Right after kicking off the operation, we find ourselves once again thrust back into that fathomless, viscous expanse of dark blue space stretching into infinity.

  All around us is a boundless ocean with no bottom in sight, nor any shores to speak of. The liquid enveloping us is freezing cold, thick as gelatin, and pitch-black like India ink. Just touching it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Fortunately, we are only in the shallows for now. The kids can still thrash around instead of being squashed flat like cockroaches under the pressure, even though their faces are completely green. They are flailing their arms and legs wildly like a bunch of frogs learning to swim.

  From a distance, Kaito waves his hands frantically at me, a stream of air bubbles bursting from the kid's mouth. Looking at that pale face, he is definitely panicking hard. Fair enough. Being tossed into the middle of a pitch-black sea like this, nobody in their right mind could stay calm.

  "Alright, alright, stop being so dramatic."

  I let out a heavy sigh, releasing a trail of silver bubbles, then interlock my ten fingers, weaving a hand seal in a flash.

  A tiny speck of light, radiant as Venus, sparks to life in the palm of my hands.

  Whoosh.

  That speck of light suddenly swells up, swallowing the surrounding darkness. The blinding glare forces all four of us to squint. It twists, screeches with a grinding noise, and then solidifies into a massive iron block looming right in front of our noses.

  It is still the same old vessel I once used to kick Reo and his student out of my head. But this time around, it looks a bit less battered. At the very least, the outer hull seems thick enough to not get crushed like a beer can.

  "Get in, quick! You are making us late for dinner!" I transmit my voice through the water, making it echo directly inside the kids' heads.

  Kaito, Yusei, and Nanao clumsily swim over, clinging to the slippery hull before struggling to pull open the airlock door.

  The moment the door pops open, the water outside halts completely as if slamming into an invisible glass wall. Not a single drop spills in to ruin my red velvet carpet.

  Waiting until the whole gang is comfortably seated on the plush sofa, I leisurely float in last and slam the door shut behind me.

  I shoot a sideways glare at Nanao. The calico cat guy is lounging on the mini bar, swirling a glass of wine in his hand with a stylish flair.

  "Hey, are you not a Deity?" I jut my chin at him, my voice dripping with pure judgment. "You can manifest your own diving shield, so why are you squeezing in here and stealing space from the mortals? Have some limit to your laziness."

  Nanao shrugs, taking a sip of red wine, and casually replies: "Why are you always so petty, Boss? A giant spaceship like this, how much space does one extra cat really take up?"

  "Monitoring my ass, you just want to leech off the AC," I mutter, but I end up clicking my tongue and letting it slide. Now is not the time to bicker over trivial nonsense.

  I clap my hands twice to grab their attention.

  "Focus up, comrades! Now it is time for a magic trick."

  I point at the empty space in front of me.

  "Synchronize your devices. Try summoning your spirit phones and see."

  Kaito and Yusei look at each other in utter bewilderment, their faces practically screaming like, "What is he smoking now? We are in a dream and he wants to use a phone?"

  But Nanao does not bother asking questions. He simply raises his hand. A familiar flash of light goes off, and his Solak smartphone materializes in his grip, as crisp and real as it is in the physical world.

  Seeing this, the two rookie kids timidly follow suit. Their eyes widen to the max when they realize their communication devices are actually working flawlessly even while diving into the subconscious.

  "Holy crap..." Yusei blurts out, swiping his thumb across the touch screen. "There is actual reception! Full five bars!"

  I cross my arms over my chest, sticking my nose up in the air with immense pride, and an equal amount of agony.

  "Of course there is reception. Think about it. To provide the best possible working conditions for my subordinates like this..."

  I take a deep breath, ready to unleash my usual tragic monologue about the silent sacrifices of a great leader.

  "...I swear to god..."

  "Get ready to hear him cry about the budget, boys."

  Nanao's lazy voice rings out, ruthlessly slicing right through my overflowing emotional buildup.

  I freeze. My open mouth suddenly goes stiff.

  This little punk...

  He hits the bullseye. It is so accurate that I feel like someone just punched me square in the chest. All the golden words about my bleeding wallet that I have drafted in my head suddenly choke up in my throat.

  "Hmph!" I clear my throat, trying to salvage whatever is left of my dignity. "It is so easy for you guys to talk. Try sitting in this chair for once, will you? Do you ever have to take responsibility for budget deficits? It is always this old man breaking his back to carry the load."

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  "Yeah, yeah, we know," Nanao waves his hand dismissively, his eyes still glued to the phone screen. "But listening to you whine and cry all the time gets tiring, Boss. Instead of complaining, just focus on giving orders and make it quick."

  I choke on my own frustration, completely lost for words.

  In the other corner, Yusei lightly nudges Kaito's arm, whispering in a hushed tone:

  "Hey kid, why does Nanao talk back to Itsuki-sama so hard? I notice Mr.Zhou on my side also talks trash about him a lot, saying things like 'That fox is all talk'. Is he... genuinely this disrespected by his own staff?"

  Hearing that, Kaito lets out a muffled giggle, covering his mouth to reply:

  "That is not it, man. It is because Itsuki-sama is super easygoing. He never takes those words to heart. If it were any other boss, Nanao would have his salary deducted into the negative infinity by now."

  Hmph, at least one kid actually understands how things work. Raising this boy is not a total waste of effort after all.

  The vessel cuts through the waves, diving deeper into the belly of the pitch-black subconscious ocean. The headlights from the bow sweep across the eternal night, revealing "that thing" right in front of us.

  Only by descending this deep can we truly comprehend the sheer majesty of this convoluted architectural monstrosity. Seeing it with my own eyes, I finally realize that the 3D map from earlier is nothing but a cheap plastic toy.

  To be precise, The Local Noosphere is a colossal cylinder, so overwhelmingly immense that ordinary words fail to capture its overall scale. Looking down, there is no bottom. Looking up, there is no peak. And no matter how much you crane your neck to look left or right, you cannot find the end of its curving horizon. It hovers in the middle of the endless sea like a forgotten fortress of ancient gods.

  But the size is only one part of it. Its surface gives me an even worse case of goosebumps. It is rugged, rough, and completely porous.

  Billions upon billions of pitch-black cavities, varying in all shapes and sizes, riddle the surface of the fortress like a gigantic, mutated beehive. Every single hole is oozing a thick, dark mist that leads straight into the interior. Staring at that squirming sight, I bet anyone with trypophobia would instantly drop to the floor and foam at the mouth.

  "Fucking gross," I shudder, the hair on my neck standing straight up.

  While the young Sensitives, Kaito and Yusei included, are still pressing their faces against the window glass with dazed expressions of pure awe, our vessel begins to decelerate, curving in a smooth arc toward the West Gate.

  "We are here."

  It seems we arrived right on time. Looking outside the spaceship's window, rows of transport vehicles from other squads are already neatly docked. The bustling atmosphere is no different from a Tokyo harbor during rush hour.

  The grunts from the Security Squad are also present. They are patrolling the cave entrance area in full combat readiness, scrutinizing every single bacterium that dares to wander near. At a glance, the lockdown looks as tight as a sealed jar. It would be hard for even an ant to slip through.

  "Hmm..." I narrow my eyes, observing through the monitor screen. "Looks secure enough."

  But with hundreds of years of work experience under my belt, I know full well that nothing is ever that easy. There is no wall that cannot be breached, and there is no security system without loopholes. There is bound to be a fly or a mosquito slipping in somehow. Better safe than sorry.

  I turn around, clapping my hands to grab the rookies' attention.

  "Alright, listen closely. Do not trust a single soul in this place. If you want to know who is friend or foe, use this to check."

  I tap my phone screen lightly, pinning a notification to our group chat.

  "This is the Friend-or-Foe Code. If anyone cannot recite this exact sequence of numbers, just assume they want to eat you alive."

  A text message pops up on everyone's screens:[PASSCODE: 2,305,843,008,139,952,128]

  The space inside the cabin falls dead silent for three whole seconds.

  "Holy sh..." Kaito is the first to break the silence.

  "Boss... are you messing with us? A number as long as a CVS receipt like this, who the hell is going to memorize it?"

  "He's right," Yusei also grimaces, pushing up his glasses. "Is this a passcode or the digits of Pi, sir?"

  "What are you complaining about?" I shoot them a glare. "It's such a beautiful number. I told you to note it down on your phones or tattoo it on your arms. Who forced you to memorize it?"

  Ignoring the pathetic groans of the Sensitives, I quietly open another private chat window.

  Recipient: Bald Crow (Karasu).

  ItsukiK: "Here is the master key. Memorize it, you damn bird."

  ItsukiK: "[2,305,843,008,139,952,128]"

  I shove the violently vibrating spirit phone deep into my vest pocket, ignoring the relentless Ding! Ding! noises drilling straight into my eardrums. I do not even need to open it to know. That black crow is definitely drafting an entire thesis filled with deep, affectionate words dedicated to me for forcing him to memorize that pile of codes.

  Whatever, to hell with him. Security comes first. And safety always comes with a price. In this case, it is his brain's memory capacity.

  The vessel shudders slightly before gliding smoothly into the West entrance.

  True to the worst-case scenario I had predicted, inside The Local Noosphere is... yet another ocean.

  This internal puddle might be somewhat more modest in scale compared to the outer ocean, but it is thick as soup. All sorts of clumpy colors twist and tangle together, looking absolutely sickening.

  "Itsuki-sama," Yusei adjusts his glasses, the college student's eyes glinting with a premature sense of paranoia. "Hypothetically... just hypothetically speaking. If we are not traveling with you or the other deities, how are we supposed to navigate through this messy sludge?"

  I raise an eyebrow, glancing at him.

  "Are you tired of living, or what? Why are you even thinking about splitting up and going solo?" I click my tongue, but end up nodding anyway. "Though, it is good to think ahead."

  I point my finger toward the scattered green glowing specks in the distance.

  "Inside the Safe Havens, the Security Squad has prepared some personal transport devices. In case of an emergency, Sensitives can use them to swim on their own. But I strongly advise you, unless there are absolutely no other options, do not do anything stupid. It is best to obediently sit tight, turn on your location beacon, and scream your lungs out for the deities to come save you."

  "Uhm..." Nanao, who is leaning against the cabin wall, suddenly interrupts. "With his face completely pale like that, he is not afraid of getting lost, Boss."

  Kaito, standing nearby, turns paper-white upon hearing that. He stammers, trembling: "No... do not tell me... you mean..."

  "Apologies, Itsuki-sama, this might sound like a jinx," Yusei hesitates, "but what if... you guys..."

  "Alright, alright, skip the beating around the bush," I cut him off, letting out a heavy sigh. "You mean in the event that we all kick the bucket, right?"

  I look straight into the eyes of the two rookie kids, dropping my usual frivolous demeanor.

  "I have already factored that in. In the absolute worst-case scenario, meaning when I and the rest of your deity bodyguards are completely wiped out, the only way for you to survive is to run for your lives to the emergency escape pods hidden in the Safe Havens and activate the evacuation protocol."

  "But remember to be quick about it. If you get assimilated by this subconscious space, believe me, going to hell feels like a vacation compared to that."

  Seeing the two kids turn as white as a sheet, looking as if their souls have left their bodies, I hurriedly clap my hands to chase away the funereal atmosphere.

  "Come on now, why the pessimism? Why the long faces on all of you?" I scoff, patting my chest with confidence, even though I am also secretly sweating bullets on the inside. "Our forces are not so pathetically weak that you need to worry about planning our funerals this early. Killing a god is not as easy as swatting a mosquito, you know."