Absolute nothingness, where not even laws existed.
This was the birthplace of all things, absolute "zero," the source of origins, the beginning of beginnings.
It encompassed all possibility and impossibility, existence and nonexistence, reason and irrationality, order and chaos...
This place had another name—the Void.
It was born in the Void.
From the moment of Its birth, It had drifted through the Void in a muddled haze, without purpose, moving only by instinct.
Within the Void, almost anything orderly or disorderly would be assimilated by the Void Energy filling this place.
But It was different. It had been born here.
To It, the Void was a nurturing cradle. Even the Void Energy capable of assimilating countless things was merely gentle "air."
So It drifted about in a muddled haze.
Until one moment, It suddenly gained an awareness of "self."
At last, It realized Its own existence.
And by then, an unknown length of time had passed since Its birth.
Perhaps it had been an instant; perhaps it had been hundreds of millions of years. The Void had no concept of time. Time belonged to laws, and laws were a kind of "operating rule" within worlds. The universe, too, had been nurtured by the Void.
Perhaps I am one of a kind, It thought.
It did not know what It wanted to do, nor did It know what It could do.
So It decided to continue as before, drifting aimlessly through the Void.
It had no concept of boredom. It had been this way since Its birth; It was merely continuing Its former existence.
Until one day, It noticed a change somewhere in the Void.
The Void Energy there had become unstable. Void Energy continuously converged there from elsewhere, as though... it were nurturing something.
It became curious and observed the