Chapter Three: The Guide

"Very well, this batch of newcomers doesn’t seem to have any particularly strange individuals... I am your guide for new recruits, Level 3 World Modulator, Mu Bai."

Among the nine newcomers, aside from the emotionless Yan Luo, all the others looked at the guide with varying degrees of surprise.

The reaction of the chuunibyou girl, Yori Takanashi, was the most exaggerated. She took several steps back, raised her hands in a defensive stance, and exclaimed in astonishment, "Are you a dark elf from the bottomless abyss, cruel and evil?"

Mu Bai’s lip twitched.

"Well… you all can probably tell what I am. That’s right, I’m a black man who has broken through the limits of humanity."

Most of them were of a yellowish complexion, somewhere between white and black, some slightly fairer, some darker. But this man’s skin was so black, blacker than anyone they’d ever seen—blacker than coal or graphite—utterly pure, without a hint of any other hue!

It was shocking enough to stop one’s heart.

He truly was a black man who had transcended the limits of humanity!

On a dark night, someone like this could vanish completely if he stripped bare.

"Mr. Mu Bai," Tang Tianjie, brimming with self-confidence from head to toe, asked, "These people here—chuunibyou, otaku, a flashy punk, and a mortician—aren’t they strange enough? Why do you say this batch has no particularly bizarre individuals? Could there be even stranger people?"

The guide fell silent. Suddenly, Yan Luo sensed a ripple from the humanoid presence in his Mindless Puppet.

"Nearby, there is a strong emotional emission: sadness."

"Absorb?"

"Yes!" He silently chose, and set the Mindless Puppet to automatically absorb emotions without further prompts.

Mu Bai, blacker than black, lit a cigarette, exhaled a ring of smoke, his gaze growing somewhat distant.

"If you’d met, as I did, someone who had surpassed the limits of humanity—a fool whose very existence could drive others mad, a king of pretense who never stopped putting on airs, a venomous tongue whose words could choke you, a cross-dresser more beautiful than any star, who could make anyone fall in love at a single glance…"

"After that, no one else could possibly faze you."

Except for Yan Luo and the chuunibyou girl, the other newcomers could only look speechlessly at this guide who clearly had seen far too much.

"Well… enough of that. I will lead you into the Inner World for your first mission, to acquaint you with the life of a World Modulator, adventuring in the Inner World."

In Yan Luo’s mind, the Mindless Puppet’s innate power pulsed again—the intense sadness coming from Mu Bai faded away.

"For the emotions you’ve absorbed, you may store them in the Mindless Puppet for now, or you can release them to experience them yourself. You currently possess: Sadness, 1 point. When you inject different emotions into the Mindless Puppet, and the total reaches 100 points, you can fuse them to create a Grade 1 Persona Mask."

"Experience it?" Yan Luo chose to release the emotion.

No one could fathom what it felt like for an emotionless one to suddenly be swept by feeling—especially when that feeling was 'sadness.' Yan Luo tilted his head upward at a forty-five degree angle, gazing at the sky, as a single crystalline tear slid from the corner of his eye.

"Uh, Yan Luo, my friend, you…?" Even Mu Bai, the guide, was surprised by the 'unflappable beyond human limits' Yan Luo shedding tears.

"The moon is desolate; who wanders lost in this lifetime? Hair like frost, whose sorrow does it veil?" Yan Luo nodded, expressionless, at the black man. One point of emotion was not enough for him to linger in the feeling for long. "It was just a moment of sadness; it’s passed now."

Led by Mu Bai, the group followed him across what seemed to be a plaza paved with pristine marble. In its center stood a sculpture and a fountain, while people came and went through glowing portals.

"This is the Dream Space. It was once a place akin to the Main God Space—well, I assume you all know about that? But something happened, some great upheaval. Now, it serves mainly as a transfer station. There are rumors that the server behind the World Modulation Program is run by the Dream Space’s core."

"From here, you can teleport to the Outer World. Teleportation requires bio-energy; this time, I’ll cover the cost."

Speaking, Mu Bai led the group to a portal entwined with angels and demons. He produced a transparent crystal. "This is a bio-energy crystal." He tossed it into the portal and entered coordinates into his phone.

"All right, everyone in."

Yan Luo neither entered first nor last, choosing instead to be third from the end. As someone without emotion, he preferred to remain an observer, to keep a low profile—never the first to draw attention, nor the last to be despised.

A moment later, he found himself in an unfamiliar place.

"This is a small town in eastern China. It’s the middle of the night, no one will disturb us. The higher-ups detected an Inner World here suitable for new recruits’ training. I’ll activate the node and lead you in."

Psychologist Chu Qingfeng spoke up, "Excuse me, Mr. Guide, I have some questions that have been bothering me. May I…"

Mu Bai raised a hand to stop him.

"I know you all must have a ton of questions. When I was new, I was the same. But you must understand one thing: I am merely a black man who has transcended human limits, not a scientist who has done the same. And as a Level 3 World Modulator, my knowledge is limited."

"So I can’t explain much, and even if I did, it might not be entirely accurate."

"The world is not unique."

"The world we inhabit is the Outer World. If you imagine the Outer World as a line, then parallel to it are other worlds—the Inner Worlds—which ordinary people cannot see or enter. World Modulators, through the program, scan and detect nodes where world lines shift, and leap into the Inner Worlds."

"Is it like entering the two-dimensional world of anime?" The otaku, Zhu Xiaoyong, looked at him with hope and longing. "Will we get to meet our waifus?"

"In theory, Inner Worlds evolved from the Outer World should correspond to those anime, games, movies, or novel worlds… but for some reason, any Inner World we enter has nothing to do with the fantasies of the Outer World."

"Though there are all sorts: Eastern-style martial arts, cultivation; Western magic and adventure; Japanese ninja or onmyoji; even strange worlds that exist only in imagination—future worlds, bizarre worlds… All are utterly new and unfamiliar to the people of Earth."

Mu Bai shrugged. "Frankly, it’s strange. As for the truth, there’s no need to worry about it. As low-level World Modulators, our task is simply to enter world after world, survive, and grow stronger!"

"Knowing too much of the truth isn’t necessarily a good thing," he added meaningfully.

"This is a Level 1 Horror Survival World—the perfect place for you newcomers."

"World line mutation node: activated! World line jump initiated! Entering Level 1 Horror Survival World!"

Countless black and white points and clusters of light filled the space. In a rush of dizzying, psychedelic light and shadow, Yan Luo realized that the scene around him had changed completely—it was nothing like the small town they’d just been in.

The world had changed!