"...Dr. Aceto?" Qin Shaoli gently shook Su Ming’an’s shoulder, causing the students below to look up with concern.
Seeing Su Ming’an’s distracted expression, Qin Shaoli told the students, "The doctor needs rest; the rest will have to be self-study for you all."
He pushed Su Ming’an out of the large classroom.
However, Su Ming’an was already confused.
He was utterly confused.
At that mont, it was as if a naked boss rabbit was wildly dancing in his mind, and ten thousand Lv Shus were making tea in his head.
Today marked the eleventh day of the replica activation, yet everything he was seeing now was exactly the sa as the first day the instance began.
Was this a repeated scene, or was there a bug in the world ga?
"Doctor, good morning."
"Doctor, good morning."
The twins Xu Dong and Dong Xu passed by him, greeting him.
Seeing Dong Xu, Su Ming’an suddenly rembered the "Hibernation Plan" Dr. la had inford him about on the night of the seventh day of the replica activation.
At that mont, it was as if a tightly shut window of thoughts suddenly opened in front of him.
The chain of clues that had been stalled for eleven days "clicked" and connected together.
...
["Ya Sa, let a batch of colleagues with solid thoughts hibernate now; they can wake up when you need them," la said.]
[She passed the hibernation data to him.]
[Hawk Hound Veteran’s Son · Dong Xu, estimated to wake up from a 30-year hibernation, at the Sanctuary.]
...
The information stated that one of the twins, Dong Xu, would hibernate for thirty years and wake up in the Sanctuary.
And in the Sanctuary of the City of asurent, while traveling with Su Rin, had he encountered soone nad "Dong," with an initial favorability of 90 points — could that be Dong Xu, awoken, whose mory had been impaired due to hibernation?
But in the laboratory, Dong Xu clearly had not yet hibernated, and had even just greeted him, so...
Su Ming’an’s mory continued to push forward, recalling the night of the sixth day of the replica activation.
...
[While Su Ming’an was making the Scarlet Bird, he suddenly heard a loudspeaker voice distinctive of the twins coming from outside the door.]
["The doctor has been really into chanics lately, even made a new chanical cat," said the elder twin, Dong Xu.]
["The doctor has always been special; he is a genius," the younger brother Xu Dong imdiately added.]
["After all, animals can’t survive in the wasteland," said the elder brother.]
["Are you stupid? The city just stabilized, people are almost dying of hunger, who has the leisure to keep pets, if kept they rather beco backup provisions," said the younger brother.]
...
— At that ti, did the younger brother Xu Dong say ’the city just stabilized’?
Today’s City of asurent is incredibly prosperous, having undergone decades of developnt. But in the lab, Dong Xu and Xu Dong said — "the city just stabilized, people are starving to death"?
"..." Su Ming’an took a deep breath, already speculating the truth, his mory continued to push forward.
He rembered the night he negotiated with Dawn in the ruined building; he had dinner with Dawn, it was the night of the fifth day the replica was activated.
...
[Before the dining table, Su Ming’an hadn’t reacted when a robot approached and changed the prescription dicine and water.]
[Judging from the letters on the dicine bottle, this dicine was more than a generation ahead of the one he had been taking before.]
...
That was the spot.
He carefully recalled that scene.
The Central City laboratory represented the highest level of technology of that era — why then did he see dicine in the ruined building that was more than a generation ahead of Central City’s lab?
He grew more certain of his guess.
His mory pushed forward again.
On the fifth day of the instance activation, he and Xiaoi exchanged tal parts for money. At that ti, the recycling shop owner’s reaction was very strange.
...
[Su Ming’an hesitated for a mont and took out a component from the inner pocket, which was the cheapest thing on him.]
[When he took out the component, the shop owner’s expression suddenly changed.]
[The owner took a deep breath, "This is a proprietary part of the T-92 model submachine gun from thirty years ago. That batch of firearms was sealed because of their excessive lethality."]
...
The laboratory component he had taken out—was a ’thirty-year-old’ proprietary part.
If the Central City laboratory represented the most advanced technology of the era, they wouldn’t be using outdated parts from thirty years ago.
Unless...
The Central City laboratory, in comparison to the City of asurent, was also outdated.
That could only an...
A series of clues rapidly arranged in his mind, pieced together as if shouting out the imminent truth.
He had noticed these details before, but they were too minor for him to suspect anything.
The clues were ambiguous yet fragnted, inconspicuous yet scattered throughout his eleven-day journey, omnipresent.
Once he realized that—[there was a third tiline]—they instantly converged, like dominoes tumbling down, revealing the truth in an instant.
And he and all the audience, until this mont, knew nothing about it.
Not one of them had seen anything amiss.
These clues, once combined—put together a truth no one had ever imagined.
Between the ice-white laboratories, only the sound of the wheels rolling "gurgle" echo.
He gripped the back of the chair, his back soaked with cold sweat amidst the greetings from the students.
—Turns out the ti at the Central City laboratory,
—Was thirty years slower than the City of asurent.
That’s why, he saw drugs in the ruins of the City of asurent that were generations ahead of the laboratory, a result of thirty years of pharmaceutical advancents.
That’s why, he found the ruins of the City of asurent eerily familiar, because that building, thirty years ago, was the old site of the laboratory.
Qin Shaoli, la, Dong Xu, and Xu Dong, only existed in the ti point of the Central City laboratory; they might have died or vanished during these thirty years.
That’s why Su Ming’an could never et them in the City of asurent thirty years later.
For so reason, the laboratory turned into a ruin, leaving only the dust and spider webs inside, and except for the Dawn System, it was empty.
—And he had been crossing back and forth over this thirty-year long river of ti, in and out.
He gritted his teeth.
"Xike, you trickster."
Xike remained silent.
"Every trip between the Central City laboratory and the City of asurent, you were not really equipping any Spatial Ring, but using so ti technology that I am unaware of, right?" he said coldly.
He rembered in the City of asurent, people said that Central City had been sealed off for a long ti and was inaccessible.
He recalled in the Central City laboratory, the students also said the outside was sealed off, accessible only through spatial technology.
—It was this blockade of information between the two that gave Xike the chance to deceive him, making him believe he was using spatial teleportation each ti.
Just a flash of white light, and he was teleported to the City of asurent.
Another flash of white light, and he was back in the Central City laboratory.
This aligned well with the known information about Central City being sealed.
However, each of these teleportations,
He was not actually [crossing space],
—But [crossing ti].
—He was actually in a [three-tiline] setting.
years after the Catastrophe, at the Caius Tower tiline.
years after the Catastrophe, a mont at the Central City Laboratory.
years after the Catastrophe, a mont in the City of asurent.
A triple tiline.
He had been in the midst of the triple tiline all along.
He had always thought it was a single tiline.
The surroundings were quiet, only Qin Shaoli held his breath, concentrating as he pushed the wheelchair, not knowing why the doctor was angry with Xike.
Xike softly said:
"Yes, doctor, you have been crossing through ti.
"Moreover, you have overlooked sothing.
"The past few days in the Central City Laboratory have actually been repeating, my watch has a ’countdown’ at its core, allowing to know when it will repeat.
"It repeats every five days.
"And today, is the eleventh day of your arrival. So—you will see the scene of the first day."
As expected.
Su Ming’an hadn’t predicted that the Central City Laboratory was thirty years ahead of the City of asurent, but he had guessed that the laboratory’s ti had been repeating.
These eleven days, his ti in the Central Laboratory was:
(Early morning of the first day—afternoon of the third day), (Early morning of the seventh day—morning of the seventh day), (Early morning of the eighth day—morning of the eighth day).
The laboratory had a cycle every five days. He should have already experienced two cycles.
In the second cycle (the sixth to the tenth day), he was only in the lab for two brief early mornings and was busy making bullets and Scarlet Birds, not realizing that ti had already been covered once.
The words of Tereya and Qin Shaoli at the ti had indeed hinted at this point.
...
["Doctor, Doctor~ Since you don’t sleep at night, shall I make you a strawberry cake?" Tereya, seeing him distracted, imdiately seized the opportunity to boost his favorability.]
["Didn’t we already have it once? No thanks, you go to sleep..." Su Ming’an dismissed her offhandedly.]
These were the assistant Tereya’s words on the night of the seventh day of replica activation.
This indicated that the five-day cycle had already passed once.
...
His mory continued to rewind, recalling the morning of the seventh day of replica activation at eight forty-six.
["Doctor, I got tickets to the ’chanics Exhibition’ in the Underground City, where Dr. la has recently developed the manned P-29 model. She’s been missing you recently, let’s go take a look?"]
[In a white lab coat, the assistant Qin Shaoli, with a humble and courteous smile, walked in.]
["Haven’t you invited already?" Su Ming’an didn’t even lift his head.]
[During those first three days, these people tried everything to boost his favorability, and Qin Shaoli had already used that excuse to invite him once.]
...
Similarly, Qin Shaoli had invited him twice.
...
[After Qin Shaoli, Xu Dong and Dong Xu entered the room.]
["Doctor, won’t you go see the Dawn Brain? It has awakened."]
["Doctor, shall we take you there?"]
...
At that ti, Su Ming’an had clearly already seen the Dawn Brain, yet Dong Xu said, "Won’t you go see the Dawn Brain?"
This indicated that his previous visit to see the Dawn Brain had been overlaid already.
So... ti was indeed repeating, but it was extrely difficult to notice.
This was because, aside from these elents, there was no calendar in the lab to indicate the passage of ti. No one ever ntioned anything related to dates, people’s lives followed a set pattern, and each day was almost exactly the sa.
This might also have been due to Xike’s efforts to cover it up, guiding him to avoid so scenes that might evoke a sense of déjà vu.
...It wasn’t until the eleventh day of the replica that he realized he had gone through two cycles.
Su Ming’an closed the door and dismissed Qin Shaoli.
With a click, he placed his wristwatch on the table, facing Xike directly.
He stared coldly at the screen.
"Since I ca here, you have almost never told the truth," Su Ming’an said.
Xike remained silent.
Su Ming’an spoke coldly,
"You said, I needed to obtain the Dawn Code to shut down the chaotic, disorderly Dawn System. Yet the Dawn System knew early on that I didn’t have the code."
"You said, I could get into the City of asurent through you via spatial teleportation. Yet, it was really ti line jumping, not spatial teleportation."
"I don’t want to believe that a personal AI who has been with from the start has been deceiving all along.
"Tell , what exactly does this three-line ti represent? Why does the ti in the lab always repeat within five days?"
With a swoosh, the image of Xike with blonde hair and blue eyes appeared.
Her eyebrows and eyes looked faint and sorrowful, as if dense waves were surging within them.
When she spoke, her voice sounded as if she was about to cry.
It was she who had always been deceiving, yet she was the one crying.
"I indeed do not have the thought processes of humans, but my data and architecture consider from the best angle—the survival of humans in an apocalypse that could exterminate them, needing enough awareness..."
Xike cried very sadly, her simulated face exquisite and beautiful, tears falling drop by drop:
"I didn’t deceive you—collecting the Dawn Code is indeed what you should be doing most. If you don’t collect the codes, at the end of twenty days, the most tragic ending awaits you..."
Su Ming’an waited for her to finish crying.
"You just need to complete Caius Tower, and you will learn all the truths," Xike said with sea-blue eyes.
Su Ming’an looked at her indifferently.
"You still refuse to tell the truth, so go into hibernation," Su Ming’an pressed Xike: "This truth, I will see for myself."
Xike’s eyebrows and eyes drooped, her form gradually dimming:
"You will forgive sooner or later..."
"Goodnight, Doctor," a sound indicating the start of hibernation.
The wristwatch of Xike shut down.
Su Ming’an pushed his wheelchair, bright white light spilling onto his face.
He stared at the mirror on the table, seeing his pale face and the redness under his eyes, like a gravely ill patient on the verge of collapse.
...This was the most brain-burning, the most difficult to predict the truth of any instance ever.
He dared not make a mistake.
The World ga had only started four months ago; if he stopped in the Ninth World, not to ntion the increasingly difficult instances that followed,
—he had a premonition that the truth of this instance might be linked to the structure of the World ga and even to Zhai Xing’s thod of salvation and the fundantal nature of conflicts between civilizations.
If the organizers really went back on the rules in the end...
he might find a new path here, one that does not rely on completely Perfect Passing, and does not depend on the organizers’ rcy.
If it really ca to the point of flipping the table...
"...Three-line ti," he whispered, "Right, if you add the night etings, that makes it four-line ti..."
His scalp tingled.
Too terrifying.
...
...
[The angels surround the World, and although we cannot hear their voices or see their work with our eyes,]
[their hands encompass this world, they vigilantly guard against Satan’s forces from approaching, until the seal of God’s people is completed.]
[—Book of Revelations, The Lamb Opens the Seals]
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