With the idea of leaving, Yvette planned to choose an auspicious day, preferably waiting until winter passed before setting out.
In the remaining days, she still had one crucial task to complete: exploring the dream fog in the submerged city.
Yes, in this small five-lane town called “Fus River,” there was actually dream fog.
Thanks to her habit of lingering in every ruined city for an extended period, partly due to her immortal nature being time-insensitive, another hidden reason was that she needed to conduct a thorough search to ensure no dream fog was overlooked.
Now her efforts were finally paying off; she had discovered a patch of dream fog in an area submerged by water.
It was hidden in a completely flooded street corner of a shop covered in slippery green moss, hard to spot under normal circumstances. She happened to notice it in a fleeting glance after spending a long time idly flying about, feeling frustrated and wanting to check if something was wrong with the watery area.
It can only be said that it was quite a coincidence.
So, on a cold morning, after arriving at this shallow water area, Yvette broke the ice on the river’s surface and submerged herself beneath the water.
She should have no fear of drowning due to her confidence as an immortal witch, but just in case, she cast a spell from the Tome of Pure Blue Magic to ensure she could breathe underwater for an extended period.
Next, before entering the fog, she quickly outlined several basic objectives for her dream journey.First, Fus River was a border city of the Rust Bone Free State, and her main target was the necromantic magic technology controlled by the cult organization “Holy Spirit Sect.”
She had only a superficial understanding of the five conceptual magics, and now she finally had the opportunity to delve into one of the two branches of soul magic.
Secondly, she aimed to find Zero and One. Although it was just a past dream, being able to deepen her understanding of herself would also help her grasp the nuances of her body, figuring out what her aberrant power and pure white tendrils truly were.
Next were some other minor goals of similar priority.
For example, gathering information on the hollow base beneath Kux, to see what secrets it held.
Strengthening ties with the Civilization Continuity Association and potentially seeking a chance to join the organization.
Additionally, burying time capsules at specific locations to test whether dreams could influence reality.
After running through her list of tasks in her mind, Yvette used earth magic to seal off the dream fog, then used ice magic to freeze it, excavating and transporting the ice blocks to create a makeshift underground chamber where she could breathe normally.
Then, she stepped into the fog, yawned, and slowly closed her eyes.
…
When her consciousness reassembled and her heavy eyelids slowly lifted, she was met with a dark and narrow space.
The first thing she perceived was utter darkness, with a few broken streetlights casting hazy beams through the window. The light fell on the dust-covered floor, cutting out irregular patches of illumination. The only window was fitted with a rusted iron security grille, and peering through the slats, she saw a deep, boundless night, dotted with a few pale glimmers that flickered as if they might extinguish at any moment.
What surprised her, however, was that this place did not seem to be in the city center of Fus River—which housed the skyscrapers of Water Tower Nation—but rather in a remote suburban area. The buildings here were low and dilapidated, the street outside almost eerily quiet, with lamentably few streetlights. A sense of abandonment and desolation hung thickly in the air.
Approaching the door of the room, Yvette turned the doorknob and discovered that it was locked from the outside. She frowned slightly; instead of forcing her way out, she examined the room’s layout, her expression gradually becoming strange.
The room resembled a multi-person prison, emanating a peculiar odor that mixed old dust, sweat, and disinfectant. Several rows of old double-decker metal bunks were crammed together, with peeling paint revealing dark red rust beneath. The walls were a dismal white, covered in stains.
In summary, it felt very much like a closed-off school from the last century, the kind governed by a formidable lightning king.
At that moment, the sound of hurried footsteps came from outside, accompanied by light-hearted laughter, apparently directed toward this room.
Yvette hesitated for a moment but did not rush to leave. Instead, she went to a corner of the room, where yellowish runic circles swirled around her hands. She reached out and pulled a layer of the adjacent wall to create an indentation just big enough to conceal her, perfectly hiding her form.
Curious about where she was, she intended to observe the people outside. If they were ordinary, good-natured locals from Rust Bone, she would ask them for directions to find a spot with an elemental wave receiver or a communication station.
—This place didn’t even have a network, so her magical terminal couldn’t be used to calibrate the local time.
Activating her magical terminal’s local translation function, Yvette waited quietly. As she knew, the Black Tide language was the official language of the United Eden Federation, generally useful, but in many remote areas, especially small countries, it wasn’t guaranteed to be reliable.
Especially in a backwater like the Rust Bone Free State, where most locals spoke dialects; having a translator might not ensure accuracy, but without it, she would have to rely on body language.
After a faint sound of a key scraping, the iron door creaked open. Yvette remained still in her makeshift hiding place, hearing a conversation outside, which, surprisingly, was not in a dialect but rather in clear Black Tide language.
“Everyone stay put! When the vehicle arrives tomorrow, we’ll send you all to the garden. Heard me? Don’t harbor any ill intentions, or I’ll handle you myself!” A cold, mocking male voice rang out, accompanied by the sharp clink of metal, indicating they were bringing out handcuffs.
“What do you want…? I’m a citizen of New Eden! The federal government won’t let you get away with this!” A young voice, filled with panicked terror, sounded as if the owner had finally broken down upon seeing the handcuffs, making a final futile struggle.
“Hahaha!” Laughter erupted from outside, obviously from three individuals. “New Eden? The federal government? Listen to this! A piglet is still a piglet!” The cold voice’s laugh was laden with mockery. “If you’re brave, call them! I advise you not to think about escaping; we’ve taken your passports, and it’s surrounded by our people. Unless you can dig through a rat hole, you won’t get away!”
“What? Under ten years old? Is there such a good fortune?” The man referred to as “the boss” suddenly raised his voice, breathing heavily with a twisted sense of joy.
Then came the chilling sound of metal handcuffs clanging together, followed by the sounds of struggle and resistance.
In her hiding spot, Yvette listened expressionlessly, roughly discerning the situation—this was likely a human traffickers’ base, and the so-called piglets being brought inside were the victims.
Considering that the Rust Bone Free State was nicknamed “the land of human traffickers” in the United Eden Federation, encountering something like this didn’t come as much of a surprise.
While pondering how to intervene quietly to minimize noise and avoid alarming anyone, she suddenly noticed a young trafficker in a yellow jacket who had, without her knowledge, approached the vicinity of the balcony. He casually glanced into the alcove and froze.
In the next second, his mouth opened in shock, and he stammered, “Boss… there’s a super beautiful girl… hidden in here…”
“What? How could there be someone hidden in this room?” The burly man referred to as “the boss” instantly squeezed forward. The light was dim, but Yvette could still see his face—the left side was covered in metallic patterns, one of his eyes glowing red, and the left arm was a matte alloy skeleton, clearly indicating he was a heavily modified cyborg.
Upon seeing Yvette, he displayed a similar look of astonishment, swallowing hard, speaking in a tone filled with greedy delight, “My goodness… which guy is keeping a beauty hidden here? I really need to thank that brother…”
Yvette narrowed her eyes, a faint smile playing on her lips. With this almost imperceptible movement, the air in the room suddenly turned cold, a gust of wind she couldn’t quite pinpoint surged forth, slamming the iron door shut, as if an invisible ghost extended its hand, creating an isolated space in that room.