Chapter 4. The Dream of Beginnings (1)

The Dream of Beginnings, a dream that invites only one person. Regardless of whether it is cleared or not, it disappears after a certain period of time.

A structure where even other Dreamers cannot interfere unless they are the chosen one. As a result, many victims emerged in the early days when the Dream Fog and Dreamers were not well understood.

Entering without any knowledge and acting foolishly, one would disappear along with the Dream of Beginnings if they failed to pass.

Ian stepped into the hazy fog without hesitation. He had maintained his best condition for today. There was nothing to fear.

Soon, an alien scene, detached from reality, unfolded before Ian's eyes.

'This is different from the Dream of Beginnings I passed in my previous life.'

The stage was the moon. However, it was not the moon as captured by satellites, but a moon with a mysterious, fairy-tale-like landscape.

The ground, starkly contrasting with the pitch-black night sky, was entirely white. Despite the lack of any particular lighting or light source, it shone brightly.

And in the center, a mortar.

'Huh? A mortar?'

At that moment, a quest window appeared.

〈Main Quest of the Dream of Beginnings: Moon, Moon, Bright Moon.〉

'The reward is... '

Awakening as a Dreamer and obtaining a unique skill.

It was a common reward from all Dreams of Beginnings, so there was nothing strange about it. It was only unusual because Ian was who he was.

'Even though I already have a unique skill, it’s giving me another one as a reward?'

A Dreamer can only have one unique skill. There were no exceptions.

It was a reward given only in the Dream of Beginnings, and since it only appeared once, it was natural.

'Once I clear it, I’ll understand.'

There was no point in overthinking it since the result would be known soon.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

A fluffy white rabbit hopped around, signaling the start of the quest.

Red eyes and long, perky ears. A jade rabbit the size of a human arm, completely non-threatening, and its appearance would likely make one feel guilty for hitting or tormenting it.

But what caught Ian's attention was something else.

'A rabbit? Could it be... '

Among Dreamers, there was a legend. The story went like this:

One day, the second-ranked Tamer, who was the strongest, praised his dragon as the mightiest summon.

"Master, I am confident that I am the strongest among existing summons. However, there is a truly supreme being."

"Are you saying there is a summon that surpasses you? How can I meet it?"

"When the heavens and earth are overturned and the fabric of space-time is distorted, it appears only once in the first dream..."

The second-ranked Tamer, who had been listening intently to the dragon's serious story, burst into laughter at the next words.

"The legendary max-level rabbit."

After that, the story of the legendary max-level rabbit became a long-standing joke and a source of amusement among Dreamers.

A rabbit is a summon that any Dreamer with the talent of a Tamer can tame as a basic summon.

Therefore, beginner Tamers who used rabbits as summons often heard the teasing joke, "Isn't that a max-level rabbit?"

In short, no one took it seriously.

Ian was no exception.

'What am I thinking? Anyway, every time I see a rabbit, I think of the legendary max-level rabbit because of that second-ranked Tamer.'

Shaking his head to clear his mind, Ian focused on the quest at hand.

'Why is there only one rabbit?'

If the quest required 100 mooncakes, shouldn't there be 100 jade rabbits? That way, they could be caught and made to spit out the cakes.

Deciding to observe first, Ian carefully watched the jade rabbit's actions without startling it.

"Chirp. Chirp."

The jade rabbit brought mooncake ingredients one by one to the mortar, seemingly from nowhere.

Then, as if preparing to pound the cake, it dipped its small front paws in water and grabbed a pestle three times its body size.

"Chirp~"

Sure enough, it displayed incredible strength, lifting the heavy pestle with ease while making cute sounds.

The sound of the pestle swinging was ominous.

'It can’t be a max-level rabbit. It’s a jade rabbit, so it’s different from a regular rabbit, of course.'

Rabbits were originally very weak, 1-level monsters. Therefore, the jade rabbit here could be considered a named monster, not a regular rabbit.

Named monsters were generally more aggressive, but there were rare cases of non-aggressive monsters.

Ian, who had a good idea of how the quest would proceed, frowned and checked the time.

Exactly 10 minutes after the jade rabbit started pounding the cake, a white, round mooncake appeared next to it.

'Damn, I have to collect 100 mooncakes, each taking 10 minutes to appear!'

Why fresh mooncakes? Because they were freshly pounded, of course!

It was a time-consuming and labor-intensive quest. Moreover, there was no guarantee that the jade rabbit would willingly give up the cakes. If he had to steal or forcibly take them, the time pressure would be intense.

'There must be another route. This can't be the end.'

At that moment, a new quest window appeared.

After checking the quest, Ian looked around. There were only two beings here: the jade rabbit and himself. And there was another pestle lying next to the mortar.

'He can't be telling me to pound the cake, can he?'

No, despite his initial denial, Ian knew the simplest and fastest way to complete the side quest was to become the jade rabbit's partner.

However, in this case, there was a separate partner for the jade rabbit. It was just that finding it was troublesome and cumbersome.

In the world of Dream Fog, if you didn't want to use your brain, you could use your body.

"Hey, Fluffy."

He called the jade rabbit "Fluffy" because of its fluffy fur.

The jade rabbit, which had been diligently pounding the cake, perked up its ears and turned around. However, its front paws continued to pound the cake without stopping.

Turning around, the jade rabbit showed no hostility, only a lack of interest, and continued to hop around and pound the cake.

"Hey, ignoring me? Where's your partner?"

"Chirp. Chirp."

"Rabbits won’t teach you even if you ask them..."

As he muttered, one of the jade rabbit's front paws, which had been holding the pestle, pointed in a certain direction. There, a large rabbit burrow had appeared.

'It taught me!'

Ian's face lit up upon discovering the rabbit burrow.

Currently, Ian had three options:

Wait for the jade rabbit to pound 100 cakes and then take them, become the partner and pound 100 cakes to take them, or enter the suspicious rabbit burrow, find the partner, and make 100 cakes to take them.

Regardless, the goal was to take the cakes, but the process was what mattered.

Ian first tried lifting the unattended pestle. He was curious about its weight, considering the small jade rabbit could swing it effortlessly, and he had another purpose in mind.

'X, it’s so heavy!'

It felt like he was holding a large chunk of metal. Just as he was about to admire the jade rabbit for handling such a heavy object so casually, a system message sounded.

The jade rabbit, which had shown no interest in Ian, suddenly perked up and hopped around excitedly. Well, it had been hopping around and pounding the cake the whole time, so there wasn't much of a difference.

As expected, Ian was satisfied that the jade rabbit showed affection. Although he had no intention of pounding the cake together, gaining its affection by becoming its partner was important.

This would help him lull it into a false sense of security and make it easier to strike when the time came.

Using the system's强制力就是这样。

〈石臼〉

‘果然如此。那我去看看吧？’

拖着沉重的石臼，伊恩前往了兔子洞。他选择的方法是三者皆有。

虽然在未来的日子里，几乎没有人知道，但在梦之始的梦境中，满足隐藏条件并以更高的难度通过，可以获得更好的奖励。

当然，如果没把握，选择普通且稳妥的劳动方式解决是最好的，但伊恩有信心。

这是一个罕见的系统，即使在觉醒前的幻梦者也能通过。因此，伊恩认为，拥有独特技能和丰富经验的自己，没有理由通不过。

突然，轻巧挥动石臼的玉兔浮现在伊恩的脑海中。伊恩愣了一下，然后轻笑摇头。

‘……不过是个低级兔子。不行的话，用技能就是了。’

将沉重的石臼扛在肩上，伊恩豪迈地袭击了正在睡觉的玉兔。

先发制人！

既然它在睡觉，就没有必要特意叫醒它。叫醒的方法，用棍子敲打就足够了。

没有人会在与怪物战斗时争论是否正大光明或卑鄙。

咔嚓！

伴随着呼啸的风声，伊恩的身体向前倾斜。

石臼朝着正在睡觉的玉兔的头部砸去。与其说是挥动，更像是掉落。

〈梦之始隐藏任务：工作吧，奴隶！〉

由于石臼非常重，借助重力的力量，对巨大的玉兔造成了巨大的伤害。

幸运的是，这并不是一只满级兔子，而是一只1级的，足以应对的水平。只是需要压制气势和精细的控制。

‘月球的重力并不低，真是不错。’

伊恩满意地微笑着，在巨大的玉兔恢复神智之前，有节奏地用石臼敲打。

动作轻快，仿佛在敲打蛋糕一样。