Restricted fantasy invasion

Chapter 441, 438, Fifty-one Seconds

【4:44:09】

"bump!"

"Boom!"

Above the endless darkness, one after another, the limp corpses of white cats fell, leaving irregular bloodstains on the ground.

Thick blood flowed in a stream, carrying a strong stench and mingling with the cat's disheveled fur, making the atmosphere here as oppressive as a slaughterhouse.

"Yan Huan!!"

With wide eyes, it knelt beside Yan Huan, who was amidst the blood, when a cat's emerald-like eyes suddenly opened, revealing its plump black body. It looked at Yan Huan with a worried expression.

"You can't stay here any longer, meow! This 'if' scenario is about to collapse! If you don't leave by 4:45, you might disappear along with this place, meow!!"

"At 4:45, Bai Yi will disappear completely once again."

Yan Huan lowered her head tremblingly and covered her face.

"Meow"

Miao Jiang blinked, looking at Yan Huan's back in front of her, and couldn't help but be slightly taken aback.

Yan Huan, with red eyes and his head down, refused to leave. His breath was filled with the metallic smell of blood as he focused all his thoughts on the matter.

There must be a way.
There must be a way.
"."

At this moment, after experiencing so much, this thought once again popped into his mind.

However, it was completely different from the feeling when she first reunited with Bai Yi.

At first, before he understood the extent of the trouble he and Bai Yi were in, he was probably just overconfident.
He was confident that he could solve Bai Yi's problem just like he had solved the previous modifier problem.

After all, she used to be so sensible.

I don't use game modifiers much. Even when I'm angry, I just process it like a child and then smile optimistically again the next day.

Can.
The longer he spent with Bai Yi and the more they experienced, the more he realized.

It wasn't just the severity of her modding problem, but also how much she cherished her feelings.

The despair of not being able to change the outcome no matter what, and the guilt of having deceived Bai Yi and underestimated and belittled her feelings for him, made Yan Huan eager to make amends.

Even if it means exchanging myself for her.

But at this moment, all he felt was a deep sense of reluctance to part with it.

I can't bear to see her disappear, I can't bear to disappear and never see her again.
Having come this far, Yan Huan once again experienced unprecedented regret.

I regret deceiving her, I regret ignoring her all along, both her feelings and her problems.
And now, it has completely backfired.

"Ha ha."

That piercing regret drilled upwards from his gut, as if it were about to pierce through his very soul.

“Didi. Ta-da.”

But at that moment, Meow-chan, who was standing to the side, had a slight glint in her eyes and summoned a golden pendulum clock.

That was a tool used to observe world lines.

【4:44:15】

The golden light and the sound of the pendulum clock attracted Yan Huan's attention, causing him to look up in a daze.

Beside her, Meow-chan, with a serious expression, looked at the clock and softly reminded him,

"45 seconds left, Yan Huan."

"!!"

Upon hearing Miao Jiang's voice, Yan Huan's expression changed slightly, and she raised her eyes.

“Didi. Ta-da.”

Staring at the clock swinging back and forth, Yan Huan bit her lip, forcing herself to calm down.

We must consider the methods; self-pity and regret are useless.
So he simply closed his eyes and began to reorganize his thoughts.

calm
calm
First, what are the prerequisites?
The premise is:
The causality bomb will explode on July 1st, killing not only myself but also potentially annihilating the entire world.

This ability can only be activated in the third stage of the ring finger, and it is speculated that the ring finger activates it through the "knot" that connects the two people on the world line.

According to the evil god's hint, the ring finger had a third stage of ability from the moment it was born. Therefore, the solution is to untie all the knots between Bai Yi and the ring finger after Bai Yi obtains the ring finger, so that the ring finger cannot activate the bomb.

But the problem now is:
Even though all the knots between the two of them had been untied after the spring semester, the causal bomb still existed.

So, where exactly does the problem lie?
Was my analysis of the causal principle of the bomb wrong?
no, wrong
This inference should be correct, because there are many clues in the if line to support it.

In many "what if" scenarios, the causality bomb never activates, and each scenario has one or two aspects that differ from reality.

Either Bai Yi never traveled through time at all, meaning she didn't even unlock the second stage of abilities.

Or, he met her after he turned 19.

The latter can corroborate one's own viewpoint, while the former viewpoint...
Ok?
Thinking of this, Yan Huan suddenly realized something.
contradiction?

“Didi. Ta-da.”

【4:44:25】

The pendulum clock in front of her swayed slightly, illuminating Yan Huan's astonished expression.

Miao Jiang originally wanted to remind him that there were "35 seconds" left, but when she saw his enlightened expression, she couldn't bear to interrupt him.

"."

Do you remember what the evil god once said:
The ring finger possesses the third stage of ability from the moment it is born.

But if that's the case, then even if the ring finger didn't unlock the second stage of time travel, the causality bomb should still exist!
Conversely, the stages of the ring finger development, like those of the other fingers, are also gradual!
But why does such a contradictory situation occur?
because
Time travel!!
"Meow-chan, Meow-chan, where did Bai Yi go?"

"Meow? I don't know, meow."

Yan Huan's eyes widened, and she muttered this in a cold sweat, startling Miao Jiang.

It quickly looked at the pendulum clock in front of it and started pawing at it with its paws.
"But a person can only travel back to after their birth, and the only way for her to disappear is to travel back to the day she was born and kill herself."

"Reset it to the time she was born!! I need to see the time!!"

Yan Huan seemed unwilling to hear what Miao Jiang was about to say. He just looked at the clock with a pale face and told Miao Jiang to hurry up and do it.

"Good meow."

Miao-chan didn't understand, but simply did as instructed.

Even so, it still reminded Yan Huan of something.
"Bai Yi was born six months earlier than you, so it's impossible for you to have traveled back in time to the day she was born at the same time, meow."

With a slight twitch of its finger, it immediately shifted to the starting point of Bai Yi's world line.

That is, her birth time.
"4:44 PM on December 25th, meow?!"

When Miao Jiang saw that time, she was also stunned.

It couldn't even believe what it was seeing.

Why is it such a coincidence?
Bai Yi was born at the exact moment when a time rift opened in reality, allowing for time travel!

"!!"

Upon seeing that time, Yan Huan's eyes instantly turned red.

His breathing almost stopped, and he gritted his teeth, slamming his fist into the blood-soaked ground.

"boom!"

"I understand, I understand the ring finger's trick."

"Meow?!"

Yan Huan spoke tremblingly, her voice faint and filled with extremely complex emotions in the darkness.

It was afternoon.
【4:44:32】

At this moment, everything was connecting in Yan Huan's mind.

Why is it that, at the same point in time, the future Bai Yi and the past Bai Yi seem to share the same modifier?
Why is it that even though all the knots of the spring semester have been untied, the causal bomb is still not deactivated?

This is all because...
"Bai Yi obtained the modifier not at the start of the spring semester, and not when you came to me, Miao-chan."

"Meow?!"

Yan Huan, her eyes red, slowly raised her gaze.

"The ring finger tricked everyone."
"The world line and the if line have no timeline, and Bai Yi is its only host to choose from. Therefore, the time when it truly descended into Bai Yi's body is when Bai Yi was born!"
"The ring finger that was just born into Bai Yi only has the first stage of power, and it is absolutely incapable of activating the causality bomb, unless..." Upon hearing Yan Huan's words, Miao Jiang instantly understood and exclaimed in shock,
"But because the past and future share the same ring finger!"
"As long as the future Bai Yi, carrying an extremely strong desire and with her ring finger that has already entered the third stage, returns to the moment of her birth."
"So, from the moment it was born, it possessed the abilities of the third stage, meow!!"

Yan Huan, her eyes red, stared at the pendulum clock swinging back and forth in front of her and said in a hoarse voice,
"Its third-stage ability is not just a causality bomb, but more importantly, it creates a time loop that reverses causality!"
"Like right now, even though I haven't managed to trick anyone else into giving up the mod, the future Aria has noticed my actions and is trying to stop me with her thumb."
Instead, her obstruction, which was originally the 'result,' became part of the 'cause.'
"And once Bai Yi started time travel for me."
"You'll find that the causal bomb can't be deactivated, and you'll discover the filthy things her mother did that made her regret being born, causing her to go back in time to try and kill herself."
"Little did she know, it was precisely because she returned to the day of her birth that the causal bomb was created, making it impossible for her to deactivate it."

Even now that she understands the principle, Meow-chan is still extremely anxious.
"But if that's the case, wouldn't it be too late?"
"Bai Yi goes back in time to try and kill herself; she either succeeds or fails."
"If she succeeds, she will disappear; if she fails, the causal bomb will be born."

"But now it seems that both of these 'results' exist simultaneously, becoming 'causes'!"
"It was because Bai Yi disappeared that you began to travel through time; and it was because the causal bomb was born that you were unable to stop it, forcing Bai Yi to go back."
"If only I had realized it was my ring finger sooner..."

To everyone's surprise, as soon as Miao Jiang opened her mouth, Yan Huan's eyes reddened, and she abruptly raised her head.
"We can't follow its logic! The ring finger is trying to make us think it's a closed loop, something that can't be changed no matter what!"

"."

His words startled Miao Jiang slightly.

Yan Huan's shoulders trembled as she lowered her head.
"It makes people look back on the past, realize all the mistakes they made, and only leave them with regret."
When will we finally realize this?
"Is regretting something futile?"

As he spoke, a fierce rage suddenly ignited in his eyes.
"The only way to undo regrets is now—the things you need to do right now, immediately."

【4:44:44】

As she spoke, Yan Huan suddenly reached out and fiddled with the pendulum clock that monitored the time.
"If the causal bomb was born on the day she was born, then it explains why we couldn't defuse the causal bomb even though we had untied all the knots before."

"Why, meow? Didn't you meet that genius and Bai Yi, meow?"

"No it's not"

Yan Huan quickly adjusted the time, her eyes flashing slightly.

He suddenly remembered everything.
I recalled that even though I hadn't met Bai Yi during the spring semester, I still had a memory of her.

"When I was little, I went to Yasaka Company to participate in a child star audition, and I won first place."

"Meow?!"

When Yan Huan spoke, Miao Jiang was instantly shocked.

"Bai Yi met me for the first time around that time. From then on, Zuo Jiangqin used me to provoke her every day, which is why she used a cheat code on me at the beginning of the spring semester."
"so.
That was the first knot between us!

Yan Huan abruptly moved the timeline to that point, and then...
The golden pendulum clock instantly turned into a terrifying, eerie green.

Looking at the terrifying, eerie green that had appeared, Yan Huan showed no fear. Instead, she revealed a sadness as if she had finally found the answer.

The world line can only be observed for 15 days before and after, for a total of 30 days.

And they searched for so long, yet they never found that lonely "knot" standing in their past.
But then, in the darkness, their previously parallel worldlines suddenly became intertwined.

Gradually, it became entangled into a huge, intractable knot.

The knot was tangled and intertwined, making it look extremely complicated.

Even more terrifying was the thick, inky mist that lingered above, resembling a gruesome tumor in the world line.
That is, the causality bomb!!

【4:44:51】

Looking at the knot, Yan Huan didn't hesitate at all. She summoned the 20 crab coins she had previously obtained and opened the Demon Shop.

[Master Key *1: 10 Crab Coins]

But when he saw the price, he was slightly taken aback.

Wasn't it previously 5 crab coins for one key, and 10 for a round trip?

Why has the price gone up?!

"Wait, Yan Huan!"

That wasn't all. Seeing this, Meow-chan's expression suddenly changed. She nudged his hand with her paw and quickly reminded him.

"Don't forget, Bai Yi isn't by your side this time! You're all alone! Even if I can help you travel back in time, once things start to change, you'll have to do it yourself!!"
"You don't have Bai Yi's constitution. Changing the past, especially your own, will have unimaginable consequences! You should already know that!!"

Upon hearing this, Yan Huan was slightly taken aback.

Yes, I remember at the comic convention before, he only touched the key slightly and was covered in injuries.

If it's a matter of great importance and involves oneself, without Bai Yi's constitution, the consequences would be unpredictable.

"Your body, your memories, you never know what might happen, meow!"

"."

Upon hearing this, Yan Huan was slightly taken aback, but looking at the vast and clearly unstable worldline before her, she asked,

"Compared to this, the timeline is already in grave danger. If Bai Yi and I were to change the past at the same time, we might face annihilation, right?"

Seeing that Yan Huan didn't answer her question, Miao Jiang opened her mouth, but then her gaze hardened.

"This... you can leave it to me, meow. I'll do everything in my power to maintain the stability of the world line. But Yan Huan, I can only maintain stability by constantly repairing the world line. This means that the world line between you two can only revert to its original state, meow."

"What do you mean?"

"Yan Huan, don't forget, the incident that happened to your parents occurred during this period. If you choose to do this, your resurrected parents will also return to their original fate."

"."

Upon hearing this, Yan Huan's eyes trembled slightly.

Immediately, he turned his head blankly and looked at the clock that was still swinging in front of him.

“Didi. Ta-da.”

Only a few seconds remain until the very last moment.

"Yan Huan."

"I will definitely save Yan Huan."

"I'm just useless, I did it all for Yan Huan."

Even if it's not worth it, I'll still do it.

But at this very moment, accompanied by the ticking of the clock like water droplets, the girl's melodious voice, as sweet as a lark, suddenly echoed in his ears.

Hearing her voice, Yan Huan's slightly trembling shoulders and rapid breathing gradually calmed down.

Without turning around, he simply said,

"Then... I'll leave it to you, Meow-chan."

"Meow?"

Upon hearing this, Miao Jiang wanted to persuade her again, because Yan Huan didn't seem to understand the consequences.

But when it ran up to Yan Huan and saw her expression, it paused slightly.

"Yan Huan."

In the end, it could only sigh softly.

“Didi. Ta-da.”

Before him, Yan Huan remained silent, simply gazing ahead.

His own safety, the love he had only enjoyed for a few days, and his greed.
At this moment, they were all sacrificed by him.

In return, all that remained was the increasingly rapid rattling of the clock and the imminent opening of the spatial portal.

“Didi. Ta-da.”

【4:44:58】

【4:44:59】

"Kakakaka!!"

Before us, the door to the past has been opened.

A dazzling light emanated from it, illuminating Yan Huan, whose body was covered in blood.
Of course, it also illuminated his bloodshot eyes and the resolute determination within them.
Why did it come to this?

The reasons behind this are difficult to explain.
Is it because of guilt? Is it because of regret?
Or because
A love that combines both aspects?

Yan Huan was unable to answer.

But before that wide-open door, he slowly crushed all the crab coins in his hand, and softly responded to his past self,

I said
"I will take responsibility for Bai Yi."

The moment he opened his mouth, the dazzling light instantly engulfed him completely.

"Kakakaka!!"

【4:45:00】

(End of this chapter)