Unable to discern her own worth, Jiang Ling quickly descended into a hell of doubt. She doubted herself, doubted everything in the world, and began to question everything. If her "awake" state was actually a dream, and the dreams were the true awakening, she was now uncertain. Fifty years of life felt like a dream, like an illusion. But as the timescale stretched further, five hundred years, five thousand years, was it illusion or reality?

"Illusion, it's all an illusion!" She began to frantically panic. At this moment, she really hoped that these were all illusions. If dreams and reality were intertwined, could you still distinguish between the real and the fake?

Jiang Wenwen heard the continued noise coming from Jiang Ling's room and knocked on the door again. The "dong dong dong" sound hit Jiang Ling's heart directly. Her heart was pounding. Just now, she was awakened by her nightmare.

The two days of waiting were truly enough to drive people crazy, like an itch on your back that you can't scratch. After regaining her composure, Jiang Ling began to recall the nightmares she had over the past three nights. The first night was a countdown hell. It wasn't that outrageous, just a dream within a dream within a dream. In this triple-layered dream, she felt time pass by so quickly. One second she was taking the college entrance exam, the next she was lying in a hospital bed, and the next she found herself asleep at the table. The second night was even more outrageous. Her father kept trying to dig under her bed, while she would catch chicks, one, two, three, until the room was almost full. The third night was even more outrageous. It always felt like she was in reality and in a dream at the same time. She would come up with a bunch of things that she thought were philosophical, but when she woke up, she realized, wasn't it all nonsense?

"I really need to do more practical things in the future. Waiting like this all the time will drive me crazy!" She finally summed up and put these strange dreams behind her.

. . . . . .

"Dad, how long ago was it since we went out shopping together?" Jiang Ling held Jiang Wenwen's hand and swayed slowly with her steps. They were already fascinated by the things in the flea market.

"Sister, didn't we agree on this before we went out? What should we call each other outside?" Jiang Wenwen clenched her hand that was holding Jiang Ling's, seeming a little angry.

This "market" is a bit like the old flea market, but it is much more orderly than that. Basically, some residents are exchanging unused old goods, and there are also some traveling merchants pushing carts.

Jiang Ling observed for a moment, and it seemed the people of this world had a collecting obsession with paper books. It was strange, given that most book data could be found online, yet they still happily collected all sorts of organic materials with accompanying information. In just a few minutes of wandering around, she'd already seen several people returning home after selling their wares.

When passing a less crowded place, she bent down and whispered to Jiang Wenwen: "What did you bring to exchange?"

"Don't try to hit on me!" She quickly hugged her small bag tightly.

"Then don't even think about me!" Jiang Ling, carrying a backpack, shoved a hand into her pocket, groping for the twenty or so bullets inside. She hoped to exchange them for some information, or even better, a mechanical watch. She only knew that the weapons and ammunition she had might be worth a few points, but those items were already very outdated, even if they looked new. But she had no idea what she could get in return.

Jiang Wenwen seemed somewhat familiar with the area, and it was unclear where she'd gotten the guide. She'd been pulling Jiang Ling along the entire way, like a large Labrador dog taking its owner for a walk. After squeezing through several people, Jiang Ling and the others arrived at a corner.

What came into view was a vertical piece of armor covered in explosive reactive armor. Jiang Wenwen squatted before the armor plate and pulled out a piece of explosive reactive armor. It was a small card, affixed to a piece of plastic paper with some artistic fonts and patterns. The card was roughly beige in color, with a row of brass metal pieces along one of its long edges.

"How much is this?" she asked, holding it up.

"One for four points, three for fifteen points, or you can exchange yours, one for one!" The man sat behind the armor plate, holding a machine that looked like a game console in both hands, and answered without raising his head.

Jiang Ling finally realized this was a den of old-school gamers. There were several other people like her in this corner. Even if the sky fell, it wouldn't stop them from playing video games. Before she traveled through time, she had dreamed of becoming one of those people, but she'd never quite fit in with this secluded atmosphere.

"Then I want these. I'll use these to exchange!" Jiang Wenwen grabbed a few pieces of "Explosive Counterattack" from her bag and shook them in front of the man.

The man nodded, maintaining his original posture and replied: "Put it here first!"

"Let's go, it's your turn~" Jiang Wenwen turned around, pulled Jiang Ling's hand and said happily.

Jiang Ling remained calm. She was not very familiar with the distribution of small vendors in this kind of market, so she was ready to interrupt this person: "Do you know where I can buy this?" She took out a bullet and showed it to him.

"Hmm? Artifacts? You can go there, there are a lot of military fans there!" He pointed to a wall not far from here. Jiang Ling followed his direction and saw some people standing there. Two of them made some tactical moves that looked quite realistic.

"Thank you~"

"You're welcome. Military fans and gamers are inseparable!" The man waved his hand. He didn't seem to mind this kind of question for directions.

After passing through several more gatherings of people, Jiang Ling and the others finally made their way into the group. The sounds of discussion gradually became clearer. In fact, she had heard them discussing something during the few steps she had taken.

"Your militia training manual has been outdated for so long, and you're still selling it? You're so frivolous that you even sell it for twenty points. Why don't you just go and rob it?"

"What's your business about my price? This is a paper copy! I'm keeping it for collection! You can find it online by searching on your terminal, and you told me it's out of date. Why don't you look for the latest version? Can you find the latest version?"

The two men seemed to have been arguing for a long time, and the onlookers were even getting bored and began to disperse. This kind of simple quarrel seemed to be a daily routine here, and those who escalated it into a fight had probably realized their military dreams by now.

Jiang Ling didn't want to listen to their argument, so she weakly interrupted, "I heard you guys accept this?"

"Take it! For a one-to-one model, look at the workmanship; for a miniature model, look at the weight!" The man did not start listing the dishes like the vendors Jiang Ling had seen before. Instead, he just said something confusing.

"You're still buying models! Even the real thing isn't worth much these days!" The person who was cursing at him turned around, wanting to see what this soon-to-be-annoyed person looked like. "Holy crap, little sister!"

Upon hearing this, several people sitting nearby stood up, looking uneasy.