Chapter 1 The Little Raven God Called Maggie

The little raven god named Maggie was busy for a long time. During the half-hour wait, all sorts of strange noises came from inside the golden sphere almost constantly: the clatter of metal parts, the crackling of energy bursts, and the soft cries of the little raven god as she bumped into things inside. To be honest, if Raven 12345 hadn't been holding him back, Hao Ren would have run away. He was now even more convinced that everyone his psychopathic boss knew was unreliable. Just listen to the noise—the only reason this thing hadn't blown up yet was because the plot demanded it, right?

But miraculously, just as Raven 12345 had said, no matter how much Maggie messed around inside, the giant metal ball didn't explode.

"How long is she going to tinker around in there?" Vivian asked, a bit worried as she looked at the constantly clanging "engine core." This thing was a relic left to her by the Creation Goddess. Although it was a mysterious-looking sphere, she was still afraid that it would be wrecked by a palm-sized goddess before she even got to warm it up. "What exactly is she doing?"

Raven 12345 narrowed her eyes slightly, seemingly communicating with Maggie in her mind, and waved her hand to reassure Hao Ren and Vivian: "She's found the core area and is messing with the safety shield. Don't worry, although raven gods are generally a little simple-minded, they rely entirely on talent when it comes to lock-picking. Even if she doesn't understand the principle behind it, she can still unlock it. That's the power of the Law…"

Before Raven 12345 could finish speaking, a metal screeching sound, rising from low to high, suddenly came from inside the golden sphere, and then a sudden change occurred!

The countless components on the surface of the giant sphere that had originally been still suddenly began to move again. Golden rays of light burst out from inside the sphere, accompanied by strange sounds. The complex components began to detach from their original positions one by one, and every crack on the surface of the sphere was filled with light. The next second, its outer shell rapidly decomposed according to some complex pattern of change!

Then, as if a metal storm had suddenly erupted, the entire sphere disintegrated with a bang. Hao Ren saw countless bizarre metal objects bursting out of the sphere and flying in all directions, and he was even hit in the face.

However, when he subconsciously reached out to block, he found that the expected impact didn't come. He opened his eyes in surprise and found that the scattered metal objects passed through him and Vivian's bodies like phantoms, and rapidly deformed and magnified during the process of scattering, gradually forming a semi-transparent, illusory state in the distance.

Vivian was surprised: "So it's a holographic projection…"

"No, it doesn't seem to be a projection," Hao Ren said, glancing at the situation. He found that the metal sphere had indeed disintegrated. Apart from the scattered components, all that was left in front of him was a ball of bright light. "This core has indeed disintegrated, and these things flying out…"

"They've transformed from matter into incorporeal bodies, seemingly to facilitate a demonstration of something," Raven 12345's voice came from the side. She was much calmer than Hao Ren and Vivian. She had just stood there when the engine core suddenly disintegrated, not even dodging. "Does my hair look messy?"

Hao Ren: "...Um, no."

"That's good, let's continue," Raven 12345 waved her hand, pointing to the countless floating component phantoms in all directions. "Look at these things. They're the internal structure of the sphere, but not just the internal structure. There are also some large structural bodies that didn't appear before. I guess they're the missing parts of the Creation Engine... or rather, the parts left for you to build. Maggie!"

After the giant sphere disintegrated, only a ball of bright light remained in the core area. After hearing Raven 12345's call, the little raven god immediately jumped out of the ball of light, calling out "Gah!" as she flew over.

Raven 12345 caught the little raven god with ease: "I know, I know, it wasn't you who hatched it like this. The sphere 'hatched' on its own. Good job, you got rid of its safety shield. Now let's see what this thing is for... Did you copy the data?"

The petite goddess let out a slightly higher-pitched cry than before: "Gah!"

"Okay, let me see. Oh, right, don't rush off. I'll need you to help restore this thing later."

"Gah…"

Hao Ren watched in astonishment from the side: "How are you two communicating?"

After suddenly disintegrating, the engine core had completely changed its appearance. It had transformed from a physical metal device into a huge holographic projection cluster with a radius of several kilometers. Countless bizarre components that were completely incomprehensible had become semi-transparent images, flying around Hao Ren and Vivian, simulating the operation of the device in its complete state. Vivian looked at all of this with curiosity. These "legacies" left to her made her feel inexplicably confused, while Hao Ren looked at Raven 12345 and Maggie with some tension: the two goddesses were exchanging something rapidly, the little raven god bouncing around and gesturing, then handing a small ball of light to Raven 12345, who directly absorbed the ball of light into her body.

Then she turned to Hao Ren: "Got it."

Hao Ren was overjoyed, not expecting it to go so smoothly: "The function of the Creation Engine?"

"That's right," Raven 12345 nodded slightly. "Although it's just a guess, it should be pretty close: this engine has powerful information reproduction and world rule distortion abilities. According to the few programs it has preset, I believe it has the function of reconstructing the world barrier."

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment: "Reconstructing the world barrier?"

"Have you forgotten how the Dream Plane and the Wall of Reality came to be?" Raven 12345 raised her eyebrows. "I told you about this."

Hao Ren paused for a moment, and those ancient secrets that had impressed him immediately surfaced in his mind: "After two universes collided, one of the worlds was more severely damaged and became a Dream Plane like a vassal universe, while the other world is the Surface World. In the part where these two universes collided, the world barrier shattered and merged together, forming an unstable dividing layer. This is the Wall of Reality—reconstructing the world barrier means…"

"That's right, it means repairing this unstable dividing layer," Raven 12345 nodded solemnly. "It will reset the world barrier to its state before the collision. You know what that means."

Not to mention Hao Ren, even Vivian understood at once: "The Wall of Reality will separate, and the Dream Plane will separate from the Surface World!"

"That's right, perhaps this is the true purpose of the Creation Goddess, and the true meaning of her phrase 'return to balance,'" Raven 12345 breathed a sigh. "It seems she was very clear about the state between the Dream Plane and the Surface World, and may even know the reason for the great collision back then. She is trying to push the Dream Plane away from the Surface World: this is an unprecedentedly grand project, and I must raise my evaluation of her again."

Hao Ren thought that the Creation Goddess was probably better than this female psychopath in front of him in every way except for not having received formal education and not having obtained an official license, but after thinking for a long time, he figured that he would be given seventy or eighty more blessings by the other party, so he didn't dare to say it…

"If she succeeds, what will happen?" Vivian's tone was a little nervous.

Although she had also thought about what arrangements the Creation Goddess had made, and even tried her best to guess the function of the "Creation Engine," with her insight, she had never imagined that her creator's ultimate goal would be so astonishing. Changing the trajectory of two universes, pushing the Dream Plane away from the shackles of the Surface World, rebuilding the world barrier, completely closing the Wall of Reality… Any one of these magnificent plans exceeded the understanding of mortals. Faced with these incomprehensible projects, she instinctively felt a trace of unease.

This unease had no basis; it was simply the awe that an "ordinary person" felt when faced with surreal and incomprehensible things.

Raven 12345 pondered seriously for a moment, then spread her hands: "This is a great project, and once it is realized, the impact will be very far-reaching and complex. The mapping relationship between the Dream Plane and the Surface World will end, and from now on, there will no longer be the various troubles caused by the mutual penetration of two universes. The large and small cracks in the universe will disappear, and there will be no more 'smuggling' or 'border crossing' phenomena. The stability of the two worlds will be greatly improved. Besides, there will be many, many more changes, and it's difficult to explain them all at once."

Hao Ren blinked: "Sounds like all good things?"

"But it can't be ruled out that there will be some hidden dangers," Raven 12345 shook her head. "I'm just speculating based on the function of this Creation Engine, but this engine is obviously not finished yet, and some of the most critical structures don't even have blueprints. I can't guess the entire structure of this thing out of thin air—after all, it was designed by a True God. So I'm not sure if that Creation Goddess's plan is safe enough."

When Hao Ren heard this, he became entangled: "This thing that even you're not sure about, what should I…"

"Simple, finish building it," Raven 12345 said concisely. "Go to the Dream Plane and find a place to complete this thing."