She couldn't help but caution him.
It was a truly difficult endeavor.
Chapter 404: The Missing Person Returns!!
In the endless void, the worlds are scattered far apart.
Some worlds might be close to each other and even draw each other in.
If one of them is powerful enough, the others will orbit around it. If not, they might merge together. The world fusion missions everyone received previously came about exactly like that.
Takumi: [ I know it's hard to find worlds. ] [ But there's nothing much to do in my own world right now anyway. ] [ There are plenty of traces left in my world, which probably means someone has been there. ] [ Might as well take this opportunity to investigate and see if someone's really nearby. ]
Takumi understood this clearly. He was out here trying to track down the entity that had entered his world before.
Seeing Takumi say this, shiroyasha didn't argue further. Some bored members even tuned into his stream just for fun.
Like Herta, who began bombarding the chat with questions after seeing the scenery beyond the world:
Herta: [ Is the space outside worlds a vacuum? ] [ Can you perform space jumps out there like in outer space? ] [ Is the spatial density similar? ] [ How do you pass through the world's barrier? ] [ Is our world bubble one of those where there's a tree inside the bubble? ]
A barrage of questions flew out of Herta's mouth.
Not every world bubble looked the same, after all.
Takumi: [ Yes, it's a vacuum. ] [ Space jumps are definitely possible, and very easy too. ] [ The density varies, but that doesn't matter to me. ] [ I have spatial authority after all. ] [ And yes, your world is indeed a giant bubble with a tree inside. That tree contains countless little bubbles beneath it. ]
That's the general structure.
Herta: [ Oooh! Looks like I'll need to study this in-depth. ] [ If I could leave this world and explore out there, it would be fascinating. ]
As a researcher, she was immensely intrigued by all of this.
Lala: [ That's really difficult! ] [ Dr. Mei and I studied it before. Even getting to the dimensional gap is a hassle. ] [ Reaching the world exterior requires finding a path through the dimensional gap or directly opening the world's barrier. ] [ And that barrier is extremely solid. ] [ Even finding a viable passage is a huge issue. ]
Herta: [ Dimensional gap? You mean the Sea of Quanta? ] [ The Sea of Quanta is too vast to fully observe. ] [ Definitely a pain. ] [ But in our world, there are tons of bubbles, packed tightly. So traveling between them through the Imaginary Tree and Sea of Quanta is fairly manageable. ] [ Looks like world bubbles come in various types? ]
Takumi: [ Of course. ] [ A world bubble outside the void isn't the same as one within another bubble. ]
That's just common sense.
They're not the same at all.
Everyone kept chattering about the topic in the group.
Meanwhile, Takumi had traveled quite a long distance.
Gazing at the never-changing scenery, Takumi couldn't help but grumble internally.
Traveling in this kind of environment was mind-numbingly dull.
Because you never knew when your ship might actually reach something.
Takumi's method of travel was via constant space-jumping.
The speed was no jokehe was crossing galactic distances every second.
An hour's travel meant unimaginable distances.
As he drifted through the void, Takumi tried sensing Ophis' location.
To his surprise, he could actually feel her presence across the vast void.
But getting there might take him several years.
The coordinates only gave a general direction.
He could technically jump to her location or even forcibly summon her to him.
But after a moment's thought, Takumi dropped the idea.
Having the coordinates was enough.
If he wanted to go to the DxD world, he could easily make that happen.
Takumi continued flying in one direction.
During the journey, the only thing he could do was chat with the group.
After about a week, he decided to switch up the route.
He instructed Prometheus to adjust the ship's path to make a wide arc centered around his own world.
If he couldn't find anything in this range, he'd just give up.
The rest of the void was simply too vastTakumi couldn't cover it all any time soon.
While changing course, Takumi deployed some unmanned ships to scout the area.
If they found another world, they would return immediately.
It was a wide-net approach.
Even if only a few ships returned with coordinates, that would be enough.
If not, no big deal.
Each drone was equipped with a Prometheus sub-system.
If they encountered danger, they'd return.
If captured, they would self-destruct on the spot.
A ship powered by a perpetual motion engine self-destructing could easily annihilate several worlds.
With nothing better to do on the ship, Takumi decided to begin merging his authorities.
He tried combining his molecular manipulation powers.
It was a slow and difficult process, so he didn't expect much.
When you focus on something like that, time passes quickly.
Before he knew it, a month had gone by.
Fusing powers wasn't easy, and Takumi felt pretty disappointed.
But there was no helping it. At his level, making progress was incredibly hard.
Just as he was starting to get bored, Prometheus issued an alert:
"A world bubble has been detected ahead."
Hearing this, Takumi jolted upright.
"You found one?!"
He quickly looked toward the main screen.
In front of him was a dimly glowing world bubble.
But it looked kind of shabby?
Seeing its condition, Takumi was stunned.
A broken world?
It looked utterly battered, full of holes.
Damn it, doesn't that mean anyone could just stroll in?
Takumi opened the live stream.
Soon, everyone in the chat flooded in.
It had been quite a while since Takumi last streamed.
Now that he suddenly turned it on, everyone was curious.
Had he found something?
Bronya: [ I thought you were missing. ]
Houraisan Kaguya: [ Missing person returns?! ]
Fujiwara Chika: [ Well? Well?? Did you find a new world?! ]
Everyone knew Takumi had been exploring the void.
So the moment he opened the stream, they figured something must've happened.
Seeing all the messages, Takumi projected the scene in front of him for everyone to see.
Chapter 405: The World Has Been Destroyed
A completely tattered world.
When everyone in the group saw the world Takumi had discovered, they were all momentarily stunned. Even from a distance, it was obvious just how broken this world was.
Shiroyasha: [ A shattered world? ] [ This world must've been destroyed! ]
Seeing the state of the world, Shiroyasha immediately understoodthis was clearly a world that had already been obliterated.
Fujiwara Chika: [ So this is what a destroyed world looks like? ] [ What an eye-opener! ]
Sagiri: [ Learned something new today! ]
Bronya: [ Another piece of knowledge added to my mind. ] [ So this is what a world looks like after destruction. ]
Herta: [ Noted and recorded! ]
Lala: [ How did this happen? Was it because of war? If it was, that war must have been catastrophicthis entire world is torn apart. ]
Everyone in the chat came rushing in.
They were all genuinely curious about what had happened.
Takumi's ship quickly approached the ruined world. As they got closer, everyone finally grasped the full extent of its destruction.
"Riddled with holes" was a perfect description.
It was downright tragic.
How could a world become this wrecked?
Takumi flew around it once and then found a crack in its barrier to slip through.
Upon entering, as he passed through the world's rift, what greeted him was endless wreckage.
Takumi was shocked.
Was this a technological civilization?
The wreckage resembled that of a space battlefield.
Massive warships floated in the void.
Seeing them, Takumi grew more curious. Was this destruction the result of battles that happened within this zone?
Herta: [ Unbelievable... Was this caused by technology? ]
She had been watching Takumi's stream the whole time, and when she saw those massive warships, she was utterly stunned.
Some of them were even still intact.
Lala: [ Go check out those intact warships! ] [ They were probably in the middle of battle and then wiped out in an instant, right? ] [ A lot of ships haven't even been damaged! ]
Lala was extremely excited.
These warships that had made it into the rift between worlds were just too amazing.
She urged Takumi to investigate them immediately.
Shiroyasha: [ You can tell this world's people were quite advanced. ] [ But what caused them to abandon their world and end up in such a brutal battlefield? ]
She too was curious.
What kind of conflict could have led to this?
The entire world was wrecked.
Just how intense had the fighting been?
Takumi exited his small ship.
A spatial rift appeared and stored it away.
He floated quietly in the dimensional gap.
Scanning his surroundings, he then moved toward the wreckage.
There were no biological remains anywhere.
It was as if no one had ever been here.
Everything was inoperativejust cold metal remained.
Takumi tried to sense the condition of the ships, but everything had been destroyed.
There was no useful data left.
He didn't dwell on it, and instead teleported directly into one of the intact ships.
These ships were bigger than mountains.
He appeared on the bridge of one.
It was empty but clean.
Not a trace of struggle, only signs that equipment had once been in use.
There were footprints even some discarded clothing.
Seeing this, Takumi's curiosity deepened.
He walked up to one of the ship's computers and placed his hand on it.
Moments later, he successfully hacked into the system.
Data began flooding into his mind.
Takumi started extracting everything he could from the ship.
Maybe because this ship was still mostly intact, many of its functions were operational.
Plenty of data remained.
Herta: [ Spill it! ] [ What did you find? ]
Lala: [ Found anything useful? ]
Both Herta and Lala were brimming with excitement.
Surely a complete ship had to contain something useful?
"I've extracted some data."
"But there's no record of what destroyed them."
"They were wiped out by an overwhelming force in an instant."
"There's no follow-up."
Hearing this, Takumi frowned.
Everyone in the group was shocked.
Lala: [ That's terrifying!! ]
Wiped out in an instant?
Truly horrifying.
Herta: [ Forget that for now. ] [ Check the tech tree of this world! ]
Don't worry about who did it.
What mattered now was understanding this world's technological advancements.
Even if the world was gone, its tech tree survived.
Those ships were proof of that.
Time to gather up all that tech.
"Right."
"Let's start with that."
"These ships still work."
"I'll collect them all."
Takumi decided to go scavenging.
Fujiwara Chika: [ So jealous! You're basically collecting treasure!! ] [ I wanna be a scavenger too. ]
Wasn't Takumi just picking up gold?
They had all seen how many intact ships were out there.
And there were plenty of other things too.
Any single one of these ships would be a fortune to ordinary people.
Who knew what other treasures this ruined world held?
Devouring its tech tree and taking the time to absorb it might allow a civilization to leap forward overnight.
Seeing everyone's messages, Takumi grinned.
Of course he wouldn't let this treasure trove go.
He began gathering everything he could.
Whatever could be salvaged, he took.
The rest, he left behind.
After picking through the debris in the dimensional gap, Takumi officially entered the interior of the world.
Shiroyasha: [ Is this world truly dead? ] [ If not, you might gain something even more valuable. ]
She suddenly chimed in.
If the world was dead, all Takumi could do was inherit its ruins.
But if it wasn't
Then Takumi hit the jackpot.
As a human with a divine soul tier, the final hope of humanity
This broken world might just offer everything it had left to him.
Takumi saw her message.
But the truth was, this world really did seem completely dead.
It had been destroyed.
Only after entering it did he truly understand how complete the devastation was.
Chapter 406: Restart This World
Takumi now found himself inside this broken worldfloating above the universe itself.
As far as the eye could see, the stars were devoid of light. Terrifying energies surged chaotically across space: neutron star eruptions, white dwarf explosions, and even countless black holes scattered everywhere. The universe was in constant destruction.
Takumi witnessed a colossal black hole devouring everything, shredding stars into cosmic dust.
He streamed all of it to the group.
Shiroyasha, who earlier questioned whether the world was truly dead, commented bluntly:
Shiroyasha: [ It's hopeless! ] [ What you picked up earlier is probably the only inheritance you'll get. ]
In a world overrun with black holes, what else could be saved? The entire universe radiated destructive energy. Even the homelands of former civilizations had likely been obliterated.
Herta: [ Tsk tsk! ] [ Learned something new today. ]
Lala: [ It's terrifying. Any lifeform would be destroyed in such a universe. ] [ Oh, except Takumi of course! ]
Himeko: [ Should we toss in an Aeon? The Aeon of Destruction might enjoy this view. ]
Fujiwara Chika: [ Humanity is fragile. A single solar storm could wipe us out. In a universe filled with such destructive energy, most beings wouldn't stand a chance. ] [ Maybe that's why the civilization here tried to fleeto escape to another world. ] [ But something unknown destroyed them. ]
Looking around, even the viewers couldn't help but sigh. It was truly terrifying.
"The universe is collapsing. Every star has gone dark.
All living beings have been utterly annihilated.
Let's scout around. If there's data to salvage, we'll collect it.
If not, I'll just restart the world.
Now that I think of itI've never restarted a world before.
Might as well use this one as practice."
Staring at the ruined cosmos, Takumi felt a surge of excitement. A world reboot might restore it. Even if the former inhabitants couldn't be revived, he'd at least gain a blank world to experiment on.
