Doomsday Wonderland Vol. 13: Sleepwalking in Dreamland

1618: Mine Sweeping and Aerial Splits

When Lin Sanjiu looked back, she could still vaguely see Caster and the Artist sitting on the ground in the distance. The former, out of curiosity, had picked up the book from her card library and was shaking her head as she read, not even knowing if she could recognize the characters. The artist, utterly bored, was fiddling with the items on the blanket. As expected, he knocked over half a can of beer, then hurriedly scrambled for paper and pen, apparently intending to absorb the spilled beer on the blanket by drawing.

She inwardly sighed.

She took those things out for her enjoyment, but somehow, objects that didn't know how to enjoy had taken her place, and she had ended up working outside the edge of the celestial park.

At that moment, a humanoid item resembling a fitness coach was looking at her with an encouraging and hopeful expression, inspiring her by asking, "How about it? Have you figured out the answer?"

"What was the question?" Lin Sanjiu was taken aback.

To be honest, she needed sleep. She had discovered enough truths for one day; the world must be left with some mysteries.

The Life Coach, patient with unambitious pupils, said, "Do you understand how you triggered the memory? Think about it; you're really clever. I have faith in you."

Clever, was he implying she looked stupid?

"I've thought about it before, and I really can't guess," Lin Sanjiu replied, spreading her hands to show she was out of ideas. She pointed to the celestial park, barely a line away from her toes but a place she dared not enter. "Sometimes I trigger it the moment I walk in, other times I walk half the day without triggering it. I never touched anything, and there's no switch on the ground. I just fall into someone's memory with a clang, and I don't know why."

The Life Coach was not in a hurry to persuade her. He said, "Go on, keep talking."

"What else to say?"

"Anything about triggering memories, think and say whatever comes to mind." He gestured, raising both hands and wiggling his fingers like a starfish. "Think broadly; the answer is in there!"

Lin Sanjiu was almost too exasperated to sigh. She thought aloud, "Hmm... There's no sign before triggering a memory. Once it's triggered, I've already attached to the memory's owner, and everything feels natural, even regret. It's not until a memory ends that I suddenly wake up beside the memory owner. Once triggered, as long as I don't leave the same memory domain, I won't trigger it again. You know this."

After she finished speaking, there was silence for a few seconds.

The Life Coach stared at her with wide eyes, barely containing his anticipation.

"Hmm...? Wait, that's not right," Lin Sanjiu said, tilting her head. "Before I trigger the memory... the memory owner doesn't seem to exist."

She wasn't sure, but she felt they didn't exist—otherwise, she would have been alert at the sight of a figure from afar, and never would have blundered her way to the memory owner's side.

She paused. Every time she woke from a memory, she and the memory owner had spent years together; it felt utterly natural for them to be there.

Moreover, taking the example of the fat old man, the moment before triggering his memory felt like eight years ago to Lin Sanjiu. After such a long time, it became hazy to recall exactly what had been there.

"It indeed wasn't there," Mrs. Manas said, promptly resolving her last doubt.

"Wait, so the first time I went into the forest, I woke up beside Wu Yiliu. The second time I triggered the memory on the sidewalk, and when I woke up, I found Heidi standing behind the door of her apartment building on the first floor, looking through the security bars at the sidewalk..."