# Chapter 13: The Jinx and the Trouble Magnet
It all started a few days ago, when a certain legendary warrior's newly accepted disciple began yet another otherworldly exploration.
On the noon of May 3rd, Year 839 of the Falling Stars Era, Priest and his squad, brimming with heroic ambition, entered the space-time passage and arrived aboard the void airship *Gransafe*. They were preparing to embark on the otherworldly exploration they had long grown accustomed to.
But what none of them expected was that the exploration target assigned by the Imperial Foreign Exploration Department this time was different from the worlds they usually visited.
"You mean to say, this time we're not exploring 'worlds potentially suitable for life,' but rather 'the world at the very edge of the World Star River'?"
The squad's spellcaster—a professional mage who favored staves and scrolls over women—asked with some confusion: "In other words, our goal this time isn't to find colonies, but to find the 'boundary of the World Star River,' right?"
"Precisely."
From the light screen floating before them came a gentle, magnetic female voice—that of the *Gransafe*'s captain, an Ultimate-rank mage named Kita Fantastik. She patiently answered the squad's questions: "Though you're slightly mistaken. We're not searching for the 'boundary of the World Star River.' Rather, at the 'boundary of the World Star River,' we've detected some suspicious traces of abnormality. In that area, the trajectories of certain worlds deviate from our calculations, proving that star domain was definitely interfered with by some external force."
"The interference occurred long ago. The Exploration Department estimates the threat level isn't very high, so they planned to let you young people go check the situation—it can also serve as a test for you."
Saying this, Captain Kita seemed to flip through a plan document. She paused thoughtfully, then continued: "After so many explorations, the entire Elite Squad—Captain Priest, Knight Clark, Cleric Sade, Spellcaster Wayne, and Alchemist Constantine—have all reached the Gold realm. Even if not yet perfected, you've already crossed that threshold. Ordinary exploration missions are somewhat wasteful of your squad's capabilities, so the Exploration Department specifically prepared this new mission for you. But if you're unwilling, you can refuse."
None of those present would actually refuse—when officials say, "If you're unwilling, you can refuse," it usually means, "If you refuse, there'll definitely be consequences." While the Imperial Foreign Exploration Department wasn't prone to the bureaucratic retaliation common elsewhere, directly reducing their treatment was still a normal occurrence.
After all, the entire Empire had poured resources into training their squad, precisely so they could grow quickly and explore the myriad mysteries of the multiverse. If they refused missions just for safety, what meaning would their existence have? That would also contradict the original intentions of everyone who joined the exploration team.
"Enough talk. Just send the plan directly."
As the captain, Priest made the final decision, accepting the exploration mission directly from the captain. He scanned the task list in his psychic terminal, then nodded: "Investigate the situation of the 'world with disrupted trajectory,' try to find the cause of the trajectory change, and observe how far it is from this World Star River to other World Star Rivers. Not a very difficult mission."
"The main challenge is the local world's environment."
Compared to riding horses, Knight Clark (hereafter referred to as Knight) preferred speeding in vehicles. He curled his lips, seemingly recalling how he was directly whipped to death by the Black Mist in World One. His mouth twisted downward: "Who knows if some legendary monster or world-destroying Demon Lord will pop up again and slap us all to death."
"Just shut up."
The Cleric, who had also been killed once, kicked the Knight. He said irritably: "Last time in that primitive ocean world, you kept spouting depressing crap like, 'What if there's some giant sea monster in this world that swallows us all in one bite when we're not paying attention?'—and then a super-giant squid monster really did emerge from the deep seabed and almost swallowed us!"
"No kidding. Clark's jinx is absolutely incredible." The Alchemist nodded in deep agreement: "If the fishing boat we were on hadn't been big enough to knock that giant squid unconscious by ramming it, we'd probably have taken a trip through its stomach and had to outwit parasites."
"And that other time, this guy..."
The topic devolved into listing the Knight's jinxed misdeeds. Priest naturally didn't join this childish argument. He directly nodded to the light screen: "So when do we depart?"
"Very soon. This time, in addition to standard equipment, you can each carry a new device designed by Master Nostradamus."
Captain Kita's voice remained steady. As she spoke, a space-time fluctuation appeared inside the *Gransafe*'s cabin. In an instant, five pale green rune stone spheres materialized before each member of the exploration squad: "This is a space-time magic item called a 'Return Beacon.' Because of its appearance, it also has a more common nickname—'Home Stone.' As the name implies, if the situation goes wrong, activate it with your power, and you'll be rapidly teleported toward the coordinates of the 'Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground'—in other words, you can return directly to the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground."
"This magic item is extremely precious, personally crafted by Master Nostradamus. It's a Legendary-rank item. Unless absolutely necessary, do not use it. The Foreign Exploration Department won't replenish such life-saving items for you every time."
Saying this, Captain Kita's tone became somewhat meaningful: "After all, your value might not even be as high as this item's."
Such words were somewhat hurtful, but none of the five present minded this small blow. The Spellcaster picked up the Return Beacon, examined it for a moment, then praised: "This is why I love the exploration team—whenever there's a new experimental creation, we're always the first to get our hands on it."
Indeed, as he said, throughout the entire Mycroft World, exploration squads were perhaps the group that came into contact with the most new creations of legendary experts. Whether it was the Soul Abyss Orbs and Restorative Pillars made by Joshua, the Return Beacons crafted by Nostradamus, the 'Small Universal Portable Ecosystem' supervised by the Nature Mentor, or the 'One-time Saint's Protection Scroll' personally made by Pope Israel—these precious items, whose value couldn't even be described by 'priceless,' were supplied to them in bulk.
In the exploration before last, the Elite Squad of five had encountered a beast tide of primitive magical beasts from another world. If not for the Alchemist's curiosity leading him to exchange for the 'Hypnosis Glasses' made by the Psychic Overlord William from the Exchange System—hypnotizing tens of thousands of beasts into slaughtering each other—they might have died in that other world again.
New items in hand, equipment and weapons all prepared, the new exploration was about to begin.
Priest surveyed his squad—the jinxed, speed-loving Knight; the staff-obsessed mage with a twisted personality and even more twisted sexual orientation; the demonic path Alchemist who loved self-modification and had no original organs left in his body; and the pathological Cleric who preferred burning people with Holy Light over saving them with it.
—But also the Knight who charged forward in danger without hesitation, using his body to shield his companions from attacks. The Spellcaster who could calmly assess situations even in desperate straits, using various spells and items to turn the tide. The elite Alchemist with exquisite skill, able to use various potions to strengthen allies and weaken enemies. And the excellent Cleric who was absolutely reliable in crisis, always able to cast the right divine spells, even temporarily stabilizing fatal wounds.
This was his squad.
A teleportation portal unfolded before them. Fully armed and armored, the five said no unnecessary words. As Captain Priest took the first step, everyone followed closely behind.
Then, under the power of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground, the quadrants of space-time were twisted. The 'distance' that ordinary people couldn't cross in a lifetime was reduced to a simple number in an instant. Countless data shifted within rapidly changing baseline coordinate systems, finally coalescing into a hazy light mass that enveloped the exploration squad.
And in the next instant, they vanished, teleported to the distant end of the World Star River.
—That was how it should have been.
"Space-time distortion detected—large mass space-time distortion phenomenon rapidly approaching!"
"Super-grade space-time anomaly point detected! Teleportation aborted—abortion failed! Emergency teleport coordinates shifting... shift successful! Original coordinates 'Arm's End' replaced with 'Unnamed World No. 71487854'!"
"Teleportation reorientation in progress, teleportation reorientation in progress, teleportation reorientation... gzzzzzz..."
Just as the teleportation began its third second, with the Elite Squad already unfolding space-time displacement, the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground's Ruling Will avatar suddenly began emergency error reporting. Harsh crisis warnings mixed with deep red light illuminated the faces of all teleportation personnel, turning them pale.
"What's going on?!" The Cleric, who had assumed this teleportation would end in an instant like all previous ones, gasped: "By the Seven Gods, did we just hit the one-in-thirty-two-trillion chance of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground making an error?!"
"Damn it! It's all Clark's jinx!" "I told you, we should have cast Silence on him before departure!"
For a moment, the entire teleporting squad fell into chaos, but Priest immediately stopped the petty argument: "Everyone stop—it's just one error. The Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground's Ruling Will and the Foreign Exploration Department will notice this error immediately! We just need to wait patiently!"
Though he said this, Priest himself wasn't very confident. He was just stabilizing the situation first, lest panic cause more mistakes and complicate things further.
In reality, the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground's Ruling Will couldn't possibly know about this error—because they were still 'in the process of teleportation.' Just like the psychic one-dimensional space created by Joshua's jump engine, they were now independent outside the normal multiverse. Even the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground itself could only react to the error after the teleportation ended.
Now, they could only drift along with the increasingly violent space-time turbulence toward completely unknown directions.
And during the long, yet not so long, twisted space-time turbulence, the scene that had occurred earlier unfolded.
"Ahhh! The teleportation landing point changed again?! Where exactly are we going to land?!"
As Priest's on-the-verge-of-collapse voice rang out, the teleportation rainbow light, which had seemed about to scatter, suddenly stabilized temporarily—a suction force from an unknown source seemed to be attracting the rainbow light, which had lost its teleportation coordinates, toward the coordinates where it was located.
If the squad's mage had still been clear-headed, he would have noticed that this suction force was very similar to the 'space-time anchor points' used in Mycroft World's teleportation portals to guide the establishment of space-time passages. There were only slight differences in construction details. But after who knows how long of turbulence torment, even a true Ultimate-rank mage would be dizzy and disoriented, let alone a mage who had just entered Gold-rank and gained the human rights of a Transcendent Being?
So, in a daze, the entire Elite Squad abruptly ended their teleportation and landed in an absolutely unknown area.
"...Where... is this?"
After a long while, Priest—who had undergone the most special training from Joshua, had the best anomaly resistance, and the strongest physique in the squad—struggled to recover from the 'space-time teleportation sickness' symptoms. He painfully raised his head and blankly looked around.
But what he saw was not the desolate world plain at the world's edge that had been the original teleportation destination, but a brightly lit, towering metal platform inscribed with various intricate runes.
"Kokosingel, naronada, genberst, kemorak kokonagran." (Great Khan, it's them. The teleportation failed, forming the abnormal space-time signal we detected.)
A strange voice came from an unwilling direction. Priest heard this voice and immediately turned his head toward it.
And so, he saw a group of peculiar, twisted, extremely bizarre creatures standing before the metal platform, looking down at them from above.
*Thump! Bang!*
Priest had just raised his head, not yet having time to carefully examine the situation before him, when suddenly a great force descended from above, heavily pressing down on his head, grinding his head and helmet against the extremely hard metal floor. Then, another rapid and sharp strange voice followed.
"Xindo! Corist nagdo lokokosingel?!" (How dare you! Who allowed you to look upon the Great Khan's face?!)
The heavy impact left Priest dazed. The force was immense, carrying extremely condensed supernatural power, enough to knock down Priest—a Gold-rank warrior wearing full-body metal armor—in a single blow.
Of course, he couldn't understand these words. Then, one after another, strange and sharp voices sounded ahead, but by this time Priest couldn't hear anything—having just experienced a long period of space-time teleportation disorder and been struck hard on the head, he was now in a state of severe concussion.
After who knows how long, when the groggy Priest regained some clarity again, he perceived that an abnormal consciousness was delving deep into his spiritual sea, seemingly trying to pry into secrets. But unfortunately, this consciousness seemed very unfamiliar with the human spiritual domain, so every exploration it made was unsuccessful.
However, this consciousness quickly discovered that Priest's spirit had become clear, so it roughly approached, forcibly establishing a connection between them.
Then, Priest heard a low, cold voice, thick with oppressive pressure.
"You metal cans... how exactly did you find our fleet's trajectory and track into this 'Lost Star River'?"