Prologue: The Age of the Homebound

Everything began with the Earth’s version update in the year 202x.

In that fateful year, Earth underwent a massive upgrade: earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions—cataclysms swept the globe. Humanity, forced by necessity, boarded hastily developed spaceships under the banner of their nations, leaving their home behind to embark on a voyage across the sea of stars.

Fortune favored the fleet—a collection of ships from surviving countries—as they discovered a wormhole in the asteroid belt of the solar system. After eliminating vessels of lesser technological prowess, the fleet emerged into a star system abundant with habitable planets.

By then, only two nations remained: the Eastern Empire and the Western Republic.

The Bear Federation once possessed advanced ships as well, but their crew celebrated too soon. A shipboard party led to drunken piloting—a reminder that drunk driving is more hazardous than autopilot. Their ship crashed into a meteor belt, vanishing in a blaze of cosmic fireworks.

Through the wormhole, humanity found a new planet and settled. Yet, due to differences in materials and environment, their technological level plummeted instantly. If a planet’s lifespan was too short, there might be no petroleum; if too long, oil might have transformed into something else. Without oil, Earth’s technology would regress to the age of steam engines, provided there was charcoal—which, without oil, might not exist either. Thus, humanity was forced to rely on hydroelectric and wind power, rendering most technology obsolete; and the new planet might not even supply the alloys required for power generation. Nuclear plants? Without oil or charcoal, uranium mining was out of the question.

Fortunately, humanity stumbled upon the relics of a supercivilization, unlocking the skill tree of the soul. Thus, a new racial talent was born: soul development. Harnessing this, they forged an alternative technology centered on soul power.

Ten thousand years later, a cosmic expedition returned through the wormhole to Earth, only to discover that the planet had grown to five times its historical size, and countless species once thought mythical now thrived upon its surface.

The explorers dug feverishly, unearthing a server of web literature from the ruins of the City of Magic, deciphering fragments of its contents.

Future generations realized that, millennia ago, Earth’s ancients could traverse the universe with their bodies, shatter the firmament with a single hand. Many biographies, once decoded, depicted such feats.

The future people marveled at their ancestors’ wisdom, lamenting the loss of these miraculous techniques.

Upon receiving this news, humanity dispatched legions of archaeologists to Earth, seeking the ancient superpowers that enabled corporeal interstellar travel.

After losing countless warriors—Earth was now overrun by legendary creatures: monster beasts, magical beasts, goblins, orcs—humanity found no super techniques, but instead, novels, comics, games, and films flooded their discovery. (After the great quake, many surface computers were destroyed, but some survived; treasures hidden in mountain bunkers remained buried. Films and novels were widely disseminated, while truly confidential archives had scant chance of being unearthed.)

Disappointed, humanity was astonished to discover that, under the influence of soul power, these materials could bridge to mysterious planes—these planes were the source of Earth’s expansion and its legendary species. Through sacrifice and exploration, humanity confirmed the existence of demi-planes. (Called demi-planes rather than parallel planes because they lack complete time rules, operating solely on narrative timelines; when the story ends, the world resets to the initial timeline.)

By repeatedly entering demi-planes, humanity acquired diverse powers—from ordinary, extraordinary, and superhuman, to heroic, epic, and legendary. Eventually, humans achieved the saint-class, able to erode reality with their sole strength. Yet, technological progress stagnated.

It was only natural: when one could traverse the void with their body and attain immortality through breath alone, why cling to technology requiring years of study and toil? (Moreover, Earth’s consciousness had awakened; any technology harming the natural environment would be suppressed by its laws.)

When the first saint-class conquered a demi-plane and gained a floating continent of the void, achieving eternal life, more saints began to seize demi-planes. Humanity, using energy systems from these planes, discovered a way to transcend sainthood to higher levels—the Four Gates of Divinity (thanks to the Lady of the Blue Sea for this setting, with a nod to Infinite Ice)—and created the Body-forging Formula: the method to become a god through the flesh.

As time passed, humanity noticed the number of demi-planes dwindling—a calamity in itself.

The two human races—the Eastern and Western Peoples—began violently snatching demi-plane quotas, igniting the Saint War, which devastated the Hope Star (the planet settled by humans). Forced, humanity relocated to the void continents constructed by myth-class invaders of demi-planes.

Countless years later, all demi-planes in the void were exhausted. Earth had become a terrifying planet, habitable only by myth-class beings. Humans lived solely on the void continents, severing all hope for saint-class ascension.

Until one day, an unrivaled being who broke through the Four Gates of Divinity, mastering the laws of causality and advancing to the rule-class, noticed the birth of a new demi-plane.

Reverse engineering through causality, the rule-class traced the origin to a group of fourteen- and fifteen-year-old, anime-loving youths.

Upon investigation, the rule-class was stunned: humans could create demi-planes simply by consuming two-dimensional works!

In other words, every demi-plane was nourished and grown by human imagination!

The news spread like wildfire. Information excavated from Earth was compiled and published; a multitude of myth-class beings recorded their experiences conquering demi-planes to fill in missing gaps. In just ten years, the dream of otaku from ten millennia past was realized: wherever humanity existed, so too did the two-dimensional.

Subsequently, each continent (now, aside from the absolute camps of the two races, human society was organized by continent—each void continent was equivalent to a nation) enacted laws: every person must study ACG works before adulthood (since minors' imaginations are most active). Thus, new demi-planes gradually appeared, and those trapped at the saint-class began a new round of ascension.

With myth-class beings multiplying, floating continents above Earth increased, gradually forming a vast tower reaching the heavens. Humanity named this tower Babel, after ancient legend: the tower by which humans seized divine authority. The main world was henceforth called the Babel World.

Later, the floating continent of the strongest rule-class fell, crashing into Earth and becoming part of its ever-expanding mass.

Yet this rule-class being did not perish, instead achieving true immortality: as long as Earth endured, he would never die. His true spirit fused with Earth, becoming part of Gaia’s consciousness (different from the Gaia of Type-Moon—here, Gaia is a council; every rule-class being whose continent merges with Earth becomes a member of the Gaia Council, passively strengthening Gaia. They retain self-will and autonomy, coming and going as they please, but are obliged to intervene when Earth faces crisis. This duty is diluted as more join—if alone, one must act directly; if the council exceeds a hundred, a clone suffices; at ten thousand, merely releasing a bit of presence resolves most troubles).

More continents merged, Earth grew ever larger, until it became the solar system’s greatest planet, surpassing even the sun, and the freest body in the universe.

At this point, natural laws on Earth were entirely maintained by the rules of rule-class beings.

There was a Law Sun from the light rule-class, moons and stellar gravity from the gravity rule-class, abundant waters from the water rule-class; even Earth’s own rotation and revolution ceased—seasons, day-night cycles were governed by time rules paired with temperature, light, and darkness.

Centuries passed, and Babel began to organize: lower-powered continents floated upward, higher-powered sank. Ultimately, they were divided into six regions (Ordinary, Extraordinary, Superhuman, Heroic, Epic, Legendary), comprising eighteen continent clusters (Upper, Middle, Lower).

(All rule-class beings could merge their continents into Earth; myth-class usually manage their new continents or seek breakthroughs on Earth, so there’s no clustering by myth or rule-class.)

This Babel was also known as the Eighteen Layers of the Immortal Path—each layer ascended brought one closer to immortality.

Yet, even as humanity achieved immortality and could grasp stars and moons, war persisted.

For the Gaia Council was not solely human—it included demon races, beast races, elves, even sea kings and void entities from fantasy worlds. Their entry mechanism differed from humanity; some lacked will yet joined. Comparison revealed that entry required reaching rule-class and breaking free from one’s original plane to descend upon Earth.

Moreover, any race entering the council would see their seats (like places at a meeting table) gradually converge into groups—these groups became the racial will: collective consciousness, or Alaya (specifically for humanity).

The cause of war lay in these Gaia Council seats.

The number of seats determined the world’s favor. In reality, this favor was subtle, but upon entering demi-planes, its presence was palpable. Before the first rule-class entered the council, humans venturing into other planes faced overwhelming rejection, like a visit from the god of death. Afterward, rejection eased; now, every human entering a demi-plane, even passively, gained the luck of a cameo—exposure-level fortune. Rule-class theorists speculated that, if humanity held over half the council’s seats, each person entering a demi-plane could directly supplant the original protagonist and become the child of the plane.

The use of world favor for non-human races was unclear, but must be significant. Thus, all races strove to eliminate other potential rule-class geniuses, escalating into outright war.

Thankfully, the Eighteen Layers of the Immortal Path made it hard for non-humans to invade the upper regions, but even so, the nine lower continent clusters remained engulfed in conflict; the three in the Legendary domain were attacked daily.

Nor was it only human versus non-human—the war between Eastern and Western Peoples intensified. Though both were human, upon entering the Gaia Council, they were split into two racial consciousnesses. In the council’s judgment, they were distinct races (a decision made by the other races—humanity’s numbers were so vast that, if the two groups counted as one, they’d easily claim a quarter of the seats. A quarter sufficed for every transmigrant to gain major supporting-role luck, threatening other races’ survival).

Thus, ethnic strife grew fiercer, even sparking intercontinental wars. Seeds of humanity, meant to be safe from assassination on high-level continents, now faced attacks from their own kind.

Fortunately, continental wars could only occur between continents of equal rank (only matched continents share a plane), and the great human powers accepted this as a training ground to hone combat experience, establishing the tacit rule that only transmigrants of equivalent continent rank would be sent to battle.

The upper levels of Babel (Reality-tier) were called the Nine Layers of Heaven. Here lay humanity’s stronghold, far from Earth; aside from the occasional continental war, it was safe. All newborns were protected until age twelve, with no compulsory war missions before eighteen.

The lower levels of Babel (Fantasy-tier) were called the Nine Layers of Hell. Here was the battlefield against all races, with increasing conflict as one descended. In the upper Legendary clusters, battles rivaled the blood wars of the abyss; the mythic battlegrounds on Earth were even harsher.

And so, this story begins on a certain continent in the Lower-tier of Extraordinary—the fourth layer of the Nine Heavens of Babel.