Chapter 137: Trivial Matters Upon Returning

After a dizzy spell that felt as if her soul was being torn away, Feng Xue once again felt the long-lost ache. Her entire body prickled and itched as if her skin had been peeled off and soaked in saltwater, a sensation nearly maddening.

Yet, at this moment, Feng Xue had no time to dwell on the pain. She leapt from her wheelchair, ignoring the fresh blood seeping from her back, and grabbed Wang Dachui, who was dazed nearby. “What’s happening with that digital world I entered? How much would it cost to buy it?”

“Cough, cough! Let go! Let go!” Wang Dachui feigned a suffocating expression—of course, it was just an act. As a revered figure at the Saint level—or rather, a semi-divine official instructor—there was no way a mere transcendent could choke him.

Feng Xue realized her outburst but showed no intention of releasing her grip. She was now held up solely by sheer resolve; if she let go, she would likely faint.

“Alright, there are always people like you every year—stubborn despite knowing it’s hopeless. Anyway, as usual, once you fully exit, the fixed world will be frozen. You have three years to redeem it. After that, sorry, the academy will dispose of it. Who it becomes exclusive to or whether it’s transformed into a trial ground is uncertain,” Wang Dachui explained with a helpless look. Feng Xue was neither the first nor the last. In fact, Wang Dachui had already explained this three or four times to her batch alone. After all, traversing a millennium, travelers inevitably form bonds they’re unwilling to forget.

“Three years? How much funding do I need? Will my permanent share suffice?” Feng Xue exhaled sharply and slumped back into her wheelchair, but accidentally touched the wound again, wincing in pain.

“That’s more than enough! Based on the value of your Infinite Moonlight, having just three Saints use it would be enough to buy this world. After all, the Digital Monster world can only be considered an extraordinary-level world at best—since digital monsters survive by relying on the network, but the Babel Tower world’s information network long ceased to be binary. There, digital monsters can only exist as electronic pets in specially made Digivices with minimal combat power.” Wang Dachui explained while calling a nurse, “For ordinary students, that’s a big problem, but not for you. What you really need to worry about is the expiration date.”

“Expiration date?” Feng Xue was puzzled but soon realized a grave issue. “You said my soul completely exited? How long did it take?”

“I thought you’d notice later…” Wang Dachui pulled out a tablet and displayed some data. “You’re lucky. Since you just entered the transcendent realm, it only took half an hour to complete the exit.”

“So… five years have already passed in the real world of the Digital World?”

“Yes, that’s right. Hope you’re not rushing to save a girl with a terminal illness…” Seeing Feng Xue’s unchanged expression, Wang Dachui joked.

“I’ve kept her waiting for five years?” Feng Xue lowered her head, her expression fluctuating before she composed herself. “Now tell me, what does this expiration date mean?”

“Well…” Wang Dachui scratched his cheek awkwardly. “To push you students and to save money—that’s the main point—the maintenance of this crystal gate only lasts five years.”

“Five years?”

“Yes, five years. Once the world is solidified, it’s like being pulled onto a crystal wall in the real world, and maintaining its position is a huge expense. Investing for five years at once is already quite a lot.”

“So, I need to reach the Fantasy level within five years to bring people out?” Feng Xue’s face darkened. Though she didn’t believe she’d be stuck at the transcendent level in five years, the feeling of something chasing her was deeply unsettling.

“No.” Wang Dachui’s answer was cruel. “Because this world was captured by a half-divine like me, it has endured a domain’s invasion. Though it didn’t affect the entire world, its stability has changed. You must at least have your own domain to bring people out. Moreover, when you re-enter, the world will lose connection with the captor, and its maintenance cost will fall on your domain.”

“So that means I need to reach the Epic level within five years?” Feng Xue was no longer calm. Five years to break through the barrier between fantasy and reality, awaken origins, and cultivate her personal reality—this pace was deadly.

“Yes. Even at the Epic level, bearing the cost of a world isn’t easy. Unless you think ‘that person’ will forget her parents and family after being brought out.” Wang Dachui dealt another heavy blow.

“But if I make another crystal gate and maintain it through resource consumption, wouldn’t that extend the expiration date?” Feng Xue was unfazed, suddenly realizing she could create another crystal gate to prolong the term.

However, Wang Dachui clearly saw through her thought and said sternly, “This crystal gate was made when the world was captured, so time is frozen. But if you replace the gate, time starts flowing again at the captured world’s time ratio! If you replace the gate now, the people in that world will instantly age and die. Unless you re-enter that realm, bring people out, and fix the time flow ratio to one-to-one with the real world based on your own time coordinate. Then, the real world’s time and the demi-plane synchronize. You won’t have to worry about your loved ones aging due to time differences. When you have your own floating continent, you can even merge the demi-plane and relocate the whole world under your control.”

“That sounds great. I’ll go in right now!” Feng Xue immediately took out her student ID to order the crystal gate. With permanent shares as collateral, getting a loan was easy.

“Don’t be so arrogant! To become a time coordinate yourself, you need to be at least Epic level!” Wang Dachui smacked Feng Xue’s head, causing searing pain that reopened the wounds on her back, which quickly bled again.

Feng Xue ignored the blood and stared seriously at Wang Dachui. “So it all comes back to the same question—reach Epic level within five years?”

“Yes, kid. If you think you can’t, we can perform memory interference. After all, most of your thousand-year memories need to be blurred anyway…”

“No!” Feng Xue refused without hesitation. “Someone’s still waiting for me there! How could I just forget?”

After saying this seemingly heroic sentence, Feng Xue collapsed back into the wheelchair. Her resolve faded, and she lost consciousness.