Awakening to the Present World and the Void Realm

“Huang Xiu,” Yue Zhengyang declared, retracting his phone, “from this moment forward, the Wall of Reality will no longer obstruct you; the other side of the world—everything within the Present World—shall be laid bare before you.”

“Welcome,” he added, “to the true world!”

“The true world?” Huang Xiu swallowed hard, his heart inexplicably quickening its pace.

‘Damn it, these guys sounded so incredibly cool; his surge of adolescent grandiosity was practically bursting forth.’

Wasn’t this “true world” precisely the kind of scenario he had always fantasized about?

“So, everything written in ‘The Lion’s Eye’ is true?” Huang Xiu asked, curiosity piquing.

“Does the Void Realm truly exist, and are there really Night Watchmen?”

“Ahem, the situation with that book is rather unique,” Yue Zhengyang coughed lightly.

“You’ll understand in due time.”

“In any case, allow me to first address the questions you posed earlier!” Professor Yuan interjected.

“In the past, we were known by many names: immortals, Taoist priests, alchemists, qi cultivators, demons, mystics, and so on…”

“Now, however, ‘Anomalists’ is the official term for people like you and me.”

He first gestured to himself, then to Yue Zhengyang, and finally pointed at Huang Xiu.

“Of course, at present, you are not yet a true Anomalist.”

Anomalist… Huang Xiu silently committed the word to memory.

“What exactly is an Anomalist?”

Professor Yuan, mid-sentence, suddenly fell silent.

The next second, the door swung open, and the landlady entered, laden with dishes.

With a basin in her left hand and another in her right, she made three or four trips back and forth before all the dishes were finally arranged on the table.

At Little Tian’s Family Feast, all the dishes were prepared and served simultaneously.

“All the dishes are here; please enjoy your meal,” the landlady said with a smile, pushing the door open as she departed.

An appetizing aroma filled the entire private room, and the dishes, garnished with chopped green onions, further whetted their appetites.

Yet, no one at the table reached for their chopsticks.

“An Anomalist is someone who is distinct from ordinary people, but where exactly does this distinction lie?” Professor Yuan asked, pointing towards the private room door.

“That landlady possesses exceptional culinary skills, with an incredibly keen sense of taste, far surpassing that of an average person. This makes her unusual, yet can we truly call her an Anomalist?”

“No!” Professor Yuan declared, crossing his arms.

“The key to distinguishing an Anomalist lies in mental anomaly.”

“Mental anomaly?” Huang Xiu echoed.

“You’ve already experienced it, haven’t you? That strange, inexplicable emotion that suddenly emerged.”

He unhurriedly picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks, put it into his mouth, and chewed thoughtfully.

“Mm, this stir-fried pork with chili tastes rather good.”

“I have.”

A flicker of memory crossed Huang Xiu’s eyes.

“It was indeed incredibly inexplicable, peculiar, and foreign, making me feel as if I wasn’t myself.”

“That is precisely a manifestation of mental anomaly. Everyone harbors various extreme emotions deep within their hearts.”

“However, these emotions are typically concealed beneath the subconscious currents of one’s mind, firmly suppressed by normal thought processes and thus unnoticed.”

“Only when mental fluctuations become exceedingly intense do these extreme emotions erupt, leading to mental anomaly.”

“Yet, this particular anomaly is an exceedingly rare talent, possessed by only a select few.”

Professor Yuan took a mouthful of rice, then set down his chopsticks.

Only after swallowing his food did he continue, “And mental anomaly allows us to communicate with the Void Realm, gain Void Energy, and thereby awaken our own unique special abilities.”

“The Void Realm?” Huang Xiu caught a key term.

“Let me consider how best to explain the Void Realm to you,” Professor Yuan mused, offering an analogy.

“Just as magnetic poles have positive and negative, the world has heaven and earth, Tai Chi has yin and yang, and questions have right and wrong, all things possess two opposing sides.”

“The material world we inhabit is called the Present World, and the Void Realm is its inverse.”

“It is a world eternally opposite to reality, constructed from the mental fantasies and Void Energy of all sentient life forms.”

“In truth, to call it a ‘world’ is misleading; it’s more akin to a heap of illusory bubbles, each formed from a single fantasy.”

Professor Yuan spoke as he ate.

“The Void Realm is a collective, with countless fantasy worlds serving as its constituent elements. This way, you should find it easier to understand.”

“The inverse of the material world, formed by mental fantasies—doesn’t that just make it a false world?” Huang Xiu questioned.

“The Void Realm does not adhere to the physical laws of the Present World, nor does it possess fixed rules. Indeed, from our perspective in the Present World, everything within the Void Realm appears as illusory and baseless as a bubble.”

Professor Yuan shook his head.

“But, conversely, from the perspective of the Void Realm, is our Present World not equally illusory? Physical laws? In the face of Void Energy’s absolute power, they shatter upon impact.”

“In my opinion, the Void Realm *is* real,” Yue Zhengyang suddenly interjected.

“Death is the most eternal and absolute rule, and in the Void Realm, death signifies true death; there is no resurrection, no mere fantasy.”

‘Wait, if death is real… then that incident with the pig-headed man… why didn’t I die?’

‘Was everything that happened then merely an illusion? Not the Void Realm Professor Yuan spoke of, but simply my own fantasy?’

Huang Xiu rubbed the chopsticks in his hands.

“Professor Yuan, how does one distinguish between the Void Realm and the Present World? I believe I might have encountered something from the Void Realm before…”

After attentively listening to Huang Xiu recount the incident with the pig-headed man and his resurrection, Professor Yuan stroked his goatee.

“I believe that might not have been the Void Realm, but rather the delusion you experienced during your awakening.”

“Delusion?” Huang Xiu inquired.

“What Yue Zhengyang said earlier is correct: death is a universal rule across all worlds, and the Void Realm is no exception.”

“With your head and spine being ripped out, you would undoubtedly have died, unless your special ability was so heaven-defying that it could circumvent life and death itself.”

Professor Yuan looked at Huang Xiu and explained, “What we call ‘delusion’ refers to the unique hallucinations that Anomalists experience during their initial awakening, brought on by mental anomaly.”

“Alright, let’s not dwell on it. Since you reported it to the police, it’s already on record with the central AI system.”

“If the operatives dispatched by the central AI system determined there was no issue, then there truly is no issue.”

‘Operatives… was it that uncle in the protective suit I saw in the teaching building that day?’

‘If it was him? There shouldn’t be a problem… right?’

In Huang Xiu’s perception, that uncle remained quite trustworthy.

Professor Yuan clapped his hands, jolting Huang Xiu out of his reverie.

“You only need to know this: the Void Realm is perpetually attempting to invade the Present World, and we Anomalists are the first and only line of defense against it.”

“What would be the consequences if the Void Realm were to invade Earth?” Huang Xiu asked, a hint of curiosity in his tone.

“The consequences would be severe,” Professor Yuan sighed.

“As I mentioned earlier, the Void Realm is baseless, as illusory as a bubble. But what if the Void Realm and the Present World were to fully merge, thereby gaining a foundation?”

Huang Xiu instantly grasped his meaning.

“Wouldn’t that mean transforming the false into the true? Everything in the Void Realm would become real? Including its rules?”

“Precisely!” Professor Yuan affirmed, casting an appreciative glance at the young man.

“Whenever a Void Realm merges with the Present World, it causes a portion of the Present World’s rules to be overwritten and altered.”

“In truth, our resistance to the Void Realm’s arrival and its merger with the Present World wasn’t always so severe in the past.”

The handsome middle-aged man spoke slowly.

“After all, compared to the vast Present World, a single Void Realm is like a bubble the size of a grain of sand. Those minor changes and overwrites of rules could barely stir a ripple.”