CHAPTER 570: CHAPTER 80: PERSONAL DREAM ENTRY

Although it seemed like a long time had passed in the dream world, in the outside world, we only saw Eleanor suddenly stop walking, and then tears began to flow from her eyes.

Her figure wavered for a moment, then she turned around before anyone could ask a question and answered,

"I’m fine."

Everyone: ...

Nora was killed in the nightmare!

How come you’re not only unscathed but also shedding tears rapidly?

"I..." Eleanor began, but finally said,

"I had a rather sad dream."

"But the nightmare truly didn’t affect me, I broke it and came out."

"That’s great," Aske said with a clap of his hands and a smile, "In that case, let’s first head to Fire Island, and then you, Eleanor, with the Ancient Book, can lead us through this Nightmare Barrier."

"What’s Fire Island?" the Banshee Queen asked curiously.

"You’ll find out soon, or you could let Miel tell you," Aske said with a smile. "So, Ellie..."

"Wait," Eleanor said wearily, "I don’t want to go through it again. I..."

She summoned her courage, looked directly into Aske’s eyes, and said,

"I’m sorry, although I wasn’t hurt in the nightmare, it’s only my body that remained unscathed. Such scenes, they impose too heavy a psychological burden on me."

Aske: ???

"Uh," he hesitated for a moment, then asked, "What did you experience in the nightmare?"

Eleanor’s face was still streaked with tears, and upon hearing this, her eyes reddened and her nose became sour, fortunately Nora considerately passed a handkerchief to her.

"Thanks, Nora." She took the handkerchief from her close friend, dried her tears, and blew her nose forcefully.

"Since Eleanor can’t go again," Aske glanced at the other girls.

Everyone immediately began to feel threatened. Even a strong girl like Eleanor was reduced to tears by the nightmare, wouldn’t it be like delivering ourselves to slaughter if we went? Just like Nora who was killed outright.

"Don’t look at me," the Banshee Queen said as she opened her fan and covered the lower half of her face, "My spirituality is limited, I might just be sent back in the nightmare, what would you do then?"

"If that’s the case, then I must go myself," Aske said reluctantly.

The girls unanimously expressed no objections, with the dangerous level of this nightmare, probably only our wise and mighty Squad Leader could handle it easily.

Who knows what kind of perverse difficulty your nightmare would involve with your exceptional strength, please be careful!

Aske walked towards the impending Nightmare Barrier, thinking to himself that his nightmare would undoubtedly take him back to his childhood home’s bathroom once more.

Though it was like ripping open an already healing wound, there would be some pain, but there was no helping it...

As he thought this, he then opened his eyes.

"He’s awake! The patient is awake!" The nurse, who was changing the IV, saw he had awakened and immediately rushed out.

What happened to me...

He looked up at the ceiling of the hospital room, only to realize that his mouth and nose were covered with an oxygen mask, and his forehead and temples were covered with many electrodes.

About half an hour later, the doctor who rushed in checked his physical condition and let out a sigh of relief.

"You’re truly completely recovered," the doctor said with a smile, "The function of your brain has also returned to normal."

His mother, along with the team’s coach, the players, and even the club’s owner, all gathered around the doctor, beginning to inquire noisily about his condition.

"Stay in the hospital for observation for another two weeks," the doctor nodded and said, "Looking at the current situation, if your physical traits can remain stable, you should be able to be discharged smoothly by then."

Doctor left the ward, and his colleagues from the club comforted him and his mother for a moment before leaving under the pretext of not disturbing his rest.

The boss, before leaving, even stuffed a plump red envelope into his mother’s hands.

"Mom." It was only after everyone had left that he weakly shifted his gaze and asked.

"I’m here." His mother quickly took his hand.

"What happened?" he asked softly, noticing that his mother’s hair had turned much whiter than he remembered.

"That day, on your way home from the club, you were hit by a car," his mother said, still shaken. "When you were brought to the hospital, the doctor said it was ischemic hypoxic brain injury and most likely you would become a ’vegetable.’"

"A vegetable?" he muttered. "How long have I been lying in this hospital bed?"

"Half a year," his mother sighed. "We’ve transferred you between three or four hospitals."

"Your club’s boss is quite a good person. He personally donated over four hundred thousand, and later brought in a foreign medical expert. According to his treatment plan, you’ve been treated for half a year and only today have you finally come around."

"Is that so?" He stared blankly at the ceiling and chuckled after a long pause.

"Mom, I had a very long dream."

"It was all about playing games."

In the past, his mother would certainly have sighed and complained about his "only knowing how to play games." However, this time she showed a strange expression.

"The foreign expert’s plan mentioned that your brain was just in a deep sleep, needing some sort of signal to awaken it," his mother hesitantly continued. "So they had the club purchase this device next to you, called a ’Holographic Healing Device.’"

"It’s said to be like the gaming pod you have at home, only more advanced technologically, manipulating your dreams to make you play games in your daily sleep to aid your brain recovery."

"Ah, I don’t understand the medical aspects, but they attached a lot of electrodes to your head and kept them there every day... In the beginning, you were completely motionless, but by the second month your eyelids started to move."

"From last month, you even began to talk in your sleep occasionally. That was when I really started believing you were actually improving." His mother took a tissue to wipe her tears and said, "Enough about that. Is there anything you’d like to eat? I’ll go out and buy it."

"No need," he opened his mouth and finally said, "Mom."

"I’ve just woken up from a dream, my thoughts are a bit jumbled... I want to be alone for a while."

"Alright, then I’ll go outside for a bit." His mother didn’t say much more, grabbed her handbag from atop the device, and spoke a few words with the nurse before leaving.

Then the nurse came in, asked about his physical condition, and afterwards sat down beside him to play with her phone.

He stared at the ceiling, his thoughts sinking into an incredulous stillness.

So, this so-called traversal... was it merely a dream?

Nora, Medea, Peggy, Eleanor... all of these people...

Were they all conjured up by my imagination, based upon my memory of the games, created by that machine?

"That..." he started speaking again.

"What is it?" the nurse asked, looking up at him.

"Have I been connected to this machine the entire past half year?" His gaze shifted to a large, bulky machine beside him, somewhat resembling a vertical air conditioning unit, with many wires and electrodes attached to his head.

"Yes," the nurse smiled. "This is helping you adapt to your body."

"Your main issue was brain damage, though recovery has started, most of your brain areas are still dormant. Only through holographic technology can we stimulate your brain."

"Like dreaming?" he asked.

"Exactly. Actually, playing holographic games technically is like dreaming," the nurse patiently explained. "Except when they play holographic games, all the dreamscapes are manipulated by the game companies."

"This machine is helping you recover, so the events happening in your dreams all stem from your subconscious imagination."

"So it’s all fake," he murmured.

"Uh, typically patients upon waking have difficulty distinguishing dreams from reality," the nurse noticed his troubled expression and reassured him, "Don’t worry, in a few days we’ll conduct a test. If you still feel uncomfortable, the doctor will prescribe some medication."