The Ecosystem of the Consciousness Empire

Miss Surtr opened her eyes. What came into view was a dilapidated and decaying courtyard.

This wasn't a dream world; it wasn't nighttime to sleep, and she could sense Laevateinn —she had simply been sitting on the sofa, lost in thought, and had arrived in this strange place. She felt she could return to her original place at any moment.

"... The Imperial Consciousness?" she said subconsciously, raising her hand, Laevateinn was already around her.

She remembered this courtyard... Of course she did, because it was the office building she had built herself—though everything around it looked dilapidated and decaying, as if it had stood for decades. But the overall furnishings and layout were exactly the same as they had been in the moment before she drifted off into thought.

It was exactly the same, so she woke up.

She returned to the real world, glanced at the terminal that still had no email replies, scanned her surroundings, and then once again sank into the territory of the Imperial Consciousness.

That's very interesting.

She rose from the rotten sofa and went to the window. She saw a thick, gloomy fog shrouding the outside. There was neither sound nor light within the fog.

So she blew a breath of air into the fog outside the window.

A storm surged, and the thick white fog was effortlessly hurled to both sides. What came into her view was a street with a layout identical to the real world, but riddled with decay and rust. Countless grotesque, deformed creatures crawled and twisted in the fog, fleeing in terror into the still-lingering mist the moment she saw them.

Miss Surtr ignored them.

She jumped from the building and landed on the street. As her toes touched the ground, she clearly sensed some enormous limbs escaping from the ground beneath her feet into the distance.

They were afraid of her—which was only natural.

She raised an eyebrow and looked up at the sky—which was also shrouded in thick fog. But in her perception, there was a familiar figure lingering on the other side of the sky.

Theresia... a strange land Reeds Field...

—She is there, and this is below her. Below her, she is unwilling to reveal to me, nor can she bring me here.

—Terra's hell...?

—Is this the kind of place a stupid dog comes to? Tsk...that's really terrible. This doesn't look like an amusement park with sweet honey cakes.

She thought to herself, looking ahead, the path paved with bones became smooth and dry as she took her first step—she intended to take a stroll here and see this unique scenery, different from Terra but still belonging to Terra.

Anyway, she doesn't have anything else to do right now.

Chapter 109 The Ecology of the Imperial Consciousness

Theresia had hinted—don't look down. Unknown horrors lurk below.

Surtr understood her hint and didn't look further. However, she was now in the 'below' position.

But she felt something was off.

Even though she could sense the world's breath from the level where Theresia was, and could perceive the colossal, slumbering creature hidden in the depths—she could clearly sense it and avoid it—when she was on the 'below' where she could sense Theresia, that hidden behemoth, as dark as eternity, vanished from her perception.

—When you get close, do you stop noticing?

—Or is the relationship between space and direction not what I think it is?

A question lingered in her mind, but it didn't trouble her for long—if she couldn't understand something, she simply wouldn't think about it. If she had really done something terribly wrong, Theresia would have come to stop her the moment she returned to the real world.

The fact that she didn't stop it means it was harmless.

Since it is harmless, one can do as one pleases.

—Let's see what interesting things are around us first.

With a slight shift in her mind, the Sulfur smell that had just spread through the streets silently subsided—she watched as the thick white fog gathered again and gradually filled her vision.

She walked from one side of the street to the other.

She closed her eyes and opened them in the reality layer. The fact that her displacement was zero told her that her travels in this Imperial Consciousness would not interfere with her coordinates in the reality layer. But when she returned to the Imperial Consciousness, she found herself once again back in that decaying courtyard and sitting in that dilapidated sofa chair.

Does one's position in the realm of reality determine their position within the Imperial Consciousness?

—No wonder the silly dog always collects the kettle from the same place after experiencing 'Yesterday's Shattered Dreams'. This setting is quite gamified.

—Is it some kind of alternative campfire?

Miss Surtr had a guess. She felt that if she died within the Imperial Consciousness, she should be able to awaken again in the Reality Realm—however, unfortunately, she had no idea how to verify it. Because she had absolutely no idea how she would end up dying in the ruins of this Imperial Consciousness.

—Unless Laevateinn wants to kill me.

—But if things really escalate to the point where Laevateinn wants to kill me, then even if I'm still able to wake up in the real world, I'll probably commit suicide immediately.

A terrible thought popped into my head. I quickly dismissed it, for a warm, stinging pain came from my hand—a burn that could only exist in my imagination, a sign of the sword's displeasure.

"Okay, okay, I shouldn't have made those assumptions about you." She whispered a apology, and then the sword quieted down.

Tsk, there's this downside to being in sync... though actually there's nothing really wrong with it.

She thought to herself, and following her memory, leaped down through the gap in the dilapidated building. As her toes touched the solid, skeletal ground, she took a swift step toward a direction she had sensed beforehand.

One step, ten meters. She was confident she wouldn't waste a single moment. In her memory, at that spot on the real floor, an elderly Ursus man taking a walk happened to pass by the corner below her building.

She encountered nothing here—when she reached the location she remembered, the territory of the Imperial Consciousness was nothing but an empty wasteland.

"Does this only refer to buildings, only inanimate objects... and not living things?"

She raised an eyebrow, but let out a slight sigh of relief. Since the people of Real Terra hadn't created any reflected shadows in this lower world, it meant that her actions on this level wouldn't cause any serious interference with Reality.

—If I were to go on a killing spree here, and Chernobog in the real Terra were to die a similar massacre, that would be a truly sinful thing.

Fortunately, that didn't happen... It seems this place really is 'hell' rather than 'human world'.

However, there is still too little evidence to draw a conclusion so directly.

She twitched her fingers slightly, the thought of 'cutting something' forming in her mind. However, she decided against such a tasteless act as venting her anger. Instead, she lifted her foot and walked towards a place that felt right to her—her intuition had always been quite good. Or rather, her inspiration had always been very strong.

"Don't fight, fighting is bad," she said softly, her voice rippling outwards like invisible waves.

Something seemed to have changed, yet nothing seemed to have changed at all. All sounds and movements were hidden behind the thick fog, absorbed, swallowed up. Therefore, even she couldn't see anything without dispelling the fog.

Or perhaps she was simply too lazy to bother looking?

It's possible, but not important. Exploration has its own fun, but unlocking the entire map doesn't necessarily mean the gameplay is great.

So she continued walking.

On her journey, she occasionally encountered twisted and deformed monsters. Some resembled humans, several of them huddled together, crawling on the ground using their palms. Others looked like trees, with many eyes and tentacles. Some were similar to spiders, but their mouthparts were replaced by multi-barreled cannons. Still others resembled ghosts from some supernatural world, red-faced, dragging tattered clothes and with deathly pale faces.

Miss Surtr didn't pay much attention to them.