Fantasy Clock～Dream Ruler～

"Everything is like a dream.

Everyone gradually moved away from me. "

Everything within the horizon is static, static monotony.

The bed is as white as milk, with a few lonely wrinkles. The sink is made of white tiles, leaving only a few drops of water. A white toilet is installed in the gray lacquered wooden partition, and gray toilet paper is next to it.

The gray and white walls together form a gray and white space. Nothing else, nothing. Nothing but nothingness.

Perhaps only here in the world, only this gray and white room can be called "minimalist".

I sat on the edge of the bed with my head bowed and my knees hugged. As soon as you close your eyes, you will think of those cordons and a sliver of light floating in the darkness.

Not long ago, I was sent back to my original cell by prison guards. It is said that the management investigated the surveillance video of the C84 area and found that I was not involved in the rebellion activities at that time, and determined that I was passively implicated from beginning to end. So after asking a few words, I was sent back. In the end, he was only detained in that restricted area for about half a lunch break. Everything is like a dream, and it is also a dream.

Yes - this place itself is a dream. So who is the management, and what kind of prison guards exist?

Since he was in a dream, where did the so-called surveillance video come from?

I raised my head hesitantly and spread out my empty palms. It seems that the flower of inspiration suddenly blooms in the mind.

In my impression, it's not that I can't find a video system corresponding to the dream.

——"Dream Image Recording System" of the Core Research Association.

It is inextricably related to me, and I used to be its experimenter, and I was involved in a lot of trouble because of it. I suddenly remembered that distant but close face. Like an iceberg that does not melt for a thousand years, it hides a cold madness, the president of the Core Research Association.

She has another name for me. The title that has accumulated dust in my memory for many years and has become unfamiliar, "Mother".

I didn't think about it any further. Recalling the prison life these days, it is really not like the schedule that I know the prison should have.

First, there is a free rest time in the morning, noon, and evening. During this period, there is no sports field, no TV, and no place to read except Fenglin, aimlessly like a walking dead. Even if you choose to chat with people, you will lose the conversation every day.

There is no ideological education other than rest, let alone reform through labor. Secondly, no matter whether it is room cleanliness or personal appearance, there is no corresponding work point to judge the standard, let alone a system where work points will be deducted for poor performance.

Life here is nothing, nothing to do. There is only infinitely extended time, and the imprisoned eternal life with no end in sight.

Reform-through-labour has the purpose of reform-through-labour, to conduct all-round regulatory education for offenders, so that they can be reintroduced into society in the future. Therefore, life imprisonment can be changed to a fixed-term one day, and fixed-term imprisonment can be reduced to a fixed-term period, but there is no such system here.

I suddenly remembered the day when I stepped into this isolated place, the sentence that changed the fate of all of us from then on.

——This is a place of repentance isolated from the world.

People who have committed the most heinous crimes should repent of their sins and reform themselves in ample time to eternity.

This is the main idea, but now it sounds like there are countless hidden meanings.

I have never heard of anyone visiting the prison, I have no right to write letters to my relatives, and I have no right to make phone calls. I have lost all plans to contact with outside information, and I am completely isolated from the world; I have no busy work to earn work points, so I have no busy life Occasionally, I thought that the reform through labor I was about to face was just wishful thinking... All my pre-cognition about prisons did not apply to life here.

Infinite time is only used for repentance. Or rather, the false peace used to intoxicate, to make us rest in nothingness.

The reason why there is no reform through labor education is because this prison never intends to reintroduce us into society from the beginning to the end. What they expect is that we will soak in the dream of indomitable progress, and finally become useless people who are harmless and useless to society.

I should have thought about how long it takes a person to repent piously before he can reform himself. There is no unified standard for judging.

That being the case, as long as the time is long enough, even people who are not at fault will gradually feel that even living is a heinous crime.

This is why those who know that they will lose what little freedom they have have also shoot the arrows of rebellion and smoke.

The trickling water seems to be calling from a distant place, and the melody that is used to making people feel cocooned slowly seeps out of the speaker. I waited silently for the cell door to open and looked up at the flashing warning light above the cell door.

When I did the survey, I asked about the time served, and most people only answered me how long they were here. Now I think the sentence here is probably not calculated according to the actual time experienced by the criminal, but calculated according to the time elapsed in reality.

According to the conversion rule that 20 years is equivalent to 3 months in reality: Lin Yu, who has been imprisoned for 40 years so far, has only passed 6 short months in reality; if he is sentenced to 20 years in prison in reality, the actual execution time Yes, 1600.

People who only answered how long I served in prison, perhaps after a long time, began to wonder whether the sentence did not exist at all, or whether they had committed other mistakes, and the time that made them deprived of freedom was extended indefinitely.

No wonder the rebels say that we are all "drowned in the long river of time" and that time "has already exceeded the so-called lifetime". No matter how long a human life is, it is only a hundred years, but we have to spend more than a lifetime to pay for some mistakes that are not unforgivable.

After the cell door was opened, I left my cage as soon as possible. More urgent than ever.

The irony is that beyond the cage is just a bigger cage. As time stretches towards eternity, no matter how wide this nominal square is, sooner or later everyone will step on it, and even the number of floor tiles that need to be passed to where to go is clearly counted.

I took a step and looked around, but my soul was already running in fear, moaning and screaming, running hysterically across the square.

And today's square is full of discussions about Lin Yu's disappearance not long ago. The railings of the restricted area were intact, the four walls were undamaged, and I even remembered where he was standing when I met him again, but he was gone, as if standing in the spotlight and disappearing from the eyes of the audience.

There are criminals everywhere saying that Lin Yu finally succeeded, saying that he escaped from the prison, and the record of no one successfully escaping from prison was finally broken. The usual walking dead turned back into human beings, carnival everywhere, and ran to tell each other wherever they went.

The news went viral, and I was stopped by many people along the way to ask about the details of Lin Yu's disappearance.

Someone who may have witnessed me following the rebels into the restricted zone spread the word, and I was the only one who was sent back. But what I saw was the result of Lin Yu's disappearance. I had to live up to the expectations and the crowd dispersed from me.

The arrows of rebellion, once fired, can never be taken back, and those have indeed set off a promising fire in this dead world.

Go to the entrance of Fenglin. Sure enough, Xiao Lulu had been waiting for me for a long time. She slowly put down the book covering her face, as if the book in her hand was heavy. Wang Wang's eyes are full of complicated colors, and his lips are slightly open and hesitant to speak.

"You already know about Lin Yu, right?"

Xiao Lulu cast his eyes down for a moment, aiming at the corner of his field of vision. I was still in that anxious mood, impatiently catching up with Xiao Lulu's gaze and meeting his gaze. She was like a wild cat abandoned by someone, with tears streaming down her face, her tiny canine teeth biting her lips.

"But I don't think he got away."

"Why? Do you think Lin Yu won't leave you alone?"

His tone was unknowingly a little aggressive. Xiao Lulu seemed to have been poked into a switch all of a sudden, clutching the hem of his clothes and glaring at me.

"Yeah, of course he doesn't need to take me everywhere. If he can go out by himself, why should he take me as a burden?"

I suddenly sensed Xiao Lulu's anger, and thought that she might be referring to something. The intentional accentuation of the word "cumbersome" was aimed at the anger that erupted from my own actions when I left her yesterday. I stared blankly for a while. She was speechless.

Recalling the tone of my speech just now, I can't help but feel shameful, how I didn't control my emotions in front of Xiao Lulu as if it should be taken for granted. Being relaxed and happy with her, and labeling her easy-going, can you lose your temper and anger her?

It is impossible to say that my loss of control was not selfish. Because in the past few days, I have always thought that Lin Yu was secretly depressed, thinking that this time I must wake up his numb and indifferent will, but in the end he quietly reproduced the turmoil comparable to three years ago.

The sense of gap in my heart was secretly causing trouble, so I suddenly forced myself to step up my pace, eager to escape from my cage, and even vented my anger on Xiao Lulu, who was closely related to Lin Yu. I can't help but feel ashamed of my meanness.

At this moment, "Notice, special notice—" A man's voice suddenly sounded on the radio. I swallowed the long-awaited apology hesitantly, and looked around. Many criminals finally stopped the rare carnival and waited for the broadcast to continue.

"Regarding the recent disappearance of Lin Yu, on behalf of the prison, I would like to thank all felons for their close attention."

The voice of the broadcast was slow, and words that seemed to be worth a thousand gold were squeezed out unhurriedly. Obviously, this notification was done unwillingly.

"Tch, the 'behind-the-scenes audience' finally couldn't help but show up in person?"

Not far from us, a middle-aged man sneered and yelled at the radio.

After taking a closer look, I found that the other party was the one who left me the note earlier.

After a pause for a few seconds, the tepid and rather indifferent voice came out again, but the tone was a bit sharper.

"Afterwards, if anyone interrupts, they will be treated as an accomplice in the rebellion."

As soon as the words fell, the middle-aged man tried his best to widen his eyes, but he didn't dare to try his own way, no matter how dissatisfied he had to do it.

Maybe it’s because Europeans have the unique advantage of having distinct facial features, and any expression on his face is extremely highlighted. Because of this, I realized that he was suppressing his inner protest, and I found that everyone present was like this, dare to be angry But dare not do it.

"Like all the felons, I am also very concerned about Lin Yu's movements, so I heard many rumors that Lin Yu successfully escaped from prison. Now I will reply to these rumors together - Lin Yu can't escape! In other words In other words, he could only be hiding somewhere."

The entire square was suddenly silent, as if expecting someone to ask why such a reply was given with such certainty, the voice of the radio went on speaking on its own, with the same leisurely tone.

"I can tell you with certainty that jailbreaking is impossible in principle. This prison was built to prevent the possibility of jailbreaking. If you still don't believe it, you might as well sacrifice your little freedom to try it."

Say it. There was no longer any memory of the broadcast, and the broadcast was cut off decisively. There was a brief buzzing noise, and finally fell silent.

Only I know the reason why the radio attitude is so clear. Even if we escape from this prison built in the dream, what awaits us outside is the dream, the eternal dream. Jumping to another dream like a dream within a dream, still unable to wake up.

A long time has passed, but the criminals who were carnival not long ago could only look at each other. The smoke of the wolf has dispersed in most of the woods, and the lazy wind of being content with the status quo is blowing back, which is about to blow out the fire of rebellion and people's desire to wake up.

"What he said, is it true....There is no reason to lie to us, right??"

Someone broke the silence, and then more and more voices emerged sporadically, driving away the terrifying dead silence.

"In order to make us completely give up, there is nothing strange about lying."

"But, did Lin Yu really escape? Abandon us and escape alone?"

Soon the discussion became heated again, and the surrounding air was filled with a different kind of excitement. Compared with the previous brainless carnival with no conditions, this time everyone was thoughtful, no longer purely hoped for Lin Yu, but really imagined the possibility of leaving here.

In fact, what was said on the radio did have some reservations. The act of jailbreaking itself is impossible, but it does not mean that we cannot achieve the purpose of leaving here in disguise. Since it is a dream, its eternity can be deciphered just by waking up.

"When Lin meets him, he is not someone who will abandon his companions."

Xiao Lulu murmured abruptly, and suddenly attracted my attention. She stared at a corner of the square, and her eyes seemed to have no particular target, but only scanned the whole picture of the square. Suddenly, she lifted the corners of her mouth in relief.

"Look. This is the response that Lin Yu and those people expected. Only in this way can there be a possibility of escape. Su Ruoyang, I can be sure that Lin Yu has not escaped yet, he must be here somewhere in a prison."

Xiao Lulu's words were unexpectedly a little obscure. She looked towards me, stared into my eyes, with a triumphant smile in her eyes, as if she was about to present decisive evidence to refute my previous evaluation of Lin Yu. I'm all ears.

"Before I met you last time, I went to see Lin Yu. He didn't pull himself together at that time, and his face was still the same despair as in the past three years. It is impossible for me to suddenly talk to you within a few dozen minutes. Think of a way to escape."

"If the motive was to create such a situation, then how do you think he disappeared out of thin air?"

I have self-knowledge, knowing that my understanding of Lin Yu is definitely not as good as Xiao Lulu. But the sense of inferiority in my heart is always clamoring, thinking that it is not impossible to escape alone with Lin Yu's ability, and he has no reason not to know that the essence of this place is a dream, and his aura may be behind the escape In a flash, he suddenly thought of a way to forcefully wake up from the dream.

"I don't know about this kind of thing." Xiao Lulu's smile was smeared with a bit of bitterness, but the bitterness was in turn covered up by her with a more brilliant purity, "But it is precisely because of this that we have to go there in person. Find. To catch up with him."

I was speechless in surprise, and suddenly understood her intentions. Having said that, I can no longer not let go of my sense of inferiority.

"If we find nothing, we'll have to plan our own escape. Is that okay?"

Xiao Lulu's face turned red. She smiled wordlessly and nodded to me with a smile. Her eyes were a gentle flame.

For unknown reasons, I suddenly felt that it was my great luck to meet her here.

Time passed to the next self-rest, and Xiao Lulu and I agreed to meet near the restricted area.

Along the way, I met more prison guards than usual, and the square had obviously been overstaffed because of previous events.

"Speaking of which, I never asked why you were locked in."

when speaking. Xiao Lulu is a habitual offender who often sneaks into the restricted area, so I acted according to her instructions and wandered among the crowd one after the other.

"Really? It's actually not that special. After quitting the domination war, my sister lost contact with me for some reason. I searched for her by myself, and found that she had left the seaside city and went to Niandao City. Later, I went to Niandao City. Looking for her, I had no choice but to hide in the cargo ship because I didn’t have any identification. As a result, I was arrested by the police not long after arriving.”

"Why? What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything~ I ended up in prison for no reason. I figured it out later, maybe my sister had done illegal things in Diandao City, and she and I were twin sisters, so she mistook me. But I can't explain it no matter what."

"You mean, they didn't catch the black cat... let you be the scapegoat?!"

"No...Your thinking is too dark, they just don't believe that we are two different people. You also know that our sisters have been imprisoned in the Core Research Association for more than ten years, so they don't exist in society at all Proof of past experience. Going to Niandao City is not through formal means, of course the police will treat it as the same person... Ah, now, you can go in."

Xiao Lulu hurriedly interrupted her story. I was still in the embarrassment of not knowing how to comfort her, but I had no choice but to give up temporarily. I used the nearby crowd as a cover to avoid the prison guards who occasionally noticed me, and managed to sneak into the dark room. Secret passages.

"Phew. I was almost discovered. I usually come to see Lin Yu at the end of the break."

Xiao Lulu lightly supported his regularly rising and falling chest, and adjusted his tense breathing. As if she hadn't told me about those past events, she lightly took out the flashlight that I had seen twice. Inexplicably, a strong sadness passed through my heart, and I was very uncomfortable.

But before she turned on the flashlight, there was a sound of arguing in the depths of the secret passage, and she hurriedly handed the flashlight to me in a panic.

"I advise you to cooperate with our investigation as soon as possible, so that there is still a chance to go back outside."

"Outside? Do you mean next to my daughter, or a cell that's a little bigger than this?"

At the end of the secret passage, there was a sound of slamming on the table, and Xiao Lulu stood beside him, startled with fright.

"Are you kidding me?! Do you think you are negotiating with me?"

"Ah, that's a pity. If you answer me with the former, I might consider telling you about Lin Yu's whereabouts."

"It's a pity that you lost your only chance to leave here, right? It's only a matter of time before we find Lin Yu. He can't escape."

"Don't talk too much. He should have found a house and settled down by now."

The prison guard snorted coldly, pulled the chair roughly, and then seemed to be approaching us. Realizing that their interrogation had come to an end, I quickly dragged Xiao Lulu out of the secret passage, and dispersed with her in the crowd, and soon saw the prison guards come out.

Xiao Lulu and I looked at each other, and at the same time let out a long sigh of relief.

"Hey, do you want my help?"

When I heard the conversation suddenly, I couldn't help turning around immediately, only to find that the person in front of me was the middle-aged man who gave the note before. Seeing me watching him silently, the man squinted his eyes and frowned, with many forehead lines appearing on his forehead, his expression was still extremely magnified by the superiority of his facial features.

"Aren't you going to sneak in? It will be safer if someone keeps watch for you."

Maybe it was the aggressive action of withdrawing from the secret passage that caught the man's attention. From the bottom of my heart, I'm thankful that the people I noticed weren't prison guards.

"Then I will trouble you."

When entering the secret passage for the second time, there was no sound in the restricted area, and it seemed even quieter against the backdrop of the extraordinarily noisy square.

We carefully lowered our pace and approached the warning lines that read "Keepingout", our vision was blocked by iron bars. I stretched my head and looked in, only to see that the prison guards in the restricted area were not there, but the rebels who were detained remained silent.

"Are you also looking for Lin Yu? It's impossible to find it."

I don't even know which rebel the voice came from. Everyone in the restricted area is as still as a painting.

According to my personal thinking, it is obviously unrealistic to search the entire prison to find Lin Yu, not to mention that those prison guards must be doing the same thing. After all, they insisted that Lin Yu was hiding somewhere here, so they said "it's only a matter of time before we find Lin Yu".

But since this prison is built on a dream, we shouldn't think about it in a normal way.

I heard from the researchers of the Core Research Association before that there are multiple world layers in the dream world, and the common entrance of these world layers is the world gate in the mouth of the rulers. Since he couldn't wake up from the dream, Lin Yu might use the World Gate to go to another dream.

And we are confined to this layer of dreams called prisons, and it should be impossible for Lin Yu to escape from this restricted area, so his world door to other dimensions must be here. Therefore, if I want to search for Lin Yu's whereabouts, the scope must not exceed the restricted area.

Xiao Lulu and I acted in a division of labor, and our eyes scanned every corner of the restricted area, but some places were too dark, and we hid in the dark corners of our field of vision. I turned on the flashlight that Xiao Lulu gave me before, and the light beam swept away the darkness in a second, but it happened to be reflected in the strange place.

I fixed my eyes on the abnormality floating between the light beams, and the moment I realized what it was, a chill came down my back. So driven by instinct, I immediately turned to the direction of Xiao Lu Road and retreated to the wall.

——Floating in the light beam is a small group of scattered black mist. Quietly evoked my memory of this dominance ability.

At this time, the "Xiao Lu Road" in front of my eyes. There was already a black cat's iconic smile on his face.