Spatial Deceleration Technology

"Look at how shocked Morty is, how utterly incredulous he is. Did he really think the pitiful scraps of cleverness in that tiny head of his could fool us?"

"HAHAHA! What an idiot! Did he think we didn't know he'd come back?"

"Morty will never get smarter. Even if he's the most special Morty right now, he still can't put up even the slightest resistance against Rick."

Morty had been captured by the Citadel Strike Team. His hands and feet were bound, and he had been thrown onto the ground, forced to listen to these guys mock him relentlessly.

Yet these strike team members did not seem to be in any hurry to take him back to the Citadel of Ricks.

Instead, they picked up the Portal Gun Rick had left behind and began studying it.

They seemed to be trying to figure out what Rick had left for him inside the Portal Gun.

What a bunch of schemers...

With no options left, Morty pinned his hopes on Rick, hoping he would burst in at the critical moment and save him.

But as time passed, Rick still did not appear. Instead, AI Rick kept fanning the flames from the sidelines, blurting out a few things. Essence Book Pavilion

Like how the grandfather and grandson had some kind of little plan.

Or how they should just kill him outright!

In short, AI Rick was now willing to pay any price just to return to the Citadel of Ricks.

Unfortunately, his desperate attempt to ingratiate himself was like winking at a blind man to the Citadel Strike Team.

An AI—something every transmigrator, and even Morty himself, considered a god-tier tool—was, in the eyes of these old Ricks,

basically no better than cheap roadside junk.

Was it hard to make an AI?

If they wanted AI, they could make seven or eight on the spot and have them play AI-versus-AI games.

So although the AI tried its hardest to prove itself, it was destined to receive none of their attention.

At last, after studying the Portal Gun, the strike team discovered Rick's pre-saved coordinates.

"Ha! That guy really did leave something up his sleeve!"

"So what now? Do we take him back first to report in, then head over there, or do we get everything done in one go?"

"Of course we do it all in one go! Going back and forth is such a hassle!"

Thus, one of the strike team members grabbed Morty, and the group stepped through a portal into the universe at the coordinates Rick had left behind.

The moment they entered.

Morty was stunned by the world before him.

He had followed Rick through countless universes and witnessed every kind of grand spectacle, from ancient wars involving tens of millions of people to worlds of famous paintings gone completely mad.

But none of it compared to what he was seeing now.

Within the boundless darkness stood a circular silver platform ten thousand miles across. Eighty thousand golden dragon stone pillars rose from it, and above each pillar floated a block of ice, every one containing some strange and bizarre creature.

"What is this place?"

"I've traveled through plenty of universes, but I've never seen one like this."

"Something's off. Stay alert, everyone. If anything seems wrong, kill first and ask questions later."

Having never seen anything like this, the Citadel Strike Team no longer wore the relaxed expressions they had before. Their faces were now filled with vigilance.

As Morty, held by the back of his collar, floated forward alongside the Citadel Strike Team, he felt that the scene before him looked strangely familiar after his initial shock faded.

But he simply could not remember why it seemed familiar.

Could there still be gaps in my memories?

That shouldn't be possible. My memories aren't exactly precious treasures. One memory storage room should have been enough, so why make so many layers?

Fuck! That old layered pancake Rick really has one trick after another!

When everyone floated down onto the ground,

the entire platform flashed with golden light.

The next second, an energy barrier rose from the edge of the platform. Before any of the Ricks could react, it had enveloped the entire platform.

"How cliché..."

One Rick grumbled disdainfully. He felt that whoever had designed this thing had to be missing a few screws.

Trapping a bunch of Ricks in one place?

You clearly didn't know how the word "death" was spelled!

With all of us gathered here, whatever size fireworks you want to see, we can make them.

So he pulled out a weapon and fired at the energy barrier, intending to test its strength before deciding how to destroy it.

But then something astonishing happened.

The energy bullet did not bounce back when it touched the barrier. It was not annihilated, nor was it caught by the barrier.

Instead, when it came within centimeters of the barrier, it began advancing at a speed of 0.000000001 nanometers per second.

"This is... Spatial Deceleration Technology?"

"This energy barrier is so huge. If Spatial Deceleration Technology is being used everywhere, where is the energy supply coming from?"

"You blind loser, can't you see that the world outside is completely dark? Where do you think all the planets in this universe went?"

"Fuck! He turned this universe into a time bomb! I really wish I were the one who got to kill that bastard!"

The Ricks immediately saw the cause. Their faces changed drastically, and they began to panic.

Morty, who only had a partial grasp of Rick's technological tree, said nothing and quietly listened to the Ricks talk.

Rick technology as a whole was incredibly complex and diverse.

Put simply, it consisted of the physical world and the non-physical world.

More specifically, it included all kinds of branches, such as gunpowder, energy, nuclear power, magnetic energy, electricity, gravity, souls, and more.

From AI Rick, Morty had learned that Dimension C-137 loved close combat. If he could slap you across the face at close range, he would never choose to blow you up with a cannon from ten thousand miles away.

So if Dimension C-137 were translated into a class from a Western fantasy world, he would be a standard sword-and-shield-and-bow warrior proficient in both magic and martial arts.

He was skilled with every weapon, but even when using a bow, he liked to stand less than two meters from your head and blow it apart with an arrow.

But as for the direction Rick specialized in, and his preferences...

Even AI Rick's assessment of him was that he was an old layered pancake.

Back in the Citadel of Ricks, this guy had actually been a professor in one of the three major mainstream Morty schools, specializing in teaching and training Mortys.

The reason he had joined the reality show this time was unknown.

But his fighting style was all about predicting your prediction.

So, judging from all the signs, Morty felt that Rick's suicide had involved more calculation than an actual mental breakdown.

But wasn't he putting a little too much faith in his own ability to calculate everything?

What if Morty had gone to the Cthulhu World, or some other world, and never come back?

Or what if he had simply chosen to join the Galactic Empire?

Then all those calculations would have come to nothing.

What a gambler...

The instant those words surfaced in Morty's mind, the stone pillars before him suddenly began to rotate.

The sudden change left him no time to be distracted.

Especially with his hands tied—if anything unexpected happened, he would have no way to fight back at all!