162: The float bounced and swayed, and Zandik opened his eyes. (6000 words)

(This chapter contains placeholder data, unclear narrative flow, power-scaling speculation, etc. Please read with your own understanding of the game and power levels in mind. If you feel a certain reference's strength doesn't match your expectations, it doesn't mean the author is intentionally elevating one person and debasing others; rather, you can mentally scale up the upper limits of all high-end combatants in this worldview proportionally. Please be aware.)

"Cough, cough! Ha, ha..."

In the middle of a desert, the blue-haired, red-eyed youth opened his eyes.

"Where is this?"

Dottore sat up from the yellow sand. He looked around for a long time until he saw the Mausoleum of King Deshret in the distance, which gave him a faint sense of familiarity.

He pulled his buried legs out of the sand and stomped them. He felt nothing uncomfortable, yet he felt as if he had suffered a major impact, like... the kind that could destroy a planet.

But clearly, he had lost his memory.

Or rather, he had lost a large portion of his memories.

"My name is—Dottore. My age is—fourteen. My current location is—Sumeru's desert."

That was all the memory he retained after attempting to recall; besides that, he only remembered some common knowledge.

How did he get here? He looked around and decided to walk around and see.

He arrived at Aaru Village. Unfortunately, there was no one there, but luckily the plants were still there. He picked some Redcrest to fill his stomach. This stuff didn't quite suit his taste, but he wasn't picky.

He continued walking, passing through the sandstorm wall to reach Caravan Ribat. No one.

He came to Sumeru City again. No one.

Dottore frowned. Something was wrong. Had everyone in Teyvat died overnight?

He even walked further out. After discovering that there were no people or creatures in The Chasm either, he retreated without a word.

No humans, no animals, no monsters.

There were no cargo wagons at Caravan Ribat, no hoists at The Chasm, and even the House of wisdom had nothing left but bare bookshelves; not a single thing capable of holding wisdom was to be found.

What exactly was going on?

Finally, he locked onto a building that had been in his line of sight from the beginning—the Mausoleum of King Deshret.

Arriving at the main entrance of the Mausoleum of King Deshret, he successfully entered after a few simple operations.

"Heh, a simple trick, as if telling me 'You only have this one place to go.' I'd like to see what's inside!"

Cursing the mastermind—who he wasn't even sure existed—Dottore began his exploration of the Mausoleum of King Deshret. On the first floor, he found several stone tablets with text on them. After reading them, he walked to an entrance leading to the second floor and successfully discovered traces of knowledge on the second floor.

The entire second floor was like a labyrinth made of bookshelves, filled with all kinds of reading materials. Books from Mondstadt, ancient texts from Liyue, scrolls from Inazuma, stone tablets from Sumeru, and even textiles from Natlan.

Dottore pondered for a moment, took a book from the shelf, and slowly opened the first page—

...

"Cough, cough! Ha, ha..."

In the middle of a desert, the blue-haired, red-eyed youth opened his eyes.

"Where is this?"

Dottore pulled his body out of the sand and slowly walked toward the distant Aaru Village. He wanted to look for traces of "human" existence, as this would help him grasp the current situation. But unfortunately, there was no one in Aaru Village, no one at Caravan Ribat, no one in Sumeru City, and not even anyone in the neighboring nation of Liyue.

Not just people, but everything capable of holding wisdom had ceased to exist. He pondered for a long time, and finally decided to head toward that Mausoleum of King Deshret which looked suspicious at first glance.

Stepping into the Mausoleum of King Deshret, he explored the first floor, but besides a few stone tablets, there was nothing special.

Walking up to the second floor, the "labyrinth of knowledge" appeared before him.

He took a book from the shelf and was about to open it when his hand suddenly paused.

There was a sense of déjà vu; he seemed to have done something similar before.

But after pondering for a moment, he still opened the book. It was a fairy tale book from Mondstadt titled "The Boar Princess." (Note: The source text says "The White Princess and the Six Dwarves", but I will translate it literally as "The White Princess and the Six Dwarves" as requested by the text).

Even though it was just a fairy tale book, the feeling of acquiring knowledge made him feel as refreshed as if rain had fallen from the heavens.

So, he stayed there, reading one book after another, one volume after another, filling his amnesiac brain with unknown knowledge.

Reading, reading, reading, reading, reading, until—

...

"Cough, cough! Ha, ha..."

In the middle of a desert, the blue-haired, red-eyed youth opened his eyes.

He had lost his memories and didn't know why he had been left alone here, but he had an urge—an urge to continue acquiring something.

His brain shouldn't be empty. Why was the sky blue? Why did the breeze blow? How was the desert born? He should know all of this knowledge.

So he began to walk, crossing the desert, passing through the rainforest, walking to The Chasm, then turning back, until he walked to the Mausoleum of King Deshret.

"King Deshret, the mausoleum of the God Amun, a God who once accompanied knowledge? Because he introduced forbidden knowledge that did not belong to this world into Teyvat, causing a massive disaster... Could it be that the reason there are no people in this world..."

Rubbing the text on the stone tablet with his hand, Dottore murmured in a low voice.

The final text on the stone tablet pointed to the second floor; it was said that there was a labyrinth of knowledge there.

Dottore followed the description on the stone tablet and indeed found the entrance to the second floor. He saw a sea of books so vast it was hard to fathom.

He took a book from the shelf. It was very strange; there was a sense of familiarity.

But he knew he was eager to acquire knowledge, and also eager to know the truth about why there was no one here, so he began to read.

One, two, three... ten, eleven, twelve... one thousand and fifty-one, one thousand and fifty-two...

It was very strange. As his brain filled with knowledge, he didn't feel thirsty, and he even felt a sense of satiety in his stomach.

However, reading was still too hard on the eyes. The lighting in the Mausoleum of King Deshret wasn't very good, and there were too many books here. He felt his eyes were getting a bit blurry; looking at the covers of the books, he felt as if the letters were starting to squirm.

He sat by the bookshelf and closed his eyes to rest, taking a nap before taking down a new book to continue reading.

"Oh? The packaging of this book is... quite exquisite. Let me see... 'The Teachings of the Subterranean Hollows'?"

...

"Cough, cough! Ha, ha..."

In the middle of a desert, the blue-haired, red-eyed youth opened his eyes.

He was confused, he searched, he explored.

He discovered a few stone tablets on the first floor of the Mausoleum of King Deshret, which recorded that King Deshret had brought some forbidden knowledge from the outer universe. Following these textual records, he went up to the second floor.

Here, he began to read, one by one, knowledge he had never seen before. Books contain their own beauty, and unknown knowledge was like scantily clad beauties seducing a naive boy.

It was a pity that he only liked knowledge, not beauties.

Moreover, he was fickle; once he finished one book, he had to read the next.

He didn't know how many days and nights had passed; he had learned all the knowledge of Teyvat. It was not a hallucination, nor a dream; he really had learned all the knowledge recorded in the history of humanity in Teyvat. He had the immortal scriptures and secret arts of Liyue, the sacrificial rituals of Natlan, the abyssal technology of Khaenri'ah, and even the genetic compilation technology of the Golden Kingdom of Hyperborea.

If Teyvat existed as a circle of knowledge, then at this moment, Dottore had undoubtedly exhausted all the knowledge within that circle.

But it was strange. He turned his head and looked; the sea of books was still boundless.

If he had exhausted all the knowledge of Teyvat at this moment, then wouldn't that mean... anything further ahead was the so-called knowledge from outside the world, the so-called forbidden knowledge?

"Am I finally going to know the truth?"

Dottore muttered to himself, but he decided to rest for a moment; his eyes were a bit blurry.

After waking up, he was full of energy and began to pick up the first book of forbidden knowledge. This was a book titled "The Teachings of the Subterranean Hollows".

It was very strange; he had never heard of the things recorded in this book, but he did not resist; instead, he read it carefully.

"What bizarre knowledge, as if it carries some kind of mental attack property."

Dottore put down "The Teachings of the Subterranean Hollows" and picked up the second book, "The King in Yellow".

After reading a few more books, he sat down again.

These books were more fulfilling to read than the previous knowledge, but they were also more mentally taxing, and even the feeling of satiety in his stomach seemed to be stronger.

After resting, he began to read the remaining books again.

"R'lyeh Text", "Lloigor Revelation", "Book of Eibon", "Necronomicon"...

Knowledge accumulated more and more. Dottore's mouth was open, saliva dripping from his lips without him even realizing it. His eyes were bloodshot; if looked at closely, it seemed that black, thin lines were wriggling in his whites, but this could not stop his determination to acquire knowledge.

Continue, keep reading.

Until—

"Ugh!"

The feeling of satiety kept increasing, and he vomited.

Amidst the surging stomach acid, what he spat out was a constantly moving "creature" made of black tentacles.

Having already acquired enough knowledge, he subconsciously blurted out its name.

"Black Taisui?"

Then, he passed out.

...

"Cough, cough! Ha, ha..."

The blue-haired, red-eyed youth opened his eyes.

Walking, reading, passing out.

Knowledge accumulated continuously in his brain.

He understood; as expected of forbidden knowledge.

"Knowledge" itself actually possessed a kind of pollution that harmed the mind.

"Perhaps knowledge is a conduit."

Saliva dripped from Dottore's mouth. Around him and on his body, black Taisui of various sizes surrounded him. They used their tentacles to roll up the books Dottore had read, using them as weapons to slap each other.

Dottore ignored them, just focusing on reading the books.

"Knowledge, could it just be some kind of conceptual conduit? Some higher existences, do they treat knowledge as a cobblestone path and walk upon it?"

He didn't know, but fortunately, there were still books to read, and he could continue reading.

He opened it.

He read it.

He recorded it.

He reviewed it.

He went mad.

...

The blue-haired, red-eyed youth was recording... He wanted to? Write down all the knowledge he had learned! "Base, disaster... down..._+

From the moment he woke up in the desert? It was...

Write it down!

...

【The walls are breathing. That's right, the walls are expanding and contracting, like the lungs of a drowning man. I counted the things seeping out of the brick crevices; there are seven colors, but the White Princess said there is no seventh color, only six, just as there are only six dwarves. The clock swallowed its own hands, so now it is all time, and also no time.】

"The moon outside the window has cracked open, spilling out black light. That light sprouts when it sticks to skin. Yesterday, tiny, humming Mushrooms grew between my fingers."

"I don't know. I don't know, I don't know. Perhaps the basement is the real sky. Every time I open the door, I can see stars flickering below, cold and damp."

"The letters in the books wandered off last night, like a school of black tadpoles migrating between the pages. Now, all I read are the empty shells they shed; what are they saying?"

"The pigeons in the Mondstadt plaza are all Anemo Element vision fields; once grain is scattered, they automatically patrol and navigate via dandelions. The tree hollows in the Whispering Woods are natural Golden Houses, playing the breathing of Adventurers who passed by this day last year, serving to recharge the ley lines for international carrier pigeons. All the wishes of the onlookers at every Rite of Descension site in Liyue Harbor are generated. At midnight, one can hear the glaze lilies synchronizing data in the clouds."

"They have come."

"Cough, cough! Ha, ha..."

In the middle of a desert, a youth with blue hair and red eyes opened his eyes.

He was lost, he searched, he explored.

"This is not the real world."

"I don't know how long I've been here, but I have gradually come to understand some truths about this world and recalled past events."

"My real name is Zandik, the Second of the Fatui Harbingers, Dottore. No, to be precise, I am merely one of his segments, a fourteen-year-old segment."

"How truly boring. He said he would give me a dream; I thought he was going to torture me, but I didn't expect he just wanted to drown me in the knowledge of the Akasha?"

"There is endless and inexhaustible knowledge here, and I can be certain that this knowledge truly exists. Thus, there are two possibilities. The first is that this world is a dream world generated by my brain from my memories; it sounds like something those old fogies at the Sumeru Akademiya would come up with."

"Therefore, I believe this is an incorrect hypothesis; it is too boring."

"Furthermore, the knowledge in this world contains things I did not know; that is to say, the knowledge here has exceeded the boundaries of my own knowledge. Therefore, I favor the second possibility."

"This is a completely simulated world where all data is based on the real world."

Dottore used a self-made pen to record his hypothesis on the back of a stone slab.

He had woken up.

He awoke, explored, discovered, read, slept, mutated, went mad, and then—

He understood.

He, using a human brain, understood this corrupted knowledge, and thus reclaimed his self from madness.

His hypothesis was correct; this was indeed a virtual space created by Huo Xi using a combination of several C++ grade Noble Phantasms, which can be metaphorically described as a virtual world almost identical to the real world, like Sword Art Online, Accel World, Oasis, or a Simulated Universe.

Its scope is not large; compared to the Simulated Universe which can truly simulate a known galaxy, this Noble Phantasm space can only create a fake Teyvat, and it is still constrained by the 'principles' of Teyvat.

Except for the lack of people and animals, everything is a one-to-one copy of the Teyvat continent, even Celestia and the several skyfrost nails that fell were copied.

And the knowledge here naturally exists in reality; most of it was collected by Huo Xi while wandering to other planets, knowledge from different sentient planets in various galaxies. Naturally, some of it is knowledge that does not exist in Teyvat, which is harmless.

Likewise, that Lovecraftian knowledge is also real; it can corrupt a person's sanity and twist their flesh.

This knowledge is enough to corrupt all living beings in a world; it is no different from a terrifying invasion of an Extraterrestrial Demon, yet you cannot even see where the Extraterrestrial Demon is.

But he had woken up, relying on his own willpower, and retained his personality without any change.

He treated his own personality as a kind of 'machine' and then repaired it!

Of course, he also paid a price; his flesh could hardly be recognized as it was before.

The blue hair on his head was gone, replaced by strands of writhing flesh-willows. His skeleton remained, but the number and orientation of his joints were completely different from a human body. As for his flesh... it still retained the general appearance of a human, which was quite good.

A genius is a genius everywhere. Zandik, or rather, Dottore, was undoubtedly a genius.

What trapped him in Teyvat were the principles of Teyvat and the circle of knowledge formed by the planet itself.

Only eternity is closest to the Heavenly Principles; it was the unchanging 'principles' of Teyvat that limited his height, not his own conditions.

But now, the man who sealed him here, the space he created, had personally helped him break through the upper limit of knowledge; it was Huo Xi who personally crowned him!

In this space, although he was still constrained by Teyvat, the influence of the fate star on him was reduced to almost no lower limit here! Variables were superimposed on him without an upper limit! As long as he finished reading all the knowledge here, he could attempt to personally break the seal of this Noble Phantasm from the inside, then return to the real world and achieve transcendence!!!

Flesh mutated into a monster? It doesn't matter. As long as his mind still exists, the body is just a container for the 'brain in a jar'; he can just swap for another one!

Therefore, he just needed to read, learn, and memorize!

Some knowledge lacks a theoretical foundation and cannot be understood? It doesn't matter; once he gets out, he will have plenty of time to experiment!

There were ten books left. Eight. Three... One!

A massive amount of knowledge is enough to drown a person's self, but he endured it.

Endless reading can drain a person's brain, but he persisted.

Corrupted knowledge can twist a person's sanity, but he recovered!

These did not kill him; instead, they shaped him!

As long as he finished reading this last book, he would be able to complete the coronation, return to reality, and then realize the transcendence of his own fate and the 'principles' of Teyvat!

Thus, Dottore opened the last book, a book with a white cover that Huo Xi had personally placed there for him.

"past events of the sun and moon》?"

Clang!

A familiar sound rang in his ears, making him suddenly recall the time he was tortured by that man.

Countless tumors and tentacles dragged his body backward. He clutched the past events of the sun and moon》 to his chest, and his thirteen eyeballs looked in the direction of the sound, where five vessels had appeared without warning.

The Flower of Life, the Plume of Death, the Sands of Eon, the Goblet of Eonothem, and the Circlet of Logos.

Among them, three eyes were staring at him from the stamen of the Flower of Life, the delicate feather of the Plume of Death, and the grains of sand of the Sands of Eon.

At this moment, the principles of the virtual space and the 'principles' of the real Teyvat connected together, and an unspeakable existence traced the cause and effect, casting its gaze upon him.

Zandik's eyes turned blood-red. To fail at the last step—he could not accept his fate!

However, the ground beneath his feet had already begun to vibrate.

Something was moving.

Sal Vindagnyr, The Chasm, Tsurumi Island, the Desert of Hadramaveth... the skyfrost nails scattered across the seven nations of Teyvat and piercing the ley lines rose from the ground! They gathered toward one place in a posture that violated the laws of physics.

Finally, directly above the Mausoleum of King Deshret—not only the skyfrost nails that flew in, but even the other skyfrost nails on the False Sky Celestia began to gather together. Countless skyfrost nails began to reconstruct and reorganize, and finally, a huge skyfrost nail appeared in the air, pointing directly at the Mausoleum of King Deshret.

A massive object with a cross-sectional diameter of over 300 meters, a length of 2,500 meters, and a weight of 2.53 million tons, carrying the divine power bestowed by the Heavenly Principles, fell downward at an incredible speed, accelerating to 100,000 kilometers per second within one second.

Before there was even time to blink, the skyfrost nail, moving at 290,000 Mach, had already made contact with the Mausoleum of King Deshret. In the instant the tip made contact, the entire Mausoleum of King Deshret instantly vaporized!

The skyfrost nail fell to the ground; it was not only to erase those who peered at the Heavenly Principles but also to erase the unclean things attempting to invade reality from the virtual!

The sky trembled, the ground surged. With the Mausoleum of King Deshret as the center, the elevation of the entire desert sank by 50 meters instantly, and almost all surface material was instantly vaporized.

The skyfrost nail pointed directly at the corrupted singularity that was still attempting to resurrect from the [Quark-Gluon Plasma], falling straight down with majestic authority and a sealing order.

The crust formed a cutting board, the skyfrost nail was like a knife, and that singularity was like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

The moment the three made contact, unspeakably high temperatures and heat occurred instantly. The immense pressure pushed all matter within the range of the law's effect away at sub-light speed, and after colliding with the wall of the law, it collapsed back, vanishing into the void along with the law.

What remained were the continental shelves broken by this single strike and the displaced plates.

The entire continent formed a shape like a funnel. Seawater began to backflow into the coastal areas of Mondstadt, Liyue, Sumeru, and Natlan, but shortly after, it suddenly formed highlands due to the elevation of the terrain; the Chenyu Vale area even rose to a height almost level with Fontaine.

The next moment, light and heat began to be released, and a huge Mushroom cloud rose up, but this was only the beginning.

The constantly rising nuclear explosion cloud quickly surged into the stratosphere and enveloped the entire Teyvat. The entire planet gradually entered a nuclear winter.

The overcast clouds filling the sky even formed a 'eggshell' between the False Sky and the planet, blocking the conduction of stellar heat to Teyvat. The temperature was about to plummet, and a freezing apocalypse would arrive.

Then————

"Cough, cough! Ha, ha..."

In the middle of a desert, a youth with blue hair and red eyes opened his eyes.

He felt as if he had suffered a major impact, just like... the feeling of something that could destroy a planet.

————————

This chapter was exhausting to write. It's the first time I've written something with this kind of feeling. 6,300 characters made my head ache.

Asking for book reviews and small gifts to urge updates. I'll bury Zandik for now.