Nightmare Foam Layer

As a temp worker, Yuan Zhu felt that Fire Fang had nothing to do with him, so he decisively chose to ignore it and pretended not to hear.

The others also stopped discussing the environmentally friendly and money-saving practice of dumping trash wherever they pleased for free.

The pink-haired college student continued sharing her thoughts. "I think the fact that residents of Taixi and Running have gathered here has something to do with the unusual spacetime phenomena that have persisted in Running. Perhaps a new spacetime crest has just arrived, weakening the barriers of the real world. Then, because of some trait we shared, we were locked onto, captured, and ultimately pulled in here."

Meng Xiyue felt this phenomenon was well worth studying, and MaoMao King's Happy Home could serve as the subject of her university research for the next two years.

What could offer a more direct observation of spacetime changes than being personally kidnapped by Gods' Space, forced to participate in it, and frequently shuttled through time and space? She had already become the most important humanoid parameter; she herself was the perfect subject and research object.

Just casually writing down some of her experiences as a memoir afterward would be enough for her classmates to study.

At that moment, the pink-haired girl's heart surged with excitement, as though she could already see herself transformed into a priceless treasure, surrounded by adoring classmates and teachers, pinned down in a laboratory for study.

The girl clenched her fists and cheered herself on. "I have to seize this opportunity! As long as I stubbornly stay alive, my next scholarship, graduation certificate, and future guaranteed admission will all be in the bag!"

She resolved that as soon as she returned to the real world, she would immediately sell herself out and obtain an extra round of funding from the university, allowing herself to survive better in the "Happy Home."

Rainbow Mohawk Head said dejectedly, "So what if we figure out the reason? We've already been kidnapped by this space. All we can do from here on out is let it arrange us as it pleases and leave our fate to heaven."

The captain, who had been standing aside and letting everyone chat amicably, suddenly spoke. "That is not so. MaoMao King's Happy Home will not illegally detain you or force you into labor. On the contrary, we will provide whatever assistance we can to help you through the most difficult initial stage. In truth, Happy Home does not restrict your comings and goings. Once you accumulate enough points, you may apply to switch teams or withdraw permanently."

The captain briefly explained everyone's circumstances.

Gods' Space was a loosely allied "trans-temporal mutual-aid organization" created by a group of powerful Demon Gods, modeled after the "Main God Space" in the Four Great Classics, Immeasurable Horror.

Any Demon God with interest and sufficient strength—financial strength—could apply to Gods' Space to create a private secondary space for housing their own dedicated team. It was similar to the Zhongzhou Team in Immeasurable Horror... which was what MaoMao King's Happy Home was now.

The Demon God who created an account possessed absolute control over their space and team, able to set missions and issue orders.

The kinder ones generally chose single-player mode, carrying out low-difficulty missions with high survival rates.

Others connected with other Demon Gods to gamble against one another, held leagues, and staged team battles like raising venomous insects in a jar. For no other reason than to enjoy watching little ants slaughter each other in blood.

At this point, a new concept had to be introduced: the Nightmare Foam Layer.

Du Ling Planet was simultaneously connected to multiple Outer Universes—eight of them. At every moment, unimaginably vast, universe-level energies converged and intersected.

If Du Ling were viewed as a capacitor, then the Outer Universes were super-energy sources with entirely different properties. Some transmitted radiation, some conveyed electrical energy, some poured in fel energy, some supplied primal mystic energy... and all in astronomical quantities.

Under normal circumstances, Du Ling, this tiny capacitor, would go Boom! and instantly burn out, explode where it stood, and vanish into ashes.

But reality was different. Du Ling Planet remained as steady as an old dog, taking in all rivers without so much as a ripple.

For four hundred years, it had hooked up with one Outer Universe after another, each governed by utterly different laws, frantically squeezing them dry. Its desires were never sated, its appetite endless; it sat there sucking in earth, like a bottomless ravine.

These astronomical quantities of Outer Universe "energy and matter," their properties mutually conflicting, ultimately settled and collapsed further upon the conceptual foundation of Du Ling, opening up endlessly expanding inner-world layers to store and house them without end.

The Spirit Realm Layer was Du Ling Planet's exclusive Inner World: the reverse side of the real world, another supernatural version of Du Ling where evil entities ran rampant, and the pressure-release valve of the main world.

Anything—power, object, or phenomenon—that exceeded the real world's warning line would gradually be rejected by Du Ling Planet and pushed into the Spirit Realm Layer. In this way, it maintained peace and stability in the real world, presenting a flourishing and glamorous face to the outside. (Using this weak-chicken façade, it had deceived one Outer Universe after another.) Du Ling was a planet awash in pollution, crawling with evil entities and aliens running wild; it should have been a hellscape at the end of the world. Yet why could ordinary people still live and work in peace? Aside from their powerful mentality and superhuman adaptability, it was because the Spirit Realm Layer served as a natural pressure-release valve and recycling station. Taking the real world as its template, it had shaped another new map with hell-level difficulty—a trash bin—and madly swallowed, swallowed, swallowed, taking in the real world's garbage and pollution.

What Gods' Space sought to explore, meanwhile, were the Foam Layers: spacetime dimensions even farther outside—or inside—than the Spirit Realm Layer. They completely entered a chaotic, twisted, disorderly domain of endless dimensions where the concepts of time and space did not exist.

In the real world, when a person absorbed too much pollution and developed a high-energy reaction, triggering the planet's rejection, they would be squeezed into the Spirit Realm Layer to live. Organizations such as Daoism, the Buddhist Sect, and the Holy Temple defined this phenomenon as ascension. (Immortal Dao: ascending to the Spirit Realm.) And when a high-energy Pollution Source within the Spirit Realm Layer continued to grow and expand, becoming increasingly powerful, terrifying, and unstable, to the point where it endangered the rules and order of the Spirit Realm Layer—

—it would be rejected once again and squeezed into a deeper Foam Layer. This phenomenon was called Secondary God/Demon Ascension.

The Foam Layers were chaotic and disorderly. Time and space were twisted and confused; there were no threads of causality, no logic. Vast numbers of "Foam Worlds" existed here, influenced by unknown mechanisms and born from the interweaving of matter, energy, and laws.

These small worlds had neither cause nor effect, like dreamlike bubbles and fleeting shadows. They could collapse and be reborn at any moment, while some endured for a very long time. The Gods and Devils who wandered the Foam Layers liked to nest in these super-mansions to avoid storms and chaotic annihilation, while infecting one Foam World after another.

The insides of Foam Worlds were filled with all manner of bizarre rules, with real-world and alien lifeforms scattered randomly throughout. They were usually projected and demonically altered using the "collective dream consciousness" of intelligent beings from the main world as a template. Thus, they were also called the Nightmare Foam Layer.

The establishment of Gods' Space was a means for the Demon Gods entrenched beyond the Spirit Realm Layer—though in essence, this was inner spacetime endlessly opened up by Du Ling—to efficiently explore the Foam Layers.

Before Gods' Space was established, Outer Layer Demon Gods fought alone. They had to rely on their own power to drill through the Spirit Realm Layer and the real-world layer, painstakingly pulling people over.

Then they had to wrap them in energy and randomly toss them into the chaotic, disorderly Foam Layers—the pond—like casting a fishing hook, hoping they would crash into a "Foam World"—take the bait—for further expansion.

After achieving their goals, they still had to painstakingly protect these increasingly experienced subordinates—the bait—and laboriously haul them back, waiting for the next round to begin.

Usually, only mid- to high-ranking Demon Gods could manage such an operation. Low-level little Demon Gods could only trail behind the big shots and scavenge a few scraps.

Gods' Space was created after countless big shots from the inner layers were inspired by the Four Great Classics. Together, they established a spacetime-travel mechanism similar to the "Main God Space," allowing weaker Demon Gods to pay for membership, contract a small space, and entertain themselves.

Once the user base grew large, the advantages of the collective allowed them not only to pierce the Spirit Realm Layer's defenses more easily and pull people from the main world, but also to build dedicated safe houses within the Foam Layers as transit stations. They could then frequently and efficiently infiltrate one "Foam World" after another, plundering resources or enslaving and ruling their inhabitants.

It could be said that the creation of "Gods' Space" transformed what had once been small workshop-style exploration, with scattered stragglers working independently, into large-scale, systematic professional development.

It lowered costs, raised efficiency, reduced friction and conflict between Demon Gods, and greatly increased the utilization rate of "main-world fishing hooks." Any Demon God who made gains could also exchange materials within the "alliance."

In the past, an independent Demon God would painstakingly gather a group of underlings and deploy them into the Foam Layers, where the death rate exceeded sixty percent. The materials they saved up were difficult to retrieve and convert into value. Now, after joining Gods' Space, their work efficiency was higher, they could effectively avoid other competitors and focus on developing Foam Worlds, and internal material trading could be completed through transport by "Gods' Space."

If they paid extra, they even had a chance of randomly reaching high-end Foam Worlds with richer resources and greater stability! The captain concluded, "Therefore, if any of you do not trust Happy Home, you may communicate with the space stele and make inquiries yourselves. Now, I will distribute the standard supplies for this mission."

The captain snapped his fingers. Seven identical boxes appeared out of thin air by his feet. "One for each person. These are gifts from MaoMao King. I hope you can successfully pass your first mission. If you have nothing to do, you may touch that stele and communicate with Gods' Space, asking about anything that concerns you."

Judging solely from Captain Li's behavior, this Happy Home did indeed seem to be an organization with a relaxed atmosphere that did not excessively exploit or squeeze its employees. But one could know a person's face without knowing their heart, so Yuan Zhu decided to observe in secret a while longer.

As for the welcome package? Of course he would not miss it. Though he needed to stay alert for the captain's ill intentions, he also had to make good use of the sugar-coated shell. Besides, he had been hurriedly teleported here with no means of defending himself. He was not even as well-equipped as Rainbow Mohawk Head with his pipe wrench. He ought to claim some life-saving supplies.

Only after the pink-haired college student and the young female investigator had each taken a box did he blend into the crowd, follow behind Bread Girl, and collect his own share.

He weighed it in his hand. It was quite heavy—could there be something good inside? Begging for everything: monthly votes, recommendations, tips, comments...

Gods' Space was a local area network. Infinite Flow. Every dungeon was a crazy local one.

Also, the explanation of the Spirit Realm Layer and Foam Layers was merely the captain's personal account, intended to help new team members understand the basics. It sounded reasonable and self-consistent, enough to satisfy a newcomer's curiosity.

Du Ling's true nature was another matter entirely. It did not rely on aid from Outer Universes. I'm saying this in advance, so don't claim later that I forgot my own setting and made up a random revision on the spot.