At the exact same moment the Dream of the Great One swept across the entire star system, Acheron, somewhere within the Sweetdream, suddenly frowned and looked up at the unchanging sky.
"Something's wrong..."
---o---
Meanwhile, on the other side of things, Fu Zhu and the Trailblazer's group had dinner and then found Himeko and the others. They checked into a hotel in the Dream-Tide Reef. The moment Fu Zhu lay down on the bed, his vision didn't fade to black as usual. Instead, a fleeting image, like diving into a Nether portal, flashed before his eyes. It lasted for less than a second before his vision finally plunged into darkness.
Strange... did I just teleport? An illusion?
Carrying this sliver of doubt, Fu Zhu drifted off to sleep. When he opened his eyes again, he was somewhat stunned to find himself in a guest room on the Herta Space Station.
"Huh?!"
Staring at the unfamiliar ceiling, Fu Zhu immediately sat up in bed. Forgetting even to wash his face, he pushed the door open and stepped out—but as soon as he did, a foreign memory flooded his mind.
'I never boarded the Astral Express. Instead, I stayed at the Herta Space Station, planning to use its all-metal structure to build up my resources...'
"No, that's not right."
The next moment, Fu Zhu realized something was wrong. Two conflicting sets of memories clashed in his mind, creating a bizarre sense of dislocation. Realizing the problem, Fu Zhu immediately checked his status bar. Sure enough, he saw a BUFF that didn't belong to him.
[Dream of the Great One: Memory Alteration, Multiple Dream Layers, Infinite Duration]
This BUFF was constantly flickering. It was obvious that the automatic feeder system in his Sophisticated Backpack was continuously consuming milk to help him dispel the state called [Dream of the Great One]. However, this BUFF was like a command-line effect; the moment it was dispelled, it was instantly reapplied, which resulted in the two completely different memories coexisting in his mind.
"Damn it, this is the first time I've ever experienced memory confusion..."
Fu Zhu clutched his head, feeling a bit unwell. The sensation of two distinct memories colliding in his mind was truly unpleasant. In the end, he simply switched to Observer Mode. In this state, the foreign memory in his mind finally disappeared.
Fu Zhu let out a long sigh of relief. Finally, he had a moment to think about what was actually happening.
"The Great One..." Fu Zhu thought back to the name of the BUFF. He couldn't think of many things associated with the words "Great One," but one of them was the long-fallen Aeon, [Order], Taiyi.
But It had already fallen. It couldn't have just suddenly revived to mess with him, right? He had never provoked [Order].
At this stage, Fu Zhu believed the only people who would target him without fear of his Emanator status were The Family and The Company.
However, The Company was a group of profit-driven fanatics. Now that he had reached a cooperation agreement with them, there was no reason for them to turn on him before reaping the maximum benefits. Besides, The Company's faith was in [Preservation]; it was unlikely they had any connection to [Order].
But if he thought about it that way, didn't The Family believe in [Harmony]? That didn't make sense either...
For the first time, Fu Zhu felt that his understanding of these factions was far too shallow. If Dan Heng and the others were here, they might have been able to provide him with some clues.
"That's right! Everyone else!"
Fu Zhu immediately took his phone out of his inventory. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw the contact list. It seemed that things stored in his inventory weren't affected by the outside world.
However, once the phone screen lit up, Fu Zhu noticed it had no signal.
"Is this because of the Dream of the Great One? It seems the mastermind behind this wants to trap me here to die. Are they that afraid of me?"
Fu Zhu sneered and switched out of Observer Mode. Although the foreign memory immediately started flooding his mind again, he had already grown accustomed to the sensation of memory confusion. Besides, what he needed to do now wasn't something a little memory mix-up could stop.
Fu Zhu placed down a Crafting Table and quickly crafted a Redstone Repeater. Back on Jarilo-VI, he had discovered that the repeater's signal-boosting function could help his phone's signal break through the interference of the Stellaron. Although he was now dealing with the Dream of the Great One and not a Stellaron, redstone technology was the most unreasonable thing there was.
After crafting the Redstone Repeater, Fu Zhu placed it directly on the floor and took out his phone again. This time, the signal had returned, and although it wasn't full bars, it should be enough to make a call.
Fu Zhu opened his contact list and called Dan Heng. As the train's resident intellectual, perhaps he would know something about the Dream of the Great One.
The phone rang a few times before it was answered, and Dan Heng's very familiar voice came from the other end.
"Who is this?"
However, Dan Heng's opening words caught Fu Zhu by surprise. He quickly replied, "It's me, Fu Zhu."
"Fu Zhu... Sorry, you have the wrong number. I don't know anyone named Fu Zhu."
With that, Dan Heng hung up, leaving Fu Zhu staring at his phone in stunned silence, lost in thought.
---o---
Fu Zhu stared at his phone with a dark expression and cursed under his breath. Of course, he wasn't upset that Dan Heng suddenly didn't recognize him, but rather that the mastermind had also targeted his companions.
Evidently, Dan Heng and the others had also had their memories tampered with. A large-scale memory alteration of this magnitude... the mastermind was at least an Emanator.
Fu Zhu tried calling the others one by one, but their responses were all the same as Dan Heng's—they didn't recognize him at all. Only March 7th's call went unanswered.
"Looks like everyone's in a similar situation..."
Although Fu Zhu was worried about the others, he wasn't panicking. They all had the Totems of Undying he had given them, so they wouldn't be in any immediate danger. The most important thing now was to figure out what exactly the Dream of the Great One was. Only by treating the root cause could he break this situation.
And now, without the help of his brain trust, if he wanted to find information, he would have to seek help elsewhere.
Who should he find...
Fu Zhu's gaze drifted around his surroundings, then paused. Wasn't he on the Herta Space Station right now?
There was a bona fide genius right here!
Thinking of Herta, Fu Zhu immediately grinned. The mastermind would definitely regret sending him to the Herta Space Station.
Fu Zhu immediately turned and ran towards Herta's office. Along the way, he encountered many "overly-familiar" researchers who greeted him warmly, calling him Researcher Fu Zhu.
Apparently, in this foreign memory, he had become a researcher at the Herta Space Station. But now was not the time to be greeting colleagues he had never met.
Fu Zhu arrived outside Herta's office, directly took out his pickaxe, and simply smashed the metal door down to force his way in. Inside the office, only a single Herta puppet stood quietly to the side; Herta's real body was nowhere to be seen.
But it didn't matter whether it was a puppet or Herta herself. As long as it was Herta, it would do.
Fu Zhu quickly walked up to the Herta puppet, reached out, and pinched her cheek, pulling it slightly before speaking.
"Herta, your main body shouldn't call itself the 'Great Herta.' It should be the 'Medium Herta,' because you're not big at all."