—✦Omniscient Viewer's Chat Lodge✦—
Stelle: "Okay, okay, okay. So there are tragedies even in a dream, huh?"
Stelle: "This is really getting closer and closer to reality!"
Stelle: "Does The Family actually think this is humorous?"
March 7th: "Dreams still need to follow the laws of physics…"
March 7th: "I've felt for a long time that this is basically just a bootleg version of the real world."
March 7th: "If anything, that bizarre place you fell into earlier, Stelle, felt much more like a proper Dreamscape."
March 7th: "Even though it was fraught with danger—a total nightmare—at least it fit the grotesque and bizarre nature of a dream!"
March 7th: "Conversely, most of the things we do in Penacony's 'Sweet Dream' seem to be things we could just… do in the real world, right?"
Silver Wolf: "It's The Family's Memokeeper. Not a single one of them has a decent brain hole."
Silver Wolf: "It's a Dreamscape, for crying out loud, yet people are still walking on the ground, and the houses are built exactly like reality."
Silver Wolf: "I'm asking you, Family—do you guys actually know how to dream?"
Silver Wolf: "Can't you overclock your imagination just a little bit? I feel like if I sent a random three-year-old in there, they'd create a better dream than you lot."
Hook: "Let me do it, let me do it! I have lots of brand-new ideas! I can definitely create a better, more fun Sweet Dream!"
Klee: "Klee can help too! I have ideas~"
Fischl von Luftschloss Narfidort: "Such a magnificent locus… If it were used to manifest the Prinzessin's Immernachtreich, it would surely leave the masses trembling in astonishment, no?"
Paimon: "If it were Paimon, I feel like I'd create a dream moment filled with delicious food!"
Paimon: "Hehe, I've already thought of the name! It'll be called 'Paimon's Stuff-Your-Face Time'! Heehee."
Qingque: "Actually, after all this talk, the most unique dreamscape was actually that Dream Bubble filled with Trash Can people that Miss Hanabi brought out when she was disguised as Mr. Sampo."
Stelle: "I second that. Trash Cans gaining sentience. I have, in fact, dreamed of that before."
Aventurine: "Tsk, tsk, tsk. The Family's authority on Sweet Dreams has now been thoroughly denied from all angles."
Aventurine: "It seems your Family's understanding of dreams isn't all that impressive."
Pela: "Could it be that the Memokeeper hired by The Family with such high salaries are actually just a bunch of…"
Li Sushang: "Wine-skins and rice-sacks? That's the idiom, right?"
Stelle: "Ahem. Sushang, your cultural literacy is as grounded as ever. I am very relieved."
Hanabi: "…M-Miss Sushang… the idiom is… 'good-for-nothings'…"
Li Sushang: "Aiyah, isn't that basically the same thing?"
Li Sushang: "It all means the same thing anyway!"
Bronya Rand: "Perhaps that is not the case."
Bronya Rand: "The Family's dreamscape adheres to the physical laws of the real world."
Bronya Rand: "Therefore, the Memokeeper they recruit are likely quite similar to master architects of the real world…"
Sampo Koski: "I just can't figure it out. Why does The Family have such a soft spot for the characteristics of the real world?"
Sampo Koski: "Could they not design the dream to be a little more thrilling? A little more fantastical? And then, a little more filled with Elation?"
Hanabi: "What do you know?"
Hanabi: "Maybe it's because The Family can't completely obscure the sky with one hand in reality, so they counterfeited reality to build a Sweet Dream world, just so they could play the high-and-mighty gods ruling over all living beings inside it, hmm?"
Zhongli: "An interesting perspective…"
Sunday: "Miss Fool. I hope you will exercise some restraint when you speak."
Sunday: "Do not wantonly smear The Family."
Sunday: "Otherwise, when the light of the Harmony shines down, you will surely pay the price for your words and deeds!"
Hanabi: "Oh my, the Chicken Wing Boy is getting angry~"
Hanabi: "Alright, alright, I won't say anymore~"
Hanabi: "Don't go ruining your health from anger now… giggle~"
....
『 The video continues.
[ A regrettable story. ]
[ Even within a Sweet Dream, things do not always go as one wishes. ]
[ Then, one final question. ]
[ The Dreamscape of chic, luxury and consumerism — the Moment of Dusk — my companions have been there too. ]
[ What was Miss Acheron's impression of that place? ]
Welt asked about the final Moment of interest.
[ Then you must have witnessed people there spending money like water, staking everything on a single throw to realize their dreams—or perhaps having already realized them. ]
[ Everything has a price, and everything can be bought or sold — even dreams themselves. ]
[ I saw an Intellitron there who was preparing to auction himself. ]
[ When someone wins a bid, under stipulated periods and rules, he would do the buyer's every bidding, becoming that person's very possession. ]
[ That Intellitron had been auctioned off a dozen times, and I participated in his thirteenth. ]
[ That was the grandest banquet I had ever attended, but never again did anyone cast another glance at him. ]
[ This time around, there were no successful bids for him. ] 』
『 ....』
—✦Omniscient Viewer's Chat Lodge✦—
Stelle: "What kind of slave market is this?"
Stelle: "Is this auction house seriously that unhinged?"
Stelle: "You can sell anything?"
March 7th: "Not necessarily. That's a bit of an exaggeration."
Hu Tao: "Definitely exaggerated."
Hu Tao: "There are some things you can't buy even if you have money."
Xiangling: "Like lifespan… I feel like no matter how much money you have, you can't buy that."
Boothill: "And the status of an Emanator!"
Boothill: "You can have all the stinking money in the world, enough to buy the whole fudging universe, but what use is that?"
Boothill: "You still can't become an Emanator, can you?"
Boothill: "After all, those Aeons don't give a fork about whether you have money."
Aventurine: "It's just an ordinary auction house. It's only because it's established within a dream that it appears special."
Furina de Fontaine: "Then, according to what Miss Acheron said, that… Intellitron? Hasn't he been a slave twelve times?"
Furina de Fontaine: "And we don't even know how long 'one time' lasts…"
Alhaitham: "But he was willing. One can only say: respect, and bless."
Stelle: "But since the auction failed this time, doesn't that mean people are tired of using him?"
March 7th: "Eww… I think you used the word 'using' in the wrong context there?"
Silver Wolf: "No, using 'playing with' would be more vivid."
Hotaru: "???"
Stelle: "Ah, this… you people with your impure thoughts!"
Stelle: "I meant that since this Intellitron wasn't sold this time, obviously these people have lost interest in him!"
Lumine: "It still feels weird…"
....
『 [ This is merely my superficial observation along the way… ]
[ Someone once said to me: Penacony was not like this long ago, and Penacony should not be like this. ]
[ I walked through the reality and dreams of the Planet of Festivities, watching the night rise and fall, time halting for the people, while spiritual wealth and poverty… ]
[ Remained forever frozen at their respective notches. ]
[ Therefore, I believe the collapse of the Sweet Dream is inevitable. ]
Combining everything she had seen and heard on this journey,
Acheron believed that the Planet of Festivities, as it stands today,
Exist in name only.
[ Perhaps there is a way to change all this… ]
Welt pondered for a moment before speaking.
[ Perhaps. ]
[ But if this is exactly the world people desire—if this is the very reason life chooses to slumber—should we still force it to change? ]
Acheron looked at Welt,
Asking this seemingly unanswerable question.
[ .... ]
[ …Miss Acheron, allow me to share a story with you in return. ]
[ There was a man from my homeland who, at a time when the world was grappling with deep, unhealable pain, made a choice. ]
[ He wove together the dreams of everyone in the world, linking people's dreamscapes, and shouldered this burden himself. From this, he created a giant, a 'Spiritual Adam.' ]
[ From then on, that giant stood between heaven and earth, becoming the pillar of the entire world's continued existence. ]
[ And as the price, those who found it difficult to move forward, those who could not move forward… ]
[ They would lose their future forever. ]
[ They slumbered in a dream of pain-free existence, spending a peaceful life in the utopia that man created. ]
[ And the spiritual Adam would become indestructible due to the wishes of those who refused to wake up. ]
Welt's tone was deep and profound,
Slowly recounting a story that belonged only to his homeland.
[ But since you are standing here now, that implies… that man failed. ]
Acheron spoke her intuition.
[ Because people must always walk toward the future. ]
[ Even if the weaknesses of humanity cause them to stop and pause, when it becomes truly impossible to move forward… ]
[ Humanity will inevitably attempt to save itself. ]
[ And that man… he was never a failure. ]
[ Like everyone else in that world, he etched the possibilities of humanity into his heart. ]
[ The sun-chaser in his myth soared toward the heavens, and welcomed his final victory through his fall. ]
[ He rose high, only to arrive before the sun, a place no one had ever reached before. ]
[ He melted because of it, falling into the ocean. And after that… ]
[ …Countless people would soar over his body, flying toward a higher sky. ] 』
『 ....』
—✦Omniscient Viewer's Chat Lodge✦—
Stelle: "A story from Uncle Yang's homeland?"
Stelle: "It sounds so magnificent!!"
Stelle: "This person… I'm willing to call him a true hero!"
March 7th: "A spiritual Adam…"
March 7th: "That scale is way bigger than Penacony's Sweet Dream…"
Zhongli: "Mr. Welt used a story from his homeland to answer Miss Acheron's difficult query."
Zhongli: "This answer may not be perfect, but it is an answer that leads to the future."
Sunday: "I am humbled. Mr. Welt's story has benefited me greatly."
Sunday: "However, I still wish to ask: if some people have already severed the possibility of chasing the future… then, must we still wake them?"
Sunday: "Even if doing so is cruel to them?"
Lumine: "Mm… the future is important… but the present is just as important…"
Dr. Veritas Ratio: "This is a question with no correct answer…"
Dr. Veritas Ratio: "Because for such questions, everyone holds a different answer in their heart."
Dr. Veritas Ratio: "Whether due to their different experiences, or their different personalities."
Dr. Veritas Ratio: "In short, the answers they arrive at are not identical, yet none are wrong."
Aventurine: "At the end of the day, if there are people willing to immerse themselves in a Sweet Dream and halt their steps, then there are also people willing to chase infinite possibilities in the real world."
Aventurine: "It's just a personal choice, irrelevant to right or wrong."
Aventurine: "There is no need to force one's own ideology onto others."
Aventurine: "If they love choosing that kind of life, then let them choose it, no?"
Aventurine: "It is their right. We bystanders only need to respect and bless them."
Stelle: "That makes sense. The universe is so big, it's impossible for everyone to be willing to immerse themselves in a dream."
Stelle: "So, if this is truly the world a portion of people desire, then we have absolutely no need to wake them up."
Stelle: "After all, some people really do have bitter lives in reality. Without the Dreamscape, are they supposed to just suffer for a lifetime?"
Stelle: "That doesn't make sense either. That would seem a bit like asking 'Why don't they eat meat?' to starving people."
March 7th: "That's true. We don't obsess over the Dreamscape because our lives in reality are already fulfilling."
March 7th: "But some people don't have those conditions. The Dreamscape becomes their only spiritual anchor."
March 7th: "Just like Miss Hotaru. In reality, she can only stay in a cold medical cabin."
March 7th: "Just living every day like that must be exhausting, right?"
March 7th: "But in the Dreamscape, she can run and jump, go sightseeing everywhere, and eat delicious food…"
March 7th: "I think the Dreamscape gave her a new meaning to life!"
Hotaru: "Mm-hm… I really am grateful to the Dreamscape world. Because only in the dream can I briefly return to being a normal person…"
Himeko: "Everyone has a valid point."
Himeko: "The existence of the Dreamscape has its own rationality, but the premise is that the choice must be made by the people themselves!"
Dan Heng: "Correct. What matters is the person's own will!"
Dan Heng: "We should grant people the right to choose."
Dan Heng: "We should not privately shatter the wishes of those slumbering in dreams, but by the same token…"
Dan Heng: "We should not forcibly confine those who do not wish to indulge in dreams within the Dreamscape."
Furina de Fontaine: "So basically… the current Penacony is actually quite nice."
Furina de Fontaine: "Those who want to enter can enter, those who don't want to can just not enter."
Furina de Fontaine: "Of course, if they could get rid of that damned class division sometime, that would be even better."
Sunday: "..."
Sunday: "I sincerely thank everyone for your answers. I have truly learned much…"
Sunday: "A truly just world… is actually about letting everyone possess the right to choose…"
....
『 [ ….. ]
[ This story fits the Trailblaze spirit of the Nameless very well. ]
[ Thank you, Mr. Welt. ]
[ I know what you wish to confirm. ]
[ There are countless similar yet distinct worlds in the universe. ]
[ In these worlds, there are countless similar yet distinct people. ]
[ I, too, once embarked on a journey, encountering old friends with familiar faces in different worlds, witnessing their destinies traverse familiar trajectories. ]
[ So, I will tell you… ]
[ Although not entirely identical, the story you depicted… ]
[ It overlaps with my past. ]
[ And in that bottomless dream… ]
[ …I ended that man's life. Alone. ]
Acheron gave the answer Welt wanted to know.
[ ... ]
Welt fell into silence.
[ I am not the person you know, and my homeworld was not as lucky as your world. ]
Acheron sighed softly.
[ …I am very sorry. ]
Having evoked Acheron's painful memories, Welt felt somewhat apologetic.
[ It's alright. If this can resolve your doubts, I do not mind. ]
Acheron shook her head.
[ But I still wish to know, beneath that facade of The Hunt, Miss Acheron… exactly 'which power' is it that has driven you to walk alone until now? ] 』
『 ....』