The Beginning of the Leak!

This dorm room moved with remarkable efficiency. After lunch, everyone cut class—well, except for Ukonga. But although he went to the classroom, he certainly wasn't going there to study. He had absolute confidence in his own charm, and the other three in the dorm seemed to share that sentiment. It made Karen wonder whether having a lower baseline truly meant having a higher ceiling. Karen was originally supposed to accompany the Mad Pope and Budalas to gather materials for setting up the altar. But when they reached the ground floor and were just about to step through the main dormitory doors, all the animals and people outside the railings suddenly froze. The pupils of every living creature turned blue. They turned their heads in unison, slowly fixing their gazes on Karen. Karen felt a greasy, suffocating sensation wash over him, like the heavy drag when you finish a swim and try to haul yourself out of the pool; your body feels sluggish, but if you push just a little harder, you can pull yourself up. At the same time, Professor Hiderod's voice echoed in his ear: "Karen, do you feel anything?" Karen realized at once: so this was where the boundary lay. He could leave the room, but he couldn't leave this dormitory building. No, it wasn't that he couldn't leave—it was that stepping outside would bring him straight back into reality. Karen immediately pulled his foot back, retreating behind the dormitory entrance. *Buzz!* Instantly, all the people and animals outside returned to normal. Budalas and the Mad Pope turned around in confusion, looking at Karen. The Mad Pope asked, "Karen, what's wrong?" Budalas chuckled. "What, getting lazy and backing out?" "Ah, yeah." Karen gave an embarrassed smile. "I think I'll wait for you guys back in the room." Budalas said, "You know Ukonga already called you 'Daddy,' right? If this falls through, be ready to face his wrath. Haha." The Mad Pope said, "Then rest up and conserve your energy here, Karen. We'll handle the preparations." "Thanks for your hard work then. Sorry about that." The Mad Pope waved it off with a smile. "It's a game we're all playing together. What's there to call hard work?" After the two walked away, Karen took a deep breath and looked down at the threshold between the dormitory doors and the crack in the ground outside. Hiderod had mentioned that a leak had occurred here in the past, forcing all the students to evacuate before they even had time to pack their belongings. So if the boundary was right here, then to a certain extent, it didn't seem inherently tied to Ukonga. Yet Ukonga's influence couldn't be dismissed either. Karen remembered clearly that Ukonga was the first to "see" him in the room, after which Karen had truly stepped into this mental imprint and begun interacting with the others. Tracing the causality, a mysterious leak must have first caused some unknown anomaly, prompting the total evacuation of the building. The school then contained and sealed the place. Later on, Ukonga visited multiple times, relying on his lofty status as a Temple Elder and his vast lifespan to erase traces of the relevant records while deliberately leaving behind a potent mental imprint. However, this causal chain didn't seem completely linear. What had caused the leak in the first place? Furthermore, this particular memory scene had to be from before the dorm was evacuated—the very day Dicarost stole the five-colored turkey for a dorm barbecue. Why did the recording start on this specific day? Could this day be very close to the leak? After all, if everything he was experiencing was driven by the leak, it wouldn't flip back through the past just to pick some random, irrelevant day. Karen walked back upstairs, returned to the dorm room, and sat down at the Mad Pope's desk. One thing was certain: there was a massive gulf between what he was experiencing mentally and the state of his physical body in reality. When he had been about to step out of the dormitory building, Professor Hiderod's voice from reality had sounded in his ear. He hadn't sounded urgent at all—merely curious as he asked, *"Karen, do you feel anything?"* If Karen had stood motionless for an extended period in reality, Professor Hiderod would have sounded anxious. He would have at least asked, *"Karen, what's wrong with you?"* or *"Karen, are you okay? Don't scare me!"* Karen had already helped prepare and eat a meal in this dorm, yet in reality, only a brief moment had passed—perhaps just long enough for Hiderod to finish his description and smoke half a cigarette. It wasn't a difference in the flow of time. Rather, what felt like a normal pace to his mental perception was actually fast-forwarding at an astonishing rate. What felt like a day or two in here might only amount to ten minutes on the outside. A thought crossed Karen's mind. The moment it surfaced, he couldn't help but chuckle at how absurd it was. He had actually wondered: if this was possible, could one simulate this environment to create a dedicated study chamber? A single day in reality could become ages in here. For learning and cultivation, that would practically be cheating. Taking that naive thought further: if he stayed here until Rasma returned, how much time would he have to cultivate and prepare? *Have I caught the good-student fever just by sitting at the Mad Pope's desk?* Karen chuckled self-deprecatingly and picked up the fountain pen on the desk, twirling it out of habit. *Still, can I sense the containment space from in here?* Going by the timeline of this scene, Luoya wasn't in the Church of Order's containment space at all. In fact, Luoya hadn't even been born yet. Yet Karen didn't panic. This place was merely an illusion with unique properties; he hadn't actually traveled back in time. Even from here, whatever he sensed would belong to the Luoya of reality. *Clatter!* The fountain pen suddenly slipped from Karen's hand. It hadn't slid through his grip; it had passed right through his fingers. Karen raised his hands and watched in shock as they began turning transparent, the translucence steadily spreading up his arms. *What's happening?* Karen closed his eyes and began examining his internal state. Back when he had washed dishes with Budalas, he had deliberately suppressed his spiritual energy to match the ambient frequency of this environment. Now, that clear resonance was gone. No, it hadn't vanished... it was above him! Previously, he had to suppress his instincts and stoop low just to match its level, but now, he actually had to reach up to touch it. Why was this happening? Was it because Ukonga had left? Originally, the mental scene of this dormitory building was maintained by Ukonga. When Karen joined in, he had essentially shared a fraction of the burden. Now that Ukonga was gone, did keeping the scene running fall entirely upon Karen's shoulders? What was he supposed to do now? Karen noticed that both of his arms had turned semi-transparent. Before long, he would become completely invisible and fade away entirely. Pushing his spiritual power and channeling soul energy, Karen clenched his fists and lifted his head. After a moment, he regained a solid grip. His arms returned to normal, but at the cost of substantial extra soul power. At this rate of consumption, Karen knew he would be utterly drained even if he managed to hold out until they returned this evening. Yet he couldn't leave the building, and the four roommates certainly wouldn't be back anytime soon. He had to find a way to minimize this cost. Karen climbed onto the Mad Pope's bed. Once on it, he hesitated, climbed back down, and got onto Budalas's bed instead. Even though this was a mental imprint and everything was an illusion, Karen still felt awkward about "soiling" someone else's bed. Budalas's bed was the safer choice. After all, he was the Church's future High Priest; as a fellow adherent of Order, he surely wouldn't mind. Lying down, Karen pulled up the quilt, wrapped himself tightly, and began dialing down his "cost of existence." His hands and feet soon turned transparent again, and within moments, his entire body became semi-translucent. He held it right there, carefully moderating his state. Neither increasing nor decreasing, he sustained his presence in a low-consumption mode, waiting for their return. *I really was being naive, thinking about studying here... What could anyone study in this condition? It's only because my soul is far tougher than ordinary people's that I haven't been ground down to nothing.* Then again, Professor Hiderod had researched this place for decades without ever managing to enter this scene. Ordinary people—even exceptionally talented ones—could never enter without meeting the necessary criteria. Karen's consciousness drifted into a hazy twilight between sleep and waking. "Time" flowed "slowly." Outside, darkness fell. Suddenly, the groggy Karen snapped wide awake. The spiritual surge was so intense that the space around the bed warped, feeling as if the bed frame was about to collapse beneath him! He had clearly been in a low-consumption state, yet that low frequency had abruptly spiked into overdrive. Had Ukonga returned? Had the primary heavy-duty battery returned to shoulder the burden? *Creak...* The dormitory door swung open, followed by the crisp *click* of the lock. Immediately afterward, Karen heard Ukonga's voice: "Come on, right in here. Nobody's in the dorm right now." Karen was just about to climb down from the bed when a woman's voice followed: "I haven't even undone my clothes yet! Ah, why are you in such a rush?" "It feels better with them on. Darling, that's what captivated me the moment I laid eyes on you." "Let's go to the bed..." "No, the desk is just the right height." Right after that, rhythmic sounds echoed through the room, accompanied by heavy breathing. Karen: "..." Karen hadn't hesitated for a second. The moment Ukonga walked in, he had adjusted his state to get down, but who could have guessed Ukonga would move with such terrifying speed? Worse yet, they were doing it on the desk right beneath his bunk. This was utterly absurd. Who would ever imagine that a Temple Elder of the Church of Order would bring a woman back to fool around on the future High Priest's desk? Karen could only stay silent, lying motionless and doing his best to recall segments of the formation notes he had read recently. He had no idea how much time passed before a simultaneous, high-pitched gasp sounded from below. Karen drew his thoughts back. Fine, it was finally over. Next came the rustling of clothes being straightened. "I'm heading out first. I have to report back to my department with the others tonight. I'll come find you again in a few days." "Alright, darling. I'll be waiting." The woman left. Ukonga sat down in the chair and lit an after-action cigarette with a flick. Karen sat up on the bed. Ukonga saw him, but merely chuckled. "How did that look?" At the moment, he wore only his trousers, his bare upper body displaying exceptionally well-toned, athletic lines. Karen asked, "What kind of strange fetish is this?" Clearly, Ukonga had known he was in the room all along. "Hey, you don't get it." Ukonga pulled out a scroll with his other hand. "The altar blueprint. Got it." The honey trap had worked. Karen climbed down from the bed and moved to sit at the Mad Pope's desk. "I'm going to take a wash. The others should be back soon too." Ukonga walked into the washroom. "Oh, damn it, the smell of that turkey blood still hasn't cleared out. Forget it, I'll go wash outside." Grabbing a washbasin and a towel, Ukonga headed out toward the floor's communal washroom. A short while later, the Mad Pope and Budalas returned. The moment the Mad Pope walked in, he sniffed with a puzzled expression. "Why does it smell like seafood in here?" Budalas asked, "Who knocked over the cup on my desk?" Karen sat there without saying a word. Just then, Ukonga returned whistling from his bath, grinning broadly. "Brothers, mission accomplished!" The Mad Pope shook his head with a laugh. Budalas's face instantly darkened. Ukonga swayed his hips, performing a rhythmic dance popular over a thousand years ago. "Alright, the rest is up to you guys." Karen asked, "So we're setting it up right here in the dorm?" Ukonga countered, "Where else?" This room wasn't just built for barbecues; it could host an altar as well. Ukonga laughed. "Don't worry, the three of them are all formation masters. Dicarost is great at unraveling formations, Budalas specializes in laying them down, and Philias excels at controlling them. "They've already infiltrated the surveillance formation of this dorm building, the living area's upkeep formation, and the school's defense barrier, carving out a dedicated backdoor just for our room. "So this room you're sitting in right now is the safest and most concealed spot in the entire academy. "As long as the door is locked from the inside, nobody can breach it unless they bring up a magic crystal cannon." "So that's how it is..." Karen couldn't help but think of himself and Neo. They, too, had left backdoors in the defense formations of the Whip of Order headquarters. Turns out the Church of Order had harbored this tradition over a thousand years ago. The Mad Pope and Budalas set to work arranging the altar, while Ukonga flopped onto his bed to rest and recover. Karen stepped over to help. At first, they only gave him simple tasks, but as they worked, Budalas looked at him in surprise. "You understand formations?" "I've studied them a bit." "That's not just 'a bit.' I can tell you understand these structural modules; you have a remarkably clear grasp of them in your head." "I've seen similar ones in books." "In books?" Budalas chuckled. "Books covering formations of this caliber aren't easy to come by." From his bed, Ukonga chimed in, "Told you, I never bought his story about coming from an Inquisitor lineage. He's deliberately hiding his identity. Only an idiot would swallow what he said." "Keeping secrets doesn't matter," the Mad Pope spoke up in Karen's defense. "Everyone has reasons they can't make public. As long as we're genuinely having fun together right now, that's all that counts." Karen reflected that before going mad, the Mad Pope was strikingly similar to that "Mr. Philias" whom Neo had first devoured; both possessed gentle temperaments, carrying an aura that resonated deeply with the qualities of Light. The altar didn't need to be large—just two meters across, arranged in three tiers. Yet the smaller an altar was, the higher the precision required, as intricate formation patterns had to be condensed into a far tighter space. Karen noticed that both the Mad Pope and Budalas had closed their eyes as they worked. Karen closed his as well, doing his best to match their rhythm. Finally, before midnight, the altar was fully completed. Afterward, Karen set up a perception formation by himself. Watching from the side, Budalas asked, "What, do you have relatives inside the containment space?" "A friend," Karen replied. *Click...* Dicarost pushed the door open, hauling a massive wooden chest on his shoulder. After closing the door, he set the chest down and disassembled it. Inside was an enormous crab claw, bright red and giving off a rich, savory aroma. "Come on, late-night snack! I passed by the Monster Beast Research Institute and snapped one off from their pond to bring back for you guys to try." "I'm starving! I need to replenish my energy right now!" Ukonga leaped out of bed. With a crab claw this massive, the meat inside was more than enough to stuff everyone in the dorm; in fact, they couldn't possibly finish it. "Aren't you eating, Dicarost?" Karen asked. "I already ate the crab roe. I'm full." Ukonga complained, "You ate the best part yourself and only brought us back a claw?" Dicarost replied helplessly, "I could've brought back more good stuff, but someone showed up right as I finished prepping the crab. Under such perilous conditions, I still remembered to snap off a claw and haul it back for you. You ought to be moved to tears." Once they finished their midnight snack, everyone prepared for the main event. The others stood to the side, watching Karen step into the perception formation. Karen touched the ring on his finger, causing a silver mask to manifest over his face, while resting his right hand against his pocket, where a sealed Laks copper coin rested. An illusion was an illusion, but it could reach through to reality. Drawing upon the power of the perception formation, Karen called out silently within his heart: *"Luoya... Luoya... Luoya..."* ... Inside the containment space. Having concluded her special training for the day and inspected the artifact spirits' research progress, Luoya had returned to her "quarters." Habitually, she curled up in the embrace of the artifact spirit of the Harp of Goddess Mills to sleep. She loved this embrace—warm and gentle. The female artifact spirit gently stroked Luoya's back. *"Luoya... Luoya... Luoya..."* In her deep slumber, Luoya furrowed her brows slightly. She seemed to hear a warm, familiar voice calling her, yet it felt faint and distant. *Is it Big Brother Karen?* *Definitely not. Big Brother Karen would never sound so faint when calling me. I must be dreaming about him. Hehe, what a nice dream.* The woman continued stroking Luoya's back, watching the faint smile curve the little girl's lips. *What is she imagining? She must be thinking about her Big Brother Karen again.* *How sweet. She still believes she can dream.* A tender, motherly expression crossed the woman's face. Artifact spirits could not dream; their state of existence was far too unique. But artifact spirits could daydream, and in those reveries, one could pretend to be "dreaming." After all, through endless eons of confinement, an intelligent being had to find some way to while away the infinite emptiness and loneliness, no matter how absurd—in fact, the more absurd, the better. Just then, an unexpected wave of drowsiness washed over her. The woman's consciousness drifted, and in a hazy fog, she felt her awareness slip into an entirely separate, ethereal realm. *Wait, what's happening?* *Is this... what dreaming feels like?* ... Within the containment space, the Harp of Goddess Mills stood quietly, tranquil and serene. "Luoya... Luoya... Luoya..." Karen's faint silhouette materialized before it as he searched for Luoya. At that moment, the woman stepped out from the harp. Karen looked at her and asked, "Excuse me, where is Luoya?" Looking at him in utter bewilderment, the woman asked: "Who are you? How did you get in here? And... who is Luoya?"