In the dream, he journeyed to the Pleiades, a place veiled in nebulae, where Ge Tianci willed the implant to manifest visibly on his body.
Before long, a massive mantis appeared before him, wearing the familiar "Smiley Face" mask.
Ge Tianci reached out—but took no further action.
He simply rested his hand slowly upon the mask.
*"I've searched for you so long. I think it's time we talked."*
The entity extended a limb, its hinged structure brushing against the implant as if to verify identity. A surge of terror gripped Ge Tianci—the backdrop behind him crumbled—yet he held firm.
*"The implant's purpose is fear. Just like everything you've done before."* "Smiley Face" resumed telepathic communication, the words piercing Ge Tianci's mind instantly.
Behind him, the nebula churned—galaxies swirling, cosmic voids yawning, eons of civilizations flickering like stars. Time and space convulsed, hurling them to a blue-green planet where shards of Ge Tianci's memories played like slides.
**The second layer of the dream shattered.**
In his periphery, a nebula floated among those fragments—Mars' civilization! Its tendrils lashed out, ensnaring the girl he'd seen before, a gray implant now embedded in her wrist.
Ge Tianci's own implant pulsed in resonance. The Martian nebula seemed poised to speak—until "Smiley Face" severed the connection with a flick of its arm.
*"You sought me. If the trial escalates further, you won't survive."*
*What happens if I fail?* Ge Tianci asked.
*"Causality won't spare you."*
*You have flesh. And a human heart.* The final words hung, cryptic.
When Ge Tianci next blinked awake, familiar night greeted him outside. He could now converse with "Smiley Face" in dreams—a weight lifted. Unconsciousness reclaimed him, and he awoke at sunset.
---
Five days prior, Ge Tianci had begun sleeping incessantly. Between doctor's rounds, he'd clutch his left arm where the implant lay and sink into slumber.
He needed to test a truth his intuition had woven.
*What was his fear, truly?*
In dreams, he'd either tried to kill "Smiley Face" or trained his willpower. But one mental lapse led to his own demise—a turning point.
Subsequent dreams became laboratories. He stretched time, tested mental pivots. Each "death" peeled back layers, revealing the core:
During one beheading, Ge Tianci sighed. *"Smiley Face, was the implant ever altered?"*
*I think fear just wears two faces.*
When given power, he'd attacked relentlessly. Conversely, he feared being slain by "Smiley Face," feared life's caprice—the universe too vast, humanity too small.
Drowning in that fear, he'd learned to breathe.
**The implant was never changed. Only its intensity.**
This epiphany let him face "Smiley Face" anew—and breach the dream's second layer.
Life thereafter flowed like calm water. Time unchanged, but his heart gentler. Clouds drifted; he observed, detached.
Dream and reality diverged. His mind bridged them—parallel tracks. Deliberate separation, though reductive, proved the only way.
Until a concert ticket appeared beneath his books: *"Overcoming the Impossible."*
The melody detonated in his skull, resurrecting memories of the lab incident. Ge Tianci knew—another world's storm was coming.
*Listen. The song's harmony is just camouflage before battle. No one in this game escapes.*
The concert date: July 1st. Five days away.
---
Since waking, Ge Tianci had researched the lab events—fruitlessly. University life plodded on; roommate chatter tessellated into mundane normalcy.
His spare time went to the song. He relearned mathematics, music, cosmology—anything to decode its meaning.
At first, he sought to mend life's cracks, to fill the implant's fissures like shattered glass. But unnoticed, even his roommates drifted away.
In his obsession, he mistook fixation for repair—while the cracks silently widened.
*"How's your implant?"* "Smiley Face" asked during one dream encounter.
*"It only exists here. Like us now."* Ge Tianci had matured, his dream-self shattered and rebuilt endlessly.
*"Over 10,000 on Earth have had fifth-kind encounters."*
Ge Tianci shapeshifted into a cloud.
He knew what that meant. The implants…
"Smiley Face" read his dread. Its mantis-eyes locked onto the cloud, which sprouted a silver-gray ring, paralyzing it.
*"You're not the only one with an implant."*
Ge Tianci swallowed. After cycles of violence and surrender, he voiced the core question:
*"Why all this?"*
Why the bizarre encounters? The civilizations? Why show him any of it?
"Smiley Face" stayed silent.
In human relations, silence is a thinking pause. Absolute silence is oblivion.
This was the latter.
Buildings collapsed behind Ge Tianci. Remembering the dream's second layer, he morphed into the girl's form, conjured a violin, and played *"Overcoming the Impossible."*
The cosmos and its smiley-faced watchers knew only silence. Ge Tianci answered with humanity's voice.
The implant coiled around his wrist—silver-gray, like a shackle.