"So, what you mean is, I need to return to the universe that gave birth to and raised me, wait there for a certain moment, and when that moment comes, return to this universe—no, before that moment arrives, obtain this universe's new Cosmic Core?"
After listening to his past self—the misty humanoid before him—Chiba furrowed his brow slightly and spoke as he pondered.
"Yes, that's right."
The misty humanoid answered remarkably quickly.
"So, what you told me was all... the future."
Hearing this, Chiba drew a slight breath and spoke heavily.
However, rather than speaking to the misty humanoid before him, he seemed to be speaking to himself.
His past self had just explained everything clearly. In summary, their previous Nightmare Cycle Universe had, for some reason, become a universe like one used to raise venomous insects, ultimately ending with the captain from the Nightmare Cycle Universe era. As for the universe of this Naruto World, they had likely seen only the tiniest tip of the iceberg. For some reason, this universe had exploded into countless tiny fragments. Yet this was not truly self-destruction or suicide, but a sacrifice of the lesser to preserve the greater. Over hundreds of millions of years, those fragments would be drawn together by a force resembling the attraction between things of the same origin and fuse into a new Cosmic Core.
And because both the Nightmare Cycle Universe and this universe contained large numbers of outsiders—transmigrators—his past self had guessed that the destruction of both universes had been caused by the same existence. That existence might be a person, another lifeform, a faction, or a civilization. It might also be some incomprehensible existence, or even simply a phenomenon. For example, it might be the very state of death of these two universes.
Furthermore, this