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Ian stood in the middle of the enormous stone house.
He looked ahead at the three-meter-tall female Titan sitting on the bed and playing games. In a race where the average height was several hundred meters, she was definitely more loli than a loli.
Of course.
To put it nicely, she was a loli. To put it bluntly, she was an extremely underdeveloped dwarf. Fortunately, the female Titan's proportions didn't look as awkward as those of a dwarf.
She had the proportions a normal nine-head-tall woman should have.
"Pā pā pā—pa~"
That was the sound of buttons being pressed and fingers poking at a screen. The female Titan looked just like a veteran otaku, holding a video game with a rather peculiar design.
Ian no longer had the presence of mind to worry about how strange this scene was.
Because he heard it.
"Good morning, Professor Raven." The female Titan's voice was soft and lazy, as if she were simply greeting an old friend, rather than facing a stranger who had suddenly trespassed into her territory.
"Professor Raven?" He repeated the title, his Adam's apple bobbing. Why was the other party calling him Professor Raven? Had she mistaken him for that raven?
This was clearly not the first time it had happened since he came to this strange world.
Even before he came to this world...
Similar situations had occurred. It had happened once or twice, and then again and again. This was obviously no coincidence.
Ian froze for a moment, his brows knitting slightly. "You...what did you call me?"
"Professor Raven."
The female Titan still didn't look up, her fingers tapping rapidly on the video game controller as she spoke.
"I'm human. I'm a wizard from a later age." Ian explained cautiously, all the while observing the female Titan's expression and demeanor not far away.
He didn't know if this sudden change in how he was addressed was an attempt to lower his guard. After all, he himself had once taken on the form of a Raven after entering this world.
Was it a misunderstanding?
Or some other reason...
Ian felt it was necessary to correct her.
The female Titan finally raised her head. Her hands were still operating the video game. "All right, I know, Professor Raven. Looks like your obsession has finally been fulfilled."
She spoke, but the words coming out of her mouth had no clear meaning. They left Ian momentarily speechless, caught between laughter and tears.
"Have you mistaken me for someone else?"
He sensed that something was off. She looked at him as if she knew him very well. Ian had long had his suspicions about the relationship between himself and that raven, but deep down, he still felt it was unlikely.
"Maybe." The female Titan shrugged, her tone so calm it was infuriating. "But since you can come here, it means fate has bound you together with that raven."
Ian opened his mouth, wanting to say something yet not knowing where to begin.
He had imagined this meeting would end in conflict, perhaps even a battle. He had also envisioned the other party as a lofty, cold, and emotionless being who would explain everything from on high.
Of course.
There was also the possibility of obscure and ancient riddles or even peace talks that transcended races. Or perhaps Ian would finally find another crossover traveler in this world... any of those were possible. But what he never imagined was that what awaited him would be a game-addicted, otaku-style Titan who called him "Professor Raven."
Among the countless scenarios Ian had envisioned beforehand, none included standing around like a neglected visitor, awkwardly waiting in the bedroom of a Titan girl engrossed in gaming.
The atmosphere in the entire room was strange and awkward.
Ian looked around, trying to distract himself.
This place really didn't resemble a divine sanctuary at all. In fact, it looked more like the bedroom of an average otaku girl. The walls were covered with animated posters that seemed almost alive. They depicted various Pokémon and Digimon, as well as some creatures he had never seen before. From time to time, they blinked or struck a pose as if to greet him.
And that wasn't all.
There were other posters, too.
Characters dressed as magical girls held wands that changed colors in sync with the LED light strips framing the posters. On the bookshelf to the right, figurines were neatly arranged. On the top shelf, a life-sized Ultraman model had a crystal on its chest that pulsed with a steady glow. Several strings of starry lights hung from the ceiling and projected constellations that slowly rotated.
The room felt like an otaku girl's bedroom fused with a dance club.
In any case, the vibe was overpowering.
Yet, it also carried a distinct sense of Japanese otaku culture.
"How do you have all these?" Ian couldn't help but ask.
Subconsciously, the tip of his wand traced a detection rune in the air. The result showed that all of these items contained genuine magical energy; they weren't illusions conjured from his memories.
Ian wasn't without caution.
It just didn't seem to be doing its job.
"That's just how a Seer is," The female Titan replied casually, continuing to tap away at the video game. She tilted her head slightly, her silver-white hair cascading onto the floor like a waterfall.
"You were the one who told me. You told me all of it." She sounded as though she were chatting with an old acquaintance, yet Ian was certain that this was the first time he had seen this female Titan.
"I told you?" Ian froze.
"When?"
The air inside the stone house suddenly grew thick.
Ian felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. That sentence hit him like a hammer to the temple. It was as if a crucial memory had been forced into his mind, only to be yanked out just as quickly.
It wasn't Ian's memory... or at least, that's how it seemed. When he tried to grasp those fragments, they slipped away like sand through his fingers.
"What are you talking about?"
His voice rose an octave without him realizing it.
"Wait until I finish this round of Magical World Adventure," The female Titan said, her fingers flying over the video game. On the screen, a pixelated little character was chopping down trees.
She shifted into a more comfortable position, the hem of her T-shirt sliding down to the tops of her thighs. She bit her lower lip, completely focused on the screen and utterly oblivious to the stiffness in Ian's expression.
"??????"
Ian felt like his brain was about to crash. The soles of his boots touched the glowing rune slabs, and faint magical fluctuations traveled up from beneath his feet. There was actually air conditioning in this house!
A Titan magic-powered air conditioner!
"So the second crossover is the Raven, or maybe there was never a second crossover at all?" Turbulent emotions surged within Ian as he thought of this.
He vaguely sensed that he was closing in on some kind of truth, yet it seemed wrapped in layers of fog, impossible to grasp.
Ian was still utterly confused.
But he knew the female Titan in front of him could give him a lot of answers.
So...
"This isn't how my world is supposed to be played..." Ian cautiously moved closer, guarding against a possible sneak attack, and tried to figure out what game the female Titan was playing.
To be fair,
Before crossing over, Ian had also been a huge gaming enthusiast. However, the era he crossed into was one where video games had only just begun to develop. As an orphan, he hadn't had the means to play them.
That had effectively sealed away his passion for gaming. After all, even when he later had enough money to buy a video game, he simply couldn't bring himself to feel interested in titles like Pac-Man, which had only just emerged.
It was like a woman who had once been carried by an eagle... she could never be satisfied riding a child's bicycle again. Having experienced truly refined games, Ian naturally couldn't muster any enthusiasm for Pac-Man.
"Who would've thought that, even in ancient times, you could find games with more depth of gameplay than those from the '90s?" With a single glance, Ian recognized the game the female Titan was playing. On the screen flickered a pixel-style block world... an image he knew all too well:
Minecraft.
And that wasn't all.
Ian noticed that the map displayed on the Titan's video game screen wasn't ordinary.
The map of this island!
He realized all at once that this wasn't an ordinary game, but rather a bridge connecting reality and the virtual world. The female Titan wasn't just playing a game; she was controlling and shaping the terrain of this world. This wasn't ordinary Minecraft. The pixelated terrain of the island was unmistakably the bizarre space he was standing in right now.
"Hōng lóng... hōng lóng..." The female Titan was roughly leveling a forest with a square tool. Outside the stone house, the thunderous sound of collapsing trees immediately followed.
"You're using that… to modify this world?"
Ian's eyes widened.
"Of course." The female Titan grinned, a hint of smugness in her eyes. "My world, my rules."
As she spoke, she roughly dragged a mouse-like cursor across the screen, carving out a deep trench. A once gentle hill was instantly transformed into a sheer cliff.
Her fingertips slid rapidly across the screen, and the terrain on the eastern side of the island began to twist and reorganize.
Ian watched as she literally "grabbed" an entire lake and kneaded it like a ball of paper into the shape of a mountain. In the real world, a series of earth-shattering geological upheavals followed.
"I knew it... no wonder this island feels so strange! All the landforms look like they were stitched together while groaning! Even in a game, there should be some sense of logic!"
Ian couldn't help shouting.
"Can't you stop messing around like this?" He had always liked telling others what to do... just look at how he'd set up little classes back at Hogwarts. He genuinely enjoyed playing teacher.
"Relax. If it doesn't look good, I'll just tap this one-click restore and rewind time," The female Titan said, waving her hand. She was completely unconcerned.
"?"
Ian was just about to ask... but in the very next second... a long, solemn cry rang out from outside. It was the enormous phoenix!
The female Titan's expression changed instantly. She sprang to her feet, not even bothering to put the video game away, tossing it straight onto the floor as she spun around and rushed toward the door.
"What happened?" Ian hurried after her.
"Did someone else break in again? Damn it! Why are there so many time-crossover people?" Her voice echoed through the air, carrying a rare trace of tension.
As a Seer, the female Titan clearly hadn't foreseen everything.
"Who showed up?" So this really is the true ancient era and not some discarded destiny? I thought I'd fallen into another loop."
Ian froze.
His questions went unanswered.
The female Titan had already rushed outside, leaving him alone in the room. He glanced at the video game whose screen was still lit. On it was a line of text engraved with ancient runes.
[Titan Core · Genesis Terminal]
Permission Level: Supreme.
Good grief.
So this was how Titans created things? Or was it just this peculiar, Marvel-tier midget Titan who used this method to create the world? Driven by curiosity, Ian couldn't help picking up the video game to take a closer look.
[Current User: Claire]
[Caretaker Intervened: Mystic Raven]
The moment he picked up the device, a new line of text automatically appeared on the screen.
"?????"
Ian stared at the screen, his fingertip hovering over the words [Caretaker: Raven], his heart pounding violently as another wave of emotions surged up.
"What on earth…?"
Just as everything was starting to feel even more bizarre…
Boom!
A deafening Phoenix screech erupted outside, and the entire stone house shook. Ian jerked his head up, nearly dropping the video game. He hurried to the doorway, and the moment he pushed the stone door open, he saw the female Titan striding back like a shooting star, cradling three Phoenix eggs glowing with golden-red light. A smug smile hung on her face.
"Oh, no one broke in. My Phoenix laid eggs!" She lifted the eggs and shook them happily. The patterns on the shells flowed slowly like molten lava.
"Roasted Phoenix eggs for dinner tonight!"
The female Titan looked as though she were showing off.
Ian: "..."
'We're really not that close, are we?'
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but Claire had already charged back into the room in a whirlwind, casually tossing the Phoenix eggs into a hearth in the corner.
The fire flared instantly, the flames shifting from orange-red to blazing white. The eggshells made faint ka-ka cracking sounds in the intense heat, and astonishingly, it really did feel like they were being roasted.
The corner of Ian's eye twitched.
Those were Phoenix eggs!
They were just being roasted like that?
Who in their right mind would treat them like chicken eggs and eat them?!
And besides!
Aren't Phoenix eggs supposed to hatch only within flames?!
"I can share half with you."
The female Titan didn't seem to care about his expression at all. She climbed back onto the enormous bed on her own, picked up the video game again, and began operating it with lightning-fast fingers. The pixelated island on the screen kept changing in response to her commands; some areas even twisted and reassembled directly, and the real island trembled along with it.
"You…"
Ian took a deep breath and finally couldn't hold back anymore.
"So, am I a second incarnation now? Was my first life the raven?"
In truth, Ian had already had suspicions along these lines for a long time. He had just found the whole idea utterly absurd, which was why he had earlier rushed to explain that she had mistaken him for someone else.
He understood.
He had always understood.
"Hm? Does that really need me to answer it for you?" Claire's fingers paused for a moment. Her violet-gold pupils shifted slightly as she glanced at him, then she lowered her head and continued playing.
"Teacher, you've finally started asking the right questions," she said casually. "But you actually already know the answer… you just don't want to remember it."
Hearing that, Ian felt as though something had clenched tightly around his chest. He could indeed sense something awakening deep within his soul, memories that had been deliberately forgotten.
And within them lay truths he was unwilling to face.
(End of Chapter)