Then all my cultivation as an immortal has been for nothing?

Chapter 24 Brother, this is much better than the peach wood sword.

Wang Yi really wanted to shoot this ugly thing in front of him and see what pattern he could get from it.

But in this situation, gathering more information is more important, so he suppressed his agitation and asked, "Why are you afraid of my gun? Isn't this a dream? In a dream, you can take whatever you want."

Just like in the movie Inception.

The demonic cultivator tilted his head: "That's your own dream. This is everyone's dream. What you have here isn't up to you. Oh no, no, it's up to you, but not in a way that you can do whatever you want!"

This demonic cultivator must have lost his mind; Wang Yi couldn't understand what he was saying at all.

—You have the final say, but you can't do whatever you want?

Wang Yi tried to summarize: "You mean, my abilities here are determined by my self-perception?"

Just like in the movie Inception, what you look like in a dream is similar to what you look like in reality, which directly depends on your self-perception.

"Ah, yes! That's probably what it means. You can continue strolling around, I'll be going now—"

"Wait a minute!" Wang Yi raised his gun and aimed. "So, if I shoot you here, do you think I can kill you?"

At that moment, Wang Yi felt the guy pause for a second.

"How could that be!" the ugly thing laughed. "It's a dream. If you shoot me, it will only wake me up and, at most, make me wet my pants!"

"Really?" Wang Yi frowned suspiciously, increasingly convinced that the guy's pause just now was a prelude to something else. He questioned, "You saw the gun's attitude change so obviously just now, was it because you were worried about wetting your pants? That doesn't seem like it."

“Wetting your pants is so embarrassing, so…” the ugly thing quickly tried to cover up, “Oh right, you killed me in my dream and gave me nightmares—uh, it was already a dream, so it must be…”

Judging from its panicked state, Wang Yi deduced that the gun in his hand posed a considerable threat to the creature.

In other words, it was a very weak demonic cultivator.

Wang Yi adopted the posture of a police officer interrogating a criminal: "What did you come into the dream for?"

The ugly thing immediately forced a smile, but the smile only made him uglier: "Reporting to the officer—uh, reporting to the sir, I'm not doing anything, I'm just strolling around."

"Officer?" That title does match the current ancient street scene. As for "official," it sounds like a title from before the liberation.

Could this demonic cultivator have lived for quite a long time?

According to Granny Hao, the higher one's cultivation level, the longer one's lifespan. If this demonic cultivator has lived for a long time, could it be that he's pretending to be weak to take advantage of others?

Wang Yi was sizing up the demonic cultivator when his new senses detected a slight fluctuation on the cultivator's body.

I have a bad feeling about this.

Wang Yi: "You didn't say that when you first saw me. It seemed like you wanted to refine me."

"No, no, how could I dare to refine you? Just by looking at your control over Qi, you're clearly a master. Even a dozen of me wouldn't be enough to fill your teeth."

Good heavens, could it be that this demonic cultivator saw that Wang Yi's aura was very weak and thought that he was deliberately suppressing his spiritual energy to hide his whereabouts?

At this moment, the demonic cultivator asked Wang Yi, "What are you doing here again? Judging from your appearance, you don't seem like a dream traveler. Did something happen that led you here by mistake?"

Wang Yi's palms started sweating—wait, do your palms sweat when you're nervous in your dreams?
The demonic cultivator seemed to sense something was amiss: "Wait a minute, you're nervous? This emotional fluctuation definitely indicates nervousness. Oh, so you weren't pretending to be a newbie, you're a genuine newbie! You've fooled me terribly—"

Wang Yi raised his hand and fired continuously.

I haven't learned anything else at the company these past two days, but I've become quite proficient at shooting.

As for accuracy, you can only rely on your gut feeling.

Fortunately, the distance wasn't too far. Yesterday, when Wang Yi was practicing, he hit a human-shaped target that was farther away, and he loaded seven rounds into one magazine!

Under intense pressure, Wang Yi fired at a faster rate than he had during practice.

The demonic cultivator was about to pounce on Wang Yi, but his momentum was suddenly interrupted, and his left shoulder was thrown backward.

He wanted to move forward, but then he was shot in the stomach again, which slowed his pace considerably.

Wang Yi fired continuously.

The demonic cultivator finally stopped completely, and then began to retreat under the impact of the bullets.

Finally, Wang Yi ran out of bullets, and the slide clicked shut, emptying the magazine.

Although Wang Yi was a novice who had only fired a gun for a day, his body had already developed some initial muscle memory, and he removed the magazine and reloaded without much thought.

The demonic cultivator collapsed to the ground, groaning, "Damn it, I hate firearms... Even a newbie can shit on my head like that... Ughhhhh..."

The demonic cultivator's body began to melt, turning into a pool of liquid.

Wang Yi was initially startled, thinking it was about to enter the second stage. He quickly completed the reloading, reset the slide, and chambered the round in one go.

However, without a second phase, the monster simply turned into a puddle of water.

Wang Yi was on guard, wary of any trickery, but then he remembered that he had a way to directly confirm whether the demonic cultivator was dead or not.

He maintained his gun-holding posture and looked at his wrist.

A new logo!

And it looks like it's already formed!

Wang Yi immediately squatted down. Last time, the new sensory experience made him feel "motion sick" and he fell hard. Now he had to be careful.

But no new senses were introduced this time.

Wang Yi knelt on the deserted ancient street, looking around blankly, unable to sense any difference whatsoever.

Could this not be a supernatural power or method of perception?
So what is this?

Wang Yi looked at his wrist and gently touched the new pattern with his left index finger.

There was no response either.

Could it be... that this design isn't actually finished? Like the "cut-a-knife" feature on Pinduoduo, it's in a state of near completion but not actually finished?
That would be disgusting; I might not even be able to kill the same type of demonic cultivator to complete it.

This "golden finger" (a cheat ability in Chinese web novels) is really something else. You have to figure out how to use it yourself! These days, online novels don't bother with this kind of half-hidden, enigmatic "golden finger" anymore; they practically throw the instructions out the reader's face. It's so out of touch with the times.

As Wang Yi relaxed, he inwardly mocked his cheat system.

Despite the complaints, the current situation remains unchanged.

Wang Yi moved away from the mess of demonic cultivation and began to sort things out.

First, according to the information revealed by the demonic cultivator, this place should be a dream, and possibly a shared dream, since the demonic cultivator just called this place the "collective unconscious space".

Here you might encounter other people who are dreaming, or—or demonic cultivators.

Secondly, the gun in my hand is very useful.

He glanced once more at the mess left behind by the demonic cultivator.

Elsa had previously said that demonic cultivators operating in the human dimension might be so weak that they could be easily killed by a police officer's small pistol, and it seems that she was not joking.

Wang Yi recalled a common trope in Hong Kong ghost movies: ghosts are afraid of places with strong yang energy, such as police stations and military barracks.

In retrospect, this may be the work of the cognitive interference department, just like the program "Approaching Science".

In reality, ghosts—that is, demonic cultivators—are most likely afraid of the firearms in police stations and military camps.

A true Taoist priest who catches ghosts should have a resolute gaze, a well-trained and scarred body, and an automatic rifle loaded with bullets.

I've entered this public dream world. Luckily, I had a gun, otherwise I would have been instantly refined by the demonic cultivators.

In addition, the demonic cultivator's reaction was that he immediately backed down upon seeing the gun and assumed that Wang Yi was a company cultivator who had come to carry out a mission.

Therefore, it can be inferred that only those familiar with firearms could carry guns in such shared dream environments, such as the company's monks.

Wang Yi glanced at the Walther PPK in his hand again, finding the gun increasingly endearing, after all, it was the most reliable guarantee for his life.

I told TTI Viper, who was using the Taran tactics, that I wasn't going back, because I was afraid PPK would misunderstand.

No wonder the company, after teaching martial arts, didn't teach physical skills or magic, but instead taught basic firearms first. It turns out that this really works; it can save lives.

Wang Yi checked the condition of the gun and then examined the bullets. He found that he had two full magazines, and the magazine that had just been ejected from the gun was now full again.

In other words, in the dream, you have unlimited bullets, and an empty magazine is full as soon as you put it in your pocket, but you have to reload.

After confirming that he had enough bullets, Wang Yi began to consider how to leave this place—first ensure his safety, and then slowly figure out what the method he had obtained was.

He had seen the movie "Inception," in which people who infiltrated a dream had to jump down to create the feeling of falling in order to leave the dream.

In the movie, this is how people wake up.

Wang Yi believes that the movie is likely also the work of the Department of Cognitive Interference, and some of the "common sense" in it can be applied to the actual world of cultivation.

In other words, I need to find a high place and then jump down—

The moment he thought this, he suddenly began to move.

It's not that his legs started moving; in fact, he was still in a squatting position, but his whole body began to glide on the ancient-style street.

Another demonic cultivator?

Is this his magic?

I need to stop—

Wang Yi stopped.

Moreover, he happened to be on the roof of a two-story building, with glazed tiles under his feet.

Is this under my control?

He glanced at the pattern he had just obtained from killing the demonic cultivator.

Is this the supernatural power I gained from killing that guy?
The ability to move freely in dreams?
Wang Yi thought about it and decided to give it a try—practice makes perfect, after all.

So he looked at the highest point in his field of vision, the octagonal roof of a three-story tower.

The roof of the tower looks a bit like the roof where I fought the female swordsman boss in the demo of the game "Shadow Blade Zero".

"I want to get there!" Wang Yi thought to himself, and the next moment he began to move.

The feeling of moving around is very similar to playing a VR game. Wang Yi had previously played it for an hour in the VR experience center of Anime Star City. Pressing the forward button on the handle would move you a certain distance.

In the blink of an eye, Wang Yi stood atop the octagonal tower.

It seems this is the new supernatural power I've acquired.

Now, if you just walk forward and jump off the edge of the octagonal tower, you'll most likely wake up.

But Wang Yi glanced at the pistol, and in a flash of inspiration, he moved to the flat ground.

Having finally acquired a new supernatural power, it would be a waste not to make good use of it and familiarize myself with it.

Besides, there might be other weak demonic cultivators in this public dream realm, which would be excellent nourishment for them!
Wang Yi, gun in hand, prepared to explore the dream world.

No, if he had a gun, the demonic cultivators would be scared away.

Now that I have the supernatural ability to walk in my dreams, I can take a little risk and hide the gun.

Wang Yi put the gun into the holster—but he immediately felt uneasy. He wasn't good at traditional American martial arts, so what if he couldn't pull it out?
Thinking of this, Wang Yi suddenly realized that he was wearing a coat.

So he drew his gun and took off his coat, draping it over the hand holding the gun.

Just then, he sensed a faint energy moving within his dream.

Look, here it is.

(End of this chapter)