I’m Doomed! I Got Trapped in a Dream! [17]

“Uh…”

For a moment, the atmosphere froze—awkward and tense—thanks to Chen Mo’s careless outburst.

He’d been so focused on figuring out the current timeline that he hadn’t considered the consequences of mentioning events from the main quest that might not have happened yet in this version of reality. Blurting them out so recklessly could deeply affect the people involved.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Nahida…” Realizing his blunder, Chen Mo quickly apologized.

But the other end of the chat remained silent.

“Nahida? Uh… are you still there?”

“I am.” After a short pause, Nahida’s voice finally came through. The shock and hesitation from earlier had disappeared, replaced by a kind of calm—like she had quietly reached a conclusion.

“It’s all right. Since you’ve already brought it up… I’ll just keep going.”

A swing formed beneath her from intertwined Dendro vines. Nahida sat upon it, held down Chen Mo’s icon in the chat window, and continued speaking:

“As of now, I’m still under house arrest in the Sanctuary of Surasthana. No Traveler has come to rescue me.”

She paused for a second, then seemed to think of something.

“But… when you say ‘Traveler,’ you mean the one from earlier—the main character of that cutscene?”

“Yeah, that’s her.”

“In that case… it looks like you’re the Traveler, then. Should I be waiting for you to come save me from Sumeru?”

“Eh?” Chen Mo blinked.

“No no no no no… that’s impossible. I’m just some guy who plays too many video games. And the Traveler has golden hair and golden eyes—do I look like that to you?”

Even though Nahida couldn’t see him through the chat, Chen Mo still kept pointing at himself as if to stress how ridiculous the idea was.

“But the one who received Anemo powers at the Statue of The Seven in Mondstadt… was you, not me. And not Keqing, either.”

“…Huh?”

What Nahida said made Chen Mo falter.

No way. Me? The Traveler? The mysterious protagonist is… me?

Just as she said, the one who had gained the Anemo element from the statue—the one who could cast Wind Blades and summon tornadoes—was Chen Mo.

Or in other words… this world might have already chosen him as the Traveler. He was the one fate had selected.

And if that was true… then he was in deep trouble.

Back in the tutorial, a single headbutt from a Pyro Slime had left his forehead burning in pain for what felt like hours—even in a “game world.” If he ever woke up in the real world and had to go through all this again…

Me? Fight Raiden Shogun?

Me? Fight Celestia?

Can I even win?

Yikes. Just thinking about it gave him chills. This wasn’t a video game anymore—in the real world, you could actually die.

Furina stood nearby with her arms crossed, watching silently as Chen Mo chatted with the Dendro Archon. Her expression was calm, her gaze slightly averted.

She understood his fear—his hesitation.

After all, being the one chosen to save the world wasn’t some grand honor. It was painful, exhausting… and no one understood that better than her.

As the saying goes, when heaven assigns a great task to someone, it must first burden their spirit and will. Furina had never heard that phrase, but she grasped the truth of it deeply.

Of course, she saw even more than that.

From the moment this odd young man suddenly appeared before her, startling her out of her skin… to the way he could casually open a chat window and converse across nations with the Dendro Archon… to how he’d nonchalantly revealed one of Sumeru’s top national secrets.

Even if Chen Mo wasn’t the Traveler… there was no way he was just some ordinary person.

And now, from what she overheard, it seemed… this strange world might actually be a dream?

…

“All right! Enough about that!” Chen Mo abruptly ended his back-and-forth with Nahida and switched topics.

“I have something else to tell you—you’ll never guess who I ran into when I teleported here!”

“Who? Don’t tell me… the Hydro Archon?”

“Ha! Nailed it! I ran into Fontaine’s Hydro Archon herself—Lady Furina! Just wait, I’ll bring her over to meet you.”

“Okay! I’ve never met any of the other Archons before.”

Furina: “Huh?!”

“What do you mean, bring me? No no no, absolutely not!” Furina frantically waved her hands in refusal.

She had just been deep in thought, analyzing everything she’d observed about Chen Mo, and only now snapped back to reality because she heard her name. As she caught up with their conversation—

It was already too late.

Chen Mo was planning to take her away from Fontaine to meet the Dendro Archon.

“I can’t—I can’t leave Fontaine!” she protested. “I’m the Hydro Archon, after all. My people need me—Fontaine needs its protector!”

“Besides, unless there’s a major catastrophe, gods don’t just casually travel to other nations. There are all kinds of diplomatic protocols, inter-nation communications, layers upon layers of preparation—it’s a logistical nightmare! Some even say it’s a drain on the people’s morale and resources! So unless it’s absolutely critical, I’m not leaving!”

“Oh boy, here we go again—someone else who hasn’t figured out what’s going on,” Chen Mo muttered, lightly tapping his forehead.

“Lady Furina, please listen. There are no citizens here. This isn’t your Fontaine. You don’t need to worry—you can come with me freely.”

Furina hesitated. She remembered hearing something earlier about this world being a dream…

“But…”

“No buts. I promise you, this isn’t the Fontaine you’re supposed to protect. Haven’t you noticed how no one here even responds to you? They’re not people… they’re just NPCs. No—clockwork automatons at best.”

Furina placed her hand under her chin, tilting her head thoughtfully. She recalled the strange behavior of everyone she’d passed so far.

No matter where she went or how she greeted people, none of them responded. They just repeated a few lines, made the same gestures—just like Chen Mo said. Like clockwork dolls.

Honestly, even the dance troupes outside the Opera Epiclese had more life to them.

“Tell you what,” Chen Mo said. “Let me prove it to you. I’ll show you that this really isn’t Fontaine.”

He pointed at her suddenly and declared, “Furina, you usually can’t use elemental powers, right?”

“Wha—?!”

Her heart skipped a beat. Furina flinched, her whole body trembling ever so slightly.

“O-of course I can! What nonsense! I’m a god—a Hydro Archon! How could I possibly not have access to elemental powers?!”

Her voice cracked slightly as she tried to suppress the panic creeping in, then quickly shifted into indignation:

“You dare speak such blasphemy about a god? That’s a serious offense! I’ll have you locked away in the Fortress of Meropide!”

Great. Now I’m wanted in two nations, Chen Mo thought wryly.

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This is a fan translation of 完蛋！我被锁在梦里了 by 六轩岛润人芙宁娜. All rights to the original work belong to the creator. Please support them by exploring their original work or sharing it with others if you can. Thank you for reading and supporting my efforts to bring this story to a wider audience!