When Dreaming Of Crossing Realms

In Rota City's Lower City, a Strange Dream Out of Control event destroys a warehouse, leaving behind a sealed coffin box. Smugglers dealing in Strange Dream-related items trigger the incident, though the official report cites a fire and explosion. The gangs on Ster Street are swept away, and homeless persons begin to gather in the area. Among them, a man named Bai Mu appears, disoriented and unfamiliar with his surroundings. He attacks local homeless persons to establish dominance, learning about the city through interrogations. He discovers Rota City is a modern metropolis in a Second Industrial Revolution-era world where Strange Dreams erode reality, leaving behind items, knowledge, and creatures like demons and vampires.

Bai Mu learns he needs a civil registration and quick money. He joins a sewer cleaning crew led by Matt, alongside a group of gamblers and scavengers. The crew fights tentacle monsters, rats, and mutated creatures in the sewers. The work is dangerous but pays well. During the operation, the crew discovers an intact corpse deep in the sewer, which the gunman in the group suspects is a Strange Dream. The crew decides to investigate, hoping for wealth.

As they stay near the corpse, they are pulled into a dream reality. Bai Mu and the other ten crew members find themselves inside a stopped bus, dressed as patients with numbered tags. A heavily armed man named Thorne Reis explains they are test subjects rescued from a research institute in a city fallen due to a virus leak. The virus turns people into zombies. Thorne announces he will help them escape the city. The bus driver, already infected, attacks and is killed by Thorne. Bai Mu volunteers to drive the bus. Thorne arms the group and instructs them to fight their way to a safe house.

Under Thorne's guidance, Bai Mu drives the modified bus through ruined highways, mowing down zombies. Thorne clears the path with weapons. They reach a safe house where Thorne reveals his true goal: searching for a vaccine against the virus. A radio announcement states that the city will be bombed with a nuclear weapon on June 16. Thorne marks evacuation points on a map and arms the team with firearms stored in a wardrobe. Bai Mu realizes the dream has two main objectives: escaping the city and following the corpse protagonist Thorne to find the vaccine. The team prepares for the next phase of action, understanding that this Strange Dream is their chance at fortune and power. Bai Mu, now armed with an axe and knowledge of the world, accepts the mission. The dream continues, with the crew gearing up to face zombies and search for the elusive vaccine.