“Constructing an Inner World?”
At noon, since there was nothing else to do, Qiu Qiqian and Li Meng returned home together.
As soon as they arrived, Qiu Qiqian asked Li Meng about constructing an Inner World.
After all, hadn’t this girl said before — “You aren’t the only one who can use an Inner World”?
Qiu Qiqian had no idea what Li Meng’s Inner World was actually like… or rather, she didn’t feel like Li Meng had even deployed one, because that Titan Anomaly seemed to have died in an instant.
“Well… my Inner World is a bit different from those of most Nether Bodies, and… Xiao Qian, you are an Anomaly yourself, so I might not be able to teach you.”
“Hmm… is that so? That’s a bit of a headache…”
As she spoke, Qiu Qiqian actually rubbed her head, likely feeling at a loss for where to begin.
“However, don’t worry, Xiao Qian. I once had the privilege of listening to a lecture given by another Nether Body who could deploy an Inner World. The general idea is… first, you have to visualize ‘stripping’ yourself and your target away from the current reality.”
“Strip them away?”
Qiu Qiqian closed her eyes and visualized it for a moment, attempting to use her own Nether Breath to “pull” herself out of this space.
In Li Meng’s eyes, Qiu Qiqian’s figure flickered slightly like a television with a poor signal, but she never completely disappeared.
It was unclear whether this was because of their binding effect or if she simply couldn’t grasp the right point.
“Um… Xiao Qian, remember to ‘strip’ me out as well, otherwise you might not be able to enter your Inner World because of our binding effect,” Li Meng reminded her.
“Ugh… I’m trying to strip you too, but… it doesn’t seem to be working. What you said earlier was a bit abstract. Can’t you be more specific?”
Qiu Qiqian sighed and reopened her eyes to look at Li Meng, her expression somewhat helpless.
“Well… constructing an Inner World is mostly about personal intuition. But… remember what I told you before? An Anomaly can distort and transform the local space they occupy, replacing its interior to create a space advantageous to themselves. If… Xiao Qian, if you can’t manage to strip your own existence, why not try using your Nether Breath to distort your current location first, and then… replace yourself?”
“Distort the space… then replace myself? I’ll try again…”
Qiu Qiqian let out a long breath and closed her eyes once more.
Li Meng intended to stay by Qiu Qiqian’s side and watch her attempt it, but just then, the doorbell rang.
Her home was in a rather remote location, and she hadn’t done any online shopping recently.
After thinking about it, she figured the Association had probably sent her something.
“Alright, Xiao Qian, you go ahead and try. The doorbell rang; I’ll go see what it is.”
Li Meng looked through the peephole but didn’t see anyone outside.
After opening the door and looking around, she still saw no one.
There was only a cardboard box on the ground with a card placed on top, which seemed to have something written on it.
Li Meng crouched down and picked up the card to read: “Miss Li Meng, this is Case No. 816 — Cursed Video. According to our inspection, the Anomaly inside has refreshed. Please help handle it and collect its Wart Crystal.”
A Cursed Video…
Li Meng picked up the videotape from the box and examined it.
Right… this was the Anomaly object where, after watching it, one would be haunted by an Anomaly and eventually tortured to death.
It seemed that every time one was summoned, it was either Chimei Grade or Lieyin Grade…
The Cursed Video was similar to a Ritual-type Anomaly; the Anomaly contained within would refresh every so often.
The good news was that this particular Cursed Video had been kept at her Association branch since it was discovered.
The bad news was that there was more than one Cursed Video.
The more good news was that the rest had been contained by other branches.
Although the Association could easily find a stronger Nether Body to destroy them all, considering there weren’t many of these things left and they could be used to harvest resources every once in a while, they were kept around.
‘I remember… every time it’s watched, the plot and scenes change… I’ll watch it with Xiao Qian tonight.’
Li Meng put the item back into the box, picked it up, and turned to go back inside, using her foot to hook the door shut behind her.
“Xiao Qian! Let’s watch a movie together tonight… Eh?”
Before Li Meng could finish her sentence, she noticed that the space she was in was distorting.
The walls and objects in the room flickered back and forth, looking extremely unstable… the clock hanging on the wall also began to spin rapidly…
As for Qiu Qiqian, she was standing in the center of the living room with her eyes closed, seemingly attempting to construct the Inner World.
‘Distort the space… replace the interior…’
Qiu Qiqian repeated the words in her mind while letting her Nether Breath permeate the surrounding space.
Unlike humans, as an Anomaly, Qiu Qiqian’s sensitivity to space was quite high.
She had gained a little experience when she forcibly broke into that other Anomaly’s Inner World last time, so as she constructed her own Inner World this time, she was able to find the right path.
Then, in a single moment, the interior walls of the house expanded outward rapidly, like a stretched rubber band.
The house, which originally occupied just over 100 square meters, now appeared to have no end in sight…
“Wow… amazing.”
Holding the box, Li Meng watched the transformation of the entire house and couldn’t help but let out a cry of admiration.
“It’s just… isn’t it a bit too empty, Xiao Qian?”
Li Meng said as she looked at Qiu Qiqian, who had opened her eyes again.
Hearing this, Qiu Qiqian also looked at the state of this world.
Indeed, although the space was so large that the edges were invisible… there were only the few original pieces of furniture…
“Hmm… then… should I try to add some things? But… how do I add them?”
“Xiao Qian, you are the creator of this Inner World. In theory, you can use Nether Breath to mold anything you want… as long as it’s not a living thing.”
Anything I want… In that case…
Qiu Qiqian raised her hand and released the Nether Breath from her body.
Like a creator, she began to construct an object in front of her.
Then, with a flick of her palm, a large 9-meter white bed instantly appeared before the two of them.
That was right, a 9-meter bed; one could practically play hide-and-seek on it.
“Whoa… such a huge bed!”
Li Meng’s eyes sparkled as she let out a heartfelt exclamation.
She set the box aside and instinctively lunged toward the bed.
“Hmm… it seems it really works. In that case… maybe I can transform this Inner World into a resort-like world. We can come in whenever we have nothing to do…”
“Ouch!”
Just as Qiu Qiqian was thinking about how to further renovate the Inner World, Li Meng, who was beside her, fell straight onto the floor because her lunge had passed through nothingness.
She landed face-first.
Seeing this, Qiu Qiqian helplessly covered her face and then went over to help her up.
“You… how could you be so careless… Wait, the bed suddenly disappeared…”
Qiu Qiqian looked at the dissipated bed and made a confused sound.
“Because… Xiao Qian, you just promoted to Chimei Grade, so the objects in the space are still unstable. That’s why this happened.”
Li Meng instinctively rubbed her cheeks, even though a fall of this level couldn’t actually hurt her.
“Is that so? Then once it stabilizes in a few days, I’ll consider renovating this Inner World…”
As she spoke, Qiu Qiqian intended to bring herself and Li Meng back to the Real World.
Seeing this, Li Meng hurried to pick up the box again to prevent it from being left behind.
In the next second, the over-extended walls snapped back instantly, returning to their original positions.
Out on the balcony, the afternoon sunlight shone in again, accompanied by the familiar sound of cicadas, signaling that they had returned to the Real World.
“By the way, I’m actually a bit curious. Since the Inner World involves expanding and replacing a local space, why can some Anomalies instantly hide in an Inner World without changing their surroundings?”
Qiu Qiqian suddenly thought of this question and sought an answer from Li Meng.
“Because the entrance to the Inner World itself isn’t fixed.”
Li Meng winked at Qiu Qiqian.
“The so-called distortion and replacement doesn’t mean it directly replaces reality like the Floating Demon Palace. Instead, it creates the Inner World in another spatial dimension first and then sets it as the destination for a certain entrance or local connection in reality.”
“In other words, as long as the temporary entrance set by the Anomaly is right where they are currently standing, they can return directly to the Inner World. Qiu Qiqian, you should be able to understand that, right?”
“Mmm… maybe… I do?”
Qiu Qiqian bit her finger again, giving an answer she wasn’t even sure of herself.
“Pfft… Xiao Qian is a little bit silly.”
Li Meng laughed softly, her tone not containing the slightest bit of mockery; instead, it sounded a bit like… flirting?
“No way, didn’t I get a Grade B-B on that intelligence test before? It’s just that what you said was too abstract.”
Qiu Qiqian immediately put her hands on her hips and puffed out her cheeks in protest.
“Alright, alright. Simply put, it’s not that they didn’t change the surroundings, but that the change was extremely small — they just simply covered themselves with an ‘entrance.’ After returning to the Inner World, they deleted the entrance. Saying it like that, Xiao Qian should finally understand, right?”
“Hmm… I think I understand now.”
“It’s good that you understand. By the way, Xiao Qian, I have a horror movie here… with an Anomaly in it… do you want to watch it together tonight?”