Roland was examined by all kinds of equipment for three hours in the lab. Then, a basic report came out in half an hour.
“He can be seen by the naked eye, but can’t be captured by any of the equipment. By estimation, we can see him only because he wants to be seen. I’ve checked the camera. He’s not in the pupils of any observers. So, his image is more like a piece of information that’s directly projected into our minds.”
“There’s no dispersion of electromagnetic power or radiation.”
“He doesn’t cause any object interaction when he moves. The air is not taking any pressure.”
“He doesn’t have any weight. To be more exact, he’s not influenced by gravity.”
“He’s almost identical to what a soul is rumored to be!”
All the researchers were excited when they read the report.
“So, the soul was always real, except that we have never been able to observe it?” Su Minluo, in her underwear, had glowing eyes. “It’s completely beyond our imagination.”
“No, it is not.” The gray-haired old scientist said with a smile, “Our equipment is still too bad at observation and can only see about 5% of the matter and energy in the universe. We couldn’t have achieved this without the major breakthrough that Comrade Huang Wenwei made in the studies of mysterious matter and energy.”
Su Minluo nodded. She was happy that the old scientist said that.
Talking about the soul sounded superstitious and would shake their confidence in science.
However, the old scientist had managed to include the soul in the category of science.
Roland saw the report of his current form too. A moment later, he asked the director, “Can I go back to my real body?”.
“Of course.” The director nodded. “We won’t force you to do anything, but are you in a hurry? If not, can we study you for a couple of more hours?”
“I feel that I’m weakening,” said Roland casually.
The moment he said that, the director said, “Then you’d better go back to your body immediately.”
Whether or not it was the truth, many people had heard the theory that the soul couldn’t be separated from the body for too long.
Roland returned to his dormitory, followed by a lot of people.
When the virtual cabin was opened, Roland’s transparent soul, which had golden hair and blue eyes, dispersed into countless spots of light and merged into his body.
Very soon, Roland opened his eyes as everybody expected.
He sat up in the virtual cabin.
A lot of researchers looked at him.
Su Minluo was the first to ask, “How do you feel?”
“Very good.” Roland slowly floated in the air, with a gentle breeze around him. “I feel that I’m similar to myself in the game.” Hiss!
Everybody was shocked.
Everybody in the base was aware of Roland’s performance in the game. That was a guy who could easily throw out nuclear bombs.
His battle against the World Tree and the dragon god had been recorded and replayed in the base again and again. It was said that the national army was even considering doing drills with Roland as the opposing force, so that it would be prepared when it was faced with an enemy who had superpowers just like him.
Roland had already been unbelievable enough, yet he had got even stronger?
At this moment, the director suddenly squeezed through the crowd and came in.
He gave Roland a piece of paper and said, “I just received a phone call from my boss. Roland, you must go to this place immediately.”
There were three numbers on the paper that he gave Roland.
Were they longitudes and latitudes?
The coordinates suggested that it was a location in the central-northern part of the country.
Stunned for a moment, Roland asked, “Should I go right now?”
“Yes,” replied the director quickly. “The call was from the top of the chain of command. I’ve confirmed their identity. It can’t be fake.”
Roland nodded.
Although there were no spatial coordinates, he had the longitudes and latitudes to help with localization. Besides, Roland was already a Demigod, and his understanding of space was beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.
That was why he knew where he was going to after a quick glance at the longitudes and latitudes.
“Then I’m leaving.” Roland waved at his colleagues.
Half a second later, his body emitted blue light and vanished into thin air.
Everybody was dazed for a moment.
Su Minluo asked in disappointment, “Will Director Huang come back?”
The director heaved a long sigh. “Probably not.”
At this moment, Roland had just jumped out of the spatial channel and was floating in the air.
It was the middle of the night. Nobody was present in the wilderness.
He looked around and caught sight of a dent in the woods down below. A platform appeared, and someone was waving at him from there.
It was Ma Huajun. Roland landed.
After he came down, Ma Huajun snapped his fingers, and the platform began to descend. Its surface entrance was then sealed by the mud.
Roland’s first reaction was that it was a spell. But then he found that it wasn’t. He didn’t detect any magic waves. Also, the mud felt alive to him.
The platform kept descending, and Ma Huajun said with a smile, “You’ve been growing much faster than I expected. When I made the game, I thought it would take at least twenty years for you to reach your current level. However, you’ve exceeded our goal, by a lot, in only ten years.”
“Our?” Roland asked in confusion.
“I couldn’t have made such an awesome game by myself.” Ma Huajun opened his hands. “A friend helped. But he’s no longer in this world.”
“No longer in his world?” asked Roland with a smile. “Physically, or mentally?” “Physically.” Ma Huajun laughed too. “Nobody dares to mess with him… Not even the God of Death, you know.”
Roland clicked his tongue.
The platform stopped, and they reached an enormous space that was filled with green crystals. Roland swallowed, as those crystals were the very same material that the green rod he got earlier was made of.
The rod alone had made him feel like he could build a small floating city, yet there was a whole mine of the minerals here… That was crazy.
“You must’ve summoned me here because you want to tell some secrets to me, right?” Roland struggled to withdraw his gaze from the green crystals. “Please do. I can’t wait.”
Ma Huajun waved his hand, and a green crystal table and two chairs emerged from the ground. “Have a seat.”
Roland raised his eyebrows, as that was the trick of the goddesses in the game… However, as the Planet Guardian, Ma Huajun was probably just as good as a god.
Roland sat down as instructed.
“Have some tea.” A cup made of green crystals appeared in front of each of them, and Ma Huajun poured tea for Roland first and then for himself. He raised his own cup and said, “Let me finish this cup as an apology to you. The dream you and Schuck shared was destroyed by me. Although I gave you great opportunities, I have indeed manipulated your life for ten years. I’m sorry.” Then, he finished the cup of tea.
Roland drank a mouthful of the tea and smiled. “Just let bygones be bygones. For what it’s worth, I’m very grateful to you.”
“I’m glad that you don’t blame me.” Ma Huajun scratched his head and said, “There’s too much to tell. You must’ve guessed a lot of things too. Why don’t you ask me the things you don’t know? I’ll tell you everything.”
Roland took a deep breath. “What is the game?”
“The projection of another world,” explained Ma Huajun. “It maps the environment and all the living creatures of that world. All the NPCs have the same personality and living styles as their originals. So, even though they’re fake, you can consider them real.” “What’s that world? Another planet, or another dimension?” asked Roland.
“Bigger than that. It’s not an alternate dimension in the definition of the game, like the Realm of Devils,” said Ma Huajun with a smile. “The alternate dimensions in the game are actually just other planets. The world that I talked about is a parallel universe, which is much bigger.” “Wow!” Roland remarked in admiration, “You’ve been exploring a parallel universe? But the technologies of Earth can hardly send anyone to the moon yet.”
Ma Huajun shook his head. “I wouldn’t go that far. We simply picked a certain piece of that world and made the game with the remaining information on the piece. My friend played a critical role. I was only his assistant.”
Roland didn’t believe it.
Under these circumstances, those who called themselves assistants were generally bosses behind the curtain.
“The drill you mentioned earlier…” Roland asked, “Can you tell me what it’s about?”
Ma Huajun instantly grew solemn. “As the Planet Guardian, I have an accurate instinct.”
“Something like Grand Benediction?”
“Even more advanced than that,” said Ma Huajun solemnly. “I’m usually a modest man, but I don’t want to be modest anymore. I have the best sense of danger, and I’ve foreseen a crisis that will endanger humankind.”
“What is the crisis exactly?”
“An invasion of alien creatures. They’re very powerful energy beings.” Ma Huajun heaved a sigh. “That’s the most critical information in my prophecy. With Earth’s current technologies, it’s impossible to defeat them. So, I could only start a drill to familiarize everybody with superpowers and prepare them for a new manner of fighting.”
Roland furrowed his brows. “When will they arrive?”
“In probably another hundred years.”
Roland was quite relieved. “That’s not bad. We still have enough time.”
Ma Huajun, however, didn’t look too good. “My friend left three power seeds before he went away for the best three guys to form a team. Those three seeds had no targets before you entered the game. We simply chose half a million candidates who were most likely to inherit their power and put them in the game. As long as three people inherit the power in the seeds, we will be able to beat the invaders with the help of another hundreds of thousands of people who are familiar with superpowers.” “I got one of the seeds, and so did Schuck?” asked Roland curiously.
Ma Huajun nodded.
“Who got the last one?”
“Betta.”
Roland was stumped. It was not until a long time later that he said in disappointment, “Betta is dead. Even his soul is gone. Also, something seemed off with the disappearance of his soul. I don’t know who will inherit the power that belonged to him!”
“That is exactly the problem. His power and his soul were intercepted,” said Ma Huajun grimly. “Some ‘outsiders’ were lurking on Earth. When Betta died, they stole his soul as well as the power that my friend left. Damn it! They were definitely the scouts of the invaders. I detected it the moment the accident happened to Betta, but by the time I arrived, it was already too late. I saw that two women left this world with his power seed. Without the power seed, the iron triangle will be incomplete, and its power will be greatly compromised. Our odds of winning will be lowered from 100% to about 30%.”
Roland subconsciously clenched his fists.
He remembered the residue of the portal he saw after Betta’s accident.
“I investigated the scene too and found a remaining space portal, so I threw a pair of space coordinates into it,” said Roland slowly. “Unfortunately, I’m too weak to jump over even though I can vaguely detect the coordinates.” Ma Huajun’s eyes glittered. “You did? That’s great! I’m the Planet Guardian, and all my power is based on the rules of this world. I’ll be a weakling in any other world! But you’re different! Your power system means that you’re strong in any world as long as you have enough energy. Can you help me get back the power seed as well as Betta’s soul? I have ways to resurrect him.” “Really? But I can’t jump over.”
Pa!
Ma Huajun threw a huge piece of green crystal onto the table. “If you build a floating city and connect yourself to it, can you jump over?” “Yes!” Roland gritted his teeth. “But the floating city has to be very big. It’s very easy to conceal it in the magic world. All you have to do is to keep it above the clouds. But there are satellites and airplanes everywhere in our world… Are you not afraid of causing a panic?”
“A little bit of panic is nothing compared to the existential crisis that humanity is faced with!” Ma Huajun laid an even bigger green crystal on the table. “These crystals were prepared for the future invaders. I can give two of them to you at most. This one will be your energy storage for your activities in the other world.”
Roland heaved a sigh of relief. “I cannot guarantee that I’ll bring Betta back, but I’ll try. Right… Do you know about Elyse the Life Goddess, in the game? She seems to have developed a real self and is no longer a projection.”
Ma Huajun looked happier and nodded with a smile. “Of course. She used to be fake too, until the real Life Goddess came to this world and tried to claim the piece of her world, only to be beaten up by my friend. She was heavily wounded and fled after dropping a fragment of her Divine Spark. I put the fragment in the game world to increase its authenticity. However, it was attracted to the Life Goddess’s projection and gradually developed an independent personality. She’s even been conquered by you, which indirectly increases our combat ability. That’s a nice surprise.”
Roland was slightly embarrassed. If the guy knew that, did it mean that he knew when he and Elyse did it too?
“Don’t worry. We’re too decent to watch live porn,” said Ma Huajun teasingly. “Stop thinking about random stuff and start preparing the floating city. Your task in the other world is very tricky. You’d better hurry up. Besides, I have to apply for a no-fly zone for you, which is quite tricky too. The application has to be approved by many departments.”
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