"Uh, are you trying to threaten me?" William Clark felt some contempt for this tactic of switching from persuasion to intimidation. "And besides, this has nothing to do with you, does it?"

"I'm just telling you the facts." Henry King looked at him calmly. "I've seen other activated spacetime nodes, but I've only ever seen one that fused with a living being. Theoretically, you will have a lifespan equal to that of the spacetime node, and then, through contact with the endless worlds, as long as you wish, such a long time is enough for you to reach a height infinitely close to the general concept of a deity. So in fact, your lifespan may very well exceed that of this universe."

"This is not just your responsibility, but also your opportunity." Henry King withdrew his gaze. "I've tried countless times to reach for this opportunity, but never managed to grasp it."

"..." William Clark fell silent. All of this sounded far too exaggerated.

He started imagining all sorts of scenarios in his mind: if this old man was telling the truth, would he try to target him? Since he didn't get an "awakened" spacetime node himself, was he planning to take his? If that was the case, then maybe... he should just give it to him.

"Then why don't I just give this thing to you? Do you know how to transfer it?"

"..." Henry King was speechless.

William Clark finally understood—this thing couldn't be transferred. That made him breathe a sigh of relief, at least lowering the possibility that this old mage would try to kill him for profit.

After that, the old mage began explaining things about spacetime nodes to William Clark, but most of it was theoretical knowledge—his previous research results, without any practical support.

It seemed the old mage was quite impressive, and his patched-up robe was probably his tool for showing off, but for many things, he admitted he would only know after further research. If William Clark was willing to cooperate with his research, he would share the results with William Clark.

According to the old mage, he had come here but couldn't leave on his own. Because the spacetime node had fused with William Clark, it was now conscious, which was beyond his expectations. Now, he needed the consciousness of William Clark's spacetime node to learn how to operate the node before he could be sent back. But he wasn't in a hurry to leave; his purpose in coming here was to continue researching spacetime nodes and to seek more wisdom. Now, things were even better—at least the spacetime node could actively cooperate with him.

And so, William Clark became the old mage's research subject.

The old mage hadn't actually crossed worlds by magic, but rather by relying on a scroll made of some strange material. That scroll was now floating above William Clark's head, illuminated by a ghostly blue light, making it very conspicuous. It was just that William Clark hadn't looked up before, so he hadn't noticed it.

But after entering this space, the old mage seemed to have temporarily lost the scroll. He demonstrated this to William Clark on the spot—he floated up and reached out to grab the scroll, but it suddenly disappeared and reappeared on the other side. Yet when William Clark reached out, he could easily grasp the scroll.

The old mage used the term "game rules" to describe this phenomenon, since he couldn't figure out the principle for now.

The two of them researched for two hours, but still couldn't figure out how William Clark was supposed to operate the spacetime node. However, the old mage managed to overturn William Clark's ingrained perceptions with just a few words.

For example, this space actually didn't have a ground at all. It was only because William Clark was used to standing on the ground that the space fabricated a ground based on his perception. When the old mage got him to believe this fact, the "ground" suddenly vanished, and he started to fall, taking quite a bit of effort to stand upright again. In fact, for him, this space didn't need to have any "spatial" constraints at all. If he wanted, he could appear anywhere.

It was only then that William Clark realized he had truly become one with this space. And he gradually came to understand that this might be an unchangeable fact.

After a while, when he was done playing around, he checked the time on his phone and said to the old mage, "It's been a while and I'm tired. Let's go outside and talk."

The time on his phone showed it was already evening. If the flow of time in this space wasn't different from the outside world, in a little while, Emily Clark would be calling him to report the results.

As it turned out, the flow of time in the two spaces was indeed different—when he walked out of the space, his phone showed 9:36 PM. After returning to Earth and connecting to the internet, the phone time immediately synced to 9:39 PM.

Either way, it was only a slight difference.

Stepping out the door, the old mage squinted back at the door and said, "It seems the spacetime node and this place have completed a very interesting fusion."

William Clark didn't respond, but walked downstairs. "Master Mage, come down and have a glass of water."

The old mage followed him down the stairs.

He reached out to stroke the metal handrail, felt the softness of the carpet with his foot, then glanced at the rooms on the second floor, deep in thought, a strange light flickering in his eyes.

Everything seemed to be laid bare before his gaze.

When he sat on the small sofa on the first floor, drinking warm water from a paper cup, he continued to observe everything within his sight.

The streetlights and food stalls outside, the dark city, the occasional noisy car passing by, the internet café facing the door, the computer at the counter, the chandelier overhead, the water dispenser...

His wisdom was beyond anything William Clark could imagine.