Read The Dawn Code :: Chapter 9: The Change

"You've never heard of Coco Cat?"

"N-never heard of it..."

The salesperson scratched his head, looking utterly bewildered. "Sir, are you sure you've got the name right? We have almost every doll imaginable in stock. How about you describe what it looks like, and I'll help you find it?"

"Hmm..." Linden pondered for a moment. "Well, the cat's expression is… like this." Linden squinted and contorted his face, mimicking the Coco Cat's unique look.

"Oh! Ohh!" The salesperson's face lit up instantly. "Hahaha, I know exactly what you mean, sir! We have it, we have it! The doll you're looking for is over here!"

He led Linden towards the most central, prominent, and largest display shelf in the store. "Look! They're all here!"

The shelf, bathed in dazzling lights, was easily a dozen tiers high! Absolutely magnificent!

"This is the cat you were talking about, right, sir?" the salesperson cheerfully explained. "It's our best-selling product! This cat has been popular for hundreds of years and is still incredibly well-loved! But… you definitely got the name wrong. This cat's name is—"

"Yeah, I see it."

At that moment, Linden felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over his head.

Two massive speakers nearby blared hypnotic music.

On the shelf, hundreds of identical cats stared straight ahead...

A large sign in the middle proudly proclaimed in huge letters:

A Century-Long Hit! A Millennia-Selling Sensation—

【RHYNE CAT】

…

The plaza was deserted in the early hours of the morning. All the surrounding shops had turned off their lights and closed. Only tireless insects buzzed against the streetlights, and the desolate chirping of cicadas somehow added a touch of serenity to the hot summer night.

Linden sat on a bench, feeling like this world didn't belong to him. It was so unfamiliar. So out of place.

He opened his palm... Inside, he held a Rhyne Cat keychain. It was all he could afford with the money he had. Every line, every embellishment, every detail of this cat was identical to the Coco Cat from his dream. The only difference was... its name had changed from Coco Cat to Rhyne Cat.

"Why did it change?" He couldn't describe the feeling in his heart. Fear? Terror? Not exactly. But there was a strange sense of being lost, a powerlessness, no longer in control. He had always believed he was a god in his dreams, able to do anything he wanted, with the entire dream world revolving around him.

But now... He thought of the movie The Truman Show and felt like a caged doll.

BOOM!!!

At 00:42, the world-engulfing white light arrived precisely on schedule. Burning everything to ashes.

…

Phew... A night breeze blew.

Linden opened his eyes and saw the sheer curtains dancing wildly in the air. "Forgot to close the window again..." He pulled his blanket tighter, but couldn't shake the chill rising from his heart. For an unchanging dream... change was the ultimate horror!

Linden picked up his phone from the bedside table. He dialed a number.

"Hello?"

"Gaoyang, something's happened."

"What's wrong?" The voice on the other end perked up.

"My dream... it changed."

"..."

"That's great news!!" Gaoyang on the other end was overjoyed. "That means you're getting better! I told you before, didn't I? I said if you watched more sci-fi movies and read more sci-fi novels, your dream world would definitely change! Did you dream of spaceships or two-dimensional space?"

"Nah, it's not that kind of change..." Linden sat up, noticing the noisy background on the phone. "Where are you?"

"At a bar watching the game! Qatar World Cup, wanna come? It's not far from your place."

Linden glanced at the clock. It was past one in the morning. But recalling the changes in his dream... he had no desire to sleep. "Alright, wait for me."

…

Linden got out of the taxi. Before he even entered the bar, he could hear the raucous crowd and cheers inside! Judging by the bar's facade, it looked like a quiet bar for drinks and conversation, but with the Qatar World Cup currently on, they were probably hosting a special football event.

"Over here, Linden! Sit here!" Gaoyang, pushing his belly, squeezed through the crowd and pulled Linden to a small table in a corner. "We can watch from here. I'll grab more beers."

"No, I didn't come here to watch the game."

"We can chat while we watch!" With that, Gaoyang's stout frame twisted back into the crowd...

Gaoyang. Linden's best friend since childhood. Both their parents were factory workers, born in the same family compound. Later, perhaps by some twisted fate, they were either in neighboring classes or the same class through kindergarten, elementary, middle, and high school.

However, Linden's grades were much better than Gaoyang's. Thanks to excellent sketching scores during his art entrance exam and decent academic results, Linden got into Shanghai University, while Gaoyang went to a junior college in the north. After graduation, Gaoyang also came to Shanghai to work and is currently a car salesman at a 4S dealership.

Linden still trusted Gaoyang implicitly. Even after twenty years of recurring dreams, Linden had only ever told Gaoyang about it.

"I'm back, I'm back!" Gaoyang waddled over, hugging a pile of beers, placed them on the table, and opened a few bottles. "Have a beer to calm your nerves! So, spill it, buddy! What's going on?"

Clink! They clinked glasses, and the ice-cold beer went down, giving Linden a slight sense of reality.

"Okay, it's a bit of a long story." Linden put down his glass and, using both his hands and words, recounted everything to Gaoyang... From encountering the big-faced cat, seeing the Coco Cat mask, then all the company happenings, how he copied the Coco Cat from his dream, casually named it Rhyne Cat, and finally returned to his dream only to find that overnight, everyone had forgotten the name Coco Cat. It had vanished without a trace, and the cat's name had inexplicably become Rhyne Cat.

"Mhm."

Gaoyang nodded continuously, drank, gazed thoughtfully into the air, and looked tense. "I get it." Gaoyang put down his glass, his eyes glazed over. "So, you drew a cat in reality, and then it appeared in your dream."

"You get nothing!" Linden banged on the table. "I've been telling you seriously for so long! And that's all you understood?!"

"Ahhh! Woohoo! Ahh! Ahhh! Wahh! Ahh ahh ahh ahh!!" Gaoyang suddenly screamed and leaped up! Howling like a monkey, he slammed his fist on the table!

"Holy crap, you're showing your true colors!" Linden jumped back in surprise—only then did he realize. Everyone in the bar was dancing and shouting just like Gaoyang:

"GOAL!! AMAZING!!! MESSI IS THE BEST!!"

"It's settled! Argentina is awesome!"

"King Messi! Ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh!!"

…

Linden turned around. On the bar's large projection screen, the replay of the recent goal was showing.

"You weren't even listening to me!"

"Oh, I was, I was! Hahahaha, I was listening, I really was." Gaoyang sat back down, grinning, and refilled Linden's glass. "We've known each other for twenty years; you've told me about your dreams hundreds of times. Honestly, it's always the same stuff, isn't it?"

"The point is, why has this dream not changed for twenty years, and suddenly it changed today?" Linden emphasized.

Thump! Gaoyang chugged his beer, placed the glass on the table, and pointed at Linden. "That's actually very simple. I'll tell you why!"