The Strange Cat from Fuuto

"Forehead....."

The somewhat bewildered director quickly waved his hand and said, "Calm down first. I will meet your request, but flour and eggs are extremely precious right now, so I'm afraid the amount I can allocate to you will not be much."

"It doesn't matter, I'm satisfied as long as I can make pastries again."

Uncle Durian, his face beaming with joy, happily left the director's office. The director, rubbing his brow, said with a troubled expression, "I feel like I've brought in a really troublesome employee!"

"But isn't this a good thing?"

A clear, crisp female voice came from the bedroom next to the director. The woman, who was behind the director and familiarly massaging his shoulders, said softly, "Even if it's a little strange, isn't it good that we can help now?"

"Yes, you're absolutely right!"

"In this situation, increasing our combat strength is more important than anything else." The director reached out and grabbed the woman's hand on his shoulder. "If I hadn't met you, I probably would have gone crazy by now!"

"You are the leader, a general in charge of this region, how can you panic first?"

"I'm still very sorry that we couldn't find your brother." The director's eyes showed guilt, and the woman's face also showed a trace of worry: "Sigh, I don't know how he is now."

"Don't worry, I'll find him!"

"Then I'll leave it to you!"

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

As night falls, the once bustling city of Sawame is now shrouded in darkness, illuminated only by scattered lights and the occasional eerie cries, making it seem like a ghost town.

A boy appeared silently on the rooftop of a high-rise building in Sawame City, standing on the edge and looking down at the entire city.

"What a disgusting city, the pervasive atmosphere of fighting, and these brainless idiots who rely on strength!"

The boy, with his incredibly deep eyes, took in everything in the city. He sighed and said, "If only there were no fighting between humans. We could live in harmony, so why do we have to fight?"

"But they chose the most foolish path and got stuck in a quagmire from which they can't get out!"

The boy, who showed extreme aversion to fighting and strife, closed his eyes, raised his left arm high, and a flash of light appeared on the bracelet on his wrist.

"Let me stop this disgusting fighting!"

A thunderclap suddenly resounded in the sky, and lightning flashed through the layers of clouds as if revealing something.

"Let me stop all of this with my own power. This world shouldn't be like this."

"She should be even more beautiful!"

After retracting his arm, the boy vanished from the rooftop in a flash.

"Rumble..."

Apart from the occasional rumble of thunder, the entire city of Sawame returned to calm, as if nothing had ever happened.

But is it really so?

Helheim Forest, the ruins of Fimsim, the throne room.

Several wooden skewers of meat stood beside the roaring campfire. Miku lay lazily by the fire, while Baiya sat cross-legged beside him, waiting for the meat to be cooked.

Sugar, sweating profusely, skewered meat on wooden sticks, busily serving the two old men.

"Hmm?" Miku, whose brows suddenly furrowed, looked at Baiya: "Did you feel it? There was a strange fluctuation of power just now."

"I sensed it, but it appeared very quickly and very subtly." After taking the meat skewer from Sugar, Bai Ya hesitated for a moment, looked at the glistening meat in his hand, opened his mouth, and took a bite.

How does it taste?

"Not bad, at least it reminded me of the taste of meat."

"Then make more!"

"Ah."

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

The next day, as the first ray of sunlight pierced the darkness, a blurry, unseen figure appeared in the sky above Sawame City.

It resembles a city, but it's so blurry that it's hard to see clearly.

As time went by, the phantom gradually became clearer and got closer and closer to Sawame City.

Chapter 40: Helheim is actually a transit point, a ladder to heaven.

Sawame City is a planned city independently developed under the guidance of the World Tree Foundation.

Sawame, once a leading city among the world's major cities, is now a city that people all over the world aspire to visit, but it has now become a city that everyone fears and dreads.

An alien world has launched a massive invasion, with mysterious plants growing wildly in the city and ferocious monsters from that world launching a frenzied attack.

In just three days, Sawame City became a city that resembled a ghost town.

Fortunately, the entire city was enveloped by a mysterious force, which prevented the tragedy of one city from becoming a tragedy for the whole world.

This also led some "large" countries to abandon their plans to bring nuclear peace to Sawame City.

But on this day, the whole world was shaken once again because of Sawame City, because in the sky above Sawame City, an upside-down city was moving closer to Sawame City as time went by, and the illusory city reflected the scene of another Sawame City.

At the World Tree headquarters, the director summoned all the current experimental personnel to study the upside-down city in the sky.

"According to our investigation, Director, although it's hard to believe, it is indeed another Sawame City!"

"what?!"

The director, who had shoved the computer screen to examine the data, asked incredulously, "Another Sawame City?"

"what is going on?"

“Simply put…” Sengoku Ryoma, holding a document, handed it to the director. “The city of Sawame above us belongs to another world. For some unknown reason, perhaps due to the influence of the Helheim Forest, or perhaps due to unknown causal changes, spacetime was distorted, bringing this city into our world.”

Will it bring any negative consequences?

“Adverse consequences?” Zhan Ji Lingma, who had been stroking his chin in thought for a moment, suddenly laughed and said, “There are only two possibilities that I can think of right now.”

"Two kinds?" The director looked at Sengoku Ryoma with suspicion. Sengoku Ryoma held up a finger and said, "First, the two worlds' Sawame City merged with each other, but we cannot predict what the result of this merger will be."

"Second, the two cities collide and then perish together!"

"perish together?!"

"This is still the best-case scenario. According to my reasoning, the worst-case scenario is that the collision between the two worlds' Sawame Cities will cause a chain reaction that will completely destroy both worlds!"

"How is this possible? There's another Sawame City...!"

Seeing the director's uncertain expression, Zhanji Lingma patted him on the shoulder and said, "Hasn't the research on the Helheim Forest already explained this point?"

"In the infinite universe, there are countless unknown parallel worlds, and what we are encountering now is just one of them."

"The most pressing issue now is how to deal with the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads."

His eyes were dark as he stared at the other director of Sawame City above him, his fist slowly clenching.

At the Gaim headquarters, Sha Cheng stood on the rooftop, looking up at the illusory city in the sky. Gao Siwu came to his side and asked, "What do you think this is?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's not a good thing for us."

"Hopefully, nothing else goes wrong. Sawame City can't take any more trouble!"

Near a perpetual spatial rift in the Forest of Helheim, Ao Jiao sat on the ground, panting and resting. Zhen Hong remained in her transformed state, but her eyes behind her goggles revealed undisguised admiration.

"Can we do it again?!"

As he slowly opened his mouth, Shinku paid no attention to the upside-down city phantom above his head. Having been reprimanded by Byakuya multiple times, he had restrained his personality and did exactly as Byakuya instructed.

His current goal is to nurture this young man in front of him and make him stronger; he doesn't care about anything else.

"Master, do you have any information about the city above us?"

“I don’t know about these things, and it’s not your place to worry about them. What you need to think about is becoming stronger, stronger, stronger, until you surpass me.”

"When that time comes, I will tell you everything you need to know!"

"it is good!"

Aojiao, who had pressed the lock, looked at Zhenhong with a cold gaze, "Then let's do it again!"

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

Helheim Forest, the ruins of Fimsim, the throne room.

The image of Sawame City appeared on the stone wall behind the throne of Byakuya. Miku squatted on the ground and looked at the scene in front of them with Byakuya.

"Is there anything you'd like to say about this?"

Miku asked a question, and Baiya stared at the city's illusory image on the screen for a moment before saying, "Clearly, this is what the snake is trying to remind us of."

"But isn't this clearly abnormal?"

"The Forest of Helheim is a land of miracles, so I wouldn't be surprised if something happened there." Baiya returned to his throne, and Miku curled his lip and returned to his seat.

"Just tell me straight up what you know!"

"According to the snake, you caused a troublesome creature in the forest to awaken. It seems that this is its doing."

"Does this have anything to do with what we're talking about?" Miku climbed down, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes. Baiya looked up at the sky for a moment before asking, "How much do you know about the Forest of the Underworld?"

"Um......"

After a moment's thought, Miku spoke without hesitation: "To be honest, I know nothing about the Helheim Forest except that it produces golden fruits."

"Golden fruit!"

With a tone full of emotion, Bai Ya looked at his palm and slowly said, "What you said is not wrong. The Forest of Helheim will actively erode the world, and for each world it erodes, the forest will spontaneously produce golden fruits that belong to that world."

"And it will be given as a reward to those brave souls who challenge the forest."

"Hmm, anything else?"

"Furthermore, the Forest of Helheim is actually a meeting point of multiple worlds!"

"What?" Miku asked incredulously, tilting his head to the side. "The intersection of multiple worlds?!"

“That’s right, I have seen similar sights in my long life.” Bai Ya was lost in memories: “Powerful beings have been traveling between different worlds using the Forest of Helheim. Without exception, these people have all had interactions with the Forest of Helheim.”

"So, the Helheim Forest, which drives species evolution and the sublimation of the world, is actually just a transit station?!"

“You could say that.” Bai Ya nodded, but then asked with a puzzled look, “I just don’t know if it’s that world that has overlapped with this world again because of the influence of the Helheim Forest.”