Who Planted the World Tree Inside Me?

“There’s a tree growing inside my head.”

“A tree?”

“Yes. It’s been there since the day I was born. To help it take root and sprout, I spend eight hours in the sun every day and drink at least ten glasses of water. You know, biology textbooks say that’s called photosynthesis.”

“So that seed… what’s happened to it now?”

“It sprouted and grew little branches. Each branch has a world hanging from it!”

“Worlds?”

“Yes. These worlds are all different. There’s a cyberpunk world of technology, an elemental world of wind, fire, thunder, and lightning, and a savage world teeming with strange beasts… But they all have one thing in common.”

“The people in those worlds all call me… a god!”

The head psychiatrist listened, then nodded solemnly.

He wrote on the medical record:

[Patient: Shen Ming]

[Preliminary diagnosis: severe obsessive fantasy disorder]

Until one day…

A vast star fleet blotted out the sky, elves wreathed in flames boiled the seas, and towering beasts trampled mountains beneath their feet… The whole Earth descended into chaos, and nearly ten billion people faced an unprecedented crisis.

Then, at that very moment, a voice called out:

“God, are you there?”