Until his entire face was completely split horizontally by the mouth, the once compact teeth, now stretched wide, began to show huge gaps, while that agile, enormous tongue dropped swiftly downward in an even more bizarre and dexterous manner!

It was like a gecko about to swallow a tiny mosquito.

"Buzz!"

Karen only felt his whole body wrapped in a mass of wet, sticky warmth, and then he was yanked upward.

When a person is quickly lifted high, or more generally, when being moved rapidly—like riding a pirate ship or a giant pendulum—there’s a tingling sensation;

And once this sensation intensifies to a certain degree, it’s easy to become disoriented or even fall into a faint.

This is a dream, this is a dream...

Karen silently repeated in his heart. What he needed to do now was to quickly "wake up."

He actually didn’t know the reason for the current situation, but that didn’t stop him from dragging the unknown into a field he was familiar with and good at, to solve it;

It’s like solving a problem: instead of sitting there scratching your head, it’s better to try plugging in the formulas you already know, even if... you have to force it.

In fact, the human spiritual world has always been an extremely mysterious "place";

Normally, when people dream, they naturally wake up at a certain point. In rare cases, one becomes aware it’s a dream but can’t wake up immediately—this is called "sleep paralysis."

Among another group of enthusiasts, it’s called a "lucid dream." With some training and self-suggestion techniques, one can increase the chances of entering a lucid dream state.

Most people, after entering out of curiosity, end up avoiding it, because every time they force themselves awake, the feeling of despair—like a drowning person surfacing from the depths—is enough to drive one mad and leave them terrified.

For those whose work often exercises their minds, in this situation, it’s easy to make their "dreams" even more realistic—in effect, "cocooning themselves."

A more serious case is when there are multiple layers of dreams, and the subconscious starts "working" on its own, using dreams to deceive oneself, making you "wake up" only to find yourself in a new layer of dream, reducing your resistance to the dream. This is called "true self-deception."

If ordinary people’s "sleep paralysis" is just surfacing from the abyss, then this kind is like a winter swimmer surfacing only to find a thick layer of ice overhead.

What are the consequences of not being able to wake up in a dream... It’s hard to define for now, since there’s no "died in a dream" box to check on a death certificate, and those who "gain life from a great dream" usually just move on, since it was only a dream and their body suffered no real harm.

The wind roared past his ears, the tongue was extremely elastic, and after being rolled up, Karen was sent into the mouth at great speed.

Next,

came the dense sounds of chewing and sucking,

one after another,

constantly entering Karen’s ears.

You are being eaten, you are being bitten, you are being swallowed...

You are dying... you are dying... you are dying... you... are dead!

Karen understood that if he didn’t wake up now, his end would be very bad.

Someone who has died once doesn’t take life and death lightly... on the contrary, he cherishes the beauty of living even more—Karen is such a person.

He does not want to die!

In this environment, he had to give himself enough faith and courage to break through the barrier of this "dream," to let his consciousness return to his body, to reality.

In the past, due to work and personal interest, Karen had encountered similar situations before. Although not as bizarre and terrifying as now, he did have a practical coping strategy.

Illusion must be pierced with reality;

Weakness must be reshaped with ideals;

Obstacles must be broken with truth!

When you are powerless, you can try to borrow strength.

So,

Karen began to sing,

throwing his whole heart into loudly singing:

"Arise, ye slaves who hunger and freeze, arise, ye suffering people of the world;

Our full hearts are boiling with blood, we must fight for the truth..."

At this moment, faith and belief needed to be transformed into the most explosive will, to help himself break free from this spiritual quagmire. Besides, in his previous life, Karen was a staunch materialist.

Amid the singing,

the sounds of his body being chewed were gradually fading, Karen felt his body rising, and as he continued to sing, he slowly lowered his head.

He saw the woman’s teeth, the woman’s tongue,

then saw the woman’s mouth,

the woman’s entire face,

and finally,

he saw, between her legs, a face that seemed both grown there and fused together... It was a scene that felt extremely out of place.

At this moment,

the snowflake-like sound faded,

and then,

the male voice that had spoken earlier came again, with a hint of confusion:

"Huh... who are you?"

Then,