World Coordinates

After leaving his home, Luke had no idea where to go for fun, so he simply wandered along the streets.

Following the crowds, Luke noticed that his surroundings had suddenly taken on a different look. People in strange costumes and wigs walked along the street, while others were taking pictures.

Looking in the direction they were heading, Luke spotted a comic convention. He immediately understood what they were doing. With nothing better to do, Luke went over and found elaborately dressed cosplayers everywhere.

Although the Marvel World's technology was more advanced than that of his own world, their cultures were not all that different. Many of Luke's childhood memories could be found here too.

Like the mushroom-loving plumber over there, whose princess had already run off with the evil dragon. There were also two burly men dressed as the two tough guys from Contra, holding toy guns and striking all sorts of muscleman poses.

Luke was pleasantly surprised. He had never expected these classics to exist in this world too. Joining the other photographers in taking pictures of these classic characters, Luke slowly made his way into the convention.

Once inside, Luke felt as though the world before him had instantly changed styles. Over there, Transformers were fighting Godzilla, while nearby, Harley Quinn and Batman struck all sorts of affectionate poses.

Laughing at these people mangling the originals, Luke took a few pictures of each of them.

"Looks like the two worlds aren't completely different after all."

Luke continued exploring deeper into the convention to see whether any more surprises awaited.

Compared with the Chinese conventions he had seen online before, overseas conventions mostly featured highly popular characters, while Chinese ones mostly featured very pretty or handsome characters. Still, there was not much difference. How would they be popular if they were not pretty or handsome?

Luke nearly filled his camera's memory at the convention, then pulled out his phone to keep taking pictures.

Before he had taken more than a few pictures with his phone, an Ultraman ran up beside him.

"Hey, man, that's a really unusual-looking camera."

Ultraman looked at the camera in Luke's hand with great interest.

Luke smiled and explained, "This is a phone, a new phone invented by the Stark Group."

Ultraman was quite surprised. "I thought Iron Man had stopped developing any technology other than his armor."

"Maybe what you're looking at now is part of the technology in his armor."

"That's so cool. The same technology as Iron Man's armor-round it up, and that basically means I have armor too. Where can I buy this phone?"

Luke thought for a moment and replied, "This phone hasn't entered mass production yet. Mine is only a prototype for testing. But the Stark Group should be setting up a separate company specifically to manufacture these phones next."

Ultraman nodded. "I've got to buy one when that happens. That's so cool!"

"Hey, Tiga, time to go!"

A group of monsters called to him from nearby. They seemed to be a little team?

But Luke suddenly noticed a hermit-crab-like monster among them and the little monster whose hand he was holding.

The little monster seemed to be his child, but that costume reminded Luke of something...

"Those giant beasts!" Luke recalled the sleeping giant beasts in that dangerous dimension in shock.

"How is that possible? Isn't that a work of fiction? No, wait, Marvel is fiction too!" Luke felt as though this whole thing had short-circuited his brain.

Looking at the characters from one fantastical work after another around him, if all these characters had corresponding worlds that existed, then...

Luke stood stunned for quite a while before running out of the convention. Reaching a small alley outside, Luke first entered his Shadow Dimension and found some sorcerers practicing their newly learned dark energy magic inside.

Luke greeted them, then went to Kamar-Taj through the door leading there on the other side.

Seeing Mordo pew-pew-pewing little fireballs in the square, Luke grabbed him and asked, "Where's Ancient One? I need to see him about something urgent."

Mordo had been looking at the staff in his hand with some delight. It reminded him of a strange British fantasy film, where the magic looked much like this.

Suddenly grabbed by Luke, Mordo thought for a moment. "Ancient One should be revising the spellbooks in the tea room right now. If it's urgent, just go there and knock."

Luke nodded and ran toward the tea room.

He stopped outside the tea room and knocked a few times. The door then opened on its own. Ancient One sat at the table inside, revising books, with a large stack of spellbooks beside her.

"What is it? Did something come up?" Ancient One carefully examined the book in her hand, then wrote something in another book before looking up at Luke.

"I wanted to know, is it possible to reach other worlds through the Dark Dimension?"

Ancient One thought for a moment. "Of course. In fact, the various material worlds exist in the spaces between dimensions. Naturally, you can reach other worlds through dimensions."

"So a fictional world isn't necessarily an imaginary world?"

Ancient One paused, then said in puzzlement, "You should know the answer to that. After all, isn't our world a fictional world to you? But look, we truly exist here."

"Then can I go to other worlds through the Dark Dimension?"

"Of course you can. You just need the coordinates of the other world, because entering the Dark Dimension alone doesn't let you travel to other worlds."

Luke nodded. "Then how do I get another world's coordinates?"

Ancient One thought for a moment. "You'll have to rely on luck for that. Either the other dimension is connected to its world, or you manage to get some of their more advanced equipment. Those generally carry some traces of that world's aura, which you can use to find its coordinates."

As she spoke, Ancient One gave Luke a spell. It would allow him to detect whether an object contained a world's aura. If it did, he could ask Mordo and the others to analyze the world coordinates.

Luke took the spellbook, looked it over, and nodded. So that was how it worked. I wonder whether any of the equipment Mordo and I captured before is advanced enough.

Leaving the tea room, Luke headed toward the square.

Actually, the system had already hinted at this before. Back then, it had simply given him three worlds to choose from.

He could pay a little more attention when campaigning against other dimensions in the future. He might just get to visit other worlds.

Luke was a little excited. It was not as though there was always something to do in the Marvel World. When he was free, he could go sightseeing in other worlds, though he did not know which worlds he would visit.

Luke first went to find Mordo to see whether any of the items they had captured last time carried world coordinates.

Upon learning why Luke had come, Mordo took him to a storeroom containing the equipment left over from the last dimensional war.

Luke first looked over the equipment. It all seemed fairly ordinary, but it was still worth a try.

Luke took out the spellbook. The spell was actually quite simple: stimulate and amplify the energy inside, determine its composition, then check whether it contained any energy unique to a particular world. That energy could then be used to seek out the world's coordinates.

Once he understood the principle, Luke summoned dark energy and applied it directly. There was no need to construct a magic circle or anything like that.

Luke summoned dark energy and let it seep into the piece of equipment, carefully stimulating the energy inside to make it reveal itself.

But evidently, this piece of equipment contained no special energy. Most of the energy inside was also dark energy, protecting those ordinary soldiers from being assimilated by dark energy.

Shaking his head, Luke looked at the standardized equipment. Luke shook his head and remembered the longsword containing unusual energy that the Dimension Lord had held. What a shame he had not snatched it back then.

With that thing, he probably could have pinpointed another world's coordinates. What a shame.

Luke left the storeroom regretfully, deciding that next time, he would pry something off the opposing Dimension Lord to use as coordinates, no matter what.

Actually, Luke would not invade other worlds or anything when he went there. It would just be tourism. As someone who would possess an entire Dark Dimension in the future, Luke was not all that interested in other worlds. It was more like looking at his old childhood memories from another angle.