What is the difference between a dream world and a real world?
The mortals living inside cannot know whether their world is real or a dream. However, from the outside, it is easily noticeable.
Dreams exist in a different charge of reality from their surroundings; people living in a dream world cannot affect reality.
However, dreams could become real.
As explained before, the key is souls. Even people living in dream worlds have souls; the more souls there are, the faster the creation's recognition.
For the creation, dreams and illusions are no different from reality. The creation only recognizes the inner souls that it grants.
The creation is limitless, omnipotent, omniscient, and unbiased toward all; it doesn't discriminate based on what charge of reality one is in.
The universe around a dreamworld instinctively resists another charge of reality growing in it, so once the number of souls in a dreamworld exceeds a limit, the universe around begins to slowly change the charge of the dreamworld, bringing it to reality.
Dreamworlds and illusions’ charges are very close to the real world’s.
There is an infinite spectrum of charges, and when two charges of reality get too far apart, they can no longer observe each other.
The fact that people in reality, dream worlds, and illusion worlds can observe each other shows their closeness.
The dream concept and illusion concept are both specialized in dealing with different changes of reality, although their methods are different.
In general, the dream concept is better at reaching further into different charges, while the illusion concept is better at affecting and controlling charges closer to reality.
What is reality? Reality is the dominant charge of the surrounding environment.
There are ways to reach further and observe far into different charges of reality, but those take lots of energy.
One way is called the dreamworld loop.
First, one creates a small dream world, then creates another dream world inside the first dream world, and so on.
Each charge of reality can only communicate with another charge that is not too far apart from it; that means a dreamland could communicate with the reality around it because it is not far apart.
For example, if one considers reality as 0, the dreamland is only 0.1, and because they are so close, they can communicate.
Reality, however, cannot communicate with a dreamland in charge of 0.4 because they are too far apart.
The dreamland loop method allows one to create another dreamland in a dreamland. Because the charge of the first dreamland is 0.1, it can communicate with 0.2. Then, create another dreamland in 0.2, which can communicate with 0.3; create another dreamland in 0.3, which can communicate with 0.4.
The dream loop method is costly but is considered the cheapest method of reaching far-away charges of reality. Looking into different charges of reality is very high-end, so only upper-rank 13 and rank 14 civilizations can even try doing it.
In general, most charges of reality are empty, but there are major charges.
Everything likes to gather in one place, whether it is matter or the charges of reality.
Two major changes of reality generally wouldn't be close to each other; if they were close, they would eventually merge. Only if they are far apart would they remain as two different charges.
Over the years, the distances have stabilised, so rarely any collision happens. However, because the creation is infinite, even rarely colliding means there are endless collisions every moment.
The other way of communicating through different charges of reality is through sheer power; one can break the fabric using the energy of creation.
Rachel’s grey energy is an example; she can travel to different charges of reality without any trouble, although that would cost a lot and has a low return.
Even if it is possible to see and communicate between two charges of reality which are far apart, nothing can move from one charge to the other without first harmonizing the charges, which would be extremely energy-consuming.
Trade between different charges of reality is nearly impossible as the energy needed to harmonize the charges would cost far more than any profit.
…
Lee had kept her eyes on Alex's dreamland for many years and sighed with relief when no news from candles came.
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She has been worried about their reaction when they detect their influence eliminated from this dream world.
There was a meagre chance of them attacking her over a single world, and the cost of a battle would have far exceeded any profit from a dream world.
In general, there is no incentive to fight among high-level civilizations. It's because there is nothing to loot. Unless one defeats their opponent instantly, the war will be prolonged and consume reserves on both sides.
At this high level, there is nearly no war over resentment or revenge; these immortals have lived for too many years to count and think like robots; they only care about profits.
Those novels of old immortal cultivators millions of years old acting like children are just that: fiction. In reality, immortal cultivators don't care about anything but profits and the pursuit of their paths.
Any short-tempered or emotional person would be weeded out before reaching immortality. Nobody who is emotional and short-tempered can even become immortal. The road to immortality is a filter that only allows the most ruthless and focused people.
Who can sit down in one place and cultivate for millions of years? Only people who only care about their path and nothing else.
Zagronan, Lana, and even Lee are exceptions. Rachel helped them; they were not the norm.
Other exceptions might include immortals from huge cultivation families that reach immortality with their entire family's resources.
Lee watched as the final day finally arrived.
…
How does a dreamworld look? It looks like a normal world. Its only peculiarity is that one cannot touch or affect it normally.
Alex's dream world was like a big egg shining with blue light. The blue light was because it was getting closer to the charges of the world around her.
If it shines red, it is getting further from the reality around it.
Usually, dreamworlds don't shine at all, as they don't move in charge at all.
Alex's dream world, however, has been shining with blue light for millions of years.
Lee watched as the blue light gradually faded away.
"It's done!" she laughed.
There was no explosion, no chaos, or anything.
When the dreamworld’s charge stabilized, it stopped shining any light. It was just a white egg floating in the endless space without any shine.
Lee went forward and touched it without using any dream special method; indeed, she could contact it with normal methods.
"Great! Now, let's make it shine!" she went into the world’s core to do two things.
First, she had to remove the second core and give it back to the Anti-Rachel; otherwise, they might charge her for another 50,000 years.
Second, she has to turn on the Shining function in the world's core.
Why do worlds usually shine? It's because their creators set them up to shine.
Shapes of the world, their size, colour, etc., are all set by their creators; there is no correct way to go about it.
But, most do set their worlds up to shine, as it has advantages.
One is that chaotic beings living in chaos generally run from light, so a world shining would reduce the risk of attack.
Nowadays, there are few chaotic beings, but this culture is mostly left intact.
A world being dark wouldn't affect the perception of it by immortals who may attack it.
A rank 10, 11, or 12 immortal could detect a world, whether it shines or not; keeping a world dark might instead be attention-grabbing, as nearly all worlds shine.
The mainstream is a shining world, and dark worlds are instead the abnormal ones that attract attention.
Lee went into the core, which was the same as before. Nothing changed inside; the mortals didn't notice anything different.
After working on the core for a while, Lee left. Looking down, she smiled when she saw an egg-like world floating and shining with bright silver light.
…
Alex III has been awake in the last few thousand years. He doesn't want to lose the moment the world becomes realized.
He wants to be the king of all when everything becomes real, so he has again ordered his vampires to take over everything. This time, he remained active, and so nobody forgot about him.
He counted the days and knew exactly when it would happen.
He didn’t know what to expect. Do the two dream worlds become one integrated real world or two different real worlds?
He decided to remain in the modern cultural dream world after considering possibilities. He has to admit that modern civilization is just better and has more potential, so if he chooses one, he chooses the modern side.
He also brought many of his vampires to the modern culture dream world.
…
“Is this all?!” he looked around and noticed nothing different. Nothing is more real than it was a moment ago.
Mortals do not notice anything, and Alex III is not an exception to this rule.
One may think vampires like Alex are immortal, but they are not; they are mortals, and the world’s law permits them to live long.
Alex, from the perspective of the world, is just a mortal like everyone else.
Only those with complete laws are true immortals who could live forever out in the endless space.
Using his subworld-timeline travel ability, he was surprised to find the Medieval culture dreamworld just as it always was there.
“Is something wrong?” He expected at least some sign that would allow him to find and distinguish reality from dreams. But there was just nothing.
“Very underwhelming!” he thought while sighing. His calculations couldn’t be wrong; the world must have been realized, but he just couldn’t discover a single difference.
…
Lee looked at the state of the world.
She knew exactly what happened during the realization; after all, she studied its codes for many years.
Everything that was a dream world has been realized into a single real world with two parts: modern culture and medieval culture.
Nobody, with one exception, can move between the two.
Due to Lee's intervention, Alex can move and transport others between the two.
She granted him the power to move between different timelines, subworlds, and even the two main dreamworlds.
She always favoured him and helped him tremendously throughout the years; after all, her final aim was always to realize Alex.
The Alex II I in this world is not the true Alex, the unrealized dream of Karl, but he is the closest thing to it Lee has achieved.
The true Alex, if realized, would be at least a rank 12 mage.
Lee has little chance of achieving that, so she is happy with what she has accomplished.
As for realizing Alex completely, that is a very long-term goal.
…
Worlds with smaller worlds within them are not rare; there are massive worlds with many subworlds within them.
But those are usually massive worlds; rank 10 worlds are usually contiguous.
“He has to become immortal with his own effort!” Lee thought. She could help Alex to become rank 10, but she won't do it.
Already, she had helped him too much; any more help might have a reverse impact, making him dependent on her.
He has an infinite lifespan and can do anything within the bounds of the codes of the world with his ancient godpowers. He definitely can discover a complete law by himself without her help.
It may take a long time, but for an immortal, time is cheap, so he can definitely do it; it's just a matter of time.