Chapter 1494: Destination
But before Roland had the chance to expand his awareness by tens of thousands of times, new changes occurred outside the Bottomless Land again.
Through his broadened perception, he instantly 'saw' a cylinder-shaped object with its two rounded ends emerging from the seabed, quickly rising to sea level.
The object quickly traversed the thousand meter depth of the sea and tore out of the sea's surface. Its dimensions were roughly spanned over dozens of islands, making its length even more astonishing. Due to its immense size, its emergence caused the seawater to surge backwards, forming a whirlpool with a radius reaching a hundred kilometers to appear north of the Bottomless Land.
But it did not stop there.
As though almost weightless, the cylinder object rose from the sea surface to the air without a moment of hesitation while maintaining a constant acceleration. It flew faster and faster, quickly surpassing Eleanor Skycruiser's altitude. All the inhabitants of the floating island noticed the inconceivable scene—the majestic cylinder had no flames or combustions or any booming sounds that propelled its flight. It ascended silently, but the silence was what made it out of the ordinary.
Roland immediately realized that it was the Custodian's main cores.
A few minutes later, the cylinder object interacted with the Cradle's barrier. Roland watched the entire process from multiple angles as the object escaped the planet—there was no collision and the barriers did not open any exit paths, just that the latter gently smeared across the cylinder object and stretched out along where the cylinder broke through like a membrane and sealed up all the cracks.
Once the two separated, the barrier was reinstated to its original form.
Upon entering space, the cylinder object adjusted its direction and accelerated suddenly. That instant made it resemble a thin belt of light that stretched far out. In the next second, it disappeared without a trace, as though it never existed.
Roland could not help but shake his head.
Was that the style of the system—to leave without saying a word of goodbye?
Not long ago, the Custodian was still insisting on rebooting the world, but after making its decision, it left without a single hint of reluctance. Just based on its resolve and actions, Roland believed that no other lifeform could compare to it.
It could be said that all the crisis that humanity had encountered had finally been removed.
But that didn't mean Roland could relax for he had many pressing questions to resolve. For example, Tilly's promise, and the agreement with the demons, etc.
The things that he had to consider and worry about did not lessen, but had instead increased.
After all, he previously only cared about the interests of humanity. But now, he had to consider the future of the remaining lives in the universe.
While adapting to his new 'body,' Roland activated a few searches, separately investigating the rules with regards to the Battle of Divine Will, the ripple records of the Realm of Mind, as well as the summary of all existing lifeforms in the Cradle.
The very first thing he had decided to do was naturally to switch off the legacy shard system.
Only by doing so could the Battle of Divine Will truly end.
As for the demons, Roland intended to separate a large, independent piece of land solely for them to thrive, under the situation in which there were sufficient resources. The distance between both lands couldn't be too far or close to each other. Something similar to a two-body system like the Earth and Moon was probably a better idea.
While probing the Cradle, Roland accidentally stumbled onto something: a mutated creature similar to a Nest Mother had actually escaped the command of the Custodian and was anxiously cowering into the sand at the bottom of the ocean, occasionally sneaking a few looks around with its few eyes. Very quickly, he traced its history back and found that it was the monster that had visited Graycastle's Western Region.
It seemed that even for life that the Cradle chose to create on its own, unpredictable and small changes would often lead to unforeseen outcome across a long span of time. He thought for a moment, and chose to leave it alone—once the demons left, humanity would be able to thrive in a peaceful and safe world. However, he did not wish for the Cradle to become a complete greenhouse. Having some competition probably wasn't a bad idea.
The Custodian's actions had already proven that purely relying on bloody life-and-death battles was not effective in helping a civilization grow, and thus, he had to carefully plan ahead.
Aside from that, he felt obligated to go through the memory bank of all the history of different civilizations. Be it to increase his knowledge or draw some inspiration, he felt that doing so would be a huge help to his new identity.
And The Realm of Mind had to go through revisions, to preserve the witches' growth and the balance between them and the Dream World. Fortunately, removing the core of the Battle of Divine Will brought about a huge space, allowing him to provide time in the near future to tackle this thorny issue.
While being overwhelmed by the large amount of information, a scene instantly caused him to stop what he was doing.
It was a scene coming from the Bottomless Land's interior.
Along the exterior pathway of the Cradle's core were two ladies and a demon who seemed to be waiting for something.
An indescribable sense of warmth coursed through his entire body. He enlarged the scene, and 'extended' his hands to touch their faces on the screen.
... So they were the ones who brought me here.
From the first day he entered this world, he had formed an inexplicable bond with the two ladies, to which their long periods of interaction had made him get accustomed to them. Right after merging with the consciousness and becoming the Cradle, he kept feeling as though he was lacking in something, until he saw this scene. Only then did Roland realize what he was missing.
Indeed, he might not be able to leave the Cradle for more than a hundred million years into the future, or as what the Custodian had said, it might be a long and despairing period of time, but he was not afraid.
The biggest difference between him and the Custodian was that regardless of how long time would flow within, he was not alone.
...
...
...
Five years later.
Graycastle, Neverwinter City, Shallow Port.
As the heart of the human kingdom, it was undoubtedly the busiest port in the entire world, with an average entry and exit rate of tens of thousands. To ensure that the port was not overpopulated, the Administrative Office had not only expanded the port along the coastline, but even built a large-scale public transport system.
Tangen was part of it.
He used to be a merchant from City of Evernight and helped the First Army defeat Otto's coalition. Who would had thought that the Administrative Office had recorded this achievement and sought him after the war. After realizing that he was able to own a personal house in Graycastle's King City, he eagerly brought his family over—everyone knew how great Neverwinter was; only that the cost of settling in was too high, so how could he ever miss such an opportunity?
No longer bothered about his small fur business, Tangen turned to accepting the employment training held by the Administrative Office and became a taxi driver.
That's right, despite having interacted with people from Neverwinter, no one would have thought that they would progress to having such technology. Taxis were essentially similar to cart drivers, just that the latter was only provided for the ultra-rich in the past. But in King's City, taxis were just a part of the public transport. Public transport!
In other words, so long as one was able to afford it, one would be able to enjoy the luxurious ride.
Of course, there were cheaper alternatives. The public buses were capable of accommodating close to a hundred people at once. But compared to riding in a taxi, with the ability to designate pick up and drop off points, the public buses which might not even have seats appeared somewhat wretched.
After waiting for the taxi ahead to pick up his customer, it was Tangen's turn—aside from having fixed pay, the majority of his income came from personal rewards from his customers; thus, being early to wait was always a good thing.
"Katcha." The door opened as a tall woman threw her luggage in the backseat before bending down and entering the vehicle.
Tangen looked through the rear mirror only to see that the lady was dressed in a thick jacket and canvas trousers. She wore a cap and shades on her head, obviously a loyal customer to the Rainbow Stone. But strangely enough, Tangen could not find any logo that symbolized the Rainbow Stone company on her clothes.
"May I ask, where are you heading to? There is a city map and the route pricing in the pocket of the back seat."
"I'm guessing Neverwinter's castle hasn't been demolished yet, right? If it exists, I want to go there," the lady replied with a experienced and straightforward voice.