Ke-style law enforcement officers

Chapter 396 Dreams are Reality
"Unless your intention is to obtain the original text, not its contents."

Pickman asked Milo.

Milo nodded emphatically: "The original text doesn't matter, I only need the content inside."

“I understand.” Pickman nodded, picked up his cane and stood up, gesturing for Milo and Marshall to follow him.

"Come with me."

……

Among the vast Sin's Tomb mountain range, Pickman led Milo and Marshall up to the mountainside.

He seemed to be quite old, and walked very slowly, but because he was telling Milo about the rules and secrets of the Dreamland the whole way, Milo didn't find the old man too slow.

"As I said, the Dreamland is a subjective world, but it is also a world that exists on a physical level, not an illusion. It's just that the laws and all the ecology here are basically derived from the collective subconscious of intelligent life in the real world. It can be simply understood as a dream."

"This place is like a dream, vague, bizarre, subjective, and emotional. As you should already know, one way to enter this world is by dreaming. All life forms that are too rational will be rejected by the dream world."

"And those who are called crazy are more likely to enter the dream world. Of course, an individual's dream has an end, and after they wake up, they will naturally return to the real world from the dream world."

"However, that is only one way to enter the dream world from a spiritual level. In fact, those who have a crazy and powerful dreaming ability can make their wild ideas come true in the dream world, which will affect and change this place to a certain extent."

……

"The content of the dream becomes the reality in the dream world?" Milo was astonished once again.

As someone who had been deprived of the ability to dream, he only truly realized what he had lost at this moment.

Pickman nodded:
"Yes, it can become reality, from a small pebble to a city, or even a country. Of course, the prerequisite is that the dreamer has a strong enough subconscious mind and that his heart does not reject the dream products created by this subconscious mind."

He pointed with his index finger to the "sky" shimmering with light and said:

"As far as I know, there is a kingdom on earth that is a product of a dream. You heard me right, an entire kingdom, and the current king of that kingdom is the one who dreamed."

“I remember you said that when you wake up from a dream, your consciousness will be forced to leave the dream world.” Milo asked, puzzled.

“Yes, that king used to shuttle back and forth between reality and the dream world. Every time he ended his slumber, his consciousness would be drawn out of the dream world. Until one day, he grew tired of everything in the real world and ended his life. Now, he remains permanently in the dream world in a physical form, in the kingdom he created,” Pickman explained slowly.

This series of events surprised Milo, but also gave him a sudden realization. Previously, when Marshall mentioned that the gods in the dream world didn't want him to enter the dream realm, Milo hadn't fully understood the real reason behind it.

And now, everything Pinkman has said answers that question.

Imagine if Milo could also create everything he wanted in this world through dreams, just like that king…

Just imagining the gods of this world makes Milo feel like he has to be deprived of his ability to dream.

This is no longer a simple matter of a powerful psychic entering a dream world.

……

"So, those madmen with powerful subconscious minds and dreaming abilities, after repeatedly traveling back and forth to the Dream Realm through their spiritual bodies, if their lives end in the real, conscious world, they will officially step into the Dream Realm and become a member here?" Milo still felt that this statement was too unrealistic.

To some extent, this is tantamount to endorsing the so-called afterlife belief system promoted by religions in the real world.

For those who enter the dream world, isn't the second life they gain in the dream world simply the next life?
“If you have any doubts about my explanation, perhaps your friend can confirm what I’m saying.” Pickman smiled and looked at Marshall behind Milo.

"What do you mean?" Milo turned to look at Marshall, his gaze falling on the broken bell hanging around its neck.

If I remember correctly, that bell had been on Rebecca's desk until now.

Milo narrowed his eyes: "You haven't already died once, have you?"

Marshall looked up at Milo and said, "I never said I was a native cat here."

"So, Rebecca did take care of you for a while, but you died. How did you die?" Milo raised an eyebrow.

“He was run over by a carriage.” Marshall scratched at the silent bell around his neck with his paw and replied casually, “The bell was also damaged by the wheels at that time.”

"So you're the kind of dreamy madman Pickman was talking about... um, Mad Cat?" Milo pondered, then asked, puzzled, "The dead cat suddenly came back, and she didn't seem surprised at all?"

“She doesn’t see me as the same cat she used to be.” Marshall waved his paw.

“That makes sense then.” Milo shrugged and muttered:

"A dead cat returns to the human world to save its owner. If this were in my original world, it would have been made into at least forty episodes."

"..." Marshall clearly didn't want to dwell on this topic any longer, so he shut up and remained silent.

...At this moment, the three of them—one human, one ghost, and one cat—finally reached the top of the mountain.

This is a mountain range that stretches for dozens of miles, but it breaks off about a hundred meters ahead, where a stockade made of tombstones has been set up. The ravines on both sides are also blocked off by countless boulders and tombstones.

"So after all this talk, you still haven't told me where to get that chronicle." Milo felt he had already used up all his patience. To be honest, he wasn't really interested in anything about the Dream Realm.

But Pickman continued the previous topic:

"The subconscious dreams of madmen will become reality in this world."

"Hmm, and then?" Milo shrugged.

“As far as I know, there is a translation of the ‘Nas Chronicle’ by James Sheffield. He, like your cat friend, is a frequent visitor to the Dreamlands. He integrated all the information and knowledge he gained during the compilation process and ultimately created a cave in the Dreamlands. Countless visionaries once waged a war that lasted for many years to possess that cave,” Pickman explained slowly.

"James Sheffield, his subconscious dream, created a cave in the dream world, and the knowledge hidden in that cave comes from the Nash Chronicles?" Milo was essentially repeating Pickman's words.

Pickman just smiled with satisfaction and nodded, saying, "That's exactly what I mean."

"So where is that cave?"

“On the ground above our heads,” Pickman pointed to the sky again: “The Enchanted Forest.”

This was the first time Milo had ever heard of this place name.

Marshall, standing nearby, added somberly, "Next to my hometown."

Pickman grinned: "Yes, the Enchanted Forest is very close to Usa City."

"So you mean we need to find a way to get to the surface to have any chance of finding this cave, right?" Milo asked.

However, this time it wasn't Pickman who answered his question, but Marshall, who stared blankly at the floor:

"That cave should no longer exist, right? If 168 years have passed..."

This statement appears to be directed at Pickman.

Pickman nodded slightly:

"Yes, the war that started by different races of psychics gathered in the Enchanted Forest was eventually stopped by the gods. The way they stopped it was by destroying the cave that James Sheffield had imagined. If I remember correctly, that war took place about 170 years ago. That was when you left the Dreamland, wasn't it?"

Milo looked at Marshall with some surprise.

He remembered Marshall saying that one of its important purposes in returning to the real world was to seek help to deal with the crisis of its own kind. In this light, the so-called crisis was naturally the war of the Visionary that broke out in the Enchanted Forest more than a hundred years ago.

After all, Usa is right next to the Enchanted Forest.

"Usa...is he alright?"

Marshall looked up at Pickman with a sullen expression.

He must have been holding this question in for the whole journey. Ever since Pickman mentioned the difference in the flow of time between the two worlds, Marshall has been in a dejected and slumped state, as if he had suffered a great blow.

Imagine leaving your homeland during the most dangerous time for your people, intending to seek help, only to find that the war was over a hundred years ago, and what about your comrades...?

“I’m very sorry, I’m not aware of the current situation in Usa, but… if I may be so bold, our foraging teams haven’t found any cat graves at the top of the underground world for decades.”

Sometimes, the appearance of a grave may signify the end of a life, but the process of burial and grave repair represents the continuation of a race's civilization.

Often, the most frightening phenomenon is the absence of new graves...

……

Milo looked at Marshall, who was curled up on the ground, with complicated emotions. He didn't know what to say. For a moment, he also recalled the world he used to know.

But he quickly shook those useless thoughts off his mind and turned to Pickman, saying:

"Now that James Sheffield's cave has been destroyed, what exactly was the method you mentioned earlier?"

Pickman said slowly:

"The cave was indeed destroyed, but after the War of the Visionaries ended, those Visionaries obtained the knowledge they wanted in another way, namely the contents of the Nash Chronicles."

"They killed and buried James Sheffield."

(End of this chapter)