Liwu tilted her head, feigning confusion. "Ruining? What am I ruining? Games are supposed to be messy and fun. Isn’t this fun?"

The caterpillar ride exploded into fireworks and two children screamed in horror.

The boy’s voice trembled. "No. Stop. You are going to break everything."

Liwu’s smile sharpened. "Ah. So you care about keeping it together. I suppose it took you a long time to build this. Didn’t it?" She twirled, releasing another burst of chaos paints. The giant teddy bear toppled, crashing a candy cart. The boy cried out, rushing to fix it. He waved his hands, and the gave off a faint glow. The dream seemed to be stitching itself back together where he touched.

Liwu’s eyes narrowed. Got you.

First was a suspicion, now it was a confirmation. "Hey kid, or person that looks like a kid, why don’t we have a talk? Tell me why you built this world and why you don’t want you friends to leave."

Outside the dream, the tech experts were standing over the boy, suspected to be the dream walker. Only now, Alix had named him a dream weaver. Dream walking systems allowed hosts to walk into other people’s dreams, not tamper with them. Like Qiren.

Dream weaving on the other hand allowed the system host to manipulate the dreams of others. Just as the boy had done to the other children.

"We have got a reaction!" A technician shouted. The gadget they had scanning for system activity around the boy screamed. "He is using his system."

Weijun cracked his knuckles. "So what now? Do we tank him out?"

Alix shook her head. "We have to be careful. He is just a child. He probably doesn’t know the damage he is causing. We need Liwu to reach him. If he wakes up, we can take the system without damaging his brain."

Back in the dream, Liwu was now crouched, her frilly dress puffing around her. The boy was sulking because the dream he was struggling to fix just kept being torn apart again. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

She poked him on the back of his leg with a finger, and asked, "Why bother to fix things that are just going to break apart again? Besides, you don’t seem to care about playing with the other children. You are too busy fixing things and forcing them to have fun."

The boy lowered his hands, glaring at her. "Because it’s mine. I made it. Now, me and my friends can live here forever."

Liwu’s heart clenched. "The kid really didn’t plan to let the others leave, no matter how long it took. What about the real world? Your parents? Your actual friends? Your sisters, brothers, grandparents or pets? Don’t you want to ever see them again?"

The boy’s lips trembled. "They don’t understand. Here, I am in control. I can do everything I like. Outside, they never let me do anything. I am always in the hospital, week after week. I think mom hates me now....my sickness is making us poor. I hate it outside."

Liwu softened her voice, childlike but firm. "Kid, no mom hates their child. I think your mom is just sad that she cannot help you." She drew the conclusion because the boy had talked about sickness and always being in the hospital. It meant he was a regular patient. "Maybe she even blames herself for your sickness, and she thinks its her fault."

He shook his head rather quickly, "that’s not true. It is not her fault."

Liwu nodded. "The parents of the children you have here, they are blaming themselves too. They think they did something wrong, and maybe, that is why their children are not waking up. What is your name? I met all the parents, and they were all sad. So I know for sure that one of them is yours."

He hesitated, making it seem as if this was a secret he would never share. And then softly, he said, "Xue Dehua."

Liwu spoke up loudly, "Aha! Xue Dehua, I had a feeling it was you. Your mother was crying the loudest. She fainted, just before I came in here.."

The boy gasped, and his hands that had been collecting energy to try and fix his world again, froze. "Mother, my mother. What happened to my mother?"

Liwu felt bad for lying to the boy, but it wasn’t as if she had much of a choice. "I am not sure, because I am in here with you. Why don’t we go out together and take a look?"

The boy nodded eagerly. And Liwu rose, thinking that the job was over. But suddenly, the boy raised his hands, rushing to patch the cracks in the wall. She watched him, her smile bittersweet. Was his plan to go out with her, leaving his friends here so that he could find them later?

She clapped her hands, and the dream world convulsed. All the castles crumbled, rainbows convulsed and the sun started giving off drops of rain instead of warm golden rays. Toy blocks scattered, and the toy road split apart, spitting out a dark sludge that did not smell amazing.

The boy kept trying, none the less. And they went on like that for hours, fighting a battle of will versus chaos. Unaware of the fear of those waiting outside, for the nightmare to end.

Finally, when he was exhausted, he fell to his knees, exhausted, the glow in his hands flickering. His points were all used up.

She knelt beside him, her voice gentle. "You can choose. Save the rest of your world and rebuild it later. Or, save your friends by letting them go. The last option is that I keep coming back to destroy everything. I will come in different shapes, sizes, objects. You will never know what or who I am, but I will always know you."

Dehua’s eyes widened.Tears spilled down his cheek. Slowly, he released his grip. The dream trembled, then began to dissolve.

In the room outside, monitors blared. Sangzhu shouted, "It’s collapsing."

Then Linlin also screamed, "The children are waking!"

They could all hear the panic outside, in a ward not so far away. Many monitors were beeping, parents were crying, doctors were shouting.

Alix stood tall, her eyes proud. "She did it."

Weijun sagged with relief, muttering, "She always does."