Wait a minute, Pushpa is in my arms, cuddling against my chest, but I remember that she had been with me when I went out in the morning. I tried to recall more and remembered that Pushpa was with me until we reached the Lu family house and kidnapped Lu Zhang. After that, I can't remember Pushpa at all, as if someone wiped her out of existence. I asked the system about it, but it replied, "Host, Pushpa is with you all this time." I don't recall it. I asked my disciples, but they gave the same answer. Hearing this sent a chill through me. Somehow, they all have a false memory of Pushpa being with them, while I remember her absence. But the question is, where was Pushpa all this time?
In an otherworldly spacecraft flying through outer space, a group of people has coordinates for a strange world. This world is odd but familiar to them. They have orders from their superiors to scout this world before another fleet of ships arrives. The captain of this ship is called Igans CP-78. He belongs to an alien species resembling a man made of vines. Right now, he is looking at his control panel, which shows the coordinates of their destination.
Sitting in his control chair, he asked, "Navigation officer, what is the status of our journey?" Another strange alien, who looked like a mix of fish and ox, replied, "Yes, Captain. Soon we will reach our scouting location. It's a small world called Blue Star. But Captain, we found some anomalies during our investigation of this world."
Hearing this, the captain asked, "What kind of anomalies did you find? Is it related to an eldritch entity?"
The navigation officer replied, "No, Captain. These anomalies relate to the history of that world. As for more details, the Vice Captain is preparing a report and will brief you on it." Just then, another person entered the control room. This person looked like a giant octopus made of various machines. He approached the captain and saluted while the navigation officer also saluted him. Without wasting any time, he began the briefing with an image of the Blue Star projected in front of them. He said, "Captain, the world we are going to scout is supposed to be desolate."
The captain asked, "If that world is desolate, how does it still have so many life forms?" He knew that a desolate world means it suffered a catastrophe and now has either no life or very few living beings.
The Vice Captain explained, "That's the strange part. According to our database, that world collided with another world about a thousand years ago, but it survived."
The captain asked, "So you mean this world is alive? That's why it survived the catastrophe."
The Vice Captain replied, "Yes. From our analysis, we think this world has awakened its primary intelligence, but it's in a very basic stage, like a child. However, that's not what we should focus on. Since the collision a thousand years ago, this world has continued to collide with others, both small and medium, effectively pulling them in and assimilating them. It resembles the artificial worlds created by Galactic empires using star cores."
The captain said, "Okay, I will message the mothership with this information, and we will wait for their response." He sent this message to their higher-ups. Soon, he received a reply saying to ignore everything that wasn't related to their mission and to focus solely on scouting. After reading that encrypted message, he ordered his Vice Captain to stop gathering information about this world. He knew that unnecessary information could lead to their downfall. That's how the department of Watchers operates; they are an intergalactic organization that maintains peace between different worlds and planes.
Now back on track, he asked his navigation officer about the status, but when he looked around, he didn't see the navigation officer. He tried calling out but realized he didn't know the officer's unique name. Then, he asked his Vice Captain, "Where is the navigation officer?"
The Vice Captain responded, "Sir, I don't know what you mean. What is a navigation officer?" His Vice Captain seemed unaware of the navigation officer's existence. At that moment, the captain felt something was wrong. Drawing on his years of experience, he declared an emergency on the ship. Hearing the sirens, every crew member hurried to the starboard. When he saw his crew, he finally noticed the problem: only two of them were present, himself and the Vice Captain. He couldn't even remember the total number of crew members who should be aboard, but he knew there were supposed to be more than just two.
Panic coursed through him. In his entire life, he hadn't experienced anything like this. It felt like someone had manipulated their memories. Even if their memories were altered, he thought, there should still be relevant information about his crew in the ship's system. But nothing worked; it was as if someone had erased their very existence. He quickly approached his Vice Captain and said, "We need to reach the rescue pods immediately. We have to get off this ship."
With options running low, he made the best choice. Leaving the ship in a rescue pod would give them a chance to escape and alert their superiors about their situation. He made his way to the rescue pods, each capable of holding up to four life forms. These pods had a space jump system, so when launched, they would be light-years away from the ship. After successfully launching into deep space, he breathed a sigh of relief. But the relief faded quickly as he saw his Vice Captain start to fade away. His Vice Captain slowly disappeared as if someone was erasing him from reality. While vanishing, his Vice Captain had a wild look in his eyes and said,
"Praise the cat, the embodiment of uncertainty,
The true provider of immortality.
Captain, close yourself in this box, and you will be immortal."
Saying this, he vanished. Now the captain gazed at the empty space outside. Inside the rescue pod, he was alone and afraid, with only a cat for company. He noticed a black cat before him. He didn't know this species was called a cat, but there was a voice in his mind telling him this was a cat. He looked into its deep green eyes and realized the truth. All his fear vanished, and a smile spread across his face. He felt frantic joy as he shouted, "Finally, I found it! I found the thing that those ancient beings of the universe desire! I have discovered the way to immortality!"
As he reflected on his life, he remembered being born on a small planet and joining the Watchers Association, gaining strength through various power systems. He knew there was a limit to how strong he could become, but he wanted more. Like every living being, he feared death and desired immortality. Now, he realized that before him stood the great existence that could grant him that immortality.
He bowed his head and accepted the gift of immortality. He understood the truth: as long as he remained in this box of uncertainty, away from any observer, he could be immortal. He would be both alive and dead as long as no one opened the box. Soon, like his other companions, he vanished, becoming immortal. In the entire universe, their existence was erased. Even if someone tried to remember them, they wouldn't be able to. As for this world, they never existed. Now, as he became immortal in a bizarre way, the entity that caused all this—the black cat—vanished as well. It appeared in the world those beings had marked as their destination, nestling against the chest of a certain snake, oblivious to the horror the cat had created in outer space.