World Coordinates

After stepping out of his home, Lu Qi had no idea where to go for fun, so he simply wandered along the streets.

Following the crowd, Lu Qi noticed that the atmosphere around him had suddenly changed. People in all kinds of strange costumes and wigs were walking down the street, and some were taking photos.

Looking in the direction they were heading, Lu Qi spotted a convention. He immediately understood what they were doing. With nothing better to do, Lu Qi walked over and found the place filled with elaborately dressed cosplayers.

Although technology in the Marvel World was more advanced than in his own world, the cultural differences were not that great. Many memories from Lu Qi's childhood could be found here as well.

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

Lu Qi was pleasantly surprised. He had not expected those classics to still exist in this world. He joined the other photographers in taking pictures of those iconic characters as he slowly made his way deeper into the convention.

Once inside, Lu Qi felt as though the entire world had instantly shifted into a different style. Transformers were fighting Godzilla over there, while Harley Quinn and Batman were striking all kinds of affectionate poses over here.

Laughing as he watched those people butcher the original works, Lu Qi snapped several photos of each of them.

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

Lu Qi continued exploring the convention, wondering whether there might be any more surprises.

Compared with the domestic conventions he had seen online before, overseas conventions mostly featured highly popular characters, while domestic ones mostly featured exceptionally beautiful or handsome characters. But there was not much difference. If they were not pretty or handsome, how could they be popular?

Lu Qi nearly filled up his camera's memory at the convention, then took out his phone and continued taking pictures.

Before he could take more than a few photos with his phone, an Ultraman ran over to him.

"Hey, man, your camera looks pretty unique."

Ultraman looked at the phone in Lu Qi's hand with great interest.

Lu Qi smiled and explained, "This is a phone, a new phone invented by Stark Group."

Ultraman was quite surprised. "I thought Iron Man didn't develop any technology besides armor anymore."

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

"That's so cool. It's the same technology as Iron Man's armor, so rounding it off means I have armor too. Where can I buy this phone?"

Lu Qi thought for a moment before answering, "This phone hasn't entered mass production yet. Mine is only a prototype for testing. But Stark Group should set up a separate company to produce this kind of phone soon."

Ultraman nodded. "I'll definitely buy one when the time comes. It's too cool!"

"Hey, Tiga, time to go!"

A group of monsters called out to him from not far away. It looked like they were a small team.

But Lu Qi suddenly noticed a hermit-crab-like monster among them, as well as the little monster he was holding by the hand.

That little monster looked like his child, but the costume reminded Lu Qi of something...

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

"How is that possible? Isn't that a fictional work? No, Marvel is a fictional work too!" Lu Qi felt as though his brain had short-circuited from the situation.

Looking at the characters from one fantasy work after another around him, if all those characters had corresponding worlds, then...

Lu Qi froze for a long while before running out of the convention. After entering an alley outside, Lu Qi first entered his Shadow Dimension and found several mages practicing Dark Energy spells they had recently learned.

After greeting them, Lu Qi passed through the door on the other side leading to Kamar-Taj.

Seeing Mordo firing tiny fireballs in the square, Lu Qi grabbed him and asked, "Where is the Ancient One? I need to see her urgently."

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

Caught off guard when Lu Qi grabbed him, Mordo thought for a moment. "The Ancient One should be revising spellbooks in the tea room right now. If it's urgent, go knock directly on the door."

Lu Qi nodded and ran toward the tea room.

He stopped in front of it and knocked a few times. The door then opened on its own. The Ancient One sat at the table inside, revising a volume, with a large stack of spellbooks beside her.

"What is it? Did you suddenly need something from me?" The Ancient One carefully examined the book in her hand, wrote something in another book, and only then looked up at Lu Qi.

"I wanted to know whether it might be possible to reach other worlds through the Dark Dimension?"

The Ancient One considered it. "Of course. In fact, the various Material Worlds exist within the gaps between dimensions. Naturally, one can travel to other worlds through dimensions."

"So fictional worlds might not necessarily be worlds imagined into existence?"

The Ancient One paused, then said strangely, "You should know the answer to that. After all, isn't our world a fictional world to you? Yet look at us. We truly exist here."

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

"Of course you can, but you need the coordinates of the other world. Reaching the Dark Dimension does not mean you can simply go to other worlds."

Lu Qi nodded. "Then how do I obtain another world's coordinates?"

The Ancient One thought for a moment. "You'll have to rely on luck. Either the other dimension is connected to its world, or you obtain some relatively advanced equipment from them. Such items generally carry traces of that world's aura, which can be used to locate its World Coordinates."

As she spoke, the Ancient One gave Lu Qi a spell. It could 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.

Lu Qi accepted the spellbook, looked it over, and nodded. So that was how it worked. He wondered whether the equipment he and Mordo's group had seized before was advanced enough.

After leaving the tea room, Lu Qi headed toward the square.

Actually, the system had hinted at this question before. At the time, it had directly offered him three worlds to choose from.

When he went to conquer other dimensions in the future, he could keep an eye out. Maybe he would get to visit other worlds.

Lu Qi was somewhat excited. The Marvel World did not always have something happening, so when he was free, he could travel to other worlds. He just did not know which worlds he would visit.

Lu Qi first went to find Mordo to see whether the items they had seized last time carried World Coordinates.

After learning why Lu Qi had come, Mordo brought him to a storeroom containing the equipment left behind from the last dimensional war.

Lu Qi first inspected the equipment. It all seemed rather ordinary, but it was still worth trying.

Lu Qi took out the spellbook. The spell itself was simple: stimulate and amplify the energy within, understand its composition, then check for any energy unique to a particular world. That energy could then be used to explore its World Coordinates.

Once he understood the principle, Lu Qi directly summoned Dark Energy and followed it. There was no need to construct a spell formation or anything like that.

Lu Qi summoned Dark Energy and let it seep into the equipment, carefully stimulating the energy inside and making it reveal itself.

But clearly, this equipment contained no special energy. Most of the energy within was Dark Energy, used to protect ordinary soldiers from being assimilated by it.

Shaking his head, Lu Qi looked at the standard-issue equipment before him and recalled the sword in the Dimension Lord's hand, which had contained unusual energy. What a pity. He had failed to snatch it away back then.

That thing could probably have been used to locate another world's coordinates. What a shame.

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

Lu Qi would not actually invade other worlds or anything. It would just be tourism. Since the future Lu Qi would possess an entire Dark Dimension, he was not that interested in other worlds. He merely wanted to revisit his childhood memories from another perspective.