Next, the group continued heading down the steps.
Sure enough, the further down they went, the lower the life forms' levels became. By the twentieth tier, the strength of the creatures had fallen to merely System Rank.
Conversely, however, their numbers were vastly greater. Compared to the earlier tiers, each tier now had populations well over a hundred million, and some even had billions or tens of billions.
Precisely because life was so abundant and resources were so scarce, the struggles along these tiers were exceptionally fierce. Countless practitioners yearned to climb higher into the tiers with fewer people.
The twenty-fifth tier was entirely a colossal sci-fi world.
Yenis lived in a metropolis on this tier. Under its guidance, the group arrived at its grand penthouse on the 108th floor.
"Welcome back, Master," a female robot greeted Yenis the moment it returned.
Yenis said, "We have honored guests today. Go prepare."
"Understood." The female robot immediately turned and left.
Yu Xian and the others entered and sat down, completely unfazed by technological products.
"May I ask," Niman said, looking at Yenis, "regarding the distribution of creatures on the stairs: are they strong in their own right and thus able to enter the tier above, or do they become strong only after entering the tier above?"
Yenis was very honest with this senior. It replied, "Both. As long as someone on this tier manages to climb up to the next tier, they will be enhanced. Furthermore, as you probably noticed earlier, one must ascend by one's own power to avoid being sent back. Cheating with technological gadgets or other means is utterly useless."
"Then where does their power come from?" Niman asked, frowning.
If a dog climbed to a higher tier and immediately gained power, the issue was that the energy in any universe was finite. If this dog gained power, something else somewhere had to lose power.
This was what puzzled Niman.
After all, back then, even she hadn't dared lightly bestow excessive power upon her creations, instead hoping they would grow stronger through their own cultivation.
At most, she provided more rational designs so that these creatures possessed extraordinary potential and could ultimately achieve greatness.
Because bestowing power was itself a drain on one's own power.
The more outrageously it was dispersed, the weaker one became.
Some Creator Gods simply didn't understand this; they scattered all their power away, only to end up as prisoners of their own believers.
Niman was somewhat worried that Yenis would repeat those mistakes, which was why she spoke up to offer it some advice.
"Actually..."
Yenis could sense Niman's goodwill.
It was precisely this goodwill that placed it in a dilemma. It didn't want to deceive Niman, but this question touched upon its greatest secret.
You could never know what someone was truly thinking. It trusted Niman, but it didn't trust Yu Xian and the others one hundred percent. Besides, this secret was simply too immense; it felt it was better not to test human nature and the hearts of men.
"If you feel uncomfortable, or if it involves your secret, you don't have to say anything," Niman consoled, noticing Yenis's hesitation.
Yu Xian and Little Nora were standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the hovercars zipping about outside. At that moment, Little Nora turned back and asked, "What honey? Do you want to eat super honey?"
"I said secret, not honey," Niman said, between laughter and tears.
Yu Xian walked back to the couch and sat down, his baby face full of disdain as he looked at Yenis. "Are you afraid we'll murder you for your treasure? Every single one of us here could easily crush your world. What could you possibly have in this world that could catch our eye?"
"..."
Yenis immediately showed an embarrassed expression.
"Salty Fish, don't talk nonsense, and don't try reverse psychology. Everyone has their own secrets. Since Yenis doesn't want to say, let it be," Niman told Yu Xian earnestly.
Then she turned to Yenis and said seriously, "I'm not playing good cop, bad cop with Salty Fish. If your secret is of monumental importance, remember this: don't tell anyone, no matter who they are. I won't ask again either."
"Thank you. I understand. I will take your words to heart, Lady Niman," Yenis said gratefully.
Yu Xian curled his lip. He had indeed wanted to provoke Yenis a bit to see what good stuff it was hiding. Even though he wouldn't kill for treasure, taking a look wouldn't hurt Yenis in the slightest.
However, since Niman had spoken, he dropped it.
Afterward, the group spent the afternoon amusing themselves in the Ladder World before saying their goodbyes and taking their leave.
Yenis escorted them all the way to the world barrier. Only after they had departed did it breathe a sigh of relief, feeling both reluctant to see them go and somewhat relieved.
To it, that thing was indeed a treasure, but also a hazard that constantly kept it on edge with anxiety. It didn't know whether its handling of the situation had been right, but now it felt that it could finally get a good night's sleep.
...
...
Aboard the Aska.
As soon as everyone's avatars returned, they vanished into bubbles.
"Well? Did you have fun?" Zhang Shou asked immediately upon seeing Yu Xian and the others return.
Little Nora said with little enthusiasm, "It wasn't fun at all. That world is lifeless. Everyone is trapped on a set of stairs. It's so boring."
"Indeed. If you want to get stronger, you have to climb up tier by tier. How is that any different from being a corporate slave?" Yu Xian nodded repeatedly.
Niman smoothed things over: "All right, Yenis just has a bit of obsessive-compulsive tendency. Aside from that, it was because it stumbled upon a treasure by chance that it had a momentary lapse in judgment, crafting the world in far too narrow a manner. Now it knows where it went wrong."
"It told you its secret?" Yu Xian looked at Niman curiously.
Niman took out a wooden ruler and said, "Not only did it tell me, but it also gave me this treasure."
Mainly, she had subsequently taught Yenis how to be both connected to and detached from its world, allowing it to retain a glimmer of life for itself even if the world were destroyed.
That method was simply too precious.
Yenis had no other way to repay her, so in the end, it quietly handed this hot potato over to Niman.
[Ruler of All-Thing Growth]
[God's Stationery]
[Effect: Conceptualizes length and distance, thereby granting dimensional scale attributes.]
[Note: The Ruler of All-Thing Growth, Ever-Firm Set Square, and Barrier Protractor can resonate with one another. When assembled together, they can detect the location of God's Pencil Case.]
The group passed it around, and in the end, the ruler returned to Niman's hand.
The item was somewhat interesting, but only somewhat interesting. To Mighty Ones, "somewhat interesting" was already high praise.
"Is this a miraculous item?" Gong Qian asked, leaning against the ship's railing.
Yu Xian smiled. "Obviously not."
"Still, its function isn't bad. For example, if you use it to draw a line on a sports field, you could establish a rule: running one thousand meters along this line increases speed by 1 point. While it only takes effect once per life form, it can benefit a vast number of people," Zhang Shou said after some thought.
Yenis had essentially done just that. The reason it had molded the world into stairs was naturally to make drawing lines convenient; however, it clearly retained some reason and hadn't gone too overboard.
After all, when the creatures of the Ladder World grew stronger, it wouldn't necessarily become stronger itself. If it spawned too many powerful figures at once, it might instead end up as their prisoner.
While everyone was chatting casually, no one noticed that Zhang Buyao's expression as she looked at the straight ruler was rather complicated.
That was... the stationery she had used in sixth grade. Back then, she had already shown early signs of chuunibyou: God's Pencil Case, Invincible Eraser, Absolute Compass, Reaper Pencil...
Though the names she came up with had been quite something, they were obviously just ordinary stationery items, and she had long since lost track of where she had thrown them away.
How could they have appeared in this manner?
"..."
Zhang Buyao hesitated for a long while before finally choosing to remain silent, pretending she knew nothing at all.
Chapter 632