Chapter 1 Despite Endless Mysteries in the Outside World

Despite the endless mysteries surrounding the outside world's mutations, Hao Ren forcefully suppressed his urge to continue exploring and returned home before the gathering time—strangely enough, although the entire southern suburb, and even the entire world, was undergoing earth-shattering changes, only his old house and a small area around it remained as they were, not replaced by the distorted temporal and spatial phantoms. Like a safe house in a disaster, the Hao family mansion had become the only "stable" refuge in the midst of large-scale transformations.

He and Lily were the first to return. After arriving home, they found the house eerily quiet. Looking around the living room, they discovered "Gun" had laid out a blanket in front of the rat hole in the corner, and was sleeping soundly there. Doudou's water bowl was placed less than a meter in front of her head: this little thing had faithfully remembered the task Hao Ren had given her, but could still sleep so peacefully in this topsy-turvy situation. Was this cat a little too carefree?

However, seeing the silly cat sleeping soundly and Doudou dozing off in the water, it seemed the little weakling had no intention of causing trouble. In the end, Hao Ren didn't disturb their sweet dreams. Instead, he sat down on the sofa, discussing the phenomena they had discovered outside with Lily in hushed tones, and speculating about where Vivian had gone.

Half an hour later, everyone who had gone out to investigate the situation finally returned, all safe and sound—which really relieved Hao Ren.

"There's no danger outside, at least we didn't encounter any," Nangong Sanba said as he entered. "Those 'ancient people' seem to live in their own timelines. Although they intersect with the real world, they basically don't react to stimuli from outside their timelines."

Nangong Wuyue followed her brother in, and while changing her shoes, said, "We went to the city center. It's covered by a primeval forest. Only two floors of shops remain of the Bai Shi Building, with a forest village resembling an elven settlement on top. It's inhabited by a strange race, all thin and small."

Hao Ren greeted them, "Come on in, everyone. Let's summarize the information we've gathered."

Everyone gathered around the coffee table. Hao Ren first looked at Loli Sa—when they were divided into groups, everyone was in pairs, except for Loli Sa, who went out to investigate on her own. She was very confident in her abilities, and she wasn't familiar with exploring with others anyway, so she gladly accepted this arrangement. She possessed extensive magical knowledge, and as a perceptive elf, she should be able to use all kinds of incredible spells to see clearly. No one could surpass her in this regard, so Hao Ren wanted to know what this "Elf Queen" thought first.

"First of all, everyone should have verified it in their own way—all the 'phantoms' are actually real," Loli Sa nodded. "Although they seem out of place and their response to external stimuli isn't very realistic, they are real from a material point of view. Secondly, I found that all the mutations are randomly distributed. I'm not very clear about the historical structure of your planet, but I can see that those 'things' should come from different eras and different cultures. Their distribution outside is irregular, and the 'interweaving and nesting' between them is very stiff, basically just crammed together. Finally, I suspect that the appearance of all these things isn't a magical effect."

"Not a magical effect?" Izhaks asked suspiciously.

"I didn't sense any magical fluctuations," Loli Sa turned her head. "I released my mental power to a height close to the top of the atmosphere, and then scanned downwards in a wide area, so I can be sure that those things that suddenly popped up weren't created with magic. They should be a more advanced form of existence."

"A more advanced form of existence..." Hao Ren stroked his chin, "Directly replacing the real world..."

Lily didn't hear clearly: "What?"

Hao Ren waved his hand: "It's nothing, everyone continue."

After Loli Sa finished speaking her views, everyone began to exchange what they had seen and heard outside. Soon, the results of the various investigations were summarized and analyzed uniformly by the data terminal. One person's observation of things always had omissions, but after so many people brainstormed, some regular things gradually became clear. The data terminal summarized a few points:

"First of all, as Loli Sa mentioned, the distribution of all mutations is irregular, quite random, and not a magical effect."

The data terminal floated in the air, projecting various pictures while speaking, including images it had recorded with Hao Ren outside, as well as footage just sent back from those remote probes, which were now beginning to operate in the Americas.

"Secondly, according to the information sent back by the remote probes, we can basically be sure that this mutation affects the entire globe. The entire Earth is now shrouded in this 'real phantom.' Even at the South Pole, there's a Tower of Babel covered in ice. Just now, a probe captured Poseidon soaking in the Atlantic Ocean. We're deeply trapped in this dreamlike, bizarre scene."

"Thirdly, the house we live in and a small area around it seem to have become a 'safe island.' Although the mutations outside are fierce, they haven't affected the area within fifteen meters of our house..."

Loli Sa interjected, "I think this is because of divine power—Hao Ren is, after all, a Pope. This place, as the Papal Palace, is blessed."

Hao Ren coughed lightly, "I think what you said makes sense."

The data terminal shook its body vigorously in the air, attracting everyone's attention back: "Listen to本机 first. According to the information everyone collected outside, after the mutations occurred, the 'normal people' who originally lived in this world are also becoming abnormal. Perhaps the overlapping phantoms of various timelines have caused similar mutations in them. They are now also living in an isolated timeline, seemingly unaware of the changes around them. 本机 doesn't know how long this 'protective reaction' can last, but I'm afraid everything on the planet has been 'isolated' like this, except for us."

Lily couldn't help but hug her arms: "It sounds so creepy."

The Nangong couple stood up: "We have a question: we moved out some time ago. We weren't living in this 'safe house' when the mutations occurred, but now it doesn't seem like we've been affected."

Nangong Wuyue also suddenly reacted: "Right, how are our parents okay? They were outside at the time..."

"Could it be because they're close to me?" Hao Ren scratched his face, "Am I a mascot?"

"Don't be narcissistic, it's because they both came into contact with the power of Raven 12345, they were blessed," the data terminal ruthlessly interrupted Hao Ren's wild thoughts. "本机 speculates that divinity or forces related to divinity can resist this mutation. Conversely, this mutation may also be related to divinity... but there's still a lack of information in this area, so let's not jump to conclusions."

"People who have had contact with Raven can resist the mutation?" Hao Ren suddenly thought of many other people, "Then there must be quite a few people who remain normal! Ha Su, Bai Huo, Heather An, Liu Sheng, Zhao Xi, the Three Great Vajra... Maybe these people are all fine, just confused right now?"

"...That's also possible," the data terminal had obviously overlooked this issue just now. "But we can't contact these people right now. Because of the global mutations, the spatial structure has been 'layered'. People who remain normal are actually isolated outside the main timeline, so the original means of communication on Earth must have been paralyzed. At least normal people, including us, can't use them."

"Landlord, there's really no signal," Lily said, shaking the phone in her hand.

"These people can be put aside for now," Izhaks said gruffly, "The key now is—we still haven't figured out how this mutation happened, nor have we found any clues related to Vivian."

Hao Ren frowned: "I think this mutation itself is a clue related to Vivian."

Izhaks looked over: "What do you mean?"

"Have you noticed that those chaotic 'temporal phantoms' outside are all from the mythological era to the present, there's nothing outside of this timeframe, like dinosaurs or anything like that."

His reminder immediately caused everyone else to react. Nangong Sanba nodded repeatedly: "That's right, the earliest things we saw were only about ten thousand years ago, we didn't see any plants or animals older than that."

Nangong Wuyue scratched her head: "But I saw a saber-toothed tiger, wasn't that from the same era as the dinosaurs..."

"The extinction time of saber-toothed tigers was about ten thousand years ago, which means that when Vivian first came here, there were indeed saber-toothed tigers active on Earth," Nangong Wudi said, glancing at Wuyue as he spoke. "Read more books usually, your brother is better than you in this regard..."

Wuyue: "..."

"So, the mutations outside are all things from Bat's memories?" Lily widened her eyes, "Things she hasn't experienced won't appear in the phantoms?"

"Very likely... no, the scope should be broader," Hao Ren said thoughtfully. "A person's memory is limited to their perspective, so the breadth of scenes reproduced through memory is limited, while the range of those temporal phantoms outside is obviously too large. But one thing is certain, in terms of timeline, this mutation coincides with Vivian's memory range."

Lily's imagination as a literary figure instantly exploded: "So Vivian has had amnesia for so many years, this is an explosive recovery?"

Hao Ren had to admit that although this husky's imagination was too wild, her every brainwave always made people feel that there was some truth to it.

Just as he was about to reason along Lily's brainwave, he suddenly felt a wave in his mental world, followed by the voice of Raven 12345:

"Hao Ren? Hao Ren, respond if you hear me!"