In Warhammer Byrne's memory, the Live-Action Video Camera was a miraculous gadget capable of recreating events that occurred at a specific location and time. Shaped like a long, flat object resembling a large lollipop, it featured a disc with a needle and a time dial. By adjusting the dial, one could precisely target the moment they wished to backtrack to.
However, while the gadget was powerful, Warhammer Byrne was uncertain about one thing: the range of its backtracking capability. He didn't recall the Doraemon manga ever explicitly stating its limit. If the camera could only look back a day or two, it would be useless for his current situation.
As Warhammer Byrne pondered this, Young Byrne neared the end of his sharing.
"Don't be fooled by its unremarkable appearance; it's got quite the capability. As long as you specify the location and set the time, it can fully reproduce what happened, just like watching a movie. Thanks to it, I managed to find my lost pocket money."
Warhammer Byrne snapped out of his thoughts and asked casually, "I recall the camera as well, but the original manga didn't mention the maximum range. When you looked at the dial, how far back could it go?"
Young Byrne stroked his chin, trying to remember. "Hmm, let me think. The markings on the dial were in hours, and one full rotation equaled one day. I only turned it about three-quarters of a circle when I used it. I'm not sure if it can go multiple rotations. I'll ask Doraemon when I get back and give you the answer next time we meet."
Although he didn't get a definitive answer, the fact that Young Byrne didn't explicitly deny a longer range was good enough for Warhammer Byrne. Once he woke up, he could summon it and test it himself.
With Young Byrne finished, it was now Inception Byrne's turn. Outside of Warhammer Byrne, Inception Byrne's experiences were arguably the most bizarre. He had initially thought he'd traveled to the world of Limitless, only to realize he was in a virtual scenario created by an Architect; the world he actually inhabited was Inception.
During the second meeting, Inception Byrne had revealed his desire to become an Architect. After all, his "Golden Finger" allowed him to bring items from dreams into reality. If he became an Architect, he could design dreams according to his needs and obtain exactly what he wanted.
"In the world of Inception, not just anyone can be an Architect. You either have a family legacy or get scouted by an established Architect as an apprentice. It's very hard for an outsider to break in. Fortunately, I found an old Architect through black market channels. I used a Dream Crystal as a stepping stone to get him to take me on."
"What's a Dream Crystal?" Young Byrne asked, confused.
Warhammer Byrne was equally curious; the original film had never mentioned such a thing. Noticing their surprised looks, Inception Byrne touched his nose and explained:
"In the world of Inception, Dream Crystals are essential items for Architects. They store mental energy, allowing an Architect to expend less effort while constructing a dream and increasing its stability. Constructing a dream might look like creating a world, but it's actually about maintaining logical balance. The scenes and people you create must fit into a logical closed loop, otherwise, the dream collapses easily."
"Furthermore, control over mental energy is vital. If you inject too little, the dream becomes blurry or unstable. Too much, and you overload the dream, which not only destroys the construct but can also cause mental trauma to yourself through backlash."
Warhammer Byrne recalled the movie and realized these settings were entirely absent. On second thought, it made sense; a movie only lasts two hours, so many details regarding background and setting are omitted for the sake of time.
Young Byrne smacked his lips. "So there's that much to being an Architect. Did your first attempt at building a dream succeed?"
Inception Byrne gave a bitter smile and shook his head. "It's not that easy. My first attempt was just a simple alleyway. I thought as long as I built the walls and paved the road, it would be fine. But as soon as I finished the basic framework, the dream started to crumble. Cracks appeared in the walls, the road became distorted, and finally, it just dissipated into a mess of mental turbulence."
"Later, my teacher told me I'd made the most common rookie mistake: focusing only on the physical form while neglecting the logical substance. For that alley, I hadn't considered where the light was coming from, how the wear and tear on the ground should be distributed, or even the purpose of the alley's existence. Was it for people to pass through? Was it an auxiliary path for a commercial street? Was it a remnant of an old district or a temporary lane from new urban planning? These seemingly trivial details are exactly what keep a dream stable."
These words struck a chord with Warhammer Byrne. He immediately connected Inception Byrne's dream-building process to his own investigation. Just like constructing a dream scene, the clues to Tim's disappearance were disorganized precisely because too many key details were missing. The identity of the employer, the cargo, the person who guided him to the storage room—each of these was a "logical gap" preventing him from piecing together the full picture.
"So what did you do next?" Warhammer Byrne pressed. He sensed that the Architect's approach to logical loops might help him organize his investigation.
Inception Byrne explained, "My teacher told me to start by replicating instead of creating. He had me choose a familiar scene from reality—like the apartment I'm renting. I had to observe and record everything in the house perfectly, then replicate it piece by piece on a mental level, filling in every single detail. It was tedious, but the results were obvious. After two days, I finally replicated it in a dream. That dream stayed stable for a long time without any sign of collapse."
Replicate a familiar scene... fill in every detail...
Warhammer Byrne looked down, chewing over these phrases. After a moment, he looked up and asked, "You mean that any seemingly complete existence requires countless tiny logical chains for support. Once a key link is missing, it either collapses or becomes chaotic and disorganized?"
Inception Byrne nodded. "Exactly. Dreaming is like that, and so are many things in reality. According to my teacher, only by first learning to understand the logic of reality can you later break it or even reconstruct it. After all, the essence of dream-building is creating a virtual world that people believe to be real."