Azure Star, Azure Calendar Year 2146.
"Thoughts by day become dreams by night, but there is no need to fear nightmares; what you encounter in a dream is usually the opposite of reality."
"Don't run! Delicious human, be a good little meal for me, jie-jie-jie-jie-jie..."
"I've finally caught you. Now then, I'm digging in—"
Herta woke up with a start, gasping for air. On her tender young face, the fear born from the fright was starkly visible.
"Whew..."
It was just a nightmare.
Hiss, it hurts... A pain like her entire skeleton was being torn apart radiated through her.
In the gray, misty environment, Herta tried to open her eyes wide to observe, but her eyelids felt like they were coated in poor-quality glue, leaving her vision blurry.
Subconsciously wanting to raise her hand to rub her eyes, she found her arms weak, followed immediately by a sharper, more distinct pain.
She couldn't help but gasp.
The air filling her lungs had a strange odor, along with a faint scent of blood.
Where is this?
Herta looked around, her face full of confusion.
The thick fog writhed slowly, shrouding everything completely.
Occasionally, hair-raising roars echoed from the distance through the deathly silent world.
Remembrance seemed to have a gap. What had happened to her before...?
Herta thought carefully, gradually piecing together some fragments.
Oh, right... I remember now.
In the star system where Azure Star was located, a red giant was set to explode in a few hundred years, affecting the entire system.
To save themselves, a... deceased Chief Professor of Spatial Studies proposed a plan—
To apply spatial transfer coordinates to the entire Azure Star and move the planet to a newborn habitable star system 1,751 light-years away.
With over 80% of the vote in favor, it was named the "Azure Leap Project."
After more than seventy years of preparation, the Leap Project was verified and implementation began.
However, life is rarely smooth sailing.
The core coordinate data was incorrect; several formulas, curvature equations, and sequences in Spatial Studies contained errors.
To correct the errors, one had to also study Chronology to find the correct result.
Another forty years passed, followed by another round of voting.
After a breakthrough in the study of Chronology, the United Government decided to take another risk.
The result brought about terrifying consequences.
Time and space became intertwined and chaotic, leading to history being tampered with, which in turn caused worldlines to vanish.
Tsunami-like chaotic memory substance arrived from the void, linking with the entire Azure Star and turning it into a world shrouded in memory substance, a semi-fusion of reality and illusion.
Many man-made creations became manifest, entering reality.
For example, characters from classic stories, films, and television, or magical characters with peculiar abilities.
An even greater crisis was triggered by this.
Many lifeforms that did not originally exist in reality became the greatest threat to the humans of Azure Star.
A hundred years passed, and just when people thought they could only wait for death, a girl named Herta—that is, her—burst onto the scene.
She not only proposed the preliminary framework for Chronology equations but also perfected and corrected the errors in Spatial Studies.
She was only 9 years old back then, the most brilliant rising star of the entire Azure Star.
Within a few years, she shouldered the heavy responsibility of saving the planet.
She needed to set Azure Star's timeline back to the correct point, cut the link with the memory substance void, and then move the planet to the newborn habitable star system.
But there was a prerequisite: she had to pass through the outer star regions of Azure Star, which were shrouded by the memory substance void, to reconfirm the correct spatial coordinates in the habitable star system.
The United Government spent a fortune to build a hundred light-speed spacecraft and dispatched many scholars into the universe.
This was a mission with a slim chance of survival.
Azure Star, linked to the memory substance void, was located in a star region that had long since become an ocean of memory substance, filled with countless dangers.
They might encounter lifeforms or events from fictional works, such as rule-based urban legends or Vengeful Spirits from horror movies, and enter their world labyrinths.
There were also monsters from magical worlds, evil mages, and so on.
These manifested beings, many of whom possessed intelligence, were collectively known as Virtual Substance Lifeforms. Besides that, they had one obvious commonality—
Most were not very friendly toward humans; only a very few were willing to be close to or communicate with them.
The scientists' mission was to traverse the chaotic memory substance labyrinth twice, survive, find the precise spatial coordinates, and bring them back to Azure Star.
Herta tucked away her memories and looked down at her right hand.
Clutched tightly in her palm was a chip the size of a fingernail.
The spatial coordinate data she had spent three years finding was all inside. Yet, the time that had passed on Azure Star was far more than three years... She didn't know what her home looked like now.
Within her self-perception, a sense of powerlessness was spreading.
She also remembered her ship crashing, leaving her trapped in a dangerous area of the memory substance labyrinth.
Her injuries weren't fatal, but if she couldn't leave this place alive and board someone else's ship, it would be impossible to return to Azure Star.
"Can I still send it back...?"
She murmured to herself.
Just then, a heart-palpitating roar suddenly drew near.
The fog ahead churned violently, and a mass of shadow suddenly lunged out.
A distorted, mangled human face came into view, with greedy phosphorus fire burning in its hollow eye sockets.
Vengeful Spirits were Virtual Substance Lifeforms that loved devouring human consciousness.
The Vengeful Spirit let out a piercing scream, whipping up a sinister wind as it pounced straight at Herta.
Herta wanted to retreat, but her legs were weak, and she fell onto the cold, damp ground.
The breath of death blew in her face.
She subconsciously curled her body, tightly shielding the data chip in her arms.
Even if she died here, she had to at least leave the data intact... BOOM!!
A deafening roar resounded, but the expected pain did not arrive.
Herta looked up with effort; in her blurred vision, a figure stood before her.
The person wore a somewhat tattered black robe and held a staff.
At the very moment the Vengeful Spirit was about to touch Herta, a dazzling bolt of lightning accurately struck it.
The Vengeful Spirit screamed shrilly. Just as it was about to flee back into the depths of the thick fog, it was blasted into gray mist by a second thick bolt of lightning, dissipating completely.
The figure slowly turned around.
The man's face was somewhat pale, and a strange aura could be felt emanating from him.
The man's slender fingers gripping the staff trembled slightly—not out of fear, but more like he was unable to contain his joy.
"Yo, kid." The man's voice held a nonchalant, playful tone. "Not scared to death yet?"
Human appearance, capable of speech... indicating high intelligence and the possibility of communication... Herta gritted her teeth and forced herself to sit up. "Are you an Virtual Substance Lifeform?"
"Does it matter if I am?"
"It doesn't... Can you take me out of here? As long as you can send some important data back to Azure Star, I'll pay any price you ask."