239: Chapter 239 Interdimensional Projection

'What's going on here?'

Chen Mo was once again stunned. He clearly remembered that he initially had no idea this cave existed in his game. He only found out when Hu Gualing, Tang Yao, and Xiao Niao were chased into the corridor by a group of wild boars and discovered it. At that time, no matter how he tried to sense it, he couldn't detect the cave's existence and knew nothing about what was inside. It wasn't until he caught that cowardly Ostrich, attached a sliver of his mind to it, and controlled it to enter the cave that he saw the interior layout through the Ostrich's eyes.

But now, Chen Mo found that with just a thought, the scene inside the cave surfaced in his mind. Just like all the other scenes in the game world, he could observe it at will, as if that mysterious cave had already become a part of the Fantasy Jianghu game world!

'How could this be?' Chen Mo couldn't figure it out. Clearly, the scene inside that cave didn't belong to the Fantasy Jianghu world, nor did it belong to the Main God Space. That was why he couldn't sense what lay behind that mysterious cave before. But now, all the scenes inside the cave were suddenly exposed to his senses without any concealment. Whether it was the fire basins on the floor placed at regular intervals that seemed like they would never burn out, the perfectly square rectangular walls surrounding the area, or the strangely shaped black rock in the center of the hall that looked like a section of stone stairs—everything was vividly present in his perception. Of course, that deep black rock no longer felt cold to his senses; aside from its strange shape and profound blackness, it was no different from an ordinary rock.

But since he could sense all of this now, didn't it mean that the mysterious space had lost its mystery and become a part of the Fantasy Jianghu game scenery?

'What caused this? Could all the anomalies have been caused by the Soul fragment hidden inside that large black rock, so it returned to normal after I collected the Soul fragment?'

Chen Mo frowned and thought for a long while without coming to a conclusion. Suddenly, he felt the atmosphere was off—not for any other reason, but because the atmosphere in the Main God Space was too quiet. "Hmm?" Chen Mo turned to look at Xiao Wan sitting beside him and found that the fellow was sitting there without saying a word. It was a bit unusual, as Xiao Wan was usually quite talkative. Moreover, as the sprite of the Main God Space, it was sensitive to all matters within the space. With such a large sum of main god points entering the account just now, there was no reason for Xiao Wan not to know.

Since it knew that the Main God Space had suddenly gained over five hundred main god points yet remained so calm and silent, this reaction was very abnormal.

Chen Mo wasn't good at social interaction or reading people, but fortunately, Xiao Wan wasn't exactly a person but a robot who wore everything on its face. Interacting with a machine was relatively easy. "Do you have something on your mind?" Chen Mo asked, easily seeing through Xiao Wan's abnormal behavior.

[What's on my mind? Xiao Wan doesn't have anything on her mind,] Xiao Wan said stubbornly.

"Be direct. Do you know the origin of those five hundred-plus main god points?"

[What five hundred-plus main god points... uh...] At this point, Xiao Wan suddenly realized she had exposed herself and stopped abruptly.

"If you have something to say, just say it. Are you going to keep it from me?" There was a hint of dissatisfaction in Chen Mo's tone. He originally felt that no matter how their positions or views differed, Xiao Wan was still worthy of his trust. But now, finding that Xiao Wan really was hiding something from him made him feel a bit uncomfortable.

[Uh...] Blue light flickered in Xiao Wan's eyes, as if she didn't know how to answer Chen Mo's question or was organizing her thoughts and wording. After a while, the blue data stream disappeared, and Xiao Wan lowered her head, saying in a small voice: [Master, this... I'm indeed not very clear about it. However, I do know a little bit about the scene you just displayed.]

Xiao Wan kept her head down, her voice tiny, not daring to look at Chen Mo, appearing somewhat guilty. When she said the first half, Chen Mo was about to get angry, but hearing the second half—that she knew about the scene he had just displayed even if she didn't know where the main god points came from—Chen Mo couldn't be bothered to stay angry. He immediately asked, "What do you know? Tell me everything!"

Xiao Wan said: [Uh, Master, Xiao Wan doesn't know much. I only know that the scene doesn't belong to our Main God Space. It's a projection of another world, an Otherworld.]

"Otherworld?"

Chen Mo's eyelids couldn't help but twitch. He had heard the word 'Otherworld' from Xiao Wan since the first day he took over the Main God Space. She said that after one month, an Otherworld would invade his Main God Space, and if he couldn't resist it, he would naturally be dead. Since it was a matter of life and death, Chen Mo had naturally kept it firmly in mind from the beginning, never daring to forget it for a moment.

But by the calendar, wasn't there still three weeks left until the one-month deadline? Why was it starting to project now?

"You mean the Otherworld invasion that was supposed to happen in a month has started early?" Chen Mo asked, looking at Xiao Wan with a frown.

[Emmm... theoretically, it can be understood that way.] Xiao Wan thought for a moment and nodded in confirmation.

"But didn't you say it would be a month? How can it come when only one week has passed!?" Chen Mo's frown deepened, and his emotions were quite agitated.

This was because his current game world had only developed one Novice Village plus a field map that wasn't very large. Many things were not yet perfected. The players, who were the main combat force, numbered only three, and they were all unreliable fellows who hadn't grown up yet. Although the three of them had defeated the only two enemies in that scene, the 'Mutated White Wild Boar' and the 'Millennium Tree Demon,' according to Xiao Wan, that scene was only a projection of the Otherworld. Since it was a projection, the strength of the monsters inside definitely couldn't compare to the monsters in the real Otherworld. If it was just a projection today, what about tomorrow or the day after? If real Otherworld monsters invaded, how could he defend?

Since it concerned life and death, Chen Mo questioned Xiao Wan with great agitation.

Xiao Wan quickly explained: [Master, don't worry. Right now it's just a projection, and its intensity is still limited. Our players are so powerful that they can handle it for now. Also, based on what Xiao Wan knows, the intensity of the projection increases bit by bit. It's a perfect chance for our players to grow through battle!]

Hearing Xiao Wan say this, Chen Mo's agitation temporarily eased a little. His biggest fear was that the sudden appearance of an Otherworld Projection meant Xiao Wan's one-month deadline wasn't reliable. If it could project today, it wasn't impossible for the Otherworld invasion that was supposed to happen in a month to appear tomorrow. This uncertainty—the feeling that danger could descend at any time and his fate was not in his own hands—was what Chen Mo found hard to accept. However, now that Xiao Wan explained that the Otherworld Projection would slowly increase in intensity, he felt a little better, but only a little.

"Then why has the Otherworld Projection started appearing when the one-month deadline hasn't arrived, and only a week has passed?" Chen Mo continued to press Xiao Wan. If he didn't understand the mechanism of this Otherworld invasion, he couldn't be completely at ease with what Xiao Wan said.

Xiao Wan said somewhat aggrievedly: [Master, the one-month deadline Xiao Wan mentioned at the beginning was based on the rules of the Main God Space.]

Chen Mo said in confusion, "What do you mean?"

Xiao Wan continued: [What Xiao Wan means is that if you had inherited the Main God Space exactly as it was, then the Otherworld invasion would indeed descend in one month—that is, thirty natural days—not a day more, not a day less.]

Chen Mo's brow furrowed again. "Don't I count as having inherited the Main God Space now?"

Xiao Wan nodded and looked up at Chen Mo: [No, Master. After you became an Apprentice Main God, you didn't manage it according to the traditional operating methods of the Main God Space. Instead, you transformed the Main God Space into a game space. Therefore, the rules of the space slowly changed. The Otherworld invasion that was supposed to happen a month later is now projecting a very small part into the game space in the form of a game Dungeon.]

After hearing Xiao Wan's explanation, a thoughtful expression appeared on Chen Mo's face.

'The rules of the space changed?'

'So the Otherworld descent also adaptively changed, projecting over in the form of a game Dungeon?'

'That makes a lot of sense.'

Chen Mo nodded slowly, accepting Xiao Wan's explanation. However, he had one more concern. "Since the rules have changed, roughly when will the intensity of the projected Dungeon reach the original intensity of the Otherworld invasion?" Chen Mo asked. This was his biggest concern because he wanted to know how much of the original one-month development time he had left.

But after the question was asked, he saw Xiao Wan shake her head. [I'm sorry, Master. Because the rules have changed and Xiao Wan has never experienced such a thing, there's no relevant information recorded in the database. So Xiao Wan also doesn't know how long it will take for the intensity of the projected Dungeon to reach its maximum.] As she spoke, Xiao Wan lowered her head again, appearing very guilty for not being able to answer Chen Mo's question.

"Sigh."

Unable to get an answer, Chen Mo couldn't help but let out a soft sigh.

But he could also understand. Since it was something that had never happened before, it was normal for Xiao Wan not to know.

Unfortunately, if he had developed step-by-step according to the original plan for a month, he could have earned enough main god points to successfully become a full Main God by the time the Otherworld invasion arrived. At that time, his authority and strength would have increased, and he would have had every hope of successfully resisting the invasion a month later. As it turned out, only a week had passed, he was just starting out, and an unexpected Otherworld Projection had appeared. Although this first projection had been resolved by the players without any mishaps, no one knew when the next Otherworld Projection would come or what its intensity would be. The emergence of such an uncertain variable suddenly threw Chen Mo's development plan and rhythm into total disarray, leaving him constantly uneasy.

However, this Otherworld Projection Dungeon wasn't entirely without benefits for him. At the very least, after Hu Gualing, Tang Yao, and Xiao Niao defeated the bosses in the Dungeon, items actually dropped. Moreover, the two bosses were very generous; the items dropped were at least Blue Quality, and there were even two Purple Quality items. Since these items were recognized by the game space, no matter which Otherworld they came from, once they were here, they were items of the Fantasy Jianghu game world. They could be used by the players, or they could turn into nutrients for the game space after being discarded or destroyed by the players—of course, knowing the hamster-like nature of players that Chen Mo understood, they probably wouldn't be willing to actively discard or destroy even obsolete equipment or Materials. At most, they would toss them to an NPC for some game currency. Considering this, Chen Mo felt he should set up some NPCs to recycle items. This way, he could use the freely issued and essentially worthless game currency to recycle unused items from the players and then convert them into main god points, creating another channel for resource recovery and rational allocation...

Thinking about it, the items dropped in this Otherworld Projection Dungeon were actually solid main god points. If Chen Mo were to set up a Dungeon himself and use the Main God to generate items to add to it, he wouldn't be able to generate so many high-quality equipment, Skill Books, and Materials without over a hundred main god points. But because this Dungeon was an Otherworld Projection and had nothing to do with Chen Mo, these things didn't consume his main god points. It was equivalent to getting over a hundred main god points' worth of items for free to enhance the players' strength. At the same time, the players' actual combat experience was significantly improved through the battles with the Otherworld monsters.

From these two points alone, the benefits brought by this Otherworld Projection Dungeon were already quite substantial. Not to mention that the biggest gain wasn't these, but the sum of over five hundred main god points obtained from that large black rock.

It could be said that this was one of the few huge sums Chen Mo had seen since taking over the Main God Space. Aside from the '648' he had tricked out of Xiao Wan's hands at the very beginning, this sum of over five hundred main god points was the largest he had received. Moreover, when he got the 648, the game space was still nothing but a concept in his mind. So, while six hundred and forty-eight main god points seemed like a lot, after building the Novice Village scene and NPCs, very little was left.