So, the normal playbook for entering a dreamscape like this would be to start exploring and searching for that so-called Clockmaker's Legacy, right?
NOPE! That's not what happened at all. In fact, you could say... the two of them were having a pretty good time, just enjoying a different kind of life in human form within the dream.
Back at the main plaza of The Reverie Hotel, the large crater from Stelle's landing had already vanished. The dream version of The Reverie Hotel was under renovation, so there was no chance to take a look inside.
At the main entrance stood a golden clock face, its hands frozen, perpetually pointing to the time that defined The Golden Hour.
Stelle wasn't in the mood to hunt for the Clockmaker's Legacy just yet.
Ever since she'd learned the truth about the Penacony dreamscape, her interest had completely evaporated. It was all just a parade of dreamlike oddities, as repetitive as photos on a roll of film.
Though the pictures were different, the method of recording the images—the film itself—never changed.
"It really is a scene straight out of someone's imagination. But if it's just this kind of dream, couldn't it be created in reality, too? It's not like the universe is short on the materials or methods to make these things."
The first things that came to Stelle's mind were all sorts of bizarre cosmic technologies. In her view, the content here wasn't particularly advanced or strange. Even the spatial distortions she saw could be recreated through corresponding technologies like spatial folding and remodeling.
Add in some more audiovisual and sensory effects, and you could perfectly replicate the feeling of this dreamscape in the real world.
[It's just a matter of cost. In a dream, you can drastically reduce construction costs while also allowing people to complete the process through an experience. Compared to maintaining massive real-world structures, a dream is more like selling something with no intrinsic cost for an extremely high price, thereby siphoning more wealth from the universe.]
[A golden goose that endlessly lays eggs like this... I imagine the Corporation that originally owned this place wouldn't give it up so easily. Wealth itself requires sufficient real-world power to maintain. Otherwise, a toddler carrying gold through a bustling market is a very strange sight indeed.]
"Do you have to fight over things like this in your world, too?"
[Of course, similar situations arise. It's just that what people considered 'gold' back then is somewhat different from what you consider 'gold' now.]
[If you take a bottle of soda to a primitive tribe, that shiny bottle is the 'gold' in their eyes. They would most likely try to rob you for it.]
[Later on, people would come to believe the soda formula in your bottle is the gold. Later still, they would think the wisdom to create new formulas is the gold. After that, you, the person with the wisdom, become the gold. The definition of gold is constantly evolving.]
By now, Stelle and Noldrei had wandered into Eildon Park, an amusement park funded by the soda brand SoulGlad.
"Wow, so you're saying there's quite a lot of 'gold' hidden here in Penacony."
[I looked up some relevant historical data when I arrived. For example, Penacony was originally a planet the Interastral Peace Corporation used to exile prisoners.]
[Though I don't quite understand how the IPC, even at their level, still resorts to an outdated method like exile. They haven't even evolved their relations of production beyond the old-era capitalism bound to a single planet.]
[But that doesn't stop the IPC's mentality of pursuing asset growth across the universe. Since their former penal colony has been transformed into such a bustling and prosperous place, they will definitely try to extract more economic benefits from it.]
Stelle was curious about Noldrei's words. "If it were you, what would you do?"
[Me? My goodness, this isn't some high-end, uncontrollable technology. It's nothing more than using a special energy called Memoria to construct a dream-activity space to sell so-called spiritual experiences to humans. What's so praiseworthy about that, that it's called a treasure?]
[Would you be satisfied with having a cheap, mass-producible platform for spiritual needs in your hands?]
Stelle scratched her head, her expectations for Penacony taking another blow.
How was it that the more he talked, the less valuable this whole thing seemed?
Somehow, this place... didn't seem as appealing to her as it did at first.
"If you keep talking like this, there'll be nothing left to enjoy. Now I don't even know what I should be looking at anymore."
[No need for that. Just keep wandering.]
[The first thing we need to understand is that, for the most part, humans can only comprehend dreams they can understand. If none of the people who enter the dream have ever experienced a certain thing, then that certain thing cannot be replicated in the dream.]
[Let's say only the people on a certain planet have eaten a certain type of food that is unique in the universe. But none of the people who have come to Penacony to dream have ever eaten this food. Then they cannot create the taste of this food out of thin air in the dream. Do you understand?]
[This is 'even in a dream, there are impossible things.']
[A dream cannot reproduce an experience that a person has never had.]
Stelle seriously pondered Noldrei's words. After thinking for a long time, she said, "So, does that mean we can think about it in reverse? The parts that our bodies cannot experience cannot be reproduced in a dream. Is that what you mean?"
"In that case, how can we find something that none of the people who come to Penacony have experienced? Since I haven't experienced it, then even I wouldn't know that I haven't experienced it."
She spread her arms, as if embracing the entire Golden Hour.
"Look, the experience I'm having right now could just be a replication from other dreamers. Just like the soda we drank earlier. Even though we don't have the drink anymore, the dream retained that part of the experience, letting us re-live it.
"I have no way of distinguishing whether my experiences in the dream are mine or someone else's."
"In that case, being in a dream means I can't tell the difference between reality and the dream."
"Even certain silicon-based life forms can use the properties of Memoria to enter the dreamscape and create unique experiences that only machines can feel. If I encounter a situation like that, how am I supposed to perceive the difference between dream and reality within an unknown experience?"
"I can't easily distinguish the truth of something I've never known. If I can't even tell real from fake, how can I possibly know what's possible and what's impossible?"
[Of course there's a way. In fact, it's so simple you can easily know what 'the impossible thing in a dream' is.]