Chapter 1 The Sliding Hatch

The sliding hatch of the adjustment pod opened silently. The sudden burst of light made Hao Ren dizzy for a moment before he sat up. He shook his head vigorously, finding that his body had undergone no changes, just like the first time he had undergone body adjustment. He had lain in the coffin for a few seconds, and that was it.

However, the brief yet bizarre nightmare from just now was still vivid in his mind, leaving him with lingering fear.

Raven 12345 was fiddling with a crystal panel floating in mid-air. It seemed to be the central controller for several adjustment pods. Watching this unreliable goddess mutter to herself while reading the instructions and tentatively pressing buttons on the controller made Hao Ren's eyes twitch. He glanced at the other three adjustment pods beside him, which were still inactive, and asked curiously, "Why aren't they ready yet?"

"Oh, I'm giving them a body check while I'm at it," Raven 12345 replied without looking up. "The little wolf girl is still developing, Izhaks just came from another world, and Vivian seems to have problems controlling her powers. These three are all problem children, so I'm taking this opportunity to check them out. Don't worry, they all seem fine so far. By the way, how are you feeling?"

Raven 12345 finally looked up, sizing Hao Ren up and down. "Hmm, you look to be in good spirits."

"I had a nightmare," Hao Ren said, unable to get angry at Raven 12345's carefree face. He could only recount the dream he had just experienced in detail. "In the end, I saw something floating to the surface... and that scared me awake."

Raven 12345 paused slightly in her movements. She glanced at Hao Ren silently. "You'd better hurry up and train in the Dream Plane. Your mental strength is too low right now, and your psychological fortitude is also a problem. You won't be able to handle the big scenes in the future."

"What exactly was that nightmare about?" Hao Ren felt that Raven 12345's habit of not finishing her sentences was a terrible habit, so he could only continue to press. "Looking at your expression... it seems to have some deeper meaning."

"It's still the influence of the Dream Plane," Raven 12345 said, looking at Hao Ren out of the corner of her eye. "As long as you come into contact with that place once, it will remember you and constantly appear in your mental world. Whether it's a dream or a hallucination, what you see are 'silhouettes' produced during the mutual projection of the Dream Plane and the real world. Many ordinary people who survived contact with the Dream Plane were mentally and physically exhausted by such repeated intrusions. So you'd better take advantage of my being here to train as soon as possible, so that even if you run into trouble, I can help you in an emergency. When your mental strength is strong enough, the Dream Plane will be nothing but a pile of sh*t to you."

Hao Ren slapped his forehead. The sister in front of him had been so sincere and heartwarming in what she had said, so why was there still so much sarcasm in the last sentence? Couldn't she just stick to the goddess route to the end?

Raven 12345 continued to slowly adjust the equipment in the room while scrutinizing the words on the instruction manual. Hao Ren, bored, began to wander around the room. He curiously studied the cutting-edge devices that seemed to have jumped out of a science fiction movie. Seeing that Raven 12345 would probably be busy for a while, he took out his data terminal and went online.

He hadn't been completely idle these past few days. Hao Ren was usually a bit lazy, but he wasn't so lazy as to be unmotivated. He knew that one of his most important assets in the future was the small device in his hand—even though the system was bizarre, the database was chaotic, there were a bunch of useless programs, and there was an Ai that liked to go against him, it was still a treasure. Hao Ren had been working hard to learn how to control this high-tech gadget from the Xi Ling Empire. After studying for so many days, he finally had some gains: the biggest gain was that he knew how to use the data terminal's more than a dozen network modes.

He should have realized long ago that the most important function of this terminal should be running online. The creation of a super civilization could not be a standalone device, but the huge pile of plugins that Raven 12345 had installed on the terminal had made its network settings very strange. In the end, the terminal Ai itself had restarted and restored itself for half an afternoon before finally restoring the network mode to its best state. Then, Hao Ren stared blankly at the string of instructions in the network mode list:

Local Device Chain - Local Channel Communication Network - Local Galaxy Communication Network - Local Celestial Group Communication Network - Local Universe Communication Network - Macro World Civilian Communication Network - Macro World Military Channel - Special Dedicated Line Network - Military Intelligence Department Dedicated Line...

Hao Ren suddenly realized that he was sitting on a treasure mountain without knowing it. Seeing such a large pile of frightening channel lists on his data terminal, he truly realized the meaning of "you are not alone," so he enthusiastically began to study the data terminal's network mode.

Most of the network channels were locked, which was within Hao Ren's expectations. He was currently just a newbie who had just completed the novice mission, and those channels with security levels could not be open to him. The upper limit of the network channels that were in the open state was the Local Universe Communication Network—this was the highest-level network that he could freely connect to. The next higher data chain was the Macro World Civilian Network. Although it was a civilian network, it was directly controlled by the Space-Time Administration and had some military nodes participating in it. Hao Ren, a low-level inspector of this level, only had a part of the data extraction authority for that network. He could read public messages from the higher-level network, but he could not directly connect at will.

But this was already enough. He found that just one Local Universe Communication Network was enough for him to toss around with, and it even dazzled him so much that he couldn't spare any attention to study what other channels were talking about!

When the data terminal switched to network mode, the first thing Hao Ren saw was the "Activity Information Push" window, where he could see what was happening in the distant depths of space.

"Unencrypted message - Local Universe Channel, originating from Keltura iii, sent directly to Dan-Tuin without relay, the invasion war launched by the Kel-Rom people against the Keltura main star has ended, the Keltura natives have achieved victory with their own strength. The local inspector judges that this war does not exceed the observer's alert line and does not require intervention. Addendum: Revoke the intervention request. End of message."

"Unencrypted message - Local Universe Channel, originating from Chadannel, undirected broadcast. The Chadannel star is rapidly decaying and is expected to completely extinguish 326 imperial days after this message is sent. This is a medium-alert event that may cause civilization extinction. The local inspector judges that intervention is necessary and is now sending a request for assistance. Please send a response message if any idle teams receive this message. End of message."

"Unencrypted message - Local Universe Channel, originating from Dan-Tuin, relayed from the Suha satellite to Chadannel. The local inspector has spare ship resources. Is there a need for large-scale immigration? There are no spare colony stars locally, but an application can be made to the empire to manufacture a new planet. See the attached file for the local management area's authorization certificate and the planet customization services that can be provided. If needed, please enter the dedicated channel. End of message."

"Unencrypted message - Local Universe Channel, originating from Santu-Su iv, undirected broadcast. End of message."

"Unencrypted message - Local Universe Channel, originating from Suha Satellite Station, directed to Santu-Su iv, did you forget to enter the body of the message? End of message."

"Unencrypted message - Local Universe Channel, originating from Santu-Su iv, undirected broadcast. That was my cat. End of message."

As soon as he opened the data terminal, the activity information push window刷shua (sound of something flashing by) displayed a large pile of such information. They dragged Hao Ren's thoughts out of the narrow, cramped little Earth all at once. Although they were only briefs that had been omitted by the system, they pushed the busy scene in the depths of the universe to Hao Ren's face with a "whoosh."

When they first appeared in front of Hao Ren's eyes a few days ago, the latter's surprise and excitement were conceivable.

"Although I don't understand it, it feels really awesome..." Hao Ren looked at the information rolling across the screen in the channel and couldn't help but啧啧啧ze ze ze (clicking sound expressing admiration). He had no idea how to intervene in this kind of conversation, and to be honest, with his current skills, there was really no need for him to take up bandwidth in the upper-level channels, but just being able to look at these things gave him a sense of accomplishment: Although I'm not saying anything, I also have an account in the channel!

"Looks awesome, right?"

"Yeah."

"Want to get involved, right?"

"Yeah."

"But don't know if your little things are worth posting about, right?"

"E... eh, you're done?!"

Hao Ren finally realized that the voice that suddenly appeared in his ear was Raven 12345's. He quickly exited the network and stood up to say hello, but Raven 12345 just waved her hand carelessly. "Don't be so nervous. It's just going online and chatting at work. I don't care about that. Besides, it's good for you to come into contact with these things. It effectively broadens your horizons and prevents you from being like some country bumpkins who, even after becoming inspectors, spend all day focusing on the small area of a few thousand meters radius around their own planet. Just don't let this thing overstimulate you and make you think about reaching the sky in one step. By the way, that little wolf girl woke up first. Take a look at the treatment effect."

Only then did Hao Ren notice that one of the adjustment pods not far away had been opened, and Lily was clumsily climbing out of it.

She had returned to human form.