Chapter 3016: One Minute

Dream world, in front of the thick fog area.

Su Xiao's location was the edge of the dream world. Strangely, except for the couple Merlos and Marcia, the Great Sage had not sent other beast tribes to ambush here.

Su Xiao speculated that this couple should have been waiting here for a long time after receiving the Great Sage's order. Otherwise, with the Great Sage's cautious style of doing things, he would definitely have sent numerous beast tribes to surround and attack him.

This seemed like nothing, but it subtly revealed a piece of information: the Great Sage was not fully aware of the dream world. The other party occupied this place, but was not the true master of this land.

The dream world was not formed later, but was a part of this world, a very ancient hidden place. This also meant that the dream world had many secrets, such as why it reset once every 24 hours.

The time in the dream world was stuck at 5:59 AM. Whenever it reached this time, the hour and minute hands of the clock tower would reverse, and after reversing two circles, they would stop exactly at 6:00 AM.

Strictly speaking, the time in the dream world did not reset once every 24 hours, but once every 23 hours and 59 minutes. It was always missing one minute. It was this one minute that made the dream world have no tomorrow, only today.

Su Xiao was not prepared to explore this secret. Secrets of this kind basically had one characteristic: one would encounter enemies or terrain that could be called unsolvable, such as enemies that could not be killed in a physical or energy sense, but could be killed by relying on some strange things.

Enemies of this kind had a collective name among the contractors on his side: 'puzzle-solving events.' When encountering this situation, there were only two choices: become a detective, conduct long-term exploration and investigation, figure out the ins and outs of the story, and then solve it.

Or, break through the world's ceiling in combat power. What unsolvable, what immortal—that was just because the person involved wasn't strong enough.

Su Xiao hadn't dealt with 'puzzle-solving events.' He was better at dealing with treacherous, powerful, and mysterious enemies. 'Puzzle-solving events' took too long. There was once an old brother who was responsible for dealing with a 'puzzle-solving event' in a certain world. He stayed in that world for more than three months. When the world settled, that old brother was promoted directly from the second tier to the third tier.

There were a small number of contractors on his side who specialized in entering worlds of this kind. It was said that worlds of this kind were very repulsive at first, but the more one dealt with them, the more addictive they became.

The secret of the dream world should be that stuck 1 minute. To deal with this matter, one either needed deep dreaming or entering a dream within a dream. Su Xiao had no interest in this. The dream world he had entered now was actually a special area that truly existed within this world, not illusory.

Su Xiao forcibly broke through here with Apollo, the Devourer, and Hades precisely because he didn't want to get involved in the deep secrets of this place. When encountering this situation, relying on the knowledge accumulated over time to brute-force through was the best choice.

Su Xiao stepped forward toward the architectural complex. After walking a few steps, a prompt from Reincarnation Paradise appeared.

【Prompt: The final green land · dream layer analysis has been completed.】

【This is an independently existing area within this world. Due to the time stagnation phenomenon, it has not been notarized by Apocalypse Paradise or Sanctuary Paradise.】

【Checking...】

【Check completed. If the 'time stagnation phenomenon' of this area is lifted, this area will be integrated with this world and become a part of this world again.】

【Analyzing...】

【Analysis completed. You have triggered a hidden task: coordinate establishment.】

【Task content: Arrive at the cathedral where the next-generation Goddess · Shata Ye is located, and establish space coordinates there.】

【Prompt: After the coordinates are established, contractors who are good at dealing with events of this kind will be teleported into this world to 'deep dive' within the dream layer, responsible for lifting the 'time stagnation phenomenon' within this area.】

【Prompt: If the 'time stagnation phenomenon' within this area is lifted, and Reincarnation Paradise coordinates have been set, Reincarnation Paradise will use this area as the source point to carry out world plunder, thereby carrying out mandatory notarization of this world.】

【After the notarization is completed, this world will belong to Reincarnation Paradise, Apocalypse Paradise, and Sanctuary Paradise.】

【Task reward: World-class treasure chest x1, Honor Crystal x3 (When improving equipment enhancement level, if this item is placed in the equipment enhancement machine together, each Honor Crystal can offset one enhancement level drop or permanent weapon damage caused by enhancement failure).】

【Task penalty: Mandatory execution.】

【Accept this task? Yes/No.】

The information in the prompt was huge. This was the characteristic of tasks issued by Reincarnation Paradise. Except for main tasks and war tasks, whether to accept other tasks was entirely up to personal choice.

The task prompts were few, the rewards were shockingly generous, and the task penalties were tragic. To get something, one had to pay something.

As for the few task prompts, this was normal. If one couldn't even solve this aspect, then when reaching the final powerful enemies and dangerous situations, it was very likely that one would just be going to throw one's life away.

The situation now was that the time in the dream world had stagnated, so when the world was notarized initially, Apocalypse Paradise and Sanctuary Paradise didn't notarize this place. It wasn't that they couldn't; if they forcibly notarized the dream world, it would cause big problems for the Dark Star world, or even collapse.

This area that hadn't been notarized was an opportunity. Suppose the time stagnation here was lifted and the time flow caught up with the outside world, the dream world would become a part of this world again.

The interesting part came: suppose the dream world returned to normal and Reincarnation Paradise set a world coordinate here, then when the dream world and the outside world re-integrated, Reincarnation Paradise would also become a party notarizing the Dark Star world.

Su Xiao's task was just to establish coordinates in the cathedral. At that time, contractors who were good at dealing with 'puzzle-solving events' would arrive. Contractors of that kind had several characteristics: strong logical thinking, great patience, running away if they couldn't beat them, and near-perverted survivability. As for combat power, one could only say it was passable.

Simply put, Su Xiao was responsible for opening the path, clearing out the Great Sage and the beast tribes. After the dream world was safe, a contractor from his side would come to the dream world to 'deep dive.'

For Su Xiao, this was a good thing. If this world was locked and notarized by Reincarnation Paradise, then he wouldn't need to disguise his identity.

Considering the trouble of 'deep diving,' Su Xiao estimated that even if everything went smoothly, it would be after the space-time power transaction that Reincarnation Paradise would start notarizing this world.

By that time, Su Xiao would have even greater certainty in dealing with the Ancient God. He could act with his hands unbound. Even if he encountered an acquaintance like Morey, he wouldn't need to worry about being identified.

Thinking of these, Su Xiao chose to accept the hidden task · coordinate establishment. As soon as he made the choice, he found that the 300 Soul Coins consumed per hour for staying in the dream world were actually decreasing at a speed visible to the naked eye, eventually becoming 0 Soul Coins per hour.

This was good news. Su Xiao turned around and returned to the thick fog area. He let Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang go to the architectural complex to investigate where the cathedral was, so as not to blow up the cathedral later.

Waiting in the thick fog area for more than two hours, Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang ran back. It was injured, and its dog mouth was swollen.

Strangely, when Su Xiao asked it how it got that way, Xiang Bubu never said. After all, even if it was a blockhead, having its head squeezed by a door was quite embarrassing.

Through Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang's reconnaissance, Su Xiao learned the full picture of the dream world. The buildings here had a style of 'post-Gothic architecture'—dim, gloomy, black iron, and black-red blood.

Overall, the dream world could be divided into four parts: the thick fog area at the very front, which was where Su Xiao was, followed by the Gloomy Square, the Central Zhong Ta, and finally the Cathedral.

The Gloomy Square, the Central Zhong Ta, and the Cathedral were all representative landmarks. There were also a large number of buildings in the surroundings. The good news was that the Cathedral was located at the very back and wouldn't be easily blown up.

There was also an important piece of information: the beast tribes in the dream world all looked very similar. They had light black hair all over their bodies, were humanoid overall, had sharp claws, and their hair looked wet and dirty, with a foul stench permeating through the filth.

These beast tribes were all sleeping. Wanting 'eternal life' in the dream world was not without a price. Unless they were awakened actively or received an order from the Great Sage, they would always be sleeping in various parts of the dream world.

Learning this information, the plan in Su Xiao's mind became clearer.

Deep in the dream world, the Cathedral.

The door of the Cathedral was tightly closed, and wisps of cold mist were dispersing. An armored figure sat deep in the Cathedral, sleeping. Even sitting there, he was still very tall. After standing up, his height was at least four meters. This was an old knight.

Although the old knight wore full-body armor, he didn't appear bloated or clumsy. Beneath his faceplate, a gray, long beard hung down. These whiskers were braided into more than a dozen fine braids. This was clearly not braided by the old knight himself. The person who could do this must have had a pair of dexterous, slender fingers.

The old knight was sleeping silently. At this moment, the door of the Cathedral opened, and a figure wearing a coarse hemp robe and holding a wooden staff walked into the Cathedral. It was the Great Sage. He only glanced at the old knight, then walked to the innermost part of the Cathedral, pointing his wooden staff at the center of a sculpture's brow.

Po~

A fluctuation spread. The old knight nearby suddenly opened his eyes. A small door on the wall opened, and a very thin woman poured out from inside.

"Wake up from the dream, kill that... person who broke into the dream world."

The Great Sage's words, through the fluctuations spreading around, reached the ears of every beast tribe in the dream world. In various parts of the dream world, pairs of turbid eyes opened.

The Great Sage turned and walked out of the Cathedral. As soon as he exited the Cathedral, the two metal doors slammed shut.

Under the moonlight, roars reached the Great Sage's ears. This was the power he had accumulated all along. It was a power that could tear the enemy to shreds without him needing to do it himself.

"Actually daring to break into the dream world, are you brave, or stupid." ===== CHAPTER 3017 =====