Translator: SumTLMan
Even knowing that this would commence a life filled with nightmares, why would one continue to choose this dreamscape?
Or could it be that the course of the dream would change in the future?
Angel continued to watch as Jon, carrying a glass box, passed through a series of heavily guarded checkpoints until he eventually arrived at a spacious hall.
“Researcher Jon, please change into a protective suit to prevent damage,” a virtual figure suddenly appeared on a screen by the entrance of the hall, signaling Jon to change his clothes in a room to the side.
Like a soldier preparing for battle, Jon followed every procedure to the letter, with a meticulous seriousness that filled Angel with a sense of unease.
Was Jon really going to alter the dream? If not, did he intend to relive the nightmare once more?
Having donned his protective suit, Jon calmly passed through the inspection checkpoint.
Pausing at the entrance for a moment, he entered the heavily guarded hall, still carrying the five glass boxes. Gradually, he approached the glass cabinet at the center with the highest level of protection.
Inside the cabinet was an object that was no stranger to Angel — the Heavenly Eye, which he had been wearing around his neck and had never taken off.
Jon sat next to the Heavenly Eye’s display case, took out various instruments, and signaled to the researchers on the other side to turn on the high-energy beam. He then placed the plants from the glass boxes one by one next to the Heavenly Eye, recording specific data.
Angel noticed that from the moment Jon arrived here, or more precisely, since he put on the protective suit and entered the hall, his hands had not trembled at all.
It seemed as though he had made up his mind to relive this dream.
Jon pushed the glass boxes one by one into the Heavenly Eye, then took them out again. When he removed the last plant — the Morning Dew After Rain — from the glass box, his hand paused for a moment but quickly returned to normal.
If Angel had not been closely watching Jon’s movements, he would probably have missed this fleeting pause.
This pause, did it signify Jon’s inner hesitations?
Angel didn’t know what kind of change took place in Jon’s heart at that moment. But surely, it couldn’t be as calm as it appeared on the surface.
After removing the Morning Dew After Rain, Jon beckoned to the researchers behind him. One of them extended a finger and pressed the activation button for the high-energy beam.
Inside the glass cabinet, the high-energy beam generator was already aimed at the Heavenly Eye.
After a burst of brilliant light, there were no changes in the Heavenly Eye. Jon continued to record data with the bio chip. Everything seemed normal.
Angel heaved a sigh of relief, it seemed that Jon had truly altered the narrative in his lucid dreaming state.
A faint sense of joy welled up within Angel, yet it was tinged with a whisper of desolation.
A contradictory sentiment, for Angel both wished Jon could escape the nightmare and yet yearned for him to choose the Wizarding World and cross paths with himself.
The modification of the dream, without a doubt, indicated Jon’s choice. After all, Earth was his true home, the place he most yearned for.
Nonetheless, Angel had assumed the dream would conclude at this point and promptly transition to the next. But it didn’t. The dream persisted.
After the generator had ceased, Jon reached out, retrieving the Morning Dew After Rain from the glass cabinet. This was the only one of the five plant samples he brought that hadn’t noticeably decayed — a specimen he needed to document back home.
In that moment, the generator within the glass cabinet, previously at a standstill, suddenly erupted into light once again. In the past, high-energy radiation had little impact on the Heavenly Eye in the center; it absorbed only a minuscule fraction of the radiation, the rest gradually dissipating in the specialized environment.
However, this time, it defied everyone’s expectations. The Heavenly Eye suddenly burst into brilliance, absorbing the high-energy radiation. Immediately following this, an extreme transformation occurred; space collapsed, a rotating black hole suddenly emerged, engulfing Jon’s position.
Jon, witnessing this spectacle, showed no sign of surprise. Instead, he turned his gaze towards the researcher operating the generator in the distance, who looked as stunned as everyone else at the emergence of the black hole.
The researcher was indeed surprised. He only intended to kill Jon, but had not anticipated that intentionally triggering the generator would result in such a catastrophe.
With the emergence of the black hole, space collapsed.
Inside the black hole, Jon silently stared at the researcher who had intended to end his life, murmuring to himself, “Should I thank you, or resent you?”
There was no hatred in Jon’s eyes, only profound regret.
Angel had not anticipated this twist of events. It turned out that before Jon crossed over to the Wizarding World, there was such a story. It wasn’t as Jon had said, that he was unintentionally dragged across, but rather, someone had intentionally plotted against him. They just hadn’t expected such a tremendous twist at the end.
Furthermore, what surprised Angel was that Jon had not altered the dream. He still chose to be devoured by the black hole.
This choice complicated Angel’s feelings even more.
Just as Jon was within the black hole, two women, one tall, one short, emerged from the darkness. They radiated a lustrous glow, each taking one of Jon’s hands.
They were none other than Xia Haiwei and Jo Mu.
As they emerged from the void, Angel sensed that this was the moment when Jon had truly altered the dream realm.
“Daddy, where are we going now?” Jo Mu inquired innocently, her hand clutched in Jon’s, her voice as clear and melodious as a mountain stream.
Xia Haiwei leaned lightly against Jon’s shoulder, a soft smile playing on her lips and a tender look in her eyes.
“We’ve been in America for three years now, and I told you that I would take you to meet my favorite student. Now, we’re on our way to his home,” Jon responded in a tone of fond indulgence to Jo Mu.
“What’s your student like, Daddy?”
At this question, a lively spark animated Jon’s expression. “He’s a mischievous little imp. Don’t let his innocent appearance deceive you — he’s full of cunning tricks. But don’t think too ill of him either. He’s just constantly going against the grain — if you stroke him the right way, he can be very docile.”
“For me, he’s not just my favorite student. He’s as dear to me as you are — a loved one.”
Though Jon’s words were plain, the sentiment they carried was never overlooked.
“What’s his name?”
Instead of answering, Jon looked into the depths of the darkness.
Suddenly, the dream shattered into fragments and then reformed, bringing them into the stilted wooden house of the Pat Manor.
There was a knock at the door.
Jo Mu and Xia Haiwei turned to look while Jon’s eyes sparkled with amusement.
“Mentor, your silence is consent, right? So, I’m coming in.” A youthful and naive voice sounded from outside the door. The door opened, and a fair little head slowly peeked in.
“The person I was talking about is him. His name is Angel,” Jon suddenly answered Jo Mu’s previous question, then murmured in a voice only he could hear, “If only you could really see him… How wonderful that would be…”
…
Angel withdrew from Jon’s dream realm.
Upon exiting the dream, he began to gasp for air, attempting to alleviate the inexplicable warmth in his eyes.
“Your eyes are red. Why?” A voice suddenly echoed through the Ice Chamber.
Angel jerked his head up to see a blood-red silhouette that had appeared in the Ice Chamber. Eureka stood behind him, toying with a nest resembling a pyramid.
“Ah, a Dreamweaver Ant, indeed a rare find,” Eureka peered into the nest, then with a gentle toss, the Dreamweaver Ant nest found itself once again firmly settled beside Jon’s pillow.
“Did you venture into Jon’s dream? What did you see?” Eureka inquired once more.
Angel, however, merely stood in silence, offering Eureka a bow.
Despite his reluctance to answer Eureka’s questions and his marked displeasure with her uninvited intrusion and presumptuous treatment of the Ice Chamber as her own domain, he was aware of his lack of strength to oppose her and therefore swallowed his discontent.
“As you’ve discerned, Lady Eureka, I did indeed visit Jon’s dream. I encountered long-lost family, hence the deep emotion.”
“Emotion so profound it nearly brought you to tears?” Eureka’s lips curled into a smirk, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “What a beautiful sentiment.”
“That’s exactly the case,” Angel replied calmly, “Doesn’t your ladyship agree that reuniting with long-lost family is a momentous occasion for joy?”
At Angel’s words, Eureka seemed to be reminded of something. Her expression abruptly clouded over.
After a long pause, Eureka huffed coldly, dropping the topic without further inquiry. “Come with me,” she told Angel, “I need to speak with you.”
Faced with Eureka, Angel was powerless to resist and could only follow her.
However, before departing the Ice Chamber, Angel turned back, casting one last, resolute glance at Jon within the ice coffin.
Following his parents’ passing, he had never experienced such a tumult of emotions, nor had he ever harbored such a powerful desire to accomplish something.
He yearned to save Jon, not just to preserve his life, but also to explore the elusive enigma of that space.
He wanted to venture into that other universe, to see it for himself.
Subconsciously clutching the Heavenly Eye hanging from his chest, Angel felt as though holding it gave him courage.
Eureka, leading the way, didn’t notice Angel’s small action. Instead, she was lost in thought. She had detected Angel’s manipulation resulting in a Dreamweaver Ant early on. Initially, she had thought Angel simply wanted Jon to have pleasant dreams, to maintain a better mental state. She hadn’t expected Angel to be learning the Dream Entry spell, using it to penetrate into Jon’s dreamscape.
The idea was indeed novel, and astonishingly, Angel had managed to locate a Dreamweaver Ant that could induce Jon’s dreaming without harming him.
Eureka, unfamiliar with the Dream Entry spell and uninterested in Jon’s dreams, found her interest in Angel growing instead.
She couldn’t shake the feeling that Angel harbored a multitude of secrets, inciting her curiosity to uncover them.
Soon, they arrived at the stilt house where Eureka was temporarily residing.