The Exploration Squad
I dreamed I was in a sealed building, exploring it with a group of people. It was very dangerous here, but there was a man in our team who could foresee the future, which gave us a lot of peace of mind. We entered a room that looked perfectly normal, just an ordinary person's room. Because it was a sealed building, there were no windows at all, but this apartment still had a balcony designed into it. This was very strange, so we decided to go take a look. I took the lead. The moment I stepped onto the balcony, the man who could foresee the future suddenly turned pale and shouted, "Watch out for the mermaid monster in the water!" I reflexively shut the door immediately, but it was too late. The mirror on the balcony flew straight through the crack up to the ceiling and sucked me in.
Then I entered the world inside the mirror. I was a mermaid, still by the sea. It seemed I couldn't leave the shore too far; the water around here was shallow, and there was hardly anyone around. I saw two mermaids sitting by the sea nearby, so I went to ask them questions, but it was a bit hard to speak up. I figured I'd sit side-by-side with them first before chatting. When I sat down, I realized one of them was holding a bloody helmet. The moment I saw the bloodstain, I understood: that was my blood. I had lost my head once before. I was trapped in a world of reincarnation. I had already died once, and I would die again, but I absolutely had to survive. I went and asked them what this thing was. They answered that it was a friend's head; this friend was already dead, and they told me to be careful too, as there were monsters in the deep sea, and they were not friends. I indicated that I understood. Then, inexplicably, I saw a packet of Buldak spicy noodles inside the helmet, but they didn't seem to think this was strange at all, so I just pretended not to see it. Then I saw a man walking over from a crowded area, holding a bucket, wearing a malicious smile on his face. I don't know when the other mermaids disappeared; I was the only one left. Then the man suddenly splashed the water from his bucket at me. I could feel it—it was highly corrosive acid. Although it was useless against mermaids, I was extremely angry. I cursed out loud. The man seemed very surprised to hear me curse; he stopped, and then walked toward me looking very angry. I was completely dumbfounded—you're the one getting angry? I immediately made up my mind: I was going to feed him to the monsters in the deep sea. I cursed even harsher, insulting his ancestors to the eighteenth generation, while I started to run. Sure enough, he chased after me. I calculated his speed; the deeper the water, the faster I got. But towards the end, I suddenly slowed down, as if I was entangled by something. He looked very happy seeing me tangled up, as if telling me I was done for. Then, the moment he grabbed me, I pulled him into the deep sea. It was already midnight by then, and he couldn't see the dividing line between the deep sea and the shallow water. He had no idea he was only a few meters away from the deep sea, and just like that, I dragged him into the deep zone. I immediately saw several dark shadows swimming over. The man was already clutching me like a lifeline, so I did a sharp S-curve and flung him away. By the time I swam back to the shallow water, I didn't even hear his screams.
Then I noticed those mermaids had returned. They said they were very grateful to me and asked why I didn't just kill him directly instead of using the monsters to kill him. I explained that I didn't want to kill someone directly; I was afraid it would leave me with psychological trauma. Then we started chatting. They even brought a small pot to boil water, and I happily cooked the Buldak noodles to eat. Then the next day, a mermaid with precognitive abilities discovered that the apocalypse was coming. I asked carefully, and they said the owner of the helmet had legs and had already saved them once; they didn't expect the mermaid apocalypse to come anyway. I told them not to be afraid. I said we could see if the owner of the helmet left any clues. They immediately said that made sense and started fumbling with the helmet (turns out they had the helmet in their hands for so long and never opened it once to look). At this time, the monsters in the water started forcing their way ashore. Mermaids who were bitten would instantly lose their minds and become violently powerful. We were all running away. Then, inexplicably, I saw another me—the me of this world. Then I suddenly realized that I could die. The one trapped in the cycle of reincarnation wasn't the me who was a mermaid, but the me who was a human in this world. The reincarnating me was saving the mermaid me, and the mermaid me was also saving the reincarnating me, because once I left, the cycle would disappear. I forgot most of what happened after that. It was roughly about me drawing a magic circle to take the mermaids who trapped the me of this world in the cycle away to my world, and I even gave them legs, but a very powerful monster was still left behind. Then I woke up.
(This dream was really long. It actually wasn't over; I went through about 4 similar instances in the building, but I forgot them all.)
