Some things you do.
Some things you don't.
Demons eat people; people can eat demons. And when it comes to cruelty of the heart, humans easily outstrip demons.
Roy listened to the flood of system prompts, then looked up into the night sky and let out a slow breath. That night, he left the Demon Slayer world and, without pausing, shifted straight back to the Hunter world.
This "fight," for all its intensity, was over fast and slow at the same time—most of it spent just traveling.
Roy's awareness sank and he returned to the Sea of Cognition. This time, instead of rushing to wake up, he walked over to the glowing tunnel that led back to "reality" and stood there for a while, thoughtful.
What is the dream tunnel? What is a dream? What exactly is this "Wide-Scope Dream Gate" he'd taken from Enmu? Roy had shuttled back and forth between the Hunter world and Demon Slayer world so many times and never really stopped to think about it.
But once he deliberately let Enmu's Blood Demon Art hit him—that "Sleep, now" whisper—and entered Enmu's dreamscape on purpose, Roy suddenly realized something:
Everyone's dreams are connected.
They're like bubbles, bobbing on the surface of a vast ocean of collective subconscious—an ocean that doesn't just belong to humans, but to any intelligent species. Even magical beasts like the Kiriko clan.
In other words, "dreams," "mental images," even his cheat-like UI and panel—all of it was ultimately just constructed from his own cognition, drawing on that shared subconscious sea. Because each individual is different, the anchor they fix on is different; that's why Nen abilities take on so many strange forms. And because that subconscious ocean is also part of "nature," the gods can tap it—stealing natural authority and siphoning off other people's Nen to bolster themselves.
At that realization, Roy felt he'd brushed up against a bit of the truth behind dreams.
If all these subconscious bubbles were connected, then in theory… he should be able to swim through them.
"Snrrrk…"
In the real world, at half past three in the morning, the snores of Kukuroo Mountain rose and fell.
Inside the Zoldyck estate—whether in the main mansion, the butlers' villa halfway up the mountain, the guard house at the gate, or even out where the giant guard dog Mike slept in the woods—countless people and beasts were dreaming.
Roy, still within the dream state, opened his eyes with a new idea. Using Dream Parasite, he tried "dream-hopping." A gray sheen of Nen slid across his pupils as he looked toward the dream tunnel.
The colorful passage suddenly stretched and split, branching into several side tunnels that led off to unknown places.
Roy watched quietly for a moment, then picked one and walked in.
Everything went white—an unconscious domain.
And in it, he saw a huge dog happily licking a person all over. Getting closer, Roy recognized Mike. The dog was dreaming, relishing the memory of tearing apart the idiots who'd tried to infiltrate the Zoldyck estate today and kidnap a family member for bounty money.
So this was Mike's dream.
Roy stood just outside his "unconscious field" like a spectator, watched for a bit, then turned away and backed out.
He tried another tunnel.
Another white void—and this time, before he'd even gotten close, he heard the snap of a whip. Shapes flickered; a chubby kid was raising a whip over and over again, mercilessly lashing a boy trussed up like a dumpling and hanging from the ceiling.
The hanging boy was sobbing and pleading.
"Miluki… please, stop, stop, okay? I'm not your big brother, you're the big brother…"
Roy hurried forward, stuck his head through the "door," and saw that the crying boy's face was Illumi's.
Or rather: Illumi as Miluki imagined him.
Understanding dawned. So this idiot's fantasizing…
Roy didn't know whether to laugh or sigh. Miluki's grin was stretched ear to ear; he was humming to himself and cracking the whip, clearly having the time of his life.
Roy silently backed out.
He tried a third path—and this time, the unconscious domain wasn't a blank white anymore. The whole space was suffused with a rosy "heart-shaped" red, sweet and sticky with… romance.
Curious, Roy stepped in, took one look—
—and froze.
The next second, he walked out of Illumi's dream with a very dark expression.
He instantly decided that when he woke up, he was absolutely, positively going to copy Miluki and hang that idiot from the willow tree and beat him senseless.
Give a little sunshine and he tries to be a blazing sun…
Roy shook his head hard, trying to scrub the nightmare images out of his mind. He picked a fourth tunnel; this time, he saw Gotoh. The fifth, Kuraging in training; the sixth, Mike Jr. beating Gotoh into the ground in a one-sided spar; the seventh, Gotoh… then Tsubone… then Luke…
One dream path after another unfolded in front of him.
Roy finally understood:
This little slice of the shared subconscious ocean he was swimming is still constrained by "real-world" geography. All the minds he was seeing were clustered around the Zoldyck estate—essentially, everyone within a certain radius of Kukuroo Mountain.
Dream Parasite wasn't some infinite-range hack; it still followed the rule of equivalent exchange.
With that, he went back to the crossroads.
Only three tunnels remained unopened.
He thought for a moment, then chose the one on the right.
This time, there was a lamp ahead.
Under the lamp, someone was lying sideways on a tiger-skin sofa, reading a book—completely absorbed.
His father, Silva.
"Rustle, rustle…"
Pages turned. Roy saw the cover clearly: "How to Build Intimacy With Your Child."
Silva's long silver hair spilled down the sofa like a waterfall. In the warm yellow light, his usually severe face held a rare softness.
For a second, Roy had an illusion:
Silva didn't look like the cold, taciturn man who wore "Keep Out" on his face every day. He almost looked like… a normal father.
"Of course it's a dream…" Roy murmured, half-laughing at himself.
He stood just outside the tunnel, watching for a while, then turned to go.
But as he took a step—
"Son."
A quiet voice called after him, chasing his back through the passage.
Roy stopped dead, then whipped around.
Under the lamp, Silva closed the book, looked up, and smiled.
He opened his arms slowly.
"Come here," he said. "Come to Dad."
Roy: "…"
His thoughts exploded.
It was like a server suddenly jammed with a billion requests—completely overloaded. On the surface, he just stood there, staring blankly at Silva. Inside, his brain had hard-crashed.
He… called me what?
And he smiled?
He stood up—
He's walking toward me—
He—
—beeeeeep—
Silva walked right up to Roy and pulled him into a hug, one large hand ruffling his hair as he said…
~~~
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