A Dream’s Cruel Truth

Only then did Lin Ran notice the Self-Disciplined Doll’s face had subtly turned away, her eyelashes fluttering almost imperceptibly, as if she dared not meet his eyes.

Immediately after speaking, she raised a hand to cover her face, despite her features remaining utterly devoid of expression.

Yet, wasn’t this precisely the behavior of a bashful maiden whose innermost thoughts had been laid bare?

And her words… they seemed to be a direct response to the very thoughts that had just run through his mind?

What he had just thought…?

‘What in the world had she just responded to?!’

Lin Ran genuinely hadn’t anticipated anyone would so earnestly reply to the rather explicit ‘yellow waste’ (TL Note: A Chinese slang term referring to lewd or inappropriate thoughts/content) swirling within his own mind.

Wait, could this be a form of mind-reading?

No wonder she had mimicked Lim so perfectly; it seemed she had simply read Lim’s thoughts and emotions directly.

If so, did the high level of affection she had seemingly inherited still persist?

He needed to capitalize on this lingering goodwill and resolve the immediate predicament!

“Lim and the others are gone, which means this isn’t the real world, right! How do I get back? Help me out!”

Lin Ran spoke, carefully dismounting from the Self-Disciplined Doll.

He reached out, gently helping her to sit upright and lean against the headboard.

Evidently, the shock of their earlier collision had left her somewhat dazed.

The silver-haired girl fell silent for a moment, appearing to process his urgent request.

Then, she fixed her gaze upon Lin Ran, and only after several minutes of silent observation did she slowly begin to speak.

“To be precise, this is a dream. The way to leave…”

“It’s simple: you just need to kill me.”

“This dreamscape is constructed through the dolls we control. The sole condition for successful completion is to eliminate the Self-Disciplined Doll lurking by your side—which is to say, me.”

Her voice, as she spoke, was utterly devoid of even a hint of emotion.

She spoke as though discussing the most mundane of affairs.

“You… what did you say…?”

Lin Ran swallowed hard, a lump forming in his throat.

How could he possibly bring himself to do such a thing?

He disregarded all the platitudes about her high favorability, her angelic face that appeared so utterly vulnerable, or the notion that he simply “couldn’t bring himself to harm a woman.”

The mere fact that the system had designated her as a ‘conquerable target’ was enough to make him hesitate, truly unable to act!

From an emotional standpoint, it was a moment of weakness, of a soft heart.

From a pragmatic perspective, it was a calculation for the system’s promised rewards.

Thus, whether swayed by emotion or driven by self-interest, he found himself with ample reason to hold back.

She offered no repetition, instead providing her answer through action.

She picked up a fruit knife and extended it towards Lin Ran.

The hilt was offered to him, the gleaming tip pointed directly at her own form.

“Currently, four thousand seven hundred and sixty-two humans have emerged victorious from this wave of our doll offensive.”

“Please act swiftly. Having once perceived my existence, your triumph is already a certainty. The moment you eliminate me, this particular offensive will draw to a close.”

“This is a friendly reminder: in the apocalypse, time is life.”

It was an exceedingly efficient, remarkably rational response.

Yet, Lin Ran found himself utterly incapable of thinking rationally.

A searing pain erupted in his mind, and countless images flickered before his eyes like a strobe light—

The same dormitory scene.

The same girl begging for death.

The same knife handed over again and again.

[The first time, he attempted to disseminate the information to all other students across the campus, hoping to unite them in finding a solution. Ultimately, their efforts proved futile, and the doll legion overwhelmed the academy.]

[The third time, he endeavored to employ an ‘air wall’ to draw the dolls into it for elimination. He eventually discovered that the dolls were entirely immune to the air wall, and he himself was crushed into dust (TL Note: Implies being completely pulverized) by it.]

[The fifth time, he attempted to utilize a teleportation portal, moving between multiple dormitories in a hit-and-run strategy. Ultimately, he was crushed underfoot by a doll that had grown larger than the dormitory building itself.]

Each and every time, the outcome had been the same: he exhausted every conceivable method to rescue the girl, only to find himself utterly helpless, ultimately consumed by the ever-evolving dolls.

He finally understood the reason behind his six consecutive challenge failures.

It was clear that, up to this point, deductions regarding both delaying the dolls’ evolution and Lim being an impostor had been relatively straightforward.

He trusted his own intellect, confident that he could succeed in every attempt.

Yet, when it came to this specific juncture—the act of killing the Self-Disciplined Doll—he had already failed a staggering five times!

“Do not concern yourself with me; such is the fate we were designed for.”

“You are a kind individual. Among those who have succeeded thus far, the majority made no attempt to save us, and the remainder tried no more than two or three times.”

“You are the only human who has attempted to save us as many as six times.”

“Therefore, I hope you can live a little longer.”

She pinched her own cheeks with both hands, painstakingly and clumsily contorting her features into what was unmistakably a forced smile.

“This smile, I learned from Miss Lim’s consciousness. My hope is that it might leave a small, favorable impression on you, even after I am gone.”

‘Hmm…’

At this juncture, admitting that his hesitation stemmed from the system’s rewards had become utterly impossible.

‘And yet… was it truly just the inherited affection from Lim?’

‘It seems…’

‘It seemed… he had, perhaps, unknowingly already ‘conquered’ her heart?’

“After all…”

“Who told you to tackle me every single time, and do such… intense things to me…”

Mid-sentence, the Self-Disciplined Doll grew bashful once more, trailing off and turning her head away.

“Hey! That was merely a test! You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?! Do dolls even possess the function to tease humans?!”

“Furthermore, if a statement is going to make you shy, then perhaps it’s best not to utter it at all!”

“And! Mind-reading is forbidden to be used like this from now on!!”

After unleashing a torrent of complaints, Lin Ran’s mood finally cleared considerably.

The immense pressure accumulated from his previous deaths also dissipated like smoke.

Perhaps she had orchestrated this deliberately.

To lighten his mood, to make him forget the agonizing past, and thereby enable him to make a more rational decision.

Indeed, she had succeeded.

Lin Ran’s composure returned.

And it did, in fact, cause Lin Ran to pick up the fruit knife.

She nodded with a sense of satisfaction, extending her arms as if to welcome death.

But—

“Pfft!”

“Damn it!! That hurts so much!!”

The spot Lin Ran stabbed was not the Self-Disciplined Doll’s core.

Instead, it was his own eye.

The pain was so excruciatingly intense that even the usually cultured and amiable Lin Ran couldn’t help but let out a string of expletives.

“You…”

The Self-Disciplined Doll, too, was utterly bewildered.

She had no comprehension as to why Lin Ran would resort to such an act.

Thus, her immediate response was to read Lin Ran’s mind.

‘It hurts so muchhhhhhhhhh!!!!!’

‘It hurts this much and I still can’t wake up?’

‘Dying within a dream would merely transport him back to that wretched wooden shack. If the intensity of the pain proved insufficient, he wouldn’t awaken…’

‘Then he would continue! Until he was brutally jolted awake from the dream by sheer agony!’

“Stop… stop!! Don’t… don’t do this…”

Having witnessed Lin Ran’s thoughts, the Self-Disciplined Doll immediately voiced her desperate plea to stop him.

For the very first time, her mechanically modulated voice exhibited a noticeable flaw.

She wanted to stop Lin Ran.

“Considering how far this has gone, trying to stop me now would be quite impolite!”

Lin Ran’s bloodied, hoarse voice successfully rendered the Self-Disciplined Doll momentarily stunned.

However, it was already too late.

He snatched up a pair of pliers, and one by one, he began to extract his fingernails.

With the fruit knife, he methodically sliced away at his own flesh.

He inflicted pain in every conceivable way; as long as it wasn’t fatal, he would push the agony to its absolute limit.

Even if this excruciating pain proved fatal, he would resume his torment upon revival!

Until, at last, he awoke from the dream!

Finally, he sought out the Lego bricks, scattered them across the floor, and then deliberately leaped onto the sharp plastic—

****

“No way, I woke up just like that? This thing must be tied to some kind of causality, right!”

—Upon awakening, Lin Ran’s very first words were this profound, rhetorical question.

****