Number 13 Chiswick Street.

**Chapter 3: Sitting Up**

This isn't real...

After waking up half a month ago, it took Orpheus almost a week to accept and confirm that he had transmigrated into another "real world" and wasn't just in a dream or delusion.

But now,

What he was facing,

This is definitely not reality!

He should be... no, he must still be in the basement of the Immolras house.

Everything started to change when he tried to straighten Lazarus's head.

And the giant red high heels and the woman's face before him—such an illogical, surreal phenomenon, completely detached from reality—could only mean one thing: he was being "hypnotized."

The term "hypnosis" has various interpretations. In this context, it refers to the separation of one's existence from the physical body and being confined to a state of mental existence.

In simpler terms, he was... dreaming.

The static from the radio still buzzed,

And above him,

The woman's mouth began to open slowly.

Even after reaching the maximum stretch a human face could endure, it continued to split further. You could even hear a sound like a zipper being pulled.

Until the entire face was completely divided by the mouth, her tightly packed teeth began to spread apart, and a large, agile tongue extended downward with an eerily graceful movement!

Like a lizard, poised to swallow the tiny mosquito in its path.

"Buzz!"

Orpheus felt his whole body wrapped in a wet, slimy warmth, then suddenly yanked upward.

When someone is rapidly lifted to a height, or more generally, when they are moved at high speeds, it triggers a ticklish sensation similar to riding a pirate ship or a giant swing.

If this sensation is intensified to a certain level, it can easily lead to confusion or even fainting.

This is a dream. This is a dream...

Orpheus chanted inwardly, knowing that he needed to wake up immediately.

He didn't understand what was causing this situation, but that didn't stop him from applying known methods to deal with unknown challenges;

Like solving a math problem—rather than scratching your head, why not try inserting your known formulas, even if it means forcing them?

The human mind is a mysterious "realm."

In most cases, when someone is dreaming and the dream reaches a certain point, they will naturally wake up. On rare occasions, one might become aware they're dreaming but be unable to wake up immediately, a phenomenon commonly referred to as "sleep paralysis."

In another, more enthusiastic community, it's called "lucid dreaming," where one can train and use techniques to enter a state of controlled dreaming.

Most people, after starting with curiosity, will eventually avoid it, as the desperation experienced while forcibly waking up—like a drowning person struggling to the surface from the depths—can drive one mad and leave them deeply disturbed.

People whose jobs involve frequent mental exercises or who have a keen interest in such matters can often craft their "dreams" more vividly, effectively trapping themselves.

More severe cases involve layered dreams, where the subconscious starts "working," using dreams to deceive oneself, allowing them to "wake up" only to another layer of dreams, reducing the resistance to the dream—a phenomenon known as "true self-deception."