“No need, my eyesight is still pretty good. If the weather’s nice, I can even see the storm cyclones on Jupiter. Besides, it’s almost over.” Old King lowered his head and tied two knots in the thread. Without any visible movement, the thread broke off on its own. Then he put away the needle and thread. “Let’s go. I think you also want to learn how to control the space-time nodes as soon as possible. But today, we’ll just study for an hour. After that, you need to rest.”

“That’s fine.”

Chapter 7: Caught in the Act

An hour later, in the node space.

Old King leaned on his staff and looked at him with satisfaction. “The gains from this hour are greater than what I got from staying by the node for a whole month back then! Thank you, William Clark!”

“I should be thanking you.” William Clark felt increasingly exhausted. “If it weren’t for you, I don’t know how long it would have taken me to figure out all these functions, or if I’d even realize they existed.”

“There’s still a lot left to discover, maybe even things I can’t imagine.” Old King said, “Let’s stop here for today. I can see you’re already very tired. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you sleep soundly and dreamlessly until tomorrow morning. Tonight, when no one’s around, I’ll set up the magic array. After that, your rest will go much more smoothly. I remember I have some items with similar functions—let me look for them, and I’ll give one to you tomorrow. That way, even if you’re not at the inn, you can still sleep well at night.”

“Thank you.” William Clark was quite touched.

“Consider it my living expenses for staying with you.” Old King said. “Today’s lunch was delicious.”

“Uh, sorry!” Only then did William Clark realize that Old King hadn’t had dinner yet. “I’ve been so unsettled lately, it’s easy to mess things up. I’ll order you some takeout right now.”

“Actually, I won’t starve even if I don’t eat.” Old King shook his head awkwardly. “I swear I wasn’t asking you for food…”

William Clark ordered takeout for Old King, and only then did he realize that the Anju Hotel couldn’t be found on the map. So he downloaded a few more commonly used map apps, just in case. Then he went downstairs to remind Emily Clark to be careful during the night shift and not to stay up too late, before finally heading upstairs to his room under Emily Clark’s constant complaints.

Old King cast a spell on him, and he fell into a deep sleep.

Magnificent and strange karst landscapes, vividly colored plateau scenery, endless waves rolling across the sea, sand dunes stretching to the horizon in the desert, the wind blowing through a bamboo sea carrying a fresh fragrance, salt lakes like mirrors reflecting the sky and clouds… Scene after scene appeared again in William Clark’s dream, each frame as beautiful as a painting, silently unfolding before him, leaving him confused and lost.

People often say that what you think about during the day, you dream about at night. William Clark was indeed someone who loved natural scenery, but he hadn’t had time to think about such things lately, and had never even seen those landscapes before.

He was troubled even in his dream—

He clearly retained his conscious thinking, but couldn’t feel his own existence, couldn’t control his own movement, couldn’t even do something as simple as looking down at himself, let alone influence any of the scenes in his dream. It was as if someone had tied him up, put on a VR headset that couldn’t be moved, and forced those images in front of his eyes—he couldn’t even close his eyes.

Because of this, he felt a strong aversion, even a bit of fear.

The next morning, he woke up feeling groggy, as if he hadn’t slept at all, and even more exhausted.

“Old King really screwed me over!”

He still had a faint impression of last night’s dream, but only scattered fragments remained, and they were already blurry. He vaguely remembered how real the dream had felt, with such breathtaking scenery that only the wonders of nature could create, far beyond his own imagination. But now, it was hard to recall any clear outlines, and as he sat on the bed for a while, the memories seemed to fade even more—

Most dreams are like this: you start forgetting as soon as you wake up.

So William Clark quickly rolled out of bed, wearing only his boxers, and ran out without even putting on a shirt.

As a proper “research subject,” of course he had to report his condition to the big boss right away! And in his mind, that boss was probably the only person in the world who could help him solve these strange problems!

Ten minutes later, Old King finished listening to his account.

“This is quite a rare situation.” Old King narrowed his eyes and examined him. “I already cast the Weiss Sleep Spell on you, medical grade—you shouldn’t be able to dream naturally! Clearly, it’s the space-time node affecting you, no doubt about it.”

“Is it serious?” William Clark asked nervously. So even sleeping pills wouldn’t help!

“It is! I can tell your brain rested for less than two hours last night, if your dream was really as vivid as you say, and not just an illusion added by the dream itself. It’s very likely your brain didn’t rest at all while dreaming, and your brain cells were as active as when you’re awake.” Old King said, “The human body isn’t as fragile as you think, but it’s not as strong either. If you can’t rest, you won’t last long!”

“So what should I do?” William Clark was stunned.