The World Gate was located at a far-flung corner of the galaxy, away from any planetary bodies. Silently, it operated in the deepest, darkest corner of the void. There were no gravitational wells within the vicinity for guidance. As such, for many civilisations, reaching the World Gate from their home planet with their own, home-grown technology was a very difficult task. In fact, the use of their own spacefaring technology to reach the World Gate itself was a required test, to proof that their civilisation was ready for the space age and its challenges.
Of course, for those who had already been given a special permit, this restriction did not apply.
As the darkness of the void faded away into the shimmering sea of stars, all onboard the ship were enamoured by the great structure that appeared before them on the screen. It was such a monumental space structure that Hao Ren had no idea how big it actually was. It was formed by countless of silver, curved parts. A bright gleam shone from both the metallic and crystalline components along the structure. The gate had two rings in the middle of its structure, one bigger than the other. The rings were connected by a bright, blue light, as though the gate was within the eye of an endless lightning storm. Outside the rings were many massive towers, docks and a whole lot of structures, which could not be properly classified. All of them were much larger than Kuiper Station itself, but next to the World Gate, they were so insignificant. The double rings had a hollow blue light in the middle, and without question, the Petrachelys was about to go through the rings.
The gigantic structure covered almost half of the screen's display, while in truth the ship was still some distance away. If a human shuttle covered the distance with our current level of technology, humans would probably need at least half a week's worth of rations.
Hao Ren let the MDT control the deceleration of the ship and took the chance to get a better view of the awe-inspiring structure. He had, by then, noticed something behind the World Gate. There were spherical bodies, almost planet-like not too far away from the World Gate. From that angle, it looked like they were part of the World Gate itself. The "planets" looked rather odd from the get go. They were not ridden with craters like most barren planets, and they did not have a smooth outer look of a gaseous planet, or the usual vibrant look of a habitable planet. They were covered by a layer of faint blue light, and beneath the light was a very organised, colour-coded area of land. Such uniformed colouration was obviously not natural. In the end, Hao Ren could not contain his curiosity. "What are those three things?"
The MDT responded through the bridge's broadcast system, "Oh, those are K1, K2 and K3. Imperial mass produced star fortresses. They function as hubs of sovereignity. They are administrative installations of this universe. K1 is designed to control the fundamental constants of this world, such as light speeds, Planck's constants, basic force values and the likes. K2 is in charge of mathematical calibrations, and controlling all the variables in this world, like one plus one equals two. Take it as a regulator of sorts. By human standards... they are probably what you call the server for your space program.
The K3 is your redundancy mainframe, and the go to if anything catastrophic happens. If K1 and K2 are both down only then will K3 be activated. Or, if this universe went nuclear and it was on the verge of total annihilation, the K3 can pull out a mirror image to restore it. But frankly, don't place too much hope on K3's restorative function. It is a newly launched calculus, and while perfect theoretically, I've heard that this new toy would actually remove some of the mod's data. Yes, the complicated rules governing this universe are written using mods. If it was activated, many civilisations would be thrown all the way back to the Feudal Age. Also, your world has The Plane of Dreams. Weirdly enough, the Sovereign Hub's abilities don't seem to affect The Plane of Dreams..."
"..."
"Why are you silent?"
"...F*ck my life..." It was all Hao Ren could muster.
"That's why I find it so difficult to communicate with you. You overreact to everything." The MDT released an almost human-like sigh. "Did you think I was playing when I said, 'gods were running the world'? This is a serious undertaking alright. The gods and goddesses are not bums, lazing about in their temples waiting for tributes. They also need to run about doing their work. This three here are under Madam Raven's purview. Of course, most of the time, these gizmos do not need anyone operating them. It is Heaven's Will after all. Oh, Heaven's Will is just a fancy name for the automated system, it's fully automated all year long..."
Hao Ren collapsed helplessly on the control terminal as the information he just heard overwhelmed him. "Stop, I can't even look at anything properly anymore..."
Y'zaks may seem like a demon from another world, but he digested the information without much problem. "So... by the gist of things, mortals are pretty much data living within a computer, and the gods are the administrators..."
"If you were to look at the flow of authority, it is almos similar. The only difference is that mortals here can simply jump out of the computer. The World Gate in front of you is simply a way for you to travel out of the CPU. Although it will only allow you to jump from one universe to another, much like the transfer of data between two hard disks, itself is a control center that contains all the arcane knowledge to regulate and bind worlds. If a mortal race manage to create their own World Gate, it means they have mastered all of the truth of the universe, and they will be able to escape the rules binding their worlds and control it directly. At that time, they would also be able to perform self-interpretation and self-maintenance, and their immortality would not need to be bound to anything. That said, they still need to abide by Void Travel Safety Laws and Civilisation Progress Regulations."
"Can mortals reach such lofty heights?" Y'zaks was genuinely curious.
"Of course." The MDT was very sure in its answer. "When a race transcends their mind, and know that the limitless knowledge and wisdom are true power, and to use said knowledge to decipher the truth of the universe, they will be on the path of transcendence. And when their kin have let go the hubris of mortals, and become the true beacon of knowledge, they are basically gods. Of course, not many had managed to pull this off, and only one had managed to go the distance."
The MDT stopped for a moment before concluding his explaination. "There are many pitfalls in this path, be it natural disasters, man-made disasters, victims of one's own success. A treacherous road indeed. The Imperial Records have chronicled many a race that went astray. In fact, the most talented ones were the easiest to go astray, they fell into the pithole of 'power for the sake of power' and became very belligerent, and foolish in the process, and was destroyed by other more intelligent races when they overstepped their boundries."
Vivian sighed. "The retards back on Earth are the same last time, they were all too busy finding out who was the alpha of the pack, and look now, no different than animals. They can't even fight with humans now."
Lily scratched her head absently as she looked at Vivian and Y'zaks. "You two understood what it said?"
"Lets get back to work." Hao Ren laughed drily.
The World Gate had already received the Petrachelys' navigation application and started guiding the ship towards the closest transportation zone. The faint encompassing blue light were getting larger and larger on the screen, and almost covered the entirety of the screen. Hao Ren only then noticed he was not alone that was using the World Gate. There were many other ships from various civilisations with different shapes and designs going in and out through the faint blue light. As the gate itself was such a massive structure, spaceships of the flight path were almost like ants, and would not be noticed from a distance. It was said that this World Gate could transport a planet, and it does seem possible. Hao Ren popped a curious question as something crossed his mind. "There are so many ships going in and out of the gate, and theya are all going to different universes?"
"Yes, this is also a very recent technology. It was implemented after the easing the Macro World transdimensional travel restriction and to cope with the upsurge of travel volume. The World Gate can provide each and every user a special 'navigational frequency' and when you cross the gate, you are pretty much compiled into a set of data with it's own frequency and shot towards the target galaxy. The Gate was previously simply known as a 'Transportation Installation' to a 'Frequency Modulation and Transportation Installation", but the name has yet to be officially changed. Oh, you can also turn on the public channel. The World Gate is usually a very lively place, and many of these ships are civilian corporations which rents the usage of the Imperial Gate. Have a look and how a civilian-life is like."
Hao Ren's curiosity was piqued and he turned on the public channel.
"KRATOS! KRATOS! HEADING FOR KRATOS! 300 PER PAX! 300 PER PAX! STILL HAVE SPACE FOR TWO! LEAVING IMMEDIATELY ONCE BOARDED!"
"EAST EDEN! EAST EDEN RELAY STATION! PLEASE COME TO STATION A3 PLATFORM 7. EAST EDEN! EAST EDEN!STATION A3 PLATFORM 7!"
"HELSENWOOD-BOUND LONG DISTANCE TRAVEL! LEAVING IN TEN! HELSENWOOD-BOUND LONG DISTANCE TRAVEL! LEAVING IN 10! HAVE SPACE FOR ONE!"
"LOCAL CHATTAR TRANSIT! LEAVING IMMEDIATELY UPON BOARDING! HAVE PLUS-SIZED SEATS!"
"CALLING SUPPORT TEAM, CALLING SUPPORT TEAM! AN ACCIDENT IN AREA B27! A FAIRY CORPORATION MERCHANT VESSEL HAD COLLIDED WITH A SLYPHIC CARGOSHIP..."
Hao Ren quietly turned off the broadcast, and overwhelmed by the deluge of communication that came from the Macro World's civilian population. Heck, overwhelming doesn't even begin to describe things."
"It's pretty much the same throughout all Imperial World Gates." The MDT chuckled. By then, the ship had already approached the blue light projection. Almost as if taking a deep breath. "YAHOO----- ALL PASSENGERS HOLD ON TIGHT! I... no, THIS SHIP IS GOING FULL SPEED AHEAD!"
An awkward sensation swept threough the bridge, and by the time Hao Ren had recovered his senses, they were in foreign space.