"The copy world has its own set of rules for the embodiment of death associations." Xia Jing said softly, as if he was talking to himself or thinking.
After uttering this incomprehensible remark, he changed his tone and said, "By the way, time reversal can first and foremost thoroughly prove that the replica world we're in now isn't real."
The others did not follow his train of thought and were confused. Only Song Yang understood what he meant.
Jia Qing asked in confusion, "What do you mean? Are there distinctions between real and unreal dungeon worlds?"
Liu Yi was also a little confused: "Are you saying that time reversal is not realistic? But I've encountered dungeon games before, and there are no distinctions between day and night..."
Xia Jing tapped his knee with his fingers and said slowly, "'Real' is relative."
"For example, compare the replica world with your three-dimensional world. The replica world is obviously unreal, while the three-dimensional world is the real world for you."
Song Yangmin noticed the strangeness in Xia Jing's words, but because his brain was spinning rapidly thinking about the game they were facing, he quickly overlooked this point.
Xia Jing continued, "Then let's put this comparison back into our current dungeon world."
"There is also a relative distinction between truth and falsehood among copies."
"We've already experienced 24 hours in this instance before. Time always moves forward. This is the law of truth in the three-dimensional world, the benchmark, and the symbol of 'reality'."
"But now, based on Jin Nan's association, the copy has turned back time to two hours in front of us—"
Hearing this, Jia Qing finally reacted: "The replica world has broken the symbol of 'reality' and clearly given us the signal of 'unreality'!"
Xia Jing nodded: "Also, this time reversal was triggered by Jin Nan's association."
Song Yang finally spoke, continuing Xia Jing's words, "I previously speculated that the difference in the beds Huang Mo and Xu Jin occupied after their deaths stemmed from the different scopes of their death associations. However, considering Jin Nan's associations could directly reverse time, and the overlapping images that appeared in his vision when the midnight dizziness struck—"
Xia Jing said slowly: "The range of each selected player's death association should be the entire dungeon world."
The rest of the people were stunned.
"Wait, I'm completely confused—"
As Jia Qing just spoke, the knock on the door sounded again.
Outside the doors of dormitories 414 and 417, two teacher NPCs shouted sternly, "Why aren't you sleeping yet? What are you doing?!"
Everyone suddenly quieted down and fell silent.
After the NPC finished yelling, there was no movement outside the door - they were quietly eavesdropping outside the door.
I don't know how long it took, but the people in the two dormitories looked at the luminous clock at the same time, and time passed by minute by minute.
In dormitory 414, Wang Yueran's tears kept flowing.
Because of the choking on water just now, there was always a foreign body sensation and swelling and pain in her trachea. Coupled with the uncontrollable panic and sadness, she cried so hard that she almost suffocated.
She had a bad feeling.
This premonition made her hands and feet cold and tremble slightly.
The old lady held her in her arms, her old voice lamenting softly, "Don't think about it, don't think about it, child. Even if you're not in the game, you'll still think about it during the day and dream about it at night. It's not good for your health."
Outside the door, the footsteps of the teacher NPC finally sounded and slowly moved away.
Jia Qing lowered his voice and asked, "Brother Yang, Brother Jing, I still don't quite understand. If the entire replica world we're in right now is an 'unreal replica world,' the embodiment of Jin Nan and the others' death associations, then where is the 'real replica world'?"
Song Yang said: "Then we must first confirm the true identity of this 'unreal copy world', and then find the passage to the 'real world'."
"Wait, isn't the identity of 'unreal copy world' the world after Lenovo materializes? What other identities could it have?" Liu Yi was almost confused.
Song Yang: "No, this is just an appearance."
Xia Jing and Song Yang fell silent at the same time.
This is not thinking, because they already have the answer in their hearts.
This silence seemed more like they were confirming each other's answers.
Xia Jing raised the corner of his lips and whispered, "What you think about during the day, you will dream about at night. Grandma's old saying is not wrong."
"'Don't think' because what you think about will appear in your dreams at night."
After hearing this, several people were stunned and a guess suddenly popped up in their minds.
What Xia Jing said next confirmed their guess!
"—The 'world after the manifestation of association' we are in now is actually the dream world left behind by those deceased players."
The other five people in the two dormitories opened their eyes wide in shock.
Xia Jing offered a clue: "I've been keeping track of the time. Jin Nan suddenly fell asleep a second before midnight. This sleep didn't seem to happen naturally, but more like the dungeon forced him to sleep. I'm sure Xu Jin encountered the same thing last night. This proves that the dungeon must make the selected player fall asleep before the next slaughter can begin."
"And the next step in the development of 'sleep' is 'dreaming'."
Jia Qingren was dumbfounded. He had no idea when Jin Nan fell asleep!
While he was chatting about hot pot soup base, Xia Jing was observing him so carefully?!
Moreover, no one knew which player the monster would choose at midnight tonight. In the absence of a definite answer, Xia Jing had to take in the entire dormitory in order to capture even such details!
Xia Jing continued to analyze: "At midnight, we all felt dizzy, and at the same time, there were overlapping images in our vision."
"——This should be a sign that Jin Nan's dream has begun. His dream world covers the previous world."
"And the world before this should be Xu Jin's dream world."
Everyone reacted!
That's right, when Xu Jin died last night, they also felt the same dizziness and saw overlapping images.
If this is a sign of the dream world being overwritten, then this kind of overwriting should have happened more than once. They should be dreaming within a dream, nested in a dream!
When several people thought of this, they were dumbfounded. They never expected that the truth of such a good campus copy would be like this!
"Also, the players' dreams should be fully controlled by the dungeon. Otherwise, we wouldn't be able to stay in this dormitory right now, because human dreams are bizarre and fantastical."
"The dungeon likely only selected the associations that would be most conducive to killing the player. Using the previous player's dream as a baseline, it mixed in new elements to create a new dream—such as Xu Jin's green-eyed ghost, Jin Nan's bugs, and this time reversal."
Everyone was stunned again.
Wasn't time reversal a method Jin Nan came up with to escape death based on Song Yang's suggestion? Although this method didn't bring Jin Nan back to life, how could it become a weapon to kill players in the dungeon?
Song Yang exhaled and explained, "When the dream is controlled by the copy, it is impossible for the copy to choose to materialize the player's survival association and let the player escape death in the dream."
In other words, the survival suggestions Song Yang had previously proposed were simply impossible to achieve.
"The reason the dungeon chose to reverse time as Jin Nan wished was because it would allow it to kill another player in a shorter period of time."
Everyone felt a chill run down their spine, feeling the pressure from the dungeon pressing in step by step.
Xia Jing stood up, stepped on the still-squirming insects under his feet, and whispered, "Human dreams are chaotic, full of irrationality and contradictions."
"In reality, if a person really encounters a ghost, as long as they don't have any underlying health conditions, even if they are frightened and feel their heart is beating so fast they're about to die, they won't actually die suddenly. But in dreams, anything is possible."
Thinking of Xu Jin, Wang Yueran whimpered in his throat.
"In real life, when ordinary people dream of their own death, they might jump directly into another dream, or they might be awakened by the nightmare. But this is a horror game," Xia Jing paused, raised an eyebrow, and said, "When players die in a dream, they are dead forever. Their dreams will continue to develop, but death cannot be reversed. This is why reversing time didn't bring Jin Nan back to life."
"And Huang Mo and Xu Jin, even after they died, their bodies still looked alive. This is contradictory and irrational."
The time has come to eleven fifty-eight.
"In dreams, the dungeon, or rather the dungeon master, can exploit the chaotic nature of dreams to arbitrarily exploit the player's associations and kill them. The so-called zero-point monster is nothing more than a knife wielded by the dungeon master. Only by leaving the dream and finding the real dungeon world can the dungeon master appear before us."
Liu Yi asked anxiously, "Then how can we leave the dream world?"
Xia Jing stopped and turned around.
The young man stood in the darkness with his back to the moonlight.
His gentle voice formed a stark contrast to the chilling feeling brought by this nightmare.
"Please remember, everyone in this dungeon will face dreams that are built upon your own fears."
"But dreams are dreams, a false world. Everything that befalls you in a dream and that you fear is also false. False things 'should' not kill anyone."
"Unless you think you'll be killed."
"Then you will be trapped in this dream forever."
"If you want to survive, face your fears and wake up from the dream completely."
As soon as he finished speaking, a feeling of dizziness hit everyone.
In dormitory 414, Song Yang and the old lady heard the sound of water dripping on the ground at the same time.