Faced with Boothill's complaints, the members of the Astral Express crew were left speechless. Judging solely by the posture of destroying the world, this indeed wasn't the conduct expected of Nameless like them.
Had the person standing atop it not been Fu Zhu, but any other member of the Express crew, they would have suspected that the person had been impersonated. But since the person standing up there happened to be Fu Zhu... given his personality, he really could do something like this!
"Fu Zhu must have his own deep meaning for doing this, right?" Welt spoke up to defend Fu Zhu with some uncertainty, then looked at the others as if seeking their support.
"Of course he does! Old Bro wouldn't just mess around randomly!" Xing jumped out without hesitation to agree with Welt's view, but after she took a glance at the gradually approaching [World Devourer], the certainty in her voice instantly diminished quite a bit.
"Probably..."
While everyone was still speculating on why Fu Zhu was doing this, the [World Devourer] suddenly came to a halt. Fu Zhu, standing on top of it, had also spotted the Astral Express crew running on the ground below, so he immediately stopped the machine and flew over.
"Seeing that you're all awake puts my mind at ease." Seeing everyone present, Fu Zhu felt much more relieved. He turned to Xing and gave a thumbs-up: "Great job, Xing."
Welt, however, pointed at the [World Devourer] on the horizon and asked Fu Zhu, "Fu Zhu, is that machine your masterpiece?"
"Yeah, it's called a [World Devourer]. Its purpose is to destroy the world." Fu Zhu simply explained the function of the [World Devourer] to the group.
"Holy baby!" Upon hearing this straightforward explanation, Boothill couldn't help but hold onto the cowboy hat on his head, staring at Fu Zhu with a bewildered look. "Did this world offend you? Why do you want to destroy it?"
"You don't possibly want to continue living in the Dream of the Great One, do you?" Fu Zhu looked strangely at Boothill, whom he was meeting for the first time. "Is my goal of using the [World Devourer] to destroy the world that hard to guess?"
"Since Sunday created the Dream of the Great One to trap everyone, wouldn't it be fine if I just blew the whole world away? If the trap trapping the people is directly destroyed, then the concept of being trapped no longer exists, right?"
Boothill choked. He realized his words were a bit ambiguous, so he hurriedly changed his method of inquiry: "No, brother, what I mean is, don't you have any other way to wake us up?"
Seeing Boothill ask this, Fu Zhu took the opportunity to explain his plan to everyone.
"First of all, the Dream of the Great One is still a type of dream, just one that is easier to sink into. Ask yourselves, if you want to make someone wake up from a dream, what should you do?"
"One: External interference. But currently, the scope of the Dream of the Great One is a bit exaggeratedly large. Trying to wake people from the outside is estimated to be impossible for us. Two: Create a nightmare causing a direct trigger of the lifeform's self-protection mechanism, waking them directly from the dream with a start."
When Fu Zhu reached this point, everyone more or less understood his plan.
March 7th raised a fist and hammered it into her palm, speaking with pleasant surprise, "So, Fu Zhu, you plan to manufacture a doomsday scenario to scare everyone awake, right?!"
The others, including Acheron, couldn't help but nod in agreement after hearing March 7th's words.
Acheron even gripped the odachi in her hand and said to Fu Zhu, "I can come and help create some panic for these people to wake them from the dream. It would count as speeding up the efficiency of your plan."
However, Fu Zhu shook his head. "You guys are wrong. 'Scaring them awake' isn't entirely accurate. What if some people are hypnotized so deeply that they think this doomsday is actually a scenic attraction prepared by The Family for tourists?"
"Then what should we do?" March 7th felt she was out of ideas. "If scaring won't wake them, how are we supposed to wake these people up?"
"Naturally, we just blow them up directly. After all, the one thing that absolutely cannot happen in a dream is death. I've already experimented with this point earlier. Didn't you all arrive at this answer as well?"
Fu Zhu turned around and waved his hand. The ground immediately extended a narrow staircase leading straight to the [World Devourer] high in the sky. He then issued an invitation to the group.
"Let's go. We'll talk up there. I've prepared another special 'wake-up service' for you all. Of course, if you prefer the 'smashed to pieces' method of waking up, you can stay down here and continue to appreciate this scenery of the end of the world."
With that said, Fu Zhu was the first to step onto the stairs. The Astral Express crew immediately followed closely behind.
Although it was just as Fu Zhu said—one wouldn't truly die in the dream—the wake-up method of being blown to smithereens by TNT was honestly a bit hard for people to accept. Xing and the others felt it was better to choose the other wake-up method Fu Zhu had prepared for them.
After exchanging a glance, Acheron and Black Swan also stepped onto the stairs, following in the footsteps of those ahead. While Boothill was still hesitating, the [World Devourer] had already begun to restart. After taking one look at the scene of buildings and streets turning to powder in an instant, he hesitated no longer and sprinted up the stairs. If he walked any slower, he really would have been smashed to pieces.
Once on the [World Devourer], Fu Zhu specially built a small platform for them to stand on. As the group moved forward along with the [World Devourer], Fu Zhu pulled a bright yellow object from his backpack, which immediately attracted everyone's attention.
Everyone knew that at this time, Fu Zhu definitely wouldn't take out something useless. So, this bright yellow object must be related to the other 'wake-up service' Fu Zhu mentioned earlier.
March 7th leaned in closer, sizing up the bright yellow object in Fu Zhu's hand a few times. "From the shape, it looks like a square... bell?"
But she couldn't be sure, so she could only look up and ask Fu Zhu, "Fu Zhu, is this a bell?"
"Correct."
Fu Zhu nodded with a smile. "Dr. Chadwick reminded me of something earlier, and that's when I remembered I could also use a [Bell] to wake up those who are fast asleep."
Previously, just as he parted ways with Sunday, Chadwick had contacted him once.
'Sir, during my research with Lady Herta and the others, I discovered that every time Lady Herta and Mr. Screwllum conduct research on the villagers, they ring the bell in the village to wake the villagers up. Since the Name Tag has special effects, could this bell achieve a similar effect?'
It was this sentence from Chadwick that reminded Fu Zhu that when he used to play MC, whenever he passed a village, he would always ring the village's bell. This would startle the villagers into alertness, and then he would take the opportunity to hog their beds and sleep.
The effect of the bell in MC is very simple: it puts villagers into an alert state. Even villagers who are in a sleeping state will similarly be startled awake.
Since the [Name Tag] worked, there was no reason the [Bell] couldn't produce an effect in Penacony's dream world.
Holding the [Bell] in one hand, Fu Zhu clenched his other hand into a fist and smashed it against the bell.