Shinji Matou at Your Service

Darkness, the deepest darkness.

Not the kind that arises from negative emotions, but a physical phenomenon that even light cannot reach—a physical aspect of the fictional world. Here, it seemed that even the radiance of the Mooncell could not penetrate.

Shinji and Arcueid were in such a place, due to the first random teleportation.

"This is terrible, what kind of place is this?"

Barely suppressing the fatigue emanating from his soul, Shinji extended his psychic power, radiating it outward.

However, no matter how far his psychic power extended, he received no feedback besides Arcueid's presence—no life signals or environmental parameters. Since mastering psychic scanning, this was the first time he had encountered such a bizarre situation.

"Arcueid, have you discovered anything?"

"..."

"Arcueid? Arcueid?"

"Ah, Shinji, what's wrong?"

"It's not what's wrong with me, it's what's wrong with you."

Usually, when they were teleported to an unfamiliar place, she was the most excited, but now she was silent, which caught Shinji's attention.

"I… feel that this place is strange, it seems very big, but also very small…"

"Very big? Very small?"

Hearing Arcueid's words, Shinji also realized something. No feedback was also a form of feedback; this empty, anchorless feeling itself indicated many issues.

That's right, no mistake about it—not just environmental parameters, but even the concepts of time and space had become blurred, like melted chocolate. If it weren't for the absence of a soul-shaking disorientation, Shinji might have thought he had crossed into another dimension again.

Tentatively, he activated his permissions—

No anomalies, they were still within Mooncell.

Coordinate location—

Success. However, this time they had traveled quite far, seemingly to another layer. Mooncell was divided into seven layers, and since it was random teleportation, being sent to a new layer was normal.

But teleporting back would consume a significant amount of psychic power; to be safe, it was better to wait for a full psychic recovery before exploring, just in case.

"Arcueid, we should… uh…"

Plans could never keep up with changes. Just as Shinji had made a preliminary plan, Arcueid had already started moving. She ran straight in a certain direction.

"Hey, hey, why are you running?"

Shinji hurriedly followed.

"Over there, it seems like there's something?"

Arcueid said as she ran, picking up speed.

"Something, how come I didn't notice? Wait… huh? There is something."

In Shinji's subjective perception, he hadn't run far, definitely not out of the range of his psychic scan, yet something appeared in his vision beyond the darkness.

It was a wall, its color between bright yellow and emerald green, emitting a faint glow.

Tentatively touching it with his hand, the surface was exceptionally smooth, with a silky feel yet extremely hard. Pressing with B-level strength left not a single mark.

"What is this made of? The latest type of nanomaterial?"

While speaking, Arcueid continued moving forward, following the direction the wall extended.

"What did you find?"

"I don't know," Arcueid shook her head, "but I know it's just ahead."

"Ah, I'm really afraid of you. Gaia, if you have something to do, just say it clearly. This hiding and secrecy is frustrating."

With a helpless sigh, Shinji could only continue following. Complaints aside, he couldn't just leave Arcueid alone. In this unfamiliar world, she was his only companion.

Not far ahead, the scenery changed again. The wall, made of some unknown material, suddenly disappeared without a trace, replaced by an enclosed stone chamber.

Psychic scanning was deployed again, constructing an environmental model within the sea of consciousness.

This time, everything was normal. It was an ordinary stone chamber, seemingly a naturally occurring cave that had been artificially processed. It had both primitive geological features and signs of human excavation.

The walls of rock were very rough, and stalactites could be seen in the corners of the ceiling.

Further ahead, the ground seemed to be covered with some kind of metal, golden and dazzling enough to make one's eyes spin.

"It can't all be gold, can it?"

Shinji said this casually, but Arcueid nodded.

"This is gold."

"What?"

Shinji didn't know much about gold. The Matou family wasn't involved in the precious metals industry, and his family members didn't wear gold jewelry, so he didn't recognize it immediately. Even so, he knew that a gram of gold was worth dozens of dollars. This much gold—enough to buy all of Fuyuki City with plenty left over.

With wide eyes, he took a closer look.

First, there was gold dust, then gold coins, then gold ingots and bricks, and various types of gold coins, piled up to the edge of his vision.

He cautiously stepped on it, and a rustling sound immediately erupted—the sound of gold dust and coins cascading down.

The light in the cave was reflected off these gold pieces, though the actual source of light was unknown.

"Is this where you wanted to go?"

Shinji turned around and asked Arcueid, who had started nodding again, and she responded somewhat blankly.

"Ah, yes."

"But this gold is useless to us. We're not on Earth. Why would Gaia…"

"It's not the gold, it's something deeper inside."

Shinji squinted, looking toward the area with the most intense golden glow.

"Gold-paved ground, treasure-filled cave, could this be—"

An ominous feeling surfaced inexplicably. A cave full of gold and treasure wasn't a clear symbol, but many dragon-related legends described dragons hoarding treasures, like the evil dragon Fafnir slain by Siegfried.

But adding Mooncell into the mix led Shinji to a specific association.

Focusing his gaze, his guess was confirmed.

The owner of the gold was not a dragon, but something far more terrifying.

At the very center of the golden sea, there was a gigantic temple.

On the roof of the temple lay a sleeping brown giant.

His vision stalled, and his thoughts couldn't function properly.

An unparalleled shock eroded his will. They can tolerate the existence of various life forms, but when they witness a humanoid being that surpasses humanity, they develop an irrational hostility.

Shinji admitted this was true. Upon seeing this humanoid being ten times larger than a human, he felt an instinctive hostility.

But this hostility wasn't enough to shake his resolve.

Size doesn't equal strength. The poisonous dragon Bašmu, the nine-headed Hydra, and the primordial human Adam—each was larger than the brown giant before him, yet they all eventually died. The Titans of mythology were mere losers.

What truly shook Shinji was the brown giant's identity. At first glance, he recognized it.

One of the three vanguards left by the Predatory Star in the solar system, the white giant Sefar who nearly destroyed Earth's civilization 14,000 years ago—this was the true form of the giant god Altera, one of the strongest beings in the Type-Moon universe.