Chapter 364 Lord of Dreams
Xu Yi peeled back a sliver of the curtain and peered outside.
In the center of the distant crossroads, a figure stood silently, wearing a brown-black top hat and dressed in a red and green striped sweater, which seemed ludicrously mismatched.
Xu Yi unconsciously held his breath; the other party was emaciated, his skin marred by not a single spot unscathed, covered with scars left by burns.
What drew the most attention was the other's right hand; as the fingers moved, the sharp iron claws made of metal danced along.
Without a doubt, the person before him was Freddy.
Xu Yi stared intently at Freddy, as though engraving the figure into his mind—his brain whirred at high speed, comparing the sight before him with the information in his head.
"This dream world is known as Amusement City, and Freddy is its master, the existence that rules over everything here," Handon whispered very quietly.
He turned his head to look at Xu Yi and was stunned.
To his astonishment, he saw a gleam of excitement in Xu Yi's eyes!
Is this newcomer a madman? Handon was filled with doubt, as the other gazed at the terrifying Freddy as if he were observing some rare treasure.
Xu Yi ignored Handon, his gaze still fixed firmly on Freddy.
Freddy clapped his hands, and a thick fog rose at the center of the street. As the mist gradually dissipated, a black metal box emerged from it.
The hefty door of the box swung open, and a group of people screamed as they ran out, scattering in all directions.
Xu Yi watched the people with confusion; they were all young girls. His perplexity wasn't due to this, but rather because those people weren't real humans.
To be precise, they weren't actual souls but more like marionettes.
"What are those?" Xu Yi asked, puzzled.
Handon didn't answer, instead, he rummaged through a cabinet for paper and pen and wrote "Toy Girls" in bold characters.
Indeed, they were toys. Freddy chased after the girls, piercing their chests with the iron claws in his hand and severing their heads, with blood splattering everywhere.
The screams of the girls and Freddy's laughter echoed through the entire street. Explore stories at My Virtual Library Empire
Xu Yi remained expressionless. If the scene had been real, he surely would have been filled with righteous indignation and would not have stood by idly.
Even though the screams of these "little girls" were piercing, they were after all fabricated doll toys; a closer look would reveal their facial expressions to be overly exaggerated, incredibly stiff, and mechanical.
Freddy looked upon the bodies strewn all over, his crazed smile gradually solidifying and then disappearing, replaced by a deep disappointment.
He knew better than anyone that these were merely toys he had created.
Tormenting these toys could only grant him a fleeting pleasure, followed by an even stronger sense of emptiness.
"Why? Why have I been forgotten?" Freddy roared in anger. He, like a madman, began banging his head against a street sign beside the road, his iron claws flailing wildly.
Xu Yi quietly observed Freddy in the throes of his tantrum, saying nothing.
At that moment, Handon handed a piece of paper to him—the paper read:
"This dream is controlled by Freddy. Once Freddy is forgotten, he can no longer connect with the real world and can only drift through the Dream World."
Xu Yi had an epiphany. No wonder Handon told him not to make a sound; if they were discovered, they might well be killed on a whim by Freddy in this state.
If this were the real world, with his Body of Demigod and the Ultimate Weapon, he could certainly beat the other party until they were searching for their teeth on the ground.
But here, the other could hang him up and beat him.
This place was somewhat similar to the Soul Swamp behind the Black Void Gate; the stronger the soul, the greater the fighting power.
Although his soul was continuously nourished by the core of a True God, it had been too short a time, and he was only at the level of Common people.
Suddenly, the house shook violently, the entire world quaked, and Xu Yi exclaimed in surprise, "An earthquake?"
But just as suddenly, he realized—this wasn't the real world, how could there be an earthquake?
Xu Yi glanced at Handon, who seemed just as perplexed, as if it was the first time he had encountered such an occurrence.
"Someone is summoning! Someone is actually summoning this Dream World!" Handon suddenly exclaimed, no longer concerned that Freddy was just outside.
His face was a mix of surprise and desire, his body even trembling slightly with excitement.
Freddy was even more ecstatic, dancing wildly in the streets, a dance that the craziest of madmen couldn't match, jubilant, yelling and shouting.
The blood-red canopy in the sky suddenly dissipated, replaced by a translucent "frosted glass," with the colorful starry sky assaulting the senses, splendorous and dreamlike.
"Every twinkling star is a Dream World," Handon explained, and now that Freddy was so happy he was almost insane, there was no need for subterfuge anymore.
The stars twinkled densely, but Xu Yi noticed the differences among these "stars."
First was the size; the difference could be as much as ten thousand times. Their "Amusement City" belonged to the exceptionally large sort.
According to Handon's introduction, the bigger the "star," the stronger the Controller's ability.
At that moment, an immense black Light Sphere suddenly caught their eye. Compared to that sphere, Freddy's Amusement City was like comparing a marble to a basketball.
"That's the Lord of the Black Prison, Isoson, the most powerful existence in the Dream World," Handon explained softly.
The "Amusement City" continued on its way, flying through the dense array of stars.
"It seems that these stars are getting brighter!" Xu Yi suddenly noticed something.
The farther they went, the brighter the surrounding stars became. Not only the surrounding stars, but their "Amusement City" also grew increasingly luminous.
"The more a Dream World is forgotten, the dimmer it becomes. Amusement City is getting brighter now, which means we're getting close to the Dream Rift River," Handon said.
Xu Yi soon saw the so-called "Dream Rift River."
The Rainbow River surged violently, cleaving through the air like a blade with a heavy and powerful presence, yet it seemed as light as a feather, drifting in the black void, its flowing sound crisp like wind chimes.
"This is the legendary Dream Rift River, the border between the real world and the Dream World!"
Handon couldn't help but sigh with emotion; he had only heard of it before, but this was his first sight of it.
The Dream Rift River was immensely vast, and Amusement City, in front of the river, was not much more than a splash of water in comparison as the city submerged into the riverflow.
No water rushed in. The Dream Rift River was not a real river; each "drop of water" was someone's dream.
The Dream Rift River was composed of the dreams of living beings, predominantly those of humans.
A drop of white light like rain penetrated the barrier of Amusement City and fell downwards, the light becoming more intense as it descended, finally so bright that it was blinding.
The light gradually faded, and Xu Yi could see the figure within the brightness, exclaiming, "Little Judy!"
How could Little Judy appear here?
Could her soul have been swept into a spatial rift as well?
Little Judy poked her head around, seemingly full of curiosity about everything here.
Xu Yi quickly spotted something unusual; she was not a soul but an idea projection. The so-called idea projection could be regarded as a shadow of the soul.
He breathed a sigh of relief; it should still be quite simple for an idea projection to leave this world.
After all, a shadow always chases its body, and as long as Little Judy woke up, she could leave this world.
"You know each other?" Handon asked in surprise, looking at Xu Yi. This was Freddy's controlled world, and yet someone Xu Yi knew had appeared; he wasn't sure if that was good luck or bad.
Handon felt a stirring within him. If this was someone Xu Yi knew, perhaps they could help pass a message?
"Has someone finally remembered me, Lord Freddy?" Freddy hopped and skipped in front of Little Judy, his excitement evident.
He had been forgotten for far too long, so long that he began to question whether his story had been drowned in the river of history.
"Who's Freddy?" Little Judy raised her head, eyeing the grotesque figure before her with confusion.