Ch. 124 - The Genesis Dream Realm (Part Two)

I followed her back to the lab, where she proceeded to pull out a massive, egg-shaped capsule from her storage gear. The thing was taller than I was and looked like a high-end escape pod from a sci-fi flick.

"Is that it, ma'am?" I asked, eyeing the machine. "The Dream Tech?"

"Yep," she said. "Specifically, a student-grade Genesis Dream Pod. Usually, these are the 'nuclear option' for students who are struggling with deep meditation. I managed to scrounge this one up—give it a try."

She tinkered with the side of the capsule for a moment before hitting a switch. With a soft hiss, the pod hissed open, revealing a cramped interior just large enough for one person to lie down.

"Ready to dive in?" she asked with a smile. "I’ll be in there to guide you once you’re under."

"Wait, right now? But there’s only one pod," I pointed out. "How are you going to get in there with me?"

"Don't worry about me. I have my ways of accessing the Dream Realm. You just worry about getting comfortable." She gestured for me to climb in.

As soon as I sat down, I was struck by how soft the interior was. It was dangerously cozy—the kind of comfort that makes you want to drift off instantly.

"Alright, just like that. Relax, let the machine take the lead. I'm closing the hatch now."

The world went dark as the lid sealed shut. I knew there was no backing out now, but my mind was racing. 

The Genesis Dream Realm... Usually, when I meditated, I entered my own subjective headspace—a private, flickering void. But this machine was supposed to plug me directly into the subconscious of the Genesis herself.

The thought was terrifying.

Someone that powerful... surely she won't notice a literal nobody like me poking around in her head?

Despite the throbbing in my skull, my curiosity got the better of me. I couldn't resist. I flicked on my Psi-vision just as the machine roared to life. From my spectral perspective, I could see that the capsule was just a shell; the real "Dream Tech" was a core humming directly beneath my seat.

Then, it hit me.

I felt like I was being swallowed by a world so vast it defied comprehension.

I blinked, and when my eyes opened, I was standing in a void of pure, blinding white.

"Am I... am I actually in the Genesis Dream Realm?"

I spoke aloud, my voice echoing in the emptiness. Everything felt hyper-real yet undeniably fake—a high-definition hallucination.

But then, the static started. The white world began to ripple and warp into something surreal and distorted.

A figure flickered into existence nearby, but it wasn't human. It was a twisted, shifting silhouette.

"Yuehan, can you hear me?"

The voice boomed across the entire realm. It was Ji Ma'am, but something was wrong. Her voice sounded like a single, unified chime, yet it was packed with layers of information I shouldn't have been able to process.

Wait... I realized with a jolt—she wasn't even speaking a language. It wasn't Chinese or English. It was a raw burst of intent that my brain was somehow translating as: Name: Yuehan. Query: Are you listening?

"I—I'm here! Ma'am, can you hear me?" I shouted back.

My own voice sounded clumsy and "normal" by comparison. I felt like a drowning swimmer struggling for air.

Being fully conscious while standing in a fake world created a sickening sense of vertigo. "What do I do now?"

"You’re adjusting faster than I expected," Ji Niang noted. Her voice seemed to vibrate through the white space. "Most people find their first trip into the Dream Realm nauseating. It usually takes a long time to find your 'dream legs,' so to speak."

She watched me closely, noting my lack of distress.

To her, I was proving to be a terrifying natural, the kind of prodigy who mastered Witch Meditation without so much as a guidebook.

She knew better than anyone the complex bridge between meditation and the Dream itself.

In this realm, distance was a suggestion at best. Though we appeared to be standing face-to-face, the Dream Realm was a labyrinth of illusions where one could get lost in a heartbeat.

Even though the Genesis had anchored this sector and made it accessible via Dream Tech, it wasn't foolproof, especially for a mere Trainee who hadn't officially ascended to a Transcendence Witch.

We were in the "Shallows," a stripped-back layer of the Dream designed specifically for students to practice meditation.

It was only after I fully acknowledged her presence that her form stabilized in my vision. Seeing her clearly helped the panic subside. Even though I didn't fully trust her, she was a tether to reality—a familiar face in a world of static.

"Fascinating place, isn't it?" she said, drifting toward me. She stayed close, acting as a sort of psychic anchor to ensure I didn't wander off or do something reckless that might snap my consciousness. "This is just the surface level, but it’s more than enough for our next step."

"The next step?" I asked.

"Have you already forgotten why we’re here?" She gave a soft laugh and began gesturing in the air.

She was navigating the Dream's interface, pulling up "plug-ins" designed by the Genesis herself to make this world user-friendly.

"Right... I'm here to learn how to translate the data from my Psi-vision."

"Exactly. So, let’s get to work. Try using your Psi-vision on this." She held out her hand, and a crimson Spell Book materialized out of thin air.

My jaw dropped. "Wait—a Spell Book? In the Dream? And my Psi-vision still works here?"

"This is the Dream Realm, Yuehan. With the right permissions, you can manifest a perfect simulation of almost anything. And as for your sight... never underestimate a gift from the World itself. It stays with you, no matter where your mind goes."

"A gift from the World..." I turned the phrase over in my mind, then focused.

The migraine from this morning was still dully thumping behind my eyes, so I kept my Psi-vision at a shallow, cautious level. But the moment I looked at the book, something shifted.

The feedback—the strange, alien data that usually made my head spin—suddenly started making sense. It was like a "Eureka!" moment that wouldn't stop. Knowledge was simply appearing in my mind, unbidden and perfect.

Ji Niang saw the shock on my face and smirked, satisfied. "See? You can read it now, can't you?"

"I... I can," I stammered. "But these concepts... they’re so foreign."

"You’ll have to adapt. You’ll have to study and memorize these new 'cognitions' as they come. It’s a long road, but the Dream provides the perfect platform. It allows you to tap into a level of understanding that might otherwise take a lifetime to reach."

She paused, a rare, bitter smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Sometimes, being a Transcendence Witch is a bit... disheartening. I have an almost eternal lifespan, yet every path I walk is just a footprint left by those who came before. At the very front, blazing the trail of Truth, is always the Great Genesis—and the Truth Witches who sacrifice everything to expand our borders."

She caught herself and shook her head. "Listen to me, venting to a student. Sorry about that. Forget I said anything; it’s all way over your head anyway. If you think about it too much, you’ll fall into a nihilistic spiral—and trust me, that’s a special kind of hell for our kind."

Translator's note: Okay so Ji Niang's basically another PhD student driven crazy by academic pressure.

Editor’s note: Worst, she is a PhD student who realized she couldn’t leave a mark on the world.

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