Attempting to Sit and Discuss the Dao

Si Ming returned to his personal quarters and spent a pleasant day there. The Profaned Greatsword felt increasingly fluid in his hands, and while he tested his magic, Eve's singing and lute playing were quite lovely—he was finally able to manage his personal time as he pleased while relaxing, and only then did he realize how much he enjoyed victory.

Swinging his sword, summoning, testing, gathering energy, followed by light meals and rest. This was everything Si Ming did over the next twenty-four hours—he had thought he needed to relax and recuperate, but it turned out he didn't actually lack such things. He only felt joy in every tiny bit of growth, though there was, of course, a small interlude to it all.

There was one thing he could never quite figure out.

That was the fact that what he had experienced, encountered, and fought against in the other world was clearly far more sinister and cruel than anything in the reincarnation world. Yet, why was it that after staying in that other world for so long, he only successfully unlocked the first stage of the Gene Lock after arriving in the reincarnation world?

It was hard to understand.

The world of AVP2 had been as easy as a post-dinner stroll for him at the time. Only the final Wolf had been worthy of him using his full strength, and even then, he had been ninety percent sure of victory before he even made a move. Yet, this event—which was the greatest crisis he had faced, a mere post-meal exercise where the biggest danger was getting distracted and stubbing his toe—had allowed him to successfully break through the first stage of the Gene Lock, which was supposed to be achievable only in life-or-death moments.

What was this?

Accumulating strength for a sudden breakthrough?

Si Ming felt that wasn't very realistic, but he still felt he should respect reality—perhaps the Gene Lock was a local specialty unique to the reincarnation world, but logically, this rule should cover the entire infinite universe. And if that were the case, then when he was on his journey through the other world, he should have been in another universe as well.

So, I traveled from Earth to the other world initially, but I was still in my home universe. And only after that did I travel into the infinite universe.

Then...

The Main God's light screen descended. In his eyes, there was a special entry: [Return to Origin World - Reality]. This content, which he had deliberately ignored before, now appeared clearly before his eyes once again.

He wasn't exactly in a rush to return to his home.

But he had quite a bit of interest in returning to that other world where danger lurked at every turn—it is said that returning home without showing off one's success is like wearing fine silks in the dark, and now he was a hundred times stronger than when he had left. And for many grudges that couldn't be resolved with simple blades, fists, or guns, perhaps it was time to settle them cleanly.

"Next time, let's give it a try." Si Ming pondered for a moment and made his decision. Although he didn't currently have the D-rank balance required to activate a return to the real world, he felt it wouldn't take long for him to accumulate enough.

He nodded and made a mental note of it.

And so, twenty-four hours passed in a flash, and the agreed-upon time soon appeared before his eyes.

More people came than expected.

When Si Ming arrived at the circular table and exchanged for a cup of tea and a small bun, he was the first to see Song Tian walk out of his personal quarters. Before he could even greet Song Tian, he saw Jacob—and Yu Zhiwei, as a matter of course, had already naturally claimed a seat at the table. By the time everyone had taken their seats, Valentina had appeared from somewhere, quietly staying in a corner a bit further away from the others.

The wise and the young were all gathered; it was good.

Si Ming nodded toward the others to greet them.

"Good afternoon, everyone. Have you all eaten?"

Yu Zhiwei was the first to answer him.

"Just finished. Is that all you're having for lunch?"

"Just a post-meal snack." Si Ming waved his hand and looked at the others. He saw Song Tian nod, while Valentina was holding a pizza in her hand.

It had no scent; faint, intangible winds swirled around her. It was hard to imagine someone using such a technique to block out the sounds and smells of eating lunch.

"The catering here at the Main God is quite good." Jacob smiled, and a large platter of grilled meat with a strong, unique aroma suddenly appeared before him. "Better than reality, and better than other places. Besides, our Celestial Team's exchange list seems to differ slightly from others. We can customize dishes that aren't even in the ingredient section, and then have the Main God cook them to our preferred taste."

He picked up a fork and speared a piece of fresh, dripping grilled meat. The enticing aroma spread everywhere, and Si Ming noticed it suddenly mixed with the scent of pineapple pizza.

"Deathclaw steak, Wasteland Traveler special edition. Want to try some?"

Deathclaw—Si Ming knew the name.

He knew of the creature and had seen similar entries in the ingredient section just a short while ago. But back in the East Sea Team, the exchange list had only contained unprocessed corpses and meat.

He exchanged for a portion for himself, a small one. After trying a bit, the texture was unexpectedly both spicy and tough. It was like a ball of burning, intense fire; as he swallowed it, he felt a wave of warmth spread throughout his entire body.

"Fallout?" He looked at Jacob. "So the Main God actually sends us into game worlds?"

"Yes, Fallout 2." Jacob nodded. "Luckily, I'm somewhat of an old-school gamer, so I wasn't completely lost when I got in. I participated in part of the game's main storyline with other members of the Sandbar Team. We used a bunch of scrap metal to help the protagonist deal with the powerful Enclave army of the Wasteland; we got a bit injured, but the harvest in the end was significant."

"I remember the Enclave's Power Armor is quite good, and the Fallout series also has very cheap Plasma Rifles." Si Ming took a sip of tea. He saw that a steak had appeared in front of Yu Zhiwei as well.

"True, I've tried them. Aside from the power, everything else is quite good." Jacob smiled. "It's a pity that when I went back a second time, I couldn't find that 'Qiu Shengwang' protagonist anymore—the Main God had pushed the time forward by 36 years, from 2241 to 2277, and I was thrown directly to the East Coast. Later, I realized I had been dropped into the timeline of Fallout 3."

"Fallout 3?" Yu Zhiwei asked, seemingly curious. "As far as I know, the Fallout game hasn't even reached 3 yet."

Not far away, Valentina, who was still chewing her pizza, quietly pricked up her ears.

"Fallout 3 is a game that won't be released until 2008." Si Ming quickly checked the data and cross-referenced the memories in his mind. "But since the Main God can exchange for a bunch of future technology, it can naturally locate future worlds. I encountered a similar situation when I was in the East Sea Team: AVP2, and many people had entered the Main God space before that."

"That does make sense." Jacob agreed. "In that case, maybe we will soon encounter worlds from years or even decades into the future? No wonder the captain's authority allows us to know the content of the next mission in advance. That is indeed a quite valuable privilege."

"...But if that's the case, what happens to the previous teams? Wouldn't they..." Valentina frowned, her tone filled with worry.

"They will choose a new captain." Si Ming comforted her. "The Main God has explained that after a captain moves to the Celestial Team, the original team only loses the one-time-only Gene Lock level upgrade. But a new captain will still be born, so this won't cause any impact."

"If you really feel bad about it, just compensate them if we happen to run into them during a team battle later." Yu Zhiwei rested her chin on her hand, her fork poking at the small plate she had already cleared. "Ah, provided they don't actively get in the way of our main mission."

Valentina frowned.

"...You really know how to talk, Yu Zhiwei."

"I was already very careful with my words, Miss Valentina. Speaking of which, that name is so long; do you have any short nicknames you could share?" Her fork left her palm, twisting and deforming in front of her, the steel forming all sorts of strange shapes.

Valentina simply turned her head, acting as if a pig were squealing.

Si Ming coughed lightly, steering the conversation back on track.

"Jacob, you mentioned before that you returned to Fallout 3..."

"Mm, Fallout 3." Jacob nodded slightly, a nostalgic light in his eyes. "At the time, I happened to have some... minor conflicts with the other members of the Sandbar Team. So, while I was alone, I was bored and flipping through the Main God's enhancement list. That was when I discovered that the Main God has a feature to return to a previous world for 10 reward points a day... It's a pity that older worlds require a D-rank side quest to unlock and also cost 50 reward points a day, otherwise, I would have quite liked to go back to Dungeons & Dragons, the first world I ever arrived in."

Dungeons & Dragons, there was indeed such a movie. It was a fantasy film released in 2000, shot mediocrely, and ultimately grossed only thirty million dollars. Si Ming needed to look up the data on the spot to even find this world.

He roughly understood why Jacob had chosen his current path.

"I came into contact with a cult there that called itself the Church of Atom. In a post-apocalyptic Wasteland, they worshipped the very nuclear bomb that had devastated their world and continued to torment them..." Jacob smiled, a complex expression. "I really couldn't stand it at the time, so I managed to take over that cult. Yet, after I settled those locals down, built settlements for them, cleared out the surrounding monsters and bandits, and established an orthodox church for them when they were lost, I discovered that my power had changed."

He gently clenched his fist.

"I went from a Priest to a Profane Priest. Because of this, I learned many of the gods' truths... and ever since then, I no longer believe in any gods. And by the time I returned to the Dungeons & Dragons world, managed to usurp the divine power of Tyr, and upgraded the Profane Priest class to B-rank, the others in the Sandbar Team and I could no longer tolerate each other."

"You did what a god should do, so you became a god," Song Tian suddenly spoke up.

However, Jacob merely shook his head.

"I only did what people thought a god would do, which is why I became a god... Gods are created by people, at least the ones I have come into contact with."

He suddenly turned his head to look at Si Ming. Long before this, he had already sensed the divine power within Si Ming.

"What do you think, Si Ming?"