Chapter 217: The Day the Heaven Collapsed
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Hilda had heard Hao Ren mention Raven 12345 more than once. She knew that this important person with a strange name was the goddess who administered the whole world. And she was the kind of god who had real power and influence throughout the universe, not like the false gods who relied on mortals to support and worship them in order to survive on a tiny planet. Thus, when Hilda heard that she was going to meet Raven 12345, she was earnest and tense. She tidied up her appearance and asked, "What do I need to prepare? Is there any special attention needed in etiquette? The living place of the goddess should have a lot of rules, am I dressed properly?"
Hao Ren did not care at all and said, "No special attention, she is sloppier than me. And the place she lives in is just a big house. There are no rules."
Hilda still wanted to ask about something but, Hao Ren had already pinched the MDT and was ready to teleport. At the last moment, before the surrounding scene twisted, Hao Ren shouted upstairs, "Wuyue! Remember to teach Becky to use electrical appliances!"
Then the white light flashed and Hao Ren along with Hilda were teleported directly to the big house of Raven 12345.
"Here we are." Hao Ren recovered from momentary vertigo. He patted Hilda on the shoulder and turned to point out the direction of the bungalow. He then said, "This is Ra… the hell?"
Two of them stared at the scene before them: the white-bottomed, blue-topped house was beyond recognition. Its facade was blasted and all that was left were three large holes. The largest hole even broke through third-storey floor and he could see the crystalline walls as well as the alloy lamination inside. The bungalow's door was also gone, replaced by a pile of temporary alloy plates. At least a third of the roof was blown off. The sky-blue crystal tiles were scattered all across the floor. The once most beautiful central bell tower was now left with half a frame. The huge dial was soaking in the fountain at the front of the house, with a faint blue light moving on the back of the dial. The fountain had also been smashed into pieces. The pool of fresh water was flowing aimlessly and a couple of currents were clumsily binding the shell of the pool. A small water element, about one meter in height was directing the job there.
There was smoke coming out from every corner of the house. Bright sparks of energy popped out of the holes every now and then. The whole scene was miserable as if the place had been blown up. A few shiny, self-regulatory robots were flying around the house and it seemed like they were preparing to fix the place: the catastrophic accident probably happened not long ago.
Hao Ren stared at all this and could not understand how the place had transformed into Afghanistan circa 2001 after just a few days. Then, he suddenly thought of Raven 23333, who was taking over Raven 12345’s shift. She also happened to blow a hole in the roof while chatting. And then he thought, the goddess, who looked quite stable and reliable should not have had such a destructive force.
Hilda looked at the scene for quite some time and finally asked, "In your world, a few holes in the house must not be a normal phenomenon?"
Hao Ren jumped and shouted, "This is not a normal phenomenon anywhere! Where’s my god by the way?"
The first thing he did was look for Raven 12345 (or 23333) but, when they reached the door, a few self-operated robots stopped them. These maintenance workers told them it was dangerous to go ahead. Harmful radiation was still over the limit so, nobody was allowed to get closed. Just as Hao Ren was about to dial his phone, a familiar figure finally appeared in front of him: the tall, blue arcane servant came out of the little botanical garden beside them and quietly pointed to a path in the botanical garden.
Hao Ren walked down the path to the depths of the garden and finally saw Raven 12345 between the bushes in the glade. She dug a pit in the middle of the glade and there was a bonfire crackling inside the pit. A few sticks were placed beside the pit, with a small pot hanging on it. Raven 12345 was squatting over there, cooking noodles…
Hao Ren’s first reaction was wishing that he had the power to brain-wash and the first thing he wanted to do was stun Hilda so that she would forget what she saw. Domestic shame should not be made public! Goddess, what were you doing?
"How did you get like this?" Hao Ren looked at Raven 12345, stunned. He could see that she was 12345. Mainly because, as she squatted on the ground and cooked the noodles, the funny vibe she gave off was really hard to suppress, which almost spread in all directions uncontrollably. Anyway, Hao Ren did not think that 23333 would do this. Even though she blew a hole in the roof while laughing, she was steady most of the time.
Raven 12345 knew Hao Ren was there. She waved to them without looking up and said, "You, sit there first. My noodles will be ready soon. I’m not going to share with you by the way."
Hao Ren looked at Hilda and said earnestly, "Just take this as an illusion."
Hilda suddenly felt that there was a possibility she would not be able to go home. Nonetheless, she was dragged by Hao Ren to sit down by the round table at the other end of the glade. The situation was really out of tune: The house was gone but one could see the exquisite, ornamental round tables and round stools in the garden, surrounded by manicured, exotic flowers as well as rare herbs, not to mention the loyal and handsome arcane servant not far away. In such a poetic environment, Raven 12345 was actually squatting down on the ground and cooking noodles... Could it be that the problem in her brain was getting worse?
"You’ve been inside The Plane of Dreams for quite a while." Raven 12345 came to the table with a bowl of hot noodle soup. And as she poured the seasoning in, she smiled and looked at Hao Ren. Then, she turned her face towards the bonfire on the ground and gave an order to the arcane servant, "Fill in the pit."
"How did you get yourself into this?" Hao Ren felt that he could put his problems aside for the time being. He had to figure out what happened to the goddess. If Raven 12345’s condition was really deteriorating, even if he had to risk blasphemy, he would have to feed her pills.
Even though he did not know what medicine could cure Raven 12345’s brain, that was damaged on the battlefield…
"The house is scrapped," Raven 12345 looked indifferent. "Something went wrong during landing."
"Landing?"
"Oh, I applied for a shuttle," Raven 12345 said and scratched her face. There was a little dust on her pretty face. Not sure if she got it from the bonfire or the crash. "I found it interesting and then, I tried to pilot it and realized that I didn't read the instructions when I landed."
"What about the instructions?"
"I threw it away."
"Why did you throw it away?"
"Because I felt like I already understood it."
"Didn’t you say you didn’t read it?"
Raven 12345 smiled awkwardly and said, "I Just read the first half and didn't find it difficult so, I threw it away. Only when the shuttle landed did I remember that the deceleration operation was written in the later half—so, when I was posting online asking how to operate it, the shuttle had already crashed into the house."
Hao Ren hurriedly let the MDT run a search in the City of Shadows Forum and found that his goddess’ post was again at the top of the first page. Just a line of words, "How to slow down the manual mode of an X-C-C1855 shuttle? I can already see the roof of my house. Waiting online…"
His female boss gathered 200 or 300 likes again and the replies were all the same, "Waiting for TS to upload the image of setting up tents at night."
Raven 12345 slurped her noodles, leisurely let out a deep sigh and said, "Life is really beautiful and short like snow... Luckily, the shuttle isn't broken."
Hao Ren was silent for a long time before he finally pointed at the noodles and asked, "Alhough the house is ruined... You’re not that miserable, are you? What about your powers? How about the ability to construct a building with a mere snap of the fingers? Don’t tell me you can polish a planet by hand but you can’t fix your house."
"The house, I'll leave it to the workers," said Raven 12345 as she ate her noodles happily. "I am now experiencing life. I have long felt that a picnic would be very interesting but, I’ve been so busy working that I never had the opportunity to try it."
Hao Ren’s head dropped to the table and recoiled twice: smashing her house and then proceeding to have a picnic in the garden at her doorstep, the psycho goddess’ way of life was really a stunning trip. She was experiencing the arts using her life.
It seemed that Raven 12345’s head had not only been blown up in the battlefield, it had just been bombed again. At this point, any treatment would be useless.
However, someone else benefited from the crash: the hole in the roof caused by Raven 23333 had been destroyed, and it seemed that 12345 did not know of it as well. Unless Hao Ren or 23333 told Raven 12345, the neuropath would never know that her house was actually blown up two times…
"All right, let’s put this matter aside and tell me about yours," Raven 12345 looked at Hao Ren, who was standing beside Hilda. "You brought a stranger. I can see that she has information and possesses characteristics of a different world—well, I can feel that there’s something quite troublesome. You, start reporting. Let me drink some soup first to mentally prepare myself."
"Oh, her name is Hilda, time-travelled to The Plane of Dreams from another world..."
"Phoof…"
Hao Ren narrowly avoided the noodles' soup and asked, "...Aren’t you mentally prepared?"
"I’m not."