You are very strong, but my painting style is better than yours!

"hiss!"

I remember now! I remember everything!

Snapped!

He slapped himself hard across the face, the burning pain shooting through his nerves, but he laughed like a masochist.

"It's true! It's true! I really saw it!"

Beyond common sense, defying the laws of physics! That's exactly what I want!

Wait… Master? Master! Master, where are you?!

-

[CG included]

That's something to look forward to!

Type: Bond

Quality: Legend

Grade: B+

Rewards Overview:

Physical Strength - Minor Improvement

Toughness with slight improvement

Mental Strength - Minor Enhancement

Mobility and Minor Improvement

Hit chance slightly increased

Avoidance & Slight Enhancement

Draw extra rewards:

Art style value +1;

-

What's wrong with this guy...?

Iori stood atop a large tree, in a spirit form invisible to the naked eye, observing the shouting boy below, her feelings inexplicably complex.

If Iori isn't mistaken, this delusional guy should be the protagonist of "Shadow Reality"... well, I really can't remember his name, so let's just call him "Shadow" for now.

Although they had not exchanged names, their unusual words and actions, as well as their physical strength which was completely out of character for teenagers, made it almost certain that they were indeed dating.

This person is quite "remarkable," not in terms of intelligence, strength, or personality (although his combat power is indeed very high, it's normal for a light novel protagonist to have some kind of cheat code), but in terms of his extremely firm will.

From his past life to his transmigration, Shadow's pursuit and beliefs have never wavered. Leaving aside the flaws, in terms of "following his own path," this guy has reached a point of near-madness.

Some people become clowns when they go mad, while others become mad and cause others to follow suit—Shadow belongs to the latter.

They have no doubt about their choices, adhere to their passions and beliefs unwaveringly, and are willing to give their all, even using their own bodies and lives as tools. This unusual personality and behavior pattern, however, grants them immense power.

To be honest, in Iori's eyes, this guy is on par with Mayuri Kurotsuchi in terms of abnormality. It's just that he was born into relatively intact families in both his previous and current lives, so he didn't turn out too badly and still has a normal level of morality and humanity.

Of course, none of the above should have much to do with Iori. His initial idea was to explore that other world properly and he didn't really want to have any contact with the protagonist—that guy's luck in the original work was too strong. Even if he talked nonsense, he could just happen to reveal the truth of the conspiracy. Who knows if there was anything fishy going on?

Since the other world is vast and a complete magical civilization, Iori can gain a lot by exploring on her own, so she doesn't plan to try her luck around the protagonist.

However, his thoughts have now subtly changed.

In just one night... without exchanging more than two words, Iori had already gotten three CGs from the other party... the efficiency was a bit too high.

You should know that the last time he harvested CGs at such a high speed was when he was exchanging feelings with Esdeath and Sera in bed—but this is obviously not the same thing!

Is it because people with chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) are easier to fool?

On the other hand, he is a rare talent!

But how can we take advantage of this? This world is an ordinary world without magic or spiritual particles. Under the rules, at most some supernatural phenomena will occur, so there shouldn't be many opportunities to change the art style.

Using Japanese yakuza or right-wing elements as villains? A complete style shift, from superheroic battles to urban legends?

"Ok?"

Just as Iori was pondering whether to take a trip to Kasumigaseki, her eyes suddenly lit up. She raised her face to look at the still somewhat gloomy sky and squinted slightly.

"It seems... different now."

When he first arrived here yesterday, he didn't explore too thoroughly, only knowing that this was a "magic-free" world. Although there were traces of magic around, only a small amount of magic flowed in through the cracks and then quickly dissipated, as the amount was too small to affect the atmospheric environment.

However, when Iori calmed down and focused her senses, she discovered that there seemed to be a tiny bit of... extremely faint but definitely present magic in the surrounding environment!

It's unlikely to be yesterday's residue... A single drop of ink falling into the sea couldn't possibly stain the entire ocean.

"Something's not right!"

With a slight push of her feet, Iori instantly soared into the air, using Instant Step several times to fly thousands of meters into the sky before finally stopping by condensing a "staircase" of spiritual particles.

He closed his eyes and grasped the Kusanagi, completely opening his senses. With the help of the [Mirror of Still Water] ability, he reflected the flow of all things into his mind. Then he "saw" a fluid that looked like a thin mist slowly flowing down the atmosphere, becoming thinner and thinner as it went down, and eventually almost disappearing completely.

"Up there?"

Iori's eyes narrowed, and her body shot into the sky like a cannonball, this time breaking through the clouds and flying towards the thinner outer atmosphere.

If it were using airflow, it would stop here. Fortunately, Iori uses spirit particles as propulsion and does not require external energy supply, so it can keep rushing upwards.

Gradually, he could no longer feel the atmosphere, the temperature in the space dropped sharply, and the intense ultraviolet rays shone on Iori, making his face feel slightly tight.

Anyone else would probably be suffocating by now—Iori realized once again the convenience of her body.

Reaching an altitude where the Earth's outline could be seen, which was almost considered outer space, the capillaries in my body almost instantly ruptured, and my vision was stained with blood, but they healed in the blink of an eye.

Iori endured the discomfort emanating from within and outside her body, activating "Instantaneous Shout" on her skin to act as a barrier, reinforcing her spiritual pressure defense while probing the source of the magical energy flow...

Finally, after traveling hundreds of kilometers laterally, he found the thing.

"hiss!"

Iori is quite knowledgeable these days, but even so, she couldn't help but gasp... uh, vacuum.

No wonder he lost his composure; that thing was simply beyond his imagination.

A spatial rift, tens of kilometers long, resembling the eye of a giant beast, with countless shimmering points of light inside, as if containing a nebula, stretches across the universe!

Chapter 201: How can we stand still?

What happened? Could it be something I did?!

A terrible thought flashed through Iori's mind, but she quickly shook her head and dismissed it:

Although he and that monster also fell into this world through a spatial rift, that rift disappeared quickly, and its size was at most a few hundred meters, which was not even in the same league as this thing in front of them!

If this crack hadn't appeared in the starry sky but instead landed on the ground, it would have easily swallowed up a city, right?

Iori hovered at the edge of the atmosphere, gazing intently at the surreal scene, completely forgetting the enormous strain her body was under.

Almost visible magic flowed continuously from the cracks, then entered the atmosphere and dissipated to various places... Although the scale was not small, it was only at the level of a leaky faucet for Earth. To transform it into a true magical world would probably require years.

With this thought in mind, Iori ignored the extremely thin atmosphere and flew directly across the horizon toward the other side of the Earth's outline.

...He endured for three days and three nights in this extremely harsh environment. Although he was able to withstand the strain, he was quite mentally exhausted, but fortunately, he made some progress.

He physically traveled the world and discovered that this wasn't the only spatial rift; various rifts of different sizes were scattered around the Earth, with at least five or six of similar size to this one. Interestingly, these rifts weren't absolutely static; rather, they remained synchronized with the Earth, changing positions as the Earth rotated and revolved around it.

—This doesn't seem like space collapsing on its own; it's more like something is locking the Earth in place.

Furthermore, Iori observed a very alarming trend: these cracks are gradually widening!

Logically speaking, if it cannot be stopped, these cracks will eventually envelop the entire Earth in outer space, and when they connect... something unimaginable will surely happen!

Leaving aside the physical damage caused by the crack and the other dimension it connects to, the endless magical energy released from it alone will pollute the entire atmosphere and distort the entire existing biosphere on Earth!

Earth is very resilient. It can withstand solar storms, cosmic rays, and asteroid impacts. Space cracks, at most, can leave some large canyons in the Earth's crust, which are frankly nothing to Earth.

But the biosphere is very fragile!

A slight increase or decrease in temperature, a slight increase or decrease in rainfall, a slight increase or decrease in carbon dioxide concentration... Even without considering natural disasters such as super earthquakes and supervolcanoes, minor changes in these basic data are enough to cause the extinction of hundreds or thousands of species, and even affect all life!

"Not good!"

Iori's expression was solemn, but upon reflection, she realized she was powerless to stop it, and she felt relieved.

"So it seems that my being sent to this world by the spatial rift was not a coincidence... It's not just that they're close, these two worlds are clearly 'stuck' together!"

Sooner or later, Earth will collide with another dimension, and countless people will die on that day… With so many spatial rifts, has no country observed them?

What Iori couldn't understand the most was this: given the number of spatial rifts and the density of satellites launched into space by various countries, they should have been observed long ago. But if such a supernatural phenomenon really existed, then that kid (Kageno Minoru) wouldn't be so obsessed with Iori...

In other words, either no one observed this phenomenon, or the flow of intelligence was being artificially controlled.

Of course, there are many reasons, such as the fear of causing public panic. After all, with human technology, it is difficult to do anything about "space" itself. We can only watch it happen and at most pray that things will develop in a positive direction.

Under these circumstances, it seems that concealing the truth is actually good for social order.

"At this rate... is it only about a month away from complete collapse?"

Iori suddenly realized that the reason the protagonist in the novel ran into the dump truck was because he let himself go during his training and mistakenly thought he had found magic power and blindly rushed out... When Iori was reading the novel, she thought it was a hallucination caused by the protagonist's obsession to a certain extent.

But considering the current situation, could it be that the kid wasn't mistaken after all, and there really was a magical aura nearby that he just happened to encounter?

However, the protagonist was hit by a truck while searching for the spatial rift... Fortunately, although his physical body died, his soul drifted along the spatial rift to the other side.

"Um?!"

Iori suddenly realized: "If we compare the situation of 'Shadow Reality' with the Three Realms, Earth and the other world are far apart and have a stable structure, but there is an unstable other dimension in between, which acts as a bridge for communication?"

Thinking about it carefully, the "hell" that Iori descended into back then, although it was not small in area, did indeed resemble a fragmented world, or even a world in the process of collapse.

Wait, doesn't that mean—

"Is it possible to travel to another world from here?!"

Iori's eyes narrowed as she intently examined a large spatial rift in the distance.

No! I can't act impulsively!

Think twice before you act on this kind of thing...

Firstly, when they entered the rift for the first time, both Iori and the monster's bodies successfully traversed it without encountering much danger along the way.

Secondly, Iori possesses story CGs, which can even allow people to travel between different worldviews. This is of high priority and can be used even in time-space rifts.

You can still get CGs even if you stay on Earth. The male protagonist is a very useful, or rather, easy-to-cultivate, character.

However, Earth probably doesn't offer much "nutrients" to draw from, so in the end, a fantasy world is more suitable for adventurers!

Moreover, if one can successfully find another world and then master the channel that allows free movement between two (or three) worlds... just thinking about it reveals how many unimaginable opportunities are hidden there!

Flashing~

With a pair of beautiful wings fluttering up and down, the Hell Butterfly, radiating a faint magical energy, returned from the crack and landed on Iori's index finger.

The boy nodded slightly, and with a flick of his wrist, the Hell Butterfly dissipated into pure magical energy.

"One more successful test. It seems the inside of the crack is indeed relatively safe... Let's give it a try!"

Having made up her mind, Iori no longer hesitated and, propelled by magic, leaped directly into the large spatial rift, immediately feeling a different kind of pressure from the surrounding vacuum.

The process was somewhat boring. Sometimes, Iori couldn't even tell if he was moving forward. He could only see countless star-like things flickering in the distance, out of reach of him. But fortunately, it didn't last too long, and there was no need to worry about "getting lost," because as long as he kept moving forward, a "flow" of some invisible substance would automatically take him to his destination.

He felt like a cog in an assembly line... Iori held on for about a hundred seconds when a bright light suddenly appeared in front of him. Then, the surrounding magic tightened like a mimosa plant, creating a force that "threw" him away!

--call!!!

The howling wind rang in her ears, and the familiar smell of sulfur filled her nostrils once more. Iori's eyes widened instantly as the apocalyptic scene flashed into her mind.

came back!

Without hesitation or confusion, he immediately activated Instant Step and rushed towards another spatial rift that was relatively close. After arriving, he stopped at the edge for about four seconds before giving up and flying to the next one.

In one minute, he tried ten spatial rifts in a row, but none of them were what he wanted, until his eyes suddenly lit up in front of a medium-sized rift several tens of meters long—

"If this spatial rift in hell really leads to Earth and another world, it's impossible to tell which one leads to Earth and which one leads to another world just by looking at their shapes."

However, if we consider magic as a concentrated fluid... then due to the difference in the concentration of magic on Earth and in the other world, the speed at which magic is output from the spatial rift to the two worlds will also differ!

Compared to Earth, which has no magic at all, the other world, which has a fairly high concentration of magic, will have a slower rate of magic flowing in from 'Hell'!