He could observe it, even accelerate its timeflow, and see how fast development progressed.
The group went silent upon hearing Takumi's plan. Was this really okay?
But Herta's eyes lit up instantly.
Herta: [ A blank world?! That's amazing! ] [ Can I observe it?! ]
She could hardly wait to rush over. If Takumi rebooted the entire world and let it develop naturally under observation, the potential data was overwhelming.
"You want to observe the whole world?
You plan to come over here?"
Takumi was surprised by the idea. If she wanted to observe, Herta would have to come in person.
Herta: [ Of course! ] [ I'll even bring everyone from the Genius Society! ]
Naturally, they had to come. Having the entire Genius Society observe a universe's evolution? Too tempting to ignore. No researcher could resist such a massive experiment.
Takumi thought for a moment, then agreed.
"Sure.
I'll send the whole world back to my place.
You can do whatever you want with it."
The idea of using an entire world as a lab stunned Takumi. He suddenly realized: this was probably how the aliens in his own world were treated.
In that moment, Takumi understood. At a certain level, one really stops caring about what lies beneath them. You do as you please.
With a sigh, he stopped thinking about it and began his search.
The world was riddled with peril. Any weaker individual stepping into it would be instantly torn apart by its harsh environment. But for Takumi, that wasn't an issue.
He began his sweep, only to find that there were hardly any intact planets left. Everything had been devastated. Any habitable world had long turned to stardust.
Takumi entered Herrscher mode. His presence turned cold and detached.
Seeing his transformation, several fangirls in the chat couldn't help squealing.
Nyarlathotep: [ Damn, who's this hottie?! ] [ Lick~! ]
Fujiwara Chika: [ Hiss No matter how many times I see it, Takumi in Herrscher form is insanely handsome! ] [ Normally he's chill, but when transformed? Wow! ]
Akeno: [ Ara~ Ara~! ]
Tokisaki Kurumi: [ Gorgeous! ]
Takumi glanced at the group chat, utterly speechless.
He said nothing, and got to work.
His power erupted. He scanned the entire world, absorbing anything of value into his Imaginary Space.
After a full sweep, it was clearthere was truly no life left.
With that confirmed, Takumi didn't hesitate to format the world.
He released his full Herrscher of the End power.
His form grew until he stood outside the world itselflike a scene straight out of Honkai 2 where the Herrscher grabs Earth.
Takumi's colossal projection enveloped the ruined world. His unleashed power caused spatial distortions, radiating from the world's center.
If there had been other nearby worlds, they might've sensed it.
But the distance between worlds was too vast. There were no strong beings nearby. Perhaps this region was particularly barren?
Grasping the world in his hand, Takumi activated the End's power.
In the next moment, the entire world began to transform.
The broken, pockmarked sphere vanished. In its place stood a restored, complete world.
A newly born world consciousness awakenedonly to fall into a slumber moments later.
With the reboot, Takumi naturally became the ruler of this world.
Chapter 407: Because the Housing Prices Are Cheap
After Takumi rebooted the world, it was effectively branded as his own.
This brand-new world now belonged to Takumi.
Everyone in the group watched with excitement as Takumi casually toyed with an entire world in his hands. It was a rare and jaw-dropping sight.
Takumi, however, wasn't paying attention to the chat. After rebooting the entire world, he tried steering it toward his own world. Under his control, the entire world began moving quickly in that direction.
Bronya: [ You're coming back? ]
Seeing this, Bronya's eyes sparkled.
Was Takumi planning to return?
Seeing her message, Takumi nodded.
"Yes! I'm heading back now. I'm done searching. I bet we're currently in the middle of nowhere. That's probably why there aren't many worlds around. If Herta wants to come over, she can do so later. Once you're here, I'll adjust the time flow of that world. That's the only way we can monitor everything."
Upon hearing this, Herta got excited.
Herta: [ I'm calling everyone now! Wait for me! ]
With that, Herta logged off immediately. She was off to gather the Genius Society members to head over to Takumi's world.
This was an entire new world! She was incredibly curious to see how it would emerge and develop.
Takumi smiled but didn't say anything more. He followed the newly rebooted world as it made its way back to his domain.
Reentering the world, Takumi saw that the universe inside had begun to recover. The cosmos was expanding. New galaxies were being born. The birth of a new universe was a spectacular thing.
Takumi was quite satisfied, and equally intrigued. This was his first time witnessing such a scene.
He began wandering within the world, searching for something akin to the Milky Way.
He wasn't sure if such a place even existed. If not, he didn't mind creating one himself.
After all, Earth's position was far too coincidental. Out of all places in the cosmos, only Earth had that kind of setup. Perhaps that's what allowed humans to exist?
Regardless, Takumi decided to recreate such conditions. During the return trip, he worked on shaping those elements.
He wandered the stars while analyzing the starmap. This universe was similar to his own in many ways, but also quite different.
Eventually, Takumi located an area that resembled the Milky Way. But from the looks of it, life would be extremely hard to develop here. Even if life somehow emerged, cosmic radiation would likely wipe it out before it could evolve.
The environment was too hostile.
After some thought, Takumi decided to modify the area. He pulled several planets together to act as shieldslike Jupiterto defend a particular planet from cosmic threats.
He also crafted a moon for that planet, modifying it into an observation hub. Since this would be a monitored world, naturally it needed observation equipment. The rest of the setup could be handled by Herta's team.
By the time Takumi finished all this, the world had already neared his own domain.
Takumi exited the world and began adjusting its orbit so it would circle his own rather than crash into it. If it collided, it wouldn't be a companion worldit would merge with his.
Once everything was handled, Takumi returned home.
The first thing he did was take a shower.
Bronya and Miori Shiba, seeing this, exchanged exasperated looks. Still, they began preparing a meal.
Takumi hadn't eaten at all while he was out exploring. He was either flying or sleeping.
At his level, food wasn't a necessity, but he still enjoyed eating.
Coming back from such a journey naturally called for a good meal.
When Takumi emerged from the bathroom, Bronya spoke up:
"Come eat first!"
Hearing this, Takumi looked toward the dining table and nodded.
Miori Shiba added:
"I already notified Gabriel and Lilia. They should be here soon. While you were away, Gabriel visited a few times. Nyaruko also came back. She's currently crashing at Kaguya-hime's place."
She gave Takumi a rundown of what had happened while he was gone.
Takumi nodded.
"Glad they're back. By the way, how's everything going in the cosmos? Have you been keeping tabs?"
He suddenly remembered that Kosmos was still out in the universe. Plus, Esdeath had taken her army and departed.
Might as well ask about that too.
Miori Shiba explained:
"It seems they've already regrouped and started attacking some civilizationI forget which. You'll need to ask Prometheus for the details. I didn't follow it too closely. But the old man has already sent most people over."
"And now, from the worlds we're connected to, a lot of regular folks want to migrate here."
"Because our housing prices are cheap."
She couldn't help but sigh at that last part. She never expected that cheap housing would be what attracted them.
Takumi burst out laughing.
Housing really was cheap in his world.
Anyone with a bit of money could afford a place. Of course, prime locations were still expensive.
But in Takumi's world, technology was so advanced that the idea of a "central location" was more of a gimmick.
Even if you lived in the outskirts, you could just buy a flying car.
Transportation was extremely convenient.
There were no "school district houses" either.
Education in his world was standardized. Aside from a few magic academies, most schools were staffed by magical girl instructors.
There wasn't much of a difference between them.
As a result, most newcomers preferred to buy land in the countryside, building cozy villas nestled in nature.
That was the kind of life many people dreamed of.
Chapter 408: The World Is Already Dead
Takumi's world held immense appeal for many.
Cheap housing and land were one reason.
Another was the advanced technology.
On top of that, you could learn all sorts of magic in Takumi's world. And then there were sights you'd only see in science fiction settingselves, angels, dragons.
They all existed in Takumi's world.
There were even talking slimes.
Some could shapeshift into humans and go out shopping for game consoles.
Because of that, Takumi's world was incredibly lively and fascinating.
Many who visited never wanted to return home. For them, it was a paradise.
Some countries in the linked worlds even tried controlling their own housing prices to stop people from leaving.
But that didn't work. People came anyway.
And now that Takumi's world had entered the interstellar age, people were preparing to colonize Mars.
Who would still want to live in the countryside?
That was the general sentiment.
Hearing Miori Shiba's summary, Takumi nodded.
"Prometheus."
"Make sure we don't let in too many people with questionable behavior."
"If someone shows up with a hidden agenda, have the mechanoids toss them out."
"We may need people, but that doesn't mean we'll take just anyone."
Prometheus responded immediately.
"Understood."
"Miss Velvi asked me to inform you to drop by later. She knows you're back."
Takumi nodded.
"Got it."
He didn't even need to guessVelvi had probably heard that Takumi brought back something new again.
Most likely Bronya had told her. After all, Velvi wasn't in the group chat.
Thinking of that, Takumi glanced at Bronya.
"I was studying with her earlier, so I told her about the world you discovered," Bronya said, understanding his look.
"Knew it. Otherwise, that woman wouldn't be looking for me," Takumi muttered with a slight groan.
Only new tech could catch her interest.
"Speaking of which," Bronya asked, "you didn't find any tech trees in that broken world, did you? Just the spaceships, right? Did the databases inside have anything useful? If they were planning to leave their world, they must've brought some data."
"Some, but not comprehensive," Takumi replied after sorting through the information in his mind.
There was data, but not much.
"Then, does their technology share any similarities with the alien tech we've found before?"
Bronya's eyes lit up. They hadn't forgotten the anomalies discovered in alien tech.
Now that Takumi had gathered technology from another world, were there any overlaps?
Or perhaps they followed a similar evolutionary path?
Takumi paused.
He furrowed his brow, then replied:
"No. Completely different routes."
"Their tech isn't aligned with the ones we've encountered. It follows its own set of physical laws."
There were no similarities.
That world's civilization had fully unified their planet before attempting interdimensional travel.
Reaching that level of technological development was terrifying in itself.
Their warship main cannons couldn't be called mere planet-destroyers.
They were capable of wiping out entire star systems.
Unimaginable firepower.
Even though Takumi had acquired tech from many worlds, this was the first time he'd seen something this powerful.
Perhaps that level of development was exactly what led to their downfall.
They'd exhausted all resources in their universe.
The abundance of black holes might have been a side effect of weapons research.
Otherwise, Takumi wouldn't have seen what he did upon entering.
Their universe had advanced so far, even an entire cosmos wasn't enough to sustain them.
"It's a shame I couldn't get all their tech," Takumi said. "But the warships alone are enough. Each one is a crystallization of their civilization. We can extract plenty of new tech from them."
Bronya's eyes gleamed.
"Let's head to Velvi later. We'll let her tinker with the ships. I'll upload the collected data to the mainframe."
With that, Takumi started eating faster.
Bronya perked up.
"To carry an entire civilization's legacy beyond their worldthat level of tech is terrifying. Maybe it's rare even among different world-lines."
"What kind of weapons did their main cannons use? Particle beams?"
She couldn't hide her curiosity.
"No, not particle-based. Spatial-type."
"One shot causes a collapse in space itself. It turns the target area into a fixed point of collapse, pulling everything around into it, creating a black hole."
"Those black holes I saw in that world likely came from those weapons."
"These aren't like the ones caused by the Eden Star. These are real cosmic black holes."
Bronya nodded in understanding.
"No wonder that world ended up like that."
"Do you think they destroyed themselves? Maybe they tried to abandon their world, but it backfired?"
"Could it be something like a world will?"
"Kind of like in the Nasuverse? Both sides perished?"
What had caused that civilization's extinction?
What force could've annihilated them all in an instant?
Questions began to form in Bronya's mind.
She was deeply curious.
"No idea. The world is dead. I can't retrieve its records."
"Everything's ruined. I can only get fragments from the ship databases."
"I'll sort through them later and see if I can uncover anything."
Takumi, too, was curious.
He'd already stored all the ships.
But he hadn't explored them thoroughly yet.
He'd get around to it during the next phase of organization.
Chapter 409: This Is Something Very New
