Chapter 1 The Homecoming

The familiar sensation of waking from the dream dimension—that unique feeling of weightlessness followed by sudden grounding—assaulted Hao Ren. He felt a moment of dizziness, and when he regained clarity, he was lying in a warm, brightly lit environment. He opened his eyes to see the soft, dim glow emanating from the sliding door of the hibernation pod. A gentle, soothing sound, like wind chimes, drifted into his ears. Both the light and sound were automatically generated by the system based on the user's physiological characteristics, allowing someone who had been asleep for a long time to quickly return to a state of wakefulness and energy.

With a soft hiss, the hibernation pod's sliding door smoothly retracted to the side. Hao Ren sat up from the coffin-like container, staring at the familiar scene before him for a few seconds before confirming that he had successfully returned. A soft click came from beside him. Dou Dou pushed open the lid of her water bottle, leaned out, and with a mighty leap landed on Hao Ren's lap. "Hayaya! Heichala!"

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment before realizing that the little one was saying "Home." Dou Dou had been diligently trying to learn to speak, but her pronunciation was basically at this level, only slightly better than a Japanese person who had studied in India for ten years learning to speak English for the first time…

Several other hibernation pods also opened one after another. The others who had taken "a good nap" sat up, stretching, yawning, rubbing their eyes, and making all sorts of strange noises—the last of which was caused by Lily. We all know that huskies often go crazy and start barking for no reason, so the family was already used to the dog-girl's occasional outbursts of madness. Hao Ren swung his arms and stood up from the hibernation pod. He thought he would feel a little weak, but he was surprised that he had no problems physically other than a slight mental slowness. It seemed that although these coffins didn't look like much, their performance was excellent.

He looked around and, as expected, found a person standing in the center of the room: Hilda, dressed in white, was standing blankly in front of a row of coffins, her face a mixture of hesitation, surprise, confusion, and... well, any more expressions were hard to discern. In any case, the beautiful queen-sister was completely spaced out until Hao Ren went over and patted her on the shoulder, causing her to jump. "Ah?!"

"Well, it looks like everything's normal, the teleportation went smoothly," Hao Ren nodded. "Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? If there's a problem, tell me quickly. This is the first time I've brought a living person out of that world, and to be honest, I'm a little unsure myself."

Hilda stared wide-eyed at the completely unfamiliar environment. It was obviously not the kind of residence she had seen in the dream dimension. At the same time, the environment, completely devoid of magical reactions, made her realize something. Hao Ren's words woke her up, and the first thing she did was quickly take out a delicately crafted cylindrical device from her arms, quickly manipulate it a few times, and then murmur to herself, "I can't measure the background radiation and basic constants yet, but it's definitely another planet…"

"Yeah, yeah, welcome to Earth," Hao Ren said, looking strangely at the cylindrical device in Hilda's hand. "Didn't you already know that we were going to travel to another world? Why are you so surprised now?"

Hilda slowly raised her head, the expression of barely suppressed excitement on her face startling Hao Ren. "You really brought me to another world?!"

Vivian came to Hao Ren's side, hands on her hips. "Yeah, wasn't that what we agreed on from the beginning?"

"This really is the surface world you were talking about?!"

"Yeah," Vivian continued, hands on her hips, then looked at Hilda suspiciously. "Speaking of which, you weren't planning on believing us from the beginning, were you? Did you just come with us to try your luck?"

Hilda nodded subconsciously at first, then shook her head quickly, but she was too excited to say a word. In the end, she could only grab Hao Ren's shoulders and shake him vigorously, finally managing to speak in a broken voice, "Please… please be sure to send me back!! I believe you, I believe everything now! As long as you can take me home, I'll do anything! The entire Irim Kingdom will be forever grateful to you!"

Hao Ren never expected Hilda to get so excited all of a sudden, and he was shaken so hard that he saw double. He struggled to break free from the overly excited elf, dodging her clutches while shouting, "Calm down! Everything has to be done according to the rules! The most important thing for you now is to keep your mood stable. I saw in the news that some people actually die of joy—you have to trust the organization, trust the Space-Time Administration. You think traveling to another world is a big deal, but it's nothing to the staff of the Bureau. Calm down, understand? If you come any closer, I'm calling the police…"

Seeing Hao Ren like this, Hilda finally realized that she had seriously lost her composure, and finally calmed down, but then she became restless, her eyes constantly scanning Hao Ren, making him break out in a cold sweat. Hao Ren grabbed Lily, who was about to run past him, and quickly ordered, "Go quickly to the TV cabinet in the living room and see if we have any quick-acting…"

He was really afraid that Hilda would die of joy in the waiting room before she could go home…

It seemed that Hilda hadn't completely believed Hao Ren and the others when she was in the dream dimension. She had come along with at least a 50% chance of trying her luck. It wasn't until this moment, when she really discovered that she had been transported to an unfamiliar place—not sure if it was another world, but at least it was definitely another planet—that she believed that these strange guys really had the ability to send her back. It could be said that the excitement she was showing now was based on a solid foundation.

It seemed that this elf-sister's plan to go home really couldn't be delayed. Hao Ren decided to check the situation at home later and then take Hilda directly to Raven 12345.

Of course, if that goddess-sister hadn't returned yet, finding Raven 23333 should also work.

At this time, Vivian wandered back and forth in her room, checking everything, then ran to the corner, picked up a bucket and mop, and prepared to clean. "The house is full of dust. The upstairs must be even more uninhabitable. Luckily, the beds and appliances are covered with tarpaulins and newspapers, otherwise we might not even be able to sleep in the beds tonight… This place is as dirty as a doghouse."

Lily hadn't left yet, and when she heard this, she bounced over to make trouble with Vivian. "What's wrong with a doghouse! You're not allowed to insult my room!"

"Don't make trouble, if I don't clean up the kitchen before noon, you won't even get instant noodles today."

"Oh oh, then I'll help too!"

"You can help, but put your tail away. You know you've been shedding lately, but you're still deliberately running around everywhere, just making things worse…"

Lily and Vivian left the basement, arguing and bickering. Hao Ren felt quite emotional: luckily, he had a careful and considerate girl like Vivian by his side. When everyone was preparing to enter the hibernation pods a few days ago, she was the only one who remembered to cover the large appliances and beds with tarpaulins and old newspapers, otherwise the others would have forgotten. This place was next to the wasteland, and the grass behind the house had dried up after autumn. When the northwest wind started, yellow sand filled the sky, and the house looked like the owner had been dead for many years if it wasn't cleaned for three days…

So Hao Ren was a little curious about how those superheroes on TV, who went out to punish evil and eliminate wrongdoing for at least ten days and a half months, could go home and directly fall asleep on the bed or sit on the sofa and start calling their girlfriends to chat with such strong mental fortitude. Why didn't a director properly portray the scene of the superheroes running to the balcony to shake out their bedsheets after returning home…

Thinking about the scene of Vivian carrying a bucket and busying herself up and down, Hao Ren felt that the crux of why he couldn't become a superhero was right here.

But just as he was thinking about random things, a scream from upstairs suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

It sounded like a girl's voice, extremely penetrating, piercing through the floorboards. Hao Ren thought it sounded a little familiar. He exchanged glances with the siren and the great demon next to him and quickly ran upstairs.

The scream came from the kitchen. Hao Ren led the others to the kitchen, where Vivian and Lily had already arrived. So many people crowded in, making the kitchen impenetrable. Hao Ren squeezed to the front, only to see a person standing helplessly in the corner of the kitchen:

Becky.

The microwave oven on the kitchen stove was sparking and crackling. Becky's enchanted longsword had almost cut it in half. When Hao Ren first saw Becky, he was stunned and didn't know what to say. After holding it in for a few seconds, he exclaimed, "What are you doing here?!"

Becky looked up blankly at the group of familiar people in front of her. The microwave oven beside her was making its last gasps of sputtering sounds before finally losing power.

Hao Ren realized belatedly, "My microwave!"