Meanwhile, on the other side.
The agony of having her avatar shattered by that one powerful sword strike was something even Sa, a behemoth rooted in the Sea of Quanta for countless years, could not ignore.
Its massive body involuntarily breached the "surface of the sea," confronting the brute who had harmed it. After a brief recovery, it submerged itself once again.
Its rising and sinking caused a tremendous disturbance.
Perhaps it was that, or perhaps the pain from Kevin's sword was simply too soul-piercing; it made Sa's divine avatars, which scurried about the Sea of Quanta at its will, all feel a distinct anomaly at that moment.
A woman with long, grayish-white hair was walking through one world bubble after another, as she always did.
This was her job as an "Agent"—to select suitable world bubbles, implant the rules of the nucleus within them, and cultivate them into qualified "farms."
Then, after they matured, she would harvest them round after round until the "farm" was completely drained and met an early demise. Then she would move on to harvest other "farms."
And the "fruits" she harvested were the energies accumulated during the complete cycle of a world bubble's birth, development, and eventual destruction. Sa used this as "food"...
It saw itself as a god, viewing the Sea of Quanta as its hunting ground and the world bubbles—born from and destined to perish in the Sea—as its prey.
It cultivated one agent after another to patrol the hunting grounds, select prey, sow the rules, and eliminate threats, day after day.
For reasons unknown, this woman, who had picked up the mud-stained name "Vita"—a name long abandoned by Sa—from the ground and treasured it as her own, had thought today would be just another ordinary day.
While taking a break from her busy schedule, staring blankly at a flower bed, she suddenly heard Sa's unusual voice by her ear.
"Sa, your Agent hears your will..."
Vita was terrified.
In all these years, she had never heard Sa make such a sound, one that seemed to be a mix of pain and a mournful cry.
She didn't know what had happened and thought perhaps her "slacking off" had incurred Sa's displeasure.
But that can't be right?
Amidst her fear, Vita was also deeply confused. From what she knew of Sa, It never cared about such trivial matters!
"..."
Sa did not speak a second time, but Vita didn't dare to even breathe. She just stood there with her head bowed, awaiting instructions.
She knew that as long as she put on this frightened and respectful act, Sa would surely descend Its will again so that she could continue her work. Though she didn't know what had happened, she had to find out why Sa was acting so abnormally.
This wasn't because she had any ambition to usurp It, but simply her long-standing method of self-preservation.
Only by completely understanding "Sa's will" could she maintain her own consciousness and protect this tiny bit of insignificant freedom for as long as possible under Its will's shadow.
Even if this so-called "freedom" was merely being able to take a few seconds to look at flowers still glistening with morning dew before personally destroying a world...
The reason she looked at it wasn't because she found it beautiful, but simply because she wanted to. That was all.
"It does not concern you... Agent."
After what felt like an eternity but was only a few minutes, the dead, lifeless voice of the "god," like rotten wood buried deep in mud, finally sounded in Vita's ear again.
"Continue your work."
The tone of the voice was as mechanical and cold as ever, without a single trace of being "alive."
"Yes."
Sa's emotionless reply brought Vita a slight sense of relief. It seemed she wasn't being reprimanded for a work-related mistake.
Yet, it couldn't help but pique her curiosity further. She asked, "Could it be that something unexpected happened on Phosphorus?"
For a second, the tiny, childlike figure on that planet flashed through her mind, but only for a second. She just wanted to satisfy her curiosity.
"It is not related to Phosphorus, Agent."
Sa's voice was still as cold and mechanical as ever, like an AI completely devoid of emotion.
"From now on, you are forbidden from approaching the sea near the third planet. Do not sow any rules in the world bubbles there either."
It was actually issuing a warning to its own agent.
"The third planet!?"
Vita was shocked. She thought of a possibility, a possibility that Sa had been trying to avoid, one might even say feared—
"Could it be that the [Abyss] has already discovered us? Its power can now extend into the sea?!"
"The Sea of Quanta is not a place the Abyss can reach," Sa's voice said. "It is merely a mortal who has taken refuge in the Sea of Quanta. There is no need to provoke a meaningless conflict."
Although it had been just a fleeting glimpse, with Sa's omniscient eye, it had understood the cause and effect of the incident the moment it saw Lin Wei and Su.
It was truly just a bizarre, ridiculous accident.
Who could have known that some things could be so coincidental?
Who could have known that the unknown, weak being who had peeked at it from the Sea of Quanta fifty thousand years ago using some authority, was actually living in the same world as itself?
In a sense, they could even be considered "neighbors."
How could one even begin to reason with that!
If it were tens of thousands, or even thousands of years ago, when Its humanity had not yet been completely stripped away and It could still feel dissatisfaction, anger, and disgust, It might have relentlessly pursued the matter, making these mortals who had offended a god pay the price.
But now, with its [humanity] almost completely washed away and diluted, Sa saw it as an even more meaningless endeavor to waste precious power and time on such trivial matters.
Besides, that place was near the third planet, that pitiful, sole surviving planet of life in the solar system besides them.
The terrifying Abyss that had once swallowed Its planet was currently raging there.
If It were to attract Its attention because of this, wouldn't the last sliver of hope for [Venus] be completely extinguished as well?
"What? A mortal?"
Vita was even more shocked. She thought of an incredible possibility and blurted out, "Could it be that, Sa, you were just... fighting with this mortal?"
The moment she said it, she regretted it. This was not a matter a lowly "Agent" was qualified to ask about.
"That mortal... is very powerful... Perhaps he has already walked a path similar to mine..." Sa said. "I had a branch severed by him. It will take an era of recuperation to mend. Therefore, there is no need for further conflict..."
It was unclear whether it was because Sa's humanity had been too thoroughly stripped away, or if It had simply gone stir-crazy from being a NEET for too many years.
In any case, It revealed this fact, which would be fatal for a "god," without any concealment whatsoever!
Perhaps It truly wanted Vita to understand the gravity of the situation, so she would take its warning to heart...
"Wh—"
Vita felt as if she had never been so repeatedly shocked since the day she was born. After all, her "god" had actually bled. Even if this god was a counterfeit, the fact remained utterly horrifying.
But amidst the horror and trembling, Vita inexplicably felt her heart begin to race like never before. She suddenly realized—could this be an opportunity?
"Sa, we can't do this!" Vita blurted out excitedly, her brain working at maximum overdrive to weave a reason compelling enough to persuade her "boss."
"Sa, each of your branches takes tens of thousands of years of immense energy to grow! If we just discard it, how long will it take to recover?"
Vita said with an urgent expression, "Sa, you've worked so hard for so long, wasn't it all to one day accumulate enough energy to connect to a Narrative Anchor before the Abyss discovers you, thereby replacing the Finality and allowing our... your past civilization to be reborn?"
"A millennium, ten millennia... it's so long, long enough for a new generation to go from the Stone Age to the vast cosmos! Sa, if the Abyss truly discovers us during that long time, won't all your hard work have been for nothing?"
She racked her brains, desperately trying to paint a picture of the immense harm this loss would cause, all to find a possible opportunity for herself.
"Mm, you are correct, Agent."
Sa was successfully persuaded. It issued a brand new, unprecedented directive to her.
"Go and retrieve the remains I have lost."
Its agent had a point. To just let it be decomposed and devoured by the Sea of Quanta, letting its long years of effort turn to nothing, the loss was indeed too great. It was worth making a small effort for.
"Yes, your Agent obeys your will, Sa!"
Vita desperately suppressed the excitement welling up in her heart, trying to control her facial muscles to prevent any obvious changes.
"Then..."
In her view, since she was undertaking such an important mission, it wouldn't be too much for Sa to grant her a little extra power, right?
And so, Vita closed her eyes slightly, waiting in anticipation for the wonderful feeling of "power surging through her body"...
But in the next second, she was stunned to find that a large portion of the power and authority in her body had been drained away. She didn't feel any power, only a wave of weakness.
....?
"This..."
Vita panicked a little. Had her intentions been too obvious and been discovered by Sa?
But in the next second, Sa's dead, rotten-wood-like voice sounded in her ear again.
"Go."
"..."
Vita couldn't help but feel a little deflated. She understood now. Sa really didn't want to stir up trouble this time.
Perhaps in Sa's view, it was just a matter of retrieving a lost item. There was no need for any fighting or destroying anything. In that case, what did she need so much power for?
Comparatively, making the agent less conspicuous was clearly more valuable. At the same time, this also served as a small warning—you had better act cautiously and not do anything unnecessary, or even dangerous.
And so, Vita's "proposal" had just been approved, and before she could even celebrate, she was "rewarded" with a major nerf...
Having tried to be clever only to end up losing out, Vita had no power to resist. She could only accept her bad luck and force a smile.
"Yes, your Agent obeys your will, Sa..."
Can't be helped. The life of a worker is just this humble...
...
On the other side.
The raging, violent tsunami of energy gradually subsided. Lin Wei, who had been caught within it, felt like he had just had a nightmare: on a highway with hundreds of lanes, he was being hit back and forth by countless speeding dump trucks.
The unlucky him was sent flying helplessly through the air, shouting indignantly and powerlessly:
"Is this ever going to end?!"
Then, he was immediately hit back and forth by more dump trucks...
Finally, just as Lin Wei felt he was starting to get used to the feeling of being hit, and the dump trucks in his dream finally began to dwindle, he slowly woke up.
"Ugh..."
Although Lin Wei's consciousness was still hazy upon waking, he subconsciously lifted his arms and moved his legs. Good, although I ache all over, it seems there are no broken bones and no suffocating feeling of being unable to breathe.
"Not a big problem!" Lin Wei thought with a bit of grim humor as he slowly opened his eyes.
Where is this?
As far as the eye could see, it was a bizarre, kaleidoscopic world. There was no sky, no ground. The objects he could see were incomprehensible.
One moment it was a car, the next it was a big tree. A little girl was running silently before him one second, and the next she had turned into a cloud of mist and dissipated without a trace...
Everything appeared like a phantom and disappeared like an illusion. Or rather, they were illusions to begin with, because this was—the Sea of Quanta.
Only the black box that constantly circled him, occasionally nudging his cheek, was the only thing that brought him a sense of reality.
Now fully awake, Lin Wei slowly opened his hand, and Pandora landed in his palm. At this point, he had recalled everything and understood why he had ended up in this predicament.
"You're awake?"
Yae Sakura's voice came from his side. Her usually cool voice carried genuine joy, but also an undeniable exhaustion.
Lin Wei turned his head and saw Yae Sakura, a few meters away, just sheathing her blade. Two translucent Honkai beasts were dissipating beside her, but in the distance, more similar monsters were condensing out of thin air.
These are probably "quantum shadows," right? Lin Wei thought with a flicker of understanding.
"Sorry, Sakura. Thank you for protecting me."
Lin Wei struggled to his feet, looking apologetically at Yae Sakura's face, which was etched with fatigue and even beaded with sweat.
He pointed a finger at the non-existent sky and gave a wry smile.
"A single drop of water from the Sea of Quanta really does fall like a mountain on a person, huh..."