一封待寄出的书信 Letter to Be Sent

一封收件人名为「修女小姐」的信，其中记述了克劳迪娅与其对梦境进行的一些讨论。 A letter addressed to "Miss Nun" detailing conversations between Claudia and her about the Dreamscape.

亲爱的修女小姐，

Dear Miss Nun,

能收到你的来信，我很开心。

I'm so happy to have received your letter.

首先，我得说，你当真令我惊讶——要知道我虽小有名气，可读者们往往更愿意阅读我的冒险小说，也就是《热夜系列》。

First, I must say you surprised me. I may be somewhat famous, but my readers much prefer reading my Night Fever adventure series.

而你…你不仅乐意欣赏我那些并不成熟的怪诞小说，还能精准地捕捉到我想要表述的含义、传达的情感…诚实地讲，简直没有什么比这更令我感到愉悦了！

Yet you — not only did you enjoy my rather immature ghost stories, you were able to perfectly capture the hidden meanings and emotions I tried to convey. I'll be frank — nothing would bring me more joy than this!

对一位陌生人擅自敞开心扉或许是件奇怪的事，但不知为何，我就是非常乐意在与你的书信中畅所欲言：没错，正如你所推测那般，我的确着迷于观察恐惧与绝望如何在人的心灵上刻下印痕，也沉醉于目睹鲜活生命如失水花枝般凋零枯萎时那种惊心动魄的美。这属实不是什么可以宣之于口的爱好，但我无意对你隐瞒。

It may be strange to open up to a stranger, but for some reason, I'm happy to speak freely when I write to you. It's just as you surmised: I'm obsessed with observing how terror and despair leave marks on the human psyche. I'm intoxicated by the breathtaking beauty of once-vibrant life withering away like a wilting flower. It's not a hobby I can speak of in regular company, but I have no intention of hiding it from you.

以及，没错，我近期确实在匹诺康尼。我来此地原是为了处理一些私事——同为埃德加先生的忠实粉丝，相信你一定能理解我曾对这种照搬现实的「人工美梦」何其不屑——但说实话，在真正来到匹诺康尼后，我却渐渐被这金碧辉煌的梦境所吸引，故而一再逗留至今。

And you're right, I have been in Penacony for a while. I originally came here to resolve a personal matter. As a fellow loyal fan of Mr. Edgar, I'm sure you also understand my initial disdain for this "artificial dreamland" and its pale imitation of reality. Yet, when I finally arrived in Penacony, I found myself increasingly drawn to the Dreamscape's dazzling splendor, and thus I've remained here till now.

我在街头巷尾与人攀谈，所获之丰乃是家中的几十个书架所无法比拟的。我听闻千百星球的风土人情、获悉无数坊间的诡事怪谈…当然，最有趣的还是梦境本身。在此我很乐意与你分享我的调查结果：

I've chatted with people on the streets and reaped a wealth of information beyond what my dozens of bookshelves at home offered me. I've learned of local customs from thousands of planets and numerous bizarre ghost stories from different corners of the universe... Of course, the most fascinating subject is still the Dreamscape itself. Here I'll share with you the results of my investigations:

起初引起我关注的，是一则关于「迷因」怪物的故事。据说它会在梦中带走人们的灵魂，而受害者在现实中的躯体也会因此陷入沉眠、无法唤醒。

The first thing that caught my attention were stories about a "memetic" monster. It's said that it can take away the souls of humans while they're dreaming. The bodies of its victims would then enter a state of dormancy in reality, unable to be awakened.

截止至我开始调查，匹诺康尼已发生多起此类案件。据某位筑梦师所言，那些突然被掳走的受害者们，失踪前所处的梦境时刻、所属种族与行为模式皆不相同，但我并不认为该迷因的行为缺乏特定逻辑。

By the time I started my investigation, there were already many such cases in Penacony. According to a Dreamweaver, the victims who were suddenly abducted were taken from different Dreamscape moments, were of different races, and had different behavior patterns. However, I believe there's still a logic to the meme's behavior.

另外值得注意的一点是，据说绝大部分目击者都已被家族消除相关记忆，因此有理由猜测该怪物与家族有所关联——至少后者必定知晓其存在，并采取了、或试图采取某种对应措施。

Another point worth noting is most of the witnesses have had their memories related to the cases erased by The Family. Thus, I have reason to believe that the monster is related to The Family. At the very least, The Family must know of its existence and may have already taken or are taking measures to deal with it.

但没多久我便与该筑梦师彻底失去了联系。而在某一时间节点后，此类案件发生的频率急剧减少，致使我再无法收集到更多有效信息。

Not long after that, I lost contact with that Dreamweaver. Then at some point, the cases suddenly happened a lot less frequently, and I couldn't gather any more useful information.

然而不久后，我的调查又因两件事发生了转机：

However, soon after that, two incidents would become a turning point for my investigation.

其一是某个都市传说的出现：诡异的梦境迷钟、被污染的磁带——描述了一个古怪噩梦，以及一张潦草的字条——强调美梦不过是家族的阴谋与骗局。关于该事件我进行了深入的调查，最终获得了某位亲历者所提供的可靠消息。

The first is the emergence of an urban legend involving a strange Dream Ticker and a corrupted tape. It describes a peculiar nightmare and a scribbled note that insists The Family's beautiful dream is nothing but a lie and conspiracy. I looked into this incident and finally found more information from an eyewitness.

其二则是另外一位筑梦师的对于梦境构成的分析：据他所说，美梦仅占据匹诺康尼梦境的极小部分，而其余皆是未被开发的混沌荒原；且这种「人工美梦」在构筑的过程中，还催生出一种极为危险的「高浓度小型噩梦」，它们往往附着于美梦边缘，被用于收集、销毁负面情绪。

The second is another Dreamweaver's analysis on the structure of the Dreamscape. According to him, the sweet dreams only take up a small portion of Penacony's Dreamscape. The rest of it is an undeveloped chaotic wasteland. He also said the process of constructing the "artificial dreamland" tends to give birth to "highly concentrated and extremely dangerous small-scale Nightmares." They tend to attach to the borders of the sweet dream and are used to collect and destroy negative emotions.

虽然家族始终强调美梦的安全性，但他们所强调的也仅限于「美梦」。结合以上两条线索，我姑且得出以下结论——或者说猜测：

While The Family always insists that the sweet dream is safe, their insistence only ever applies to "the sweet dream." Once I combined these two clues, my conclusions — or rather, speculations — are as follows:

首先，迷钟的都市传说或许与那些「人工噩梦」有所关联；

First, the urban legend about Tickers is likely related to these "artificial nightmares."

其次，迷因怪物或许来源于噩梦，又或许来源于更深层的原始梦境。而我个人认为，后者的可能性更大些。

Second, the memes likely come from nightmares, or from a much deeper layer known as the Primordial Dreamscape. Personally, I think the latter is more likely to be true.

我的调查还在继续，但如今能获得的线索过于稀少，恐怕很难继续推进。

I will continue my investigation, but the clues I can now find are too scarce. I fear I won't be able to make much progress.

不过无论如何，迄今为止所获得的结果对我而言也已足够。我的下一部小说就准备以此为题材，不知你是否能给我一些有趣的建议。

Regardless, I'm satisfied with my results so far. I've decided to use this as the theme of my next novel. Perhaps you can help provide me with some fascinating insights?

期待你的回信——

Looking forward to your reply —

你真诚的克劳迪娅

Yours truly, Claudia