Ah-choo!
Riding on his horse, Ryan sneezed, and then rubbed his nose, thinking that someone must be thinking of him.
It must be Mei, that woman, please don't have a sudden thought.
Ryan knew that Mei's vision was sometimes too far-sighted and too rational. If she evaluated that the success rate of the Pre-Civilization was very low, she might just go with the flow and deliberately leave him in the Sea of Quanta.
Just think, with his participation in the Fire Seed Plan, even if the Post-Civilization was a bunch of pigs, they could be led to take off.
With Ryan's current strength, experience, and vision, and with the assistance of Mobius and Hua, there would be no business for Schicksal and Anti-Entropy. A certain Pure Love Archon would have no chance to cause trouble, because Ryan would really use ruthless methods to eliminate all obstacles, even more thoroughly than a deranged Kevin.
"But I don't want to drag it out until the Post-Civilization, otherwise what's the point of putting in so much effort?"
"Senior brother, what are you muttering about?" Hua was riding on a horse. She had never ridden a horse before, but fortunately, the instinct of a Fusion Warrior quickly helped her learn.
"Nothing, I just don't know how Elysia and the others are doing." Ryan didn't need to explain, it would only add to the trouble.
Mobius rode up from the right side, pouting: "That fat woman is definitely heartlessly happy as always. I'd like to see her sad."
"Don't say bad things about Elysia, she must be very worried about us." Hua immediately became unhappy.
"Tsk, what kind of love potion did that fat woman feed you? In a sense, isn't she also a rival?"
"She's different from you."
How is she different? Just because she's happy all day long?
Mobius glared, feeling very unfair, and before she could retort, Ryan had already ridden his horse to block in the middle.
"Alright, alright, you just made up two hours ago, why are you starting again?" Ryan's tone was not good. These two were at loggerheads, and there was no one to mediate, leaving not much room for maneuver.
Seeing that Mobius was still not convinced, he simply raised his whip and pointed forward.
"This world bubble is quite big. We've been heading north at full speed for three days, and we've just reached the center. And it's quite wealthy, a good place for colonization."
Ryan hadn't been idle these past few days. With a biological expert by his side, he naturally conducted a detailed investigation of this world bubble.
From soil fertility to air humidity, from species characteristics to technology level, he encountered a few bandits on the way who were trying to rob them. Before they could say anything obscene, they were sent to Mobius's operating table to make a good contribution to science.
Because their warhorses were exhausted, they entered the town, and the prosperity in front of them immediately made Ryan have some thoughts.
When it came to these things, Hua was full of resentment. The technology level of this world bubble reminded her of the Western fantasy genre in online novels, and the three of them were like adventurers.
Other people's adventurers go on adventures everywhere, gather information in taverns, make friends with various heroes, and fight against all kinds of evil. Of course, a beautiful girl like me is indispensable. After a certain hard battle, she would lean into Ryan's arms and admire the magnificent scenery of the world bubble.
The fantasy lasted for a moment, and then the reality was that two scientists were collecting specimens everywhere, constantly taking notes in their notebooks. There were no heroes, only experimental subjects. And a beautiful girl like her could only wear a mask and hand over scalpels on the side, and when she discovered evil, senior brother wouldn't let her do justice.
Hey, I've never seen this kind of plot before.
Ryan didn't notice the resentment next to him. As a physicist who believed in efficiency, he didn't have time to go to a tavern to chat. To get information, he could just unleash Mobius. And compared to those fancy words, he preferred concise and accurate descriptions.
"After dissection and research, the humans in this world bubble are very normal. The error of their internal organs, blood, and immune cells are all within a reasonable range." Mobius subconsciously pushed up her glasses and answered indifferently: "I agree to use this world bubble as a backup plan. At least the natives have built towns, so we don't have to start from scratch."
At least according to the information the two of them had found, Earth's civilization would be a dimensionality reduction attack on this place. They wouldn't even need to send in Fusion Warriors. The technology gap between the two sides was at least three hundred years.
"The natives aren't the problem, what I'm worried about is the world bubble itself." Ryan rode his horse on the smooth stone road. The crowd was a stream of people, and a large number of merchant carriages were moving slowly. On both sides were a continuous line of shops.
A wheel of a merchant carriage suddenly broke, and the goods fell all over the ground. Hua subconsciously wanted to go help, but was stopped by Ryan.
"Ignore it. We're just passing through. Don't get involved with any natives."
Ryan glanced at the angry girl and shook his head firmly, only chatting with the two of them.
"The political structure of this continent is city-states, but have you noticed, they are too peaceful. Their military force is just some constables."
"Is there a problem?" This touched Mobius's knowledge blind spot.
Ryan was not only a physicist, but also a psychologist, a philosopher, and a sociologist. Recently, he had also asked Aponia for advice on some theology, so he could naturally answer.
"Of course there's a problem. Plundering and killing are human instincts. Greed is endless. If the people of this world were peaceful, we wouldn't have encountered bandits on the road."
His words made Mobius and Hua think. They didn't feel it normally, but now they suddenly realized that they had overlooked it.
Before they could think about it carefully, they heard a 'clang' sound of a bell, and a strange scene appeared in front of them.
The bustling market instantly became quiet. The men and women who were shopping with their children, the shouting merchants, and the merchant teams riding by, everyone closed their mouths, everyone knelt on one knee, clasped their hands together, closed their eyes, and faced the sky.
This didn't need anyone to remind them. It was like it was rooted deep in the human genes. The bell sound was a signal, no matter what you were doing, you would do the same thing.
This is... praying? But who are they praying to?
Mobius was a little confused for a while. As a scientist, she hated this kind of supernatural stuff the most, just like the belief in Honkai, which was just a delusion caused by ignorance.
But she and Hua were immediately pulled off their horses by Ryan. After they reacted, they quickly made the same gesture.
Is this a natural faith?
Ryan had asked Aponia for advice after all. While clasping his hands together, he secretly looked around. According to theological theories, prayer needs a medium.
It could be a statue of a god, or some kind of totem. The so-called church was born from this. But these people were only praying to the sky, and Ryan knew that there was no god, no starry sky, only the endless Sea of Quanta outside.
There was indeed something strange.
Ryan narrowed his eyes. He remembered the information given by the constable, which didn't say who they were praying to, but one thing was that their faith was extremely devout, as if their wishes could be responded to.
"Did you feel anything unusual?"
"I'm not a mental-perception-type Fusion Warrior, you have to ask Aponia or Su."
"It seems that this world bubble is not as simple as we thought."
"Humans will classify everything they can't understand as a gift from 'God', what's so strange about that."
Mobius was indeed a firm materialist and still scoffed at it.
Ryan didn't argue with her. After about a minute, he heard another bell sound, and that strange scene appeared again.
The merchants' shouting, the children's playing, and the rumble of horse hooves sounded again. The world just now was like a paused button, and now after pressing the play button, everything returned to normal.
The three of them, who had just been kneeling on one knee, had to quickly get back on their horses. Fortunately, all three of them had superhuman reflexes, otherwise they would have been discovered.
"Senior brother, why do I feel so creeped out." Hua stared at her surroundings vigilantly, feeling that everyone could turn into a monster.
"I told you this world bubble isn't simple."
"Tsk, I think it's very normal, at least there are no signs." Mobius continued to be stubborn. She had dissected several people and indeed found no problems, not even mild mutations.
"Then let's wait and see. We won't go north for now."
"Where to?"
"The largest city-state in the center of this continent—the City of Atrophy."
...
"This place is very dangerous, it should be the Sea of Quanta that the Thousand Herrschers mentioned."
Almost at the same time, in the north of the continent, it was still rich, but at the foot of the snow-capped mountains, the town had fallen into dead silence. Many humans had no life fluctuations, but they still maintained the posture they had before they died—
Kneeling on one knee, hands clasped together.
The Herrscher of Stars did not stay on these humans for too long. These past few days, he had also figured out the situation. Thanks to the information infiltration of the Herrscher of the Masses, they also had some of the Fire Moth's research reports on the Sea of Quanta. Their absolute rationality also prevented them from panicking. The attitude of treating everything with science was even better than Ryan's.
"So that human threw us in here to let this environment eliminate us?" The blood-red figure walked in the center of the pile of corpses, looking unsurprised.
"It should be to provide a fair battlefield, at least a cage. How much energy can you absorb?"
"Very little. It would take 'years' to recover to my peak state, but this place is also a cage for them."
Whether it's a Herrscher or a Fusion Warrior, they are all fighters of the imaginary side. Of course, it's not as convenient as on Earth, but the Blood Herrscher, who had the authority of Devouring, obviously knew more.
He knelt on one knee, grabbed a handful of soil, and the memory of farming in the monastery told him that this stuff was so fertile that if you threw in a seed, you would soon have a good harvest.
"This place is not as simple as the world bubble that humans talk about. I can feel that this soil has a kind of energy that I can't absorb, as if it has been mixed with some rules. It's ridiculous, is this the kind of place that humans are looking for as a refuge?"
The Herrscher of Stars didn't answer. He also felt that something was wrong. This familiar feeling was more like an instinct for Herrschers, and they didn't need to use logic to think about it.
His eyes scanned the corpses, passed over the exquisite huts, and saw the rich fields and forests outside the town, and finally stopped on the blue sky.
This is... the feeling of a farm?