Chapter 4: Hey! What Are You Doing? I'm Not Still Asleep in Penacony, Am I?
Miles away, beneath the blazing sun of Natlan, Lumine swiped through the holographic announcement panel hovering in her vision. After reading Belle's energetic messages, she crouched against the dusty trail, her fingers brushing against the warm earth before closing around a jagged, unremarkable stone. Focusing her mind, she willed the rock into the [Group Storage].
A soft hum vibrated in the air. The weight in her palm vanished instantly.
'So it isn't an illusion,'Lumine mused, brushing the residual dust from her gloves.'This chat group is actually real.'
Floating just over her shoulder, Paimon tilted her head, her starry cape fluttering in the dry breeze. She scratched her cheek, thoroughly bewildered. "Lumine? That was just a boring old rock, not some super rare ore. It doesn't have any collection value, and you definitely can't cook it! Why did you just make it disappear?"
A faint smile touched Lumine's lips. She patiently broke down the mechanics of the mysterious chat group, explaining the sudden announcements and the storage feature to her floating companion. Inwardly, a spark of genuine excitement bubbled up. The system was incredibly practical. Not only could she stave off boredom by chatting with people from entirely different universes, but she had also just scored a secondary spatial inventory. Sure, her innate power from beyond the stars already granted her a handy subspace pocket, but what kind of seasoned adventurer would ever say no to extra bag space?
Shifting her focus back to the glowing blue interface, Lumine checked the logs.
[Administrator Belle]: "Lumine, can regular members invite people into the group? Or is it just us admins? I really want to invite my brother!"
[Administrator Lumine]: "Oh, right. The invitation feature."
Glancing up, Lumine watched Paimon zip ahead, already scanning the horizon for the next food stall. A fond amusement warmed her chest. 'Paimon would lose her mind if she joined this group,'she thought.'She never stops rambling about tasting delicacies from other worlds.' Tapping the holographic keyboard, she sent her reply.
[Administrator Lumine]: "Of course, that shouldn't be a problem. I want to invite Paimon in, too. But we still have one administrator who hasn't spoken a single word yet. Let's wait until she wakes up and discuss it together before we start adding people."
[Administrator Belle]: "Oh, right! Let me check the member list. Why is this Stelle person still sleeping? I completely forgot we had a third admin!"
[Administrator Belle]: "Anyway, Lumine, can you tell me more about what your world is like? I'm super curious about how things work outside of New Eridu!"
[Administrator Lumine]: "I'd love to. I noticed there's a photo function in the group interface. I'll snap some pictures of the scenery here in Natlan for you later. But in exchange, you have to tell me all about this New Eridu of yours."
[Administrator Belle]: "Deal! Deal! Prepare to have your mind blown!"
For the next stretch of the journey, the two girls dove into a rapid-fire, enthusiastic exchange, trading stories across the boundaries of their respective universes.
Meanwhile, across the vast expanse of the cosmos, aboard the Astral Express.
Inside the cozy confines of the Parlor Car, Stelle let out a long, dramatic groan. She stretched her arms high above her head, her spine popping in a satisfying rhythm as she slowly sat up from the plush sofa. She let out a massive yawn, rubbing the sleep from her golden eyes.
"So comfortable..." she mumbled, her voice thick with sleep. "As expected, binge-sleeping after pulling an all-nighter is the absolute peak of human existence. Waking up at noon is a basic human right."
Blinking away the lingering grogginess, her gaze locked onto a strange anomaly floating right in the middle of her field of vision. It was a small, translucent blue box.
Worse, hovering in the upper right corner of that box was a glaring, bright red dot displaying a menacing [99+].
Stelle's eyes narrowed. Her gamer instincts flared with intense, irrational hostility. "Eh? What is this thing?" she muttered, leaning closer. "Why does it have that obnoxious notification dot? Unacceptable. You are going down."
Driven by the primal urge to clear her notifications, she mentally jabbed at the blue box.
Instead of vanishing, the interface chimed. The tiny box rapidly expanded outward, unfolding into a massive, high-definition holographic monitor right in front of her face.
However, the offensive [99+] red dot had successfully vanished.
'Hmph, hmph. Mere red dots. So incredibly vulnerable before my might,' Stelle thought, nodding to herself in deep satisfaction.
Her triumph was short-lived as she actually processed the contents of the glowing screen. Lines of text were scrolling upward at a steady pace. People were actively chatting inside this interface. Given the sheer volume of the backlog, they had clearly been at it for a while.
'Who dragged me into a group chat without my permission?'Stelle scratched her messy gray hair, utterly perplexed.'Could this be another one of Herta's bizarre new creations for the Simulated Universe? Or did Silver Wolf's Aether Editing tech get an upgrade, and she's hacking my optics for fun? Whatever. Let's see what these NPCs are talking about.'
[Administrator Stelle]: "Hello everyone! The galactic baseballer, Stelle, has made her dazzling entrance!"
[Administrator Belle]: "Whoa! It's the third administrator! She finally woke up!"
Stelle scanned the participant list. There were only three people in the entire chat, and strangely, all three held the title of Administrator. A smirk tugged at her lips as she typed her response.
[Administrator Stelle]: "Oh dear, don't rush me. A true protagonist always has to arrive at the very last moment to save the world."
[Administrator Stelle]: "By the way, who exactly are you guys? And who invited us into this group? Was it Herta? Or is Silver Wolf messing around again?"
[Administrator Belle]: "Oh? Is the technology in your universe really that advanced? You guys can actually research chat groups that connect entirely different worlds, and even traverse between them? That's amazing!"
[Administrator Lumine]: "Having access to that level of technology is definitely impressive. But unfortunately, we don't know who created this group or who invited us either. I've never heard of anyone named Herta or Silver Wolf."
[Administrator Stelle]: "Of course our tech is powerful! I personally know several big shots from the Genius Society. Whipping up a simple chat group is a piece of cake for them."
Stelle leaned back against the plush cushions, feeling quite smug. She genuinely assumed this was just another beta test for one of the Genius Society's quirky inventions. But as her eyes scanned back over Belle's previous message, two specific phrases suddenly jumped out at her: connecting entirely different worlds and traverse between them.
Her smug expression froze. The gears in her head ground to a halt.
[Administrator Stelle]: "Hold on. Something isn't right here! Wait, what do you mean by a chat group that connects other worlds?"
[Administrator Stelle]: "Isn't this just a local network made by the Genius Society? What do you mean by traversing worlds?!"
[Administrator Stelle]: "You're just talking about backwater planets that haven't discovered interstellar travel yet, right? Right?! Because if there were actually other universes out there, there is absolutely no way Herta and her club of eccentric geniuses would hand the beta-testing opportunity over to me!"
[Administrator Belle]: "Well, it looks like you're just as clueless about the origin of this chat group as we are. But your universe's technology really does sound incredible."
Sitting in her video store in New Eridu, Belle couldn't help but marvel at the sheer scale of the concepts Stelle was casually throwing around.
[Administrator Lumine]: "Regardless of who made it, this definitely seems to be a genuine multiversal chat group. All the basic functions are fully operational."
[Administrator Lumine]: "For example, the live chat, the photo sharing, and the group storage are all working perfectly. If you don't believe us, just tap the pinned announcement at the top of the interface and read the detailed breakdown."
[Administrator Lumine]: "I actually just sent a bunch of pictures of Natlan to Belle a few minutes ago. You can scroll up and check the chat history yourself."
[Administrator Belle]: "Yes, yes! You have to try the group storage! You can literally store physical items inside the screen and pull them back out! It's super convenient. Now my brother and I won't have to break our backs carrying heavy boxes of videotapes around. We can just dump them in the storage. It's the greatest thing ever!"
Stelle fell into a deep, suspicious silence. Staring intensely at the glowing text, she cautiously reached up and tapped the pinned announcement, reading through the feature descriptions exactly as Lumine and Belle had instructed.
Even after reading the detailed system breakdown, the whole concept felt utterly absurd. Multiversal travel? A magical inventory?
Determined to call their bluff, Stelle grabbed the heavy, woven quilt resting on the armrest beside her. She shoved it directly toward the holographic screen, fully expecting it to phase right through the light.
Instead, the screen rippled like water. The quilt vanished into thin air, swallowed by the interface. A second later, with a mere thought, the heavy fabric materialized right back into her hands, dropping onto her lap with a soft thud.
Stelle stared at the quilt. She poked it. It was real.
The sheer impossibility of the situation crashed down on her. This wasn't Aether Editing. This wasn't the Simulated Universe. This was real, and yet, it was so wildly outlandish that her brain immediately jumped to the only logical conclusion a traumatized Trailblazer could reach.
[Administrator Stelle]: "I know what's happening! I must still be in Penacony! I'm still stuck in that hateful dream of the Great One, and I haven't actually woken up yet! Damn it all to the Abyss!"
Across the multiverse, both Lumine and Belle blinked in surprise.
First, they were taken aback by Stelle's sheer refusal to accept reality, even after testing the storage function herself. Second, the casual drops of lore about Stelle's world painted a picture of a terrifyingly advanced universe. At the very least, her civilization possessed technology sophisticated enough to mimic the functions of this miraculous chat group, or she had personally survived psychological anomalies so severe that a multiversal chat interface felt like a trap.
That level of technological saturation explained exactly why she was so paranoid.
Realizing words wouldn't be enough to break through the Trailblazer's stubborn denial, Lumine opened her own inventory. She decided the best way to prove her existence was with hard, physical evidence. She began rummaging for a local Natlan specialty, something utterly alien to a futuristic space station, to toss into the group storage.
'If she can hold something from my world in her own hands,'Lumine thought,'maybe then she'll finally believe she's awake.'
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