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... heeheeheeheehee..."
"I've finally caught you. Now then, I'm digging in..."
Herta woke with a start, gasping for air. The fear born from the nightmare stood out sharply on her tender young face.
"Whew..."
It was only a nightmare.
A pain like her entire skeleton was being torn apart radiated through her body.
In the gray, misty surroundings, Herta tried to force her eyes open to observe, yet her eyelids felt coated in thick, stubborn glue. Her vision remained blurry no matter how hard she strained.
Subconsciously she wanted to raise a hand to rub her eyes, only to find her arms weak and unresponsive. A sharper, far more distinct pain followed at once.
She could not help but gasp.
The air that filled her lungs carried a strange odor, mixed 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.
Her memory seemed to hold a gap. What had happened to her before this moment?
Herta thought carefully, gradually piecing together scattered fragments.
Oh. Right. She remembered now.
In the star system where Azure Star was located, a red giant was set to explode in a few hundred years, threatening the entire system.
To save themselves, a deceased Chief Professor of Spatial Studies had once 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 percent of the vote in favor, the undertaking was named the "Azure Leap Project."
After more than seventy years of preparation, the Leap Project was verified and implementation began.
Life, however, is rarely smooth sailing.
The core coordinate data proved incorrect. Several formulas, curvature equations, and sequences in Spatial Studies contained critical errors.
To correct those errors, one also had to study Chronology in order to arrive at the proper result.
Another forty years passed, followed by a second 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. History itself was tampered with, causing entire worldlines to vanish.
Tsunami-like waves of chaotic Memoria arrived from the void, linking with the whole of Azure Star and turning it into a world shrouded in Memoria, a semi-fusion of reality and illusion.
Many man-made creations manifested and entered reality.
Characters from classic stories, films, and television appeared, as did magical beings with peculiar abilities.
An even greater crisis was triggered by this change.
Many lifeforms that had never originally existed in reality became the greatest threat to the humans of Azure Star.
A hundred years passed. Just when people thought they could only wait for death, a girl named Herta, herself, 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 had been only nine years old at the time, the most brilliant rising star of the entire Azure Star.
Within a few short years she shouldered the heavy responsibility of saving the planet.
She needed to set Azure Star's timeline back to the correct point, sever the link with the Memoria void, and then move the planet to the newborn habitable star system.
There was one critical prerequisite: she had to pass through the outer star regions of Azure Star, regions long shrouded by the Memoria void, in order to reconfirm the correct spatial coordinates in the distant habitable system.
The United Government spent a fortune to construct a hundred light-speed spacecraft and dispatched many scholars into the universe.
This was a mission with only a slim chance of survival.
Azure Star, linked to the Memoria void, now sat in a star region that had long since become an ocean of Memoria, filled with countless dangers.
Travelers might encounter lifeforms or events drawn from fictional works, such as rule-based urban legends or Vengeful Spirits from horror stories, and find themselves pulled into their world labyrinths.
There were also monsters from magical worlds, evil mages, and far worse.
These manifested beings, many of them intelligent, were collectively known as Virtual Substance Lifeforms. Beyond that classification they shared one obvious commonality: most were not friendly toward humans. Only a very few were willing to approach or communicate.
The scientists' mission was to traverse the chaotic Memoria labyrinth twice, survive, locate the precise spatial coordinates, and bring them safely back to Azure Star.
Herta tucked the memories away 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 searching for was all contained inside it. Yet the time that had passed on Azure Star was far longer than three years. She no longer knew what her home looked like now.
Within her own awareness, a deep sense of powerlessness was spreading.
She also remembered her ship crashing, leaving her trapped in a dangerous stretch of the Memoria labyrinth.
Her injuries were not fatal, but if she could not leave this place alive and board another vessel, returning to Azure Star would be impossible.
"Can I still send it back...?"
She murmured the words to herself.
Just then, a heart-palpitating roar drew near.
The fog ahead churned violently. A mass of shadow lunged out without warning.
A distorted, mangled human face came into view, greedy phosphorescent fire burning in its hollow eye sockets.
Vengeful Spirits were Virtual Substance Lifeforms that delighted in 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 had no strength left. She collapsed onto the cold, damp ground.
The breath of death washed over her face.
She subconsciously curled her body, tightly shielding the data chip against her chest.
Even if she died here, she had to leave the data intact...
BOOM!!
A deafening roar resounded through the fog. The expected pain never arrived.
Herta forced her head up. In her blurred vision, a figure stood before her.
The person wore a somewhat tattered black robe and held a staff.
At the precise moment the Vengeful Spirit was about to touch her, a dazzling bolt of lightning struck it with perfect accuracy.
The Vengeful Spirit screamed shrilly. Just as it tried to flee back into the depths of the thick fog, a second thick bolt of lightning blasted it into gray mist. It dissipated completely.
The figure slowly turned around.
The man's face was somewhat pale. A strange aura radiated from him.
His slender fingers gripping the staff trembled slightly, not from fear, but as though he could not fully contain a surge of joy.
"Yo, kid." The man's voice carried a nonchalant, playful tone. "Not scared to death yet?"
Human appearance. Capable of speech. That indicated high intelligence and the possibility of communication.
Herta gritted her teeth and forced herself to sit up.
"Are you a 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."