Auralis Empire

Huh? What did you say? Are you messing with me, Goddess? No matter how you look at it, the plot development is just too ridiculous, right?

Although I feel like what I'm facing is definitely not just a simple dream, jumping to this extent... it’s less reliable than dreaming, okay?

But the glowing entity in front of me didn’t give me time to voice my doubts. She just kept talking to herself: "The World Arbitration Agency has made the most appropriate judgment on your identity and corresponding permissions. According to the most recent database update... Abnormalities in the highest-privileged entity, interference with the pan-space link... Recalibration of the link point failed... Apologies, Your Majesty, we are too far apart, the void connection is about to be interrupted... We will... Proceed to... #@#%... ￥￥#￥%..."

I watched as the projection in front of me suddenly began to shake violently, as if the TV signal was severely disrupted, distorting the image. At the same time, her voice turned into something incomprehensible, which startled me: "Hey! What’s wrong with you? Did you break?"

No one answered. I only felt a sharp pain in my head, and then the entire world suddenly plunged into darkness.

"Blair? What happened to you?"

The urgent call in my ear brought me back to my senses. I shook my head and found myself standing at the school gate. The students around me were panicking due to someone’s sudden “self-combustion” and were scrambling to take photos and post them online. Tina, who was beside me, was shaking my arm while anxiously calling my name.

When I woke up, Tina let out a sigh of relief and asked, “Blair, what’s wrong? Why did you just freeze like that? I’ve been calling you, and you didn’t respond?”

“Oh, nothing, I spaced out for a bit…”

“Spaced out? Is it really that serious?” Tina clearly didn’t believe me, but she didn’t press further. Instead, she grabbed my arm and started walking toward the school. “Come on, we’re going to be late. I almost forgot what the headmaster, who only shows up during morning reading, even looks like…”

I obediently followed her, but my mind was racing.

Clearly, what happened in the dream took a long time, but in reality, it was just a moment. There was nothing strange about it. What concerned me more was the content of the dream.

The world in the dream had a name: the Auralis Empire, and the mysterious girl had told me something that seemed to bring my exploration of the dream forward by a large step. But in reality, it only raised more questions. What exactly did the dream mean? What was the so-called Auralis Empire? What was the attack that happened today? Superpowers? Supernatural phenomena? Everything had become a fog of confusion, and I was left bewildered.

At this point, I could no longer consider that world as just a simple dream.

I spent the entire day in a daze, not knowing how many times I’d zoned out during school, as if I hadn’t attended at all.

“Blair, what’s wrong? You’ve been so absent-minded all day,” Tina asked with concern as we were on our way home.

“It’s nothing,” I gave her a big smile, “You know I tend to daydream a lot.”

“Really just daydreaming?” Tina looked suspicious, “Are you sure you’re not thinking about some beauty?”

“…Change the subject.”

“Oh, fine, next topic, what’s the name of that beauty?”

“Tina, come on.”

“Hmph, at least you know how to keep things interesting!”

It was really strange. This kind of flirtatious banter that should be common between couples felt completely off when it came out of our mouths... Could it be because we were so familiar with each other that our relationship had become more like family than anything else?

Today, my sister had to handle company matters and wouldn’t be back until late. I had dinner alone, then returned to my room to sort through what happened today.

After thinking for a while, I was still full of questions. I decided to try calling out to that "dream world" again.

It seemed that my previous successful connections had strengthened the link between me and that world, because this time it worked smoothly, and I felt that subtle connection.

The first thing I did after the connection was successfully established was to immediately inquire about the Auralis Empire.

"Auralis Mother Planet receiving external command set... Permission confirmed... Entering remote command mode... Uploading command set summary."

Strange, the information that the voice gave me this time seemed a little different... But then again, it made sense. The world seemed to be awakening, and as it did, the information I received would change. But...

The information I received this time was too abnormal, wasn’t it?

"Zenith Remote Space Strike System." Okay, got that, pass.

"Auralis Legion Teleportation System," what is this?

"Passwell Ether Recharge System," what does this mean?

"Auralis Targeted Planet Annihilation Cannon?" Hey, hey, hey, what’s up with this thing that sounds like it’s violating the rules?

"Pandora Legion Fortress..." Is this something a healthy young person should be studying?

"Pan-Space Ethereal Shock Matrix..." Is there anything here I can understand? These things sound like they belong in a B-grade sci-fi movie with big-headed aliens, right?

But as more and more information flooded into my mind, I gradually stopped bothering to complain about the strange and wildly inappropriate terms.

The massive flood of information no longer flowed into my mind like a calm stream. It poured in like a dam breaking, overwhelming me, and it felt like I was stuck in quicksand, slowly being buried by the information’s mud. Or like I was in the middle of a storm, buffeted by the gale force of data, barely holding on. Eventually, my mind completely gave up on analyzing the data, and I just blindly absorbed it. At first, I could feel sharp pains in my head, but soon the numbness took over. I was swaying in the torrent of information, with only one thought in my head: If this keeps up, I’ll spend the rest of my life in the Qingcheng mental hospital...

I don’t know how long it lasted, but finally, the data transfer ended, and my mind was on the verge of collapsing.

What an exaggerated amount! I felt like my brain had been filled with all kinds of random, chaotic things. I’ll probably never remember anything else for the rest of my life…

I stood there dazed for a while, trying to organize my clouded thoughts and figure out what new information I had gained. But I quickly realized that this influx of data wasn’t stored like normal memories. Instead, it was strictly categorized and neatly stored, almost like files on a computer hard drive.

Fine, my nerves are tough enough now, and I won’t be surprised by anything that happens anymore.

After calming myself down, I realized this method of storing information had its advantages. It’s easy to query, safe, reliable, and there’s no risk of forgetting or mixing things up. But the downside is also obvious: You have to already know the information exists in this database in order to call it up. Unlike normal memory, where you can recall something through association or a sudden inspiration, with this method, unless you’re specifically searching for something, you’ll have no idea what’s inside the database!

Looks like I’ll have to conduct a full scan of this information... or should I say a complete scan? Why does it feel like my brain has been altered into some kind of subtle state?

Fortunately, only the external information is stored this way, and my original memories haven’t been altered. At least I don’t have to worry about turning into a humanoid machine...

However, the amount of data was much more than I expected. After scanning less than a third of it, I lost interest in all those incomprehensible terms. So, I decided to focus on the end of the data, the final piece of information.

"Comprehensive analysis of the above causes confirms that the current command set has an execution failure rate of 99.999999%..."

I: "..."

Can someone please explain what the hell I’ve been doing all this time? What use is all this information in my head? Is this just a scrap list for defective products?

Can I file for compensation with that alien girl from earlier?

Fine, I’ve got no choice. My only connection to the Auralis Empire is through the dream projections. Apart from the brief energy burst I saw at the school gate, the Auralis Empire has never appeared in the real world...

Hmm? Speaking of that energy attack, wasn’t it on that unusable command list?

...Alright, I give up.