Chapter 337

In the faint darkness, a girl lay collapsed.

Her eyes looked weary, her outdated school uniform tattered, and her neatly cropped hair framed her face.

In that darkness, the eyelids of the short-haired girl trembled faintly.

The girl opened her eyes and looked around.

“Again, I’m in this dream.”

She had been having the same dream over and over.

A dream that repeated endlessly, as if the world itself were bending to her wishes, stepping into this realm time and again.

A world where the sun had vanished.

Instead, a colossal ring of light illuminated everything.

Beneath that halo, towering buildings rose like ancient temples or cathedrals, their spires piercing the heavens.

“Haaah…”

The short-haired girl sighed, and the thick, sticky air filled her lungs.

In this bizarre space, she always encountered a man.

[Young lady, you’ve come once more today.]

A deep, resonant voice cut through the darkness, echoing all around.

The short-haired girl gazed at its source.

His youthful face contrasted sharply with his voice, yet his eyes carried the weight of countless years.

[A festival is about to begin—a festival for fulfilling desires, for seizing wishes.]

He continued.

[Today, you must make your decision.]

The girl’s heart began to race.

She knew it.

This moment would decide her fate.

The man slowly extended his hand toward her.

On his palm rested a small orb.

Smaller than candy, it glowed faintly in the dark.

[This is the key to your wish.]

His voice rumbled low.

[The choice is yours.]

The short-haired girl’s gaze locked onto the tiny orb.

It swirled with colors like a miniature galaxy, too beautiful for words.

But alongside its beauty, an unsettling feeling crept into her chest.

She could still hear the man’s first words to her when they met:

[‘This festival’s reward can even resurrect the dead.’]

‘Creepy…’

She bit her lip.

There was no way such a thing could come without a price.

Yet deep within her heart, a desperate longing stirred.

The yearning that kept her trapped in this dream.

The man had said this place was only accessible to those who truly desired something.

In other words, her very presence here proved the depth of her desire.

[Are you still hesitating?]

The man’s voice cut through the darkness again.

His eyes held understanding, sympathy—and something deeper.

[Then take the orb. See for yourself.]

The short-haired girl’s hand began to move—slowly, ever so slowly.

Time seemed to freeze as countless thoughts swirled in her mind.

Was this truly the right choice?

But her hand was already reaching for the orb.

As her fingertips touched it, the world began to spin wildly.

She was drifting further and further away from the dream.

A strange, surreal space detached from reality.

It resembled a giant funnel, pulling everything toward its center like an antlion’s trap.

The heavy silence in the hospital room broke as the girl’s eyelids slowly opened.

Under the fluorescent lights, familiar white walls and medical equipment came into view.

It was her older sister’s hospital room, where she’d been staying for months.

The short-haired girl slowly lifted her head to look at the bed.

There lay her sister, motionless as ever.

Months had passed since her sudden cognitive impairment left her hospitalized.

Doctors remained clueless as time slipped by.

Realizing she must have fallen asleep leaning on the bedside, the girl slowly sat up.

At that moment, something cold pressed against her palm.

Startled, she opened her hand.

There lay a small, round orb.

Identical to the one she’d seen in her dream—as if proving it wasn’t just a dream.

The short-haired girl clenched the orb tightly and stared at her sister.

“Sis… There might be a way. I’ll go see for myself.”

The first light of dawn seeped through the window.

A harbinger of a new day—but to the girl, it felt like something more.

Like a ray of hope signaling that everything might change.

***

Mini Reaper Garden, Marshmallow Plains.

I was testing out the newly acquired Word Halo perched atop my head.

“Pudding!”

As I spoke, pudding materialized out of thin air.

“Hmm, is this how it works?”

The Word Halo’s power was straightforward enough that even a brief test revealed its function.

Words—or written characters or magical energy waves—could manifest reality.

But there were limits.

Of course; otherwise, how could I ever lose to that spider?

The tricky part was crafting the commands clearly and cleanly.

With my usual scattered thoughts, it was incredibly difficult.

All I managed successfully were short commands like “cookie” and “pudding,” plus a few clear jokes from my head.

“Make it [