yasinovel Chapter 4415 Stagnation Zone
Chapter 4415 Stagnation Zone
Chapter 4415 Stagnation Zone
The starship continued its journey, but its speed was decreasing.
"It's been a while since I've been here. Why does the atmosphere here feel different...? It seems more stagnant than before?" Camiro murmured to himself.
Initially, when they were still "travelers returning home," they wanted to enter the Uriel instance, so they took the Path of the Boundary.
Since obtaining the status of "temporary travelers", Camiro and the others no longer need to travel through this area; they can reach their destination simply by sleeping normally.
So, it had really been a long time since he and Blanche had walked this road.
After not seeing each other for many days, we found that everything seemed to have changed.
“The teacher’s feeling is right,” Blanche spoke up at this moment, her expression no longer as relaxed as before, but with a frown: “Look.”
Blanche opened her palm, her pale knuckles slowly contracting as if she wanted to clench her fist.
Elsewhere, this action is easily accomplished.
Here, although Blanche successfully clenched her fist, the feeling of resistance was very obvious, as if the air in her palm had turned into clay, and there was obvious resistance when she tried to squeeze it in.
This resistance is very similar to the stagnation that Camillo mentioned.
Although their thoughts are not affected, their bodies have begun to slow down and become sluggish, as if they have entered a soft but very resilient unknown fluid.
However, they do not seem to have fully integrated into the fluid yet, so the impact is not significant at present. But no one knows whether the stagnation ahead will worsen. If they continue forward, they may not be able to move at all.
"Stop first." Camillo gestured to Blanche to stop the starship.
Blanche nodded. It would be unwise to rush into the unknown stagnation zone without understanding the variables.
After the starship stopped, they tried to ascertain the current situation.
However, they currently have almost no clues, and they can't even manipulate dream power to sense the internal changes—because there is almost no dream power around the boundary.
With no leads whatsoever, they ultimately chose to... take a detour.
Perhaps this area is unique?
Maybe we can find a way by going in another direction?
With this idea in mind, they searched in several directions nearby, trying to find the perfect passage to the boundary, but the results were not ideal.
Whenever they want to cross the boundary, they will inevitably pass through a stagnant zone.
The size of the stagnant zone and the depth of its internal stagnation are currently unknown; the only certainty is...
“If we still want to take this path, we will inevitably face the resistance of the stagnant zone,” Camillo said.
“Kerigota has no other options.” Blanche frowned.
She and her teacher could travel to Dream Crystal Plains legally, but Rigota couldn't; she only had the option of "smuggling" herself in.
She had promised Uriel that she would successfully bring Rigota into the Dream Crystal Plains.
"I don't want to break my promise."
Seeing Blanche's determined gaze, Camillo fell silent.
Although he didn't say it explicitly, his meaning was quite clear: we could back down before things became clear, but Blanche didn't seem to want to back down.
"So what do you plan to do?" Camillo asked.
Blanche looked at the stagnant area ahead, so thick it resembled a milky white sea, and slowly said, "Shall we go in and take a look? Perhaps the change is just a physical sensation, and the passageway isn't actually closed?"
The implication is that perhaps once this stagnant area is breached, one can reach the true boundary membrane, just as before, and then cross it to the final destination.
Camillo thought for a moment and asked, "Are you sure you want to go?"
Blanche nodded: "We should go. The starship has defensive capabilities, and the remaining dream power can also enable the starship to initiate another jump. If there is any real danger, we can simply use a rapid jump."
Camillo ultimately agreed to Blanche's plan.
They returned to their original coordinates, and this time Blanche did not hesitate, maneuvering the starship slowly toward the stagnant zone.
Upon first entering, the feeling of stagnation was acceptable.
But as the spaceship continued to move forward, the feeling of stagnation grew stronger.
If they remain still, it's fine, as the starship can help them withstand some of the obstacles; but once they start moving, or try to fly away from the starship, the feeling of stagnation they experience will increase instantly.
That feeling is very similar to being stuck in a quagmire.
Most importantly, this sense of stagnation has not yet reached its limit, and the road ahead remains uncertain.
"Shall we continue?" Camillo spread his hands out like Blanche had before, preparing to make a fist, but this time he clearly exerted all his strength in his five fingers to make a fist, showing that the degree of stagnation was already very high.
The surrounding fog only looks like fog; in essence, it has become a high-density fluid.
“…Continue.” Blanche still did not choose to give up.
Camillo didn't try to stop them, but simply nodded, letting the starship continue forward.
A few minutes later, the Starship's speed had become almost "tortoise-like," about the same as an adult walking.
This shows that the level of stagnation in the surrounding area has reached an alarming level.
Fortunately, the Starship's protective shield had been activated in advance; otherwise, the surrounding pressure alone would have rendered them immobile.
However, the Starship's protective shield is not omnipotent; it consumes Dream Power every moment. In other Dream Realm areas, Dream Power can be replenished in time, but in this Dreamless Land, once it's used up, it's gone.
Therefore, under the current circumstances, the protective shield can only last for five minutes at most, or even less, because as long as the starship continues to move forward, the degree of stagnation will continue to intensify.
Camillo looked at Blanche.
This time he didn't say anything, but his silence spoke volumes.
Blanche took a deep breath and brought the starship to a stop.
She didn't know how much longer it would take to reach the boundary of the Uriel instance, but she knew very well that they couldn't go any further. The Starship couldn't hold on, they couldn't hold on, and Rigota couldn't hold on either.
"Should we give up?" Camiro asked.
Blanche closed her eyes, then opened them again two seconds later, her eyes filled with a stubborn determination: "Teacher, I want to try again."
Camillo sighed inwardly, but nodded nonetheless.
Although he was a teacher, he was no more capable than Blanche in dealing with issues in the dream world. At this moment, as the "weaker" party, he chose to respect Blanche's choice.
“While I agree that you can try again, you need to come up with an effective way to convince me.” Camillo: “If your method is flawed and cannot convince me, then… let’s put it aside for today and try again later when we are fully prepared.”
No sooner had Camillo finished speaking than Blanche immediately said, "I want to create another dream scenario."
Camillo looked directly into Blanche's eyes.
Blanche didn't move away, and said seriously, "I didn't expect that there would be an accident at the end of the boundary path, which caused the function of the starship to not be fully adapted to the current environment when it was created."
"So, I want to recreate a dream concept, with the core concept being a vehicle that can break through barriers, burst forth, and traverse."
"In this way, when faced with such a stagnant environment, we can rely on bursts of energy and breaking through the stagnation to quickly cross the boundary and reach the final boundary membrane."
Blanche's method was simple, a classic "one trick to defeat all" approach. But precisely because it was simple, Camillo thought it would be effective.
After all, Blanche's talent is too much like that of a supermodel.
In this unknown predicament, only her talent could create a miracle.
Camillo was persuaded.
He nodded silently: "Okay. However, the dream power here is too weak. Let's leave first, jump to other dream realms, and then create dream structures."
Blanche's eyes lit up with joy, and she nodded, "Okay!"
The new method had been decided, but then another unexpected event occurred.
The starship got stuck and couldn't turn around.
They tested it and found that the starship could still move forward, but turning back would consume even more energy.
In other words, the stagnation on the way here has increased without us even realizing it.
It's as if some kind of "self-repair" mechanism has been triggered—opening a path is fine, but the path that has already been broken will trigger some underlying mechanism, which will re-block the path that has been traveled and strengthen the stagnation effect.
This means that Starship can still move forward slowly, but it cannot turn around.
Most importantly... a large portion of the Starship's remaining Dream Power has already been consumed during the testing period. In addition, the protective shield also needs to be maintained, so there is not much Dream Power left, which is simply not enough to support rapid jump.
In other words, there is currently no way to turn around and go to other dream realms.
“There is only one way forward now.” Camillo looked at Blanche: “Wake up first, return to reality, and then cross the Dream Path again to get here.”
No matter where you arrive in the dream world, all paths will be nullified upon waking.
This is the rule of reality.
In other words, once they awaken and re-enter the dream world, they will return to the place where the starship was first built. Then, by walking the dream world path again, they can reach the boundary wall once more.
However, Blanche did not reply immediately after hearing this.
She hesitated for a long time before saying softly, "The degree of stagnation is increasing, and we don't know how strong the external stagnation is now. What if it's so strong that even the new dream design can't break through and traverse it?"
Her guess was not unfounded.
The starship hadn't gone very far when the subsequent repairs became so sluggish that it couldn't even turn around, demonstrating that the invisible "unknown rules" were preventing external forces from entering the boundary.
If I were to awaken now and travel the Dream Realm again, I might not be able to get back in when I return here.
“But this is the only way we have.” Camillo did not deny Blanche’s statement, because it was indeed possible, but the point was that even knowing this, they had no other choice.
"No, there is another way!"
Blanche let out a sigh of relief and, under Camillo's gaze, slowly said, "I will create my dream right here!"
"This place creates dreams? But there's no dream power here," Camiro wondered.
Blanche didn't speak, but silently looked down at Xingzhou.
Camillo immediately understood: "You want to dismantle the Starship?"
Blanche nodded: "The Starship is made of dream power. I can dismantle it and use it to rebuild a dream design. Moreover, since we only need to walk the last part of the journey to create a dream design here, the dream design will not have too high a demand for dream power."
Camillo: "I admit that building a dream here does not require much dream power, but are you sure that dismantling a starship can support your dream?"
"Furthermore, since you dismantled the starship, without the protective shield, we'll be directly exposed to the stagnant zone outside. Leaving aside whether we can withstand it, do you think Rigota can withstand it right now?"
Blanche: "I've considered that. I won't dismantle the Starship immediately. I'll first build a prototype of the dream concept. Once the prototype is built, I'll add a protective shield to the new dream concept, and then bring everyone in before continuing to refine it."
Camillo asked in confusion, "This is the Land of No Dreams. If you don't dismantle the Starship, where will the power of dreams come from?"
Blanche didn't speak, but slowly extended her hand.
Her palms were covered with a pale golden mist, and upon closer inspection, one could see hundreds of pale golden wisps of dreams constantly emerging and sinking.
Camillo's eyes widened suddenly: "This is from before..."
Blanche nodded: "That's right, those beautiful dreams I collected before."
Camillo frowned: "These are all top-quality dreams. Are you sure you want to use these to construct your dream? It's a waste."
High-quality dreams can indeed be used to create dream designs, but dream designs are not picky; using nightmares or pleasant dreams to create dream designs will have a similar effect.
Besides its aesthetic appeal, superior dream essence can also be used as a special dream material to create dream potions; for example, mental curses or individual mental defilement can be alleviated or even cured with dream potions.
In this situation, Camillo felt it was somewhat unworthy to use these hundred beautiful dreams as the foundation for his dream concept.
Blanche seemed indifferent: "The dream will eventually be found again, but if you really turn back, you may never have the chance to re-enter this stagnant zone."
Although Blanche's guess that "we can't go back into the stagnant zone" was just that, and the probability wasn't high, she didn't want to gamble on even a 1% chance.
Now, with a hundred beautiful dreams in her hands, plus the dream power from the dismantled Starship, she can create a small dream structure to complete the final step of this long dream journey.
Since we can achieve our goal now, why gamble?
Seeing the determination in Blanche's eyes, Camillo pondered for a moment, confirming that this matter wouldn't have too much of a negative impact on him or Blanche, before nodding: "Then let's do as you say. Whether it's a beautiful dream or a nightmare, achieving our goal is more important."
Blanche, who had been keeping a straight face, finally smiled and said, "Okay."
Next, Blanche began to use those hundred beautiful dreams to construct the prototype of her dream.
A hundred beautiful dreams may sound like a lot, but in reality, they are consumed very quickly. Therefore, Blanche was extremely careful and meticulous when constructing her new dream concept, almost pushing her talent to its limit to avoid wasting it.
While Blanche was constructing her dream, Camillo initially watched silently from the sidelines, but gradually, he sensed something was amiss.
Why does the fog around us seem thicker than before?