Chapter 1 Illusion?

Illusion? Hao Ren certainly didn't think what he'd just seen was an illusion.

He was sure that what he saw was Gun, and it definitely wasn't because he missed his family too much and was having some kind of hallucination—if he was missing someone, he could miss a lot of people. Even if he missed Doudou, he wouldn't miss that stupid cat who, other than scratching at the door, clawing the sofa, stealing food, and throwing mice into pots, only knew how to run to his ear every morning and meow loudly...

He connected what he had seen with the "light erosion" phenomenon that was happening near the Sunscorched Spire.

So after brushing Veronica off, Hao Ren made an excuse to leave alone. He searched for the most concentrated area of light erosion in the Golden Rose Palace. Such areas were not uncommon now. After the Sunscorched Spire's energy burst, a third of the White City was caught in the phase anomaly. As he walked, he would see a wall or platform disappearing out of thin air, or even an entire house. Ivy and draperies floated in the air where light erosion had occurred, looking strange and conspicuous.

He didn't find the stupid cat again, but he saw two nervous maids in front of a pavilion.

The two maids had their backs to Hao Ren, and they didn't notice anyone approaching. Hao Ren walked over and heard them talking in low voices:

"...Did you see that just now? It went by in a flash, scared me to death."

"I saw it too! I thought it was a hallucination... That thing that looked like an octopus, all tentacles, it seemed to be floating in the air? That thing flew towards me!"

"Eek—don't talk about it, I'm getting goosebumps all over, and I even saw a man standing behind that thing, oh my god, I've never seen anyone so ugly in my life... That must be a demon from the Abyss of Chaos!"

Listening to the two maids' conversation, Hao Ren immediately thought of the autonomous machinery on his ship and Wang Daquan's fresh, unique, and independent face. He couldn't help but interrupt: "What are you talking about?"

The two maids were startled, turned around, and bowed to Hao Ren in panic: "Guardian! I... we weren't slacking off, we just..."

"Alright, alright, I'm not here to check up on you, don't be so nervous," Hao Ren quickly waved his hand. "What did you say you saw just now? An octopus? And a particularly ugly man?"

The two maids exchanged glances, the panic in their eyes not receding much, but after realizing that Hao Ren was really quite friendly, they finally calmed down and described what they had seen.

They had suddenly seen those things while cleaning the corridor—just like when Hao Ren saw Gun, the scene inside the Petrified World Tree ship suddenly appeared in the air, but it was fleeting.

In terms of time, it seemed to be the same moment that Hao Ren saw "Gun".

"Are you talking about this thing when you say octopus?" Hao Ren frowned and directly opened his portable space, releasing an autonomous machine.

The autonomous machine made a series of chattering sounds and happily circled around the two maids.

"Wow!" The two maids exclaimed in unison, then nodded hastily, "That's it, that's it! So it... is it your pet, Guardian?"

The two girls had a little fear and respect on their faces. Obviously, the stories about Hao Ren had been spread among these servants even more miraculously, so that their fear of the octopus had been weakened a lot. One of them even nodded: "Actually, after accepting this style... it's quite cute. We thought we were seeing ghosts in broad daylight before."

Hao Ren: "...Uh, hehe, hehehe..."

After dismissing the two maids, Hao Ren began to think about the appearance of these "illusions," and at this moment, a voice suddenly sounded in his spiritual world: "Partner, partner! Paddi'an calling partner! Paddi'an calling partner! Respond if you receive!!"

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed: "I hear you, I hear you—you guys fixed the communication device?"

"Eh, ma, this is clear! This machine knew this thing would work..." The voice of the data terminal came through clearly, sounding particularly excited. "Partner, the suggestion you gave last time really worked. We found a relic of the Creation Goddess from the crystal core research station and built a divine power oscillation antenna here, which has solved the shielding problem! From now on, you can talk to us normally!"

This was almost the best good news at this stage. Hao Ren restrained the urge to cheer and asked happily, "What did you use as a medium? Sourceblood or the Golden Disc?"

Before the data terminal could speak, Hao Ren heard Muru's muffled voice: "Me."

Hao Ren: "..."

At this moment, in the outside world, in the "material vacuum zone" of the vast universe, the Petrified World Tree was cruising among a large number of turrets, outposts, and production bases. On the top platform of the ship, Muru was sitting expressionlessly on a giant chair, holding an antenna support like a scepter in his hand, and wearing a string of crystal oscillation amplifiers on his head. Nolan's holographic image stood in front of this Guardian Giant, smiling and saying: "Just bear with it, I'm producing a more portable antenna device for you in my stomach, the one you're using now is a trial version..."

Muru nodded: "It doesn't matter, I feel pretty good like this now..."

Hao Ren couldn't see the scene outside, but he could guess it. He listened to the data terminal explaining to him: "This machine went back and thought about it. You have to find a holy relic that's closest to the power of the Creation Goddess, right? The sourceblood we have on hand is all second-hand products manufactured by Zom, and the Golden Disc is just a tool no matter how powerful it is. It's even further from the Goddess in terms of 'bloodline,' so after looking around, the strongest divine power is indeed the Goddess' own son..."

Hao Ren: "Okay, I'll give it to you."

"By the way, partner, I'm looking for you to tell you something. Just now, Izhaks said he saw in the corridor..."

"Saw two girls wearing maid uniforms, right?" Hao Ren knew that this was the same thing. "I saw Gun too!"

"Gun?" The data terminal was stunned for a moment, then reacted. "No wonder I saw her running out of the lounge like crazy just now, yelling that the ghost of the big cat was coming to her for canned fish!"

Hao Ren: "...Just let Vivian scold her later, let's discuss serious business first. The facts prove that we should have broken through a deeper layer of divine power blockade. Those just now weren't illusions, but signs of the overlap of two spaces."

"Nolan is dividing half of the computing power to trace back the spatial readings just now. Partner, what exactly happened to you?"

"I blew up a tower that seemed pretty important—but not a physical explosion. I'll tell you slowly..."

Hao Ren explained what had happened before and finally made a summary: "In short, all kinds of strange phenomena have been happening here since then. Although they don't hurt people, they seriously affect normal life. Recently, the royal family has also been discussing moving out temporarily."

The data terminal was silent for a moment, then opened its mouth: "This machine has a guess."

"Say it."

"Partner, the divine power explosion you created weakened the Creation Goddess' blockade of the 'Coro' space, but because the sourceblood energy is limited, it didn't completely 'blow through' the barrier, but only formed a small weak point with a limited range on this barrier. In this weak point, the connection between Coro space and the real universe has become closer, so the above-mentioned phenomena have occurred. Because the divine power shielding is still in effect, the substances that can break through the barrier and interact with the real universe in this 'singularity' are limited, and the way they interact is also limited, basically only various bizarre hallucinations and auditory hallucinations. As for the 'light erosion' phenomenon you mentioned, it is likely just a byproduct of this singularity."

Hao Ren blinked: "So these ghostly phantoms will continue to appear here for a long time? This might cause a lot of chaos."

The data terminal was silent for a moment, seemingly checking the data. Then it gave a negative answer: "It shouldn't be like that, partner. Nolan believes that the spatial image interaction phenomenon just now was because the Petrified World Tree happened to be flying past the location where you were—that is to say, we were together just now. The 'Golden Rose Palace' and the Petrified World Tree overlapped on the same coordinates."

Hao Ren instantly understood: Coro space and the real universe were like two parallel worlds. Although they couldn't see or touch each other, their spatial coordinate systems were actually the same. The Petrified World Tree was constantly cruising in the "material vacuum zone" of the real universe, and it had probably brushed past Coro world or even passed through it many times—and just now, when he created a singularity in the capital of the Kingdom of Taros with a divine power explosion, the Petrified World Tree happened to be passing by here!

In the moment when the two spaces overlapped, they saw the scene in the other space.

"Partner, if we follow this line of thinking, perhaps we can directly shatter Coro's shielding from the outside with brute force," the data terminal said. "We can get tens of thousands of tons of sourceblood and then let them go berserk. The resulting impact, even if it can't completely remove the barrier, should be able to open a crack in the 'shell' of Coro world..."

"No, we can't do that." A flash of lightning suddenly crossed Hao Ren's mind, and he immediately stopped the data terminal's seemingly feasible suggestion.

The terminal didn't understand for a moment: "Why?"

"Why did the Creation Goddess seal this place?" Hao Ren asked rhetorically. "Coro, in the Creation Goddess' divine language, means 'prison.' This prison was consciously sealed by her. That Lockmarton—although local legends say He is dead, but according to the situation of the Chaos Tide, I think that thing is most likely still alive, just suppressed in the depths of the prison. Before solving this problem, we must not open the door of the prison."

The data terminal pondered for a moment: "...Okay, you have a point. This plan is temporarily shelved. But this machine will design a way to transmit items to you based on this idea. There shouldn't be any risk in maintaining one-way transmission."

Hao Ren had no objection this time: "Approved."

After discussing the next material transfer plan, Hao Ren hung up the communication.

He walked aimlessly in the royal garden, thinking about how to educate that stupid cat after going back. At this moment, he saw a royal guard running towards him in a hurry.

"Guardian!" The guard stopped in front of him and gave a crisp salute. "His Majesty the King invites you, there is an important matter to discuss."