After briefly communicating with the person in charge of the event, Feng Yi quickly made his way into the pitch-black interior of the ship...

---

On the other side of the mysterious space, as soon as Kevin stepped out, he plummeted down, and the physical sensation of his skin made him feel even more so like he had left the bizarre warship and appeared inside an ancient and elegant room.

The only difference was that his vision, which had been clear, suddenly blurred, and everything around him seemed to carry a shadowy overlay. When he looked closely, the shadows seemed non-existent, or perhaps it was a problem with his vision.

It appeared to be the world he originally inhabited; the size and the elegant frescoes of the interior decorations were extremely similar to what he saw daily, except for the absence of electrical appliances, everything else was in place.

Looking out the window, one would see the huge stone sculpture of the Virgin Mary, through the specks of light filtering through window paper, one could see the nobles sitting in carriages, royal knights clad in heavy chainmail, and an endless stream of Baroque-style buildings flooding into view. It was a scene from the Renaissance, the sudden change made Kevin's heart skip a beat!

Oh God! Kevin clutched his head with a look of utter dismay. Where on earth had he arrived, and what era was it? He quickly rummaged through his backpack, relieved to find its contents still intact, especially his modern equipment.

"Is anyone there?"

He tried to communicate with the owner, but sadly there was no response in the room.

Kevin grew increasingly restless. He tried to push open one door after another, moving on, closing each door behind him... After a 5-minute exploration and passing through dozens of rooms, he finally realized he couldn't leave what seemed to be an ordinary residential room.

Seemingly out of options, the only thing left to do was to jump out the window and ask a passerby for directions. First, he needed to confirm something: what time-space he was in, what moment in time—he had somehow returned from Four-dimensional Space to Rank 3, let's just call it Rank 3 for now, because he could no longer find that sense of expansiveness he felt when he was in Four-dimensional Space. The present scene closely resembled some point in time from the real world.

What made him particularly horrified was the fact that the doors he had previously passed through had now become untraceable, completely vanishing from this world, which could possibly mean he might have difficulty returning to his original world.

With various feelings of unwillingness, Kevin attempted to push the window open several times to no avail.

"Damn it! This is outright crazy!" he cursed, then threw a precise punch at the thin window.

Crack, the outer window was shattered, and at the same time, Kevin's head spun with dizziness, accompanied by a heavy thud, his body collapsed...

When Kevin woke up, he felt as if he had been trapped in a rather unpleasant nightmare. Now that the afternoon had faded away, the dim surroundings made him leap up from where he stood. He... he... he had actually returned to the original spot, which is to say the room he had entered after falling from Four-dimensional Space.

A trickle of cold sweat inexplicably slid down his cheeks. Kevin stood up straight and, in a frenzy, pushed open door after door, the room becoming ever more eerie. The lifeless quiet of the empty space was replaced with the sound of opening doors. Despite being a Rank 3 bounty hunter with far greater endurance than an average person, he eventually ran out of breath and could run no more.

"Damn it, I can't make it out." It was then that he started to ponder in detail... "Could my recent fainting have been a coincidence?" Kevin spat, assuming that when in doubt one should resort to fists. With a multitude of emotions, he once again decided to break through the outer window to escape this peculiar room.

Boom! With a heavy punch, the window shattered and once again Kevin passed out on the spot.

As if his body had developed a resistance, Kevin came to much quicker than before. As before, he found himself in the same spot, suggesting that perhaps a mysterious force was deliberately restricting his movements, or could it be the rules that were limiting him?

The feeling was particularly frustrating; he had no desire to faint senselessly again. Kevin stood up straight once more, determined to try to escape this place. Time edged closer to night as he continued his long exploration.

Three hours later, Kevin collapsed to the ground with a lack of spirit, unable to stand, and stared blankly at the familiar scene in front of him, somewhat lost...

After wandering and searching for three hours, never did he imagine he would come back to this familiar room again. Inside was pitch black, but under the effect of nuclear-powered lighting, one could still make out the same location as during the day. Even the window paper he had broken had somehow restored itself to its original state—this was simply insane!

As time neared midnight, the light gradually dimmed. Initially, Kevin hadn't noticed this until the light was so faint that even he found it uncomfortable. That's when he realized something was seriously wrong—no, it was absolutely impossible. Nuclear-powered illumination consumed very little power; it was normally able to operate continuously for three years, let alone just one day.

The room was inescapable, its windows wouldn't open, its doors wouldn't lead out; it was as though one had fallen into a bizarre loop, just like Xixi. For a moment, even someone with a mind as seasoned as Kevin's felt it teetering on the brink.

---

Feng Yi's exploration continued methodically. As soon as he entered the warship, he faintly sensed a different aura, with the strongest fluctuations coming from the right corridor...

Inside the scorching body of the ship, Feng Yi's complexion grew even paler—he didn't have much time left, so these details didn't bother him; he just walked step by step, reflexively covering his heart with one hand, while using his keen insight to capture any clues he might find.

Of course, the first thing to consider was establishing contact with the 11 members of the exploration team. Unfortunately, his radio communication attempts met with no response, and he had to follow the most prominent strange aura to extend his investigation.

Third Rhythm—Leap

In that instant, the battleship's magnetic field was entirely synchronized with the rhythm aura, and Feng Yi's figure gradually dispersed... then quickly reassembled, reappearing in the room where Xiu Yi and the others had arrived.

Under the oppressive domain of the rhythm, even the silent door seemed to lose its magical effect—Feng Yi scanned his surroundings coldly, taking in everything in just three or two seconds.

The book lying in the center of the room particularly caught his attention; it retained the aura of Xiu Yi and the others. As he stepped closer and observed it, he was surprised to see dense and incomprehensible writing.

Feng Yi's puzzled gaze turned to Eggy, "Can you recognize these characters?"

"No, these must be pictographs left behind by aliens. With a dictionary, I think they wouldn't be hard to learn."

Feng Yi said, "The aura of Xiu Yi and the others disappears in this room; I guess there might be a significant problem here."

"Let me take a look." Eggy began flipping through the pages, and as the rhythm aura faded, the writing on the pages began to emerge, forming various intricate and difficult symbols in the void.

"Do you have any solutions?"

"Hmm, there are solutions, but it could take quite a bit of time. A mere computational deduction might take me to simulate billions of iterations, with inaccuracies to boot. Perhaps, an error in deducing a single term could lead to starting over from scratch."

Eggy swiftly changed the subject, "That being said, you don't have much time left either. Considering our friendship, I'll help you this one time. I shall operate at maximum power to perform these billion iterations, which will consume a lot of energy."

"What are the consequences of consuming energy?" Feng Yi didn't want to implicate Eggy because of this matter.

"Not much, just that I'll go into hibernation for a very long time. During that time, don't you die on me, buddy. Perhaps—this may be our last conversation. Are you sure?"

"Of course, as long as it doesn't affect you personally."

"Alright, bring out your Thunderwatch."

Feng Yi did as he said.

As Eggy plugged the wires into the Thunderwatch, he said, "I will transmit the roughly simulated machine translations to the Thunderwatch. You will be able to translate the writing through it. There might be some omissions, but for now, I'm switching to self-hibernation mode—so, good luck—nah, goodbye, buddy."

"If... Heh, same to you, Eggy."

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