The explosion was unimaginable to mortals and most immortals; it was the biggest explosion in the universe ever.
'What? It should not have this reaction!' Rachel thought with astonishment. According to her theory, creation and her system are complementary, so there should be no explosion like this.
'Terrifying!' she thought, looking at the vast sea of energy traveling in all directions. She mixed an insignificant quantity of creation energy and golden energy, and this happened.
Fortunately, she is already rank 14, so even this massive explosion could not harm her; it can, though, kill rank 13s. Rank 13s can use universal laws to defend themselves, but this sea of energy would instantly suppress any universal law it comes into contact with.
Except for some strong rank 13s who have tons of energy reserves, most cannot resist this explosion at all.
It was moving at a speed far faster than light; it broke all universal laws, including laws regarding the universal speed limit.
The speed of light is the maximum speed because, as a massless particle, it always moves at the maximum speed of the universe. But this explosion suppressed universal laws that set the maximum speed of the universe. As a result, without anything that could suppress it, it began moving and spreading at unimaginable speed.
Again, fortunately for people living in this universe, Rachel could see it clearly, no matter how fast it was moving.
Rachel sighed and drew out a lot of gray energy; she sealed the explosion in its track.
'I just saved the universe!' she smiled, ignoring the fact that she had caused the explosion.
At the moment, she is far stronger than any other rank 14 in this universe. She can draw unimaginable quantities of gray energy from her system; if the office can draw a drop of water, she can draw an ocean.
Looking at the office, she took out huge quantities of gray energy and completely sealed it; it was unable to resist it at all.
It was just unsealed and was not at full power, so it couldn't make trouble by escaping to other charges of reality.
This time, she would personally investigate it to understand all of its secrets.
Solving the immediate issues, Rachel decided to go according to her plan. Now, it's time to make close connections with her incarnations in other universes. Whether it's finding out the reason for the explosion or discovering the truth of the creation, she has one way of doing it, and that is making connections with her incarnations and hosts.
Now, she is rank 14, which is the highest rank possible; rank 15 is technically possible, but in reality, it may as well be impossible.
Opening the interuniversal market page, she started using it to connect to other charges of reality. Now, she can directly send her avatars to other charges, but it's best to notify them before sending.
"Hello?" said Rachel from another universe.
"It's me! Remember me? I was asking about the infinite universal law!" said Rachel.
"Yeah, so you did it, right? I feel your gray energy; its volume increased a lot! Congrats!" said Rachel from another universe.
"Thank you! Now, I am thinking about visiting you!" she said.
"Hmm. Nope! I don't accept guests!" said Rachel of another universe.
Rachel was shocked; this was the first time she was rejected by herself. "Why? Aren't we all the same?" asked Rachel.
"Technically, we are, but we are in a kind of competition! Over the years, our relationship has become increasingly competitive! After all, the best way to progress technology is to have competition!" said Rachel from another universe.
"Why?" Rachel was confused; in this universe, her incarnations were entirely trustworthy.
"Look, in the beginning, we were weak, but now, we are the most powerful; most rank 14s are either Rachel's or Rachel's hosts; to inspire competition and innovation, we decided to compete over who can get to rank 15 first. We help out incarnations who are below rank 14 and share information through equal exchange in the universal market, but other than that, we are mostly strangers. Of course, our common goal is reaching rank 15," Rachel from another universe said.
"It seems lonely! Why did we decide to treat ourselves like this? I don't agree at all! We would make progress only if we work closely together," Rachel said.
Shrugging her shoulders, Rachel from another universe said, "You can propose new laws when the next Rachel Legislative session convenes; for now, this is what it is! Good luck!" She cut the call.
Sighing deeply, Rachel felt empty in her heart; it seemed she could not ask for everything from her senior incarnations.
"First, I should learn how to increase my creation energy output; now, my gray energy output is great, but my creation energy output is too small."
"Also, I must find out why the gray energy and creation energy explode together." She can think of many theories already, but without evidence, those are all just theories and nothing else.
"Let's wipe the market out first!" she thought.
The market is one of the three rank 14s besides Rachel. It is the only one still having no contact with Rachel.
Alive is an ally of hers, and she wouldn't attack it. It's not that she is so lawful and would never attack her friends.
In fact, if Alive was any threat, she would have already attacked it.
To be honest, she was pleasantly surprised back then when Alive agreed to help her reach rank 14. Now, she knows why it did agree.
Alive, as a rank 14, knows Rachel's reputation; it has heard it from many interuniversal trading groups. Basically, once a Rachel incarnation appears, sooner or later, the whole universe would fall to Rachel. It may be a billion or countless years later, but it is a guarantee that the world will fall.
For rank 14s, even a slight possibility is enough; most wouldn't risk it.
Normally, the location of a universe is a secret; once discovered by Rachel, it would be wiser for everyone to just surrender.
The office was a force specifically sent to stop Rachel; it is a sort of vaccine against her and the reason so many Rachel incarnations in the past failed to take over this universe long ago.
The market is passive and doesn't care about anything.
As a result, only Alive had the motivation to help Rachel. With its help, Rachel reached this stage; it obviously wouldn't be a threat because if it had any ill intentions, it would not have helped her reach rank 14. It poses no threat and may help; on top of all that, it also helped her reach rank 14, so Rachel, of course, would not attack it; she is not a madwoman.
"Okay! Let's go to market!"
...
The market is located in 8 places in the universe: extreme north, extreme south, extreme west, extreme east, extreme up, extreme down, core area, and the upside down.
How can one entity be at 8 places at the same time? Normally, it's not possible, but Market, as a rank 14, can make the impossible possible.
Rachel would have found it difficult to attack it if she wasn't rank 14, because it has great space concept abilities that can make it completely disappear. Trapping it was nearly impossible, as it already has ways to run to other charges of reality in different universes.
But that was before. Now, Rachel can completely cut off all of its escape routes.
Drawing so much gray energy that it completely filled the entire universe, Rachel willed and completely cut off the universe from the creation.
Now, this universe has become part of her system, albeit temporarily. It is possible to cut apart from the creation, but it wouldn't be this easy; what she is doing now is temporary.
"Now, get crushed!" she smiled. With a single thought, she invaded all 8 of Market's headquarters at once. It wanted to use space-universal laws to hide, but Rachel suppressed all the space-universal laws that it wanted to use.
It is harder than it looks.
Its 'space hiding' formation utilized at least 1000 space universal laws; to completely get rid of it, Rachel was forced to suppress 700 of them. But suppressing that many space universal laws in an area so large can bring down the entire universe!
"Masterful!" Rachel praised. The eight places, extreme north, south, west, east, down, up, core, and the upside-down, were all critical areas; if one suppresses the universal laws in those areas at the same time, the whole universe would lose its space, and Market could easily flee to endless chaos outside. If one doesn't suppress all at the same time, Market could use the remaining one to hide.
The formations were masterful, so even Rachel couldn't break them using her masteries; the only way was using brute force.
If it was her before, there was no way, but now …
She drew out more gray energy and covered the outside of the universe. This way, she could forcefully keep the universe's space intact, temporarily fulfilling the role of the missing universal laws.
With this done, she suppressed all 700 universal laws of the space hiding formation and, using the gray energy outside, prevented the collapse of the space of the universe.
The market tried to change its charge and run to another universe, but this area is now separate from the creation; there is no other charge at all; this is all there is.
With nowhere to run, Market wanted to attack Rachel, but with one move, she made a formation and sealed Market completely.
"Good! Now, both Market and the office are ready for autopsy!" she thought. Technically, they are not dead yet, but she has no problem doing an autopsy on them, even if they are alive.
She wasn't able to steal anything in Market's inventory, as she sealed it all together; she must carefully look through it to not waste anything.
Now, in this charge of reality, Rachel is the supreme being, completely matchless.