Chapter 1 The Reestablishment

The kingship of the Nine Realms returned to its place, and Asgard welcomed its new master.

The heroic spirits slumbering in Valhalla were awakened, throwing themselves into the repair work of various ancient systems. Uncontrolled heroic spirits wandering in Asgard were captured one by one and sent to the Valhalla Temple for logic resetting. Ancient artifacts buried deep in Asgard and usable materials were also excavated and transported by the heroic spirits and autonomous machines to places where they were needed. This kingdom, which had been in slumber for more than two thousand years, was gradually awakening from its dream—except that the people ruling this kingdom were no longer the Asgardian "gods" of the past.

After obtaining the guidance map of the Nine Realms and successfully restoring the operation of the Rainbow Bridge, Hao Ren sent out all the free autonomous machines at his disposal. One-third of them went to various alien spaces for excavation and investigation. With the help of Yggdrasil, he would mark out the Asgardian and Vanir ruins buried deep in the rubble and scorched earth. Another third of the autonomous machines went to Midgard to assist the early settlement of the Twilight Capital refugees. Finally, the remaining third of the autonomous machines stayed in Asgard to help the heroic spirits clear the ruins and restore various functions of Asgard as soon as possible.

Asgard was not just a city where the ancient Norse "gods" lived. After obtaining the information recorded in the Keystone, Hao Ren knew that this city was also a huge control center and archive.

As the last alien group to persist in the mythological era, the Norse pantheon was naturally different from other alien groups that died out early. In those precarious days at the end of the mythological era, the Norse alien races had difficulty operating in the mortal world, so they could only continue to "dig deep" in their lairs—they almost dug through every inch of the Nine Realms, exploring all corners of this alien space system. Although they could not touch the secrets of Yggdrasil and the Origin Ark, they still found countless pieces of information in this huge "dimensional immigration fortress," most of which were related to the Creator Goddess's settings.

And the archive preserving these things was in the ruins of Asgard.

In addition, in order to survive for a long time in the closed alien space kingdom, the Norse aliens also established countless data point fortresses and factory warehouses in the Nine Realms. Some of these facilities were still in operation, and their control center was Asgard.

Therefore, rebuilding Asgard was imperative.

Hao Ren stood on a platform at the top of the Golden Palace, looking at the magnificent ruins of the city below. Heroic spirits and autonomous machines were already busy among the ruins, but compared to the scale of the entire ruin, their numbers were still too small. Looking down from above, eighty percent of the city was still quiet.

Hao Ren decided to place a building unit at each of the four corners of the city—just like the building modules left on Purgatory Star. He wanted to build a set of production and recovery systems here as soon as possible.

Galia-Durrell walked over from behind the platform. The Dragon Queen glanced at the city below and casually asked, "What are you thinking about?"

"Inspectors can't interfere in the internal affairs of civilizations," Hao Ren said, stroking his chin, "so I'm struggling. Am I interfering in the Twilight Civilization?"

"Just for this?" Galia-Durrell raised an eyebrow, her vertical pupils narrowed slightly, revealing a playful expression. "Don't you already have a lot of titles, the Sun King of Irem, the High Lord of Zolm, etc.? You're already the leader of how many civilizations?"

"That's different," Hao Ren spread his hands. "Those are honorary titles. Basically, they're useless except for printing two more lines on my business card, but this place... Odin even handed over the 'jade seal,' and just now he went to give an order to the Twilight refugees, letting the Steam Council swear allegiance to me. I always feel that this matter is a bit inappropriate in nature."

"I also rule a dragon kingdom in my spare time as an inspector," Galia-Durrell laughed. "What's there to struggle about? The core of the Inspector's Code is not to distort the normal development of other civilizations. To put it bluntly, it's not letting primitives touch nuclear bombs. We only need to prevent that. Being too cautious beyond that is a bit restrictive. But your struggle also makes some sense... Someone at your level isn't suitable for being a king, leading the people in construction. You're better at commanding those machines."

Hao Ren's face suddenly fell. "Although I'm self-aware... You don't have to be so direct, okay?"

Galia-Durrell waved her hand indifferently. "Don't worry about the details. I want to ask what your own thoughts are?"

"I'm not very interested in ruling this place," Hao Ren grinned. "I'm interested in the ancient secrets buried here. I'm going to let the Steam Council continue to lead their own people, letting the Twilight Civilization develop naturally. As long as they don't have any major incidents, I won't interfere. But the reconstruction of Asgard still needs to be watched... I'm going to take over the Einherjar Legion."

"Including that one over there?" Galia-Durrell raised her chin, pointing to a spot not far from Hao Ren.

Hao Ren turned his head and saw a Valkyrie in full military uniform standing expressionlessly two meters away from him. Noticing that her "master's" gaze had turned over, the Valkyrie immediately revealed a silly and sweet smile: "Master, do you have any orders?"

After seeing Odin, the Valkyrie seemed to have finally broken free from her madness. However, it seemed that she had been crazy for too long, and the circuits in her brain were a bit seriously damaged. This Valkyrie did not look very smart... Well, in fact, her intelligence should be fine, after all, she could still complete the tasks assigned to her, but no matter how you looked at it, she didn't seem to have a completely normal brain.

"...Including that one over there," Hao Ren returned a similar silly smile to the Valkyrie, turned back to Galia-Durrell and said helplessly, "She's the only one who can control the Einherjar Legion and Valhalla now... Hopefully, she can recover slowly, as Odin said."

At this time, Lily's energetic shout suddenly came from below the platform, interrupting Hao Ren and Galia-Durrell's conversation: "Landlord! Landlord! Are you up there? I can smell you!"

Hao Ren poked his head out and looked directly below the platform. He saw Lily squatting on the roof of the second floor of the Golden Palace, craning her neck and wagging her tail, shouting at him. He waved at her: "I'm here, I'm here—what's up?"

"Bai said that the World Tree has saved up enough energy," Lily shouted, and then she jumped straight up in place, vertically jumping up nearly twenty meters, landing in front of Hao Ren with a bang, scaring the Valkyrie next to her. "It seems like we can set off at any time—should we go to the Rift Nebula?"

"So fast?" Hao Ren was quite surprised. "Then let's go quickly. I also want to see how the prairie people are doing on Purgatory Star."

After saying that, he was ready to leave, but before leaving, the corner of his eye still swept to the Valkyrie next to him. This Valkyrie, whose brain was not very good, was just looking at him with a dazed expression, and the way she was dazed was far from comparable to Lily. Hao Ren thought about it and decided to explain a few things.

"You stay here and continue to complete the work assigned to you," Hao Ren instructed clearly. "After the work is completed, continue to carry out the task of patrolling and protecting Asgard. If humans from Midgard come over, don't harm them either, just don't let them get close to the control center and archives."

The Valkyrie nodded, tilting her head: "Master isn't coming back?"

"...Coming back, coming back, definitely coming back. I'm just going to communicate with the World Tree, and then go on a business trip, but I'll definitely be back."

"Oh."

After leaving the Golden Palace, Lily couldn't help but mutter: "Landlord, why do I feel like you were coaxing a child just now?"

Hao Ren thought about it, and was too embarrassed to point out that everyone usually spoke to her in a similar way...

The husky girl obviously still lacked self-awareness about her personality and intelligence.

Riding in Anthony's spherical aircraft, Hao Ren returned to Nibelheim again, the Nidhoggr's Lair.

As the final coexistence place of Yggdrasil's two souls, Nidhoggr's Lair had special significance. After discussion, Bai and Xiao Hei unanimously decided to specially evolve this nerve center, turning it into a channel for communication with the outside world—of course, mainly for communication with Hao Ren.

And in order to facilitate communication, and to facilitate Hao Ren's understanding and participation in the operation of Yggdrasil, the style of Nidhoggr's Lair could be said to have undergone earth-shattering changes.

When Hao Ren got out of the aircraft, he was stunned, and after being stunned for a long time, he muttered to himself: "This style is not just a matter of photoshop... Being strangled to death and reborn is nothing more than this, right?"

Galia-Durrell was also stunned. The Dragon Queen was stunned for a moment before muttering: "Well, at least it's much better than the tentacle monster carnival before."

A Temple of Life stood before them.