1 An unpleasant dream

Like any other human being on Earth, Ly dreamt a lot.

She was no stranger to bizarre dreams. Sometimes, it even felt like living in another world every night for eight hours, only to return to the one she belonged to the next morning.

Her father used to say, "a realistic dream will make you mentally exhausted the next morning". Everyone in her family seemed to agree, but Ly could never understand what they were talking about.

Maybe she was mentally strong, or she simply had not experienced that kind of tiring dream and was just being proud for no reason.

Ly was a pain in the ass back in her rebellious phase. Then, like any other normal modern citizen, she grew up. She was not an exceptional genius, but she did manage to be accepted by a good university abroad because of her decent and high grades.

She was what Asian parents would be decently proud of. Not average and a good performer, but not someone that fills people with awe.

She went to sleep that night as usual after completing her assignment exactly 5 minutes prior to the deadline. Ly was not a last-minute rusher, but it was a group assessment, and one of her teammates procrastinated, so she was slightly pissed. She brushed her teeth, scrolled aimlessly through various social media platforms, and slept peacefully, expecting a good rest.

'I should be wiser in choosing teammates' was her last thought.

At first, Ly did not know that she was inside the dream. Since her eyes were still closed, her mind was clear, and everything was quiet, she thought she was having trouble falling asleep again. But then Ly could feel the lights being turned on, and she instinctively opened her eyes.

White ceiling, white marble walls – a spacious room with no windows. Everything was real and detailed. Ly could feel both her arms and legs being confined by cold metal shackles and the three men in face masks approaching her from the room door.

Ly did consider the possibility of her being kidnapped, but it did not really matter at that point.

Everything has its cause. Ly did not offend anyone, nor did her family possess massive wealth. Kidnapping her for a ransom is beyond stupid. She believed she was a kind-hearted person living a peaceful city life.

'Everything looks unusually real. And what's with Number One stretching my eyelids apart? Is this some kind of experiment? Am I a lab rat in my own dream?' Ly thought, irritated, when one of the masked men used something similar to a mini flashlight and shone it right to her right eye.

"How are you today?" asked Number One.

Ly was surprised by the language. Not because she could not understand it, but because she could. Dreams are supposed to be conducted by your subconsciousness based on what you, yourself had experienced during the day, and yet here Ly was, hearing a completely new language for the first time and was able to comprehend it.

Nonetheless, Ly chose to ignore the man and laid still. His voice was too amicable to be directed towards his captive. What if he was just asking his own colleagues? Even in her own dreams, Ly did not want to do embarrass herself.

The cold metal wrapping her four limps kept reminding her how absurd this kind of situation was. Her five senses in this 'dream' were extremely clear. She saw Number Two examining her body from the corner of her eyes and even heard his fountain pen making noises when he wrote.

Everything seemed to be doing its best to convince her that this was real.

"#00 seems to be calmer. I thought she died yesterday when she stopped screaming and crying like always." Number Three's voice was cold and emotionless from the top right corner of the room.

"We didn't do anything too excessive, did we? I heard from the guards that her family is really something. And she's still six. The others are all at least fifteen." Number Two said worriedly. Ly judged him to be the youngest among the three, possibly the one with the least experience too.

"Everything we're doing here is excessive. Inhumane, to be honest. It's just that we're overdosing her compared to the others. She's a half-elf, after all, so she should be able to endure this."

"Stop with the meaningless chat, and finish the daily examination. What if something unfortunate actually happens? It's not like we can escape or avoid it even if we want to." Number Three's voice rang up again from above Ly's head.

The other two stopped talking after what he said and continue with what they were doing: checking her muscles, skin condition, and looking at her eyelids at least thrice. They also asked Ly questions from time to time using that strange but understandable language. She did not answer even once, and the two people coated in white looked relieved at her silence.

The process lasted forever. Despite how unladylike it was, Ly swore internally most of the time. This freaking dream being too realistic was one thing, but her lying around like a piece of artifact while the three weirdos examine her condition is boring and uncomfortable at the same time – if other people were to witness this, they would think of these three as professional perverts.

"That should be enough. There are still no abnormalities so far. Oliver, come here and hold the tube for me." Number Three's voice resounded clearly in the seemingly empty room after what felt like two hours. Number Two put down his fountain pen along with the stack of papers full of notes he had been holding and came over.

'So, Number Two is Oliver.'

Apart from the small initial shock, Ly just wanted to wake up already or enter another dream, if possible. This seemed to be a Lucid Dream, and people said you should be able to control Lucid Dreams. Strangely enough, she could not do so.

Oliver and Number Three returned to where Ly was, and she finally got to know what the mysterious leader looked like. He was wearing a mask, so all she could see was his eyes and forehead. Number Three possessed a pair of ordinary brown eyes, but his gaze was extremely cold.

'They look more like a soldier's, no, a mercenary's. Someone who used to fight on battlefields, but not as disciplined? A scholar or researcher will never have that look.'

And that person who did not look like a scientist at all was holding a syringe with blue liquid inside. The needle in his hand even shone under the ceiling's light while he looked down at her, just like in those horror movies. Ly was not afraid of injections, but this gave her an ominous feeling despite being nothing but a dream. It felt so real, and Ly could not help but protest.

Who in their right mind would enjoy receiving a suspicious dose of liquid?

"Wait, what are you-"

Number Three quickly pushed all the substance from the syringe into her right arm. Ly did not have time to appreciate the fact that she could speak this new language before the pain kicked in.

It was not anything a normal modern citizen could endure. The worst pain she had experienced in her life was when she got hit by a scooter, and that was not a super strong hit to begin with.

But this pain? It was the worst, absolutely worst headache ever. It was not the headache you are thinking of, no. This shit escalated indefinitely.

At first, Ly thought she could still endure this. She had bad headaches before, after all. On her scale of one to ten, it was a nine. It was bad, but manageable.

But then it jumped straight to ten after a minute or so, and the pain skyrocketed. It felt like someone was using a chainsaw to split her skull into small pieces and then used needles to try to mend it back. Ly was not sure if she was hallucinating, but it was loud in her head, like a construction site during the day.

'Ah, what the fuck is wrong with these three bastards?' Ly was pissed, seeing the three men converse among themselves excitedly. Even that Number Three showed some slight anticipation in his eyes.

"It's been three minutes. She's still enduring this. Are we finally getting something after 8 months?"

"Don't get your hopes too high. We don't know when the golden eyes will appear. But still, her best record happened 6 months 20 days ago when she reached 2 minutes of sanity after aie was injected. Back then we used 90% aie, but now it's 100%. We finally have something valuable to report even if she loses control now."

'What lose control-'

Just then, Ly felt like her mind was being electrocuted.

Sweat slid down her face intensely, and she could not help but scream. Her body shook vigorously. It was only then that Ly realized another useless fact in this supposed 'dream': her hands and feet were small like that of a child's, and she had white porcelain skin.

Not that it helped though.

"Wow, it happened at 3 minutes 20 seconds."

"Pay attention and record the time when her irises turn gold." Number Three still looked indifferent. His voice made her angry. However, Ly's gut told her she could not do anything at this point, and staring at the butcher in a researcher's clothes would not help. Therefore, she stared at Oliver, the youngest.

Ly thought she should at least show the young man some emotions from a poor girl's point of view, being abducted and tested on by three adult men. She tried to look pity, but the eyes and forehead veins betrayed her.

Poor Oliver got the scare of his life. From his perspective, a six-year-old child with blue eyes turning gold was looking at him. Her gaze was ferocious. Oliver was no stranger to hateful attitudes from the 'subjects', but #00's was a child.

Oliver did not expect #00 to be friendly to them after what they have done, but as a six-year-old, she usually cried and begged them to let her go, which sometimes pricked his conscience.

But today, she was like a wolf cub. Cubs are small and easy to handle, but they are carnivores. #00 looked like she would pound on him and tear him apart if she got the chance. With her elven eyes and ears turned pointy, the little girl was beautiful but terrifying. Oliver finally understood why ghost children were often featured in horror stories.

In truth, Ly was just hoping for this crappy dream to end. Even if she wanted revenge, she could not do so to her dream characters. Her throat was dry, so she tried to stop the pointless yelling. However, she would bite her own lips instead due to the indefinite escalation of pain.

'Ah, what the fuck. Can I just faint and wake up already? This is my dream, right? It's not like I'm a secret masochist. Aren't dreams supposed to be somewhat according to your own will if you realized you were in one? Can't I just torture the three bastards instead? I'd rather be a secret sadist #$%X#$%&*&%##@$#$#%$!'

After some more curses, Ly finally accepted her fate. She no longer tried to resist the pain anymore and got the chance to faint as she wished. The last words she heard were, of course, from the three bastards.

"So, she gave in. 4 minutes 30 seconds."

"We should inform the Baron about this. Fred, go request a private audience."

"Yes, sir."

Their voices died down eventually. Finally, she could escape from this damn dream.

Maybe she should go burn some incense sticks, pay her respect to the ancestors, and ask them to look over her a bit. Maybe she should go back to Vietnam this winter and visit her family's ancestral graves.

And get some good luck in the process.

'I am a frail and weak girl that needs protection. I can't bear to have this same fucking dream again. Just let me have a sweet and illogical one where I meet a handsome rich man or something. Well, I won't deny if I get to do the same to those three bastards in another dream though.'

After a while of complete darkness, Ly felt like she could open her eyes.

What greeted her was not her bedroom, but a huge European-styled study room instead. It was too big to be called a 'room' by Ly's standards, and its decoration and furniture all looked luxurious and expensive. The only thing that was out of place was the virtual screen floating above the big wooden table that showed an unconscious black-haired girl.

The girl somehow looked familiar.

'…a dream after a dream? I don't feel good about this. Am I sleeping forever?'

Ly was scared. Not because of the situation itself, but because it seemed like a possible unknown external force was putting her into these situations. It would be fine if she was the one in control. Being controlled would only benefit the controller.

'I'll just do what they want me to do for now. Maybe I could figure things out with this not-so-smart brain and get out of this dream. Maybe it's just a normal one where it's a bit hard to wake up. I shouldn't think too deep. I'll get some coffee and pull an all-nighter tomorrow. Coward me needs a rest from sleeping.'

Despite all abnormalities, Ly decided that it was still a dream. She did notice that something was not right but did not pursue the thoughts further.

Or rather, she did not want to admit it yet.

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Proofreader: krissaira