If you want to read up to 20 chapters ahead go to https://www.patreón.com/cornbringer
Now with audio chaps! Starting in chap 170, for those with bad sight.
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After a few hours on the pyramid, all the preparations to open the portal were ready, now it was time to see if they would work, after all, this was all very experimental.
"When I give you the signal, be ready to power the runes I carved," The Ancient One repeated, making sure I remembered her instructions as she walked around the runes, verifying they were all correct.
"Ok," I nodded, ordering my golem, the one I was gonna sent on this mission to stand by my side for the moment being.
I couldn't lie, I was nervous, nervous about the possibilities behind this… venture, if Janet was a zombie, I would be faced with two options, one, killing her, or two, finding a cure, which would involve god knows what.
In reality, the sad part was, I knew the option I would take, I knew I would kill her if that happened to be the case, but for the sake of my own self, I was kind of lying to myself about other options, just to say I tried while patting myself in the back.
"Are you ready?" The Ancient One asked, drawing my attention back to her, and out of my dark thoughts.
"Always," I nodded.
"Then, let's begin," She nodded, and so, at the same without a sound, we started powering the runes she had carved, one by one as they lit up in the process, the lights eventually leading to a runic circle, where the space stone was located for this very purpose.
"Is it working?" I asked as I watched the space stone shake a bit.
"I still don't know," The Ancient One replied.
But before I could dwell on the thought for much longer, the space in front of us broke, as if reality itself was shattering into a million pieces, creating a small rift of sorts, leading to the place I was looking for, the Quantum Realm.
"Well, I'll be damned, it works," I whistled with a chuckle.
"Now, it's time to send your golem," The Ancient One smiled, as I nodded.
It was indeed time to see what was within the Quatum realm, and if it was safe to explore.
"Go," With my command given, the Golem started to walk towards the portal, stepping into the quantum realm without much of a problem.
Meaning it was time to connect my [Sight] with his.
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After connecting my [sight] to that of my golems, I opened my map and checked the coordinates where Janet was supposed to be and embarked with my golem into the quantum realm.
Well, not really, I was still powering the portal, but with the golem, it kind of felt like Virtual Reality, but better.
Anywho.
According to the map, Janet was a few miles away, sadly, I had no access to my portals, because, within the quantum realm, they didn't work, something about space not really applying to it, anyway, this meant I was destined to do this mission the old fashioned way, without them.
As for the Quantum Realm itself.
Well, it was as trippy as I imagined, like, there was no other way to describe it. It was also worth mentioning, the entire realm felt kind of ominous, like, even with the golem, that worked as a safety net, I felt like I was being watched, which didn't bode well for this mission.
Though, I trusted my system to alert me of such a thing, with a quest or something.
Then again, I didn't know about Hydra, until Hydra had kicked my ass.
"How's everything going?" The Ancient One asked.
"Good so far," I replied, my sense of vision still connected to the Golem, "But it feels like something it's watching me, maybe it's just my paranoia, but… I can't shake the feeling off,"
The Ancient One clicked her tongue, as my golem continued to walk, "Mayhaps that's our call to cancel this out?"
It would certainly be wise to do so, I was not one to feel uneasy, and yet, here I was feeling like a naked man in a lion's den, but still, I needed confirmation, I needed to know what I was feeling was not based on a fear born from a comic I had read before coming to this world, I needed to confirm there was a reason to fear.
"While that would be certainly wise, I would rather confirm my suspicions," I eventually replied.
"Very well," The Ancient One sighed, "I plan ahead just in case, nothing can come in, not even air without me allowing it, so… as long as we power this portal, we should be relatively safe,"
I snorted, "That's reassuring,"
"I suppose it's not," The Ancient One chuckled.
"I'm getting closer," I muttered in shock, because it made no sense, a few seconds ago, I was miles away, now, I was a few meters away from the coordinates I was looking for.
"Why does that sound like a bad thing?" The Ancient One asked, her tone lacing with a bit of concern.
"I was a few miles away a few seconds ago, that gap closed in an instant, I didn't even see it," I replied, my golem on stand by as I tried to rationalize what had happened.
"Well, the Quantum realm does operate outside the rules of time and space, and well, a measurable distance is part of a system that follows the laws of space," Maybe she was right, and meters or miles were irrelevant within this world.
[Janet Van Dyne is approaching]
What?
Seeing that notification, I ordered the golem to turn around, looking at my minimap, a red dot, a fucking red dot was approching.
And not the Golem, but the portal.
Hissing internally, I used [Sight] on the dot to see who was coming to us, seeing no other than Janet flying towards the portal, and much to my dismay, this Janet was not the one I wanted to find, it was the one I feared to find, the one carrying the Quantum Virus.
[New Quest Created = The Virus that should not be!
The Quantum Virus was not supposed to exist in this reality, it was only supposed to be in a few selected universes, so you have to find out why it's here, and who is behind it before it's too late.
Objectives = Find a cure, Find the Culprit.
Side Objectives = Save Janet from the virus]
"Close the portal!" I roared seeing the quest, breaking my connection to the runes, something The Ancient One did a few seconds after I did.
"What happened," The Ancient One asked, with the portal now closed.
"The virus it's real," I sighed, ordering my golem to self-destruct, just in case.
"I see," The Ancient One sighed, taking a seat on the ground, "Well, now what?"