NABC Chapter 307 Is this me?
Chapter 307 Is this me?
"Who exactly is he...?"
On the other side of the online dream, in a place unobservable by Sora and Kiana, the dark-skinned Nahera is quietly observing Sora's memories through Sora's eyes (the dream).
At first, she would urge them, but now... she's afraid that if she speaks up, she might miss some information.
Nahera is an immortal offspring, a well-traveled dragonborn traveler. Throughout her long journey, she has witnessed countless people and events. While she wouldn't claim to be omniscient, she's certainly a know-it-all. From the birth, aging, sickness, and death of humans to the decay of stars, what hasn't she seen?
She had never seen anything like this before...
Originally, she was just doing Lithost a small favor by providing a molted scale and connecting with the boy Lithost described as having "the opportunity to fulfill his long-cherished wish and end everything"—the remote trial was not like the soul going to her trial ground. She just wanted to first construct the first trial according to Qiong's memories, and then complete the blessing of immortality as requested by Lithost, nothing more.
But things took a turn for the worse here, and a bunch of terms she had never heard before started popping up one after another.
The Age of Exploration (Amber 2158)? The Calendar of the Milky Way?
The Star Train? She used a train to take Xena and the others away back then—by the way, the train ruins are still in the Trial Grounds, and every victor of the Ten Arts War walks over it and sees that part of her memory.
A dream planet where one lives in a drunken stupor, the "Abundant People Hunting Organization" that gained endless lifespan but committed suicide under the pretext of "demonic yin", the unheard-of erudite venerable one and the scientist who can reverse aging and achieve immortality, and the Star Train that once roamed the galaxy like her... These were all things she had never heard of, and even defied common sense.
In addition, Qiong fought against the disgusting Doomsday Beast to protect the pink-haired girl, and the suddenly appearing bespectacled man suppressed the calamity in his chest, as well as the little blue dragon of the Wisdom Clan who was probably a distant relative of his... Not to mention, perhaps the Lithost molting powder was not added enough, so even he could hardly see his previous memories, so how many surprises were there?
If Nahera had been living a mundane life since settling on Mars, except for the passing of Sinadia, what she saw today was like a bombshell dropped into a pond.
"open up……"
Even though she only learned about it through Qiong's memories, she could still sense the power of pioneering and the feat of the five people and the rice dumpling who reversed the course of fate in various worlds.
Saving the desolate, post-apocalyptic city of Beloborg alone far surpasses what she, a dragonborn who rarely intervenes in the world and merely travels, has accomplished—she only intervened once, agreeing to Sinadia's request to lead people away from Lakada. And now she feels she's made a mistake, indirectly causing Sinadia's death and potentially leading to Lothar's destruction by the obsessive little Reyella...
Then, because of his 100% error rate in his interference records, he felt he should interfere but dared not. Now, with reincarnation imminent, he is merely stuck in past memories and is powerless to interfere...
But what if we entrusted everything to this naive yet experienced unknown man that Lithost had found? He would definitely do a better job than we would.
“Lithost, perhaps you are right...hmm?”
As Nahera was still marveling, the online dream became chaotic, and Sora's dream also changed again. The four members of the train crew disappeared, replaced by... a diary? But for some reason, Nahera couldn't get any more useful information this time... Had the drug worn off and the signal been lost?
Never mind, we'll talk about it next time.
“Sinadia, if it were him, he would definitely be willing to lend a helping hand to ‘our’ lonely child…”
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Qiong had a slight headache.
Your memory is very coherent, but when you wake up, many people you know say you've forgotten things, and the examples they (the Fireflies of March 7th) give all happen to match the things you wanted to do while playing games...
Could it be that, like when I came to Mars, I was wearing a different body but time-traveled twice?
Qiong shook her head, deciding to stop dwelling on these questions in her dream for the time being—what's the point of dwelling on them? Can they bring her any information?
Since things had come to this, he decided to go to sleep. Qiong walked towards the room assigned to him in the party carriage, intending to sleep in his dreams and avoid racking his brains over the philosophical question of "who am I?" But when he opened the door, he was dumbfounded: it was less of a room and more of a storage room. It was full of cardboard boxes?
"How is this going?"
Qiong looked bewildered. He remembered this room wasn't like this! When Liuying tied him up, he had seen this room clearly: Where was the bed? Where was the computer? Where were the large refrigerator, wardrobe, bathroom, and game console?
This is his dream, isn't it? Shouldn't it at least be based on his memories?
Perhaps because he had passed through the "door," the dream was distorted again. Before Qiong was ready to punch himself to wake up, his room turned into the way he remembered.
"Dreams really don't follow any logic..."
There was no response from the voice, and Qiong walked straight into the room. He lay down on the bed, glanced at the display case full of figurines and the weapon rack with baseball bats, and was about to turn off the light and look at the robin poster and Kafka's wanted poster to have a dream within a dream when he suddenly heard a slight noise from under the bed.
"what?"
Could there be mice under this bed?
But it doesn't matter, there's nothing to fear in dreams. Qiong rolled over and got out of bed to look under the bed. He thought he would see a fat rat, but he only saw a garbage cake lying quietly on something.
"Meow~"
The adorable little cake seemed to be cleaning up the mess under his bed, but Qiong felt a nameless anger rising in his heart... How to put it? It felt like his treasure had been stolen?
"You bastard!"
Qiong hesitated for a moment, then pulled the trash cake and its surroundings out from under the bed.
It was a notebook. The cover of the notebook was badly worn, but Qiong could still recognize at a glance that it looked eight-tenths like the notebook that Song Que had bought for him without spending a penny to write his pioneering log. Both were large brown notebooks.
"This is... a diary?"
Ha, how could that be? Qiong found his own thoughts somewhat amusing. He always said, "Who keeps a diary? How could anyone possibly keep a diary?"
In any case, Qiong had no reason not to open the notebook.
"April 26th, Wednesday, no weather forecast for the space station..."
Okay, so this is a diary, and it is indeed in my own handwriting.
"Today is the first day I woke up. Just like in the story, I became the Pioneer Qiong. Thank goodness I'm not Xing, otherwise my later life would be..."
Qiong's brows gradually furrowed.
"March, Danheng, Himeko, and Lao Yang are all so enthusiastic. Let's set a small goal first: to decorate my room to be the best on the entire train!"
A sense of doubt arose in Qiong's heart. He had actually written a diary, but he had no recollection of it. Moreover, the later contents seemed more and more like his handwriting...
"April 29th, Saturday, blizzard in Belleburg. I messaged Uncle Yang for the first time to ask why birds can fly, but Old Yang didn't understand and didn't respond? Maybe I should ask him in person next time? But first, I'll go to the lower city and chat with the future Great Guardian, Rand Duck, about the fate of the Civil War's phantom god. Now that I think about it, the pace of expansion has slowed down my renovation... I'll start the renovation once Belleburg is settled."
"May 1st, Monday, no weather forecast for the Lower City. This Seele is so unlovable, I still prefer the soft and cuddly Seele..."
……
"May 5th, the final battle is almost here. After everything is settled, let's give this girl a Dragon's Roar from the Box. Also, we must start preparing for renovations when we get back."
Qiong noticed that the time intervals became longer and longer as time went on—which made sense, since he couldn't write every day. Who keeps a diary? He hadn't even touched his pioneering log for several days now!
"On May 13th, I bribed Uncle Yang with half a month's allowance to perfectly reproduce a Dragon's Roar from its box... Sigh, I regret it. I didn't give it to him even though it was already on the Immortal Ship, and now I'm out of money! Waaah, how could I be so stupid... Oh well, it doesn't matter since I don't live in the car regularly anyway. I'll renovate it next month."
……
"On June 15th, the Huanlong problem was basically resolved. I showed Yanqing my 'Dragon's Roar in the Box,' and he immediately called me 'Teacher,' and even dragged me to see the new sword... all just to get Yanqing to say 'Hey!' Half a month's allowance has been lent out. If it's for renovations... I can't exactly ask Danheng and the others for an IOU, can I? Oh well, I'll deal with it next month."
……
"Huh? So you can get renovation money from the train conductor just by doing chores? I actually thought I had to pay for it from my allowance, what an idiot! March is such a good girl, she even gave me so many things..."
Up to this point, things were still relatively normal. It was just a piece of text with a few photos occasionally inserted—he had actually seen those photos before, given to him by Hanabi, and they were currently being kept by Bronya.
Upon seeing the text without a date, Qiong could no longer remain calm.
"I think I'm in love? I even wanted to touch March's chest... But March's eyes are really beautiful, she's like a tangled thread (scratch that) that I can't extricate myself from. Next time she asks me to take a picture, I'll definitely be there..."
……
"March is the best! People live for March 7th! March is silly, but she's adorably silly... Has Danheng noticed that I'm not normal?"
Qiong became increasingly shocked as she looked at it. She clearly didn't remember writing these things, but no matter how she looked at it, it was his handwriting...
"How could this possibly be me?!"
The trash can meowed beside him, seemingly urging him to keep reading. Breathing heavily, Qiong decisively flipped to the last page. There were no words on it, only a wanted poster of Beloberg pasted on it…
The scene in my dream began to distort again, and the diary gradually disappeared in the distortion.
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"Himeko... no, you're Kaffa?"
"Yes, I'm listening."
After the distortion, it was still a train carriage, but in front of Sora, Himeko, who was drinking coffee a second ago, turned into Kaffa, who was studying a new coat the next second. When she heard Sora call her, Kaffa opened the big black umbrella that was actually not very useful, stood up and walked to him with the black umbrella in hand.
"Is there something you need?"
"No, it's nothing."
For some reason, Qiong didn't dare to look directly at Kafka. Instead, he looked around and saw Sam playing games with Silver Wolf and Blade wearing an apron.
Qiong: ...
Good heavens, what's going on? Why are my dreams getting weirder and weirder?
How could Ren be wearing an apron? Am I out of my mind?!
"Dreams are the opposite of reality; everything in dreams is fake, fake!"
He lowered his head and began to mutter to himself. To hell with your subconscious and memories, he didn't believe in that stuff!
The earlier ones were one thing, but the later ones were even more outrageous: How could he be so stupid as to spend so much money on flashy, impractical, craft-grade swords after months of not finishing the room's renovation? And then realize he didn't need to pay upfront? Is he really that dumb?
The most outrageous thing is his madness about March 7th... He does think March 7th is beautiful, but it shouldn't be that bad...
It shouldn't be that bad, right?
"What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Sam transformed into a firefly and walked up to Qiong. His clear eyes and innocent smile inadvertently revealed a natural... allure.
That's true, after all, fireflies' eyes are quite alluring, but they also give off a very innocent vibe...
Why aren't you saying anything?
Firefly placed her hand on Sora's face. The thought that it was Firefly who had tied her up made Sora want to back away, but as she backed away, Kafka delivered a "brain pad wave".
"What's wrong, Qiong? Why are you backing away?"
Sora was a little dizzy from Kaffa's "brain pad wave" and was about to speak when he realized he couldn't see her face clearly... When he finally saw her clearly, there was no Kaffa anywhere; there was only Raiden Mei.
"Ya...Ya? What exactly is this dream about?"
"Finally...finally I got through! I really am a genius!"
A joyful voice came from ahead. Qiong Qiang focused his attention and looked ahead. The owner of the pink and blue eyes had disappeared, replaced by a pair of beautiful purple eyes.
"Kiana..."
Qiong murmured the name in a daze. Could all of this be related to Kiana?
Before Qiong could react, a pair of red lips pressed against his, forcibly enveloping him in a wave of energy and a passionate kiss.
Qiong wanted to fight back, but for some reason, ever since the "brain pad wave" started, he felt particularly sleepy—and this was his own dream!
"Honey, you look so energetic today..."
What nonsense are you spouting!
Do you like this outfit? Or do you want to "fight for survival"? Whatever it is, I can make it happen!
Qiong felt dizzy and wanted to push Kiana away, but her body wouldn't obey her commands, and she couldn't even punch herself to wake up.
"Then, I won't stand on ceremony?"
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There's really no rush regarding Onphalus.
Onphalus began his calculations at least after the War of the Schools, and even later if the one in the Dawn Machine was a stellar core. Before Nanuk, the youngest star god, corrupted the Harmonious Infinite Chieftain into a star-howling entity, no one had sown stellar cores across the galaxy…