What exactly was happening?
Deep bewilderment filled Law's eyes. The fading firelight reflected in his pupils, where shadowy things squirmed like maggots for a fleeting moment before vanishing, completely unnoticed by Law.
Tonpa and Bruna were deep in sleep. Kuro sat motionless by the entrance. Having woken startled, Biscuit, who had been part of the previous dream sequence, didn't voice any concern. Like Tonpa and the others, she was asleep.
Law lowered his head slightly, looking at the fire with its faint, flickering embers. His eyes trembled slightly.
'A dream? Or a dream within a dream? Why were both dreams remembered so clearly, as if they were part of my actual memories?'
'Every sensation felt too real, every detail too sharp.'
The clarity made him instantly aware that something was definitely wrong, leading his thoughts toward the abilities of some bizarre creatures of the Dark Continent.
The most terrifying aspect of the Dark Continent was the super-gigantism of its creatures and environment. In comparison, humans became smaller than ants here, making it incredibly difficult for them to establish a foothold.
Beyond the gigantic creatures and harsh environment, there were also numerous unknown entities of normal size, some even smaller than humans.
These entities were partially described in Don's book. Unlike the destructive power of giant creatures, they possessed strange, incomprehensible abilities. V5 labeled them as Calamities… a term that might sound like an exaggerated metaphor but was actually the most accurate description.
The reason V5 hesitated to plunder the Dark Continent's known precious resources was their fear of these Calamities capable of causing human extinction.
Over a hundred voyages and landing attempts had resulted in countless human deaths, yet only five samples, remnants of encounters with these Calamities, were brought back.
The patient with the incurable disease that couldn't be called human anymore, self-sustaining by consuming their own blood for fifty years.
Human corpses twisted into the shape of hemp rope, flattened into dried husks, those whose heads were destroyed and organs hollowed out by Calamity...
The five discovered Calamity samples couldn't be handled and were sealed away in underground research facilities.
For years, countless manpower and effort had been expended, yet no solutions had been found.
These were the nearly insurmountable Calamities, the impossible obstacles blocking humanity's path to new frontiers.
Law suspected he had unknowingly fallen prey to the ability of one such Calamity, trapping him in dreams indistinguishable from reality.
Thinking this, Law abruptly scanned his companions. A deep worry surged from the depths of his heart.
Without understanding his own situation, he couldn't be sure what state Biscuit and the others were in.
He remained silent, then looked toward the tree hollow entrance and released his En.
The Nen Circle with its weak boundary passed through everyone in the hollow, rapidly expanding outward in all directions, covering an eight-hundred-meter radius in the blink of an eye.
The fluctuation of En disturbed the highly sensitive Biscuit, jolting her awake from her sleep.
She looked at Law, who was maintaining his En, but didn't immediately question him.
"Nothing... at all."
Everything he detected was motionless, inanimate objects, identical to the scenes from the first and second dreams.
'So, was this also a dream? If I left this tree hollow and headed in the same direction for about five kilometers, would I encounter strange things again?'
"What's wrong?" Biscuit spoke up now.
"Nothing. I just woke up, my Aura is full, so I thought I'd use En to check the surroundings," Law replied with a perfectly normal smile, though suspicion couldn't help but surface in his heart.
'Real or fake? Was this real or not?'
Recalling the long conversation with Biscuit in the second dream further tangled his thoughts into a ball of yarn.
'Damn it.'
He cursed inwardly, 'Was this a dream or reality?'
Hearing Law's words, Biscuit didn't comment further. She glanced at the nearly extinguished fire, then channeled Aura into her hand, gouged out a few moist pieces of wood from the tree wall, and tossed them toward Law.
Law was momentarily stunned but caught the wood in time.
This was exactly what he was about to do next, but this time, Biscuit had done it first and thrown the wood to him.
Law's mind reeled, but his face remained calm.
Silently, he extracted the moisture from the wood, split it into easily burnable shapes, and threw it into the fire. He injected a bit of oxygen to speed up the burning process.
"We came here in a hurry and still haven't scouted the area properly. You used En just now, so did you find anything unusual?" Biscuit asked, watching the rekindled flames.
"Nothing out of the ordinary. It's just... within an eight-hundred-meter radius, everything is inanimate. Not even a single insect." A flicker of surprise passed deep within Law's eyes, 'Was it because I used En that the dream's progression had changed again?'
'No, from the moment I woke up, it seemed like a return to the starting point, yet some things had changed. For instance, I woke up earliest, while Biscuit was still asleep.'
The constants were the wind and rain outside, the vigilant Kuro, the still-sleeping Tonpa and Bruna, and the nearly extinguished fire.
"Is that so…" A thoughtful expression appeared on Biscuit's face. After a moment of contemplation, she suggested, "If you've recovered well enough, it's best to go outside and investigate. I'll hold the fort here."
Hearing this, Law subconsciously clenched his fist, then quickly relaxed it, forcing a smile. "I was just thinking the same thing."
Biscuit nodded, raised her arms in a stretch, her eyelids drooping lazily. "I'm hungry."
"Uh, how about some canned fish and sausages?" Law glanced at Kuro.
"That'll work," Biscuit said with a smile.
Law called Kuro over and retrieved three days' worth of rations from his space. Afterward, he prepared to leave the hollow.
At the entrance, Law looked back at Biscuit, who was holding an opened can.
"Be careful," Biscuit said.
"Mm."
Law nodded, removed the bark covering, stepped outside, and slowly sealed the entrance back up.
As the narrow line of sight from the entrance narrowed to nothing and sealed completely, the firelight inside the hollow flickered. On Biscuit's lovely, cute face, a strange, eerie smile suddenly appeared. On her forehead, a faint seam became visible.
…
Law leaped down, landing on the ground.
His Domain deployed, isolating him from the cold rain.
This time, Kuro didn't urge Law to hurry and find ingredients. He remained as silent and still as a block of wood.
Law silently surveyed his surroundings…a forest where utter stillness and vibrant life coexisted.
The lush growth of the trees represented abundant vitality. The complete absence of any life within a certain radius represented deathly stillness.
'If this is a dream...'
Law thought to himself, fixed his direction, and used [Instant] repeatedly, moving at high speed.
It didn't take long for him to reach a spot roughly five kilometers away.
'I had already encountered two batches of strange creatures. What would it be this time?'
Appearing before Law was a gray rat roughly the size of a human, standing upright. It had a plump body, a long, pointed snout, and two large front teeth.
Law's gaze fell upon the rat's tail.
At the end of the tail was a plume of black smoke, within which two vertical pupils and a mouth stretched into a soundless, wide grin were visible.