Once again, of all the re-occuring locations in my dreams, the most common are various different malls of various different styles. From small malls, to dying malls, to massive labyrinth-like malls. The mall the appeared in this dream, and dreams before, was massive, intricate, and labyrinth-like, like a somehow expanded version of an actual mall I visit on certain occasions.
This specific mall has a massive layout shown across multiple dreams: there are various stores strewn across various floors, a massive Round1 that the specific contents of could make for a whole seperate blog post, a waterslide, a massive store for claw machines, and many, many delicious looking restaurants. I would love to especially visit the part of the mall on the first floor that is a whole row of medditeranian and middle eastern restaurants, those looked so good.
I have had many dreams at this mall prior: one where I got lost from friends I was meeting and had to aimlessly wander the neverending hallway of a food court, one where I was at that same food court and got a taro boba smoothie, one where I went to the Round1 and really wanted to play Guilty Gear, one where I got screwed over playing UFO catchers, etc.
One dream had this mall appear not as a location I was going to myself, but a location within a fictional setting. In this dream, I was watching this anime OVA special based around SVC Chaos (SNK vs. Capcom Chaos). Like the game, the setting was bleak and post-apocalyptic. The main playable cast of characters were aimlessly wandering around a dilapidated setting, trying to find other survivors. There was a certain part where they stumbled across the massive dream mall: in pristine condition but eerily empty. Bespite being unmanned, all the restaurants were serving food as normal and all the games at Round1 were still plugged in and working. The main crew stopped here for a while, taking in a bit of normalcy and resting up before heading out to find others. Notably they took a break to play some of the many Taiko no Tatsujin cabinets that were not just in the Round1, but around the whole mall.
Notably, there was a sub-plot revolving around Rock Howard and what he was doing. Despite not being in SVC (specifically, if you wanna go off the plot of the manhua, not surviving in SVC), it was revealed he ended up surviving whatever ended the world, but he was alone and separated from everyone else. For a while, he just wandered this barren desert, slowly dying of thirst and worrying if everyone he knew even made it, which clashed with the prior scenes of all the other characters enjoying the comfort of the mall. He saw what appeared to be a small village in the distance, and used his last bit of strength to run over there in desperation just to hopefully see another living person.
He nearly died just inches away, but the townspeople, mysterious cloaked figures, took him in and nursed him back to health. These robed figures are happy to find another living person, and guide Rock to this massive chasm/elevator that went down into the Earth in order to talk with "their leader". Rock was sent down there by himself, and found himself in some kind of laboratory, where this old guy had a bunch of mad scientist stuff and test tubes and all that. I don't quite remember what the two discussed after that, but at some point, knowing of Rock's strength and abilities, the old man grabbed Rock, revealing that in order to bring his own rule to what was left of the world and his cult, he was going to forcefully turn Rock into some kind of robot or cyborg to act as "the world's savior" and his personal enforcer. They never showed this hypothetical Robot Rock, but it was implied it was gonna look "angelic". Rock wasn't having that, so he and the old man got into a pretty intense fight. By the end of it, there was a massive chasm going deeper into the Earth within the already underground lab, and during their tussle, Rock ending up knocking the old guy into it, killing him. Rock, shaken, went back up to see that all the other cloaked townspeople had mysteriously vanished: the village empty. Rock fell to his knees and just stared into the abyss of the deep metallic chasm: he saved himself and stopped an evil plan, but he very well could have just made himself the last person alive on Earth, and the thought of that haunted him. Still gazing into the abyss, he began to cry.
Luckily, meanwhile, the rest of the cast has left the mall, and continued their journey re-supplied. Also they just had a bunch of lions with them, Rose Quartz style. They were going through the desert, and in the distance, they were able to find what appeared to be what was left of the village. The OVA ended on the implication that the rest of the cast was able to find and reunite with Rock: a happy ending for their situation.
Pretty wacky dream involving this mall, but the actual dream I had last night wasn't as elaborate. I just went to the mall with my family, going through some clothing stores while hoping there would be enough time to visit the Round1. Pretty normal dream to end this post on compared to Rock Howard mental anguish from nights prior before I started this.