"Mr. Kaslana, you can stop here. Any further and you'll step into the influence range of the Fragmentum."
"Based on the Silvermane Guards' long-standing experience fighting Fragmentum creatures, ordinary humans will continuously suffer erosion just by being inside the Fragmentum. It's even possible they might eventually transform completely into monsters."
Pela didn't know much about Kevin's background, let alone his actual strength, but she felt it necessary to explain all this clearly.
"And sometimes, we often see the lingering figures of those warriors who perished within the Fragmentum wandering inside it again. But facts have proven... that's nothing more than a crude imitation of them by this space, a complete and utter monster."
Although nominally, Pela is just an intelligence officer with no duty to set foot on the battlefield, she inevitably encounters situations where she has to participate in combat. Among those fallen Silvermane Guards, there were inevitably friends she knew.
Because of this bizarre phenomenon, over time, a regulation even emerged among the Silvermane Guards: if a body cannot be retrieved from the Fragmentum, it must at least be destroyed.
They are heroic souls who protected their homeland; they should not be defiled like this.
"Imitating things within it, then constructing corresponding fakes?"
Standing on the defensive line constructed by the Silvermane Guards, Kevin could easily take in the vast scenery ahead. Judging from the style and density of the surrounding buildings, it wasn't hard to see that this was once a very prosperous commercial district.
However, from the outside, this bustling street seemed to have no dangers other than being completely deserted.
Yet, this was merely a visual illusion. The street seen from outside was just a pure phantom; only after truly entering would you discover you've stepped into another completely different, chaotic space.
Within such a disordered and chaotic space, even the entrance you came from might not be reliable. That means after entering, you not only have to face endless monsters but also bear the risk of losing your way.
From this perspective alone, certain attributes of Fragmentum spaces seem quite similar to the Sea of Quanta.
Of course, this couldn't possibly become a reason for Kevin to give up exploring. The street ahead appears connected to this place, but inside is a space completely unrelated to the outside world. What can you possibly discern just by looking from the outside?
"Thank you. From now on, you just need to wait outside. Or, you can go attend to other matters."
Clearly, worrying about Kevin getting into trouble and trying to do something... wasn't that completely unnecessary in the first place?
"Eh? Wait, Mr. Kaslana! Hold on a sec..."
Before Pela could even finish her words of persuasion, Kevin leaped off the several-meter-high defensive line and vanished from sight in an instant, leaving the young girl standing alone in disarray in the wind.
She's just a delicate office worker; she can't exactly turn around and jump down after him to play the hero saving the damsel in distress, can she?
"Miss Bronya specifically said we must take good care of Mr. Kaslana! How could he just jump into the Fragmentum alone without any equipment?!"
If something really happened, not only would her conscience be troubled, but her year-end bonus would be completely hopeless too!
"What on earth am I supposed to do now?!"
(There is an illustration here; it can be viewed after updating the version.)
———— ————
"Indeed, the scenery seen from outside is merely a phantom of what once existed."
Meanwhile, on the other side, the moment Kevin stepped into the Fragmentum, the scene before his eyes immediately underwent a dramatic transformation. The originally tidy streets were now littered with debris and mechanical wreckage. The bright sky had become extremely dim, with faint glimmers of starlight seemingly twinkling within.
Not only the space, but this Fragmentum Kevin entered was also completely out of sync with the outside world in terms of time... The contrast before and after was simply too great.
According to the information provided by that young girl earlier, such a massive sense of disparity had never occurred between the Fragmentum and the outside. So, is this because of his own inherent issue?
Kevin lowered his head to look at his palm, then clenched his fist tightly to test. He could clearly feel a certain sense of rejection, and indeed some force was attempting to deconstruct his very existence from an unknown angle.
However, wanting to achieve a level capable of completely analyzing a 'Chimera'? It would probably take several hundred years at least.
Although he was clearly detected as an anomaly, there was one convenient aspect: he didn't need to actively search; those creatures would come to him on their own.
He just didn't know whether the Fragmentum possessed its own subjective consciousness, or if the Stellaron could actually control this area, or perhaps it was simply that Fragmentum creatures also possessed independent thought?
Clearly sensing the gaze from the shadows, Kevin calmly first walked slowly towards a nearby shop with collapsed walls. Then, his eyes scanned around until he finally selected a plain and unadorned baseball bat from within.
Let's set aside the question of why Belobog would have baseball as a sport. But wielding a baseball bat as a weapon felt infinitely better to Kevin than fighting empty-handed.
After all, only he himself came to this world; even the Judgment of Shamash was left behind in the original world.
But isn't this quite good too?
Kevin carefully hefted the baseball bat in his hand a few times before turning his head to look outside the shop at the dozens of bizarre creatures blocking the entrance, seemingly having waited for quite some time.
Judging by their appearance, the main composition of these Fragmentum creatures' bodies seemed to be some unknown type of crystal, and each creature contained only a single type of element within. They were pure, so pure they didn't seem like products that should exist in the natural world.
Their simple and effective structure made them seem more like products manufactured solely for mass production and invasion.
From this perspective, they were even more terrifying than Honkai Beasts, which could take myriad bizarre forms. After all, even Honkai Beasts still followed nature's basic rules; they were truly 'living creatures'.
Actually, whenever encountering such completely incomprehensible phenomena, Kevin would always uncontrollably think of his former companions.
No... That's strange. Why has he started becoming more prone to random thoughts ever since coming to this world?
Slightly shaking his head, Kevin then stepped towards the horde of monsters while raising the bat in his hand.
"If you want to test my strength, you might need to add more chips to the other side of the scale."
Fine ice crystals rapidly spread from Kevin's hand and enveloped the bat. Then, this weapon shimmering with cold was swung forward with force.
BOOM————!
A gushing torrent of frigid air obscured all vision. By the time the fine frost settled, Belobog's commercial street had returned to its former emptiness once more.
A beautiful home run.