Since Visdre had returned to the white room. He tried to experiment with his abilities.

"It seems I will gain more abilities as the technique grows..."

"A system custom designed by ECHO through my experiences."

[ECHO]: Estimated system construction progress: (487/2500)

[ECHO]: Stage 487 - 15%

"I suppose I am already a hidden existence..."

Visdre couldn't wait to see what sort of powers he would get.

"I won't be idle during this time though."

Visdre didn't plan to rely on the system. He wanted to master his abilities. He had already experienced being able to fly with his spiritual body.

He also experienced being able to possess other peoples bodies.

"Just what sort of powers can I unlock? Do I have any limits?"

He left the white room and found himself surrounded by dream bubbles.

"This is the dream realm..."

Visdre had learnt of 'hidden rules'. He knew that at least in this universe, dreams were connected. So he decided to explore this realm.

The first thing he did was try to view the contents of the dream from the outside.

He failed at first. It required fine control of his spirit body. Eventually, he was able to observe the dream within the bubble without entering it.

[ECHO]: Stage 503 - 70%

He discovered something interesting from this experiment. There weren't just humans that dreamed. He also saw animals dream.

Whenever the existence woke up. The bubble would pop and the dream would collapse. Visdre wondered if he could replicate what he had done before to enter the physical world again.

He experimented with animals.

There were a few conditions he found that he must meet to 'attach' himself to the consciousness of the entity dreaming.

He had to find their spirit body in the dream.

He had to have physical contact with their spiritual body. He needed to also maintain this contact as the dream bubble popped.

It was similar to one of the steps of the technique. But instead of letting nonexistence infect you and brand yourself on it. He himself was infecting the consciousness in the dream and following it to reality.

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The resistance of animals was far weaker then humans. He could maintain control for much longer. But he felt his IQ decreasing. So he had to give up on using their bodies.

"It seems that the body I take over affects my mind."

The book talked of an independent consciousness. He figured he had one. But it was contaminated from his attempts to control other bodies.

Just like how his original body's IQ was only 70.

His memory recall and thinking speed stayed around that level. Although ECHO had told him it was now at 100.

But he could feel his thinking speed slow down and his reasoning disappear as he took over the bodies of animals.

"If I take over the body of a genius... will I become one?"

He got rid of this idea. He could barely control a body he had spent a year observing and practicing on hundreds of times.

A genius... he probably wouldn't be able to even maintain control for a second.

The transformation of his consciousness took time. He didn't notice himself become 'dumb' in an instant from controlling animals. It was a slow gradual process.

"I was only able to increase my possession time thanks to my familiarity with the person... I can only control a normal human for a few seconds..."

"This direction is pointless in the short term."

Visdre tried to manipulate the dreams of animals. He tried changing the environment. He felt a deep pressure from doing so.

If he had started with human dreams, the backlash would've turned him into an idiot.

"There seems to be something protecting mortal souls against hidden existences."

"Not only is it hard to affect their inner world. It is hard to forcefully control their bodies..."

"The universe seems hostile to hidden existences."

"Consciousness requires energy..."

"Why do I not require energy? What is powering my thoughts?"

Visdre had a lot of questions he needed to explore for himself.

"This entire time... why haven't I run into other hidden existences?"

He rotated his 'key' and entered his source castle. He had something important he would try doing. Using his spiritual body to explore was too risky. He almost wiped himself out when the person he was controlling killed themselves.

He didn't know what would happen if he hadn't relied on his key to enter the white room in time. It also took longer to rotate as the complexity grew. It now took over half a second.

"The technique talked of an avatar..."

"What if I can make an incarnation to explore the dream realm?"

"What if I can make a sort of Hivemind?"

He had remembered seeing something about a Hivemind on the main page of the technique. Unfortunately he hadn't read that chapter in time.

Visdre felt a deep connection with ECHO, commanding it was like moving a limb.

[ECHO]: New thread is being created...

Visdre held out his hand and a ball of condensed fog appeared within it. He had semi-transformed a part of himself into another thread.

He then threw it at the black door.

The moment it exited the white room. He ran into an issue.

[ECHO]: Connection lost...

"Perhaps I'll need to do something else."

He experimented with creating an incarnation of himself.

"It seems my 'source castle' isn't merely a source castle. It is completely isolated from everything."

"I think I will need to create a new 'source castle' outside of this room. One that I will have built myself."

Visdre left the room. He could always return by using his main 'key'.

He found a relatively empty space in the dream realm.

"What if I turn the entire dream realm into my..."

Step 13: Hidden Existence

He remembered the next stage of a 'source castle'. It was called a 'paradise'.

"Paradise."

He held out both hands as if embracing everything.

He tried to directly manipulate the dream realm just like he had manipulated the environment of an animals dream.

He exploded into a bloody mist.

He appeared in the white room screaming:

"Ahhhhhhhh!..."

He realized he was fine.

"I survived? What killed me?"