Chapter 1 What Lies in the Depths of the World Rift?

What lies in the depths of the World Rift? This is something every Rakhreian would be curious about, but no one has ever dared to truly explore.

Or rather, those who dared to seek the truth have already been buried forever in that scorching abyss radiating faint red light, and among the survivors, there will no longer be reckless fools who do not cherish their lives.

Looking down from the terrifying gash of the World Rift, one sees an endless, deep valley that seems to swallow even light. Although the Rakhreians realized long ago that the land they live on is actually spherical, and the World Rift divides this planet in half, their current observation technology is still insufficient to directly observe the other side of the rift—not even half the distance.

Their vision is blocked by the eternal cloud of gas deep within the mantle, so they can only see a faint red light flickering in the boundless darkness and chaos. Scholars have given this red light various definitions: the heart of the world, the tomb of fallen gods, the place where the planet's consciousness sleeps, or the place where the souls of all living beings are reincarnated. Some even believe that the red light is the eye of a giant serpent, which will one day crawl out of the abyss and devour the entire world.

The fact that the red light has become increasingly faint over the long years has led scholars, who are obsessed with proposing various hypotheses, to come up with all sorts of matching theories of doomsday or disaster, such as the heart of the world gradually extinguishing.

But all these claims are absurd – the red light has no mysterious veil; it is merely a gradually cooling planetary core.

In a place the Rakhreians cannot observe, various engineering machines are working day and night. A construction base cluster floating above the planetary core has been built, and a large number of autonomous machines and engineering drones are flying around this scorching (but icy cold to the star core) metallic sphere, attaching more probes and transport channels to the latter's already semi-solidified outer shell.

The Tortoise Rock Platform hovers above the surface of the sphere, only a few meters from its outer shell. The residual heat of the planetary core scorches the spaceship, but this heat is not even as high as the coolant temperature when Nolan is racing.

Her image stands on the bridge, watching the images transmitted by various probes, and in the very center of the holographic projection is a scan of the planetary core.

Underneath a not-very-thick outer shell, some vague images can be seen. These are rough outlines depicted by the probes after trying to eliminate interference. It looks like an irregular mass, with some things that look like pipes or struts extending out, connecting to the outer shell of the planetary core.

From such a blurry image alone, it is impossible to analyze what it is, and without being able to safely crack the "protective barrier" covering the planetary core, Nolan really does not dare to blast it open.

"...I always feel that after spending a long time with the Boss, even my thinking has been skewed by him..." The ship girl rubs her forehead, sighing a little helplessly, "My head is full of settling things with a single shot. This is not the calm and rational Gray Fox of the past."

Then she clicks a few times on the holographic projection, turning on the audio monitoring mode. A muffled and powerful sound rings out on the bridge:

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump...

Like a heartbeat, but much slower than a human heartbeat.

"Those Rakhreian scholars who guessed it was the planet's heart were right in a way. This thing really sounds like a heartbeat." Nolan says to herself, opening a schematic diagram of the entire Rakhreian planet.

In the holographic projection, the entire Rakhreian planet appears as a semi-transparent grayish-white, and the planetary core is marked in a striking red. However, the planetary core is not floating independently inside the planet: a faint red line extends from the planetary core and continues to a certain coordinate on the surface of the planet.

"The third group of probes has also confirmed that there is indeed a connection... But how is this strange information mapping relationship formed? And I always feel that something is missing..." Nolan frowns, muttering to herself, "Forget it, I'll report it to the Boss and let him worry about it."

The Tortoise Rock Platform rises slightly, interrupting the light beam connection between it and several detection nodes on the surface of the planetary core, and a new piece of information is uploaded to Hao Ren's data link:

"New information fluctuations discovered in the planetary core, and it has been confirmed that an unknown information flow connects from the planetary core to the surface, with the connection point located within the Dragon Emperor's capital."

...

Hao Ren is slightly stunned. This brief moment of distraction is noticed by Vivian, who is always very perceptive, and the latter looks over with concern: "What's wrong?"

"Nolan sent a message," Hao Ren says softly, tilting his head slightly, "There's a structure in the planetary core wrapped in a mysterious barrier, right? Nolan discovered that it's exchanging information with the surface, and the exchange point is located in the capital of this empire."

"...That thing buried in the planetary core, which looks like a product of a super civilization no matter how you look at it, is connected to this relatively backward civilization on the surface?"

"There will definitely be a connection, that's not surprising," Hao Ren nods lightly, "The key now is – we have one more reason to go to the capital."

While Hao Ren and Vivian are talking quietly, Kaim and Charlemagne and others are still deeply shocked and unable to extricate themselves.

"What exactly is going on..." Kaim looks back at the black pines standing proudly in the wind and snow, feeling that his brain is a little overwhelmed, "The Black Pine Forest is actually connected to the Northern Border... crossing two-thirds of the empire's territory in the middle?!"

In the distant sky, the red space channel is like a scar after the sky has been torn apart, spanning the high altitude. Unlucky red light and thunder surge in the crack, and below the crack is a hazy silver-white glow, which is the illusion phenomenon stimulated by the energy flow near the World Rift. The two spectacles overlap each other, bringing a wonder that is rarely seen in the ordinary world, but this wonder has never been a beautiful sight in the eyes of the Rakhreians.

The warriors who are stationed in the northern frontier of the world all year round will never be unfamiliar with such a scenery. That is the opening of the Gorgon Abyss, and near the opening, the Gorgon demons that pop up from time to time are always the heaviest burden on the shoulders of every fortress stationed here.

Lia looks around and climbs onto a large rock nearby. She gazes at the direction of the Black Pine Forest, and then looks at the Gorgon Abyss from another angle.

A look of surprise appears on her face, then turns into contemplation, and finally into sudden realization.

"So that's it," the little goddess jumps off the rock and says to everyone very seriously, "Kaim is partly right – the Black Pine Forest is indeed connected to this place, but it is not connected to the Northern Border, but to the space fault around the Gorgon Abyss."

Hao Ren happens to finish his conversation with Vivian at this time. He is also quite curious about stepping onto the snowy plains of the Northern Border after leaving the Black Pine Forest. Hearing Lia's words, he can't help but ask: "Are you saying that the Black Pine Forest is connecting to the Gorgon Abyss?"

Aivanna exclaims: "How could this happen?!"

"Because the Black Pine Forest and the Gorgon Abyss are essentially the same thing, and they were probably connected to each other originally," Lia explains calmly, "Although you think they are two secret realms that are far apart and have completely different properties, in my eyes, they both belong to the 'afterimage' after the world line collapsed and solidified. In the surface world, they may not be connected to each other, but in those collapsed world lines, everything is connected and mixed together..."

As she speaks, she reveals a thoughtful expression, and her hand seems to be unconsciously stroking lightly in the air. Charlemagne and others believe that this is the "magical little girl's" subconscious action when thinking about problems and organizing her language, but Hao Ren can see that she is flipping through a book...

"Ah, here it is," after a while, Lia stops the movement in her hand, "If you look at the world as a multi-layered structure, then the stable reality is its outermost layer, and those world lines that failed to become reality are buried in the deep layers along with various redundant information. Those fragmented histories present a state of intermingling in the deep layers, because in the 'deep layers,' the concepts of time and space become extremely blurred. Usually, only a little bit of those fragmented things will surface, exposing a few distant mountain peaks like icebergs slightly floating on the water, but if the barriers between the layers of the world become fragile, they will continue to rise..."

"The essence of the interconnectedness of those broken world lines will be revealed," Hao Ren continues, "Therefore, the Black Pine Forest and the Gorgon Abyss are connected together."

Lia nods lightly: "And if I guessed correctly... I'm afraid there is more than one such 'realm of the virtual and the real' in this world, but some are known, and some are unknown, but now whether they are known or unknown, they..."

Speaking of this, she pauses deliberately to emphasize the next few words: "I'm afraid they have all begun to surface."

After Lia finishes explaining this theory, which can almost be said to be subversive, the others, including Kaim, are in a brief state of sluggishness.

In terms of the worldview they are familiar with, this theory is too advanced and too difficult to imagine.

"It's really unheard of..." Aivanna is the first to break the silence with a murmur. As the most outstanding caster of the Ys royal family for hundreds of years, she has studied under several extremely knowledgeable masters and knows far more obscure theories and doctrines than ordinary people, but she still finds it difficult to keep up with Lia's train of thought, "Although it seems to explain the current situation, such mysterious things..."

Lia puts her hands on her hips and tries to puff out her chest: "That's what the book says!"

Hao Ren slaps his forehead, trying to remedy the situation before the atmosphere changes in a strange direction: "...It's what our World Tree Temple's secret classics say. Whether you believe it or not, we have a lot of research in the field related to the origin of this world."

"Researching and verifying these theories is a matter for those scholars," Kaim says very seriously, "We only need to confirm that the Black Pine Forest has indeed established a connection with the Gorgon Abyss. This information must be made known to Princess Highness as soon as possible."

Hao Ren smiles: "The best news now is – we have directly crossed the hinterland of the empire, and we are not far from that princess."