Chapter 206 Dream or Not

Chapter 206: A Dream or Not?

"How can this be?"

Was she hallucinating?

Qiu Lei stared in a daze at Su Bai, who was sitting on the campus of Honghuai No. 1 Middle School, and began to seriously question whether her escape from Fog City was just a dream. Could it be that she thought she had fled that nightmarish place but was actually still trapped in a dream, which was why she was seeing Owner Bai’s face in the real world?

After all, that Owner Bai was clearly a native of Fog City—how could he appear in the real world?

Although Qiu Lei had left the Mist Shop soon after the foggy area appeared and never returned to Fifth Street, she had witnessed too many transformations among the native Fog City people. No matter Owner Bai’s personality, appearance, or abilities, he was ultimately just an ordinary corner store owner. How could he possibly survive that horrific catastrophe?

So if that were the case, she had to be dreaming right now!

Even if Owner Bai hadn’t turned into a ghost in Fog City, there was no way he could appear in Honghuai No. 1 Middle School in the real world!

"It must just be a dream. I must have fallen asleep in the shelter," Qiu Lei continued to mutter to herself, still standing there.

The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that this was a dream. Not long after the foggy area appeared, she and several other new players had been relocated to relatively safe places by Feng Zhe and his team. Later, players acquainted with Feng Zhe had returned to confirm their safety. From the information brought back by those players, Qiu Lei, Yang Yu, and the others learned that the disaster in Fog City was spiraling out of control. The fog not only hadn't dissipated but had grown thicker, and no one had found a way to leave Fog City early.

In other words, if they wanted to leave Fog City, they would have to wait at least another three months!

Forget whether players could still earn assets under such circumstances in Fog City, or whether they could light all ten eternal lamps in three months. Just considering how ghosts were running rampant and attacking everywhere in Fog City, even Qiu Lei and the others, placed in shelters, would likely soon be caught up in the chaos and danger. Once all the Fog City people turned into ghosts, it would be nearly impossible for them, the human players, to survive in Fog City for three months!

So when Qiu Lei and the other players heard this news, they were completely crushed.

But... no one expected that just over ten minutes later, they would hear the system notification announcing that the administrator had directly declared they had cleared the game. Then, Qiu Lei and the others were sent back to the real world, returned to the side of their beloved family members, back to the comfortingly normal everyday life, and even back to this Honghuai No. 1 Middle School she once disliked but now felt nostalgic for.

Everything was normal until Qiu Lei saw a boy at school who looked exactly like Owner Bai, the Fog City person who had helped her!

How was this possible!

Qiu Lei felt she must be in a dream! She must have fallen asleep in the shelter and slipped into a dream!

Ever since the Fog City people began to mutate, although they didn’t possess any great power and weren’t of much use, they had been in a state of constant mental tension. So Qiu Lei thought she must have collapsed from excessive stress and exhaustion, fallen asleep, and dreamed that she had cleared the game and returned to the real world.

After all, the veterans in the team had said their chances of clearing the game were virtually zero. Even top-tier players like Feng Zhe and his team couldn’t find any way to clear the game early and leave Fog City. Except in a dream, there was no way they could have cleared the game so easily, right?

As Qiu Lei’s mind drifted to this point, she remembered the player named Feng Ling from the previous game, and that seemingly very unremarkable guy with glasses who was incredibly skilled when he took action. Qiu Lei even remembered that boy was called Su Bai.

In the last game, Qiu Lei had cleared the game without doing anything, thanks to everyone’s help. She truly didn’t dare to hope such luck would happen again.

"All dreams end," Qiu Lei thought blankly as she gazed at the boy’s figure in the distance.

When the dream ended, she would still be in that temporarily safe shelter, still trapped in that inescapable hopeless situation.

The more Qiu Lei thought about it, the more sorrowful her expression became.

"You ask who he is?" Ai Xiaojia from the trio had no idea what kind of internal struggle the first-year junior was experiencing. She merely joked with Qiu Lei, "How times have changed! I never thought junior students nowadays wouldn’t recognize this legend of Honghuai No. 1 Middle School!"

Ai Xiaojia’s voice pulled Qiu Lei out of her reverie, though her gaze toward the trio remained somewhat dazed.

"Remember this!" said Ai Xiaojia, a member of the Su Bai fan club, hands on her hips. "He’s the top of the top scholars at Honghuai No. 1 Middle School, and also the best-looking brainiac! He’s Su Bai from Class 1, Grade 12—a legendary figure at our school!"

"Ugh." Zhang Pan and Zhou Qingshou beside her shuddered at Ai Xiaojia’s tone.

"His name is Su Bai?" Qiu Lei finally came back to her senses. The Owner Bai from her dream and the guy with glasses she’d met in Happy Community shared the same name?

"Wait, Class 1, Grade 12?" Qiu Lei remembered something else, her expression finally becoming animated. "He’s that legendary incredibly good-looking top student senior? Wasn’t he absent from school for a long time?"

Qiu Lei still remembered that before entering the nightmare world, she and her friends were about to ask that upperclassman for blessings for the upcoming exams.

"Never mind." Before Ai Xiaojia could answer, Qiu Lei murmured to herself, "Why am I asking these questions about someone in a dream?"

With that, she simply shook her head and turned to leave, walking a bit unsteadily.

Meanwhile, Ai Xiaojia and the other two were completely puzzled by this strange junior.

Su Bai’s vision and hearing had been significantly heightened by the red moon’s power, so he had noticed the trio and Qiu Lei approaching from the start. He had also heard the trio’s conversation and Qiu Lei’s mutterings.

Su Bai had no intention of helping Qiu Lei realize she was not in a "dream." He knew this girl, who hadn't experienced many desperate situations, would eventually realize that this was the real world. This process of realization was also a form of training for newcomers.

By then, Su Bai’s identity would no longer remain hidden.

Not that it was a big deal anyway.

For Su Bai now, the real important matters were finding a place to live in the real world and getting stronger as quickly as possible.

Although Su Bai loved the sunlight of the real world, if he wanted to get stronger rapidly, he would have to return to that world under the red moon’s glow.