Chapter 1 The Seed

Even without Raven 12345's reminder, Hao Ren knew what the beacon in his hand meant.

It led to the Creator Goddess's divine kingdom that had been lost for ten thousand years. This divine kingdom was no longer a blessed and protected paradise, nor a home for the propagation of life. Although no one knew exactly what had happened there, the fact that the great cataclysm in the divine realm ten thousand years ago had engulfed the entire divine kingdom in the dark domain was enough for him to be mentally prepared for its current state.

It was very likely a shattered and mad world, and the forces of the Lord of Madness and the remnants of the Godslayer race were most likely still wandering within: if the Creator Goddess could survive, then there was no reason for the other force that opposed her to simply dissipate so obediently.

The beacon in his hand allowed the Giant Tortoise Rock Platform to directly cross the boundaries of time and space and enter that lost dark domain, but even a fool would know that they couldn't just plunge in without making any preparations.

So he looked at Raven 12345, knowing that this goddess must have other instructions—although she always seemed unreliable, she had never disappointed him in such crucial matters.

"Speaking of which, I haven't given you your year-end bonus from last year..." Raven 12345 said leisurely, as expected.

Hao Ren: "...You still remember that!"

After shouting that subconsciously, Hao Ren suddenly reacted: "Hey, wait! You're not planning to just use this work subsidy as last year's year-end bonus to fool me, are you? You can't do that!"

Raven 12345 glanced at him: "What are you talking about? Would this goddess do such a thing—of course, I would! Anyway, do you want it or not?"

Hao Ren gritted his teeth: "Do you believe I'll report you! Don't think I don't know that you can actually be reported..."

Raven 12345 chuckled: "Anyway, everything I could have docked this year has already been docked. Go ahead and report me~"

Hao Ren: "..."

He suddenly felt a sense of exhaustion: why was he arguing with a crazy lunatic? And even if this guy said that, the benefits that would be issued would probably still be complete; this idiot just liked to run her mouth, and he should have gotten used to it long ago.

Sure enough, his cultivation was not enough, not enough.

"Tch, no fun, I thought you'd react more," Raven 12345 was just messing around. Seeing that Hao Ren didn't pay attention to her at all, she lost interest in continuing to joke, "Alright, I'll show you something good—this thing is worth more than your entire lifetime's year-end bonus. I'm telling you, this is the most extravagant thing that's ever been approved for an inspector, and it seriously violates the regulations. If it weren't for the special circumstances and the organization's special approval, I wouldn't have been able to get it for you!"

These words completely aroused Hao Ren's interest. He immediately threw the previous depression to the back of his mind and looked curiously at what Raven 12345 took out of the spatial rift.

It was... a sphere emitting a faint green light, a little smaller than a football. Its surface had mysterious and complex patterns, and a surging sense of life came from within the sphere. Just looking at it, Hao Ren felt that his whole body and mind had been infused with some kind of power.

He couldn't tell what its function was from its appearance at all, so he couldn't help but ask curiously: "What is this thing?"

Raven 12345 said with a proud face: "This old lady got the higher-ups to approve a seed for you..."

"What do I need a seed for? Is it for Data Terminal to use?"

"...Damn it, this goddess isn't talking about Xunlei seeds!"

Hao Ren was startled by the goddess's sudden outburst of foul language: "I didn't think so either, so what is it for?"

"Remember when you came last time and I told you? I was going to send you something more powerful to help you complete your mission in the Dream Realm," Raven 12345 brought up what had happened when Hao Ren came here last time, "Well, this is it. After this seed sprouts, it will be a World Tree."

Hao Ren vaguely guessed something, but he dared not believe it because this matter was too bizarre, so he could only tentatively ask: "World Tree? Which kind? That level of Yggdrasil? Or..."

"It's real, watch my lips, 'real'!" Raven 12345's mouth perked up, obviously quite satisfied with Hao Ren's reaction, "Yggdrasil is just a big anise compared to it—this thing is the real deal produced by the Starfield God Race, it's a tree-shaped world management terminal. World management terminal, do you understand?!"

Hao Ren felt his head buzzing: he had read the work manual at least, so how could he not know this concept?

"You know about the three sovereign hubs, k1, k2, and k3," Raven 12345 continued, "They weave the laws, manage the entire universe's order, and run the Heavenly Dao Program. They are a kind of advanced world management terminal, a product created by the technological tree of the Xiling God System. And this thing in front of you, it works in the same way as the sovereign hubs, except that it's the technology of the Starfield God Race—because the Creator Goddess's power comes from the Dark Valkyrie Izdith, and Izdith was originally a Starfield God, that's why I specially found this thing for you. I'm telling you, this thing is not easy to get! Even if the relationship between the two major god systems is ironclad, this thing cannot be circulated casually, do you understand? Giving you this is entirely because the situation has reached the point where it has to be done..."

At this time, Hao Ren couldn't really hear what Raven 12345 was saying anymore. He only had one thought in his mind: Goddess approved a sovereign hub for him, Goddess approved a sovereign hub for him...

Even a fool would know that this thing was not for inspectors...

"We can only be flexible in dealing with the mess in the Dream Realm," Raven 12345 certainly knew this, she shook her head, "And there are a few things I have to remind you. Although this world management terminal is given to you, it's not for you to play around with—this thing is extremely powerful, and it could potentially cause the entire universe to be instantly formatted. And because operating it requires a very, very, very exaggerated level of skill, even the Starfield God Race often has to study for hundreds or thousands of years to get an operating qualification certificate, so there will be many restrictions on how you treat it: first of all, most of its management functions are locked and have been set to run automatically; secondly, the administrator privileges you use are a shared privilege, and its other shared spot is currently empty. After you find the Creator Goddess and watch her finish studying those textbooks, she will be the other administrator—you have to understand this, after all, the Creator Goddess is half Starfield God offspring, and her compatibility with the operating system is definitely higher than yours, and more importantly, this world management terminal is to be connected to the Final Network, so the other administrator must be her."

Hao Ren nodded, thinking that this super awesome thing was for him and the Creator Goddess to share, and then he reacted: "You said this is to be connected to the Final Network?"

"That's right—just like I said last time, the Creator Goddess's Final Network must be transformed and controlled in our hands, and this world management system... is to replace Vivian's position."

Hao Ren finally understood the whole arrangement.

The Final Network left by the Creator Goddess was, in essence, a prototype of a sovereign hub. Its functions of manipulating the constants of the universe and maintaining the laws of the world were all the basic modules of a sovereign hub. However, due to the crude and primitive technology, this network had inherent defects and had to be operated by Vivian as its control core in order to function—Raven 12345's solution to this was simple, crude, and effective, which was to simply not use the network's original control core and instead "graft" on a more advanced world management terminal.

The bug left by the Creator Goddess was solved easily—the best solution to the problem of Samsung system lag was indeed to switch to Huawei...

"This is actually a simplified model, and its functions are much worse than the advanced ones, but the advantage is that it has high operating efficiency, good stability, and it can run almost completely autonomously, which is quite suitable for the situation in the Dream Realm. And because its resource utilization rate is low, it can operate normally even when connected to the Final Network," Raven 12345 babbled like a salesman peddling financial software, "I'm telling you, this is the first time an inspector has been given such an advanced thing. Although there are also examples in the macro-world of letting a single inspector be directly responsible for all the affairs of an entire world, that's mostly in sparsely populated and remote worlds, and there's no such thing as directly sending over a sovereign hub. This is the first time for you, and the higher-ups are under a lot of pressure..."

This was the first time Hao Ren had seen Raven 12345 nagging so much like a mother hen, and he couldn't help but find it a little funny, and he nodded repeatedly: "Don't worry, don't worry, you don't know my attitude towards work? I'm not a brat, I definitely won't mess around."

Raven 12345 sighed: "Hey, it's not a question of messing around or not, the main thing is that I'm afraid of your passive effect of exploding wherever you go..."

Hao Ren immediately became anxious: "Wait a minute! It's one thing for those guys who don't mind the excitement, but why are even you saying that?"

Raven 12345 spread her hands: "Because I also don't mind the excitement."

Hao Ren: "..."

There was no way to reason with a lunatic, so he skipped this part and pointed to the World Tree seed on the desk and asked, "Then continue to tell me how to start this thing, how to connect it, what are its specific functions—and what can this thing help with after I jump into that dark domain?"

"Starting and connecting are idiot-proof, just put it near the highest connection port of that Final Network, and it will take care of the rest itself—of course, it will make a lot of noise when it starts, so I suggest you run away quickly after you put it down. I'll send you the specific range of influence and the various markers during its startup process. As for what it can help with in your next actions... it's very simple, it can pull you and your friends out of that broken divine kingdom, and it can give all of you a chance to be fully resurrected—even if you are killed by the Lord of Madness himself. As for other effects... you'll have to discover them yourself."

This was a good thing!