Chapter 52: The Quantum Threshold and a Troubling Revelation

Having already deciphered the data, the massive insect wasted no time.

She immediately performed a slight modification on one of her organs.

Utilizing a small internal energy interface as a charging port, she connected it to the operating device. As energy surged in, she directed a portion of her mental energy inward, intending to explore.

It truly wasn’t to play the game. She merely wished to observe.

Once fully prepared, the massive insect allocated a portion of her energy to nurturing her children and feeding. Another segment of her mental energy entered a semi-dormant state. Finally, only a small fraction of her mental energy entered that world through her replicated game console.

As for why she didn’t commit all of her mental energy, the massive insect had her reservations.

Firstly, while the Cosmic Desert was theoretically absolutely safe, this safety existed only in theory. The massive insect had only a preliminary understanding of the Universal Empire’s military intelligence.

She could not rule out the possibility that their Emperor harbored thoughts of a desperate counterattack against her.

Although she had learned from the memories of the previous warship fleet commander, Odinxis, that His Majesty the Emperor was a remarkably calm and great individual, unlikely to jeopardize the Empire’s balance simply to eliminate her.

However, it was always better to be safe than sorry. Who knew if the information this individual possessed truly reflected the Empire’s reality? What if the intelligence she had acquired was false? That would be a colossal loss.

Furthermore, there was another point: the game console’s restriction on mental energy. It seemed there was an upper limit to how much mental energy could enter. The massive insect instinctively tried to increase this limit at first.

However, she suddenly realized that the restriction wasn’t imposed by the game console itself, but rather by the inherent threshold for entering the deep Quantum World.

The massive insect was initially perplexed by this, but she decided to record the data for now, as it might be connected to the deep Quantum World in some other way.

After handling these matters, the massive insect slowly allowed her mental energy to enter the deep Quantum World through the quantum accelerator within the game console.

She had previously attempted to traverse the deep Quantum World directly with her children. The sensation of dizziness from the distorted space hadn’t caused her any discomfort, so she hadn’t paid it much mind.

It would be strange if the passageway between two spaces were a perfectly straight line. Even entering the shallow Quantum World from the ordinary world caused a slight distortion.

Human technology had corrected this sensation through reverse distortion. However, the super-distorted routes required to enter the deep level were clearly beyond the current capabilities of human technology.

Yet, the dizziness experienced by mental energy entering was considerably lighter than that of a physical body. After all, mental energy had no physical form; it could flow directly through the distorted space, much like water, into the deep Quantum World.

Upon arriving in this world, the massive insect first saw a shimmering, azure world filled with starlight. She pondered for a moment, and then the scene quickly shifted, replaced by a ravaged, war-torn city.

‘Is this a thought space?’

The massive insect was certain that her current location was a creation based on her own mental energy fluctuations. This implied that no physical matter existed here; it was purely a space of thought.

‘Hmm… what next?’

Having entered this world, the massive insect saw nothing related to a game. She briefly recalled the game registration screens from the memories of those individuals. It was then that she suddenly remembered they needed to create an account first.

‘…’

The pathway for account registration required approval through a specific Imperial channel. Naturally, the massive insect couldn’t send an approval request to Alliance Central from this place.

In other words, the massive insect was stuck, staring at the login screen, unable to proceed.

‘Damn it!’

The prize was almost within her grasp, only for her to be told she couldn’t have it. This was infuriating.

The massive insect was not one to give up so easily, so she began to entertain some unconventional ideas.

‘Well, they have accounts, and they’re just sitting there empty. No one could possibly be logged in. Why don’t I just take one for a spin?’

Holding this thought, the massive insect began to sift through their memories for account details. The result, however, left her utterly stunned.

‘Soul-bound accounts, canceled upon the dissipation of the soul…’

Reading these words, the massive insect felt another wave of helplessness. Setting aside soul-bound accounts, she certainly couldn’t enter with her own mental energy. Moreover, since she had devoured their souls, their accounts would naturally have been canceled.

However, this brought a sudden realization to the massive insect.

How could the deep Quantum World, separated from the real world by a shallow Quantum World, monitor the dissipation of their souls when they died in the real world?

The massive insect pondered this question, simultaneously formulating a potential answer.

‘Does this mean their souls were indirectly monitored after entering the deep Quantum World?’

The massive insect suddenly lost her desire to play.

While the game was indeed very appealing, everything had its priorities. If she rashly entered the game world, her soul would constantly face the danger of being locked onto. If this thing truly was connected to the Empire, wouldn’t she be effectively handing over her own coordinates to them?

Having grasped this point, the massive insect began to retreat. If her location could be known by the enemy at any given moment, she would likely fall victim to all sorts of ambushes.

After all, her movements would be entirely in their hands.

Realizing this, the massive insect immediately intended to leave the thought space. But just as she was about to depart, the entire thought world suddenly transformed. The scene, previously a manifestation of the massive insect’s thoughts, shifted to a pure black background.

Witnessing this change, the massive insect’s guard instantly shot up, for she had certainly not conjured such a thing in her mind.

It was important to remember that the massive insect had a crucial difference from humans: her thoughts and actions always maintained absolute, high-level consistency, whereas humans typically experienced a one- or two-second delay.

Since the massive insect had not thought of it, such a thing should absolutely not appear in this space.

Therefore, the sudden transformation of this thought space was very likely due to external influence.

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