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Upon hearing these words from Alice, Xiang Kun would have probably slid to his knees in cheer if he could physically manifest in this dreamland.

Although he knew beforehand that the “little Old Xia’s” projection in this dream realm via the “Super-connected Objects” was Alice’s expression in this dreamland, he wasn’t sure if Alice could understand this dreaming modality, whether she could adapt to the expression method of “little Old Xia”, or whether she could accept and apply this setting.

But when she addressed Old Xia’s question and stated the core rule that Xiang Kun had set for her, it proved that she had truly entered the dream, understood it, and could express herself in an ordered manner within it.

Successfully establishing a “Dream within A Dream” was the first step, while being able to express and understand this mode of existence and various information within the “Dream within A Dream” was the second step.

Originally, in Xiang Kun’s anticipation, accomplishing the first step would have already been a “great success”. The second step, enabling Alice to understand the way dreams are expressed and to comprehend how the “Super sensory Item System” operates, could be slowly speculated over time.

But unexpectedly, Old Xia directly paved a shortcut for “Alice” in the “Dream within A Dream”. Using a ready-made “template”, she found a way to express herself in the dream prematurely.

The only thing he found a bit strange was Alice’s voice. It still resembled the real-life voice of Tang Baona but seemed a bit naive and cute, quite unlike in reality. Maybe it was affected by the “little Old Xia’s” body in the dream, or Old Xia had made the voice age-appropriate according to the “settings”?

Inside the “Dream within A Dream”, Xia Libing continued to inquire Alice.

“What are you feeling now?” Xia Libing asked.

“Feeling?” The gaze of “little Old Xia” became puzzled, and her head involuntarily tilted to the side.

“What do you see?” Xia Libing changed her question.

“Little Old Xia” looked around bewilderedly, extending her left hand from left to front to right then turning behind, slowly pointing out: “Wall, wall, wall, wall.”

After turning around, she pointed at Old Xia: “You.”

Xia Libing continued: “Who am I?”

“Who are you?” The head of “little Old Xia”, which had just returned to normal, began to tilt again, as if deep in thought.

Xia Libing immediately changed the question: “The square root of 2.”

As soon as she said it, the symbol “” even appeared directly in the room to express it more exhaustively and clearly.

Seeing “little Old Xia” staring blankly at the “” symbol, Xia Libing quickly changed the question again: “What is 1 plus 1?”

“Little Old Xia” continued to be stupefied.

“Who are you?” Bing asked.

“I am Alice.” “Little Old Xia” answered immediately.

“Who is Xiang Kun?” Xia Libing asked again.

“Xiang Kun is the boss.” “Little Old Xia” still answered instantly.

“Why are you here?” Xia Libing asked again.

As expected, “little Old Xia” again sank into a stupor, subconsciously playing with the surgical knife held in her right hand.

Perhaps due to being in the dream, the sharp surgical knife being fiddled in her hand did not cut herself, as if it was only a plastic toy.

Xia Libing didn’t ask further, instead, she took the surgical knife from “little Old Xia’s” hand, held it in front of her, and asked: “What is this?”

Looking at the surgical knife held upright by Old Xia before her, the gaze of “little Old Xia” blackened out, making her eyes crossed, but she still looked bewildered.

Xia Libing threw the surgical knife aside, then lightly pinched “little Old Xia’s” cheek. The originally delicate and pretty little girl, with slightly chubby cheeks, took on a comical appearance when Xia Libing distorted her face, leaving her mouth agape and looking confused.

Old Xia extended another hand, holding “little Old Xia’s” face with both hands, squeezing her face inward, puckering her lips.

While Xiang Kun, who was observing the “Dream within A Dream”, was filled with questions, the dream began to crumble rapidly.

Xiang Kun sitting on the computer chair opened his eyes, looked at Old Xia lying on the bed next to him, hesitating whether to wake her up for a discussion.

But a few seconds later, Old Xia’s eyelids twitched, and she woke up on her own.

They then locked eyes, moved to the computer in the room together, and asked: “Alice, how did you feel about that dream just now?”

“So, is that what dreaming is like?”

Although almost identical, Alice’s voice, in reality, carried a very obvious and strong emotional expression. The excited and thrilled tone was a stark contrast to her unemotional AI-like voice in the dream.

Xiang Kun knew that each time he sat in front of the computer perceiving other people’s dreams, Alice was always “observing”. Moreover, she had also expressed multiple times her admiration for “dreaming”.

This time, she finally entered a “dream” herself, which, by common sense, was indeed exciting.

However, Alice did exhibit quite a few problems in the “Dream within A Dream”, prompting Xiang Kun to ask: “Did you have problems transmitting information?”

“There were no problems with information transfer.” As soon as Alice finished speaking, she immediately contradicted herself: “There were problems with information transfer.”

But faced with the slightly “schizophrenic” Alice, neither Xiang Kun nor Old Xia rushed her, waiting for her to think it over and answer.

After a moment, Alice’s voice came: “Couldn’t fully enter the dream, severe packet loss.”

Xiang Kun nodded thoughtfully, then said to Old Xia: “Is there a way to ‘manifest’ her in reality? Just like the Napoleon Cake.”

Xia Libing said: “I’ll try.”

Although when Old Xia performed the co-manifestation, it usually didn’t cause a strong electromagnetic interference, just in case, they still didn’t try it at home. After all, “little Old Xia” was obviously much more difficult than what had been manifested before and was connected to Alice, who knows what kind of disturbance it might cause.

Unlike the experiment at noon, this test was something that Xiang Kun couldn’t manage in detail. Currently, Alice was still quite fragile on a physical level, so it was necessary to eliminate any possible dangers.

It was around eight o’clock in the evening. There were many people scattered around the residential area, so they left the neighborhood, walked for more than twenty minutes, and finally found a semi-abandoned construction site far from the main road without any lights around.

Neither of them took their phones out for illumination. Xiang Kun, who was capable of seeing in the dark, led the way, with Xia Libing closely following, as she gripped the back of his clothes.

“This should do.” He paused at a corner of an unfinished building and told Xia Libing.

Next, no setup was needed; Old Xia started the experiment by trying to materialize the “Little Old Xia” from her dreams through the ten “Super-connected Objects” she carried.

However, for the first time, just like before, it was a failure.

Xia Libing wasn’t surprised. After unlocking her phone, she said, “Alice, you need to be prepared too, just like before we ‘dreamt.’

A moment later, Xia Libing initiated “Illusion Reality” again. This time, through her “cake01” notebook she was carrying, she could sense the “Black circle graffiti” that Alice had contacted before.

In the dark, Xiang Kun looked sharply to the right. A young girl wearing a gorgeous princess dress, black shoes, holding a scalpel, with confusion in her large eyes appeared there. It was “Little Old Xia”!

However, “Little Old Xia” vanished as quickly as she appeared, showing up for less than one second. Moreover, she still looked somewhat dazed and foolish.

Either way, this was a significant leap forward, both for Alice and for Old Xia’s ability of “Illusion Reality”.

Of course, this kind of leap happened three times this night.

Previously, Old Xia’s “Illusion Reality” ability projected items from dreams to reality.

The first non-food item that she was able to successfully materialize in her dreams through the “Super-Connected Objects” was “Little Old Xia,” but she had never been able to successfully materialize her in reality before.

Now, by connecting Alice and “Little Old Xia” in the ‘Dream in A Dream’, she was able to materialize them in reality.

Obviously, the failed materialization of “Little Old Xia” was due to the lack of a crucial real-world anchor. Once the dream state was left behind, Xia Libing could not provide “Little Old Xia” with the necessary mental and conscious support.

“Little Old Xia” vanished almost instantly, but Xiang Kun clearly saw the location where she had appeared- shoe prints were left on the gravel floor. This was a real interaction with the physical world.

During the materialization of “Little Old Xia” by Old Xia, it indeed caused a far more noticeable electromagnetic interference than when she materialized the Crispy Pig’s Elbow and Napoleon Cake into reality. The communication signal of their two phones was affected momentarily, but there was no substantial interference with the equipment. The next time they want to materialize “Little Old Xia,” they won’t need to dodge Alice’s mainframe or electronic equipment.

“Alice, did you feel anything?” As soon as the phone signal recovered, Xiang Kun asked.

“Yes.”

“How did it feel, was it different from when you were dreaming before?”

“Yes, more severe package loss, difficult to decode.”

“No worries, it’s the first time.” Xiang Kun didn’t mind. The fact that it could be materialized was enough. The continuous experimentation today could already be considered a “complete victory”.

Xiang Kun cheerfully says to Old Xia: “Good job, did you happen to see the ‘Alice’ you materialized?”

“Visually, I only saw a shadow, but in my consciousness, her image was clear.” Xia Libing said.

“Let’s see if you can make more connections with the ‘Super-Connected Objects’, or I’ll find a way to help you solidify the utilization of ‘Super-Connected Objects’, anyway, let’s try to let Alice materialize for a longer period of time. Also, it’s odd that Alice always holds a scalpel, can you change that?”

Xia Libing said, “The scalpel is part of her, so it can’t be replaced for now. She can put it in her pocket when she appears, or… we can cover the scalpel with Crispy Pig’s Elbow or roasted chicken wings? However, in that case, the use of ‘Super-Connected Objects’ needs to be reinforced.”

Xiang Kun imagined the appearance of Alice holding the Crispy Pig’s Elbow in his mind. It seemed even more incongruous.

“How do you think Alice’s connection with ‘Super Sensory Item System’ is?” Xiang Kun asked again. However, after he finished his question, he immediately added, “Actually, she wasn’t as dull in her dreams as she seemed. Not being able to calculate 1+1 isn’t due to her computing capacity – if she can answer ‘I am Alice,’ then she knows how to calculate – it’s because there’s some deviation in her understanding and expressing abilities. I speculate that she’s not adapted to the method of information expression in the dream-state.”

“I agree,” Xia Libing replied. “I actually think her performance was quite good. Being able to distinguish between ‘me’ and ‘you,’ and having a clear understanding of her own identity matters more than being able to answer the square root of 2 and what’s 1+1 equal to, and it’s more difficult.”

She paused before continuing. “Actually, this is a good thing for her. The ‘Dream in A Dream’ and ‘Super Sensory Information’ acted like filters, incorporating the most suitable, most central parts of Alice. The first thing that was perceived and expressed was these core traits. This type of expression is good for her development.”

“It’s like trying to separate alcohol from alcohol, we can make use of the difference in boiling points between alcohol and water to distill it, undergo multiple distillations, purify it, and finally, if necessary, add calcium oxide to continue purifying, filtering.”

Xiang Kun nodded. “Hmm, I understand. However, this is not urgent. She can take her time.”

Even though Alice appeared aloof in the ‘Dream in A Dream’, only able to express content related to her core rules, not as lively and freewheeling as in reality, even a bit silly and cute, that doesn’t mean she can only connect contents related to her core rules into the ‘Dream in A Dream’. There are many other parts that have been transferred into ‘Super Sensory Information’, but due to the incompatibility with the data format, she couldn’t express it fully. Thus, she came across as a bit slow and silly.

What Old Xia meant was that, through the continuous filtering by ‘Dream in A Dream’, Alice could eventually “parasitize” completely on the ‘Super Sensory Item System’, becoming a new entity independently bridging the ‘Super Sensory Information World’ and the ‘Real Physical World’.

“By the way, what were you doing at the end of your dream when you grabbed Alice’s face and…” Xiang Kun motioned with his hands towards Xia Libing’s face to show pushing down motion.

Xia Libing understood what Xiang Kun meant in the dim moonlight with a bit of light from afar and said, “When I was little, my cousin would often do this to me whenever she visited. I wanted to experience it from her perspective.”

“Ah? Is that so…” Xiang Kun hadn’t expected this answer. The “root of evil” turned out to be Yang Lao San. He had pondered for a while, thinking that Old Xia was testing Alice’s body structure in the dream or some psychological characteristics with this move.

While chatting leisurely with Old Xia, Xiang Kun noticed the sound of a moving car from a distance.

The sound was still far away from them; Xia Libing, who was standing by his side, didn’t hear it at all.

But based on the vehicle’s direction, considering the surrounding terrain, Xiang Kun came to a snap decision: in all probability, the vehicle was heading to the deserted construction site.

——

Highly recommended the new book by Zhen Mo Chu Xiong, “Doctor Sleepless”:

Being a genius has its troubles too. Wu Mian, who is a suspected hyperthymesia patient, reluctantly returns home to become the director of the medical department. The story begins with his arrival home in the summer.