The value of the Titan world lay partly in its unique Iceburst Stone minerals, and partly, of course, in the root of the Power of the Titans: that bizarre Hallucigenia.
Over two thousand years ago, the first Founding Titan, Ymir, obtained the Power of the Titans precisely because she fused with the Hallucigenia.
Zenith didn't think much of the Power of the Titans itself. Aside from the Nine Titans, the rest were just monsters that relied on instinct to eat people.
However, another thing—the glowing Paths that connected the bloodlines of all Eldians and the Coordinate space—was incredibly interesting.
Immortalized through generations of bloodlines, anyone connected to the Paths could have their consciousness enter the Coordinate space, where time was practically at a standstill compared to the outside world.
Building upon this foundation, the Hallucigenia itself could even mold an administrator with immense authority over every individual carrying that bloodline.
Setting aside the side effects, wasn't this thing just a massive virtual reality online chat room?
Not just a chat room, but an online laboratory, a multiplayer online game server host, and a real-time combat notification sharing system. The strategic value of the Coordinate space was far too high; only Ymir would naively use it just to pile sand and sculpt Titans.
Annie, Little Bert, Reiner, and Grisha—who was unexpectedly discovered at the hospital—were all excellent subjects for researching the Power of the Titans. But Zenith wasn't tasteless enough to lay his hands on those kids; he could just go directly to the Coordinate space.
Ymir originally died in her thirteenth year of possessing the Power of the Titans, so all successive Titan inheritors would die at this exact time marker. Grisha was also approaching his limit; if a solution wasn't found, he would drop dead on the spot this year.
The powers of the Founding Titan and the Attack Titan that he possessed would then randomly appear in newborn Eldians.
Grisha had found a decent job at the sanatorium, working there as a paid medical resident.
In order to access more advanced medical knowledge, he had independently studied both English and Chinese. Though his days were busy, they were filled with a simple happiness.
If only for the sake of his own employee, Zenith would figure out a way to research the connection between the Hallucigenia, the Titans, and the Coordinate space. It was just that his chronic laziness had flared up, and he only found the motivation to work now that the deadline was approaching.
After all, if he didn't act soon, Grisha was going to die.
"Let's go, let's go, time to work, Serie."
Serie was currently lounging in an executive chair playing on a PSP. Hearing Zenith call her, she stored the console away using storage magic and walked over with a reluctant expression.
"Are you really not going to try learning teleportation magic again? I've studied some of the mathematics from the technological worlds. As long as you fully understand linear spaces, metric spaces, normed spaces, inner product spaces, Euclidean spaces, Hilbert spaces, and Banach spaces, using teleportation magic isn't difficult at all."
With every term Serie uttered, Zenith felt his head swell a fraction larger.
He grabbed Serie by the shoulders with both hands. "A person can do anything when they're desperate, but not math. If you don't get it, you just don't get it. Don't you always say that magic is a world of imagination? Can't you just create a magic that makes people learn math?"
The language translation magic hadn't been successfully created because no one knew exactly what kind of linguistic systems existed in other worlds.
However, Serie had taken a different approach and created a magic that allowed people to mutually understand one another, which was enough to solve their urgent needs.
As long as they had initial communication, dictionaries and even simultaneous translation machines could quickly be put in place later.
Serie pinched the bridge of her nose in exasperation. "Can you imagine yourself learning math?"
"...I can't imagine it at all."
"Forget it, pretend I never said anything. Where do you want to go this time?"
After Zenith gave a brief description, the two of them appeared out of thin air in that sandy Coordinate space.
It was still that glowing giant tree, along with that blank-faced Ymir. Zenith tried to touch her, but his hand passed right through as if phasing through thin air.
"No need to try. Although this space truly exists, aside from people like us who knew the spatial coordinates from the start, only consciousnesses can enter," Serie explained briefly. "There's nothing worth researching about that pitiful soul. I'm going to take a look at that glowing tree; you can wander around on your own."
Zenith pondered it for a moment. This probably meant she wanted him to take a stroll and stay out of her way.
Although Serie was indeed the one doing the research and there was nothing wrong with what she said, why did it feel a bit weird?
Without overthinking it, Zenith pulled out his pickaxe for the first time in a while, preparing to explore this world in his own familiar way.
After a little experimentation, Zenith followed his heart and hand-crafted a Netherite shovel. The efficiency of digging sand with a pickaxe was just too pitiful.
The perfectly square sand pit looked somewhat out of place in the vast desert, and surprisingly, the surrounding sand didn't collapse inward due to gravity.
In terms of physical laws, unless Zenith did it intentionally, the standard mechanics of the Minecraft Overworld would usually be overwritten by the reality of other worlds.
For example, liquids wouldn't have a maximum flow range, and gravity would take effect normally. But that was clearly not the case here.
This space was relatively too "weak." Even the inadvertent leakage of his aura would affect the surrounding physical laws.
Perhaps if he stayed long enough, this place might directly become a dimension attached to the Minecraft Overworld.
Digging all the way down, slowly, stone began to appear beneath the sand, and eventually even fossils.
An unexpected harvest? Zenith had already figured out the pattern for unlocking mods: familiar or iconic features of a certain world would unlock shortly after stepping into a new world.
There were also some that required Zenith to personally touch and participate in them before they would unlock.
Speaking of which, the development of the Overworld was changing with each passing day, and technological equipment was emerging endlessly. How come he hadn't even unlocked the Create mod or GregTech yet?
He glanced at the contents of the new mod, and after finding nothing useful, he casually closed it.
This mod provided quite a few naturally spawning new creatures, such as various dinosaurs and extinct ancient animals like saber-toothed tigers.
Come to think of it, there were more and more weird and wonderful species of creatures in the Overworld. He wondered how Gilgamesh and the others were doing. He should go back and take a look when he had the time.
His thoughts drifting for a moment, Zenith kept digging downward until he dug right through the ground, yet he still didn't see anything special.
Beneath the bedrock layer was actually the Void. Fortunately, Zenith could fly; otherwise, if he fell into the Void, all his equipment and experience points would probably be wiped out on the spot.
The roots of the glowing tree of Paths extended all the way to the edge of his vision in the Void, densely packed like wires in an electrical box.
Returning the way he came, and thoughtfully filling in the hole behind him, Zenith found Serie, who was still studying the glowing tree.
"Any progress?"
Hearing this, Serie let out a deep sigh. It had been less than twenty minutes in total since she entered, and he was asking for progress?
*Are you the god here, or am I?*
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