A Core Ship From The Start

Chapter 8: Chapter 6 Soul Shard (Thanks to the Alliance Leader who rewarded Pig Cat)_1

“Activate, Soul Resonance.”

As Duanmu Huai’s voice faded, the scene in front of him changed instantly. The ruins, now only remains of damaged walls, began to blur in Duanmu Huai’s view, replaced with fragmented illusions.

This was not a sight of this world, but rather, the power of a Soul Walker. At this moment, Duanmu Huai’s soul had sensed and contacted the existence of the subspace.

As previously stated, the subspace is the reflection of everything in the world, past, present, and future. Most of the time, when an entity in reality is destroyed, its reflection naturally disappears. However, some reflections did not vanish. Perhaps due to some kind of obsession, resentment, or simply a matter of luck, their essence remains in the subspace upon their eradication in reality, forming a solidified shard.

Simply put, it’s somewhat like a game bug, where when you defeat a certain enemy, you’d find its shadow stuck in place or the body wouldn’t disappear, it’s roughly the same situation. Of course, in a game, all it would take is to reload or refresh, but such luxuries don’t exist in reality.

Moreover, it’s not entirely harmless either, game bugs lead to game crashes, stuck missions, or infinite refreshes. The reflections “stuck” in the subspace can also cause problems. For instance, in many worlds, they might affect the real world in a ghostly or phantom like form.

These shards are useless for most people, but not for Soul Walkers.

They could not only find these shards, delve into them, but also control them, even utilize them!

This is quite a formidable ability!

One must understand, many ancient civilizations possessed different, powerful strengths and knowledge. However, quite often, this knowledge and power would have been buried under the dust of history, even divine artifacts could be destroyed — but the projections in the subspace are different!

They would exist forever, never to perish!

Of course, summoning them to the present world, also requires the consumption of power.

But without going into specifics, merely summoning something that’s already vanished to reality, can give you an idea of how powerful this ability is.

However, the advantages of these shards are not limited to this.

As previously described, these shards are essentially a collection of bugs, meaning they are independent entities. This implies that although they are in the subspace, these shards wouldn’t be attacked by the demons! This is undeniably the perfect haven for psychics!

If psychics possess these shard projections, they essentially hide their soul projections in the subspace in a safe, making it very hard for external demons to find, regardless of how much wisdom they employ.

It’s like putting a mouse in a safe, even if you place a hundred cats outside, they can’t detect any commotion the mouse makes inside the safe.

Different shards vary in size, the smallest could be just a building, and the biggest… perhaps a universe.

One can only imagine how formidable a Soul Walker would be if they possess a universe.

When Duanmu Huai discovered this ability, he was already in the intermediate stage of Star Ocean Online, which gave him some regrets. Because Star Ocean Online is a game with dynamic real-time changes; places you visited before might disappear or be rebuilt afterwards due to various reasons, some ruins instances might vanish once cleared. If he had realized the true use of this ability when he first awakened, his leveling path would have been smoother, he might have even become the strongest player in Star Ocean Online – no competition.

Of course, for Duanmu Huai now, such a title holds no meaning, for all he knows, he might just be the only player in this world.

The most important thing now, is to find a complete shard.

While pondering this, Duanmu Huai wandered within the projected ruins. Upon looking around, the nearby scenery was similar to the ruins he had seen before, but without the layer of sand covering it, the appearance of the entire city was clearer.

“Hmm?”

At this moment, Duanmu Huai spotted a light on a hill not far from the city… this immediately piqued his interest, and he quickly quickened his pace toward the destination.

In no time, Duanmu Huai arrived at the hill. In front of him was a small wooden hut which looked very simple and rustic. Without hesitation, he reached out his hand, pushed open the door and stepped into the house.

“Creak…”

As the wooden door slowly opened, Duanmu Huai stepped inside and was initially met with— a pile of arms hanging from the ceiling.

“…Turns out they’re fake, gave me quite a fright.”

Seeing these arms, Duanmu Huai was taken aback for a moment. Then, upon closer inspection, he realized that all these arms were wax carvings of fake limbs.

But seeing these numerous arms hanging densely from the ceiling, in the candlelight… it was indeed pretty creepy.

Just then, suddenly, a voice echoed.

“The day has finally come when I can use my power to protect my country.”