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"So… you're really a Returnee or whatever. You came back with all the powers you gained in another world…" Laura said.
"Yeah, I'm surprised you remember the term," Maria replied with a giggle.
"In my loneliness I read all your dumb novels and comics," Laura said. "Just to understand what you found so cool about them… I learned a bunch of terms. I was surprised some even featured gates, dungeons, and hunters. Just like it is now… really crazy."
"It is, right?" Maria asked. "Fiction and fantasy feel more real than ever before. In fact, the more worlds I saw, the more I realized how the entire universe runs on fiction and fantasy. It's somehow what feeds its existence."
"What?"
"Imagination and dreams… they can create worlds. No, entire universes," Maria explained. "It's what fuels worlds and reality… perhaps even the origin of Mana and Ki. Maybe they too came from somewhere where imagination and dreams manifest reality."
"…"
