Chapter 850: Seven Fold – Dark Demon’s Ingenious Ideas 4k
After lunch.
Dark followed Professor Harvey to a separate laboratory.
The soul consciousness of 【Demon King Number Two】 was sealed within a palm-sized construct. When Professor Harvey did not need to study it, he would make its consciousness fall asleep and remove the external construct’s 【Nightmare Crystal】 to use for testing with the 【Dream Machine】.
The entire 【Dream Machine】 had the shape of a skeletal chair, which looked somewhat eerie at first glance. However, after looking at it for a while, it was just as it seemed.
It was still Professor Harvey’s work, so having some necromantic style was quite normal.
Dark curiously asked, “How do you use this 【Dream Machine】?”
Professor Harvey reached out a hand and grabbed the notebook on the table, then threw it to Dark, saying, “Flip to the back.”
Dark took the notebook and flipped through it briefly, immediately understanding its value.
Almost all of the problems encountered by Professor Harvey when developing the 【Dream Machine】 were answered in this notebook.
When he turned to the latter part, he indeed saw the function introduction and usage instructions for the 【Dream Machine】.
Overall, the main function of this 【Dream Machine】 was to allow users to recreate life and objects from their dreams in the form of clay sculptures.
And those “clay sculptures” were almost indistinguishable from reality.
The only issue was that the initial 【Dream Machine】 was uncontrollable.
Though what you think about during the day can manifest in your dreams at night, human dreams were mostly unfathomable most of the time.
Once the 【Dream Machine】 was activated, the user would uncontrollably enter a random dream and continuously sink into it without being able to wake up.
This basically replicated the ability traits of the 【Nightmare Incubus】.
But with Eralganie’s help, Professor Harvey solved this problem.
Now, this 【Dream Machine】 allowed the user to maintain a relatively清醒状态 (awake state) when entering a dream.
This phenomenon was similar to a “lucid dream.”
Dreamers could have clear thinking and memory capabilities in their dreams while simultaneously knowing they were in a dream.
However, the dreams entered using the 【Dream Machine】 were different from a “lucid dream.”
Dreamers could control the changes in their dreams to some extent, guiding them towards what they desired.
They could also simply rely on their will to exit the dream!
Even more, they could open a small window to observe reality.
In this case, the value of this 【Dream Machine】 would break through to an incredibly unimaginable level.
…
“The clay sculptures created by this 【Dream Machine】 can basically maintain external realism, but the internal realism depends on the knowledge, mana, cognition, and understanding of corresponding things of the dreamer.”
“In other words, it cannot create something unknown to the dreamer out of thin air.”
After handing the notebook to Dark, Professor Harvey turned around and sat in the skeletal chair, looking up and said, “Let me demonstrate; take a look.”
He placed both hands on the armrests, injecting mana. The bone hands originally tightly attached to the armrests suddenly lifted, pressing onto his hands, almost merging with his arms.
On top of the chair back, the skull-shaped helmet floated, slowly descending, nearly covering the entire head.
At the center of the skull’s forehead, the 【Nightmare Crystal】 was shining.
Dark put down the notebook and looked up.
Professor Harvey closed his eyes and quickly fell into a dream.
Immediately, the black light emitted from the 【Nightmare Crystal】 spread outward from it, gradually turning the pale skull black. It continued to spread to the skeletal chair until the entire chair was pitch-black.
A black fluid like mud began to flow out from under the skeletal chair’s feet, slowly accumulating into a dark mud pool and spreading outwards.
“Step back,” Eralganie pulled Dark’s sleeve.
Dark instinctively stepped back several steps.
Only when the black mud stopped spreading did he stop.
From within the mud, bones emerged, building armored skeleton soldiers holding weapons in mid-air.
Clearly, these were Professor Harvey’s creations in his dream!
After the dozen or so skeleton soldiers formed, they opened their mouths and let out silent roars before suddenly charging, clashing swords and swords, mixing into a chaotic battle.
No factions, no friends or enemies, just fighting.
The bone fragments of the fallen skeleton soldiers were absorbed by the skeleton soldiers that killed them.
Through the holes in their faces, one could see the ghostly flames of the skeleton soldiers.
As each skeleton soldier fell in the fight, the standing ones grew taller, and the ghostly flames inside their skulls burned more fiercely.
“Boom!”
The broad bone sword swung down forcefully, smashing the skull covered in armor.
The last standing skeleton soldier devoured all the ghostly flames, its body burning with icy green flames.
It evolved gradually in the emerald-green flames, breaking free from species constraints, evolving into—
Professor Harvey suddenly opened his eyes. The skeleton soldier about to evolve suddenly turned into a pool of mud and merged into the dark mud pool, swiftly retracting toward the skeletal chair.
When Professor Harvey removed the skull helmet and stood up, all the black mud returned to the 【Nightmare Crystal】.
“How was it?” Professor Harvey smiled proudly.
Dark’s gaze flickered as he pondered, “It looks great, but how can we maximize its value?”
Professor Harvey laughed, “It can be used for teaching, training, and I can even simulate a complete deck to duel with someone. However, recreating high-level magus cards is not easy.”
Dark put away the notebook and said, “Let me give it a try.”
“Alright,” Professor Harvey moved aside.
Dark walked in front of the skeletal chair, touched the bone hands on the armrests, feeling the coldness.
He thought for a moment, then turned around and sat down, placing his hands on the armrests. Following the method described in the notebook, he injected mana to activate the 【Dream Machine】.
As the skull helmet embedded with the 【Nightmare Crystal】 slowly descended from above, his vision gradually darkened.
Dark instinctively closed his eyes, instantly entering the dream with an unprecedented sensation!
…
People without the corresponding abilities couldn’t control the dream at the beginning.
At first, he was like dreaming normally, seeing scenes that appeared for unknown reasons.
Being in this dream felt very similar to the “clear dream” he once had in the Temple of Sun and Moon.
But unlike that time, he had a certain degree of control over this dream.
Dark opened his eyes and looked around.
The scene in the dream was desolate and fragmented. In the distance, there was a ruined landscape shrouded in dark clouds.
He was sure he had never experienced such a scene, so it must be a fantasy.
“Is this a wasteland world dream?”
Thinking of this, his mind naturally came up with common elements in a wasteland world.
—Zombies!
The ground beneath his feet suddenly cracked, and a claw shot out, grabbing his ankle.
But he merely squinted his eyes, ignoring it.
The zombie emerged from underground and bit his thigh fiercely.
Finally, he reacted.
But he didn’t look at the zombie.
“Bang!”
A gunshot rang out.
The zombie’s head exploded like a watermelon.
“Hi!”
A beautiful woman riding a fierce beast-like motorcycle charged over, waving at him.
Dark couldn’t help shaking his head.
The woman on the motorcycle wore tight leather clothes, with blonde hair and green eyes. She seemed like a star from some memory.
But being faceblind, he obviously couldn’t tell.
“Click!”
The woman suddenly pulled the trigger, holding the gun with one hand, lifting his chin with the barrel, and asking, “Who are you?”
“Fuck off,” Dark responded casually, using his thoughts to open a window, trying to peek at reality.
The feeling was incredibly strange, but he indeed saw the scene around his physical body in reality.
What he saw first was the black mud pool similar to the one in Professor Harvey’s demonstration, followed by the unfortunate zombie whose head was blown off. Then… well, the tight leather-clad motorcycle girl was perfectly recreated.
Dark decisively cut off the dream before the motorcycle girl blew off his head, returning to reality.
In reality, the zombie and motorcycle girl instantly turned into mud.
“Huh…”
He sighed, took off the skull helmet, and looked at Professor Harvey and Eralganie.
Sure enough, Professor Harvey had a strange expression, and Eralganie was quite puzzled.
“What was that?”
Before he could speak, Professor Harvey immediately asked, “That undead creature, is it a zombie? And what is that mechanical creature the girl is riding? Is that a dwarf’s firearm? It doesn’t seem like it…”
Dark blinked, looking as if he knew nothing, and said, “Perhaps it’s a whimsical idea in the dream?”
Eralganie glanced at him and suddenly said, “That sister is so pretty!”
Dark casually replied, “Is she prettier than you?”
Eralganie blushed and said, “I mean, her outfit and the aura she has while riding that mechanical creature, and the way she holds the gun is quite nice.”
She raised her hand to mimic firing a gun, then aimed at Dark and made a gunshot sound.
Dark couldn’t help but shake his head and smile, “If you like it, I can try to make one.”
“Hey!” Professor Harvey said discontentedly, “Didn’t you say you don’t know?”
Dark was confused, “No, I just said it’s a whimsical idea.”
Professor Harvey: “…”
Dark shook his head and pointed to his temple, smiling, “Actually, it’s not a big deal. I might not have been able to make it before, but now I can give it a try.”
Of course, Dark didn’t plan to replicate the motorcycle exactly as it was. That wouldn’t fit the style of this era.
His idea was to use alchemy technology to create a construct similar to a motorcycle.
Specifically, he could refer to the motorcycle 【Behemoth】 from the 【Hell Beast】.
A mana-driven motorcycle construct would better fit the definition of “mechanical creation.”
However, the “dream” just now served as a warning.
Before he could skillfully guide the dream scenes, it was best not to casually try the 【Dream Machine】.
Could every dream produce such whimsical ideas?
…
Apart from that, after experiencing it firsthand, he thought of another use for the 【Dream Machine】.
Teaching and training lacked meaning.
This 【Dream Machine】 was essentially a natural 【Secret Rite Card Manufacturing Machine】!
Using dream creations to set up secret rites and enhancing effects with hidden path environments, it could completely perform secret rites without any other resources.
“That makes sense.”
Steven Harvey Professor couldn’t help but carefully consider this after Dark pointed it out.
Limited by his preconceived notions of the original version of the 【Dream Machine】, he hadn’t considered this use before. Now, after careful consideration, he quickly realized this was the best use for the 【Dream Machine】.
He then smiled broadly, “This is a good idea. After the completion of 【Demon King Number Two】’s refinement, we can consider doing some secret rite experiments in the hidden path. For now, it’s better to be conservative. Everything should focus on refining the 【Demon King】.”
Dark agreed.
…
However, prohibition of action didn’t mean prohibition of thought.
After discovering that the 【Dream Machine】 could be used for the refinement of secret rite cards and that he could freely improvise, he couldn’t help but start imagining various secret rites.
The core of secret rite card refinement was “setting up the ritual.”
Magi extract various legendary events, deeply understand and dig into them, and then recreate them in reality through rituals, finally engraving them into magus cards. This was how 【Secret Rite Cards】 were made.
The strength of the effects of 【Secret Rite Cards】 largely depended on the historical weight of the legendary events.
But the older and blurrier the legendary events, the more intense the changes they brought to reality, the harder they were to recreate, let alone engrave.
However, Saint Maryann Academy was located on the 【Wheel of Time and Space】, considered the place closest to “history.”
Refining secret rite cards here would be much easier compared to anywhere else.
This was one of the initial benefits for students of Saint Maryann Academy.
Therefore, the class on 【History of Magic】 was also very important.
But when Dark’s thoughts scattered, his mind filled with legends and fantasies that didn’t belong to this world.
Things like ghost marriages and paper puppets were out of the question.
Events like the Investiture of the Gods and the Journey to the West kept popping up.
He knocked his head, hurriedly suppressing his “whimsical ideas.”
“Eat one bite at a time, walk one step at a time… If I keep thinking like this, I’ll end up with Nüwa mending the sky or Pangu separating heaven and earth…”
“Ghost marriage and paper puppet stories are somewhat interesting, but I wonder if they can be based on my world’s understanding or if there are similar stories in this world…”
…
…
[It’s time for brainstorming! While casting your moon tickets and leaving your thoughts, don’t forget to share your ideas for secret rites!]
