"You can share a room with Keiko tonight," Naga said when assigning rooms.
Noticing that he wasn't in a good mood, Hikaru nodded obediently and made a phone call gesture with his hand, "If anything happens, please call me anytime. I'll get to the president as fast as I can."
Naga nodded, and habitually reached out to ruffle Yui's hair as she did with Yui. "Get a good rest tonight. We'll be playing all day tomorrow."
After taking a shower, he called Yuka.
Because they hadn't seen each other recently, Yuka quickly arranged a time to meet after he returned to his country. They chatted for a while, and while he was still considering how to bring it up, Yuka couldn't help but laugh from the other end of the line, saying, "Alright, alright, I won't tease you anymore. You must have something you want to ask me again. Go ahead and ask, don't delay your date with the beauty tonight."
Naga hesitated for a few seconds before asking, "Senior, do you know what would happen if... I devoured someone's dream by creating a world, and that person died?"
"So what if you're dead? What will happen?" Yuka didn't seem to understand what he was asking.
"So, what happens to the person who gets devoured in that world? For example, if I just devoured someone and that person dies the next day, will the world I created be destroyed as well?" Naga asked somewhat urgently.
Yuka laughed. "Why are you asking about this?"
"I... just really want to know that."
"No," Yuka answered decisively. "What you created is just a dream. The timeline of that dream is not synchronized with reality. When you create that world, you can linger in it for a while, and you can watch the world change as you please, but that world will not change because of you. What determines that world is the dream of the ingredients themselves. As soon as you leave that world and return to reality, the operation of that world will be completed in an instant. At that point, the result of the ingredients is not much different from that of being devoured by another method."
"In that world, can the ingredients live a smooth life according to their own dreams until death?" He held his breath and asked carefully.
"That's right," Yuka said with a sigh. "That's why I said this method can reduce our guilt. People who are consumed like this are just sent to another world to live the same life. Maybe that world where they can fulfill their dreams is even more interesting."
Yuka paused for a moment, then said with a somewhat dazed expression, "Actually... who knows if we're living in a world created by another Dream Eater?"
Naga paused for a moment, then laughed. "What does it matter whether it is or isn't? If it's really as you say, then even if we're living in a dream, it's still a world, isn't it?"
Yuka giggled. "You're right. Since this is a world of dreams, we should live it to the fullest. I'm growing to like you more and more, junior."
"Then why don't we get a divorce, senior?" he joked, steer the conversation toward an end.
All he wanted was that answer.
That answer led him to a way to completely eliminate the intense guilt he felt from devouring others.
There are countless people in this world living in hardship and suffering. Reality is like a cruel knife, slowly cutting away all their flesh and blood.
Their dreams were long buried in their hearts, their lives so insignificant that no one cared. Perhaps none of these people were exceptional ingredients, but similarly, their long sleep would only transform into a death that no one cared about.
Like Anna, if he were to devour her present and create another real world for her, allowing her to live happily there, it would be much better than what she is like now, wouldn't it?
Even if you don't get much energy, eating smaller, more frequent meals is fine as long as there's no risk.
He walked to the hotel window and drew back the heavy curtains. The city under the night sky was a sea of light more dazzling than the stars, with various lights weaving a magnificent yet deceptive curtain that concealed the dusty, cobweb-covered corners of the stage.
Anna's thin figure kept moving in front of him. On her numb face, there was no desire for life, only the most basic thought of survival.
For someone who has lived such a life, wouldn't it be a relief to leave peacefully and go to another wonderful world?
He could already imagine what Anna was doing back in that alley after they left. Her hairy hands pulled off the white floral dress and wantonly ravaged the young, naked body that knew nothing of resistance. After a merciless and cruel rhythm, she released all the dark desires that she usually had to suppress into the depths of that small body.
In the end, all that was left was a crumpled 10-yuan bill.
He raised his glass and took a big gulp.
Lying in bed, deciding to go to sleep, he could no longer recall the photographer and the female painter. In the darkness behind his closed eyes, all he could see was that tattered dress and that accented phrase: "10 euros."
Because Anna was working very late, Naga didn't know how long she slept before she felt that intense weightlessness coming from the darkness.
He stood up, somewhat anxiously trying to confirm whether this was Anna's dream.
Fortunately, the god of dreams did not disappoint him; the first thing he saw was Anna's tattered dress.
Yuka once said that the best time to devour an ingredient using the second method is when the ingredient is about to dream.
The dress was covering Anna, covering her small, bruised, naked body. She must have fallen asleep from exhaustion after a brutal ordeal; a sticky, phlegm-like snot of semen remained on the inside of her thin thighs.
Those jewel-like eyes darted rapidly beneath her thin eyelids; she was about to dream, and the energy of dreams was condensing and flowing around her.
A person typically has countless dreams in a night, but only the dreams experienced just before waking up possess the purest and most abundant energy. Choosing the second method not only consumes some energy but also limits one to targeting the other person's first dream, resulting in a significant reduction in the final amount obtained, which is only about 60% of the original energy of the ingredients.
Naga didn't see anything wrong with incurring losses of around 40%. As she flew towards the vortexes formed by swirling energy, Naga felt an unprecedented calm.
There was neither desire nor guilt.
Although it was his first time using this method, it felt almost instinctive to him; all it needed was a trigger and the accumulation of practice. Like the hunting instincts of wild beasts on the savanna, they naturally understood how to use their teeth and claws; all they needed was constant practice.
The energy of the dream constantly distorted before his eyes, controlled by his will. The scattered mist could not struggle or escape, most of it flowing around his body, while the rest slowly gathered together, forming a small vortex-like entrance.
He embraced Anna's lithe body and flew inside with her in his arms.
Inside the entrance, the scene was the same as outside. He took a deep breath and put Anna back on the broken wooden bed where she had been lying.
Then, he waved his hand and clenched his fist towards the vortex.
A loud cracking sound came from the dark edge, followed by a rapid fading of the surrounding darkness, like ink spreading in water. A dim light came on, and various objects appeared one after another around Anna. As the room was completed, a beam of sunlight, as sharp as a sword, pierced through the broken window, along with the shrill sound of police sirens...
He gazed at that world for a long time. Knowing that it was only a fleeting moment in reality, he quickened his pace with curiosity, like a deity belonging to that world, staring blankly at Anna's figure.
He wanted to know what kind of world this little girl's dream could give her.
When Anna woke up, the underground brothel was completely under police control.
With the intervention of human rights organizations, the orphaned girl was sent to a welfare institution and temporarily cared for by the government and charitable organizations.
She lived there for about six months before being adopted by a middle-aged couple from the United States.
She was the third child the couple adopted; the other two had similar experiences.
After that, her life was warm and peaceful. Her adoptive parents treated her like their own, and her two older sisters were gentle and considerate. Growing up in such a caring environment, Anna met a boyfriend of Asian descent when she was 17. He bore a resemblance to Naga.
After a long courtship, Anna married at the age of 28, and her boyfriend's two children served as flower girls and page boys at their wedding.
Naga didn't read any further. He already knew clearly enough what Anna's dream was, and what the world based on her dream was.
As they left, the scene below showed Anna, dressed in a wedding gown, with her back to the crowd, laughing as she tossed her bouquet.
Naga left a blessing in her heart and departed from this world.
When he woke up, the hotel clock told him it was only the early hours of the morning. But he was wide awake.
Even with the speed of that world accelerated and the observations made in leaps and bounds, it still took a long time. After waking up, it felt like several days had passed, and I was completely awake.
He went to the bathroom to wash his face, poured himself a glass of wine, and sat on the hotel windowsill, looking towards the slums in the city.
Anna in this world should still be sleeping, and will never wake up again.
It's estimated that in a few days, her body will succumb to malnutrition and she will practically die. No one will care about her death; at most, they'll frown and complain a few times while cleaning up and burying her rotting body.
After that, Anna's mark disappeared from this world forever.
This time, Naga felt completely calm.
He knew that Anna was doing well in another world.
He smiled, raised his glass to the gradually whitening sky, and downed it in one gulp.