because i am stel

Miss Steele opened her eyes.What came into my eyes was a decayed and dilapidated courtyard.

It's not the dream world, it's not the time to sleep at night and she can feel Levantin too - she just sat on the sofa and walked around for a while before coming to this strange place.And she felt that she might be able to return to the original place at any time.

"...Empire of Consciousness?" She said subconsciously, raising her hand, Levantin was already around her.

She has an impression of this courtyard...Of course she has, because this courtyard is an office building built by her own hands—even though everything around it looks dilapidated and decayed after decades of time.But the overall arrangement and layout were exactly the same as the moment before she lost her mind.

Exactly the same, so she woke up.

She returned to the reality layer, glanced at the terminal that still had no email reply, and after glancing around, sank into the land of the empire of consciousness again.

very funny.

She got up from the dry sofa and walked to the window.She saw a thick, gloomy fog hanging over the window.And there was neither sound nor light in the thick fog.

So she blew into the fog outside the window.

The storm surged, and the thick white mist was thrown to the sides without any resistance.What caught her eyes was a street that was completely consistent with the layout of the reality layer, but was full of corruption and rust.Countless deformed and weird creatures crawled and twisted in the thick fog.And the moment she saw it, she fled in horror towards the fog that hadn't dissipated.

Miss Steele ignored them.

She jumped downstairs and landed on the street.When her toes touched the ground, she clearly felt that some huge limbs were escaping from the ground under her feet to the distance.

They were afraid of her—and rightfully so.

She raised her eyebrows and looked towards the sky - the sky was also covered by thick fog.But in her perception, there is a familiar individual hovering over the sky.

Thearesia...a foreign land similar to the reed field...

— There she is, here is below her.She didn't want to reveal it to me, and she couldn't bring me here.

——Terra's hell...?

——Is this the place where the silly dog ​​came from?Tsk... that would be too bad, this place doesn't look like a playground with sweet cakes.

She thought to herself, facing forward, the road paved with bones became flat and dry when she took a step—she planned to take a walk here to see this land that was different from Terra but belonged to The unique scenery of Terra land.

Anyway, she has nothing to do now.

-------------Chapter Dividing Line---------------

Theresa had hinted - don't look down.There are unknown horrors hidden below.

Shirtel understood her hint and didn't look down.But now, she is in the 'below'.

But she felt a little strange.

Obviously in the layer where Theresia is, she can perceive the breath of the world, and can perceive the sleeping giant hidden in the deep place - she can clearly feel it and avoid it .However, when she was in the 'below' where she could perceive Thearesia's location, the hidden giant that seemed to be eternally dark disappeared from her perception.

——When you get close, you can't feel it?

——Or, the relationship between space and direction is not what I think?

There was doubt in her heart, and this doubt did not bother her for a long time——Things that cannot be figured out are simply not thought about.If he really did something terrible, Then Thearesia would come over and stop him when he just returned to the reality layer.

She didn't come to stop it, so it meant it was harmless.

And since it is harmless, then you can do what you want.

—Let’s take a look at the interesting things around.

With a slight turn of her mind, the sulfur breath that had just spread on the street subsided silently——she watched the thick white mist gather again and gradually fill her vision.

She walked from one side of the street to the other.

Close your eyes and open them on the plane of reality.The fact that the displacement is zero tells her that traveling in this empire of consciousness will not interfere with the coordinates of the plane of reality.And when she returned to the Empire of Consciousness, she found herself returning to that decayed courtyard and sitting on that corrupt sofa chair again.

——Does the position of the reality layer determine the position in the empire of consciousness?

——It’s no wonder that Shagou receives the hot water bottle from the same place every time he welcomes “Yesterday’s Broken Dream”.Judging from this setting, it is quite game-like.

—Some kind of other kind of bonfire?

Miss Steele had a guess.She felt that if she died in the consciousness empire, she should be able to wake up again in the reality layer—but unfortunately, she didn't know how to verify it.Because she had no idea how she would die in the ruins of this empire of consciousness.

—Unless Levantin wants to kill me.

——But if the situation really develops to the point where Levantin wants to kill me, then even if I can still wake up in the reality layer, I will commit suicide immediately.

A bad idea came to mind.Then it was quickly discarded, because there was a slight heat sting from the hand, and the burn that could only exist in the hallucination expressed the dissatisfaction of the sword.

"Okay, okay, I shouldn't have speculated about you like that." She whispered forgiveness, and then the sword fell silent.

Tsk, it's not good to be connected with each other... Although there is nothing bad about it.

She thought, and according to her memory, she jumped down the gap of this dilapidated building.When her toes touched the solid bone ground, she took a quick step towards a direction she had sensed in advance.

One step, ten meters.She has the confidence not to waste a moment of time.In her memory, at that location on the reality layer, an old Ursus who was walking happened to pass by the corner downstairs of her.

She didn't encounter anything here - when she walked to that memory location, there was only an empty wasteland on the territory of the Empire of Consciousness.

"There are only buildings that form a correspondence, and only dead things...doesn't it include living things?"

She raised her eyebrows, but she was slightly relieved.Since the people of Real Terra did not generate reflected shadows in this lower world.That means that your actions at this level will not cause any bad interference with reality.

——If I start a unparalleled kill here, then Chernobog in Terra will also die a lot.That would be too sinful.

——Fortunately, that kind of situation did not happen after all... It seems that this place is really a 'hell' rather than a 'world'.

——However, there is still too little evidence to make a conclusion so directly.

I moved my fingers a little, and I had the idea of ​​'chop something' in my mind.But let's not do such a shameful thing as venting anger casually, she raised her foot and walked to the place that she felt was destined for her at first - her instinct has always been good.Or her inspiration has always been strong.

"Don't fight, it's not good to fight." She said softly, her voice turned into invisible ripples and scattered in all directions.

Something seemed to have changed, and nothing seemed to change.Because all sounds and movements are hidden behind the thick fog, absorbed, and swallowed.So even if it was her, she couldn't see it without dispelling the dense fog.

Or was she actually too lazy to bother to look at it?

It's possible, but not important.Exploration has the fun of exploration, and opening the full map does not mean that the gameplay is very good.

So she walked on.

On the way, she occasionally encounters some twisted and deformed monsters.Some looked like human beings, and several of them pieced together and crawled on the ground with their palms.Some were like trees, with many eyes and tentacles.It is similar to a spider, but the position of the mouthpart is a multi-barreled rapid-fire cannon.Some are similar to some ghosts in the supernatural world, red, ragged clothes and pale faces.

Miss Steele didn't do much with them.

After all, they only look a little bit strange, but to her, they are pure, harmless and weak creatures.Even if he restrained his breath, when those strange things hit her or were hit by her, they all screamed and fled towards the surroundings quickly.Even if you really can't avoid it, you will collapse on the ground, motionless.

This might be called playing dead.It is a manifestation of some kind of wisdom.

But that's about it for their intelligence, at least—

Ms. Shrter stretched out her hand and grabbed a deformed thing that looked a little bit like a human from the thick fog, but the chest and abdomen were made of rotten flesh, connective tissue, unknown organs, and horny mouthparts. .When she was grabbing it, it was as motionless as a block of wood, and if you looked closely, it would tremble uncontrollably.

"Can you understand me?"

Trembling.

"If you don't answer, you will be killed."

Shaking violently.

"I cut."

It twitched like an electric shock, then froze suddenly, and there was no more movement.

Well, Chic fainted from fright.It can be seen that although they have simple intelligence and survival awareness, they do not have the wisdom to form organizations and civilizations.She noticed that these aberrant creatures were not territorial.There wasn't even much desire to prey—she saw a mountain of meat and a puny aberration making peace.I also saw a strange species that was integrated with the unformed construction site, using the iron arm of the excavator to pick up white figures one by one and throw them into the bloody mouth formed by the mixer.

Then the figure jumped out from the other end of the blender.

Then the figure that jumped out was trampled to the ground by the passing hexapod.

Then, the trampled white figure was still crawling on the ground.Soon it climbed onto the body of a different species with a mouth but no feet, fused and became the opponent's feet.

Very strange ecology, very interesting.

Without food chains, territories and hunting circles, these deformed and twisted foreign objects seemed to exist simply as living creatures in this land.

It's just ugly, and it just doesn't fit the aesthetics of most Terran humans.But just live harmlessly.

——Is this place really Terra's hell?

— Or is this just some crooked paradise?

She tilted her head and continued walking forward.From the partial core area of ​​Chernoborg in memory to the outside of the city, and then continue to move further.

And just a few minutes after she left the city completely.

The alien creatures who had been foolish and enjoying themselves suddenly gave a sudden pause.A vicious scarlet light suddenly burst out from the harmless eyes—they roared and bit each other, throwing large pieces of plasma and colorful body fluids on the ground paved with white bones.Blood, madness, killing, a few minutes ago, the land that could be called peaceful was burned by the flames of war in an instant and turned into ruins.

No one is behind their backs manipulating them to fight.

No one is behind the scenes luring them into a fight.

Because that was their nature, and because, for the first few minutes, their nature had been overwhelmed by her.

The land, and everything in it, struggled to accommodate her presence, her thoughts—until she took her eyes off the place.

..............................

Miss Steele was still walking.

Going forward, along the thick fog, to a place that she felt seemed to have a relationship with herself.

Her steps are not fast, but each step is long.For her, the distance of tens or hundreds of meters can be reached in just one or half a breath.And if she is willing to speed up her pace a little, then it is probably the same for thousands or tens of thousands of meters.

She is powerful.Simply powerful.

In the past, she vaguely remembered that there was some kind of strength rating on the land of Terra—similar to the vague division of combat power like first-rate and second-rate in martial arts novels.When she first arrived at the Tower of Babel, she was actually quite enthusiastic about this kind of leap between power classes for a while. Every time she reached a new level through training and fighting, she had to jump for joy in her heart.

However, that kind of pure happiness has been far away from her for a long time.In the middle and late stages of the Tower of Babel, she gradually paid less attention to the so-called combat power rating - except for Persephone, the strongest at the highest level could only survive under her hands with all their strength.So, what can I do if my sword changes from eight points of force to zero point eight points of force?

Anyway, it's nothing more than a sword, and the difference between cutting in half and cutting into powder is actually not that big.As a result, she lost this pure happiness, and as her combat power continued to improve, these power class divisions could no longer occupy her brain memory.

'As long as it is below Transcendent, it doesn't matter how many levels it is, anyway, it's a level that can be leveled by props and equipment. '—it seemed that someone had said this to her, but she couldn't remember who said it.

'And in the extraordinary stage, all tricks of mortal things can't affect you. ’—she still couldn’t remember who said it.But she felt that it was her who said it.

——Then, I am extraordinary.Above all things is my power?

she thought a little uncertainly.

Then she jerked her feet to her feet—she saw a red wolf lying at her feet.

"Red? No, red is a gray wolf... Wait, why do I think so?" She tilted her head, feeling a little strange.But what was even more strange was that she actually saw a normal creature here.

"interesting."

She scanned and found that the red wolf was covered with cuts and bruises.There were many places where it looked as if it had been cut with a knife or saw, and many places where the hair seemed to have been roasted, decayed and scorched.

"Poor wolf."

She stretched out her hand and touched the head of the lying wolf - the wolf let out a mournful howl.It seems to be expecting, it seems to be praying.

"Having a dog... a wolf is also good." She thought, and temporarily corrected the typo.

Then a ray of flames spilled out of her body, penetrating into the wolf's flesh along her fingertips—the speed of power penetrating was faster than expected.And with her will, the non-attribute fire turned into a healing fire.

"Woooo-"

The wolf made a pitiful sound, but was getting better.The wound healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the hair grew back neatly, smooth and shiny.

well.

She let go of her hand and watched the badly injured wolf struggling to get up from the ground—she didn't help it, because it would be a puzzling move to intervene when the hardworking man was making an attempt.

She watched the wolf get up, watched the wolf shake its straggly mane, watched the wolf rub against her lap and lick her hanging hand.

The touch is very good, because it is a canine animal, so there are no barbs on the tongue, but it is not like a regular wolf, but more soft and slippery like a girl's uvula - it was in Miss Shirtle's Bite lightly on the palm, and then followed behind the Sarkaz, wagging its tail.

"Would you like to come with me?" asked Miss Steele.

The wolf didn't nod, but nuzzled at her feet, purring submissively.

Yeah.

— But why are there wolves here?

"Can you take me to where you came from?" she asked, stroking the wolf's head.

She got an affirmative answer—perhaps the wolf was also looking forward to revenge on those who had hurt it.So it made a cheerful low cry, and led her, running to a place deeper in the dense fog.

Go ahead and keep going.

Black canyons gradually appeared on both sides, and the ground gradually turned from the bones into pools of blood and mud. Miss Stelter frowned slightly, and a circle of flames spread out from under her feet, harmlessly passed the red wolf and burned it. Dried the blood on the surface—she didn't mind walking in the blood, but the newly adopted pet still had to be taken care of for the time being.