Dave took a deep breath to calm himself. "What do I know about Lucid? Not much, really. I just got spirited away there when I went to sleep yesterday."
The officer nodded. "Then what do you know about the mushroom?" Dave hesitated to talk about the mushroom because the last time he mentioned it, two strangers had started chasing him for reasons he still didn't understand.
"Again, not much. I just ate some mushroom dish yesterday, and the next thing I knew was people chasing me when they heard the word 'Mushroom'." Dave grimaced at remembering what happened yesterday.
After hearing this, the officer had a dumbfounded look and asked, "You ate it by accident? No one offered it to you?"
Dave nodded, and the officer sighed heavily. "Well, that explains a lot. Mr. Dave, I assume you are very curious about my identity, the dreamscape, and even the mushroom. Well, let me introduce myself properly. My name is Maxwell Smith, but people usually call me--" Before he could finish, Dave blurted out, "Grumpy Max."
As soon as he said that, he realized what he had done. His eyes widened in panic, and he closed his mouth with his hands. All around him, he could hear snickering laughter, and when he looked around, many were trying their best not to laugh, but many failed. The officer's face was in a deep scowl as he looked at Dave with a threatening glare.
Max cleared his throat and spoke again. "My name aside, what I want to say is that I am from an organization called Vanguard for Anomalous Unification, Lockdown, and Termination, or VAULT for short. Think of us like Interpol but for the supernatural."
Hearing this, Dave widened his eyes and asked in a startled voice, "Su-Supernatural? You mean like ghosts?"
Max looked at him and shrugged. "Ghosts, aliens, monsters, evil gods, and everything in between."
Dave didn't even know what to say. His first thought was that someone was pranking him with a few hidden cameras, but seeing Max's stern look, he was no longer so sure. As he contemplated what he had just heard, Max spoke again.
"I know it's a lot to take in, Mr. Dave, and I know what you're thinking. This is not a prank. But enough about us. What I really want to discuss is Lucid Dreaming, mushrooms, and what you plan to do from now on. As you said, Lucid is a shared dreamscape, but what you don't know is that it's one of the oldest and most mysterious anomalies. An anomaly is anything that defies the laws of science and the expected norms of reality. These phenomena, which can be living beings, objects, or even abstract concepts, are the subjects of our Foundation's work. The Foundation's mission is to secure, contain, and protect these anomalies to prevent mass panic and safeguard humanity."
Max's words struck Dave like lightning, and it was a lot to digest. "Why are you saying all this to me? What do you want me to do?"
"Mr. Dave, as I said, Lucid is an ancient being, and it's alive; it will do whatever it takes to preserve itself. In the past, VAULT made many attempts to restrict access to Lucid. We even brought several dreamers into our organization to control what's happening inside Lucid. Still, those efforts resulted in all the dreamers' memories being wiped and their connection to Lucid being severed. After many attempts, we gave up trying to restrain Lucid. However, we soon found a loophole: we can't make dreamers work for us, but we can make them work with us, turning them into our informants who share what's happening inside Lucid. This way, we can't control them, but we can manipulate them enough so they don't drag ordinary people like you into their mess in the real world."
Dave wasn't sure if he should believe all this; he knew nothing about Lucid, VAULT, or these so-called anomalies. For all he knew, VAULT could be some black market organization or mafia tricking people with sweet words, doing who knows what. He wasn't even sure if VAULT really existed. For now, he should try to get away from this place.
"Officer, why are you telling me all this?" he asked Max, with a questioning tone.
Max looked at him with an aloof expression and said, "I was planning to ask you to become one of our informants, but it's not the right time yet. Let's continue where we left off. Do you know about mutations or skills?"
Dave nodded, and Max continued. "As you know, Lucid offers supernatural powers. In layer one, where you are. These powers are not that impressive. There are seven layers in Lucid. The deeper you go, the stronger the powers become. And there is a way to bring those powers into reality."
Hearing this, Dave's eyes widened in surprise, but Max continued to explain. "The way to do that is something called spiritual burning. The main resource inside Lucid is called Spirituality, which powers your abilities. It has another use: by reducing your total spirituality, you can bring abilities into the real world. But it's very costly, and doing so weakens you inside Lucid because your overall power decreases. That's why most people form organizations around Lucid. Some burn their spirituality, bring powers into reality, and become weak inside Lucid, while others are weak in the real world but stronger inside Lucid. They help each other both in reality and within Lucid. No one can survive Lucid alone."
"There are many ways to increase spirituality, but none are as effective as using mushrooms. The only comparable method is descending deeper into Lucid, though that also carries risks. The deeper you go, the more dangerous it becomes, and once you descend, there's no way to return to the previous layers. This is where the mushroom comes into play. They double your total spirituality reserve when eaten as is, but if you feed it to a normal person and make that person descend deeper into the layer and kill them in reality, it will increase spirituality exponentially. To put it simply, if a mushroom user in the fourth layer is killed in reality, the killer's spirituality reserve will increase fourfold."
Dave was terrified by what he just heard. If he got caught, what would happen to him? "Officer, what would happen to a mushroom user if they got caught?"
"They will be imprisoned inside some dungeon and will be forced to take useless abilities and make them descend as much as possible, and finally be killed; as you guess, there are many ways it could go wrong. Only big legacy clans can do this for most; eating the mushroom as is is better."
Dave suddenly remembered the two strangers. If he had been caught, what would have happened to him? Just think about it, make his body shudder.
"So what you are saying is that the mushrooms are basically a treasure chest? Now, what will happen to me? Will you lock me up inside a dungeon?" Dave asked with a panicked expression.
Max just laughed and said, "No, Mr. Dave, as I said, only dreamers are after you; we have no use for you, maybe except as an informant. As I said, no one can survive Lucid alone. If you join us, we can guarantee your safety in reality. We can't do much inside Lucid since we have little to no power there. If you are purely after benefits, joining a legacy clan would be better, but as I said, all dreamers are a threat to you; ultimately, the decision is yours."
As Dave was contemplating his options, he suddenly remembered something. "Wait, how did you know I was a mushroom user? You even sounded very confident about it, and how did you find me in that internet cafe?"
Max looked at him and shrugged, "I put a tracker on you, which can also monitor your activities when I patted your shoulder before you left the restaurant, and I didn't know you were a mushroom user. I just had a suspicion. I just made it look like I know, you blurted about it yourself."
Dave was flabbergasted, but before he could ask anything, Max intervened, "Mr. Dave, if you visited Lucid for the first time yesterday, how do you know about things like Mutations?"
The previous revelation still dazed Dave, and his reply came a little late, "Ah... I read a forum page called Lucid 101. Inside Lucid, they explained most of the basics."
Max scowled at this, "Mr. Dave, did you know when that forum was published? And did you comment something on the forum specifically about mushrooms?"
"No, why?" Dave asked, puzzled.
"Because, Mr. Dave, that forum was made specifically to lure the mushroom user. Think about it, there are only two ways one could accidentally enter Lucid: one is the natural way, and the other is the mushroom way. People who entered normally would have no idea about mushrooms, and the only ones who would ask about them would be the mushroom users. That's why they deliberately left the information about the mushroom. All they had to do was track the island where the comment came from to find the mushroom user."
When Dave heard about this, he was frozen in fear.