This Text Adventure Game is definitely poisonous
Chapter 1646 - 704: The Core of the Clockwork Mechanism

Chapter 1646: Chapter 704: The Core of the Clockwork Mechanism

At the edge of the Dream Forest, various colors of ’Dreamgrass’ and ’Dreamflower’ grew, formed as illusory products due to the dense concentration of dream elements accumulating over a long time.

At the moment, the pink Dream-eating Tapir lay sprawling on the grassland before the forest, its long nose nestled amid the flowers and plants as it inhaled deeply, letting out satisfied hums from its mouth.

On the back of the Dream-eating Tapir, Mian Mian lay motionless on the soft fur, sleeping soundly with her mouth slightly open, emitting rhythmic snores.

"What’s up with this girl again?" Mu You walked to the Dream-eating Tapir, pinched the little girl’s cheek, trying to wake her.

Unfortunately, the little girl showed no signs of waking up. Instead, her brows knit slightly, a look of distress appearing on her small face, mumbling incoherently: "...No... really don’t want to solve any more problems... ugh..."

After they walked out of the forest just now, they all awoke immediately, except Mian Mian, who did get out of the woods but fell into a deep sleep and couldn’t be awakened no matter what.

"She probably hasn’t come out of the dream yet." Vivian flew over to Mu You’s shoulder, glanced at the girl: "However, it doesn’t seem like a dangerous dream."

Mu You looked at the Dream-eating Tapir and could roughly deduce the cause: the sleeping mechanism of the Dream Forest was evidently ineffective against the Dream-eating Tapir.

The little girl had entered the forest with the Dream-eating Tapir, and with it around, she hardly had a chance to encounter nightmares, yet she lacked the ability to fulfill the dream owner’s wish, hence being trapped in the dream.

The only reason she could come out was thanks to the Dream-eating Tapir guiding her to victory.

"Don’t worry, she’ll naturally wake up when the dream ends."

Vivian turned back, gazing toward the dense fog on the other side of the grassland: "It’s also good that she stays here, avoiding a lot of trouble."

Mu You understood Vivian’s meaning; they were about to head to the Heart of Time next, a place evidently somewhat dangerous.

"You stay here with her till we return," Mu You patted the Dream-eating Tapir’s head and instructed.

Little Shenpi raised its nose, indicating it had heard, and continued to lie before the grass, happily enjoying its meal.

"Let’s go."

The four of them didn’t linger any longer and continued on their way.

Following Vivian, they crossed a patch of white fog on the grassland ahead, and what appeared before them behind the mist was unexpectedly a giant ’clock’ city.

It was called Clock City because everything in this city was composed entirely of various types of clocks.

The city walls and all the buildings inside, even the bricks paving the ground, were embedded with timepieces of different sizes, ranging from vintage wall clocks and pocket watches to modern-style wristwatches, alarm clocks, and digital watches...

Even the white clouds in the sky were made up of time displays that had been stretched and twisted.

Mu You looked up carefully and discovered that even the sun high in the sky was actually a large pocket watch gleaming with golden light.

The three of them were rather stunned, as they hadn’t imagined that the so-called Heart of Time would be such an unimaginable city.

Vivian had already stepped out ahead, and the three of them hurried to catch up.

However, just as Mu You stepped out of the fog and entered the outskirts of the city, he suddenly felt a heaviness in his body.

Looking down, he realized that his body was quickly solidifying, and all the equipment and items he carried turned into physical form, no longer requiring mental manifestation.

"Is this not a dream?" Mu You looked at Vivian strangely, sensing that he was now in his real body.

"The Heart of Time is just hidden in the Dream World for self-protection, it doesn’t mean it is a dream product. Once you step into the range of the Heart of Time, your dream state will revert to your true self." Vivian explained, "Of course, the Heart of Time does not have a direct exit to the outside world, so when we return, we’ll still have to leave through the Dream World."

After listening, Mu You thought for a moment and tried stepping back into the fog.

Sure enough, his body quickly became ethereal again, reverting to a dream state. When he stepped out of the fog again, he returned to physical form.

The circle of fog outside the city seemed like a boundary between reality and dream, just a step apart, yet in two completely opposite states.

"I see now..." Mu You nodded.

It seems like there’s no difference between a physical body and a dream body, but in reality, the difference is significant. In a dream body, you don’t have to worry about danger as the worst case is waking up in reality, with no risk to the real body.

But reverting to a physical body means you can get hurt, can die, so from here on, one must not act recklessly.

The four of them approached the clock city ahead, and along the way, various flowers, plants, and trees grew abundantly. What caught their eyes, though, was that every fruit on the trees and every blossom among the flowers also seemed to be made of differently sized clocks.

Everything in this city seemed to be showcasing the core element of the city: time.

"All these clocks... seem to be broken..." Little Ya curiously gazed at the clock-laden tree on the roadside.

Indeed, as she said, all the clocks on the tree, indeed in all the surrounding clocks in view, had their hands seemingly fixed, not moving as regular clocks do.

"No, they’re not broken."

Vivian shook her head, flapped her wings up to the tree, then picked several clocks and threw them to the three, before picking a pocket watch for herself, hanging it around her neck.

Mu You glanced at the few clocks Vivian had picked, finding the times displayed were all different: his was 3:40, Little Ya’s was 8:11, Lin Xue’s was 7:55, Vivian’s was 10:02.