Chapter 180: 【dreamy Homebrew】
It seemed like he thought of something, so Yuan Zhu hurriedly took out a pile of various mushroom samples from his soul space. There weren’t many of each kind, but the varieties were numerous, pouring out from his palm with a clatter and scattering across the table.
These mushrooms were all samples he had collected in the Underground World.
Some were everyday food from the Upper City District, with light pollution levels, barely enough to fill the stomach, and could be paired with Qi Threads for pollution removal; some were wild deadly poison fungi that absorbed miasma pollution, which he used as extraordinary material to feed goblins and accelerate mutation; and others were mutated polluted mushrooms grown in the Shadow Domain.
After hearing A Miao say that fungi eroded by the Nightmare Layer were natural raw materials for brewing forbidden fake alcohol, he immediately thought of the mutated fungi in the Shadow Domain.
These polluted mushrooms, after being exposed to Shadow Dream Hole radiation, would inevitably carry dual attributes of Nightmare and Shadow. If used for brewing alcohol, could they create a Shadow Dreamland (Cockroach Village) version of Yellow Millet Echo?
Could they replicate Yellow Millet Town, making those who drink the fake alcohol dream into Cockroach Village? Would doing so count as indirectly opening a Nightmare Path, paving the way in advance for cross-plane smuggling?
One money-making inspiration after another sparked in his mind. Driven by inner greed, Yuan Zhu couldn’t care less about indulging in Miao Miao’s beauty and quickly pushed the pile of mushrooms emanating polluted aura in front of A Miao, waiting for inspection and evaluation.
However, as soon as this pile of mushrooms appeared, the area where the three of them sat began to show faint special fluctuations. It was like a fire sensor detecting thick smoke, starting to flash rapidly and sound an alarm, about to spray water to extinguish the fire.
Seeing this, A Miao suddenly raised her hand and waved it toward the table. Those mushrooms still emanating eerie aura didn’t change in themselves, but suddenly became completely harmless.
Yuan Zhu and Meng Xiyue were both drawn to this scene. As the mushroom owner, Yuan Zhu could confirm that the pollution carried by the mushrooms themselves and the polluted aura they emitted remained unchanged and never disappeared. But with just a wave of her hand, all these polluted auras were erased—still existing in reality, but impossible to perceive or detect.
“What kind of skill is that?” Meng Xiyue’s eyes lit up as she looked at the mushrooms on the table and blurted out.
“A small trick, not worth mentioning.”
A Miao didn’t answer directly, but it was clear this was a highly sophisticated stealth skill. Combined with her frequent services in smuggling, illegal entry, and fleeing, as well as slipping out of the Security Bureau early in the morning, Yuan Zhu had already analyzed part of her abilities. Was she a grand assassin?
Yuan Zhu: “What just happened?”
Meng Xiyue rolled her eyes at him: “Do you think Taixi is like Running City, where you can casually pull out a bunch of unprocessed polluted goods? These slightly upscale hotels and public areas all have perception detection devices that can scan and lock onto pollution sources and issue warnings. Your mushrooms are unprocessed, especially those black ones—they have a strong smell, and they’re contaminated with Nightmare Bubble Layer aura, making them dangerous forbidden items.”
A Miao nodded: “This kind of stuff is very common in Running City’s black market. It’s useless on its own but carries advanced pollution, often used as garbage material fuel for certain rituals. If you try to sell it directly on the market, it’s easy to get reported by shop staff. If you want to sell in bulk, consider contacting me!”
With that, A Miao used her fingers to sort through the mushrooms whose aura she had concealed, quickly categorizing them into food-grade, garbage, and nightmare pollution garbage.
She first pointed to the food-grade ones and said: “These are somewhat useful. I can tell their toxicity is mild. After simple processing, they can be used for brewing alcohol, but the taste and quality won’t be high—good for selling to bottom-level workers to earn some hard-earned money.”
Next, she pointed to the batch of polluted mushrooms and said: “These have no value. The pollution can’t be processed, so bundle them up and sell them off uniformly. Some rituals contacting forbidden demon gods use these as garbage sacrificial fodder.”
Finally, she pointed to the mutated mushrooms produced in the Shadow Domain: “These mushrooms are interesting. They’re contaminated with Nightmare aura, far exceeding the previous two categories, but not concentrated enough. Moreover, most of the edible types are poor, with only a few suitable for brewing alcohol.”
At this point, she looked at Yuan Zhu again: “You can collect so many polluted mushrooms, so you must have your own channels, right? But the mushrooms you’ve provided don’t meet the standard. If you want deep cooperation, I have a suggestion!”
Yuan Zhu: “What suggestion? Tell me.”
A Miao held up one finger: “I’ll provide the spawn. You take it to the origin of these mushrooms for planting. The planting environments for the first two categories are unqualified. Only the production site of the third category is barely adequate. During planting, you must intensify Nightmare Layer pollution erosion to grow raw materials that truly meet Dreamy Drink standards.”
Meng Xiyue found it interesting and suddenly spoke up: “You mean one of the raw materials for Dreamy Drinks must be polluted mushrooms produced in the Nightmare Layer, while those from the Bubble Layer won’t work?”
A Miao nodded: “Correct!”
Meng Xiyue asked again: “That doesn’t make sense. If just producing them in the Nightmare Layer is enough, then dream worlds like Yellow Millet Town are plentiful—couldn’t they produce massive amounts of mushrooms for unlimited Dreamy Drink brewing? But Dreamy Drinks aren’t flooding the market.”
Yuan Zhu was completely baffled by the Dreamy Drinks the two were discussing, not knowing much about them. It was only thanks to Little Spicy Stick frantically searching the database that he dug up some intel from memory fragments.
Dreamy Drinks are a relatively high-end beverage category on the market, including alcoholic beverages, regular drinks, health products, and medicines.
After consuming these drinks, they stimulate the spirit and soul, constructing a virtual single-player illusory dream with extremely high realism, maxed-out immersion, and maximum interactivity.
Because the brands, formulas, and themes of the drinks vary, different Dreamy Drinks provide different types of illusory dreams.
These illusory dreams are not actual dreams, but fantastical experiences between Earth’s games and movies. After consumption, the drinker enters a semi-awake semi-drunken state, actively initiating a blurry yet clear illusory dream experience and interacting within it.
Additionally, they support active termination, allowing escape from the illusory dream to use the toilet or pause the leisure experience to complete normal work.
…
When the dreamy effect fully fades, the drinker cannot clearly remember the content of the illusory dream. But they retain an experience akin to a save file.
The spiritual satisfaction, sensory stimulation, and enjoyment gained through the illusory dream can be temporarily stored and repeatedly savored until they gradually dissipate.
People then immensely miss this drunken dreamlike feeling, getting more and more hooked—one bottle down, then another.
Newbies start with beverage-grade, unlocking brand new single-player adventure experiences.
Once the threshold gradually rises, they move to alcoholic beverage-grade for deeper immersion and more profound experiences.
After drinking too much damages nerves, brain, and soul, they switch to health product-grade with added medicine for wellness leisure illusory dream experiences.
When beyond saving, they go full intensity with drug-grade drinks, sustaining life while getting high. Emphasizing total self-indulgence—chug the strongest drugs, slay the toughest monsters, age without fading spirit: 80-year-old elders in illusory dreams battling 90 succubi!
Nowadays, popular Dreamy Drink types and themes on the market have exceeded 100 varieties. Romance, massage, adventure, fantasy, horror… just like one-time single-player games plus movie plots.
The most outrageous part: the drinks contain only Nightmare Spores that trigger mental emotions. But the beverages lack scripts or plots.
Thus, after finishing the drink, it triggers and compiles the most personalized illusory dream script based on relevant info and memories in the user’s brain.
So the same drink, consumed 100 times, will freestyle 100 similar yet different scripts from your brain’s materials, making you feel good over and over and over.
And because memory blurs upon full awakening, leaving only pure experience, it never gets old. Thus, Dreamy Drinks form a massive category, with over a dozen global enterprises competing in this track. Small businesses and wild black-hearted workshops are even more numerous.
After figuring out Dreamy Drinks, Yuan Zhu suddenly felt this industry seemed highly promising. Du Ling Star really is full of business opportunities everywhere.
…
While he pondered the profit potential of Dreamy Drinks, the two girls beside him eagerly chatted.
A Miao: “True Dreamy Drink crafting requires extremely complex processes and exquisite raw materials. Dreamlands like Yellow Millet Town are also production sites for planting raw materials. But our Cat House takes the pure handmade illegal brewing route—the entire production process is illegal from start to finish. How to put it?”
A Miao lifted her chin, rested her right fist against it, eyes gazing at the ceiling as if deep in thought. Her other hand tugged at the end of her braided ponytail, twirling it nonstop…
Then she explained: “Safe mushroom raw materials grown in dream worlds like Yellow Millet Town are first under strict control as important supplies, hard to obtain from outside. Second, I’ve acquired this kind of safe consumable-grade mushroom raw material before. Honestly, the quality is poor—only good for ordinary alcoholic beverages.”
Meng Xiyue: “Why is that?”
“Because we lack true Dreamy Drink production techniques. Every brand on the market is backed by corresponding Industrial God System production lines—impossible for independents to replicate. Our path is seeking raw materials with stronger potency, higher polluting nature, and greater risk. No competing on technology or craft—just raw material quality.”
A Miao said proudly: “You’ve probably heard: ‘Flavor needs no fuss; top ingredients often require only the simplest cooking.’ Similarly, get the most potent nightmare pollution mushrooms, and with the simplest brewing, produce illegal products rivaling legal Dreamy Drinks or even top-tier ones.”
Yuan Zhu: “And the price?”
“Are you dumb?” A Miao looked at Yuan Zhu like he was an idiot. “They come to Cat House for private brews—do you think they don’t know the price? Scared of danger? Buy legal drinks. Our Cat House private brews all target the ultimate dreamy rarities, with solid ingredients that never cheat young or old!”
Yuan Zhu: “Hearing you say that, I recall something in Running City area called ‘Pink… something’.”
A Miao instantly got what Yuan Zhu meant: “You mean Pink Water Grass? Old buddy. It has pretty good reputation. Cautious style, yet ambitious, seems to bet on Running City continuously invading reality. Once supplied us Cat House with private brew raw materials, but quickly learned the simplest brewing from other channels and went solo. Once business grew, got reported by competitors, hahahahaha! So funny just thinking about it—never seen such a dumb evil god. I still owe it for those goods.”
The girl laughed so hard she clutched her stomach and slumped on the table, pounding it with small fists nonstop.
Meng Xiyue, seeing this, maliciously guessed: “Did you secretly report it?”
A Miao lifted her head, squinting in denial: “I’m not that bad. Go ask around Cat Street—my reputation as A Miao is always top-notch. My business is small, transactions limited to three streets—how much of Running’s underground market is that? No need to report that guy. Pink Water Grass’s raw materials were always high quality, and it did business properly. Just a bit dumb—heard it got sting operations recently?”
Yuan Zhu carefully pondered the connections between Dreamy Drinks, illegal brewing, and nightmare mushroom raw materials… Then he looked at A Miao, feeling like he’d matched with his crush at a blind date.
Though illegal business like this forbids getting too close without trust, he was still bewitched by her sweet appearance. On the other hand, he didn’t particularly mind the Shadow Domain, or he wouldn’t have first delegated to natives, then granted permissions to the captain, and finally planned to let the wolf (Magic Net) into the house.
After a brief think, he asked directly: “I have a friend who got a small newborn Dreamland in the Nightmare Bubble Layer. These black mushrooms are products eroded by that Dreamland’s aura.”
“Oh?” A Miao sat up straight, a bit more serious. “Sounds legendary, but actually very common. The Spirit Layer is full of fragments shed from top Dreamlands. But since you have a Dreamland channel, we can try planting some powerful nightmare mushrooms and form a stable supply relationship.”
Yuan Zhu: “I don’t care about that. I just want to ask if you have the strength to brew drinks that let one dream into Dreamland?”
A Miao shook her head: “I can’t do that. If your Dreamland fragment fell into the Spirit Layer and is near Running or Taixi, maybe. But Dreamland is deep in the Nightmare Bubble Layer—impossible.”
Yuan Zhu was somewhat disappointed: “I’ve heard that in the past, people often consumed polluted mushrooms, and in semi-poisoned hallucinations, communed with outer domain demon gods to gain knowledge? Your illegal private brews follow the same path, right?”
“Yes, but that requires a nightmare god and demon stationed in your Dreamland as a signal receiver. And it must withstand Spirit Layer interference and retaliation, with strength to pull mental signals from reality into the Nightmare Dimension.
