"Take a good look at my face and compare it with the photos you investigated before. See if it's exactly the same."

The woman shook her head:

"I never investigated the owner of this safe, and I don't even know what Henry Clark looks like."

Henry Clark was speechless.

He had never thought... that proving he was himself could actually be such a difficult thing.

"But it doesn't matter who you are at all."

The woman spoke again:

"If you really can help me open the safe, I can tell you the answer."

She crossed her arms, looking at the clueless combination lock in front of her:

"If it were an electronic lock... I could crack it in just a few minutes."

"But unfortunately, this is a mechanical combination lock, and it's an 8-digit code. Whether by brute force or by listening to the clicks, there's no way to crack it in a short time."

She turned to look at Henry Clark:

"So I don't care who you are. You could be anyone. But as long as you can open this safe, you're my partner."

"Deal."

Henry Clark extended his right hand in a friendly gesture.

Although he wanted to get the answer from her first.

But now there was no way to prove he was Henry Clark... he really had no valuable bargaining chips, so he could only compromise.

"How should I address you?"

"CC."

The woman reached out and gave Henry Clark a high five:

"Just call me CC."

Henry Clark noticed that the characters in his dream all seemed to have abnormal names.

"Do you have a plan?" CC looked at Henry Clark.

"Let's try the dates from my adulthood first. We'll try all the meaningful dates one by one."

……

……

Henry Clark racked his brains, coming up with one date after another related to himself.

CC tried them one by one.

But even after Henry Clark nearly exhausted his mind, he still couldn't guess the correct password.

"My mom's birthday just now... still not right?"

CC shook her head:

"How about trying your grandma's birthday?"

"I really don't know my grandma's birthday."

"Can't you tell I'm being sarcastic? You just tried your seventh aunt, eighth aunt, and even your dog's birthday! Can't you try a different approach?"

CC looked at Henry Clark in confusion:

"Why does it have to be a date? It's an 8-digit code—couldn't it be something else?"

Henry Clark waved his hand:

"It has to be a date, trust me. Just by looking at the structure, I know it's a date. That's always been my habit for setting passwords."

"Are you thinking as if you were Henry Clark?"

"Let me say it again." Henry Clark was exasperated:

"I'm not pretending to be Henry Clark, I am Henry Clark! Can you please be quiet and stop interrupting my thinking?"

"Heh, you're really into this role!"

CC snorted with a laugh:

"All the dates you mentioned are from hundreds of years ago. If I had any other choice... I wouldn't be here listening to your nonsense! Is your whole family a bunch of old monsters who have lived for centuries?"

Henry Clark closed his eyes...

His hands kept rubbing his hair.

Think.

Think harder.

What could it be...

What date had he not thought of?

Henry Clark felt his brain was overheating, even running in overdrive.

But he had tried every date related to himself he could think of...

None of them worked!

Now even Henry Clark himself was losing confidence.

Is this really his own safe?

But this is his dream!

In his own dream, could someone else's safe appear?

Henry Clark recalled what his friend had told him.

"[Nothing outside your own knowledge will ever appear in a dream.]"

So.

This 8-digit password!

It must be in his memory!

What else hadn't he thought of?

What else had he forgotten?

What else was hidden?

Click!

With a crisp sound of the circuit connecting—

WEE-OO! WEE-OO! WEE-OO! WEE-OO!

A piercing alarm blared all around!

The main circuit was back! Automatic alarm!

"Damn!"

Henry Clark panicked! He kicked the safe.

"Hurry up and think!!"

CC shouted.

The blaring alarm mixed in! It was as nerve-wracking and irritating as a bomb countdown!

"I'm thinking!"

Henry Clark scratched his scalp with his fingernails:

"I can't think of it!"

His head was splitting!

His brain was overloaded!

Henry Clark felt like the whole world was spinning!

It was as if he had been thrown into a constantly rotating Rubik's Cube, with familiar memories flashing by like a TV changing channels.

"If you can't think of it, the police will be here! I really shouldn't have trusted you!"

Henry Clark forced his eyes open to look at his watch:

[00:41:27]

Now it's not just the police... there's only 33 seconds left in the dream.

"Can you do it or not!" CC yelled:

"What happened to all that big talk you just made!"

"Shut up!"

WEE-OO! WEE-OO! WEE-OO! WEE-OO!

The noise! The alarm! The ringing in his ears!

Henry Clark's head was about to explode!