"Hmm? You ask about my purpose?"

"Like you, I also want to find the true answer."

As she spoke, the red blood and light blue energy merged, the wound in her palm was stitched with metallic lines. She gazed at the giant shadow hanging upside down in the mirror, her eyes captivating, "Oh, almighty Argos, help me find the truth."

......

Meanwhile, on the other side, Ethan and the others made new progress in their exploration.

"What's this?"

Rowena didn't hide her disappointment, fluttering her wings as she circled the "Great Treasure" on the stone platform.

A frenzied robot, mechanical plague, a lakeside cabin, and a path extending after the lake froze, plus the tomb-like structure at the end of the road, all screamed treasure hunt. She almost thought the tomb's bottom was filled with gold, but after all that buildup, the treasure was a letdown.

It was just a bundle of white papers, different from parchment, and the writing didn't look like it was done with a feather pen, it was still unreadable ancient script.

"Civilization: Canopy Refuge (Abandoned Draft)"

Rowena searched around again and confirmed there were no more hidden treasures, immediately feeling deflated.

This task was utterly disproportionate to its rewards. After defeating the crazy robot, it dropped no loot, and the mechanical mist antelope, having lost its commander, lay down on a patch of ground after the ice melted, looking as if it had fallen asleep.

"This is worth much more than gold."

Ethan started browsing the document.

A4 paper, printed fonts, theoretically an impossible product in this era.

"Worth more in what way?"

Hearing Ethan say this, Rowena perked up again, "Is it some kind of super-powerful magic scroll?"

"It's a design draft."

"A design draft?"

"Explains the origin of this dimension."

"Oh, I get it now." Rowena suddenly understood, "You mean it's something like the Church's Holy Scripture."

The Life Divine Teachings had often tried to explain the world's origin to the Empire's people through the Holy Scripture. The core of this work was to downplay the Knight Lord's contributions in the Old Gods War, hide the part about establishing the academy, and praise the Goddess of Life, aiming for the Life Divine Teachings to hold the sole voice in faith within the Empire.

Ethan didn't immediately answer.

As he picked up the scrap paper, he saw more.

The same familiar office, but with a slightly oppressive atmosphere.

After an unknown amount of time, someone finally broke the silence, "Well, it got rejected, got rejected!"

The speaker was a female colleague who had previously claimed to have had over a dozen relationships, but her face was still obscured by the desk partition on the other side. Even so, Ethan could imagine her sitting slumped in her office chair, dejected.

"I put in so much effort designing it, only for it to be dismissed with a single light remark. They said it didn't fit the project's worldview! Old god Argos and the Summoner civilization derived from its power, where do they not fit?"

"Here, milk tea."

The reply came from the long-haired female colleague Ethan had briefly seen reflected in the lake earlier. Their desks were side by side, and she seemed skilled in smoothing situations. After she handed over the milk tea, the complaints subsided significantly.

"To be honest, you incorporated too much personal stuff."

Soon, someone else spoke, "Battles don't lead to death but to a blackout and relocation to a nearby rescue station? That really doesn't align with the project's tone."

"Obviously, the worldview setting can explain it. I even designed it based on Argos's belief system, setting up divine artifacts and professions—I mean, not everyone is into fighting and killing. People like me would prefer living in such a peaceful and tranquil world."

"Well, too bad, the person in charge is a battle enthusiast, you know?"

"That baldy—!"

"Shh, lower your voice. If he hears you, you'd be in big trouble!"

A common work conversation, the brief oppressive atmosphere dispersed with a few words from colleagues. The complaining female colleague paused slightly, and with an apologetic look, she said to Old Sen, "Sorry, Old Sen, for wasting your time, but I really think your design for Mistforest County is quite good. Maybe we're similar people."

"No, you're not."

The long-haired female colleague's voice suddenly turned icy, "Don't continue to mislead him!"

...

The dialogue ended there.

In the first moment of reawakening, he met the curious big eyes of the cat, her face so close that her white fluff brushed against his face. One of her cat paws lightly rested on Ethan's forehead, conveying the soft touch of a paw pad.

"What are you thinking of?"

When Ethan was flipping through the document, she lay on his shoulder, looking along with him.

The design draft was filled with ancient script, but she had mastered this language without teaching after seeing the reflection in the lake.

The ancient script primarily described this dimension's unique environmental structure and power system, also mentioning Argos. However, in Lindong's view, it was just tiresome and dull explanations. She didn't understand why Ethan found it so engrossing, even immersing completely in it, ignoring Rowena's constant chatter and not answering several of her questions.

"Remembering some funny things."

Ethan found it hard to offer a specific explanation. First, it wasn't something he could immediately complete, having Lindong and Rowena understand concepts like "office," "project," and "milk tea." However, this memory was much clearer than the reflection in the lake, although their appearances differed and identities changed, their interaction mode was almost the same as Lindong and Rowena's stances.

Ethan didn't believe this was a coincidence.

Not long ago, he thought Rowena was a companion "Future Lindong" created due to loneliness, but now it seemed he played a significant part in this project.

Yet this still failed to align with his recognition.

According to the conversation in his memory, this design draft had evidently been scrapped, even with the "Abandoned Draft" mark beside the document title. This implied the institute would no longer allocate any funds or research resources to its content. If the world he currently resided in was the project's final result, then why did an abandoned draft form a realdimension?

At least in Ethan's understanding, any project from discussion to implementation required extensive effort, especially content beyond the existing scientific framework.

The project participants could design a deity, granting it the power to fulfill any wish with just a snap of its fingers. However, turning a setting idea into reality would require countless programming and debugging attempts.

Thus, a thought gradually emerged in Ethan's mind.

The reason he traversed here and lost project memories…

Could it be because, as one of the project developers, he pretended to comply while actually compiling all the scrapped design drafts, ultimately turning them into a mess of a mountain? Then after being exposed, he was persecuted by the black-hearted company from King of Gold's memories, finally ending up in this world?

If the Old Gods and their Empire were the "primary dimension," then these main dimension areas, possibly never discovered and displayed in a disjointed fashion, indeed resembled a pile of mess.

Once immersed in such thought, Ethan found it increasingly plausible.

"What funny thing?"

Seeing Ethan sink into silence again, the cat cradled Ethan's face with both paws, making him direct his gaze back onto her.

"To put it simply…"

Ethan molded his words, "This might be the consequence of being busted by upper management."