After a loud bang, the whole world fell silent.

Morris felt his consciousness floating, as if it had completely separated from his body. He didn't know where he was or what year he was in. There was even a moment - or perhaps a long period of time - when he completely forgot his own name. He just floated mindlessly in the chaos and nothingness, surrounded by turbulent light and shadows that could not be understood by human intelligence and deathly silence.

It took Morris a long, long time to reassemble his fragmented thoughts and repair his incomplete humanity.

He remembered that his name was Maurice, he lived in the city-state of Plande, and he was a historian. Today he was going to visit an antique shop in the lower town to find out what had nearly cost his daughter's life.

He found out.

They are a warm subspace family.

Countless roars and piercing noises like the earth being torn apart finally exploded, and in this empty and silent chaos, there was something he could sense again. His humanity, which had just been condensed, was almost shattered again by the noise. But just a moment before complete annihilation, he "saw" a chaotic and empty smoke suddenly gathering from all directions, enveloping all his senses.

This layer of "smoke" protected his mind, and isolated him from the noise and turbulence of light and shadow around him with the shelter of "ignorance and stupidity". Morris regained the ability to think. He looked around through the smoke and found that he could no longer see the maddening knowledge and truth. In the depths of the endless fog, there was only a flickering light that attracted his attention.

It was a faint light formed by many large and small light sources. In the center was a red light, as big as a human head. There were dozens of small blue, green and red light spots around it, flashing rapidly like some kind of matrix. It seemed to have no pattern, but seemed to contain some kind of... "reason".

Amidst the countless turbulence of light and shadow, these regularly flickering glimmers became the anchor that completely stabilized Morris's mind, and after a moment of astonishment, he realized what these flickering glimmers were -

He confronted Lahmu, the god of wisdom.

In every university and laboratory of the Academy of Truth, there are depictions of Lakhim, and there are corresponding words in the "Book of Lakhim" - this god who holds both wisdom and stupidity has no human image. He has been hidden in the fog for a long time, and the outline that occasionally appears is a plane covered with faint light, with dozens of light spots orbiting a circular light.

"Lord!" Morris was instantly shocked and quickly saluted the light matrix that protected him. "Are you going to guide me?"

The flickering "lights" did not respond to the old scholar, but only a vague and low tremor came. It was not until a long time later that Morris heard Rahm's "voice" in the depths of his mind -

"Return, contact, understand, pass on..."

"you……"

Morris looked at the ball of light in astonishment. He could not understand Lahem's will. However, this elusive god of wisdom did not give him the opportunity to continue asking questions. The next second, a strong feeling of rejection came over him rapidly. In just a moment, Morris was "bounced" out of this chaotic and terrifying place.

His body shook, his brain seemed to boil, and information from the world filled his senses - the sound of traffic on the street, bells in the distance, the cold wind, and the crisp sound of bicycle bells.

Then there were the sounds of rapidly approaching footsteps and the girl's concerned voice - that voice was familiar, it was his "student".

"Mr. Morris?! Why are you here...are you okay?"

Morris looked up in a trance and saw Nina standing in front of him, but the next second, the girl in front of him turned into a burning arc of flames, surrounded by ashes that seemed to cover the entire city-state - and then turned into a human form.

He looked to the side again with a stiff gaze, and saw a giant with starlight all over his body looking down at him. There were crazy lights and shadows inside the giant's body, but the giant suddenly turned into a middle-aged man with a friendly face. He looked at him with concern, his eyes filled with shadows of the subspace.

The streets in the distance were also shaking, the ground beneath my feet was wriggling, the doors and windows of the storefronts were sometimes normal, and sometimes turned into empty black holes, the sky was drooping crookedly, flowing flames and shapeless limbs were looming between the clouds, a passerby on a bicycle passed by quickly, his body suddenly turned into fragmented cement, but returned to its original state the next second.

Morris lowered his head with difficulty and looked at his wrist.

He was wearing a bracelet made of four colored stones.

But the stone did not continue to break, and his mind did not continue to slide towards madness. The world in his eyes was severely distorted, but his thinking and judgment abilities had recovered... at least partially.

The old scholar quickly determined his current state—under Lahm’s protection, he achieved a “critical state of madness” in which he had achieved a brief balance.

He was mad—but God made his madness appear sane.

Perhaps he could recover, but he had to find a way to recover before Lahem's protection ended and before all the stones were broken, otherwise the short critical point of madness might collapse at any time, and then no one would be able to save his sanity from the frenzy.

While Morris was thinking slowly and with difficulty in his mind, Nina and Duncan were looking at the old man in front of them with concern, who was obviously in a bad condition.

They were practicing cycling when they suddenly saw Morris standing in an open space nearby. Nina originally wanted to run over to say hello, but when she was halfway through the run, she noticed that the old man's expression was not right.

He was dazed and in a trance, with no response to the outside world, as if he had fallen asleep with his eyes open while standing.

"Is he suddenly suffering from Alzheimer's disease?" Duncan muttered suddenly, waving his hand in front of Morris, and then turned to look at Nina, "Has your teacher been in a daze like this in school these two days?"

"No," Nina shook her head, and said as she stepped forward to hold the old man's arm, "The teacher has always been in good health, how could he suddenly become demented!"

"Old people can't tell for sure," Duncan supported Morris's other arm, then looked up at the sky. "Let's not talk about it here for now. It's about to rain. Let's help the old man into the house first."

Nina said "oh" and together with Duncan, she helped the dazed Morris into the store, then trotted to the open space outside and moved the bicycle into the house.

Duncan pushed Morris to a chair next to the counter. The old man seemed to have regained some ability to think. He sat down with a stiff expression, his head slowly turning left and right, and his eyes finally focused on Duncan.

"Return, contact, understand, pass on..."

Rahm's voice suddenly echoed in his mind.

Morris's remaining sanity seemed to understand these words a little.

Is this the will of the God of Wisdom? To allow him to continue to contact this... "existence" in front of him?

In Morris' eyes, Duncan temporarily stabilized into human form. Although the scene around him kept shaking and creeping, at least he could not see the real body of the star giant for the time being, and reason gradually prevailed.

Morris has realized that this seemingly ordinary "antique shop manager" is definitely not someone who should exist in the real world.

Even his "student", the girl who always smiled gently and was always sunny and optimistic, was not a normal human being.

If I continue to stay here and continue to communicate with this "family", it may not be long before I cross the critical balance point of madness and slide from temporary madness into the abyss of permanent madness.

But the voice of the God of Wisdom seemed to take root in his mind, making him sit there involuntarily. At the same time, another bolder idea gradually permeated his heart.

In the "critical state of madness" blessed by God, no matter how crazy his mind becomes, he will not completely lose control. As long as he does not cross that critical point, he can even face the subspace in this short period of balance and maintain his self and humanity...

It is said that the greatest but also the craziest knowledge seekers in the Kingdom of Crete would even take advantage of this. After a lifetime of preparation, they would actively embrace the "critical point of madness" with potions and rituals, and in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, they would peek into the truth of the subspace, bring precious knowledge to the world, and then die.

Now, he seemed to be standing on the "battlefield" where those sages of the Cretan era had once stood.

Slowly, the old man's blank and dull face changed. He gradually smiled, looked at Duncan with his cloudy eyes, and slowly said, "Hello, Mr. Duncan."

Duncan looked at the change in the old man's expression and suddenly felt a little scared.

This old man...why does his smile suddenly become so scary?