Chapter 85

These small huts built on the vast grassland, though not resembling tents as Hao Ren had imagined, still bore the characteristics of a nomadic people: the huts had a framework of tough wooden strips, constructed into a nearly cylindrical structure. The gaps between the wooden strips were filled with flexible grass mats and indistinguishable woven materials, and the roof was a thick layer of grass, weighed down by heavy stones. The base of the walls was reinforced with baked, hardened clay pillars, making the huts look simple yet sturdy. Each cylindrical hut had a diameter of less than ten meters, and their shapes were largely similar. About a dozen such huts were sparsely distributed within an area enclosed by a fence, forming a primitive "village."

Hao Ren was eager to know what the human civilization in this dream plane looked like, so he didn't pay much attention to what was on the village's open ground. Instead, he directly pushed open the door of the nearest hut. With a creak, the door, made of wicker and tough grass, was pulled off its hinges.

"This doesn't look like it was recently left..." Hao Ren was taken aback by the rotten door frame. The door was hung on ropes, but the once tough ropes had long since rotted away, breaking at the slightest push. It seemed the wolves' sense of time was not very accurate, and the nomads might have left a long time ago.

"I hope this house doesn't suddenly collapse," Hao Ren muttered, carefully crawling into the nomad's hut. The data terminal floated beside him, emitting a steady glow, barely serving as a flashlight, allowing Hao Ren to see everything inside the hut.

As expected, the hut was empty. The former inhabitants had left in a prepared and orderly manner, so all the household items had been cleared out. The floor was bare earth, and Hao Ren found some indistinguishable fiber fabric in the corner, suggesting that a carpet or grass mat had once been laid here. On each wooden strip of the curved walls, metal hooks could be seen, which had likely once held weapons or tools. In the center of the hut, there was a black, sunken pit, possibly where a hearth had been.

Apart from this, there were no other traces left.

Hao Ren was somewhat disappointed. It seemed there were no valuable relics, not even a scrap of sheepskin.

However, the existence of the huts still revealed some things: there was indeed a human civilization in the dream plane, and it was quite advanced. They had metalworking skills (as evidenced by the metal hooks on the walls), construction techniques, and the ability to survive on the grassland surrounded by wolves. The dream plane was not just a desolate and bizarre space filled with beasts and monsters—though Raven 12345 had already told Hao Ren this, seeing it firsthand gave him a real sense of it.

"Do you know anything about the dream plane?" Hao Ren asked the data terminal floating beside him. "Hey, stop swaying, can you stabilize the light?"

"Go back and study the manual properly! You've never used this device correctly! This is a high-tech auxiliary device, not a flashlight, not a brick, not a flail, and certainly not a pet to play with!" The data terminal was full of resentment but still answered Hao Ren's question. "This device doesn't have much preloaded information. As a standard device for auditors, it only has the necessary work modules pre-installed. However, it can retrieve some information from the local universe channels... retrieval complete. Dream plane characteristics: authenticity, vastness, linear development, self-consistency, and influence on the real world. Do you need an explanation for each?"

"Explain, and I'll listen," Hao Ren said as he wandered around the hut, looking for any possible valuable clues.

"Authenticity: The dream plane has a definite real attribute. It is a real world with effective, computable rules. Although it is distorted, everything in it has an internal logic, and nothing is an illusion. Vastness: Due to various reasons, research on the dream plane has not truly begun. However, from a few rough spatial sensing results, the dream plane's size is likely comparable to the real world, and its vastness is worth exploring. If the management gods of this universe decide to start a large-scale exploration of the dream plane, the auditors will have a lot of work to do. Linear development: The dream plane is a space that develops and changes. Although it is strange, the things within it change linearly. There is a historical succession and evolution of all things, and everything has a linear cause and effect. Therefore, there are no inexplicable, baseless things here. This entry is a new addition, and its authenticity needs to be verified. Self-consistency: Everything in the dream plane is self-consistent, which is also a manifestation of its authenticity. Influence on the real world... this entry is redundant, and this device doesn't need to explain it."

Hao Ren listened half-heartedly, picking up the parts he could understand. Suddenly, a flash of light in the corner of the hut caught his attention.

He quickly walked over and found a small iron piece half-buried in the mud.

The moment he saw the small iron piece, Hao Ren felt a tremor in his heart, and a sense of familiarity spread from the depths of his being. When he dug out the metal piece, he was truly stunned:

It was a diamond-shaped metal piece, less than the size of his palm, partially rusted, and made of iron. The most noticeable feature was the patterns that looked like hieroglyphs. Hao Ren stared at the patterns for a long time, finally recognizing them as the ones he had seen recently—when he and Vivian were rummaging through the basement and found that metal piece!

"Damn..." Hao Ren muttered to himself, "Why do I have one of these at home..."

Before he could finish his sentence, a strange howl from outside interrupted him.

"Whoo—oo—" The wind howled from all directions, and the house began to rattle. Hao Ren looked up in shock and saw the entire roof being lifted off! The grass roof, weighed down by heavy stones, vanished in an instant, and the bright starlight and moonlight flooded the hut. Before Hao Ren could react, the walls began to shake violently and were then completely uprooted from the ground!

The word "hurricane" flashed through his mind, but Hao Ren had no time to react. He felt a sudden lightness in his feet and was lifted into the air along with the entire hut!

The physical enhancement gave Hao Ren great strength and a robust physique, but it didn't give him the ability to stand firm as a mountain. The strange hurricane that suddenly swept across the grassland instantly carried him to an unknown height. Before he knew it, he had already spun through the air dozens of times. In the wild spinning, Hao Ren kept bumping into various things, feeling dizzy and disoriented. However, he soon realized that what he was colliding with most frequently was not the fragments of the hut but a palm-sized glowing metal block. He was furious: "Data terminal! Are you out for revenge?!"

The data terminal, while circling around and bumping into Hao Ren's head, explained sincerely, "This device cannot control its direction. This hurricane is so terrifying..."

"Terrifying my ass! You've hit my face four... five times already!" Hao Ren was furious but didn't forget the main issue, "What's going on? Why did a tornado suddenly appear on a clear day?"

"How should this device know? The natural disaster warning function was messed up by 12345! It was replaced with a trial version of an extreme weather radar, which just passed the trial period last night—go write a complaint to the higher-ups if you have any issues!"

"You... " Hao Ren's angry words were cut short as he suddenly felt a darkness before his eyes.

A sense of weightlessness washed over him, followed by a thud. Hao Ren felt himself land on a hard surface. He opened his eyes and saw his familiar bedroom, with bright sunlight shining on him.

It was time to wake up, as the preset wake-up time for entering the dream plane had arrived.

Hao Ren was still immersed in the heart-pounding experience of being swept up by the tornado. Entering the dream plane was indeed a heart-stopping affair. He took a deep breath to calm his racing heart and then noticed something hard and uncomfortable under his buttocks.

He reached out and felt a diamond-shaped metal piece.

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