In his past life, Falko was someone who slowly ground himself to death. He never experienced any affection during his childhood and thus wasn't accustomed to being cared for by others, like Aisha now does.
At this moment, he was moved to tears.
Although he felt his sister was a bit of an enabler, well, what's that saying? Your perspective depends on where you're standing.
As the one being supported, he thought she was an angel.
He pushed her hand back immediately.
"I'm not a child anymore, Aisha."
With his grand money-making plans already in motion, how could he be content with being a freeloader? Wouldn't that be an embarrassment to all transmigrators?
Aisha looked at her little brother, feeling like she barely recognized him.
Her eyes grew misty, recalling all their memories together. The two of them had depended on each other since childhood. Though not blood siblings, their bond had long surpassed that of a real family. Perhaps he truly had grown up.
"I need to get back to my mentor soon. Your body just recovered, so you absolutely must take this money!"
Ignoring Falko's protests, she stuffed the coin purse directly into his arms, then hugged him once more.
Her warm, soft body pressed against him, and Falko instinctively hugged her back.
She smells so good!
As if suddenly thinking of something, her face flushed and she quickly separated.
"Seeing... seeing that you're alright puts my mind at ease. When I have time, I'll come back to visit!"
With that, her figure hurriedly departed.
'Was she really in that much of a rush?!'
Falko was left dumbfounded.
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Sinnce he wouldn't be returning to the magic potion shop anytime soon, right now, he needed to think about his next steps.
Lunaria's class structure followed a pyramid model.
At the very top was the Queen of the Moon Elves. Next came the Temple and the Council of Elders, who ruled over the entire Moon Elf Nation.
The Temple priestesses, as devout followers of the Moon Goddess, bore the responsibility of spreading the goddess's faith. The propagation of the Dreamscape was crucial to this mission.
But unfortunately, due to its limitations, it had remained in a lukewarm state.
Over the past millennium, even the goddess's faith had begun to slowly erode. Other deities' faiths have even started seeping into the Nation.
In Falko's view, the main reason was rigid thinking and path dependency.
For thousands of years, the dream worlds have seen virtually no significant innovation.
These mindless power-fantasy scripts were quite fresh for the long-lived elves at first, but after seeing too many, they inevitably grew stale.
This led to one consequence: older elves had almost completely stopped deliberately entering the Dreamscape.
Watching faith hemorrhage severely, the Temple's high elders were desperate. So several decades ago, a new model emerged.
An annual Temple Selection, collecting outstanding works from the populace and adding them to the Dream Corridor.
Essentially, they would promote excellent works, and winners could receive substantial rewards.
This was admittedly a modest innovation, but without solving the fundamental problem, it was merely drinking poison to quench the thirst.
The Flower Dance Festival was also the day of the Temple Selection competition. This year's festival was in three days, so he needed to start preparing now.
He rummaged through his room, finally finding a formation disc in a chest.
It looked like it had been gathering dust for quite some time.
Made entirely of wood, crafted from branches of the Ancient Soultree, it bore a six-pointed star symbol with a moon pattern in the center. This was the medium for entering the Dreamscape, essentially a login device.
After becoming a priest or Dream Apostle, one could enter directly through meditation, but right now he was just an ordinary person.
He lay on the bed, placed it on his chest, and let his consciousness sink into sleep.
A sensation of consciousness falling.
When he opened his eyes again, he appeared in a vast forest.
All manner of magnificent and exotic plants, towering ancient jungle trees, and various unknown animals bustling about.
He recalled some fragments from his memories. After a moment, a pair of cicada-wing-thin wings appeared on his back.
With a gentle flutter, his body slowly lifted off the ground.
He felt somewhat excited. This was incredible! Though it was in a dream, the realism was exceptional.
In his previous life, he'd often dreamed of flying. Now, with this classic experience recreated, he excitedly flew around in all directions.
After a good while, he flew high into the air to observe. At the forest's center stood a massive city.
This was Lunaria's mirror world, also the main world of the Dreamscape, said to be a projection of the Moon Goddess's Divine Realm.
Many other elves were currently flying around in the sky as well.
A massive portal floated above the city, leading to the Dream Corridor. At its far end, one could enter their own dream world.
He flew towards the portal.
Upon entering, he found himself in a tunnel like a space-time wormhole, with all sorts of dazzling colors flooding his vision, making his eyes swim.
This entire place consisted of entrances to other dream worlds.
The whole corridor was composed of entrance after entrance, like individual billboards.
In fact, that's exactly what they were. This was equivalent to platform advertising and recommendations from his previous life; excellent works could be noticed more easily by others.
He flew around with great interest, looking everywhere.
All sorts of elves surrounded him as well. Some flew about randomly, while others gathered together in animated discussions.
"Quick, look at this! It's Master Gorin's new work, [Demon Realm Invasion]. I heard Master Gorin spent two years creating this masterpiece!"
"A master's work is guaranteed quality. We absolutely must experience this one properly."
"Pfft, obviously just another boring combat dream. Look at this one instead, I heard it's adapted from a famous wandering bard's work, [The Princess and the Seven Knights]."
"I tried it already. Not fun. I'm going back to play my [Ancient Labyrinth]."
"What would you know? You're only fit for playing those tired old relics."
As they spoke, the group devolved into trolls. Thank goodness combat wasn't supported here, or they'd clearly be coming to blows.
Falko watched with interest. So even in another world, there were internet trolls. Indeed, carbon-based life forms' competitive nature was universal no matter where yo go.
He looked around a bit more.
Then he randomly selected a dream world entrance, planning to experience it. He chose to enter.
The name was [Son of Heroes].
The story began.
He was just a farming peasant, but actually, he was a descendant of the ancient Hero King.
Then demon creatures invaded.
In the critical moment, he awakened his inherited bloodline, saved the village chief's daughter, became the village hero, and then began slaughtering in all directions.
Honestly, the scenery was quite grand, but aside from some satisfying moments in the opening plot...
The rest devolved into endless cycles of fighting, saving people, fighting, saving cities.
No other mechanics, just hack and slash from beginning to end, then bask in others' adoring gazes, receive the village chief's commendation, receive the town mayor's commendation, then receive the king's commendation.
Level up by grinding monsters while picking up girls along the way. Nothing else.
The world framework was large, but the content was pitifully sparse, mostly linear storylines.