I can still remember that day.
The late September of 2023.
A certain manga's 236th chapter came out. The protagonist's teacher is fighting a strong villain. Everyone is expecting the teacher to win. That changed when chapter 236 came out.
Pure disbelief is what many felt. People did not believe it when they saw the leaks.
The teacher got turned into a broken kit kat.
The moral of that story is:
Never let your guard down.
Buzz-!
Swoosh-!
A huge wave of dark blue liquid came crashing down towards me.
Zoom-!
With a step, I went towards the back of the wave… only to see another wave crashing down.
Zoom-!
Sou-!
Five steps later, I found myself in front of a huge skeletal giant.
For god knows what reason, this Tlaloc appeared inside this space!
Cling-!
Bzzt-!
I swung down my sword. A swathe of multicolored light flooded the skeletal giant.
The [Sword Light Refraction] is enough to deal with it.
Crunch-!
I bit down on the final peak third grade mind restorative pill I have. I did not have the time to appreciate its medicinal essence as I used the [Cloud Seeking Steps].
Behind, I saw another wave of monsters appear. A quick headcount reveals they are exactly five hundred.
Their appearances and abilities varied, but they possessed the same strength as the previous wave: 1 Golden Core, 15 Purple Mansion, 200 Foundation Establishment, and 284 Qi Refining. All of them are fake cultivators, so they are more like honkai beasts and a single Herrscher.
After I finished off the first one, I thought it was over.
It is not.
Another wave of monsters emerged. It took a minute for them to come out of their frozen state. After that, they began barraging me with one attack after another. I had no choice but to finish them with a stronger attack. I thought it would destroy their resurrection mechanism.
It did not.
I decided to conserve my strengths since the third wave. I opted to use my Herrscher Authority and [Blade Mantra] to attack. That alleviated my spiritual qi consumption. In turn, my body and mind suffered more.
No matter which mode of attack I choose, I will consume mental power and physical strength. I emptied out my reserves of third grade mind restorative pills. Fortunately, I can use the demon beasts' meat to restore my body's consumption.
It was fine with immortal cultivation, but when I exhibited my Herrscher Authority, the next Golden Core equivalent copied my authority!
Fortunately, it lacked a lot of aspects when it copied my authority. The best it can reach is absolute zero.
With that, I used my Herrscher Authority more. My finer control defeated it every time.
This unending treatment took two days. I analyzed a lot about this space.
My combat capabilities dropped to 70% due to fatigue. I am always thinking of how to defeat them more efficiently.
This "crisis" turned out to be an opportunity to hone my combat skills. My enemies are always defeated with overwhelming force.
When I used my body to fight them, the digestion of the drugs (i.e., demon beast meat) became faster.
From that moment on, my physical body became a perpetual machine that fought monsters with nothing but a sword and physical force.
…
I need to act soon.
I can't just undergo a training arc while the situation everywhere else are unknown.
I am positive this extremely strange Bubble World is where Seele is. These unseen monsters, coupled with the power to continuously resurrect them, is not something shown within the game.
If not, there are only three beings capable of it.
Two of them, Kevin and Sa, have the lowest possible chances.
Kevin's power is spent during the last 1,500 years inside the Bikini Bottom. His greatest strength lies in his 'opportunity' to activate Prometheus' backdoor (Number 17) and steal a portion of the Cocoon's power to kickstart the Project STIGMA.
That is why I let them steal Chiyou's corpse. I did not intend to corner him too much, lest he might do something drastic—something far beyond my expectations.
It is a different matter for the Judgement of Shamash, however. He is destined not to get it… since it is inside my storage ring.
Giving away something does not mean I will give up everything.
As for Sa, she does not dare to cause too much trouble so long as Kevin and the Cocoon are there.
Then, there is only one option left.
The Sea of Quanta itself.
It is an entity on-par with the Imaginary Tree.
This is a far-fetched guess, but it is also the most reasonable one intuitively.
As to why Seele got kidnapped…
Wait a minute.
This reminds me of the yin-based sect plotline...
The sect's elder (Sea of Quanta) kidnaps the female lead (Seele) with strong yin/ice/water talents. The protagonist is off to grow stronger until he manages to reunite with her…
…
I can't carry on.
Treating myself like a protagonist and whatnot...
My narcissism is half-baked compared to Madam Herta's.
Sou-!
All these idle thoughts are but a flash in a pan. My current brain and mental power is enough to finish hours' worth of thoughts in a single second.
A final verdict came to my mind.
If I cannot find a way to break the deadlock, I will use the Judgement of Shamash's maximum output. The only problem is my unfamiliarity.
If that still doesn't work…
Burning my lifespan, it is.
*****
Kiana's journey into the Sea of Quanta is not smooth. She reached Shi Tian's previous position in less than two hours.
After that…
She found nothing.
Fortunately, Einstein handed her over a detection device. There are only 30% chances of it working as intended. The technology to observe the Sea of Quanta cannot be done without the use of a Herrscher Core.
Unfortunately, they had to give the Second Divine Key away to pacify the unstable factor, Otto. Fortunately, Kiana is the Second Herrscher. She has more chances of tracking down the two than anybody else.
Without a choice, Kiana went from one place to another. She saw interesting Bubble Worlds.
These worlds are "possibilities" that failed to be actualized, hence they fall from the Imaginary Tree to the Sea of Quanta.
For once, Kiana saw a Bubble World where everyone she knew is at school. Her aunt, Theresa, is the principal. Seele and Bronya are her classmates.
Shi Tian…
He is the foreign exchange student who came to the other class. His weak and sickly constitution did not diminish his handsomeness one bit.
He ended up becoming the boyfriend of Raiden Mei, the school's most beautiful flower.
Kiana, who is the daughter of the yakuza's head, planned to hog Shi Tian all to herself.
Then, the typical plot of a blackmailing + cheating plot occurred. She forced herself onto him in the stock room and…
"You don't want Mei-san to know about this, right?"
"NO! That is definitely not me!"
Kiana flew away in rage and embarrassment. The 18+ things they did overlapped with Kiana's wet dreams. The image of his thing flashed every now and then.
The Sea of Quanta is responsible for an accurate 1:1 replication of real things. It revealed that was bigger compared to what she imagined!
In an attempt to distract herself, she put her thoughts on the "plot".
Kiana knew who Raiden Mei was. She is the girl whom Shi Tian saved a month ago. That was the time she got threatened the most.
Without being a cultivator, Raiden Mei's beauty is top-notch. Even Kiana acknowledged her beauty.
Now that she started cultivating a month ago, Kiana thanked her smart self for taking action early.
No matter how beautiful Mei becomes, Shi Tian will always be hers!
"Huh..? This?!"
In the middle of her journey, Kiana came across another Bubble World. It is the same plot as before. Shi Tian ended up with Seele this time. Then, Kiana comes to snatch him away with great force.
Every Bubble World has nearly the same plot.
A Bubble World with him and Sin Mal…
'That snarky girl likes him..?!'
A Bubble World with him and Raiden Mei…
'Again..?!'
A Bubble World with him and Fu Hua…
'How did she..!'
A Bubble World with him and Aunt Theresa..?!?!
"He is uber into big breasts!"
Kiana refused the possibility of the last part… until she saw a grown-up version of Theresa. It was a far cry from her elementary-schooler self. Her weapons are as big as the Oath of Judas she carried on her back.
Then, the Bubble World with Bronya stumped Kiana the most. The most incredulous thing was her grown-up self.
Kiana's mouth went agape when she saw her extremely curvy figure. Her waist-to-hip proportion is godly. Her office pants highlighted her curvy butt. Her twin weapons of destruction felt like it was about to pop out of her buttoned-up long sleeves.
'Is she still the same Bronya I know?!'
Kiana's mind stopped working.
'The reason why she isn't growing up…'
Turns out, her greatest (potential) enemy lies hidden in plain sight!
Fortunately, the Tuna acted fast. She patted her chest out of relief. She moved away to the next Bubble World.
Just when she saw one with him and Himeko on it, Kiana saw a woman appear out of nowhere. Her vigilance was heightened until she recognized who she was.
"Miss Schrodinger?"
"..!"
"Doctor Tesla and Doctor Einstein told me about you!"
Like a pie in the sky, the "helper" Kiana was looking for finally appeared.
*****
A/N: For Theresa's grown up reference, look up her "Lunar Vow" battlesuit. You'll see where I am getting at ;)