Chapter 7

Caught between the haze of half-sleep and half-wakefulness, Chu Zhu’s thoughts turned sluggishly.

“Has... another life been lost again?”

“Should I reset once more... or wake up? I’ve already reset four times in a row, and if I reset again... it feels unbearable!”

...

Early spring, six o’clock in the morning.

In the quiet dormitory, Chu Zhu’s eyes suddenly snapped open. He took a few shallow breaths and rubbed his forehead, only to find it drenched in sweat.

He could hear his roommates’ steady snores. Glancing around, from the broad vantage point of his top bunk, he saw that they were still sound asleep.

“This dream... I robbed a bank, explored a secret realm... overall, it was pretty thrilling. Satisfied!”

Suddenly, a trace of unease swept over Chu Zhu’s face. He realized something was wrong. “Wait, how do I remember everything so clearly?”

Usually, when Chu Zhu woke up, although he wouldn’t completely forget the dream world, the memories were always vague—just like ordinary people remember their dreams.

Only when he re-entered the dream world would his memories within it become sharp again. This was one of the main reasons he believed the dream world was illusory: because he could remember real-world facts while in the dream, but not vice versa.

But now, things were different.

“It’s like... I actually robbed a bank just now, actually jumped... wait a second, gamma rays over limit?”

Chu Zhu paused, surprised by the familiarity of the term. On instinct, he grabbed his phone from the bedside, unplugged the charger, skillfully opened his DS device, and typed in the question.

The AI began processing, summarizing, and explaining.

“Gamma rays—nuclear radiation?” After reading the explanation, Chu Zhu formed a hypothesis and typed in another query: “Most likely places where gamma rays appear...”

Reviewing the AI’s compilation of information, Chu Zhu took a deep breath.

“Outer space... first to be ruled out! Then, things like nuclear ore deposits—impossible as well.”

“Could it be a nuclear power plant housing a reactor, or a large particle collider? Also possible, maybe a hospital dealing with radioactive materials... but that chance is extremely slim.”

Chu Zhu sat on the bed for some time. Then, quickly dressed, got up, and washed up.

...

Chu Zhu had long suspected he had a mental illness. In middle school, after learning about the “privileges” granted to those with such diagnoses, he had insisted his parents get him formally assessed—to gain what he called an invincible “magic resistance saint’s body” in this era.

Of course, in the end, no magic resistance was added. Instead, he gained a lot of physical resistance—almost to the point of death!

This shows just how suffocating the oppression and discrimination against those with mental illness was in this society.

Breathing heavily, he felt like he couldn’t breathe, like he was being crushed, but then... he forgot the rest!

As usual, Chu Zhu started his morning run, a habit he had formed in high school. Though many people ran every morning in high school for three years, they usually relapsed into laziness once they reached university—preferring lying flat and sleeping in to running.

But Chu Zhu’s sleep quality was excellent. Unless he pulled an all-nighter, even if he stayed up until three in the morning, he would still wake up at six. To ensure enough rest, he was practically forced into an early sleep and early rise.

His mornings were very clear-headed, and out of sheer boredom, he had developed the habit of running every morning.

But this time was different...

During the run...

“This... can’t be right! Why is it so easy?” Chu Zhu felt as if he’d been shot out like a flying sword. His body was lighter than ever, his state unprecedentedly good. The joy and exhilaration of muscles in motion surged continuously into his brain.

Stopping in front of the dormitory building, Chu Zhu moved his limbs.

“Not a drop of sweat? But I felt like I was running at a hundred-meter dash speed! Maybe even faster? This...”

Looking at his palms, Chu Zhu inexplicably recalled the ending of his dream, where his muscles swollen uncontrollably, like on a planet of anabolic steroids.

“I must be crazy.” Chu Zhu’s mind trembled. He even doubted that the dream was affecting reality. But if dreams really could influence reality, could they still be called dreams?

Back in the dormitory.

He sat at his desk, face deep in thought, pulling out his notebook to scribble and sketch. This wasn’t for record-keeping—just a way to organize his scattered thoughts. The fragmented words jotted down would seem meaningless to anyone else.

“Thinking about it seriously again, the problem only grows bigger...”

“Before, I didn’t mind the fuzzy dream memories. Now that they’re crystal clear... the language in the dream isn’t Chinese! The writing isn’t Chinese characters either. In other words, if it’s truly a fabrication, completely imagined by me, then I created an entire language in my dream!”

“Not only that, but all kinds of skills! In my dreams, I can do anything: use guns, fire cannons, parkour, fight, kill, pick locks, so many things... I even studied mathematics in the dream! Now I feel like I’ve mastered it all.”

Within Chu Zhu’s mind was entirely new mathematical knowledge. Could it be...

After a bit of research, Chu Zhu rolled his eyes. Alright, the math he learned in the dream existed in the real world as well. So expecting to write a groundbreaking paper based on this was unlikely...

“But I really never studied this before. These mathematical concepts appearing out of nowhere... Haki Dream, you rascal...”

“But what if it’s not really a dream...?”

Chu Zhu clenched his fists, thinking again of his dream’s unhealthy muscles. Was it possible? Could the human body uncontrollably swell and grow stronger after high radiation exposure?

Even knowing it was impossible, Chu Zhu instinctively searched anyway. Then he came across a classic video from a certain Grim Reaper...

“Bad news from the bodybuilding world...”

Chu Zhu: “...”

Yes, he should have realized long ago. If nuclear radiation could really cause such evolution—or rather, mutation—the first to harness it would be the bodybuilding circles in the West. They were notorious for risking their lives for muscle!

“So, this must be a special case in the dream...”

The alarm clock rang.

Finally, the roommates began to get up one by one, grumbling and cursing—their morning grumpiness quite heavy.

“Damn, Zhu... I wondered why I can’t sleep well, then I see you early in the morning flipping through books, writing stuff?”

“No, I just heard him scrolling TikTok! So early in the morning!”

“Scrolling TikTok is fine. If he were seriously studying, that’d be a problem. Zhu’s TikTok noise helps me fall asleep, but his serious study noise keeps me tossing and turning.”

“Ha ha.”

Chu Zhu smiled at them, closed his book, and suddenly a flash of insight struck his mind.

“No! The last Chinese word!”