Chapter 1 A Mysterious Unknown Star Sector Awaits Exploration

A mysterious unknown star sector awaits exploration, where the secrets left to Vivian by the Creation Goddess might be hidden—or perhaps a huge pit left by the "Goddess of Annihilation" for later arrivals. Either possibility is an irresistible lure for Hao Ren, who is working hard to uncover the truth of the Dream Plane.

That mysterious star sector is a must-go, but before going, he needs to arrange some things.

There are three unmanned probes headed to the mysterious star sector—Hao Ren has temporarily given it a cheesy name, X Star Cluster—one of which has been completely lost. However, the other two are in good condition and have already started a series of exploration activities in the X Star Cluster. First, Hao Ren instructed the drone swarm to order these two probes to expand their exploration range and create positioning probes on the spot. The second task is particularly important: the things that a mere two drones can do are very limited. Even if each individual in the drone swarm has the ability to reproduce the entire swarm, it would still take these two probe models a huge amount of time to complete this task. So, the best option is to have the two drones wander around while scattering guide beacons everywhere. Once the beacons form a gravity network, the main force of the drone swarm can be pulled in. As for expanding the exploration range, that's just a routine task. A vast celestial system composed of a large galaxy and several loose galaxies would take the two drones until the Year of the Monkey to fully explore. Hao Ren just hopes that the two drones can figure out the situation near the warp target before he arrives at the X Star Cluster.

While Nolan is doing pre-departure self-checks and the unmanned probes are busy scattering probes and taking photos and videos in the X Star Cluster, Hao Ren found Lemen Duosa and Muru, who had just withdrawn from the Sulun Nebula, as well as Sif, who was monitoring the ecosystem on the surface of Tanagoth, and also summoned Loken, the King of Kings, and Gordon, the King of Mountains and Rivers, the two ancient giant leaders who had experienced the early era of the Creation Goddess.

He has a lot of things to discuss with these giants about the Red Moon and the Founding Star.

The giants stood in the central hall of the Crystal Core Research Station. Hao Ren stood on the crystal platform above the hall as usual, his line of sight exactly level with these towering figures. He first asked about the Creation Engine: "Has the assembly project been suspended?"

"Except for the necessary maintenance, the production process has been shut down," Lemen Duosa nodded. "The stellar forge has collapsed again, and I've piled all the formed parts and unused materials onto planet PHN-26."

Hao Ren nodded, but before he could speak, Muru couldn't help but interject, "The Creation Engine's blueprint... is it really problematic?"

Hao Ren glanced at Muru. Although the guardian giant's expression was as unchanging as a stone carving, he could tell from his intuition that the reason he had given them earlier had aroused their suspicion.

Hao Ren pondered slightly, then sighed softly, "Actually, I wasn't lying. The Creation Engine's blueprint is no longer reliable—but we can't be sure if the hidden dangers exist. I've recently discovered some clues pointing to several major projects of the Creation Goddess before her fall. One or more of these projects may have been tampered with. In other words... I'm not sure if the blueprint I gave you is the 'original version' designed by the Creation Goddess back then."

The giants looked at each other. Loken and Gordon were better off; as primordial giants from the last era, they had been staring at Locke Marton in the Koror World. Although they knew about the Creation Engine, they didn't know much about it. But the expressions of Lemen Duosa, Muru, and Sif were a little shaken: they knew how important the Creation Engine was in their mother's eyes. Such an important thing... could it have been tampered with?

"In short, I will investigate this matter as soon as possible," seeing that the guardian giants seemed to want to ask further questions, Hao Ren promptly shifted the topic, which was not yet suitable to be raised for the time being. "I'm here to ask you about something today."

Loken, the King of Kings, nodded. "Speak."

"All of you have lived on the Founding Star, so you should know that planet very well. I want to ask first, do you know if there were any lairs where Locke Marton lived on the Founding Star? Ruins are fine too."

Sif shook her head first. "I was responsible for patrolling the Origin Sea, and I don't know of such a thing existing."

Gordon, the King of Mountains and Rivers, replied in a muffled voice, "Locke Marton used to live on the Founding Star. Although we stone giants weren't born at that time, I know this history—Mother did personally make a lair for Locke Marton back then. But later, Locke Marton fell and went mad. Mother fought a great battle with the Lord of Madness, and this history was sealed. If I'm not mistaken, even the lair on the Founding Star was erased by Mother herself."

Hao Ren nodded in understanding, thinking that this part of history matched up: the Locke Marton lair seen on the Red Moon was indeed a relic on the Founding Star of the previous era. So, what about the crystals on the seabed?

"Does anyone know about these crystals?"

As he spoke, he had the data terminal project the crystal clusters on the seabed of the Red Moon for the giants to see, while also introducing them: "These crystals generate resonance and have information transmission phenomena similar to neural networks. They should be on the seabed of the Founding Star."

This time, Loken shook his head. "I haven't seen this thing—and I'm sure this thing didn't originally exist on the Founding Star. Our primordial giants' bodies were made by Mother from star corpses collected from the depths of the universe, but a part of the core in the body came from the star core deep within the Founding Star. This core allows us to know the original appearance of the Founding Star in our subconscious. If there were really these crystals on the seabed, I would definitely recognize them."

Hao Ren turned his gaze to the three "second-generation" flesh and blood giants. After thinking for a moment, Sif spoke, "I think... I have seen this thing."

"You've seen it?" Muru asked in surprise.

"Do you remember? Mother often went out for a period of time before that rebellion broke out, and she didn't take anyone with her, only herself. Once, I happened to see her coming back—it seemed like she had been traveling for a long time and looked quite tired. She didn't return to the temple, but went directly to the depths of the Origin Sea. At that time, I happened to be patrolling nearby, and I saw her throwing a lot of crystals like these into the sea. But after that, she didn't mention it to anyone, and since Mother often collected some strange ores from other planets and brought them back as collectibles, I didn't pay attention to it. But the collectibles that Mother usually collected would be brought to the temple and handed over to the guardians for safekeeping, but these crystals were thrown into the sea by her. Thinking about it now, it does seem quite strange..."

Going to other planets and picking up a lot of glowing stones to bring back as treasures... Is the Creation Goddess Lily's long-lost something or other?

The husky girl next to her perked up when she heard this. "Hey, landlord, landlord, I suddenly feel like I might have something in common with that Creation Goddess. We seem to have a consensus in the field of art!"

Vivian immediately glared at her. "The things people pick up are crystals! How dare you, who picks up half a brick outside and hugs it like it's a beautiful thing, say you're doing it for art?!"

Hao Ren told the two bickering buddies to be quiet, and looked up very seriously at Sif. "In other words, these crystals were brought to the Founding Star by the Creation Goddess in your era?"

The female giant nodded affirmatively.

Hao Ren turned to look at Vivian, and sure enough, he saw that she was also looking at him.

"In that case, there's a bit of a problem with the timeline... The Red Moon is a static snapshot, but relics from two eras appear on it at the same time. The age gap between Locke Marton's lair and the seabed crystal clusters is probably tens of millions of years."

Vivian frowned. "There's one explanation—our guess about the Red Moon is wrong. It's not a snapshot of the Founding Star at a fixed time, but a mixture..."

"A mixture?"

"The forms that the Founding Star presented in various eras and states, smashing them and piecing them together to form a brand new projection," Vivian shook her head gently. "Perhaps because I only inherited limited divine blood from the Creation Goddess, the knowledge I inherited is also limited. The Red Moon is not only one-eighth the size of the Founding Star in diameter, but the information it presents is also fragmented."

Hao Ren thought about it and felt that this seemed to be the only explanation.

At this time, Sif, who had been holding back a stomach full of questions, finally couldn't help but ask, "Speaking of which, where did you learn about these crystals?"

This information didn't need to be concealed. Hao Ren revealed the experiment he had done not long ago. "This is a long story. You may not know, Vivian has a super killer move called Red Moon Descent..."

Although he tried to simplify his language as much as possible, Vivian's Red Moon had too many causes and consequences and special features. Hao Ren finally took nearly an hour to explain the matter clearly (while avoiding the sensitive information about the Creation Goddess splitting into two). The giants listened attentively to the end. After hearing the possible causal connection between the Red Moon and the Founding Star, they couldn't help but look at Vivian with a hint of solemnity.

"I didn't expect... your connection with Mother to reach this level," Lemen Duosa sighed. "The projection of the Founding Star... Even if it's just a projection, I really want to see it with my own eyes."

"Yeah, it's been 10,000 years since I've been home," Muru's voice was also a little low. "The Origin Sea, even if I could just take another look."

Giants also get homesick, but Hao Ren couldn't fulfill their wishes, at least not now.

"The Red Moon and the Founding Star have a secret connection. After confirming this, I can't let Vivian summon the Red Moon in the Dream Plane easily," Hao Ren shook his head. "This may lead to unpredictable consequences—who knows what it will stimulate in the current stage where the Lord of Madness's situation is unknown if we suddenly summon the projection of the Founding Star."

Lemen Duosa showed a wry smile. "We understand, it's just a feeling."