Chapter 4: The Sea of Abes

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Li Nanke returned to the bedroom on the second floor and lay down, trying to sleep and restore his energy. The intense work from the previous night had left his neurons overloaded, his mind exhausted, while his body, paradoxically, felt fully rested and brimming with vitality. This contradiction had him tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

It was only after swallowing two tablets of zopiclone that drowsiness began to creep over him. Years of high-synchronization dream-weaving had often led to sleep disorders; at first, melatonin and similar remedies had worked, but over time, these aids had lost their efficacy.

By now, Li Nanke was taking ever-stronger sedatives and hypnotics, gradually increasing the dose.

“This body is all I have. I can’t keep ruining myself like this. Once I’ve earned enough for the miracle drugs, I’ll quit for good…”

Lost in such rambling thoughts, his eyelids finally drooped…

…

City of Redemption, Crisis Control Bureau.

In this city that never sleeps, where money and vice flow freely, not even the most feared institutions—the Tax Audit Bureau, the Riot Suppression Task Force, the Intelligence Investigation Bureau—could avoid the reach of neon advertisements.

Yet, around the Crisis Control Bureau, not a single 3D holographic ad could be found. The Bureau’s name was bound to chilling words: forbidden, disaster, death, out of control…

Within the towering edifice of steel, the lights were never extinguished, tonight being no exception. Deep beneath the building, a hidden conference room sat empty but for Director Anderson, who stood at the end of the long table, his face grave.

He had a stack of files at hand; the document spread open bore the words “Top Secret.”

[Project Number: █—018]
[Project Codename: The Great Beyond]
[Hazard Level: ██]
[Containment Site: ████████████]
[Containment Protocols: No active countermeasures available. When the forbidden object infects a suitable host on a large scale, the outbreak will cease. Criteria for host selection are unknown.]
[Project Description: On June 1, 2130, forbidden object █—018, ‘The Great Beyond,’ first appeared in Safety Zone A01 of the wilderness, triggering a related forbidden disaster.]
[Humans caught in the forbidden disaster fall into sleep without realization (cannot be awakened by any means) and inevitably suffer sudden brain death while dreaming.]
[‘The Great Beyond’ spreads in the pattern of the Fibonacci sequence, with each outbreak increasing the number of infected: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34…]
[Its transmission is not limited by distance but seems to infect those nearby first. The intervals between outbreaks show no stable pattern; observed intervals range from 1 second to 48 hours. Given the limited observation period, data reliability is uncertain.]
[In the ten days following consecutive outbreaks, brain death cases in Safety Zone A01 exceeded one hundred thousand. Even escape from the area could not prevent inevitable brain death during sleep.]
[The forbidden disaster calmed only after the first instance of an infected individual surviving. Mass infection ceased.]
[This individual retained only primitive neural reflexes and the ability to metabolize substances and energy; all cognitive functions were lost, with no voluntary movement. EEG showed chaotic scatter patterns. Medical examination determined the individual to be in a persistent vegetative state (PVS).]

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[The Redemption City branch of the Crisis Control Bureau announced that forbidden object █—018 had been passively contained. The subject’s vital signs must be maintained to preserve containment.]
[…]
[…]
[Project Log: September 30, 2140, 11:19pm. Subject suffered sudden brain death, all vital signs lost… Containment failure!!!]

As a series of electronic beeps sounded, azure holographic avatars appeared around the conference table.

Director Anderson glanced at the clock on the wall: October 1, 2140, 6:00am.

He drew a deep breath and began to report to the assembled figures…

…

The linen curtains were stained and speckled with oily blotches; a sliver of harsh white light squeezed through a gap, illuminating the face of a young man with black hair and sallow skin, forcing his eyes open.

Li Nanke raised a hand to shield himself, sitting up groggily. The thin bedding was darkened and mildewed, damp with the unmistakable mustiness of a wet season. An extinguished kerosene lamp hung by the bed. The corners of the old room were cluttered with empty bottles, tangled fishing lines, and other junk.

A deep breath brought the salty tang of the sea and a faint scent of blood. Outside, rain pattered steadily.

“This isn’t my bedroom!”

Surveying the outdated furnishings, Li Nanke felt as though a pail of ice water had been dumped over him, banishing all trace of sleep.

A mechanical, genderless voice sounded, and lines of blood-red text appeared before his eyes.

[Dream—‘The Sea of Abes’]
[Dream Details: Abes was a small settlement founded in the Middle Ages on the western continent’s coast, once known for shipbuilding and fishing. After years of religious wars, the town declined and eventually vanished from maps.]
[At the end of the nineteenth century, an explorer stumbled upon this forgotten town, but for reasons unknown, fled in madness. No—he was already mad! Perhaps he had glimpsed the town’s dreadful secret…]
[The Church, upon learning of this, suspected heretical cults hiding in the remote settlement and dispatched armed monks to investigate.]
[The Church’s might was unmatched, wielding technology far beyond the era.]
[Colossal steam airships ruling the skies, arc guns bristling with electrodes and coils, thermite guns hurling storms of molten metal, blood-soaked chainsaw swords that struck terror in heretics… and the extraordinary powers wielded by the armed monks!]
[In this age of chimneys and steam, this new world of piety and evil entwined, you—a monk apprentice—must decide: will you seek out the terror at the heart of Abes?]

As dream synchronization details emerged, a rush of foreign memories flooded his mind.

William Adams, apprentice to the Church’s armed monks.

The Church ordered an investigation into Abes, but the Grand Prior dismissed it as trivial, insisting that the monks focus on the ever-intensifying religious war.

Thus, only two full monks and five apprentices were sent.

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Led by a monk, the investigation of Abes was made into a trial for apprentices seeking promotion.

“Abes… That’s the black nightmare,” Li Nanke muttered darkly. He had no recollection of entering the nightmare, only a hazy memory of taking sleeping pills before bed.

Most crucially, he hadn’t even put on his dream synchronization device before sleeping!

Out of habit, he checked his body—and an overwhelming sense of dread swept through him.

A black coat reaching to the knees, a matching leather rain cape, gray vest and shirt, a pointed tricorn hat, black leather boots, a belt bristling with buckles, a half-mask shrouding his face…

These were the vestments of a monk apprentice, and the body they clothed was all too familiar.

Black hair, sallow skin, tall and thin, and the constant numbness in limbs, the tight ache in his lungs—torments he endured every day and night.

But here, these sensations were even sharper, more vivid, more… real.

He was not William Adams inhabiting this nightmare, but Li Nanke himself.

This nightmare had constructed his real-life body!

“Terminate synchronization, exit dream!” Li Nanke did not hesitate, immediately calling for the interruption protocol.

But the expected prompt—“Terminating synchronization…”—never came.

He tried repeatedly, but the interruption program was as if severed, utterly unresponsive.

Not only was the interrupt protocol useless, even the synchronization rate could not be displayed.

Li Nanke carefully sensed his state, realizing that he must be at an extremely high level of synchronization.

Yet, no matter what he tried, he could not reduce it by even a fraction!

The inability to lower the synchronization rate meant that the second method for voluntarily disconnecting also failed.

In the past, Li Nanke always prepared thoroughly before dream-weaving: he would first enter dreams at low synchronization to probe the scenario, only proceeding to full transcription at high synchronization when confident of the details, minimizing risk.

Now, with this unforeseen accident, the danger of this nightmare soared beyond what he could bear.

“To enter a nightmare unwittingly, to have my own body replace the protagonist, to find the interrupt program and synchronization controls completely unresponsive…”

“This nightmare is nothing like an artificial dream!”