Chapter 134: Studying

"Really? Since when did you become so easy to talk to?"

Huang Ze was astonished. He couldn't tell if his heart had been tempted by the high interest rates or if it was simply brimming with confidence in his ability to repay the debt, firmly believing he would live for another thousand years.

Huang Ze hoped it was the latter.

...

Even while recharging, Huang Ze never neglected his studies.

Mainly, this was because his mastery of various abilities was not yet solid enough; he needed a vast amount of study and practice to improve and consolidate them. Currently, he believed the area most in need of improvement was his mental power.

After all, this directly related to the limits and duration of his brain's overclocking, his mental guidance capabilities, and the stability of his mental world—and even his soul.

Therefore, he consciously intensified his efforts in this field.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) was actually quite interested in this, though due to certain innate limitations, they hadn't made much progress. However, they did provide a sound suggestion: the Black Dragon could try starting with Nightmares.

Nightmares are classic semi-psionic creatures. Legend has it that they walk freely between reality and the dream realm, feed on the brains of sentient beings, and are excellent dream weavers. In the application of mental power, one could say they are highly gifted.

"Starting with dreams... that actually sounds quite good."

Huang Ze was lost in thought.

Dreaming is almost an innate human talent. In certain stages of physical development, dreams rich in logic and imagination can effectively promote the development of brain cells. It is no exaggeration to say that a person's capacity for dreaming in childhood is directly related to their future intelligence; after all, the brain is like any other tool—the more it is used, the sharper it becomes, and the earlier it is developed, the greater its room for growth.

"Moreover, unlike projecting someone else's consciousness into my own mental world—where they have to endure high-speed time dilation and massive amounts of information they aren't meant to handle..."

"For normal people, the subject of dreaming is their own brain, which possesses excellent self-protection mechanisms. Once a certain threshold is crossed, the dream automatically ends. Furthermore, after waking, the brain quickly clears the memories of the dream to prevent this invalid data from occupying its memory banks."

"So... dreams really do have high development value for humans!"

Huang Ze’s eyes lit up. He planned to study Nightmares thoroughly to see if he could learn their talent for weaving dreams and then use it to craft "positive energy" dreams to project for those in need.

"Hmm... actually, creatures like Nightmares could also be put to work."

Everything can be put to work, Huang Ze suddenly mused.

"There are plenty of people domestically who seek thrills and novelty. We could have Nightmares start a 'Nightmare Manufacturing Company,' customizing nightmares for clients. The more thrilling, suspenseful, and dramatic, the better—wouldn't that be far more attractive than haunted houses or murder mystery games?"

"Besides... because of the brain's self-protection mechanism, almost everyone forgets what happens in a dream. But Nightmares can remember! They could fully utilize their racial advantage to find a way to record the client's dream and then sell it back to them!"

This would be equivalent to letting the client experience a movie where they were the protagonist. For those with such a penchant, charging a few thousand or even ten thousand wouldn't be unreasonable, right?

The more Huang Ze thought about it, the more promising it seemed. He decided that if he ever had the chance, he would definitely capture a few Nightmares to play with.

...

The learning materials the CAS found for the Black Dragon regarding Nightmares were not very extensive. After all, such creatures were somewhat rare, and understanding their true nature was no easy task.

Huang Ze tried studying them for a while but couldn't find any clear direction. Instead, he began to feel drowsy; he had severely depleted his mental power over the past two days and desperately needed to replenish it through deep sleep.

"Forget it, I'll sleep for a bit... but I must set an alarm. If I sleep for several years, it’ll be a disaster."

Huang Ze muttered to himself. Ever since he became a dragon, he rarely entered deep sleep.

For one, it wasn't necessary; a dragon's body is powerful, and a short nap is usually enough to alleviate fatigue. Secondly, he worried about falling into an eternal slumber. Rumors of dragons sleeping for months or even years were quite common, and he was terrified of sleeping so soundly that he could be slaughtered without even knowing it.

Of course, there was another factor: his brain was too rigid to dream. Without the ability to enter a dream state, what was the point of sleeping for long periods?

Huang Ze had his heart set a timer to wake him in six hours, then decisively cut off the relay signals from his major nervous systems. In the blink of an eye, he descended into deep sleep.

"This ability is actually quite good... at least I don't have to worry about insomnia anymore!"

Huang Ze felt very satisfied. The fact that his brain could perfectly exercise its subjective initiative and maintain absolute leadership over his body was wonderful—he could sleep when he wanted and wake when he wanted. It was simpler, more refined, and clearer than living like a machine.

"Wait... if I'm in deep sleep, how am I still thinking?"

Huang Ze realized this belatedly and hurriedly opened his eyes.

"This seems to be my mental world... how did I end up here?"

Huang Ze scanned the pitch-black surroundings, stunned.

He hadn't lied earlier; his mental world was truly at an elementary stage. It was as empty as a starless vacuum—nothing there at all. He felt quite embarrassed to invite anyone into such a place.

Huang Ze had actually tried to see if he could create a star or a planet here, indulging in the fantasy of being a creator. Unfortunately, the operation seemed a bit too difficult. He tried for a long time, but couldn't even conjure up a single luminous pearl, let alone a sun. Perhaps his mental accumulation was still insufficient, and a qualitative change had yet to occur.

"I always feel like my mental world is a bit different from the little red dragon's..."

Huang Ze couldn't help but mutter.

According to the little red dragon, the mental world is actually a virtual construct, woven and imagined through mental power, heavily influenced and controlled by one's subjective will. However, that wasn't the case for Huang Ze. His subjective will was useless here; he couldn't create anything.

"What should I do now?"

Huang Ze regretted setting the sleep timer for so long, as he was now trapped here with no way out, blindly wandering in the dark.

"Should I try to sleep again... and see if I can 'nesting-doll' my way into a deeper level of the mental world?"

Huang Ze had a sudden thought, though it was just a thought—he couldn't fall asleep at all. It was as if in this place, his consciousness had lost the very concept of sleep; he felt perfectly awake at every moment.

With nothing better to do, he began to wander around, checking how vast this place truly was. After an unknown amount of time, he vaguely saw a light in the distance!

*I Really Don't Want to Be a Dragon*