Chapter 1, Please Acknowledge Receipt of the Golden Finger
If he had not previously attained a certain awareness, allowing him to crazily exchange injury for life, it would have been quite difficult for him to disregard his own wounds to the extent of brutally stabbing that murderer to death.
Because even when killing a chicken, the chicken cannot quietly allow itself to be slaughtered; a moment's carelessness may result in failure to catch it. How much more so with a living person? Perhaps the murderer was preparing to seize the perfect moment to deliver a fatal blow, but the timing of Xia Ran's intrusion into the scene was simply too fortuitous.
The initial stab to the abdomen was secondary; it was the slash that directly cut across his entire left eye that brought forth the true inhuman pain. When this sensation reached his brain, his sanity was nearly on the verge of complete collapse
Then, he touched his abdomen again
Ten minutes later
Such pain, such brutality, can certainly not be easily accepted
However, Xia Ran currently has no mood to indulge in such thoughts. It is a simple truth that a person who has just experienced a harrowing life-and-death struggle has no reason to expect their mood to immediately escape from it
He found that this could actually be seen as a kind of golden finger in a certain sense
Even if it is just a dream, he has had enough of all this
He dreamed of a cyberpunk future world, where the urban architecture was entirely constructed from unknown new materials, elevated magnetic tracks connected the entire city, hovering vehicles raced through the air above the ground, and numerous spaceships wove through the sky like threads
It is taken for granted that everything is intact, with no bloodstains and no injuries, yet only that piercing, excruciating pain that stimulates the brain's nerves is so vividly clear... However, it is also rapidly fading, becoming illusory and unreal.
Dreams are the continuation of reality, while reality is the conclusion of dreams
Simply put, it is possible that he read a novel, watched a movie, or even read a passage of historical description in a book, which led him to think about various things... It is precisely because he received this information that those bizarre dreams later emerged
Just ... ...
Just like now, apart from the absence of that painful sensation from the injury, Xia Ran can still vividly recall other feelings, including the acridness of the smog and the scalding warmth of blood
Opening his mouth was akin to a drowning person being rescued and gasping for breath, gradually calming down and realizing that he was now in the reality of summer. Yet, still feeling a lingering fear, he touched his left eye.
Because it is truly painful, a pain beyond imagination
It is already close to six o'clock in the morning
It is as if it is merely the remnants of a nightmare; no matter how vividly it is expressed or how real the experience feels, it remains nothing more than the content of a dream
It is reminiscent of the atmosphere found in a horror film, and within such a vast house, it is eerily empty, with only he himself residing there, which indeed makes it easy for one to draw such associations
During this period, it seems that the boundary between dreams and reality has been shattered, weaving together a series of "torn" false worlds within the ocean of his consciousness and imagination
Moreover, he is unsure whether it is a psychological effect, but he now constantly feels a burning pain in his left eye
left and right
Indeed, it has been mentioned before that Xia Ran is not at all unfamiliar with such situations; rather, he is already very accustomed to them, and it can even be said that he is proficient, as this is not the first time he has experienced similar circumstances
... ...
The only thing that has a direct impact on reality is that through repeated torment, in the cycle of dying and living, he feels his spirit weakening increasingly, as if his vitality is truly fading away
He had a dream about war, where the entire world was engulfed in explosions and flames, with everything turned upside down in chaos. Then, it seemed that a bomb exploded beside him, and before he could even feel the pain, he woke up
Xia Ran understood that she absolutely could not deny the intense feeling she had just experienced, because it was truly a pain so severe that she wished she could immediately lose consciousness or even die right then and there
Moreover, the other party had already killed someone before, and the victim did not submit quietly to their fate, so the frantic struggle and resistance before death naturally consumed most of that madman's energy
This situation has persisted until now, and not only has there been no improvement, but rather... how should I put it? In a certain sense, it should be considered to have worsened
It is indeed a strange thing that, despite having just experienced such a terrifying and heart-stopping event, he has now calmed down remarkably quickly, as if he has become accustomed to such situations.
At a very young age, he experienced some fright and fell seriously ill—although he himself was not aware of this matter and could not remember it, he only heard the elders say so
It has been proven that the cautious fear the ruthless, the ruthless fear the insane, and the insane fear those who are reckless with their lives. Although Xia Ran had little experience in life-and-death struggles, his advantage at that moment was his willingness to go all out, making him even less afraid of death than his opponent
It can be said that, seemingly, nothing has remained except for memories
Unable to clearly understand the nature of her illness, the explanations she found seemed somewhat ambiguous, and coupled with the apparent lack of hope for a cure, Xia Ran could only strive to adapt, accept, and explore...
At the beginning, he thought he had merely grasped the key to lucid dreaming, but later he discovered that the situation seemed to be subtly different.
As a result, he has had a weak constitution since childhood, often falling ill, with fever and colds being the norm, and he frequently experiences bizarre and fantastical dreams.
Even if it was just a dream, it was incredibly vivid, as real as reality itself
This led to some mistakes, causing him to exert a great deal of effort to resolve the situation with that woman... Perhaps it is the accumulation of these various reasons that ultimately determined the outcome
He dreamt of a wasteland after the apocalypse, where the sky was dark and devoid of light, and clouds of dust gathered ominously. Occasionally, flashes of lightning would streak across the sky, while skyscrapers collapsed into ruins, leaving the desolate city in a state of utter devastation
However, Xia Ran did not stop because of this, until he himself lost consciousness...
In the world of Xia Ran at that time, there was basically only a vivid expanse of crimson... That was the boiling hot blood, the blood of the opponent, and one's own blood
Since he wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, he simply began to prepare a breakfast for himself
He discovered that his pajamas were completely soaked with cold sweat. He let out a long sigh once again and glanced at the tightly drawn curtains. Although he could not see the night outside, it was likely still a pitch-black expanse.
In the two realms of reality and dreams, the previous Xia Ran, who had adapted, was on the verge of a mental breakdown
This is probably about the time, after all, it is not a digital clock that displays more intuitive numbers, but rather an older analog clock with hands, so for the moment, Xia Ran can only see an approximate time
Moreover, regardless of how vivid and real the sensations in the dream may be, they dissipate upon waking, just as if the injuries he just sustained have not carried over into reality after awakening
His voice trembled and distorted, sending shivers down one's spine. He could hardly contain himself, gasping for breath while emitting this oppressive, muffled sound.
Then
... ...
As for how the entire process unfolded, Xia Ran was completely unable to recount it, as his mind was blank at the time, and his body was acting under instinct.
In contrast to a world constructed solely by the continuous accumulation of what is deemed "reasonable," which can never escape the constraints of physical laws, dreams are truly bizarre, fantastical, strange, and filled with the unknown and the impossible
In the midst of the blood splattering, the murderer transitioned from an initial frenzy of struggle to a rapid depletion of strength and life, gradually ceasing any actions of spitting blood, howling, or struggling.
As with the feelings in other dreams, that sense of reality is nothing like something false
Suddenly sitting up from the bed, Xia Ran covered her left eye with her hand and sharply inhaled a breath of cold air
The excruciating pain not only pierced his nerves, making it unbearable for him, wishing he could faint immediately, but it also seemed to completely awaken a certain ferocity within him. At that moment, he truly risked his life and was determined to send the other party to hell
Fortunately, it was just a dream
Night is the day for dreaming, and light is the darkness for dreaming
It seems that it is merely a game; no matter how intense or engrossing the process may be, once it is over, it is over
Indeed, everything has two sides; it is the nature of things to have both good and bad.
5:50
Hiss
Moreover, the luminous hour hand of the alarm clock on the desk is pointing to the number "5", clearly indicating the time
And now, this is how it is
... ...
This was the only feeling he could clearly perceive at that time; apart from this, there was only the vague sensation of his own body, which he had suppressed, gradually turning into a corpse under the relentless stabbing of his own madness.
Because he originally had a slight degree of nearsightedness, although it did not reach the level of "distinguishing between male and female at thirty meters, and unable to tell humans from dogs at fifty meters," it still had some impact.
Sitting on the bed and closing his eyes, he took several deep breaths before finally getting up, putting on his slippers, and heading straight to the bathroom. He took a quick and efficient shower and then changed into a new set of clothes
Of course, it must be a dream, he insists on this belief. Because he finds that either he does not dream at all, or if he does dream, the scenes he dreams of are basically in line with certain information he has recently received.
... ...
It hurts so much... hiss... hiss...
Not long ago, the so-called illness struck him like a mountain collapsing, forcing him to suspend his studies for nearly a year due to his already weakened constitution
This is the important basis for Xia Ran's judgment, as one thinks during the day and dreams at night
The intense pain and the frenzied determination left him no time to think about anything else; he merely repeated the swift, fierce, and wildly brutal actions like a mechanical motion, knowing only to thrust the seized blade into the body he had subdued with the ferocity of a storm.
Standing before the washing machine, after setting the program, Xia Ran listened to the somewhat muffled sounds gently echoing in the room, creating a strange sense of depth.
Once he awakens and returns to the dimension known as "reality," all of this will be swiftly forgotten
Moreover, although his stamina was nearly depleted, the opponent was clearly not in a good condition either. After all, in the matter of pursuit and evasion, it is not just one party that is running; both sides must expend their energy.