Boxes, still boxes!
When Hermes smilingly played the anime "Re:CREATORS" before them, Altair finally broke down completely.
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
The Military Uniform Princess watched the anime play bit by bit, murmuring in a raspy voice, "If this is true, then it means Setsuna was never my Creator?"
"Then hasn't my whole life been a joke?"
This was something enough to completely shatter her worldview. If it were true, then the so-called Land of the Gods was also created by other [Creators]... Then my journey through various [Work Worlds] to gather people, attempting to take revenge on the so-called [Creators] and destroy the so-called real world—wasn't that also under the control of an author outside the box?
My revenge is just a plot; my feelings for Setsuna are also arranged by an author; every single one of my actions becomes reality under the pen of an author outside the box?
Altair's eyes were vacant as she stared blankly, feeling as if all strength had left her body, her very bones turning soft.
"Uh..."
Hermes looked at the Military Uniform Princess speechlessly. How could her mental fortitude be so fragile?
With such weak mental fortitude, can she really be a qualified antagonist?
She wouldn't be taken out by a protagonist's talk-no-jutsu and get killed off by the plot, would she...? Regarding the collapsing Altair, Mei remained noncommittal, instead quickly watching through the plot of the anime "Re:CREATORS" and falling into deep thought.
Works under an author's pen can form corresponding worlds?
Recognition Power?
Piercing the dimensional boundaries between illusion and reality?
Being able to add settings to corresponding characters by continuously changing the work's settings?
She now understood what her teacher meant; this world was indeed a massive opportunity for her study of dimensional sciences.
If she could research it thoroughly... "Wait! If everything is a setting, then where did my Holopsicon, which continuously stacks Secondary Settings, come from?"
After a long while, Altair finally came to her senses. Recalling the ability that brought her to this world, she spoke urgently as if clutching at a final straw, "And if everything is a plot under an author's pen, then what about you?"
"What is your deal? Are you a bug that broke the fourth wall?"
"You still haven't figured it out?"
Hermes looked at the girl in the military uniform speechlessly. What was there to be so conflicted about?
You can accept being created by your own Creator and becoming a so-called virtual character, so why can't you accept that there is a [Real World] beyond the [Real World]?
Or, just be more open-minded and believe in quotes of the strong like 'I think, therefore I am' or 'Even if the world is fake, as long as I believe it's real, it's real'... How did you actually fall into this trap?
Sighing, Hermes didn't explain further.
Instead, he focused slightly, his will spreading through endless time and space along the girl before him, piercing through all mists.
He wanted to see clearly exactly which audacious fellow had come to his disciple's past timeline to stir up trouble.
Hermes wouldn't believe that Altair could pierce through the multiverse and come here to recruit people just by relying on the so-called [Holopsicon].
As he drew closer to the truth, Hermes' brow furrowed unconsciously.
That scent of chaotic disorder and twisted rebellion gave Hermes a faint urge to avoid it.
It was like... like a normal person instinctively staying away from dog sh*t?
It wasn't fear, but disgust... After a slight hesitation, Hermes finally took a step. Following a blur of time and space, Hermes' consciousness arrived in a new world.
"This world..."
"Why is it so strange?"
As soon as this wisp of Hermes' consciousness entered this world and formed an avatar, he frowned after sensing it for a moment. He looked up, his gaze tearing through all mists of time and space, piercing through the World Lines above the River of Time that were like a tangled mess.
"In this world, who is setting the bait? Who is laying the plan?"
On that boundless River of Time, endless waves rippled, and each wave was a looming, half-real, half-illusory world.
The river surged, and time cycled.
A world island, seemingly the only true one in the heavens, floated quietly above the river, like the beginning of heaven and earth, the far shore of time!
It was—
The True Realm!
That is, the so-called real world in "Re:CREATORS," the Land of the Gods in Altair's words.
Seeing this, Hermes finally understood everything.
"The unique worldview in 'Re:CREATORS' is a natural fishing ground. Those Work Worlds are bait, and Altair is also bait, specifically used for fishing..."
Those illusory worlds were hung on fishing rods by those anglers, becoming bait cast into the endless void.
When a [fish] takes the bait, it is reeled back to the [True Realm] by the anglers, turning the original [illusion] into [reality]!
And Altair, relying on [Holopsicon], anchored the originally illusory [works], turning them into coordinates to continuously cross boundaries between reality and illusion... Hermes' gaze was calm as he looked at the figures seated before eternity and in the endless future.
These figures made no movement, but their mere presence seemed to cause the River of Time to be cut off.
However.
"Since it's fishing, it would be quite normal to be overturned by the fish you caught, wouldn't it?"
Hermes' indifferent voice spread through the ripples of time, transmitting into the endless space-time.
Without waiting for a response.
The Principle of Pure Beauty bloomed on Hermes' body, and within a breath, his own [Principle] rapidly pervaded this world.
The [Principle] belonging solely to Hermes began to [Dao-taint] heaven and earth!
In the next moment, Hermes extended his palm, curving it slightly. He struck out with a claw, and eternal time and space were about to be grasped within His clutch.
Changing heaven and earth, under His claw, time and space were treated almost like a ball of clay, squeezed and flattened at will.
"If you are still alive after this strike of mine, only then will you be qualified to discuss anything else!"
Although what was here was only a wisp of an avatar.
But at Hermes' level, sometimes the gap between an avatar and the true self is no longer significant.
Or rather, every avatar can become the true self at any time.
With a gentle strike of His claw, [Pure Beauty], which had stepped half a pace beyond Cosmic Truth and could be called weak-multiversal, stirred the immeasurable time and space!
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