Although the voice said another hundred billion of years needed for my rebirth to complete. It felt like just a moment had passed.
Then again, I lack any sensation and perception. Naturally, I couldn't feel the passage of time at all.
Frankly, I felt no difference between my body during and after my rebirth.
The only new difference is now I can 'see' things as if a blindfold had been lifted from my vision and my body is just a formless clump of mass like a galaxy made out of nebula floating somewhere beyond the realm of existence.
None of those are important right now.
As my rebirth had finally completed. I can finally begin my Isekai journey across the anime and game verse.
But before I could, my Ego halted my hasty actions and explained a few important things to me.
***
First and foremost, understand this: even an Outer God such as yourself requires sustenance.
Not crude nourishment like food, but metaphysical energy—energy born from the emotions of intelligent beings.
The greater a being's strength, and the more extreme its emotions, the more potent the energy produced. Among all emotional sources, faith is the most valuable. After all, you are a god, and faith is the purest nourishment for existence of your nature.
This energy serves two purposes. First, it fuels the growth and maintenance of your True Body. Second, faith itself shapes and stabilizes your divinity and authority, defining what kind of god you become.
Thus, the strength of those who worship you matters greatly, for it determines not only the quantity of energy you receive, but also its quality.
***
That concludes the whole explanation.
With this requirement, it narrows down the kind of world I will descend into.
A peaceful slice of life type worlds is the first to be excluded.
Not that such a world lacks the emotional energy to harvest.
Just look at any modern setting urban world. There is plenty of intense emotional energy to harvest from people. However, emotional intensity isn't the only factor I must consider but also the faith of the people.
Faith in the modern urban world is often very lacking and the type of faith is also another factor to consider as faith will affect the type of authority and divinity I receive.
"So, a world with disaster and must have plenty of strong people…" I ponder while mentally rubbing my chin in contemplation.
The immediate one that comes to mind is any xianxia cultivation world.
Plenty of cultivators with high power levels and populations are always overly inflated. Not to mention the constant strife and conflict mean there's no shortage of big harvests.
But. That also means the danger level is quite high as the power ceiling of those worlds is often very high.
Perhaps in the future if my power is strong enough then I might put those worlds into consideration. But definitely not possible for now.
"What about the Honkai Impact 3 world?" The Ego suddenly chimed in and offered a deeper explanation.
The power level at the initial stages of Honkai Impact 3 world is rather low and the ceiling of this world is very high at the end especially with the Herrschers.
Besides, the Divine Keys are an easily accessible and viable source of power boost which can quickly increase his power level to survive to the later stage of this world's future.
The Ego even outlines the advantages such as easily recruitable followers with high potentials, obtainable powerful authority from the Herrscher's Core and my prior knowledge about the plot as I used to play this game.
In short, it's a very newbie friendly world with a high potential ceiling and lots of good loot.
After a brief moment of thought, I agree with Ego and choose this world for my first stop.
———
Somewhere in Siberia.
"Are you sure this will work?" I ask Ego while swaggering through the hallways of Babylon Lab on my paws in search of a certain future purple puffer fish.
Yes, you heard that right. I mentioned 'on my paws' because currently, my avatar assume the form of a black cat as I strode through the cold and empty hallway of Babylon Lab.
Still, this place build like a damn maze that even with my limited omnipresence, it took me a long while before I arrive at the holding cells of thet test subjects.
You might ask, why go through all this hassle instead of just teleporting to Sirin since I can easily pinpoint her location?
Well, my control of my power is rather crude. I'm a newborn after all and my method of spatial transfer is to directly rip through space.
Such act of tearing through space is rather conspicuous and I harbor no doubt that the Babylon Lab have devices that can sense the spatial disturbance.
Even Ego confirmed my thought.
So, I'm just playing safe and move through an alternate mirror dimension that overlap reality just to evade the surveillance devices.
Normally, no normal human can see me. Yet, currently, a pair of golden lifeless eyes seems to had caught my presence from behind the cell's bar.
The lifeless and dull eyes regained it's luster slightly as the emaciated girl in white rags lift her head up from her knee and stared straight at me.
The girl look disbelievingly at my form, wanting to call me closer but also fear that her sudden advance might scared me off.
So, the two of us locked in a strange stand off staring at one another.
She hesitated to make the first move while I could only maintain my act.
After a minute passed and nothing happened, I could only helplessly make the first move.
"Meow!"
"Shhh!"
Sirin quickly pressed a finger on her mouth to signal me to hush my tone to prevent alerting the patrolling guards.
To maintain the act of a curious cat accidentally wandering into the lab, I tilt my head to express my confusion and move closer to her cell.
Although, I doubt this act would work normally since a clearly domesticated cat wouldn't normally wander around in this frozen Siberia. But Sirin clearly didn't find the presence of a cat inside a highly protected and hidden lab suspicious.
Anyway, I came all the way here without a clear plan in mind at all and thought to wing everything on the go.
But judging that most of the cells in this room are empty, I can be certain that the present timeline is at that point where Sirin is at the verge of turning into a Herrscher.
"Little kitty. Come closer…"
Sirin slowly crawled closer to the cell's bar to lure me in and I can see from my position, her arm filled with needle marks and faint traces left behind by Honkai Corruption.
Compared to the other three girls locked up in this room. Sirin is in a remarkably better state since she can still move while the other three are literally at death's door with severe Honkai Corruption.
"Meow"
I played along and moved closer to her cell, lured to her dainty hand extended out from her cell to pet my fur.
Once she touched me, she carefully and gently pulled me into her embrace before retreating into a corner of her cell.
"Hmn… how did you end up here, little kitty?" Sirin asked curiously and eagerly at her new furry companion.
"Meow."
"Hehe. Silly me to expect you to talk."
She smiled and chuckled at herself while playing with my paws, happy to have a companion after a long solitude since her last friend had died months ago.
"Actually… I can."
I replied with a mischievous grin on my face. As much grin a cat could make, before quickly pulling her along into the mirror dimension.
Her fingers playing with my paws stopped abruptly as her expression froze and then…
"Huh…?"
"Kyaaah!"
I was thrown slightly into the air when she suddenly shoved me away and huddled into the corner like she had seen a ghost.
Meanwhile, I did a double flip before landing with a feline grace on the floor and locked eyes with her, trying my best to hold back my mirth.
"Meow?" I feign innocence.
—————