10 PM at night.
After washing his face in the bathroom, Zhu Zhengwei looked at himself in the mirror. His face was haggard, his figure slim, and his hair sparse, resembling the typical appearance of an internet user who stays up all night chasing immortality.
After adjusting his spirits, he walked back to the dormitory. His roommate Wang Jun was sitting in front of the computer, still using software to farm "starter accounts" for a living.
This was for a recently popular card game about cultivating immortality. Many players choose to buy "starter accounts" to make their game smoother at the beginning. They were working in this industry now to earn some extra money, with good starter accounts selling for twenty yuan each.
"How's it going?" Zhu Zhengwei asked.
"Not bad."
Wang Jun was a tall and skinny guy, mumbling, "But probably won't be profitable for long; large formal studios have entered the game now."
"I must say, it's hard work... You guys would be better off doing my tutoring side job outside," said their roommate Li Xiang, sitting on the upper bunk, scratching his head while researching bitcoin on his bed, planning to get rich from it.
"Where isn't work just brick-moving?" Wang Jun sneered.
"Well, unfortunately, we're destined to be office drones in the future, working our tails off just so the boss can drive a Benz," Zhu Zhengwei smiled, "I'm going downstairs to the cafeteria to get some supper."
Zhu Zhengwei walked out the door and looked at the night sky.
He's currently a freshman at a third-rate university located in Mountain City, studying computer applications.
Even though it's a local university, the two animals in the dorm are excessively competitive, thinking of ways to work part-time, tutor, and engage in blockchain and gaming to make money.
There are four people living in the dorm, but only three are regulars; the last roommate is a rich second-generation kid who is rarely seen, renting an apartment outside to live with his girlfriend, occasionally coming back.
It was raining heavily outside the dorm window, and Wang Jun lit a cigarette while still farming accounts.
"Ah, brick-moving, brick-moving, it's all predestined—looks, family background, talent—decide our starting point like this... Damn, I recently heard from seniors that there's extreme competitive pressure in our industry."
Li Xiang chuckled, "Compete, compete to the death! If only our lives could be like your game, with a 'starter account,' as if sculpting dolls, choosing birth families, martial arts talent, and intelligence, molding hair and physique, and starting anew...
"Hah! Reality isn't a game; how can we decide our own birth! We're not even sick, and look at Zhu Zhengwei, born with inherited hemophilia, isn't it..."
"Shh! Stop gossiping; he's not far away yet."
As their voices gradually faded, Zhu Zhengwei walked down the stairs.
He had long accepted his porcelain doll life; his hemophilia was hereditary.
Fortunately, it's mild, and regular medication wouldn't affect his life, as long as he carefully avoids bleeding and bumping, it wouldn't be a big problem.
In some ways, he felt lucky.
He had met many friends in the patient group with severe conditions, some unable to stand due to avascular necrosis.
Crash.
The night rain was slightly chilly.
Zhu Zhengwei held an umbrella, walked out of the dormitory, and after a while, arrived at the cafeteria.
Since it wasn't yet mealtime, he tiredly sat on a chair, watching groups of students with umbrellas entering the cafeteria.
Recently, he had been busy brick-moving, leaving him exhausted. Thinking of tuition and planning for his future, life felt like a heavy stone pressing him down, making him short of breath.
Soon, an endless feeling of sleepiness and fatigue surged like the vast sea, plunging him into a half-asleep state.
Boom!
A sudden thunderclap outside the cafeteria.
Zhu Zhengwei woke up with a start, jolted in fright, with a mysterious whirlpool imprint flashing in his eyes.
The shock of waking up while half-asleep made his head tremble as if something hidden within life was pried open, and the world suddenly became clearer and more sensitive.
Zhu Zhengwei rubbed his eyes.
He eerily discovered on a distant chair, a snoring fat student had a small drowsy bubble hovering above his head, reflecting a blurry image inside.
"Why is there a bubble over his head?"
He tapped open the bubble above the sleeping fat student.
Instinctively, he entered a blurry world of consciousness, instantly seeing the fat student exercising, sweating profusely, running.
"Lose weight, lose weight, lose weight..."
"One two one,"
"One two one..."
The fat student shook his fleshy body, wiping sweat off his face with a towel as he ran breathlessly on an endless road.
Then, his entrance puzzled the fat student.
This chubby person muttered, seemingly devoid of thought or intellect, "Hey? Hey? Who are you? Are you also here to lose weight with me? Then let's run together!"
Zhu Zhengwei was somewhat surprised and quickly exited the bubble, looking at the still nodding off fat student in the cafeteria chair.
"Did I just enter his dream??"
"What you think during the day, you dream at night; this fat guy dreams of losing weight?"
Zhu Zhengwei's heart raced, scanning his surroundings quietly.
He found he could only see a small bubble above the sleeping fat student's head; no bubbles appeared over the heads of the awake students in line.
"Only when asleep can bubbles appear..."
"Dream Stealing... Dream Stealing Space??"
His breath quickened, suddenly remembering a very famous movie, suppressing his racing heartbeat.
"Don't cut in line."
"Auntie, I want egg fried rice!"
"The rain today is great, this rip-off school still doesn't have dorm air conditioning, tonight will be cool, surely sleep well."
...
The clattering sounds of the cafeteria came through, and students lined up with their trays, forming a long queue.
Zhu Zhengwei also stood up and started to queue, but his hand began to tremble involuntarily as he slowly clicked on the dream bubble above the fat guy sleeping in a distant chair.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
The fat guy continued gasping while running, jogging tirelessly on an endless, blurred sports field.
Zhu Zhengwei entered the dream bubble world, trying to keep up with his pace, chatting side by side.
"Hey, brother, you're here again?" said the fat guy in surprise.
"Hey, handsome, I'm here to exercise too. Are you trying to lose weight?" Zhu Zhengwei said, breathless as he ran.
This dream is so darn realistic!
Running,
Exhausting,
Am I really this weak in the dream, unable to run faster than this chubby guy?
While the two ran side by side, Zhu Zhengwei tried to probe this fat fellow, wanting to understand the strange nature of this dreamscape.
Surprisingly, the fat guy started chatting openly without any guard.
"There are too few girls in our major, but Yun is indeed the goddess of our department and has set her sights on me, saying she likes my inner self but finds my appearance too fat."
"I usually don't have time to lose weight because I've been doing part-time jobs every day. Goddess Yun's birthday is coming up, and she mentioned liking a woman's watch costing seven thousand dollars. I need to save up to surprise her, and whenever I have a chance, I fit in some jogging."
"Life is too exhausting, too exhausting, too exhausting, I have to prepare for my postgraduate entrance exam in advance."
"I ate too much today."
"Yesterday during my part-time work, the restaurant boss scolded me, calling me ugly and stupid, a stinky countryside boy who can't change even by attending college, can't even carry a plate properly."
"But I believe I have a promising future."
Zhu Zhengwei ran alongside, listening to this fat senior chatting about his various recent life troubles.
He discovered that the fat guy's consciousness was hazy.
Even the conversation was nonsensical, akin to the sleep-talking of a person in a half-asleep state, with the surrounding scene constantly shifting.
Soon, Zhu Zhengwei couldn't engage much longer and had to withdraw from the dream.
Because he was also too exhausted, unable to keep up with this fat young man, leaving him behind.
Crash.
The next moment Zhu Zhengwei exited the dream again, a strong wave of fatigue and aching muscles rushed over him.
As he opened his eyes, he saw a female classmate beside him looking worried, touching Zhu Zhengwei's forehead, "You're finally awake, why were you dazed and sweating all over like you've been running an eight hundred meter sprint? I almost called for help!!"
Zhu Zhengwei was stunned, glanced over his own body.
Even though he was running in the dream, he was covered in sweat, his back was soaked, and his heart was pounding wildly as if he had truly sprinted eight hundred meters?
"Could it be that the dream is summoning feedback to the body?"
At that instant, he shook off all fatigue and casualness, feeling parched and chilly, "Was my body responding to running in his dream, resulting in this state in reality?"
He looked again at the distant fat guy.
He was still dreaming, yet his body was not sweating, purely a dream...
"Only I experience the dream's feedback on the real body? Everyone else continues with ordinary dreaming? Ridiculous dream bubbles!!"
A crazy thought sprouted within his heart,
"What is this, psychological suggestion? Soul influence? Subconscious feedback??"
Over ten minutes later, Zhu Zhengwei picked up his night snack and hurriedly left the cafeteria, his legs weak from the run, his mood anxious from the cafeteria running.
He gazed towards the dormitory and teaching building still blurry in the rain night, the lifeless eyes in his face igniting a touch of life, a surge of eager excitement.
This might... be a life-changing opportunity!!
"Don't rush, don't rush, I need to first observe what this is about." He took a deep breath, suppressing his excitement.
He soon returned to the dormitory, bringing snacks for the two, pretending nothing happened as he continued studying account leveling and grinding.
But his mind was unsettled, maintaining a facade as he waited for the dormitory lights to be turned off.
"Let's not stay up late today, we've pushed ourselves enough these past days, let's sleep tonight." Zhu Zhengwei started persuading the two to go to bed.
"Yes, the past few days have been tiring, let's rest early tonight." Wang Jun rubbed his eyes and went directly to wash up and sleep.
"Exactly, let's sleep fast, I'm exhausted." Zhu Zhengwei secretly fanned the flame.
Soon he saw the bubbles of his two roommates slowly appear in the darkness.
"Indeed, there are!"
He discovered not only these two people's bubbles, but he could sense the surrounding sphere of bubbles as brilliant as the stars!
They belonged to all the students in the dormitory building, dreaming with clusters of bubbles atop their heads!
"What is this??"
"These bubbles are like the quest NPCs topped with exclamation mark bubbles found in games!!!"
Zhu Zhengwei was dumbfounded.
The hundreds of exclamation marks in the dormitory building stacked together, were like bubbles blown in a deep sea world by fish dreaming beautiful dreams, marvelous, colorful, reflecting one dream after another.
His mind went blank,
"Is this the realm of my empire?"