Earth.
World Tree Mystical Realm.
Fang Yuan looked at Dream, who had a troubled expression on his face, and couldn't help but laugh.
"What, you're not happy to see me?"
"I remember the last two times, you were quite worried and enthusiastic."
With a slight smile, Fang Yuan of course knew the reason, but still couldn't resist teasing Dream a bit.
The World Tree Guardian had become the master!
"Mew!"
Phantump flew in front of Fang Yuan, with a darken face.
You still have the nerve to say that!
The first time, it genuinely worried about Fang Yuan's safety when he went to participate in Mewtwo's game tournament, only for Fang Yuan to bring back the very Mewtwo that wanted to beat it up??
The second time, it kindly worried about Fang Yuan's safety when sealing Hoopa, and what did Fang Yuan do? He brought back Hoopa's evil side and dumped it in the World Tree for it to watch over??
Who knows how much sorrow it had to bear, to the point that it couldn't even rest peacefully afterward.
The crux was that every time, Fang Yuan had some reasonable argument for his actions, leaving it unable to retort—it was simply too difficult.
This time, before Fang Yuan went to the Pokémon World, it specifically told him that he could take his time and not rush back, considering Fang Yuan had been working so hard recently. Taking a half-year break wouldn't be a problem.
And yet, Fang Yuan returned in just one month!
This gave Dream a bad premonition. A lack of enthusiasm for vacation hinted at troubling thoughts. Probably, he had stirred up some trouble again!
How could it not wear a pained expression!
"(‵▽′)ψ Dream!!! Did you miss Hoopa?!"
Apart from Fang Yuan, of course, the one who accompanied him back was Dream's headache-inducing Super Demon God.
Little Hoopa immediately embraced Dream, eliciting a strained smile of greeting.
"Bimi~!!"
Victini covered its mouth to giggle. Awesome, it looked like they could play games with Dream again~
Dream feared nothing in heaven or earth, except Mewtwo and Hoopa.
With Little Hoopa's invitation, Dream had no choice but to join them for games.
"(｡◕ˇ∀ˇ◕) Bwoo!" Eevee also showed an excited expression. Charge!
With Dream on its team, Earth's gaming world was about to enter another era of domination.
"Mew..." Dream felt weary.
Alright, alright, there's no helping it with you guys.
But gaming was better than fighting, after all. It glanced around and noticed the absence of Mewtwo, immediately feeling a bit more at ease.
Next, Dream looked toward Fang Yuan, eager to find out why he had come back so early.
"The tablets have been gathered, so naturally I returned," Fang Yuan said with a stretch.
"Resting anywhere during a vacation is the same."
"Mew?!" Dream first blinked in surprise, then its expression brightened instantly!!!
"Mew!!?! (You've gathered them all?!)"
"Yep, but let's make a deal. Considering how quickly we gathered the tablets, how about you call the Lake Trio to use the Super Cronos Power to activate the tablets first, helping Eevee and the others in their training for half a year before we wake Arceus? After all, we're ahead of schedule, aren't we?" Fang Yuan suggested with a mischievous grin toward Dream.
The reason Fang Yuan came back early was precisely this: using the tablets alone to assist Eevee and the others in their training was too inefficient. However, with the Lake Trio's assistance, the process would be much quicker.
As he finished speaking, Dream's smile froze; it pouted, knowing Fang Yuan was up to no good.
However, Dream quickly returned to smiling and let out a sigh of relief. Fine, it could be taken as a reward for Fang Yuan.
"Mew!!! (But not for too long, and if there's any anomaly, stop immediately and wake Arceus.)" Dream stated earnestly.
Originally, Dream expected it would take up to 10 years to gather the tablets, but in the end, it only took one year to collect them all, an efficiency that greatly pleased Dream.
The World Tree Guardian was ready-to-go, the process of finding Celebi went smoothly, and Fang Yuan's speed in finding the tablets was impressive, making Dream's tablet gathering plan perfect.
"No problem, I didn't plan on using too much time anyway," Fang Yuan chuckled.
At this moment, with the tablets gathered, Dream began to feel anxious.
Ah, it was almost time to awaken Arceus...
But what if the risk of space-time collapsing was just its own overthinking? That would be a big problem.
Would that disrupt Arceus's rest and lead to a reprimand?
After all, it would be like doubting that Arceus hadn't fully saved their world, a lack of trust.
If it was real, that would be one thing, but if it was just overthinking, things would become awkward.
Indeed, Dream had not yet confirmed whether a space-time collapse would actually happen, only that there was a risk of it.
It urgently needed solid evidence but hoped that no signs would emerge to confirm a disaster... Dream decided to keep observing.
Logically, its world had collapsed because of an intense rejection reaction caused by merging with another space-time.
Therefore, as Exotic Space merged with Earth space, in theory, Earth space should also experience a rejection reaction, leading to space-time collapse.
This was Dream's hypothesis. Perhaps due to Exotic Space being too small and scattered, Earth space had not undergone any severe rejection reactions yet, only minor repulsion. This minor repulsion wasn't even enough to cause phenomena like the space-time anomalies in Alamos Town; it merely determined the speed of Exotic Space's integration... However, Dream still believed in the risk of intense rejection, maybe just farther in the future, resulting from more and more integration of Exotic Spaces from the past, present, and future. Hence, it kept monitoring the stability of space-time.