"Adjacent world? What adjacent world?"
And what did she mean by "extremely aggressive"?
[According to your understanding from that world, the adjacent world refers to the 'Celestial Realm'—a parallel world distinct from the one you visited, filled with extremely dense Mana. The consciousness there is highly aggressive and will immediately eliminate any anomalies.]
The adjacent world is the "Celestial Realm"?
The same Celestial Realm Fan Xinglou mentioned, where many ancient Genestellars ascended, and the origin of the Invertia? That Celestial Realm?
The aggression level there is so high that it eliminates anomalies on sight?
"Wait!"
Roy suddenly realized a critical issue.
"You know what I've experienced? I thought you couldn't see through me?"
[Your experiences themselves form information that lingers around you. I can read that.]
Roy pondered for a while before understanding the principle, feeling somewhat relieved.
In other words, the Root couldn't read Roy's thoughts or inner workings but could interpret the informational traces left by his experiences.
It wasn't seeing into Roy's core—just the external traces he carried, which couldn't escape the Root's perception.
"In that case, you must also know I encountered a traveler who wasn't native to that world?"
[That part of your experience has been read. The same goes for Fan Xinglou.]
"And you're not angry?"
[Bringing back travelers or key figures from that world was never part of our agreement. Even if it had been and you deliberately failed to fulfill it, anger wouldn't be an option. Anger serves no purpose—it's entirely irrational.]
It seemed he'd anthropomorphized the Root too much.
What had appeared before him last time was essentially just a recorded message from the Root, simulating a personality for dialogue. The Root itself had never truly revealed itself to Roy. Based on these fragments, he could only infer—this Root was a monster of rationality.
No, personifying the world, attributing human traits or morality to it, was itself a laughable mistake.
Roy silently reminded himself not to make that error again.
"So, what you're saying is that we can't establish a freely accessible portal?"
Roy frowned. That wouldn't do.
[A temporary portal is possible—enough for your personal travel. But a permanent, freely accessible one is not, due to the risk of detection and potential losses.]
Roy clicked his tongue, not bothering to hide his displeasure.
A temporary portal would allow him to come and go freely, making it easy to bring Claudia and the others over.
But he also wanted that world's resources. Eventually, he wanted to bridge both worlds for resource exchange. Without a permanent portal, that would be meaningless.
"At the end of the day, it's just not profitable enough, right? What if I brought Fan Xinglou and Stella over together?"
Roy didn't trust the Root. The reason he didn't want to bring Fan Xinglou and the others over so quickly wasn't because he thought keeping Fan Xinglou could serve as a trump card against the Root, but simply because he didn't want the Root to gain too much benefit—according to its explanation, the more central a figure was to a world, the richer the operational rules of that world they carried within them.
However, Roy wasn't unwilling to bring Fan Xinglou and the others over. If they could become his allies, then of course bringing them here would allow him to make better use of them.
Fan Xinglou was one of the central figures, and the traces of rules she carried should be quite valuable to the Root. As for Stella, she was the heroine of another world, so the differences in rules were likely even greater, making her value possibly higher than Fan Xinglou's.
[Wishing us a pleasant cooperation.]
The Root sent its congratulations.
It had agreed to Roy's proposal.
Roy froze for a moment before suddenly cursing under his breath.
"Damn it, you were playing me all along!"
From the very beginning, it had read the information about Roy's experiences and knew he had deliberately withheld some benefits.
It had probably prepared this scheme from the start, revealing bits and pieces during their conversation—claiming the risks were too great and that it couldn't keep the door open for long. That was likely half-true, just to lure out the benefits he'd been hiding.
In the end, Roy did get the rewards he wanted, but the Root came out way ahead.
"Lord Roy!"
A delighted voice called out from the direction of the main house. Ichika, Utaha, and the others poked their heads out from the living room, interrupting Roy's train of thought.
'Well, the outcome isn't bad. Let's leave it at that.'
Roy exhaled lightly and put away his phone. Even if he wanted to do something, there was nothing he could do now.
A smile spread across his face as he waved to the girls and walked toward the living room.
...
Only eight days had passed since Roy left this world.
Roy had spent over half a year in the world of Asterisk City, yet only a few days had gone by here. For Roy, reuniting with Utaha, Hayasaka, and the others felt like a long-awaited reunion, but for the women living in the mansion, it was as if Roy had just gone on a business trip.
Still, his safe return eased their worries.
Though it was indeed a business trip, it was one to a completely unfamiliar world.
There had never been any pioneers before—Roy was the first to take the plunge. The future was entirely unknown, the risks unpredictable. If anything happened to him, this household might collapse. How could they not be worried?
"Seeing you return safely is all that matters."
Illya's face lit up with a relieved smile as she saw Roy unharmed.
"Judging by your condition, not only are you fine, but you could probably go three hundred rounds without breaking a sweat."
Utaha gave Roy a strange look, her eyes scanning him up and down with disbelief. His physique was clearly not something that could be achieved normally—he was almost a head taller than before.
"In every possible sense of 'three hundred rounds,' no problem at all."
She stated with absolute certainty.
The women in the living room all choked at once.
Her tone was... quite suggestive.
Was she making a dirty joke?
She was absolutely making a dirty joke!
"The changes to my body are indeed significant."
Touko was the only one among them who knew about the existence of the Primordial Mother Goddess within Roy. She remained quite calm, though a hint of longing flashed across her face.
"But what I truly want to know is—what kind of world did you visit? What kind of things did you encounter?"
Her innate thirst for knowledge as a magus was becoming nearly impossible to suppress.
"I was just about to share that with all of you."
Seeing this, Roy didn't delay. With a wave of his hand, he opened an imaginary pocket and retrieved a disc-shaped object, placing it on the table.
"What's this?"
"A holographic projector."
Faced with the curious gazes of the women, Roy's casual answer made them all straighten their postures in unison. Holographic technology—even in Hayasaka's era, with the influence of the Shinomiya family, was cutting-edge technology they'd never encountered before!
With a light press of the projector's button, a three-dimensional image automatically projected from its base.
"Let this serve as my explanation!"