Chapter 1

The cosmic world-gate was positioned in a deserted region far from any major galaxies, silently operating in the deepest darkness of the universe. It had no large celestial bodies or other objects to serve as gravitational beacons. For many civilizations, simply piloting their own spacecraft from their home galaxy to the world-gate was a challenging technical problem. Thus, the ability to reach the world-gate using a civilization's own power served as a test to verify whether they were ready to face the challenges of the multiverse era.

Of course, these restrictions did not apply to individuals with special clearance.

As the darkness outside the ship receded, and the starlight in the far distance began to twinkle again against the cosmic backdrop, the crew's attention was drawn to the magnificent structure in the center of the holographic projection. It was a space facility of immense, unknown size, composed of countless silver-white, shimmering, arc-shaped components. These components, with their metallic and crystalline luster, formed two concentric rings, one large and one small. Each segment of the gate was connected by bright blue streams of light, making the entire structure seem immersed in an endless lightning storm. Beyond the two complex rings were numerous towers, ports, and other space structures that were even hard to name. Each of these was many times larger than the Kuiper Station, but they appeared as insignificant as toy blocks attached to the world-gate. A faint and mysterious azure light shimmered in the space between the two rings; this was undoubtedly the light curtain that the Giant Tortoise Rock Platform was about to pass through.

This enormous object occupied nearly half of the image, but in reality, the ship was still quite far away. If a human-made spacecraft were to cover this distance, the pilots would need at least half a week's worth of supplies.

Hao Ren had the data terminal slow down the ship so he could have more time to observe this incredible, magnificent structure, because he had already noticed something else in the space behind the world-gate: three planets. They were located not far from the world-gate, and from this angle, their silhouettes were just visible along the edge of the gate. The three planets looked quite strange. Their surfaces lacked the rough color of rocky planets, the smooth appearance of gas or liquid planets, or the natural, colorful terrain of ordinary ecological planets. They were enveloped in a layer of pale blue light, beneath which could be seen distinct, straight-edged blocks of land. These orderly surface divisions made it hard to believe that they were naturally formed. Hao Ren couldn't help but ask, "What are those three?"

The data terminal's voice came over the ship's broadcast: "Oh, those are k1, k2, and k3, mass-produced planetary fortresses manufactured by the Empire. They're placed here to serve as sovereign hubs, and also as management devices for this universe. k1 is responsible for constraining the basic constants of this world, such as the speed of light, Planck's constant, and the values of the fundamental forces. k2 is a mathematical rate calibrator, responsible for constraining the operational rules of all the constants in this world, such as one plus one equals two—it's a rules operator. In the more fashionable terms of you humans, it's a server running the Heavenly Dao. k3 is a redundant host and a disaster safety server. It only starts when k1 and k2 malfunction. Also, if a major disaster occurs in this universe, such as the entire world suddenly collapsing, k3 can extract a mirror image to reset the entire universe to its original state. But to be honest, don't rely too much on k3's disaster restart capability. This algorithm was only recently rolled out, and although it's said to be quite complete, this unit has heard that it ignores some mod data during the restart. Many of the complex rules in your universe are written using mods, and if it restarts, many civilizations will probably revert straight back to the feudal era. And your universe also has a Dream Plane; strangely, the power of the sovereign hubs can't affect the Dream Plane..."

Hao Ren: "..."

Data terminal: "Hey, why aren't you saying anything?"

Hao Ren: "... Holy crap..."

"That's why this unit doesn't like communicating with you. You're surprised by everything you see," the data terminal sighed humanely. "Did you think 'gods managing the world' was just a saying? This is a very serious job. Gods aren't just sitting in halls waiting to receive tributes; they have to clock in every day and run around busy. Those three management devices are under the charge of Commander Raven. Of course, most of the time, they don't need people to operate them. The Heavenly Dao is emotionless—to put it bluntly, the Heavenly Dao is an automatic system, always in auto..."

Hao Ren covered his face with his hand and leaned on the console: "Stop talking. I can't even look at an English dictionary straight anymore..."

Yizaks, despite being a demon from another world, could understand these things: "Listening to you, I always feel like mortals are a bunch of programs living in a computer, and the gods are the administrators outside..."

"If you look at it from the perspective of authority, it's pretty much the same, but the difference is that mortals can jump out of the computer. The world-gate in front of you is a channel to the 'outside of the box,' although it can only let you jump from one world to another, like transferring from one hard drive to another. But it contains the mysteries needed to jump out of all rules and worldly constraints. If a mortal race can create a world-gate themselves, then they have mastered all the truths of the universe, can jump out of all rules, and control the entire world. At that time, they will be able to achieve self-interpretation and self-maintenance, and their immortality will not need to be based on anything—but they will still have to abide by the Void Navigation Safety Law and the Civilization Development Management Regulations."

Yizaks curiously asked, "Can mortals really reach this height?"

"Of course," the data terminal said decisively. "When a race widely opens its intelligence and realizes that endless knowledge and wisdom are the real power, and learns to use collective wisdom to analyze the truths of the universe, they embark on the path of transcendence. When their entire race abandons the various personality and intellectual flaws of being mortal and achieves true great wisdom, they are basically qualified to call themselves gods. But very few civilizations can really do this, and only one can reach the extreme."

The data terminal paused, using the last few words as a summary: "Either they die in natural disasters, or they die in man-made disasters, or they die in successful self-destruction. This road is full of thorns, and there are detours everywhere. The Imperial database records many victims who took the wrong path. Many of the most talented races are the easiest to go astray. Most of them eventually fall into a blind pursuit of mere 'power,' becoming more and more capable of fighting—but also more and more stupid. Finally, they are exterminated by other, smarter races as animals."

Vivian suddenly sighed, "Those brainless guys on Earth were like that back then, only knowing how to compete to see who could fight better. Now, what's the difference between their fate and that of animals—they can't even beat humans anymore."

Lili turned her head to look at Vivian, then at Yizaks, her face full of curiosity: "You guys can understand all that?"

Hao Ren chuckled dryly, "Let's get down to business, let's get down to business..."

The world-gate had now received the Giant Tortoise Rock Platform's navigation application and was guiding the ship to approach the transfer area. The hazy blue light curtain grew larger and larger in everyone's view, and soon almost filled the entire image. Hao Ren then noticed that he wasn't the only ship crossing the world-gate: there were many other, diverse spacecraft from other civilizations also constantly traversing the blue light curtain. But the gate was so enormous that these ships were almost like ants in the light curtain, easily overlooked from a distance. This world-gate was said to be able to allow an entire planet to pass through, and now it seemed that this was true. Hao Ren asked the data terminal strangely, "So many ships pass through the same gate at the same time, but they can reach different universes in the end?"

"That's right, this is also a new technology. It was designed to cope with the surge in traffic after the inter-world standards of the macro-world were lowered. The world-gate can provide each traveler with a unique 'guidance frequency.' When you pass through this gate, you will be modulated into a set of data with a specific frequency and transmitted to the target universe. The gate has changed from an earlier 'teleportation device' to a 'frequency modulation + teleportation device,' but the name hasn't changed. By the way, you can turn on the external network channel. The world-gate is quite lively. Many of those ships are civilian commercial groups renting the Imperial gate. You can experience what the livelihood of the macro-world is like."

As soon as Hao Ren heard this, he curiously turned on the public channel.

"Kaledos, Kaledos! Going to Kaledos direction, 300 each, 300 each, still need two more, leaving as soon as we have enough!"

"East Eden, East Eden, pick up at East Eden! Go to East Eden come to Terminal 7 of A3 station! East Eden East Eden! Pick up at Terminal 7 of A3 station!"

"Long distance to Haisenwood, the ship is leaving in ten minutes! Long distance to Haisenwood, leaving in ten minutes! Can still take one more!"

"Local universe Chandler, get on the ship quickly, we're leaving, big seats! Big seats!"

"Calling the service team, calling the service team, accident scene in B27 area, a Fiary Consortium merchant ship collided with a Sprite freighter..."

Hao Ren silently hung up the communicator. The livelihood of the macro-world was indeed coming at him, not just coming at him, it was practically slamming into his face!

"All the world-gates in the entire Empire are basically like this," the data terminal chuckled. At this moment, the ship was about to touch the misty blue light curtain, so it suddenly let out a whoop, "Yahoo—passengers hold on tight, this unit... no, this ship is going to floor it!"

A strange atmosphere suddenly swept through the entire bridge. When Hao Ren reacted, he realized that the outside was already an unfamiliar starry sky.