"Ah——"
"Have some tangerine."
Looking at the tangerine offered to her nose, the girl's scream caused by the high-altitude fall abruptly stopped. She forcefully corrected her crossed eyes, then took the slice of tangerine from William's hand, gently biting into it, and the refreshing fragrance alleviated the unbearable headache.
"How do you feel?"
Seeing Hermione wake up, Harry hurriedly came over, asking with concern.
"Uh, it's okay... Very realistic, I even have trouble distinguishing whether I was dreaming just now."
Hermione instinctively touched her pocket. The headband she took off before lying down was still there. She stood up, finally feeling grounded, letting out a long sigh of relief. Then, her sight was drawn to the Meditation Basin beside her, where a tiny dueling platform was floating—
From the large hole blown open at the corner, it seemed to be the scene of the dream she was just in.
"...You all could see from outside?"
Hermione blinked, clearly not expecting this aspect. After all, when Cedric was lying down, there wasn't such a live broadcast.
"More or less, with very low latency. The only drawback is that it's black and white—to see full-color first-person, you'd have to stick your head inside."
William nodded, waving his hand to disperse the projection floating above the Meditation Basin. That's the flaw of this technology; the imaging relies on the Basin, and it's too small to fit all three heads inside. Furthermore, that perspective is first-person, while the projection can only be a third-person black and white...
Let's just say, the technical barrier still needs to be overcome.
Uh... developing a free camera should be a primary focus.
"Any suggestions?"
Looking at the girl seemingly lost in thought, William asked—
He had Harry call over two more people for a purpose, primarily to test these third-year little wizards' endurance to this technology, which relates to the future development of the Duel Club. After all, though Harry is a third year, his spiritual ability is extraordinary.
So far, so good; though Hermione seems somewhat exceptional, she probably won't be much worse than other third-year little wizards.
...Shouldn't be, right?
Perhaps raise the bar later?
While William was pondering, Hermione nodded and began to offer suggestions—something William had prompted her to do before she went to sleep. Thanks to the briefing on much of the context, she was prepared and didn't panic upon encountering the first evil wolf...
"Firstly, might it be too realistic? If pain and death are too real, I'm afraid I might not be able to handle it..."
Hermione swallowed saliva, recalling the uncontrollable feeling of powerlessness when she fell from high altitude, speaking softly.
"It's actually been weakened, just the fall can't be adjusted. You actually weren't killed by the fall; you were scared awake—"
William shook his head; the death experience had long been reduced countless times. Truly experiencing full-power death, only Lupin... oh, and those poachers he caught, many of whom became mentally unbalanced due to prolonged torment.
"'Real death' doesn't allow you to jump up like Cedric; rather, you'll fall into a coma for some time, waking up mentally foggy, much like Lupin after experiencing a Killing Curse in a dream."
"Alright..."
Hermione nodded, instinctively glancing at Cedric, who started rubbing his neck again. "Also, are there perhaps too few enemy types? Simply increasing quantity would eventually allow pattern recognition."
"Oh, don't worry about that—"
William shook his head again, waving his hand as gray silhouettes flew out from the Meditation Basin, circling around the group.
"What are these?"
Harry adjusted his glasses, immediately noticing a troll wielding a club, alongside spiders and white evil wolves, sparking a guess in his mind.
"These are enemies I've encountered, the power restored to original; the wolves were introduced for simplicity."
Looking at his monster list, William was stunned—these were 'picked' from his mind using Dream Magic, not systematically organized. Now that he sees them... they seem excessive.
"What's this?"
Cedric's gaze swept across the sequence of shadows, pausing at the last—an entirely black silhouette with a large question mark drawn in the center.
"Hidden level Boss. When you clear the level, you'll know."
William shook his head, deliberately keeping it a secret. Meanwhile, Hermione sitting on the bed looked over, her gaze shifting between the question-mark shadow and William, increasingly believing... surely not?
Hermione felt she might have guessed correctly.
"Alright, that's it for today; you're nearing curfew—"
William raised his wrist, checking the time on his watch, then extended his wand to bring Hermione's adjacent schoolbag over, handing it to her. "Next time, no need to bring so much; my books here are not fewer than in the library. Just bring paper and pen—"
"Okay."
Hermione nodded, blushing, as she slung her backpack over her shoulder.
"Also, Duel Club will undergo some changes. Since the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor isn't Lockhart the dimwit anymore, basic charms and defense against Dark Arts needn't be newly established club activities—"
Upon mention of Lockhart, Hermione's face reddened yet more.
"So..."
William put away his wand, then pulled out a snoring Kabuda from his pocket, retrieving three deep blue rings glistening, composed of variously thick metal strips—
In the center of the ring, the metal strips twisted into a symbol familiar to Hermione.
...Oh, it's the flame emblem at the center of the dream duel platform.
"Those are tokens of the Duel Club; I intend to have you join—no one's planning to withdraw, right?"
Of course not; the three took the rings without hesitation, then Harry gazed at the nearby recliner—he's the only one who hasn't experienced the dream VR game tonight, though he's eager to try...
"That's settled; you two may go, Potter, come with me."
"Alright...?"
Harry blinked blankly, gradually realizing—"Intensive practical teaching."
Damn, how could he have overlooked this?