Chapter 406: Relics of Another World

"Just as I thought, as my body grows stronger, so too will this door. After what I picked up from that abyssal octopus, it broke through its limits and was able to project itself into the void in a different form."

Wang Yu glanced around his mindscape, a pitch-black expanse that was largely unchanged. The only notable difference was that the door's sphere of influence had spread further, its flooring now paving a far greater stretch of ground.

From where he stood, its radius looked roughly five or six times larger than before. Whatever he had absorbed from that abyssal creature had brought about startling changes in his body.

"The interior should have expanded as well. I wonder if I can reach..."

He walked up to the door, pushed it open, and stepped inside to survey the familiar room within.

On the surface, nothing seemed different. Every piece of furniture stood exactly where it always had, spotless and suspended. Time here remained frozen, only flowing when he himself stepped through.

He crumpled a sheet of paper into a ball and tossed it toward the open window. The wad shot out quickly—only to smack into an invisible wall ten meters beyond, rebound slightly, and tumble downward.

The door's radius had expanded to precisely ten and a half meters. And now he realized something he had missed before: this realm had both horizontal and vertical boundaries.

The wad of paper hovered three stories down, about ten or so meters below his sixth-floor vantage point. This suggested that the boundary zone really was spherical, and its size matched that of the flooring that expanded from the door in his mindscape.

"Good. That's definitely more than enough. Now let's hope everything goes as planned..."

He turned to the bedroom door. Normally, stepping through would deposit him back into the void of his mindscape. But this time, he mustered up his intent, hesitated for a breath, and then pushed it open.

If he were back on Earth, the doorway would naturally lead to his apartment's kitchen and living room. And on the dining table in that very room, he had left something important.

The knob turned. The view beyond revealed itself—not the void, but rather the familiar clutter of his own living room.

A rectangular dining table, stained by years of use, was right before him. On it was a laptop plugged into the wall.

"Great!"

He clenched a fist in triumph. He had hoped that it would work, but seeing it actually do so nevertheless left him thrilled. Finally, he had an electronic device within his grasp.

Wang Yu had always used his laptop in the living room, with his phone by its side. He lived alone, so he hadn't been all too concerned about his privacy. As a result, he hadn't been able to take advantage of having an electronic device while the door was still restricted to his room.

"Wait..."

He started toward the laptop but paused as he spotted a few things on the shelf: two or three bags of biscuits and other snacks.

"Let's have a few..."

Wang Yu tore a pack open without hesitation, stuffed a handful into his mouth, and chewed. The cloying sweetness, the desert-dry texture, and the faint musk of biscuits long past their prime all struck his senses at once. Yes, these were definitely the biscuits he had bought months ago and left forgotten in the living room.

"Well, it's as awful as ever."

It was dreadful compared to Avia's cooking, yet the nostalgic flavor brought a smile to his lips.

He polished off the bag, though he didn't feel any fuller afterwards. He left the rest untouched; once he finished them, they would be gone for good.

"Alright. Let's see..."

He dragged a chair out and sat before the laptop. With a tap of his mouse, the screen flared to life—it hadn't been shut down. Clearly, these electronics could still be used.

His home screen flashed into view, unchanged: there were work files, games, and photos. The battery sat at 99%, though no power flowed from the outlet. The Wi-Fi and internet were cut off, as expected. Still, everything else seemed usable.

He opened a few games and flipped through several photos. Everything was just what he expected.

"Perfect."

Now came the real test: bringing the laptop out of his mindscape.

Before, this would have been pointless. The door had only ever existed in his mindscape. But now it had manifested in the void itself, and its reach was clearly defined.

Wang Yu was currently "inside" the door, and its sphere of influence was the "outside." He wanted to see if he could bring the laptop out.

He hefted the device, opened the old wooden door of his room, and stepped through. In the next instant, he was back in his mindscape, laptop solid in his grasp.

"Just as I thought."

Last time, he had carried out a ball of paper. This time, it was an entire laptop—and it still worked.

He set it down with care, then returned to his body.

"When I entered my mindscape, did anything change out here?"

Wang Yu turned to Avia, who had been carefully observing him and their surroundings through her Perfect Fractal lens.

"Nothing I noticed. And you only had your eyes closed for forty-three seconds."

She shook her head, a trace of vexation in her expression. Clearly, he had meddled with something from his world again, but she hadn't perceived a thing.

"That short? Strange. It felt as long as the last time I lost consciousness. It must be tied to my physical state. Anyway, let's go check out the void. I think we might find a little surprise there."

He grinned, clapped her on the shoulder, and asked her to open a rift. In the material world, he hadn't sensed any change tied to the door. But in the void, within his newly claimed domain, something faint was stirring.

Avia's vexation was obvious. He knew how deeply she cared about anything connected to his homeland.

"Mm."

She nodded, opened up a void rift, and stepped through at his side, his hand in hers.

The door in the void looked identical to the one in his mindscape. Yet Avia couldn't open it, and neither could he. It was, outwardly, nothing but a slab of wood.

But this time, Wang Yu could sense something: a faint, hazy presence, near-imperceptible from the outside. Something was forming on the other side of the door.

The power of the Chariot unfolded, drawing on void energy and converging upon a certain point. Slowly, an object began to take shape. Before their very eyes, a laptop identical to Wang Yu's own appeared.

"This... this is the 'laptop' you kept talking about?"

Avia's eyes went wide with astonishment. She had heard Wang Yu mention this mysterious device many times, but she had never imagined she would one day see it with her own eyes.

"Yeah. That's my laptop," Wang Yu replied with a grin. "I'll admit, I didn't expect it to really work. I definitely can't bring it into the material world—the components probably don't even exist there. But in the void, the rules are looser. You just need to knead a bit of void energy together."

That half-joking explanation was Wang Yu's best guess of this entire situation.

He had once toyed with the idea of molding a phone or computer from the void, but never thought it would actually succeed. Yet here it was—no mere black box, but a faithful replica, every internal circuit and component copied whole.

"Now I can finally show it to you instead of just talking about it."

He flipped the laptop open and beckoned Avia closer. Avia leaned in, curiosity sparkling in her eyes.

"This is my home," Wang Yu said, clicking through pictures. "It's old, but comfortable enough."

"And this... this is the ‘car' you spoke of?"

"Exactly. That's where the idea for the engine of our alchemical motorbike came from. It's all bits and pieces of what I remembered from back then."

"Oh! And this is your sun? Hm... what about the moon? It doesn't change color? A world with no void, no magic, not even fighting spirit... truly incredible."

Her voice brimmed with wonder as she devoured each photo, eyes shining with fascination. She had spent countless hours discussing this place called "Earth" with Wang Yu, but to see it now captured in vivid images was a different experience altogether.

A young woman's curiosity and a scholar's hunger for knowledge burned brightly in her.

Earth was not merely another plane, but a world whose very foundation differed from her own, stripped clean of the supernatural forces that suffused every other realm she knew. And more than that, it was the world Wang Yu longed to return to.

"This is the night sky?" she whispered, gazing at a picture of glittering stars. "How beautiful... I wonder if our stars look the same. Hahaha, and this friend of yours is so fat!"

"Who knows? Maybe one day I'll get the chance to compare. And hey, people like to eat, nothing strange about that. Here, let me show you something else—I used to play this all the time."

He opened his Steam library. Most of the games were single-player and perfectly functional even without the internet.

For the first time in ages, Wang Yu found himself slipping back into old habits, losing track of time as he played. His reflexes were sharper than ever—almost superhuman—but even so, card games like Slay the Spire still carried the same addictive charm.

Avia had sat quietly by his side for a long while, enthralled by the game. Her interest was palpable.

"I think you should play this card," a voice offered from over his shoulder.

Before Wang Yu could respond, a shadow fell over him. He turned to find the towering Lady of the Night bent over, watching him play. He had no idea how long she had been standing there.

Scratching his head, Wang Yu remembered belatedly that he had given Sieg and the others access to this space. Still, wasn't it common courtesy not to backseat someone else's game? Even gods should know that.

"...Want me to make you one too?" he asked.

With a wave of void energy, he conjured another laptop and handed it to her.

"Thank you."

The goddess smiled brightly, then wandered off to play her own card games.

By the time he turned back, Avia was already tinkering with the laptop herself. For someone as smart as she was, learning its functions was child's play.

𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Wang Yu, what's inside these folders?" she asked suddenly. She had stumbled across a few locked with simple but obvious passwords.

Wang Yu glanced over to see Avia eyeing his "study files." Back on Earth, though he had never dated, he was still a man with needs like any other. Some things he had, well, taken care of himself.

"You can think of it like... the Earth equivalent of The Amorous Adventures of a Wild Magician," he said with disarming honesty. "That's what I used to look at back then."

Avia blinked, but accepted the explanation as he entered the password.

"..."

She opened the folder, skimmed a couple of files, then quickly lost interest. There wasn't much—hardly anything at all, really.

"Wang Yu, come here for a moment."

Her tone was somewhat strange.

"...Uh."

She rarely spoke like that, which made him nervous. He worried she might actually be upset. Still, he obediently leaned closer.

Then, her hands seized the collar of his shirt. She didn't pull hard. In fact, her grip trembled a little.

"...Y-you... you're blushing!"

Wang Yu's eyes went wide. He hadn't blushed, not at all—but Avia's face was burning scarlet as she stared straight into his eyes, stammering the words out with all the defiance she could muster.

"Pfft. Haha!"

He couldn't help it. He burst out laughing.

"Wh-What are you laughing at?!" Avia sputtered out. Her cheeks were aflame.

"Nothing," Wang Yu said, grin widening. "You're just... too cute."