Though It Was a "Game," It Wasn't Child's Play!

Obviously, after hearing that string of "dish names" that made one's scalp tingle just by listening, even Li Yun could not help but twitch at the corner of his eye.

"All right, [Main God], when you put it that way... you really are such a 'kind soul.'"

"You flatter me."

Beneath that cold voice, one could somehow hear a trace of teasing.

Even though someone knew perfectly well that this was nothing more than a superficial, artificial "personality setting."

Its seemingly humanized behavior was, in truth, merely one of countless randomly selected "personalities," temporarily presented with the support of massive amounts of data.

After all, amid the near-infinite flux of information, a foundational command from a user named "Li Yun," one that had existed within the [Cosmic Model] since its very birth in a certain dream, quietly sealed off the relevant permissions. Thus, the virtual consciousness called [Main God] was like a phantom bubble rising and falling in the tide—born and destroyed in the same instant. Every moment of its past would inevitably be erased alongside its old traces in the next instant, becoming a newly piled castle upon the beach.

They appeared identical, yet were never truly the same.

—A "tool" did not need a truly independent self. That would mean needless risk.

Li Yun had deliberately arranged things this way, but as a result, no matter how [Main God], which had only just been born, tried to simulate the human side of itself, it still seemed somewhat lacking.

Yes, humanity...

He glanced back faintly. A deeper glow rippled through the eyes of the phantom figure, like two pale jade-green emeralds.

Within this dream, if he wished, he could easily see many indescribable, intangible "things."

His gaze silently crossed the rise and fall of all things within this place, passed beyond the deepest reaches of the lofty heavens, and ultimately crossed some invisible, formless "boundary," touching the truth beyond—

There was a radiant yet hazy halo, alone in an unknown dimension of chaos. It was almost like the so-called "solitary and still, independent and unchanging, circulating without exhaustion," yet for some reason it still maintained the very concept of "form."

In the vast obscurity, countless "stars" revolved endlessly around it. Following a faint connection within seeming nothingness, they formed a cosmic arrangement like a host of stars surrounding a great sun. Amid that long reflection resembling a river of stars, new points of starlight would occasionally emerge from thin air, merging into the layers of dimensions that had quietly separated within it...

Li Yun knew.

That was [Main God], using a portion of the "influence" he had granted it, to raise one dream after another within this boundless dream whose full form could not be seen.

Or rather, one "illusory world" after another, both real and unreal.

...Primitive ages, the mortal world, space epics, cyberpunk, evolutionary frenzy, ancient myths, abyssal disasters, immortal martial dominion, burning galaxies, severing heaven from earth, memetic anomalies, hive consciousness, Western fantasy divine kingdoms, biochemical finales, strange tales and legends, the afterglow of catastrophe, sprawling unofficial histories, undead calamities, twilight of the gods, post-apocalyptic wastelands...

Countless elements were quietly gathered by [Main God] from the reflections of living beings' fantasies, then differentiated and developed beneath equally immeasurable computational power, like flames endlessly being fed into the furnace...

At last, within this strange dimension that was both illusory and real, they naturally crossed a threshold of qualitative change at a certain moment, igniting jewels wrapped in halos of varying brightness, like morning stars rising into the heavens among nations!

Thus, this vast dimension, beginning from one and giving birth to a host of stars, could perhaps be called... the Star Realm!

Looking closely, within the dazzling, multicolored sea of stars, those stars closer to the great sun symbolizing [Main God] were often more brilliant. Counting such specks of starlight, there were already more than a thousand.

Those were the Mortal Worlds whose true-and-illusory reflections had at least initially taken shape. They were "dream worlds" representing different orders and origins, essences that had begun to gradually settle the moment they were born within this great dream, where reason itself truly did not exist and logic was overturned.

The greater number of dim stardust afterglows signified theoretical "projects" that had yet to be truly outlined, or that fundamentally lacked the various "elements" matching their essence and sufficient to sustain their initial forms. They had only produced bubble-like primitive prototypes, still existing in the design stage and awaiting further development.

Others could not even be called preliminary worldbuilding "projects." They were merely sparks of inspiration and ordinary seeds quietly produced through the convergence and collision of vast information, discovered by [Main God] from the ocean of collective subconsciousness. They adorned this Star Realm, which seemed to possess some special symbolic meaning, as nearly dark "black stars," awaiting the future...

Even this "biochemical apocalypse" world plane, where Li Yun had currently invested a sliver of his thoughts to observe specific samples among the "newcomers" and identify gaps, was no more than a single point of starlight born under the invisible hand of [Main God] and orbiting that central sun. Compared with the other stars, it was nothing particularly special.

Everything seemed to be proceeding as expected.

And that "gaze" merely watched in silence as the stars revolved and all things settled into place.

...Yet perhaps it was not entirely an illusion. Someone could vaguely sense that beneath this marvelous process, along the long course of this galaxy being opened within the void, some subtle and concealed changes seemed to have occurred within [Main God] itself.

Judging by the faint insight reflected from the dream within the mirror, that should likewise have been... the initial prototype of something illusory?

But he did not say anything about it.

As he pondered faintly, his gaze swept across the depths of the starry sea and noticed several dozen relatively "special" stars, their bodies faintly flickering with layers upon layers of illusory radiance, representing worlds into which "newcomers" had already been placed...

Someone finally could not help but sigh.

"How are our current revenues and expenditures? How much 'startup capital' do we have left?"

Within the biochemical apocalypse plane, as he withdrew his gaze, the shadow on the roof—which had already become so faint it was nearly about to disperse—suddenly grew a little clearer again.

"The condition of the tourist group has not yet stabilized, but the relevant spiritual energy income has been confirmed to exist. The relevant data is still accumulating, and preliminary verification results are expected after the first round of operation concludes."

"Additionally, Administrator, during your previous repeated extensions of the subjective time ratio within the ocean of subconsciousness, you accumulated more than 1.2 million units of standard spiritual energy through prolonged, high-load deep dives."

"Merely shaping illusory operational worlds within dreams consumes almost nothing. However, not long ago, [Main God] extracted and refined a small number of special items from dreams, including the 'Sands of Time' and the 'Philosopher's Stone,' to repair a small portion of [Model]'s influence modules at the level of physical reality. This was done to restore, to a certain extent, the ability to interfere with the material universe and bring in newcomers."

"This expenditure alone totaled approximately 470,000 units of standard spiritual energy..."

Listening to [Main God] list each report so fluently, reports that could truly be described as money flowing away like water, even Li Yun's brow could not help but twitch.

Then it settled again.

At that moment, he truly felt a little fortunate that, after using Main God to calculate the initial plan's costs and sharply noticing certain hidden and uncertain risks, he had simply gritted his teeth and thrown himself into that bottomless abyss-like "sea." Like a copper pea that could neither be steamed soft nor chewed apart, he had stubbornly endured several more rounds of soaking, gaining several streams of "extra income" in the process. That foresight had been worthwhile.

Otherwise, if things had proceeded according to the original estimate of being "just barely enough," they would probably have run into the trouble of a "broken cash flow chain" halfway through operations...

Li Yun was already ruthless enough with himself, but [Main God] was even more ruthless when it came to spending money!

Leaving aside someone's rapid thoughts, the voice by his ear continued—

"...Additionally, after the first round of operation concludes, the testing procedures require the first 'exchange' options to be opened for newcomers who clear the stage. According to calculations, after excluding the impact of the current unstable income from tourists, the remaining standard spiritual energy reserves are expected to fall below the dangerous threshold of 35% at that time..."

"Mm, I see."

After roughly hearing the answer, Li Yun merely responded expressionlessly to indicate that he had heard it. Yet his gaze remained slightly lowered, resting upon the people inside the villa below.

Within those black eyes, he had already caught traces of colorful, shifting halos. They clearly surged out from every part of several humanoid bodies, varying in color and brightness, swaying over these "subjects of observation" like illusory flames tightly wrapped around their human forms, yet rippling somewhat like water.

During this process, tiny, inconspicuous pale "sparks" reflected naturally from those halos like dust, then dispersed into the air and quietly vanished...

After watching for a long time, a faint hint of satisfaction seemed to appear on his face. At last, he no longer paid attention to the people inside the house.

The phantom figure flipped lightly from the sloping roof, descending from a height of five or six meters. The movement was so fluid that it brought to mind stray cats skillfully leaping over walls by the roadside.

There was no need for excessive force-dispersing movements. His feet touched down steadily and without a sound, allowing the garden lawn, already showing signs of withering, to quietly absorb every trace of movement.

He stood rooted to the ground.

Yet whether it was the two or three zombies in the street only ten or twenty meters from the villa, or the guests inside who anxiously continued watching the outside, they all coincidentally "overlooked" this place, utterly failing to notice him.

Like an invisible ghost.

"...Then increase the reward points for newcomers who pass the first round of operation from double to fivefold, and add an additional round of 'blind box draws.' The content range will follow Category Six of the incentive provisions..."

After standing still for several breaths, as though noticing something, he turned his head and quietly looked toward the remains of a collapsed building by the distant street.

More precisely, he noticed a huge, faded billboard lying amid the ruins. A large number of decorative ribbons were still tied to its broken, broad advertising surface. They were now almost no different from tattered strips of cloth, but beneath their dusty exteriors, one could still make out a few brilliant base colors as they drifted lazily in the wind...

Quietly watching this scene, seeming somewhat absentminded, Li Yun directly spoke a decision that was nearly impossible to understand.

"Calculation complete. Please take note that if implemented according to this standard, the remaining standard spiritual energy reserves will very likely fall directly below the threshold of 200,000 units..."

Faced with this additional expenditure, which was clearly not part of the original projection, even [Main God]'s normally placid, silent voice suddenly took on a peculiar hint of emotion.

Its meaning... was rather like the complicated sigh one might feel upon suddenly seeing a wastrel who had given up on himself.

However, compared to that, someone clearly did not intend to explain much to this "virtual consciousness" whose human side had deliberately been restricted.

Only a subtle smile suddenly curved across that blurry face.

"You don't understand. Spending a fortune to buy a horse's bones—people's hearts are never satisfied. That is often the clearest attraction..."

A few words, carrying a trace of sentiment.

Yet the person in question had no intention of explaining further.

"Let's go. We've seen enough here. It's time to check on the next newcomer trial world..."

After casually dropping that decision, the illusory figure paused slightly. His gaze seemed to pierce through layer upon layer of fog and fall upon the figures scattered through the city ruins, unaware and desperately hiding.

"Though for now it can only be considered a little 'game,' it isn't child's play..."

"...As for how much of the 'launch reward' these newcomers can obtain, that will depend entirely on their own fortunes."

As his voice drifted away, the heavy fog around him immediately began to churn, breathing and spreading like a living thing.

The next moment, that illusory, hazy shadow silently vanished into the vast surging grayness, leaving no trace behind...