All Things Are Numbers

Enlarge, enlarge, enlarge without end.

A hint of drowsiness showed in Achilles's eyes. Her lids drooped slightly as she stared at the silly-looking fish in her hand, gently flicking its tail with one finger.

One flower, one world. Within the flower was a realm; within the realm, flowers.

At first, she had carefully calculated how large she was compared to the quantum foam on the surface of that original black hole, and how many fractions of an atom tall she was.

Now she could not even be bothered to calculate it. The number had long surpassed the bounds of common sense.

The interior of the Eureka Raider became extraordinarily quiet. The rambling narration in her mind, like a monk chanting scriptures nonstop, suddenly ceased as well, leaving her somewhat unaccustomed to the silence.

Those things sounded headache-inducing, and thinking about them made her dizzy enough to want several extra bowls of rice to replenish the energy burned by her brain.

But this was the first person in her life willing to talk to her so much. It made her feel as though she had returned to her childhood.

Back then, she had not yet become a beggar who spent every day with stray cats and dogs, able only to mutter to herself and curse Zeno and his turtle.

"Look what we found?"

"There's a creature here that isn't very cute, but its nutritional value is 3.2 billion times that of a neutron star."

Li Heng's voice shattered the silence. Achilles snapped out of her thoughts about the silly fish and widened her eyes toward where the Eureka Raider was.

Before her was a massive cloud of mist that constantly churned and festered, gathering together into grotesque bodily organs.

Slimy black tentacles, mouths dripping mucus, twisted short legs, and black hooves