The transition into the dream was so seamless I barely felt any interruption at all—like one of those early school mornings when the classroom is still half-empty, you pull out a book to kill time, and the next time you look up the room is buzzing with voices.

  When awareness returned, the living room was already thick with dense gray fog… No, this wasn’t the living room anymore. There were no walls, no furniture—just endless mist stretching in every direction. I was no longer sitting on the sofa; somehow I’d ended up standing without noticing. The backpack and empty jar I’d been holding were gone.

  There was no floor beneath my feet, only layers upon layers of gray fog. I had no idea why I could even stand here, yet the sensation underfoot was strangely familiar—like walking on beach sand.

  My body felt odd too. By touch and internal sense, everything was normal; I could even feel the weight of clothes and shoes. But visually, my entire form was shrouded in darkness, as though I’d been condensed from black mist.

  This was clearly a dream. I’d simply collapsed from exhaustion and passed out. Only now did it sink in. Maybe I should have shifted into fire elemental form before falling asleep—then I wouldn’t have needed rest at all. Right now I should be racing against time to analyze and track Alice’s whereabouts, not wasting hours unconscious.

  But since I was already here, there was nothing to do but move forward. A dream shouldn’t take up much real-world time anyway. And this dream was obviously far from ordinary.

  I’d encountered this gray fog twice before. Once when I touched the black jade in the basement; once in a recent dream that replayed the night before I awakened my powers, where the gray mist had appeared at the end. I always kept the black jade close—maybe the second time had been its doing too.

  Had the black jade pulled me into another dream?

  This was unmistakably anomalous.

  My mind, drawn to phenomena that defied common sense, felt curiosity and the thrill of adventure take over.

  Standing still probably wouldn’t change anything, so I started walking deeper into the gray mist.

  One minute, ten minutes, thirty… I had no idea how vast this mysterious foggy dreamscape really was. I walked for what felt like ages without finding any boundary—sometimes it even felt like I was treading in place. Maybe there simply wasn’t one. Without a watch or timer, I could only guess at the passage of time through vague instinct.

  After who-knows-how-long, even my self-proclaimed patience began to wear thin in this monotonous void. I started wondering if there was a way to force myself out. There were clearly no exits or entrances. Last time I’d escaped this gray-mist space by regaining normal consciousness and emotion. This time I’d entered with both intact from the start—yet I was still trapped.

  During the dull stretch, I tried calling on my superpowers. Unfortunately, they didn’t respond. It wasn’t like they’d been sealed or blocked by some external force. The best way to describe it: like suddenly forgetting how to write a familiar character. Very dreamlike.

  This feeling of being completely powerless was strangely nostalgic.

  I often wondered what kind of life I’d have led without superpowers.

  Without them, maybe I’d have pushed myself to become a war correspondent, an explorer, a blood-soaked mercenary—or even a criminal who destabilized society. Of course, there was always the chance I’d simply forget everything and fade into an ordinary, unremarkable existence.

  But after the enlightenment beneath the cave—after truly seeing my own nature—it became impossible to picture a “normal” version of myself anymore.

  Compared to the versions of me who might have become a war reporter, explorer, mercenary, or criminal, I sometimes thought the current me—the one wielding unparalleled “extraordinary power”—might actually be the weakest version. The version that stretched out from the soft, vulnerable words I spoke in that fourteen-year-old dream.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The adventure beyond reality… was right here in reality.

  Knowing that, I still couldn’t help drifting toward worlds of fantasy…

  Suddenly, a faint, unfamiliar footstep echoed from somewhere deep in the fog, snapping me out of my thoughts.

  I raised my head alertly and looked toward the sound.

  It wasn’t an illusion. The footsteps grew clearer—similar to my own, like treading on sand. Before long, they drew close enough that a very strange intuition rose in my chest.

  —The owner of those footsteps was someone “extremely terrifying.”

  This was the first time I’d ever felt that way about anyone.

  Especially after awakening my powers, I’d never sensed real “danger” or “terror” from another person. It was like the difference between standing face-to-face with a large predator in the wild versus watching one on a screen—the visceral terror was exactly what I was tasting now.

  The moment that unfamiliar emotion surfaced, the footsteps’ owner seemed to sense something too. They abruptly stopped moving.

  Then, from the other side came a highly guarded voice: “—Who’s there?”

  It was an adult male voice.

  I didn’t answer rashly. He didn’t speak again either. The standoff stretched, tense and awkward. I stared through the thick gray fog toward the source of the voice; he was clearly just as wary of me.

  For a moment we were like two armed hunters who’d unexpectedly crossed paths in a midnight forest—unable to tell whether the other meant harm or not, unsure whether to back away or advance. Neither of us moved recklessly.

  After a while, I decided to take the initiative and walked toward him. At the same moment, he seemed to have the same thought. We met halfway.

  His figure emerged from the mist. Like me, his body appeared to be condensed from black fog—nothing more than a humanoid silhouette.

  He was much taller than me—at least a meter eighty-something. From the outline, he looked like someone who trained regularly: muscular but not overly bulky, giving an impression of lean, balanced strength.

  His scrutinizing gaze fell on me, clearly assessing my threat level. I had no intention of threatening him, yet after sizing me up, his wariness only seemed to deepen. His posture remained tense, muscles coiled.

  “Who are you?” he asked again.

  “That’s my question,” I replied. “Who are you, and why are you here?”

  After I spoke, for some reason his tensed muscles visibly relaxed.

  “I entered this dream through a God Seal fragment,” he said, his tone suddenly friendly. “Are you the same?”

  God Seal fragment?

  I had no idea what he was talking about—at least not by that name. If I had to guess… the black jade. That had to be how I’d been pulled here… Was the black jade what he called a God Seal fragment?

  God Seal… I’d heard that term before. It was what Alice mentioned right before she left.

  —I will prove the apocalypse to this world, or find the God Seal and put an end to its arrival once and for all.

  Was the “God Seal” Alice spoke of the same as the “God Seal” whose fragments this man mentioned?

  Should I pretend I knew what a God Seal was and try to fish for more information? Or just ask him directly?

  Before I could decide, he seemed to read the truth from my hesitation.

  “I see… you don’t know what the God Seal is…” he murmured thoughtfully.

  Since there was no point pretending, I asked outright: “Is the God Seal fragment you’re talking about something that looks like black jade? And what exactly is the God Seal?”

  He nodded—confirming my first question—then answered the second: “The God Seal is a legendary artifact said to grant any wish.”

  “Any wish?” I repeated, my tone carrying more disbelief than I intended.

  “Any wish,” he confirmed. “At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”

  The black jade… was actually a fragment of an all-powerful wish-granting device? It sounded absurd. But if it was true, no wonder Alice believed that finding the God Seal could stop the apocalypse.

  But… if it had already shattered into fragments, did that mean the wish-granting power was gone? Or could the wish still be granted once all the pieces were reunited?

  If Alice’s goal was to collect these black jades, then maybe showing her mine would have convinced her to stay. But back then, my whole plan hinged on keeping her from realizing she’d stumbled into anomalous events—so naturally I couldn’t reveal the black jade.

  And all of this rested on the assumption that the black jade really was a fragment of the God Seal Alice mentioned. I wasn’t about to blindly trust this stranger’s words. Maybe no such wish-granting device even existed.

  Then he spoke again.

  “Would you be willing to trade your God Seal fragment to me?” His tone was extremely polite.

  “You just said this thing can grant any wish,” I pointed out. “Now you’re asking me to trade it away. Doesn’t that seem contradictory?”

  “What grants wishes is the complete God Seal. The fragments alone have no such power.” He explained patiently. “Rather than holding onto a useless piece, wouldn’t it be better to exchange it for something practical in the real world? Don’t you think?”

  “You were kind enough to answer my questions, so thank you,” I said. “But I’m sorry—this fragment is still useful to me. I can’t trade it right now.”

  If I ever found Alice again, the black jade might serve as one bargaining chip to convince her to stay. I had no idea what this man intended to offer, but there was no chance I’d hand it over now.

  “I see…” He stared at me, clearly weighing something in his mind.