It did not matter if this strange place was real or not, and it did not matter if it was a distorted space or a supernatural phenomenon. One thing was sure, it would inadvertently collapse in time. A second unbounded dimension would not appear in a proper, completed universe. This was one of the many rules in "The Creators' Creed". This rule ensured the stability and order of the universe. Hao Ren learned this from Raven 12345 by accident.
Therefore, he was very sure if he headed for the stars... he would reach the border of this world.
He had no idea how that place looked like, or whether it was even safe at all.
"Thta's not bad a thought," the MDT praised Hao Ren as it heard Hao Ren's plan. "So, how do you plan on getting there? With the Petrachelys?"
"I did bring it along." Hao Ren looked at the distant stars, and under the illumination of the two moons, only a few stars were actually visible. "But, I'm sure if it's safe to shoot for the stars so suddenly... Ugh... no point dwelling on this. We've got to at least have a look."
The MDT kept silent as it looked on Hao Ren pulling the silver inspector cruiser out from his Dimensional Pocket. The Petrachelys floated silently in the night sky and via remote control, she turned off all her lights and obscured its heat and radiation signatures. This will allow it to hide from the detectors from afar. Hao Ren looked at the behemoth as he murmured. "Should we give it a cloaking module? I think it'll be very useful."
"Up to you. There's a boatload of module sockets onboard. You can upgrade it by just sending in an application. But remember that every module draws power from the ship's core and many a newbie went crazy with the upgrades and ended up needing to apply for help to tow their ship home after a mission..."
Hao Ren pondered for a bit and felt that he should think about the upgrades to his ship when he have time, now was however not it. He led the MDT onboard and they reached the bridge the mainframe came alive. Hao Ren sat on his captain's chair by habit as he took his hands off the keyboard. "MDT, activate the silent ascending protocol."
The ship did not budge and Hao Ren turned back to see the blonde corpse of the MDT sitting dumbfoundedly on the control dais: Her butt was sitting on the usual command dock...
"I can't fit in!" the blonde girl shook her leg, motioning that she had tried hard. "Do it yourself!"
Hao Ren shrugged as he manipulated the controls. Thankfully he was no longer the basket case that did not even knew what an automated door was. After checking the control manuals he was still able to perform the standard control protocols, but as he was checking the drive core he suddenly let out a 'Eh'. "Eh, was this supposed to be like that?"
"What's wrong?" The MDT leapt off the control dais to have a look. "Even with a diagram you're still lost?"
"Not the diagram." Hao Ren pointed towards the status of the drive core on the holographic display. "There's no psionic reading anymore and many of the units and calculations on the display is abnormal... and I can't see anything on the cameras in the lab and the engine hold."
"Let me see." The corpse princess said as she used her unfamiliar hands to manage the control interface. When she was still able to dock directly to the control dias every manner of control was done almost instantenously, but how she could only poke about the consoles clumsily and that left her rather unhappy. Bereft of any options, she could only prod on at the speed of a one-finger typist. Not long after, she could finally see the problematic data that Hao Ren mentioned, and realised that the ship was indeed having problems.
"Seems like anything to do with the Psionic module has all gone offline. The device parameters are incomplete and all it manage to display is either something is working normally or not." The MDT said as she pressed one of the blue buttons on the control dais. "Mainframe computer, enabling direct voice connection, status report."
The holographic display on the control dais immediately displayed a report stating that "Status normal." but there was no voice response.
Hao Ren frowned as he seemed to have thought of something. "Lets head to the lab and the engine sector!"
He pulled the corpse princess off the bridge and soon they came before the gate before the laboratory. This was the Petrachelys' most secured, most technologically advance section, and more than half of the ships high-end equipments were located here. Furthermore, the lifeblood, the corpse of the First Born and the brain monster were amongst the more special specimens kept there. When Hao Ren was running a check of the ship's status, this place, and the engine section was nothing but pitch black.
Hao Ren took deep breath as he opened the laboratory door.
And he almost fell into a dimensional flux for his troubles.
A twisted room with formed by metallic and crystalline substance appeared before him and the MDT. Every part of the room defied any sense of logic, almost like a maze made out of optical illusions, or a children's doodle that gone out of hand. The laboratory was now a maw of incomprehensible madness. As what that appeared before him was something that was totally detached from the laws of reality and human comprehension, Hao Ren immediately felt weak the moment he saw the scene and thankfully the MDT was quick to yank him back and closed the door.
"What was that all about?" The MDT was astonished by what she saw. While she may have a very powerful logic processing capability, she still lacked in associative and imaginative reasoning.
"This is not our ship." Hao Ren said between his breath, as he slowly recovered from nausea and dissonance of what he saw earlier. "Maybe it's not fully our ship. Like Nolan said, this world is a stage, and is simulated by something. So everything here is simulated, everything from my Dimensional Pocket included..."
As he said, Hao Ren pulled his Inspector's pistol out.
This was the first time Hao Ren pulled the weapon out since he arrived in the world.
The silver psionic pistol looked normal at first glance, and just from appearance alone, Hao Ren could not tell if anything was amiss with the gun. Hao Ren took a deep breath as he closed his eyes and focused his mind. A moment later, he cocked the gun.
And shockingly, the slider slid back and ejected a round...
Even the MDT was dumbfounded by the scene. "Since when does and inspector's pistol needed bullets? Isn't it an energy weapon?"
"This world can only simulate what it understands. The simpler the thing, and the closer it is to the level of human civilisation, the easier the simulation is. Conversely, the more complicated the thing is, the simulation is can be very demanding.." Hao Ren kept his pistol as he now knew this weapon was frankly worthless in this world. "The same reason why the Steel Membrane Shield did appear was that it could be simulated. The staff I gave to Nolan was an Aerym-made item. It was not a technologically advanced item, so it too could be simulated. But my pistol... it is psionic."
Hao Ren shook his head as he headed back to the bridge. "Seems like our ship's core is just too technologically advanced and thus the world could only simulate its outer shell. Same goes for the hull, and those super-advanced thingmajings were even more numerous inside, and the world simply rendered them into something unknown."
The MDT finally understood as she patted the alloy wall. "So when you pull the ship out the world had no idea what sort of item you were going to pull out of your pocket... and could only re-create a shell that looks like the Petrachelys in haste?"
"You're quite on the mark, but that mouth of yours is quickly mimicking mine."
The MDT did not care about that as she limped behind Hao Ren. "Now the question is, can we fly this tin bucket?"
Hao Ren's response was only one word. "Probably."
As they arrived at the bridge, Hao Ren tried to activate the silent ascension protocol once again, and just as he imagined; while he had no idea how this 'Petrachelys' actually operated, the ship was beginning to ascend silently.
Surprise was plastered all over the MDT's face. "Eh holy molly it's really flying!?"
"While this world does not understand what a psionic engine is." Hao Ren pursed his lips. "But 'it' at least know that this ship is space-faring capable. So now, lets see what awaits us at the edge of the world... or rather the border of this world's simulation.