"You are my logical dad."

These words felt like a 2.5-ton bomb dropped on my head, and I was completely at a loss, dumbfounded for half a minute before I came to my senses, staring blankly at the supposedly quiet black-haired girl in front of me: "Did you take your medication?"

"I don’t take medication. What does that mean?" Abyss Xyrin looked at me strangely, as if she didn’t understand why I would react this way, "Your expression is quite strange. Did I say something unacceptable?"

I felt enveloped in a cloud of confusion. Over the years, I’ve had plenty of shocking women around me, but even Qianqian with her wild imagination can only terrify someone half to death with a sentence. Honestly, I think I’ve never been this startled, even during Qianqian’s wildest moments—because this time the brainwave came from Abyss Xyrin! The infamous leader of the Void’s malevolent forces, theoretically so rigid and humorless that jokes are out of the question! What did she mean by that sentence just now?

"I remember you don’t enjoy joking," I looked at her, trying to find a hint of jest, "Or is it that you’ve been lonely for too long and decided to find a dad? You didn’t have to come to me for that—I’ve got plenty of daughters, and resources are already stretched thin..."

Dammit, my mind’s a mess affecting my thoughts, and I already don’t know what I’m saying.

Abyss Xyrin slightly opened her hands, her expression still one of casual surprise: "Oh, seems you never thought about it. That’s not unusual, it’s not that important—but you’ve really never thought about my birth process?"

"Your birth process?" I felt like my brain might not be quite up to it (fortunately, I’ve grown accustomed to this feeling over the years, so I’m not panicking), "Wasn’t it naturally produced from the Old Empire’s Spiritual Network? Some kind of group consciousness, where because there were enough nodes, long enough time, high probability, one day an invisible ghost emerged in the Empire’s network... Something like that, right?"

"That was the original ’Xyrin’. All her nodes were refreshed, so, in terms of group consciousness life forms, she belongs to the previous generation," Abyss Xyrin frowned, seemingly finding this explanation a bit troublesome, "The original Xyrin split into two parts due to conceptual division. The weaker part is now your network administrator, while the more robust part became a hybrid—the current me. Your power and Abyss Power altered the Empire’s network, and these powers still form part of my makeup. In other words, you used part of your power to create the current ’Abyss Xyrin’—so, logically, I’m your daughter... or at least something similar."

My face was so stiff it was about to cramp: "Does that count?"

"Why wouldn’t it count?" Abyss Xyrin still found my reaction odd, "This form of life known as group consciousness is indeed rare. Therefore, my birth process can’t completely align with your worldview, but several conditions are in place: part of your power shaped my current soul, I’ve inherited this power, continued this power, and this power will remain as part of my ’components’ forever, which roughly corresponds to the concept of bloodline inheritance mentioned in the data. Doesn’t the Divine Race have this habit as well? They consider everything they create as their children—you created me, or at least part of me."

I listened to Abyss Xyrin’s analysis with my mouth agape. By the end, I finally understood her reasoning, yet my worldview was shattered in the process, more importantly, by the end, I even felt... hey, this actually makes sense!

"Wait, wait, wait!" I seized the opportunity to interrupt her, "It’s not wrong; indeed, tens of thousands of years ago, it was part of my power leaking into the Imperial Data Network that made you what you are now, but you’d still exist without my power, just in a different form. In this process, I think I’m at most a catalyst, perhaps a disturber, or a morphing agent..."

"You mentioned ’another form’, which would be an individual entirely different from me, unrelated to me. I’m unlike you real beings; I have no body. Memories and thoughts are my entirety. The physical network is just my soil for survival. Therefore, as long as memories and thoughts differ, even consciousnesses born from the same network bear no connection to me. So, you didn’t change a group consciousness; you created a new individual," Abyss Xyrin corrected earnestly.

Me: "I feel like I already can’t out-argue you."

"Because you never needed to ’out-argue’ me," Abyss Xyrin frowned, "To be honest, although I’ve inherited your power, I can’t understand your way of thinking at all—in fact, I can’t comprehend any real being’s thought process. You always get tangled in trivial details but have an ambiguous stance towards the essence of things, and often distress yourselves with unrealistic associations. Just like now: I’ve inherited your power, it’s merely an informational transference logical relation, yet you seem troubled by it."

I instantly felt defeated, sensing that rebuilding my worldview is so fraught with difficulty: "Isn’t this a serious matter! We’re supposed to be mortal enemies, mortal enemies! And suddenly you drop this logical bomb on me... And then? After acknowledging our connection, what do you plan to do? Merge into the Empire family under this new identity, or something? But it seems unnecessary since we’re no longer at war..."

"This is why I can’t understand your thought process," Abyss Xyrin sighed, "I was only clarifying the inheritance relation between us, nothing more, so why must you fabricate so many additional meanings?"

Me: "...So that’s it?"

"Yes, that’s it," Abyss Xyrin nodded vigorously, "The information transference connection between us started more than seventy thousand years ago. This was already a fact seventy thousand years ago; it just seems you hadn’t realized it yourself. I’m just reminding you now."

I forcefully straightened out my thoughts: "Hang on! So you’re saying... you’ve been aware of our connection for a long time?"

"Yes, I knew tens of thousands of years ago."

"Did you feel no psychological pressure fighting with me all these years?"

"What’s the connection there?"

"No connection?"

Abyss Xyrin nodded forcefully: "Right, no connection."

"..."

Why do I feel like my brain’s not enough again!

"So what do you plan to do in the future?" I looked at this extraordinary being with an alien thought process with a twisted expression, "Do you plan to come to me for child support, or are you thinking of supporting me in advance?"

Abyss Xyrin frowned: "I don’t understand, meaningless words. We should just continue with our own tasks; you have your responsibilities, I have mine. Today I came to see you just because I was passing by; you know the interface I left in Shadow City is just an interaction interface, and I didn’t waste much attention here."

"...So you acknowledged a dad in such a world-shaking manner, and you have nothing else," I seem to understand Abyss Xyrin’s thought process a little, but at the same time, feeling it’s so bizarre and leaving me both laughing and crying, "So I’ve been fighting with my own daughter for many years, and in the future, if you have another incident... we’ll still fight, and I foresee you won’t hold back."

"In theory, we won’t have conflicts in the future, but if that day comes, we’ll just go to war as usual," Abyss Xyrin nodded, "I don’t think a layer of information transference relation holds much value. Its impact on me is limited, at most making me pay some attention to you during peaceful times, but it shouldn’t affect my ’choice inclination’. A sliced sub-file shouldn’t have any emotion towards the folder it was originally in, at least that’s how I comprehend it."

I looked up at the ceiling, feeling more drained from this brief conversation with Abyss Xyrin than reading reports all morning. Talking to a person with a bizarre worldview, every sentence felt like spiritual pollution. Then I waved a hand: "Hopefully one day I can align with your views... Uh, better not, I really don’t want to be in sync with your worldview. Acknowledging you as my daughter is fine, whatever makes you happy, and clearly, you don’t care much about this relationship, so we’ll continue as before."

Only then did Abyss Xyrin nod satisfactorily: "That’s a normal thinking method, concise and efficient, minimizing the interference of redundant information on one’s judgment. Actually, I still think there’s an issue with the ’father-daughter inheritance’ between us..."

"Miss, could you finish your thoughts all at once? My worldview reconstruction just got interrupted halfway by you!"

"Not an important issue," Abyss Xyrin said carelessly, "You know I went through another split not long ago, the previous generation of Abyss Xyrin split into the New Army Commander and Old Army Commander, but this split was just a mental division without node updates, so I’m not sure if I’ve been completely refreshed, therefore I don’t know if I’m your daughter or granddaughter—if I’m the granddaughter, I should still be my own mother. This logic seems to have a paradox, I can’t find the answer in the world’s classics, so I’ll put it aside for now... Your facial expression is quite strange."

Me: "... Haha, can we talk about something else?" 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

I swear I’ll never discuss ethical issues with this bizarre being, Abyss Xyrin again!

After finishing my work at Shadow City and returning home, it was already four or five in the afternoon. I spent half a day reconstructing my worldview, finally putting back together the somewhat shattered thoughts caused by my conversation with Abyss Xyrin—this matter really put me out of balance; the same topic was discussed, Abyss Xyrin actually had no thoughts about it, but people who discussed issues with her seemed to have been bombed by heavy missiles, with their soul and worldview in a post-disaster reconstruction state. At this moment, I’m a bit jealous of that abnormal thinker.

As usual, I directly teleported to the living room, because at this time everyone had nothing to do, so normally it should be the busiest place in the house, but today for some reason, the living room was empty.

The TV was still on, showing a documentary, and there were some bags of snacks on the coffee table beside, judging from the almost torn packages, they were leftovers from the little doll (that girl is terrible at dealing with plastic bags), obviously, there were people here just now, but where did they all go?

Just as I was thinking about this, I suddenly heard an exclamation from the yard: "Wow! This thing’s shell is so tough!"

I ran to the window and was surprised to find almost the entire family in the yard, even Anwina, who disliked crowds the most, was among them. They were all gathered around a strange object, which was an ellipsoidal thing several meters tall, with a golden-yellow shell, seemingly emitting a faint glow. Everyone was discussing this weird thing, Qianqian was even curious enough to knock on its surface with a small stone; it was her who shouted just now about the hard shell.

"What are you guys studying?" I jumped directly from the window into the yard, casually rubbing Qianqian’s head, then looked up at the several-meter-tall ellipsoid together with everyone, "What is this? Hey—looks quite beautiful."

Getting closer, I realized the surface of this giant egg-like thing had intricate patterns, its shell material was neither metal nor stone, extremely smooth, seemingly covered with a fine glaze, and beneath this smooth "glaze," there were platinum-colored delicate patterns in clear arrangement, resembling runes or borders. Upon closer observation, one could find these intricate patterns were actually moving on their own. The entire "giant egg" was indeed enveloped by a faint golden halo, not only with light but even emitting a power that soothes one’s spirit as you approach—it was definitely no ordinary item!

I reached out cautiously to touch the "giant egg," feeling a faint warmth, which made me even more curious: "Where did you get this from?"

Bingdisi casually patted the giant egg: "Lin just laid it at noon, but unfortunately she doesn’t have a partner, so it won’t hatch anything."

I nodded knowingly: "Oh, Lin laid it... huh?! Ding dang, what did I just hear!?"

"Lin laid the egg," Sandora looked at me strangely, quite puzzled by my shock. It seemed she arrived home earlier than me and had been studying this giant egg (this thing really was an egg!) for a while, "But you certainly should be surprised, given she usually doesn’t lay eggs..."

Me: "... What the hell?! Why do you all look like this is perfectly natural?!"

"Why wouldn’t it be natural?" Bingdisi poked my forehead, "You’ve known us for so long; why are you still so jumpy? Dragons are oviparous; laying eggs is entirely normal."

Big Sister was beside us, covering half her face, with a smile that seemed a bit forced: "Well, at first I was indeed surprised, like Ah Jun’s expression, but then thought about the life habits of oviparous creatures and felt there was nothing to be surprised about. If anything, it’s the size—that’s quite unexpected. No wonder Lin specifically returned to her temple once; looks like she had to transform into Dragon Form to lay it."

I searched amidst the crowd for the protagonist of the incident and ended up with twitching lips; Lin was indeed in the crowd. She was actually researching the egg she laid, bearing a look of pride, admiring the giant egg. Noticing my gaze, she even turned her head to show a pure and silly smile as one could imagine.

Haha, to heck with worldview.

"How do you plan to handle this thing?" I sighed, speaking with a tone of resignation, "It won’t hatch, right?"

"Of course not," Bingdisi slapped Lin’s shoulder twice sharply, making the latter shrink and retract, "I said this foolish girl doesn’t even have a partner now... um, neither do I... but that’s not the point; the point is this egg is actually quite useless—though it is indeed very precious. Normally, female Dragon Gods decide to lay eggs mostly after being paired, and recently more Dragon Gods choose to convert to viviparous, making dragon eggs rarer and rarer. Nobody knows what whim drove Lin today, suddenly deciding to lay an egg, tsk tsk, staying around you too long seems prone to mental problems."

"I feel like I’m the one who’s about to have mental problems!" I almost jumped up, "Do you know how shocking this is to my worldview? I was only out for half a day, and I return home to find out the family’s most docile girl is engaging in egg-laying play! A 1.6-meter-tall girl patting a giant dragon egg several meters high, smilingly claiming she just laid it! Abyss Xyrin already wrecked my worldview once today, coming home has me breaking down a second time—is the world collapsing?"

"The world is quite okay; you just lack sufficient exposure," Bingdisi slapped my chest twice casually, almost echoing through me, "Oh right, did you say Abyss Xyrin broke your worldview? What happened?"

I sighed: "It’s not much; she just acknowledged me as her dad, claiming she’s been my daughter since seventy thousand years ago."

Bingdisi fell onto the giant egg: "What the hell, is the world collapsing?!"

I shot her a glance: "Don’t repeat what I said."

"Not repeating, didn’t I precede with ’what the hell’?" Bingdisi turned her face, "What on earth happened? If you don’t clarify, I reckon Sandora might join forces with others to gobble you up now—look behind yourself if you don’t believe it."

I turned my head to see a series of stunned eyes.

"Actually, here’s how it went..."

Just then, I relayed the set of shocking theories heard earlier that day, emphasizing Abyss Xyrin’s unique way of thinking at the end, so everyone understood Abyss Xyrin claiming dad this time meant absolutely nothing to her—that guy knew this very well several thousand years ago, her emotional mode is simply not bound by common sense.

"Oh, this makes sense," Qianqian’s ability to accept things was indeed the highest among everyone; she nodded, this matter seemed to impact her less than the news of having braised pork for dinner, "Looks like Abyss Xyrin is quite carefree about it."

"Not just carefree, she doesn’t even bother with such matters," I waved my hand, really reluctant to continue the topic, hence diverted everyone’s attention back to the giant egg, "What on earth should we do with it?"

Sandora thought intently, then nodded seriously: "I really wanted to say it could be cooked and eaten..."

As soon as she finished speaking, the Little Crow beside us cried out with a "caw."

Haha, to heck with worldview. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to vote at Qidian (qidian.com) with your recommendation or monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)