Chapter 9: Dimensional Rifts
The True Immortal Body grants Albion godly resilience, but it did not give him night vision.
The Dark Emperor certainly had night vision, but it wasn't innate; it was a skill, something he had yet to learn.
Albion lost track of time as he continues to sink deeper and deeper into the depths of the Ganymede Ocean.
The impact of the drop did not hurt as badly as he had anticipated.
Nevertheless, it was still a real punch to the gut, both literally and metaphorically. He was not sure if he can continue to take such psychological shock.
Blinded was his vision, but the touch was not unfeeling. Schools of fishes gathered around him curiously like he was a rare specimen. The fishes seemed to like him as they rubbed against him.
At least, that was what he thought until they tried to eat him. It soon became apparent that he had stumbled into the territory of a very rare breed of saltwater piranhas!
"Bad fishes, bad!"
Albion was not worried about being eaten. It was the piranhas that needed to be concerned about having their teeth broken instead.
'Wait a minute. If the piranhas nibble off the rope tying my leg to the anchor, I might be able to float back to the surface!'
Just as Albion had this thought, the schools of piranhas gave up and swam away. There was a limit to how deep fishes can swim. Some are simply able to swim deeper than others.
"Nooo! Good fishes, good fishes. Come back!"
No matter how Albion pleaded, he could not communicate to the piranhas, nor would they care. They just turn to deaf ears.
Air was expunged from his body, and he sank even faster. The water pressure increased, but it was still far from collapsing his lungs. He did not need air to breathe.
It was not easy to kill a True Immortal.
Although this knowledge gave Albion some reassurance, it did not make him happy.
'Am I destined to spend the rest of my life at the bottom of the ocean in solitude? I should have crossed the 10-thousand-feet depth by now, right? There will not be giant sea creatures like the Leviathan down here, will there?'
Albion was a little concerned.
Like in his previous world, 20% of the world's seafloor had been mapped, while the actual exploration of the seafloor only accounted for 5%. There were still many things waiting to be discovered at the bottom of the ocean.
Perhaps a lost city of Atlantis truly existed somewhere.
Albion entered a zone of absolute darkness. Not a speck of light could reach this depth. Yet strangely, he felt like a giant shadow was moving within the absolute darkness.
The shadow drew closer, and a rush of water pulled him in before he felt himself bumping against the walls of slimy flesh from time to time.
Did he just get eaten by a giant sea monster? He did, didn't he?
'Sigh, what an exciting new life.'
The following few months, Albion spent his idle time sleeping and perusing bits and pieces of the Dark Emperor's memories.
Inside his sea of consciousness, the Dark Emperor's countless soul fragments floated like a sea of stars, each containing their own portions of the Dark Emperor's memories.
Nevertheless, each soul fragment contained far, far too many memories of carnage. Albion was afraid to absorb the entire soul fragment directly.
He recalled in one of the cultivation novels he read, the protagonist had to risk his life fighting the lingering will in the soul fragment in order to absorb all its memories.
Given his weak will, he didn't believe he had what it takes on any of the Dark Emperor's lingering will.
Thus, he can only skim a small portion of the soul fragment's memories at a time.
Each day, he was able to move around for roughly five minutes before collapsing like a dead log and becoming immobile again.
One of the days could be used to remove the tied rope, but there was no need. The rope was dissolved by stomach acid, and even his remaining clothes were all gone.
There wasn't much he could do except skim the Dark Emperor's countless soul fragments for soul-related cultivation techniques or devise his own.
He figured that if he improved his soul, the immobility problem would be resolved.
However, Albion was met with one crucial problem; there was no energy inside the belly of the sea monster!
Even if he wanted to cultivate his soul, he couldn't!
Nevertheless, that didn't deter Albion from continuing his research on soul cultivation to come up with a practical method to resolve the incompatibility between soul and body.
…
Meanwhile, the outside world underwent significant changes.
Because the True Immortal did not enter the LOA and ascend to the higher plane, the Divine Energy from the higher plane continued to spread to the rest of the world through the LOA.
As the LOA cannot be closed and continuous exposure to Divine Energy placed all life on Earth at risk, an agreement was made between the 'Federation' and the world leaders.
Earth became a vassal of the Federation in return for the planet being governed and micromanaged by the System to combat the rising problem of Divine Energy pollution and overdosage.
Not all life was compatible with Divine Energy.
It was a youth elixir to some and poison to others. It interferes with one's DNA and rewrites their biometrics.
Either way, some sort of evolution or mutation is forced to happen when they do not offer the Divine Energy to the System.
When faced with such choices, many chose to offer the Divine Energy they got for free to System. It was not without its own benefits.
Divine Energy became a hot unit of currency used to exchange for benefits from the System. Skills, knowledge, money, and power. Anything can be exchanged as long as they can afford its price.
Why study or practice long and hard when the skills and knowledge can be acquired with a simple exchange? Even money and land were not excluded from the system exchange.
Nevertheless, the System cannot be used unless one accepts its binding. Furthermore, to accept its binding is to become its slave.
At the same time, only users of the System were considered real citizens of the Federation.
No one really understood what kind of existence the 'System' was, but it did not matter to them. They only saw the benefits. Everything else was of less importance.
The world underwent rapid reformation and development by the System. River City was transformed, and Empire Building became the headquarters for the Earth government.
The world leaders became executive members of the Earth government and continued to govern their respective regions, while the president of Earth was elected from amongst them.
At the center of all the changes, the two Regulators were preparing for their return journey. However, Cetwo had a look of unease as she stared at the LOA in front of them.
"Question. What seems to be bothering you, Cetwo?" Ceone asked.
"The LOA could not be closed, but we have set up a perfect cycle to send all the Divine Energy back to the higher plane. The natives have been unified, enlightened, and become self-reliable, but I cannot help but feel that something will go wrong."
Cetwo said.
"Abnormality ABX-001 is unprecedented and unpredictable, but we have done what we can. If something happens, another team will be sent to handle it."
"You're right, Ceone. Let us go. Setting coordinates now."
Cetwo nodded.
The LOA was an interdimensional gateway that connected the lower plane to the higher plane. However, the Federation was an interdimensional civilization that exists in between the two planes.
Interdimensional travel consumed a tremendous amount of energy, but a lot of energy can be saved using the LOA to return to their homeworld.
After setting the coordinates on the holographic watch device HGA-005, the two Regulators disappeared into the LOA.
The regulators did not know that right after they left, a problem immediately appeared as Cetwo feared.
The LOA suddenly became unstable and exploded.
Countless fragments of divine light scattered and faded before dimensional rifts appeared in the place they disappeared, both on and outside of Earth.
The world was suddenly faced with many terrible dimensional rifts that led to unknown destinations, and the Divine Energy they thought to be endless ceased its supply.
At the same time, the world received several warnings from the System.
Beep!
[Warning! Interdimensional creatures detected!
[Warning! Unknown force detected!]
[Warning! The System is under attack!]
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone