, turned around and walked towards the distant room where the red light was still fluctuating, his figure disappeared from sight. Soon the red light stopped flashing, as if it was going to be thrown into the recycle bin of memory together with the reunion between me and Xiao Lulu.

Actually. The successive encounters with old acquaintances who used to control the war really made me feel like a dream. There is no evidence that she has ever appeared, and he only tells himself based on his unreliable memory that she was there just now.

"Next time you have free time, come to "Fenglin" to find me."

The so-called "Maple Forest" refers to a cylindrical mirror in the center. The area covered is not small, reflecting all directions of this small world.

Go to Fenglin to find her. The clues left by Xiao Lulu are so simple. I don't even know how I read what she said. I have never learned any lip language, but her meaning seems to have been automatically processed through a series of processes, and finally passed into my understanding.

It's like... like the communication process in the cracks of a dream.

——The translation function that can be automatically performed through the characteristics of the dream even if the language is different.

This unintentional association made me inexplicably feel a chill in my heart. I try my best to recall all the people I have come into contact with since I came here, looking for a moment in my memory if I could communicate with a foreigner whom I have never met before.

My inquiries so far have deliberately avoided prisoners from other countries. The reason is also very simple, it is difficult to communicate in different languages.

When I approached them occasionally, what I heard was indeed an incomprehensible language. But if... If I joined their conversation at that time, would their language suddenly change to something I can understand?

[Being able to hear or understand the other party's words in the gap between dreams depends on the wishes of both parties, not the language. 】

If my hypothesis is true, where is this place?

Could it be that the information I have obtained so far is only on the verge of true knowledge?

I dare not think about it any further. I don't want to continue to doubt and question the reality I live in. I was afraid that the awakening that had finally appeared in me would disappear in a blink of an eye, so that I couldn't catch it by the tail.

After all, any thought that seems trivial is actually very important. Once it takes root and sprouts in the bottom of my heart, even if there are only a few sporadic weeds at first, it can bloom a hot and cold early spring with the momentum of starting a prairie fire.

How can I not deny reality then?

I dare not give much trust to the self who once abandoned reality and misinterpreted Su Erin's intention to determine her future.

The huge world is full of traces of personal desires, and the fate seems to be deliberately done by someone. How can I believe in myself when everything is so shaky and doubtful?

I felt that illusory, homeless sense of wandering again. The world fell into a fantasy.

Time passes to the next free time. The older inmates call it "late break," and I certainly can't figure out how they divide their time into morning break, lunch break, and evening break in a place where day and night are indistinguishable and the days are always the same.

Maybe they are just wishful thinking, thinking that there is still day and night in their world.

With the sound of the late bell, the prison door opened on time, and the prisoners poured into the square silently, and I fell into the sea of ​​silent people, surrounded by people who had lost time like me, looking for a needle in a haystack. in the past time.

Strange to say. In a world without day and night, time is hard to find, but Fenglin is surprisingly easy to find.

I didn't find Xiao Lulu outside Fenglin, but I recognized myself in the crowd at a glance.

Reflected in the mirror, I stand among the passing crowd. Familiar yet strange. After all, since I came here, I have never seen my face again, and I have never visited in person when I heard the name "Fenglin". Today is the first time.

Even if you don’t like to look in the mirror on weekdays, if you stay here for a long time, you will suddenly remember that you will still see yourself reflected in the mirror every day when you wash up.

Perhaps it is because of this precious encounter once a day that people will not forget their own appearance.

I walked around the maple forest, looking for the entrance to the interior, and touching the mirror. The material looks fragile, but it is actually extremely hard. It is said that in the past, when several prisoners rebelled, it was shot and survived intact, deflecting every bullet back.

Suddenly, I remembered that there was also a girl who "disguised herself as a man" at that time, who could always summon a silver-white curtain wall in times of crisis, and block any attack with an eye for an eye. It probably has the same effect as Fenglin.

Not long after walking, a gap suddenly appeared on the mirror surface, and another one was an arm's length away.

I realized that this was the entrance of Fenglin, so I stopped immediately, and gently pushed towards the mirror. So my mirror image in the mirror caused ripples, gradually pulling away. It was as if someone dipped his hand into the clear lake water and stirred it up.

It is basically the same as what I have heard about Fenglin. Inside the mirrored wall are several rows of arched bookcases, birdcages hanging high, artificial grass on the ground, and several desks in the center. It seems that a pocket library is hidden in it.

Although all the greening in this maple forest is artificial, but even so, it is the only place where you can feel nature.

I stepped on the artificial lawn carefully, and felt that my behavior was ridiculous.

Obviously, I used to ignore those signboards not to step on the lawn, so why are I pitying the purely artificial lawn now?

And looked up. A young girl was quietly moving the book down, looking at me strangely. The meaning behind her eyes is probably exactly the same as my evaluation of myself.

Seeing my gaze looking over, she was taken aback for a moment, and quickly lifted the book to block my sight. It took a long time before he put down the book gently, blinking his eyes innocently. I was a little embarrassed being stared at by her, when she suddenly smiled purely.

It seemed to be back to the time when Lin Yu and Xiao Lulu were often heard calling each other stupid.