Visdre had increased the consumption of his consciousness. Not only was it not tied to his 'brain'. He didn't even have one anymore. His thinking and reaction speed were entirely dependent on the amount of mental energy used to generate his consciousness. Over the last decade, he had slowly increased consumption along with the increase in players.

At this point. There were 600,000 players. But he had reached stasis. Not only did he develop 'God Mind'. But he had developed various features.

Before reading the technique. His IQ was below average. But now, such test were useless at measuring his intellect. This wasn't simply due to it reaching an impossible level. This was thanks to him also almost gaining the skills of every player.

By all rights. He should've been a master of strategy, war, combat. He wisdom should've become otherworldly. But this wasn't the case.

There was a hidden limit. His IQ peaked at 200.

His thinking had surpassed most humans. But he hadn't inherited all the skills of every player. It was almost like having dementia. His skills and abilities were tied to his consumption.

In order to not pull energy from his reserves. He sacrificed his intelligence to perform task. This meant that if he only focused on controlling one soul. His intelligence would be at the peak. But the more he used 'hivemind'. The more his intelligence would drop.

This basically was him using energy as he made it. It was a balancing act.

This meant if he were to teleport. The moment he started to fold space. His thinking would drop from being a genius. To someone with average intelligence for a period of time.

But none of his mental energy in his energy fields would be used.

Visdre spent a few minutes searching through his player's souls. He was disappointed at the conclusion he came to.

"None of the scientist or innovators have made a breakthrough."

Visdre had subconsciously urged some players he considered smart or geniuses to research in the direction of portals and teleportation technology. But there were no leads. The technology wasn't even in the infant stage, even though years had gone by.

"It seems to just be a fantasy..."

Visdre was sitting at his computer, designing a ritual that some might consider evil.

Visdre wasn't as 'slow' as he was in the past. With his thinking speed, he could grasp most skills rather easily. As long as he didn't stretch his intellect too much. He was in fact a genius. So carving and learning rendering skills was as easily as copying memories from a player.

"When that foreign version invaded this reality through my avatar. He said that contracts aren't a one sided transaction. If something is able to find this universe. Shouldn't I also be able to invade another universe?"

Visdre designed a prototype for opening a connection with another universe. He then went to his lab to explore the feasibility of such a thing.

He didn't use his mental energy server. He had become quite skilled at manipulating the excess. So his IQ started to decrease as he held out both hands.

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His thinking became dull and slow.

At the same time, he was performing various calculations. Trying to do what he had done in the past to enter another universe.

It seemed he opened a gateway that was smaller then a grain of sand.

His intelligence started to rise again as he thought about his prototype.

"I'm going to need something thousands of times more powerful."

Visdre then had an idea.

"The technique did mention using the potential of souls after death for an explosion of energy."

"What if I performed the ritual, using the energy from the detonation of thousands of souls?"

Visdre didn't plan to use his players for this. That would be like draining the sea for the fish.

Visdre made some arrangements.

A few weeks later...

At a stadium. It was during a break in the game.

"Now a word from our sponsor! Somnus!"

Visdre wasn't here in person. He was meditating in his mansion as he remotely controlled his avatar. The ritual he planned on performing was rather dangerous. His independent consciousness hadn't yet left this universe. He didn't want to take any huge risk.

Somnus walked to the center of the stadium. The speaker tried to hand him the microphone. But he waved his hands and said it was okay.

He didn't have a mouth. This was basically a puppet after all.

He looked at everyone in their seats.

Despite not using a microphone. Everyone heard him as if he was speaking directly in their minds.

"There are about 50,000 of you. That should be enough."

Soon... everyone felt a chill run down their spines. Some felt danger and tried to stand up. But fog shot out from the body of Somnus.

From the perspective of each spectator. The stadium had become empty. They were the only ones here. As they tried to leave. The fog had them going in loops. In reality, they never left their seats. The intelligence in their eyes had disappeared.

"Repeat after me..."

"Esteemed Somnus. Master and Dreamer of Worlds. I present a soul towards your calculation..."

Soon. Everyone mumbled these words.

Somnus didn't even use beacons to control these people. He simply overpowered their wills and took advantage of their weakness.

He directly felt a connection between every soul. This was different from player souls. He didn't plan at all to use these souls for energy. Well, he planned to use their potential all at once. This was basically taking a lump sum payment instead of getting paid over time.

With the wave of his hands. Everyone stood up. They started to hold hands.

Somnus didn't even use much mental energy here. He used an extremely small amount to ignite these people like a fuse. Normal people have imaginations and never manually handle mental energy. Their bodies couldn't withstand this surge of energy.

Everyone blew up!

But the bloody explosion looked as if it was frozen in time. It formed a bloody tornado as it rotated around Somnus.

Blood wasn't the only thing rotating around Somnus. Their very souls themselves had joined in on the fun.

One by one. Every soul blew up.

Somnus struggled to contain it all.

"Entangled energy!"

It was only for a few milliseconds. But he had seen the legendary energy state. He immediately started to finish this ritual.

Just like how this universe could be invaded. He used the etching of his soul to open up a gateway to another world. But things didn't go as planned.

Instead of a gateway. A blackhole formed.

Somnus flew towards this blackhole and seemed to freeze at the event horizon. But in reality he had reached the center.

He was stuck in the center completely. His mental energy refused to listen to him. His consciousness was getting unraveled.

He then felt some of his mental energy draining. This was due to the time ratio. A year in this 'blackhole' was only a millisecond in reality.

Thanks to how his consciousness worked. It couldn't keep up with the consumption increase.

Visdre felt a headache as he experienced years of nothingness in milliseconds. But he had a plan he developed rapidly.

"I'll dumb myself down!"

The 'lower' the IQ and imagination. The less mental energy needed to maintain consciousness. Visdre lowered the requirements of his consciousness to the bare minimum.

Thousands of years went by as the ritual ended.

But only a few seconds had passed for Visdre and the formation of the blackhole. It then fizzled out of existence.

His avatar was no longer in this universe.

He felt a new connection.

A whole new world!