When the plot-skips players into the game world

"...Why do they want that mad king to live?"

Arsene couldn't understand: "Is it just because they don't want him to become a god? Even if the mad king achieves the Heavenly Department position, what would he do then? Would he exile all the Sons of the Moon?"

But during the Swan King's reign, the Sons of the Moon always stayed low-key.

There were too many of the nobles who weren't truly human, so much so that even the Sons of the Moon became anthropomorphized.

At that time, it was absolutely unlikely for the Swan King to have such bizarre needs. It could even be said that the Sons of the Moon and the Swan King were almost in the same camp—at least, they both needed those nobles to scram. If the Sons of the Moon ascended, they were at least willing to follow the Swan King's orders and wouldn't publicly assassinate him.

"At the beginning, perhaps they just wanted to extend his life."

Aiwass speculated, "I guess... maybe they wanted to resurrect him, giving the Sons of the Moon a chance to become the upper echelon of the Iris Kingdom; since the three Dukes didn't know the truth, they might also believe the Swan King's death could be related to them. They probably see this as an opportunity.

"It's also possible that they only wanted to forcibly transform the Swan King into a Son of the Moon. It isn't an impossible situation... as long as the Swan King's head develops an adaptation to the Path of Love, even if it only has the strength of the First Level, the Sons of the Moon can use this head's 'corpse' to create a complete Swan King of the Moon's Son.

"For the Sons of the Moon, who have always longed for a country of their own, this is also a way to fulfill their wish."

He was indeed speculating.

Because Aiwass's task was essentially to fast forward, and skip CGs, he knew part of it was either the skipped CG opening or some phrases that even with fast forward, just hearing a word or two could make the plot clear.

For example, this task existed because there appeared a wild "dream mediator" in the Iris—dream mediators refer to those born to lucid dream. They are extremely rare, most of them are normal people. Although some are Transcendents, they mostly become Dream Traversing Monks.

Because they can lucid dream, they can manipulate their dreamscapes at will and create entryways into designated areas of the Dream Realm out of thin air.

Through this entryway, Transcendents from the Material Realm can directly enter the Dream Realm by Dream Travel. Dream mediators can also often enter the Dream Realm themselves... although the Dream Realm is exceedingly dangerous, they might befriend some kind creatures and thus gain protection.

After all, they weren't in without out, but they could enter and exit at any time. So, some deceased might communicate with people in the Material Realm through dream mediators or conduct some illegal cross-border transactions that don't comply with the principles of the Hourglass.

—It could be called celestial smuggling.

In this task, the protagonists needed to investigate something in the Dream Realm—the Crown Lord suddenly lost response, and even the Pope couldn't call Him. So, one of the Cardinal Archbishops found a dream mediator through his connections, hoping they could take the protagonist group to the Dream Realm to check the situation.

In that mission, they used Arsene's dagger to open a Dream Realm passage.

During their first adventure, they couldn't find the Crown Lord—or rather, the dream mediator had mentioned before their departure that he hadn't been able to enter the Dream Realm for a long time, this was the case recently, "the signal is not very good." But that Cardinal Archbishop naturally didn't believe it… because no dream mediator needs a "signal" to enter the Dream Realm.

But when they tried to enter the Dream Realm, they understood why this dream mediator said so—because the "dream" of all Iris had been tied into a knot.

People's dreams were extracted by some power, twisted into a vortex, unable to flow into the Dream Realm.

Aiwass remembered the scene clearly—in the dream, that grey-white sky at the end was twisted into a funnel-like iridescence.

Just like auroras above the dark clouds.

—This was actually quite a dangerous signal.

The Dream Realm is a reflection of the Material Realm, a collective subconscious created by the wisdom of all intelligent life in the Material Realm. Without these consciousnesses, the Dream Realm is nothing but a void of chaos. Only when the first flame of wisdom is ignited in the void does the Dream Realm acquire order and color, and only then could there be sky and earth, day and night.

Just like a virtual network crafted with the collective computing power of all machines—this is why the Dream Realm Pillar Gods generally maintain stability in the Material Realm… at the very least, they don't want large-scale disasters or wars in the Material Realm.

But now, the situation was that the dreams of the Irisflower People were being gradually stripped away from the Dream Realm by someone.

—In other words, someone was trying to wall off the Iris's subconscious network.

Thus, they were forced to return to the Material Realm to investigate and see the situation. They discovered the whole Iris was experiencing an unusually high rate of "nightmares", so high that people considered it normal. Even travelers visiting Iris who had nightmares simply thought it was because "the nights in Iris are unsettling", and they were too scared to sleep well.

But that was not the truth.

During everyone's dreams, their spirits were being extracted by a grand ritual.

It is well-known that Transcendents can replenish their mana while dreaming. Those alchemical potions that quickly restore mana generally work by putting a person into dreaming sleep directly, skipping those dreamless sleeps and allowing intense contact with the Dream Realm to restore mana.

But even ordinary people do not remain completely unaffected by contact with the Dream Realm.

Accurately speaking, their souls can't properly store mana. So if a person keeps dreaming, they feel very tired.

This is because the mana that washes over them faintly damages their souls, just like stones polished smooth in a river are actually "slightly damaged" hence becoming smooth.

And the grand ritual in Iris was to have everyone, while dreaming, channel all their excess mana to one point.

For Transcendents, this wouldn't make any difference—since the advancement ritual does not involve entering the Dream Realm through this particular path, and ordinary Transcendents don't need to enter the Dream Realm, their mana is also recovering normally. The dream mediator might occasionally feel "today's network link feels somewhat unstable", but since it usually links up correctly, it's not a big deal.

But for ordinary people, it would increase everyone's mental load. The mana that they normally wouldn't absorb now had to be actively absorbed, this process undoubtedly exacerbates mental wear and tear… leading to the instability of the Irisflower People's spirits.

However, this indirectly increased the probability of new Transcendents appearing—the half-mad individuals often become Transcendents, and prolonged mana absorption allows their souls to be more readily opened as containers. In the context of immortal or martial arts novels, these are the types whose meridians are already opened completely, hence they develop more easily.

—In principle, it was like someone gathering resources with their brains.

Once aware of this, the matter became serious.

It's not that it caused irreversible damage to people… but because they needed to mine resources with the minds of an entire nation, without knowing how many years it lasted. With such stored mana, what were they planning?

Assuming the "dream vortex" opened once a month for just ten years—this meant they stored mana sufficient to blast the entire Iris to the heavens with ease!

—Mana of such magnitude could essentially create a god from nothing!

Later the players discovered... indeed someone was trying to create a god.

The Swan King, formerly of the Fourth Level, had the capability to script and manipulate destiny. He was stuck at the brink of ascending to godhood, and, with the grand ritual half completed... he could easily exert extraordinary abilities vastly surpassing normal times. Because at this time, he was considered a "Heavenly Department reserve."

As soon as his ascension ritual was complete, he'd obtain the Heavenly Department position.

"Ultimately, the Count of Moon's Son stuck at that juncture... he sealed the Swan King, a demigod with just a head, inside the 'Box of Emptiness.' A magic box filled with the Power of Nothingness, and activating its mechanism would cause the person inside to lose all thoughts, abandon all dreams.

"—Ever since the Third Rebellion, subsequently, the Swan King's dream was gradually being turned into void.

After nearly exhausting himself, when the Swan King finally opened his eyes and woke up, his name changed.

Count of Moon's Son didn't even know how foolish and terrifying this act was.

He came close to making the Swan King into a Pillar God of the Dream Realm.