Chapter 1 Whether This Place Is Real Or Fake

Regardless of whether this bizarre place was real or fake, a virtual space or an abnormal phenomenon, one thing was certain: it was definitely closed and limited. A complete universe would not have a second open-ended infinite space. This was one of the many rules known as the "Creator Principle," which determined the order and stability of the universe. Hao Ren had once overheard some knowledge about this from Raven 12345.

So he was quite sure that if he walked towards the starry sky... he would reach the edge of this world.

He just didn't know what it would look like there, and whether it would be safe.

"Not a bad idea," the Shiji (Corpse Spirit) terminal casually praised after hearing Hao Ren's plan. "How do you plan to get there? Are you taking the ship?"

"I am taking the ship," Hao Ren said, looking at the sparse starry sky. Under the light of the two moons, only a limited number of bright stars could be seen. "But I'm not sure if it's safe to break through the sky so rashly... Tsk, never mind, I have to go up and see it anyway."

The Shiji terminal didn't say anything else, just silently watching Hao Ren release the silver-white Inspector-class ship from his dimensional pocket. The Tortoise Rock Platform quietly floated in the night sky. Under the command of remote control, it turned off all the lights and blocked its heat and radiation signature, so it shouldn't be detected by humans in the distance. Hao Ren looked at this behemoth, stroking his chin and muttering, "Speaking of which, shouldn't we install a cloaking device on it? I feel like it'll come in handy."

"Whatever, these types of ships all have a lot of modification slots. You can apply for one and probably modify it. But each module consumes the ship's core power supply. Many silly newbies impulsively install a lot of flashy plugins on their ships, and then after completing a mission, they have to apply for rescue and get dragged back..."

Hao Ren thought about it, and still felt that he needed to study the ship's modification and upgrade issues when he had time, but now was obviously not the time. He led the terminal onto the ship, came to the bridge, and activated the main console, then habitually sat in the captain's seat with his hands off the keyboard: "Terminal, execute silent launch procedure."

The ship didn't move. Hao Ren turned his head and saw the blonde girl-shaped Shiji terminal sitting on the console in a daze: her butt was on his usual slot...

"This one can't fit in!" the blonde girl vigorously shook her legs to show that she had tried hard. "You do it yourself!"

Hao Ren had no choice but to manipulate the flashing panels on the ship himself. Fortunately, he was no longer the clueless newbie who didn't know what to do with an automatic door. After carefully studying the manual, he could still handle ordinary operations. However, when confirming the status of the ship's power core, he suddenly said "Huh?": "Huh? Is this how this place is displayed now?"

"What's wrong?" The Shiji terminal jumped down from her slot to watch the fun. "Can't understand the chart?"

"It's not the chart," Hao Ren pointed to the power core status on the holographic projection. "The Umbra energy readings are gone, and the display of many energy units and calculation parameters is also abnormal... And I can't see the monitoring screen of the laboratory and engine sections."

"This one will take a look." The Shiji terminal said, and began to operate the control panel very unskillfully with her hands. When she could still get stuck on the console, this kind of operation was a matter of a moment, but now she could only poke at the panel with one finger, which made her quite upset, but there was nothing she could do, so she could only use the one-finger skill very quickly. Soon she finished reading the problematic data that Hao Ren mentioned, and found that the ship was indeed in trouble.

"All the parts that directly display Umbra modules have failed. The equipment parameters are not fully displayed, and only general normal or abnormal signs are displayed," the terminal said, and suddenly pressed a blue button next to the console. "Onboard mainframe, direct communication, report your status."

The holographic projection on the console showed the onboard mainframe's report of "everything is normal," but no voice sounded.

Hao Ren frowned, seemingly suddenly thinking of something: "Go to the laboratory and engine sections!"

He pulled the Shiji terminal and left the bridge, and soon came to the door of the laboratory section. This was the most precise and high-tech part of the Tortoise Rock Platform. Half of the advanced equipment on the ship was in this place, and it also stored special samples such as Source Blood, First Born Remains, and Mind Flayer Remains. When checking the ship's status just now, the situation in this section and the engine section was pitch black.

Hao Ren took a breath and opened the laboratory door.

He almost fell into a chaotic space.

A twisted, skewed room formed of a large number of metal and crystalline substances appeared before him and the terminal. Every part of the room did not conform to the laws of geometry, just like those mazes outlined using optical illusions, or the unbalanced landscape drawings under a child's hands. The ship's laboratory had become a bizarre and incomprehensible sight. Because the scene in front of him completely deviated from the geometric rules in reality, and even exceeded the spatial scenes that human logic could understand, Hao Ren felt a little dizzy when he saw the scene behind the hatch. The Shiji terminal quickly grabbed him and closed the hatch.

"What was that just now?" The Shiji terminal was very surprised. She may have had strong logical processing abilities, but she was very weak in terms of association and imaginative reasoning.

"This is not our ship," Hao Ren gasped, recovering from the twisted scene that made him feel sick. "Or rather, not entirely. Just like Nolan said, this world is a stage play, simulated by something—so everything here is simulated, including anything I take out of my dimensional pocket..."

As he spoke, he took out his Inspector's pistol from his dimensional pocket.

This was the first time he had taken out his pistol since he came to this world.

The silver-white Umbra pistol looked normal. Judging from the appearance alone, even Hao Ren, the owner, could not see anything unusual about it. But Hao Ren took a deep breath, closed his eyes, concentrated his mind, and pulled the slide.

The slide moved incredibly, and then ejected a bullet...

The Shiji terminal was dumbfounded: "When did Inspector pistols need bullets? Isn't this an energy weapon?"

"This world can only simulate what it can understand. The simpler, the more in line with the level of mortal civilization, the easier it is to simulate, and the more complex, the more effort it takes to simulate," Hao Ren put away the pistol. He knew that this weapon probably couldn't exert much power in this world. "My rigid shield is easy to manifest, so it can be simulated. Nolan's cane is a technological product of the Irim Elves, and the technical level is not high, so it can also be simulated, but my pistol... It uses Umbra energy."

Hao Ren shook his head and walked back to the bridge. "The core technology of this thing is too high, so this world can only simulate its appearance. Our ship is the same, and there are more incredible things inside—so it simply became such an indescribable thing."

The Shiji terminal reacted. She patted the alloy wall beside her: "So when you released the ship, this world had no idea what the hell you suddenly pulled out of your stomach... It could only roughly create a shell similar to the Tortoise Rock Platform to deal with the emergency?"

"You make a lot of sense, but your mouth is almost as annoying as mine."

The Shiji terminal didn't care. She limped along with Hao Ren: "So the key question now is whether we can still fly this ship into the sky?"

Hao Ren only replied with three words: "Should be able to."

After arriving at the bridge, Hao Ren tried to start the ship's silent ascent procedure. As expected, just as he imagined: although he didn't know how this "Tortoise Rock Platform" was running now, it really started to rise slowly and silently.

The Shiji terminal looked surprised: "Eh, I'll be damned! It can really fly?"

"Although this world doesn't understand what an Umbra energy engine is," Hao Ren's lips curled up. "But 'it' at least knows that a ship can fly into the sky. Now... let's see what's at the edge of the world, or rather, how big of a boundary this world can simulate."