C77 — The Ideal Restaurant

Could it be that the condition to enter the third “Pillar” was to be taken away by the police?

 

But those people who mysteriously disappeared before hadn’t had any run-ins with the police, nor had they broken any rules. Some of them were just walking around when their feather monitors suddenly vanished—and then they were gone.

 

“Let’s check out the place where the feather disappeared first,” Mu Sichen said.

 

However, the police car had already driven quite a distance away, and running there on foot would be too slow. Mu Sichen had just spent 10% of his trust value to put Butterfly into a one-day sleep mode—he wasn’t willing to waste time like this.

 

Luckily, they had money now. He Fei casually hailed a taxi, and the three of them got in, heading to the place where Ji Xian’an went missing.

 

Once inside the cramped space of the cab, all three of them felt an inexplicable sense of unease. Chi Lian kept a close eye on the driver, nervous that he might be a follower of Butterfly or possess some other mysterious power.

 

Only this seemingly normal taxi driver—who, notably, had no sanity value—chatted casually like a talkative cabbie in the real world.

 

“Where to?” the driver asked.

 

There were no obvious landmarks near the place where Ji Xian’an disappeared, so Mu Sichen told him, “I’ll guide you. Just follow the directions I give.”

 

“Alright.” The driver then asked, “You folks don’t sound local—are you from out of town?”

 

Just that simple question was enough to make the three of them break out in a cold sweat.

 

Dream Butterfly Town was controlled by a god-level monster—how could there be outsiders? The only kind of “outsiders” that existed were the Fallen. How could they admit to being that?

 

But they had never heard the local accent before, so how could they even pretend to be locals?

 

Sitting in the back seat, He Fei and Chi Lian were too afraid to say anything wrong, so they just smiled awkwardly like fools.

 

“What are they smiling at?” the driver slowly turned his head toward Mu Sichen. “Did I say something wrong? Or are you really from out of town?”

 

His tone was friendly, just like any real cab driver, but the casual conversation added a huge amount of pressure on Mu Sichen and the others.

 

Should they say they were from out of town or not? Mu Sichen’s mind raced.

 

He calmly replied, “We really are from out of town. A few days ago, a friend gave me a butterfly-patterned pillow and told me that Dream Butterfly Town is a place that makes people feel happy. I’ve always wanted to visit, and somehow we ended up here—it’s like a dream. What’s going on?”

 

Mu Sichen thought of the general manager. He had suspected that the bar where the GM received his follower powers was a dream bar.

 

He boldly hypothesized that the GM had visited Dream Butterfly Town in a dream and then started distributing those pillows in the real world. The employees who received the pillows entered the town by dreaming while using them.

Mu Sichen believed this theory made sense.

 

Even if this wasn’t the real world, there had to be people from Dream Butterfly Town infiltrating other towns as well.
After all, in this world, every god-level monster wanted to gain power from other towns and was actively sending agents to infiltrate them.

 

Even if he were a regular resident from another town, it was possible he’d come across a Fallen from Dream Butterfly Town—just like how the diary’s owner accepted a radio from Xiangping Town, he might’ve accepted a pillow from Dream Butterfly Town and arrived here through a dream.

 

Mu Sichen’s explanation was perfectly reasonable.

“Oh, so you really are from out of town,” the driver smiled warmly. “I was born and raised in Dream Butterfly Town. I’ve never been to any other towns. So, what do you think? Isn’t Dream Butterfly Town a happy place?”

“Our town is shrouded in fog all year round. You can’t even tell men from women ten meters away. Dream Butterfly Town, with its bright sunlight, really is quite different from ours.”

Mu Sichen was wary of saying words like “happiness” or “joy,” worried they might trigger some hidden trap, so he carefully avoided them, choosing not to offer any explicit praise—though his words still implied it subtly.

Sure enough, the driver was pleased.

Chuckling, he said, “Then your town must be a pretty gloomy place, the kind that brings people down. But Dream Butterfly Town—this place is everyone’s ideal home.”

 

“If you like sunshine, we’ve got endless blue skies. If you like rain, the west side is a beautiful, drizzly water town. If you love the sea, there’s even a beach district on the east side!”

 

“We’re almost there—just pull over at the next convenient spot,” said Mu Sichen.

The driver parked in a nearby space and turned to Mu Sichen. “Since you’re from out of town, do you have any of our Dream Butterfly currency?”

In the back seat, He Fei and Chi Lian quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness they had robbed someone for money earlier.

Mu Sichen had a thick wallet in his pocket, but he said aloud, “Ah, Dream Butterfly currency? Is that your local money? I don’t have any—what should I do?”

Surprisingly, the driver didn’t get angry at all about the unpaid fare. Instead, he pulled out his wallet, took out a wad of cash, and stuffed it into Mu Sichen’s hands.

“Dream Butterfly Town is a place where you’ll be happy forever. How could I trouble you over something as petty as money? Here, take this—don’t be shy.”

Mu Sichen stood there holding the stack of Dream Butterfly bills, feeling incredibly conflicted.

Just as the three of them were about to get out of the car, the driver handed them three vouchers—one for each of them—and forced them into their hands.

 

“This is for the most famous restaurant in Dream Butterfly Town—The Ideal Restaurant. You can eat anything you want there, any dish you can imagine. Since you’re from out of town, you must be hungry. These are free meal coupons. Eat as much as you like—it won’t cost a single coin. Just take them!”

 

“Um… we…” Mu Sichen didn’t even have time to respond before the driver started the car.

“Wishing you happiness in Dream Butterfly Town. May you never know trouble,” the driver said with a smile before disappearing into the traffic of the city.

The three of them stood by the roadside, stunned, holding their meal vouchers.

“Well… the driver was really enthusiastic,” He Fei said, staring at his voucher.

Chi Lian grumbled regretfully, “I knew the whole ‘cut-off-a-leg-and-beg-for-money’ strategy worked. Look—we didn’t even need to do that here to make money. Why did we bother robbing someone and losing Sister Ji in the process?”

Only Mu Sichen sighed, “In Dream Butterfly Town… money isn’t something you take lightly.”

“What’s so hard about it? If you don’t want yours, I’ll take it,” He Fei said.

Mu Sichen pointed across the street.

The other two followed his gaze—and saw a five-story building with a grand, luxurious entrance that screamed “you can’t afford to eat here.”

Above the building, in large, unmistakable characters, were four words:

The Ideal Restaurant.

“The driver was really thorough. He actually dropped us right in front of the restaurant,” He Fei said. “I’m kinda hungry, but let’s go save Sister Ji first. Then the four of us can eat together.”

 

“It’s too late,” Mu Sichen said, letting out a heavy sigh.

Chi Lian finally caught on and asked, “You said the first ‘Pillar’ was a restaurant… don’t tell me it’s this Ideal Restaurant?”

“…Yeah.” Pained, Mu Sichen nodded.
Chi Lian said, “I saw the subway map at the station—I remember where the Ideal Restaurant is located. It’s in the opposite direction from where we were driving.”

“Yeah,” Mu Sichen nodded again.

 

Even the usually slow-on-the-uptake He Fei caught on. Cautiously, he said, “Didn’t you say the place where Sister Ji went missing had no notable landmarks? This Ideal Restaurant is super flashy. Are we still at the spot where she disappeared?”

“We were —before the driver handed us the meal vouchers. Now? No, we’re not,” Mu Sichen replied, staring at the voucher in his hand, expression complicated.

“Then can we still find Sister Ji?” He Fei asked, holding onto hope.

Mu Sichen didn’t think it was likely, but he still responded, “We can try. I remember just before the screen cut off, the police car turned right. Since they turned right, we should go that way too—just to check.”

The three immediately started running. When they got to the intersection and looked around the corner, what they saw was…

Still that same, extravagant Ideal Restaurant, standing right across the street.

The three of them: “……”

“Let’s split up and try!” He Fei said, not ready to give up. He turned and ran back the way they’d come—but as soon as he turned the corner, he saw Mu Sichen and Chi Lian standing in place, and he was the one running toward them.

“…Looks like we can’t get out of this ‘Pillar’s’ range,” Mu Sichen said.

“Then what about Sister Ji?” Chi Lian asked, visibly anxious.

Mu Sichen replied, “She has a Self Totem. I’ll try to contact her.”

Back in the Energy District of the processing plant, Mu Sichen had used the power of his Self Stickers to send messages to Chi Lian and Cheng Xubo—it was a form of divine message transmission.

Now, Ji Xian’an belonged to Hope Town. Although she constantly talked about Xiangping Town and General Qin like a classic Dependent, she was still technically one of Mu Sichen’s followers.

In Hope Town, where everyone possessed a sense of self, as long as you didn’t do anything to lose it, your beliefs were yours to choose freely.
Mu Sichen steadied himself, focusing his energy to reach out to Ji Xian’an.

With his current power, issuing a divine message should be easier than before.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t reach Ji Xian’an’s Self Totem.

Back then, they had all been within the same “Pillar,” without any domain separating them, so passing on messages had been relatively easy.

But now they were trapped inside the Ideal Restaurant’s “Pillar,” and Ji Xian’an was stuck in another one. With Mu Sichen’s current strength, he couldn’t break through the barrier between two domains.

Unlike Qin Zu—he could be two towns away and still hear Mu Sichen calling his name. He could even watch him through the layers of space and time.

Qin Zu could even send dreams across worlds!

The power gap was just… enormous.

Mu Sichen shook his head.

He Fei groaned in regret. “Why did I have to be so dumb and flag down that taxi? We could’ve just walked or grabbed a shared bike! The people from Xiangping Town could barely find a ‘Pillar’ after all kinds of effort, and I get one just from hailing a cab?!”

Mu Sichen consoled him, “There are seven billion people in the real world. You randomly picked a company for your internship, and it just happened to be one infiltrated by another world. Compared to Dream Butterfly Town, our world is a lot bigger.”

The unspoken message was: He Fei, you have great luck.

“Well, since we’re already here, let’s just roll with it,” said Chi Lian. “No point beating ourselves up over it. Let’s focus on clearing this ‘Pillar’ first. Even if there’s a mountain of work, you finish it by handling one task at a time.”

“Guess that’s our only option.” Mu Sichen nodded. “But… I should at least be able to check whether Ji Xian’an is safe right now.”

Even if he couldn’t send her a message—he still had the System.

Qin Zu had to send dreams just to contact him in the real world, and yet the System allowed players to freely travel between the game and reality.

That made Mu Sichen suspect—whatever power the System was hiding, it might be even stronger than Myth-Level entities.

He opened the game app and entered the in-game version of the town, navigating to the Personnel Management tab.

Here, Mu Sichen could see the names and current statuses of everyone who possessed a Self Totem.

In addition to over twenty thousand townspeople living their normal lives, there were a few notable entries labeled as special individuals:

 

Cheng Xubo

Species: Human

Role: One of the town’s founders
Location: Within the Library Pillar
Status: Emotionally anxious

 

Octopus Plushie / Evil god Figurine / Little Octopus / Guardian Totem Incarnate / Embodied Emotion of “Relative Sanity” / “Protector of Humanity’s” Gift / etc.

Species: Unknown

Role: One of the town’s founders, Mayor’s pet

Location: Within the Library Pillar
Status: Feeling lonely; all seven tentacles currently wrapped around the Mayor; behavior possibly disrespectful toward the Mayor

—

Descriptions for Mu Sichen and the other three, however, were much briefer. Aside from their species and roles, the rest simply read:
“Deployed externally. Missing. Alive.”

“At least she’s still alive,” Mu Sichen murmured.

Ji Xian’an had managed to go toe-to-toe with the big eye’s follower in The Emperor’s New Clothes without her Guardian Totem—her personal strength was definitely not something to underestimate.

Her willpower was unshakable, and her sanity score was nearly 500. Mu Sichen decided to trust in her strength.

“I know we’re all anxious to save Ji Xian’an,” he said, “but Dream Butterfly Town is a place that defies all logic and expectation. We must not let our urgency cause us to underestimate this ‘Pillar.’”

“Got it. Let’s move!” He Fei said.

The three of them, holding their free meal vouchers, walked together toward the Ideal Restaurant.