Sea of Quanta.
The two of them had basically finished researching the glass-like world bubble. After thinking for a moment, Nolan said to Vita:
"Come to think of it, it's about time. I still have some things to take care of, so I need to head back for now. How about it? Since we've met, would you like to visit my place?"
Although she already had a fair amount of affection toward him, directly asking to visit her world might still raise her guard.
So Nolan chose to do the opposite and invite her instead.
If Vita agreed, he could build even more affection. If she didn't, he could see whether she would politely return the gesture and invite him to her place.
If she did invite him, he would reluctantly agree, making it feel natural rather than abrupt. If she didn't, he would have to think of another way.
If all else failed, he would have no choice but to resort to some less-than-moral methods.
"Visit your place? I am quite interested, but I don't have time recently. Let's talk about it another day. Anyway, we'll meet again here."
Although Vita had some goodwill toward Nolan, they had only just met, so she naturally wouldn't rashly agree to follow him to an unfamiliar place.
Seeing that Vita had no intention of inviting him to Earth either, Nolan simply nodded lightly and disappeared on the spot.
In reality, he had only concealed himself using the "Void Star Sea" and had not actually left.
Nolan planned to secretly follow Vita when she departed, letting her take him to the Earth of Honkai Impact 3rd. No matter what, he needed to plant an avatar there first and unlock the new map.
To ensure nothing went wrong, Nolan compressed space around himself, shrinking to a size smaller than dust. Then he attached himself to Vita's head, merging into a single strand of her hair.
This way, no matter how she returned, unless she somehow left her hair behind, it would be impossible for her to shake him off.
Nolan's concealment ability was extremely high. Even Vita failed to notice anything unusual. After he "left," she didn't linger for long and soon departed as well.
Rising continuously from the Sea of Quanta, Vita quickly returned to the real world. The surroundings looked like a laboratory, though she was the only one there.
Nolan didn't immediately detach from her hair. Instead, he expanded the "Void Star Sea" and carefully sensed the surrounding environment.
He discovered that outside seemed to be a school, and all the students were girls. From their conversations, he heard mentions of "St. Freya."
Nolan immediately understood. This place was likely St. Freya Academy, the school run by Schicksal on the Earth of Honkai Impact 3rd to train Valkyries.
It was also where the main characters, Kiana, Mei, and Bronya, studied.
After confirming that this was indeed the Earth of Honkai Impact 3rd, Nolan finally detached from Vita's hair and quietly slipped outside.
He then summoned a "Sword God of Lumine," leaving this avatar behind as an anchor point for himself to return at any time. After that, Nolan returned to his Wonderland Space.
Now wasn't the right time to wander around the Honkai Impact 3rd Earth. If Vita discovered that he had secretly followed her here, it would affect their relationship.
Once their affection level increased further, it wouldn't matter anymore.
The two days passed quickly. During this time, Nolan's main task was searching for world bubbles within the Sea of Quanta.
Because he focused entirely on searching, he found many new world bubbles. It was just a bit unfortunate that he didn't run into Vita again, so he couldn't farm her affection.
Through the "Sword God of Lumine," Nolan checked on the Honkai Impact 3rd Earth and found that Vita was currently studying the data she had obtained from the glass-like world bubble.
At this point, the glass-like world bubble had already been formed from the fusion of ninety world bubbles!
The cultivation progress Nolan gained per second once surged to as high as 300,000 points. Even after dropping slightly, it was still at 200,000 points per second.
Because of this, in just two days, he advanced from Level 176 to Level 180:
[Level: Lv.180 (1,056,222 → 220,000+/9,000,000,000)]
Having just reached Level 180, after a brief moment of comprehension and opening his status panel again, he had already gained over a million more cultivation progress.
At the same time, upon reaching Level 180, the panel displayed a prompt for acquiring a racial trait:
[Your level has increased to Lv.180. Your evolution has reached a new stage. You may obtain one "Racial Specialty." Please choose.]
[Primordial Infinite Freedom: Incomprehensible, indescribable. Transcends matter, transcends rules. Unbound by form, chaotic and formless.]
Looking at the strange description of the first option, Nolan briefly sensed its actual effect and realized it would transform him into a being without a fixed form, a chaotic and formless existence.
Such a being would transcend rules, immune to all laws, extremely special.
However, Nolan immediately ruled out this option. After all, it was another specialty that would make him no longer human.
[All Phenomena as Dream and Illusion: The world is like a dream, dreams like purity. All things follow the will, manifesting as imagined.]
The second trait was quite interesting. It would grant Nolan a divine ability to turn everything in existence into a dream, and also turn dreams into reality.
In simple terms, it allowed him to freely convert things between reality and dream states, an extremely powerful ability.
Nolan then looked at the third option and found it to be an ability that sacrificed his own soul, using rules to annihilate the target's soul as well:
[Severed Heart, Severed Soul, Severed All Beings: Sever oneself, end all beings. An unavoidable mutual annihilation.]
Nolan had no interest in such a one-for-one ultimate trade. After weighing everything, he naturally chose the second racial specialty.
Today, he planned to go to Fontaine to raise Chiori and the others' affection. As he teleported over, he also began experimenting with this newly acquired ability.
In practice, he simply took out a pocket watch and shifted it back and forth between reality and dream states, familiarizing himself with the finer details of the ability.
Come to think of it, this ability was quite useful for defense. He could turn any enemy attack into a dream. Combined with spatial control to keep attacks from approaching him, it essentially allowed him to remain invincible.
This divine ability had many more applications that could be developed over time. Coincidentally, Nahida and Greater Lord Rukkhadevata also possessed powers related to dreams, so he could exchange insights with them in the future.
Just like that, as Nolan walked while experimenting with his new ability, it didn't take long before he arrived at Chiori's Boutique.
Through the glass display window outside, he could see Chiori, Navia, and Chevreuse inside. In addition, there was also a young woman with golden hair.
Judging by how harmoniously she was chatting with them, she was likely not an ordinary customer.
(End of Chapter)
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