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 joke—he 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 vast—Takumi 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.