Chapter 293 — A Strange Encounter
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 4
Gao Yang could not help muttering to himself. The longer he lingered in this dream world, the more he could not help finding the Long Slumber cult incomprehensible. Out in the real world, they could turn heaven and earth and even the air itself upside down, throwing the entire kingdom into turmoil—yet here in this dream world, every last one of them had become a refined, courteous, model resident. He had been loitering here so long without catching a single person discussing the Sleepers' faith… had these people forgotten they were supposed to be cultists?
Just as Gao Yang was muttering these thoughts to himself, a very thin and very pleasant voice suddenly came from beside him, interrupting his reverie:
"Mister! Can I sit next to you?"
Gao Yang's heart gave a jolt, but he forced himself to steady before any change could show on his face. He turned his head calmly for a look, and was surprised to find a little girl who appeared to be no more than eleven or twelve. She wore a pretty pale-white dress and had soft, light-brown hair that fell to her shoulders. Her eyes were large and bright, her lips thin, and they curved upward in a small arc as though she were forever smiling.
She was a very pretty little girl, and she seemed quite polite—but Gao Yang was not one to be fooled by such superficial appearances. In his past life he had lived through the internet age, and he also knew that this psychic network supported a face-sculpting function, which made him all the more immune to the looks before him. Who knew what sort of creature might lurk behind such a sweet, adorable little girl? Perhaps not only did she pick her feet, but she also slept wrapped in a black cloak and used toilet paper with a black goat's head printed on it…
A standard image of a middle-aged cultist flashed through Gao Yang's mind, and the sweet-smiling girl before him was instantly processed by a filter into a heap of mosaic. He nodded at that heap with exceptional composure. "Of course."
"Phew—" The little girl came up to the bench where Gao Yang sat, spun around, and gave a little hop that landed her neatly on the seat, an elated smile on her face. "I've been running around the park for ages! I'm completely worn out!"
Even her tone of voice was that of a little girl… Gao Yang could not suppress a chill of disgust.
He knew there could be no real children in this virtual world. This was the Sleepers' psychic network; the prerequisite for connecting was to be a devout Sleeper with a certain capacity for casting. How could an eleven- or twelve-year-old child possibly project their spirit into this psychic network? Therefore every "child role" appearing here was a hundred percent sculpted face and all…
Gao Yang turned his head for a glance at the little girl happily swinging her legs, and felt cold sweat beading all over him. At last he had found a Sleeper in this dream world who fit the characteristics of a cultist: not brutal, perhaps, but at least perverted…
The little girl noticed Gao Yang's gaze as well. She turned her face toward him curiously. "Mister, why do you keep looking at me?"
She was even calling him "mister"!
Had these Sleepers been lost in the network so long that they were now sprinting full tilt down the road to perversion?!
Gao Yang forced a smile while the muscles of his face rioted, and simply played along with the "little girl." "Where are your grown-ups?"
"They're not here!" The little girl rocked her body as though she could not keep still for even a second. "But Sister Selina takes care of me. She lives in the city center!"
The city center? That enormous palatial structure?
Gao Yang's heart stirred, and for a moment he even forgot the question of whether a middle-aged cultist lurked behind this little girl. If it was that palatial structure at the heart of Illusory Pivot City… then that ought to be a place only the Sleepers' highest authority could enter!