Chapter 574

Xing put her hands on her hips, lifted her head proudly, and said, "I'm a big shot."

The other party was equally blunt: "Oh come on, sis, everyone who comes here says they're a big shot—I'm sick of hearing it. No matter who you are, the Hound family is investigating here, so please make a detour..."

The hound beside them quickly lowered his voice, nervously leaning in to whisper to his colleague: "Hey! Grey hair, yellow eyes, a few weird straps on her clothes... she looks like that big shareholder!"

"What?! My god, you should have said so earlier!"

The female hound quickly did a 180‑degree turn in attitude, her shift from rude to respectful truly laughable; she embarrassedly rubbed her hands and hurriedly apologized: "—Ah, honored guest, I spoke a bit too loudly just now, please forgive me! The hounds are just doing a routine check; all guest‑room facilities are now normal, please feel free to stay."

"But the prisoner…" the colleague trailed off.

"The prisoner?"

The reckless female hound glared irritably at her colleague beside her, teeth clenched: "You—! Ah, right, right, you're annoying, truly annoying! But these procedures are all for the guests' safety; the hounds never mind the trouble! We're leaving now, please rest well."

Having said that, the female hound grabbed her colleague's ear and quickly left.

——

Gin.

"The prisoner??"

Gin‑san wore an envious, jealous look, clicking his tongue sourly: "Why do all the fugitives keep sneaking into Xing's room? Why does this kind of luck never come my way?"

"Huh? Gin‑san, are you brain‑damaged?" Shinpachi pushed up his reflective glasses, looking bewildered: "Who would hope to run into a dangerous criminal?"

"First of all, I'm not being sour." Gin‑san cleared his throat, pointed at Xing in the sky‑curtain, and said solemnly: "Take a look—what kind of people has this guy encountered so far? Cute gaming otaku girls, sexy older‑sister types… I originally thought that Sam was looking to fight Xing, but it turned out to be… a heavenly‑drop type! —Do you know how much of an impact that has on me?"

Saying this, Gintoki took a deep breath, as if trying to forcibly suppress his surging emotions: "Second, I want to emphasize that I'm not being sour…… Honestly, don't you find it strange? Every one of the law‑less types hanging around her is good‑looking, right? I'm the main character too! Why is the treatment so different? This is really… too unfair."

Someone in the room harbored a grudge so great it was almost forming a special‑grade curse, yet they kept insisting they weren't being sour.

Kagura calmly bit into the pickled kelp in her hand, making a crunching sound: "So…… Gin‑san, you're obviously jealous of Xing's love life, huh? Feel free to admit it—no matter how jealous you are, you're never going to encounter that in our anime."

——

Xing found a box of film reels on the table; its cover showed several weird monkeys, with the title "Top 10 Classic Images of the Sleepy Banana Monkey" written on it, and a limited‑edition number stamped in gold foil.

It seemed to be a gift prepared by the Daydream Hotel, but unfortunately there was no projector in the room.

Besides that, the room also contained an unopenable box and a peculiarly shaped little monkey figurine; to keep Dan Heng and March 7th from waiting, Xing decided to ignore these things for now and go to sleep first.

She slowly lay down in the pool, and fatigue surged in like a tide; when Xing's consciousness sank into Pinokangni, the room's unopenable treasure chest suddenly began to vibrate.

A wisp of strange purple vapor seeped out from the crack; as the mist thinned, a spry pink‑haired girl stretched and walked out, flicked off her own goggles, looked around, and finally her gaze landed on the sleeping Xing in the pool.

"This festival's star is truly impregnable. There's no other way—I can only borrow a bed for a moment."

She carefully stepped into the dream pool, silently slid into the water, and lay down gently beside Xing.

"Please forgive me."

"……"

"Focus on your breathing, imagine a paradise… imagine… a slice…"

"One slice, one slice, one slice, one slice…"

Suddenly, a vast crowd of sleepy banana monkey silhouettes appeared in the darkness—these monkeys were comically shaped, with vacant, dull eyes, constantly twisting and spinning in the dream. At the same time, an incredibly catchy song began to play:

"Banana‑banana‑banana‑banana—the little island covered in bananas, banana‑banana, the love nest of the sleepy banana monkey! Banana‑banana‑banana‑banana~"

"After eating bananas we go to sleep, banana‑banana~ happy and carefree, no worries! Banana‑banana~"

"The sleepy banana monkey is really good~ banana‑banana‑banana‑banana~ happy and blissful, no worries~ banana‑banana~"

——

DC Universe

"WTF???"

The Flash, Barry Allen, was so startled by this sudden mental pollution that the pizza in his hand almost fell to the ground; he quickly used his Speed Force to steady and catch it, for if he had accidentally dropped it onto the passenger seat of Mr. Wayne's Batmobile, he would probably have wanted to kill himself.

"What the hell is this?? That…… is a monkey? It looks like a cartoon toy…… similar to that Clockwork Kid? But it's far more stupid."

This sleepy banana monkey had its left eye on duty and right eye on guard; that sense of intelligence came out all at once, filling the whole scene with an aura of "wisdom".

"It must be someone's prank in a dream……" In the Batmobile, Bruce sitting in the driver's seat didn't give that scene a second thought, after all this was Pinokangni—he had already experienced the Ultimate One's Dream, so nothing strange he dreamed of seemed odd to him.

The threshold had already been quietly raised in the process of subtle influence.

"Is it a dream? Mr. Wayne? But I don't think it's that simple. The sofas in Xing's hotel are all lined with dolls of that thing, plus whatever classic forms of the sleepy banana monkey…… Could it be some sort of brain‑washing promotional video for a trendy toy?"

"That's normal enough, but if such a doll can start a trend, it shows that Pinokangni's aesthetic really needs an upgrade."

Barry shoved the last slice of pizza into his mouth: "Mr. Wayne, you just don't get it—lots of young people like these weirdly shaped toys."

"Hopefully it's just 'liking'." Bruce looked up at the sky‑curtain full of those silly monkeys, "As long as nobody ends up controlling them like they did with the Ultimate One's Dream, we'll be fine."

——

"(Did I just… see something weird?)"

Having awakened, Xing found herself not at Origami University, but on some rooftop plaza during the Golden Hour, a strange monkey sitting silently in the distance, no idea what it was doing.

As Xing approached it, it let out a "banana——banana" sound; it looked wild, yet it wore a tie around its neck.

Xing scratched her head in bewilderment: "Where the heck did this dream pool come from?"