[I offset 0.0000001N.]
[Someone offset an infinite amount of Chronos feedback for me.]
The receiver fell onto the desk.
Moriel froze for two seconds, then clutched his head in discomfort. He lifted his head with effort and looked at the receiver, but no sound came from it.
On the other side of the desk, the beautiful eyes behind black-rimmed glasses stared blankly at the Nightmare Phone on the table.
–What have you done?!–
She screamed as she stood up in panic, grabbing the Nightmare Phone cradled in her arms.
–Baby, the best and sweetest baby in the whole world, don’t scare Mama. Are… are you okay?–
On the silent phone, a faint glow appeared on the star key. Then the light shifted to the pound key—it was still alive.
The eye inside the dial opened slowly several times before widening completely.
{I restarted and feel much better.}
The eye swayed left and right, then rolled upward to gaze at the double chin coming into view.
{Excellent! I saw… a distant future. It’s far more than just three years!}
Hearing this, the woman slumped back like she had lost all strength, tilted her head, and let out a sigh of relief before plopping herself into the soft leather chair, phone still in her arms.
–Scared me to death. Thank goodness, thank goodness indeed. Good baby, good baby.–
–I’m… very happy… I understand, we have to move forward… to go there… our future, I’ve finally anchored a future we can head towards!–
The telephone blurted out its thoughts in the room with sudden alarm, and the lady had to soothe it for a long while before it calmed down.
–Good thing you didn’t mess up my precious one.– Lady Malh eyed Morris, –I hope I never cross paths with you again, you jinx.–
Morris felt as if his head was about to split in those last few seconds, momentarily dizzy.
–Do you know what happened at the end?–
–No idea. Shush, shush.–
But the phone nightmare said,
–Someone forcibly fell into resonance with you in the future, more than once, though I’m not quite sure how it was done.–
–Thank you, Lady Aphid, and thank you, Mr. Telephone.–
Morris supported himself on the chair as he stood and took a couple of steps; his legs, still a bit weak, finally regained some strength.
Lady Malh shot an angry glare at this jinx who had called her by the wrong name.
–I have to get in touch with Yang ZiCang soon. It’s better if he makes the call too… No, it’s too terrifying—the danger of peering into the future is more serious than I thought.–
Though he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what made it so unsettling, judging by those final few seconds, the future Yang Zicang might not be in too much trouble—otherwise, that stranger wouldn’t have known of his existence.
But…
Morris felt a chill run down his spine—this call had only appeared after the future him had vanished…
–Could it be… that someone from the new future is asking me to change it again?–
Suddenly, Morris felt as if the entire void was staring at him.
A double alteration…?
–No!–
A new outcome or something… that guy was trying to get Yang Zicang to start changing things from now?
He stood up, walked toward the door, and drew back the curtain. The Moxel on his chest lit up, trying to link with Yang Zicang, but the connection failed—the other party must have been in communication with someone.
Pausing for a moment, Morris hesitated instead.
What now? Should he tell Yang Zicang?
If he told him, would he die?
Should he pretend to know nothing, let events take their natural course, wait three years to receive this call, and then hand the choice back to his past self?
Or should he choose to change the event and leave himself unable to appear in the future…
Morris couldn’t recall how he had managed to leave and go back home.
Ever since that future version of himself had cut off communication, his mind had felt blurry and hazy. All he wanted to do right now was sleep.
Curly-haired Boboli was fast asleep under the covers.
Morris twisted the doorknob to the boy’s room, intending to open the door and wake the kid so that he, weary himself, could take over and rest. But thinking the boy had also stayed up all night, he merely took a glance, closed the door, and returned to his own room.
–Yang Zicang has been so busy these past two days—better not disturb him right now.–
No one would bother him.
Dizzy and muddled, Morris kicked off his shoes without even changing his clothes, pulled the blanket over himself, and lay down to sleep.
That sleep lasted over half a month.
……
In just two or three days, Hong Haocheng had learned to move swiftly through the constantly swaying submarine, as if he were a born sailor.
After nearly another full day, the submarine surfaced from the deep sea.
The salty, humid sea breeze brushed against his fair, handsome face. The boy shaded his eyes with his hand and squinted toward the island ahead—palm trees stood in rows, behind their broad green leaves were neat rectangular buildings, and beside them lay an airstrip.
–You might have only one month, or at most two, to undergo our special training here.–
Sensing trouble, Hong Haocheng said, –I haven’t taken my final exams yet.–
–Someone will take them for you.–
–I won’t fail?–
The man gave him a composed look. –You won’t need to worry about that sort of thing anymore.–
Hong Haocheng reluctantly set foot on this land along with these people.
–When you’re under someone else’s roof, you have to bow your head,– he thought, hoping for a chance to contact his family.
The moment his feet touched the shoreline, a deep, bizarre, and warped inner voice surfaced in his mind.
[You have set foot on the archipelago: Ten Thousand Li Coral Reefs.]
It was as if some monster was struggling to speak in human tongue within his chest.
[You have gained 87,532.3 kilometers of navigational tracklines—the most extensive route you’ve ever obtained in your lifetime, part of which belongs to me.]
The amber hue of Hong Haocheng’s pupils trembled faintly. He suppressed his doubts, a mask of calm returning to his face.
He tried to mentally address that voice in his own mind.
[Who are you.]
Less than a second later, the voice truly answered from within his chest, replying to his thoughts.
[Hah, you don’t recognize me? Forgotten so soon?]
Could it be that back in the submarine, this very thing had been communicating with some mysterious figure, warning him not to reveal his friends’ names in the living room?
As that thought emerged, Hong Haocheng sensed a faint heat simmering in his blood.
More vague memories surfaced: a cyan-hued monster with a human head and leopard body leaped onto the living room balcony. As everyone turned to look at it, the creature crashed through the glass door, devouring the group of classmates and friends.
Overcome by terror, he suddenly went berserk, charging forward with a loud scream.
Then, his body shattered.
–What’s wrong?– A person nearby noticed his slight anomaly.
Hong Haocheng quickly shut his eyes tightly, then opened them again.
–I’m fine.–
The middle-aged man leading him nodded and pointed to a nearby building, saying:
–That building is the dining and living area; the one next to it is the dormitory, but you won’t be staying there.–
Seeing the silent young man, Feng Juguan looked over at him, noting that despite being new here, his round eyes were filled with unwavering calm.
–Not bad. Steady as a rock.–
After walking about ten meters, a hint of suspicion crept into the calm young man’s eyes, appearing in a figure now more robust and handsome than before.
–Brother Feng, how many places have you visited?– Hong Haocheng asked.
Feng Juguan, wearing a navy-blue uniform with black trim, smiled lightly:
–Why the question?–
–Nothing much. I just feel like you must’ve been to many places—almost half the countries in the world by now.–
–Not really. There are plenty of places I haven’t been. It’s okay domestically, but abroad, I’ve only been to Europe once.–
Feng Juguan didn’t say more.
Hong Haocheng glanced at the people around him. In his eyes, faint, shifting track patterns gleaned behind each of them, like simplistic monochrome route maps.
107,000 kilometers, 10 million kilometers, 3 million kilometers…
He then lowered his head, following the few people forward, but he couldn’t help slanting his eyes to sneak a peek at the person beside him—a man with a resolute and confident aura. The energy lines suspended behind him were a different color from the rest, a vast azure hue like the cosmos itself.
That was… 278 million.
This was the area of the world that this person had measured on foot from birth to the present, nearly the expanse of half the planet.
It represented 278 million square kilometers.
Truly terrifying footprints, so numerous they had formed an area.
Truly… delicious footprints…
The youth’s face twisted slightly, and he couldn’t help but stick out his tongue, greedily licking his lips.
But suddenly, Hong Haocheng felt a wave of fatigue wash over him, as if some energy inside him had abruptly awakened, devoured some excess vitality within his body, and then calmed down again.
The light of the lines, like maps behind everyone, vanished.
……
The Shibin Wastes.
In the span of a few days, several groups of expert fighters from the surrounding areas, either solo or in teams, had challenged the mountain peaks with the floating humanoid apparitions, but the results were far from satisfying.
That thing could actually cause real harm, filling Yang Zicang with both worry and delight. No one seemed to have obtained the illusion-related abilities from it yet, and more intel was flowing in by the day.
Conversely, it meant he was getting blocked too. He needed to dig through these people’s gathered intel to find the thing’s weakness—pronto.
On the bright side, though, these past few days he’d cleaned up, with the market’s scale swollen three or four times. Soon, trade volume would shatter the grand mark of 100,000 Chronos.
The encampment still thrived with nightly hustle and bustle.
Inside the rear tent, Yang Zicang was deep in meditation, cycling through Chime Night, when two panicked shouts ripped through from outside.
–What’s wrong?–
The moment he stepped out, a young man, charging across from a gap between two tents, blurted out in terror:
–Help, boss! A monster at the Dream Level!–
Nearby spectators counted themselves lucky—beasts like that usually ran deep on lifespan.
By the tent, a man squatted with a homemade grass cigarette clenched between his teeth, asking:
–You two, what Crosspace did your crew usually slip into?–
–Us… We were tough in the Crescent Level, figured we’d sail through Full Moon. Hitched a ride—then three months later, boom, right here.–
A couple guys beside the tent looked like they were growing black question marks over their heads.
These two guys haven’t even stabilized a B-level Crossplace, yet they dared to follow the crowd into those mountains.
Yang Zicang let out a helpless sigh. In the past few days, incidents like this had been popping up more and more. But what could he do about it? He still had to lend a hand—it was part of the service.
–Inside, whoever’s in there, give me their name. I’ll have them reach out to me for an Invest.–
Yang Zicang agreed casually. The two quickly contacted those inside the mountains.
[Su Fang wants to conduct a Pro-Invest for me.]
[Su Fang has invested in my 1N.]
{Jiazi Term Captain, help!}
–It’s you?–
–Captain Jia, it’s bad—our team has run into a Scenario Lord. They’re being hunted. Please, you have to save them.–
–You mean save you.– Yang Zicang broke into a cold sweat.
So it was her. Hard to say whether this woman was lucky or cursed. She had bought the Clear Mind Incense Pills from him just this morning, yet barely ten hours later, she’d crossed paths with a Scenario Lord from an A-tier conflict zone.
[I, Su Fang, invest 5000N.]
–Run for it. Any nearby experts with a taste for excitement can lend a hand.–
With that said, Yang Zicang slipped back into his tent.
–No can do, darling brother—we can’t take it on!–
The woman’s companion, swinging an iron sword in his hand, wailed alongside her.
–Help, Boss Jia, I only have three days left of my extra Chronos!–
–Sigh!– Having arranged everything, Yang Zicang stepped onto the train and vanished into thin air.
Leave a Reply