Fantasy Clock～Dream Ruler～

Nervously, the yacht sails aimlessly on the water. Looking at the sea with no edge, I can't find my home in my heart.

I took a deep breath and buried my head in my arms propped on the railing. Accompanied by the melodious but disturbing melody, the phone kept vibrating. I always wanted to grab the phone and throw it into the sea, but in the end I didn't let the impulse dominate my body, and I clenched my fists to suppress this idea.

After an unknown amount of time, a ray of light piercing the darkness flashed in the dim vision, and it continued to extend forward. I involuntarily followed that ray of light and took steps, and everything around me suddenly became bright——

I walked in the familiar corridor of the editorial department, but the road seemed to be paved on both sides by endless eyes and countless doors.

In an instant, the ray of light suddenly stopped and broke into a door ahead. I was stunned for a moment, then pushed open the door and stepped cautiously into the room.

"Oh, come here? Are you the author of "Beyond the Earth-The Boundary of the Sky"?" An indistinct voice came from in front of me, and I quickly raised my head, but I couldn't see the other person's face clearly. It was vaguely recognized that the other party was a middle-aged man wearing glasses.

A calendar on the wall shows today's date, September 23, 2013.

"Ah... I'm the author."

While answering his question, I looked at the book on the desk of the other party. On the cover, my heroine sits cross-legged in front of a huge retro-style machine.

"This is the first time I've met you. I've contacted you on the Internet before. That's it. This time I came here specially to discuss the animation adaptation of the old work, but also to discuss the orientation of the new work."

The man smiled gently, and stretched out his hand to help his eyes on the bridge of his nose. The light scattered on the lens, reflecting a sharp light.

"It's a new work... I've already brought the outline. It's almost halfway through the plot, and the content after that hasn't been conceived yet."

Obviously he wanted to tell the other party "so I don't want to be in such a hurry, I hope to have more preparation time", but when it came to his lips, he hinted at him in this way. I'm really useless.

"It doesn't matter, we don't worry about the subsequent plot." The man raised his index finger and straightened his glasses again, "All you need to do is to perfect the content of the first book, and you can take your time later."

"Is that so..."

Facing the man's echo, I couldn't help muttering to myself. Everything around me was shaken suddenly, and in a blink of an eye, the familiar ceiling of my bedroom was in front of my eyes, and I quickly propped myself up from the bed and sat up. The TV is playing "The self who wakes up tomorrow is not the me today. " animation. The phone next to me suddenly vibrated, I moved my gaze to the screen of the phone, and then picked up the phone.

"Hey, it's me. Although the animation of your new work is the top priority recently, I have something else to ask you today——because I haven't received the manuscript for volume 5. You can report the courier number to me?"

A questioning voice came from the other end of the phone, and there was a chill behind him. I opened my palm and rubbed against my waist.

"That... is not your problem, because I didn't send you the fifth volume at all."

My confession caused a brief silence to fall, and it took a long time before the voice came again.

"Sir, you should know that yesterday was a deadline, right?"

"……I know."

"Then, why didn't you send it?"

I didn't know how to explain it for a while, and my eyes wandered between the furniture in the bedroom, and the books on the shelves made me dizzy.

"Do you still remember when I went to your place three years ago? It was the first time we discussed the current work." When I said this, I couldn't help but pause, "I said at the time, right? I only prepared the first half of the content, and I haven't thought about the rest of the plot well..."

"I remember...but if I remember correctly, it was already three years ago, right? Logically speaking, you should have basically conceived the following plot, right?"

I was suddenly speechless. And how dare he tell him that the outline at that time only contained two volumes, but I lied that I had completed half of it?

In addition, after the second volume was published, the editor also found out that the content of the original outline would end within two volumes, and asked me if I planned to end it in four volumes. And I swore to him that it was because there was more content in the back, so I stuffed nearly half of the book in the first two volumes.

At that time, I thought that I could persist in this state until the end, but now it is only half of the process, and something has gone wrong.

"I will give you a little more time, but at least give it to me before the afternoon of the first of next month."

Before he could say anything else, the phone was hung up first. I stared blankly at the mobile phone I was holding tightly in my hand, and an inexplicable anxiety rose spontaneously, and I slammed my fist on the bed hard. I got out of bed and walked to the writing desk, shaking the mouse, and clicked on a few documents that were nearly halfway in progress. Then, the hands hanging on the keyboard couldn't fall down for a long time.

I don't know how long it has passed, not only did the document remain unchanged, but I clicked on the webpage and browsed the webpage aimlessly. This state is like the summer vacation after my college entrance examination. I desperately wanted to write down something to prove myself, but I couldn't type out a single word. The urge to write a book seemed to disappear day by day.

A year later, a long and ridiculous dream saved me at that time. I woke up from the dream that night, and I have never remembered what happened in the dream so clearly. I wrote down everything about that dream with excitement, and finally wrote "I Wake Up Tomorrow Is Not Today's Me." "This book.

If such a bizarre and wonderful dream breaks into my night again, I will definitely be able to write such a wonderful story again, right?

However, at this moment, the fingers sliding the scroll wheel suddenly trembled, and my eyes stayed on the line of text:

"I don't know if you know Stevenson, a British novelist in the 19th century. He wrote a novel "Dr. Jekyll", which is said to have been conceived and created in his dream.

Presumably someone has had the experience of achieving consecutive dreams in the upper, middle and lower episodes? This is actually called "continued dream". As the name suggests, the dream you have tonight is the follow-up of the dream you had last night. Stevenson seems to have a strong ability to continue dreams. He dreamed about this novel for a long time and completed this work.

Thinking about it carefully, it should also have something to do with "Lucid Dreams", right? Perhaps he created the world of the story in his dreams, and Stevenson took the role of recording the whole process. "

This passage suddenly aroused a sleeping nerve, I quickly dragged the mouse, noted the three words "lucid dream", and searched in detail.

It seems a little ridiculous, even though there are only ten days before the end of the month, I started to study this kind of far-fetched lucid dream, forcing myself in my sleep to enter this brand new world—the world of lucid dream. With such ridiculous expectations, on the night of the penultimate day at the end of the month, I found that after falling asleep, I woke up in the world of stories——

I was walking the streets of the city where the story took place, and no one seemed to see me.

Just when I was in a daze, the worried protagonist mingled among the passing students and passed me by. He stared at the phone with a hint of unease, waiting for someone to hear back. I followed his footsteps obsessively, and stopped at the gate of an academy. The minute and hour hands of the clock hanging on the top of the teaching building pointed to twelve, and the bell rang...

Maybe others won't recognize it, but I know it better than anyone - obviously, this is the beginning of this story.

I can't help but think back to the animation samples sent to me by the editor a month ago. Looking back and forth, over and over again, I always feel that there is some difference from the story I thought of in my heart, but now, I finally know where the so-called difference is.

What is really missing is the protagonist's confusion about what is in front of him, and what is missing is this kind of uneasiness that everything is erratic.

I looked in front of me and sighed involuntarily——

"This is without a doubt...that's what this story really is. This is without a doubt the story I want to tell!!"

The dark clouds hovering in the sky gradually dissipated, and I happily caught up with the protagonist, and the enthusiasm for creation also caught up with me again.

At this moment, a voice made the smile on my face disappear instantly.

"Do you think that there is no punishment for making up the number of people, but you can never dream again?"

The sound made me raise my head suddenly, and I stared blankly at the sea, the sea breeze passed by gently, the sudden waves hit the hull of the boat, and the setting sun leaned against the horizon at the end, painting the blue sea with bright red.

"Is it just a dream?" I wryly smiled and frowned. Before I knew it, I sat here and fell asleep.

There is no longer the vibrating sound of the mobile phone behind him. Thinking of this, I quickly turned my head, and my eyes were attracted by the flickering screen of the mobile phone, so I felt depressed again.

Recalling the day I woke up from the dream, I spent a whole day writing down the true appearance of the story I saw in the dream, and sent volume 5 to the editor before noon the next day . Since then, my sleep time has become longer and longer, and I have described the continuation of the story in my dream again and again, which lasted for a whole year, and was completely broken on that night——

That night, as usual, I followed the protagonist's steps, but lost him at the corner. I looked around hastily, but couldn't find him in the crowd.

So, I tried to calm down, and after thinking about it for a while, this is actually not a novelty. I also conceived the plot of the protagonist’s disappearance in my dream before. As long as I use the identity of the dreamer, I can easily find him. Where. Thinking of this, I quickly raised my hand... At this moment, a person I had never met before appeared in front of my eyes.

"Isn't it a good myth? But... it's just a myth that belongs to you alone." The man said, "I want to invite you to join me in the dream that everyone in the world has."

I don't know anything about him, but I still realize that he may be the real god of the dream world, and my world is just one of thousands of dreams.

His invitation made me suddenly fall into endless confusion. Is that a myth that only belongs to me?

No, that's not true, there are many people who shed tears for this story, and it's not just my story.

"Come with me. The cracks in the dream world are the real dream world. If you win there, you will gain the ability to make your fantasy come true."

Suddenly, I opened my eyes wide. The god in front of me was vague and unrealistic, but the words he said really shook my heart.

A comment I saw once upon a time, now flashed before my eyes again - "This story is just a delusional patient's fantasy. This kind of thing is absolutely impossible to happen in reality. Let alone a fictional world? "

"Make your own story a reality, and no one will laugh at your story as a fantasy... Isn't this what you have been looking forward to? Don't you look forward to a world where everyone can hear your story?"

All the fortifications are suddenly vulnerable to a single blow—yes, I have undoubtedly been looking forward to such a world.

...

The sunset quietly set, and the bright red and blue disappeared on the sea surface, replaced by a deep lacquered blue.

I sat on the side blankly, facing the soft sea breeze. The speckled stars hang in the lonely night sky, which is extraordinarily dazzling.

"Very good. Then from now on, you will be the No. 1 ruler of Clock No. 9."

How could I expect that this so-called dream world is not as simple as I thought? Obviously just want to tell a story, but step by step into the quagmire. Now I can't go to my own world even if I dream, so I can only follow behind those dream stealers, doing things I don't want to do at all.

The fluorescent light of the display screen shone on my face, and I stared at the reminder "You have 63 unread messages" on the screen, and felt that it was very dazzling at the moment. At the same time, the yacht stopped in front of an island town, and the driver left the yacht first. And I raised my eyes, raised my phone again, mustered up the courage, and sent my own reply——

"I'm sorry, but I can't finish this story right now. Rather than destroying this story with my own hands, it's better to wait for a possible turning point in the future. Therefore, I can only choose to escape to a distant place like this. I have always been grateful You, thank you for liking my story so much. Goodbye, see you someday."

I turned off the phone and put it in my pocket. I quickly followed my fellow traveler, thanked him, and stepped forward facing the lights of the town in the distance. ——This is the confession of a dream navigator, Chen Yong of Clock No. 9.