Mystery: A Spark

Both of them shook their heads; they found absolutely nothing unusual.

Colin paused for two seconds and said:

"From now on, I'll take over the duty. You two go and rest."

Clearly, their exploration team had fallen into a time-related predicament.

In this situation, it was impossible to rely on the exploration team to discover the anomaly, so Colin decided to take over the watch himself.

As a Sequence Four demigod, his body has reached a superhuman level, and he can maintain his energy for a long time with only a short period of rest.

With the chief personally overseeing things, Derrick was immediately relieved.

Although he was still unclear how they got into this time trap, at least they hadn't suffered any casualties yet, which was fortunate.

Next, he will attend the Tarot Club, where he can seek help from the other members.

Mr. Chariot's time-manipulation method was indeed useful, allowing us to receive timely assistance... Derrick thought with some relief.

The next second, he saw a crimson light engulf him.

When Derrick regained consciousness and opened his eyes, just as he was about to say something, scene after scene flashed through his mind, as if an external force had instantly re-injected all the lost memories into his head.

"This……"

Chapter 183 The Crucial Pocket Watch

The endless gray fog continued to permeate the ground beneath my feet, and the bronze table in front of me, though mottled with rust green, did not appear decayed.

At that moment, Derrick had no mind to look at any of this; he only felt a chill run down his spine.

Just now, after arriving above the gray fog, a flood of memories suddenly appeared in his mind.

These memories show that their exploration team in Silver City had already circled the temple of the true creator three times.

During these three expeditions, they encountered many dangers, but fortunately, Derrick always kept in mind Mr. Chariot's instructions.

Whenever he encounters something that doesn't seem right, he immediately unleashes a burst of solar fire upon it.

Whether it's good or bad, useful or useless, you can't go wrong by throwing a shot of solar fire at it first.

The power of the solar pathway is naturally able to restrain all things sinister and strange.

No matter how attractively disguised those strange things or monsters are, they will most likely be exposed after being exposed to the power of the sun.

What if something useful gets burned?

What can be burned cannot be considered useful. True gold is not afraid of being tested by fire. What survives under the sun's fire is what is worth observing and studying.

Therefore, although they encountered many dangers during these three explorations, they successfully overcame them all.

Derrick transformed into a fire maniac, burning everything in his path until he reached the little boy named Jack.

When you encounter someone alive and capable of communication, you can no longer act so simply and crudely.

Although this little boy named Jack seems strange in every way, at least he is a rational and intelligent person who can speak.

Even if you still have to take action in the end, you can ask about the situation first before killing.

So during their first exploration, while everyone remained on guard, they began to communicate with the strange little boy named Jack.

During their conversation, the exploration team learned that the little boy and his father had been searching for the Creator's sanctuary in the boundless ocean when they encountered a massive storm and ended up here.

There are many other things that the little boy doesn't know either.

The communication went relatively smoothly, but soon, for some unknown reason, the little boy began to change.

In the end, Colin had no choice but to kill the mutated little boy.

And so, each time it ended with "Witcher" Colin killing the little boy Jack, and began with resting at the camp and preparing to enter the ruined city, the cycle repeating endlessly.

It was done three times in total!

If it weren't for Mr. Chariot's suggestion, which allowed us to enter the temple at the right time, we might have been trapped there for many days... Without Mr. Fool's help, we might have been trapped there indefinitely until we starved to death or went mad... In that case, if something went wrong during one of our explorations, our entire team would be doomed... Derrick sat in his seat, unable to hide his fear.

This immediately caught the attention of Audrey, who was sitting on the other side of the bronze table.

She had intended to greet Mr. Fool and the others cheerfully and lightly as usual, but a quick glance around revealed that Little Sun's mood was off, and she immediately asked:

"Little Sun, what happened?"

Derrick did not answer immediately, but stood up and bowed respectfully to Mr. Fool at the head of the bronze table and Mr. Chariot not far to his side.

Klein was still somewhat confused, but Arthur had already figured it out and asked:

"Your Silver City has begun exploring the Temple of the True Creator? What, it seems things aren't going too well?"

“Yes, I also have to thank Mr. Fool for his help and Mr. Chariot for his advice, otherwise our whole team would probably have died there,” Derrick said with great gratitude.

Then, he quickly gave a brief account of what had happened, concluding with:

"After the little boy was eliminated by His Excellency the Chief, we all closed our eyes and then woke up in the camp outside the city, ready to begin a new exploration, with no memory of the previous one."

"This process was repeated three times, with only slight differences in the details."

“If Mr. Fool hadn’t reminded me, I wouldn’t have even known that I’d been living the same life over and over again all this time.”

"And there's Mr. Chariot's suggestion about timing things. Without that suggestion, we might have gone through many loops there, and if something went wrong during any exploration..."

As Derrick spoke, he felt increasingly frightened, thinking to himself that he was fortunate to have kept Mr. Chariot's advice in mind, otherwise most of him would have been gone.

He naturally assumed that the extra memories he gained after arriving above the gray fog came from Mr. Fool's reminder, so he thanked Mr. Fool just now.

I only understood what happened after hearing your description... But Arthur is really amazing, he's practically a tactical mastermind... The Fool Klein has been a bit dazed ever since.

He maintained his original posture and nodded slightly in response.

Without understanding the reasons behind the problem, those in positions of authority cannot easily express their opinions or speak rashly... Klein secretly reviewed the knowledge he had acquired in his previous life as a keyboard warrior.

Seeing Mr. Fool's deep, still well, "The Sun" Derrick felt much more at ease, thinking that things could eventually be resolved.

He looked around at the members of the Tarot Club and asked very sincerely:

"Does anyone know the root of the problem? How can we solve this situation?"

Although he asked everyone, he most wanted to hear Mr. Chariot's opinion.

The enthusiastic "justice" Audrey instinctively wanted to answer, but found herself completely clueless, unable even to guess.

"The Magician" Fors is in a similar situation to her.

Klein has extensive knowledge of Earth and has seen many similar fantasy settings.

He originally intended to manipulate the "world" to provide ideas and inspire everyone to think, but after careful consideration, he chose to keep a low profile and prepare to observe first.

This is a matter of life and death. If something goes wrong, the advice could be fatal. Let's see what Arthur thinks first... Klein glanced at Arthur without making a sound.

Arthur, however, did not answer directly, but instead asked a question:

"You brought pocket watches with you on this expedition, right? Were the hands of the pocket watches moving normally the whole time?"

"Yes, the pocket watch! I only realized the time on the pocket watch was wrong after receiving a reminder from Mr. Fool about the Tarot meeting."

“But from my constant observation, the hands of the pocket watch have always moved normally, neither speeding up nor slowing down.” Derrick’s momentary panic had caused him to remember this only after being reminded.

Arthur nodded and said:

"If that's the case, then the problem is quite obvious."

Obvious? I can't think of anything at all? Audrey muttered to herself.

The pocket watch was a gift from her, but now she has no idea why it has become so crucial.

Arthur spoke calmly, seemingly unsurprised by what had happened to Derrick:

"As you all know, a pocket watch tells time by the operation of a mechanical structure, and it indicates the time in the area where it is located."

"The movement of the pocket watch hands was not abnormal, indicating that it was indicating the 'real' time that Little Sun and the others experienced."

“Things like pocket watches are unlikely to be affected by nightmares or hallucinations, because nightmares and hallucinations are ultimately illusory and it is difficult to replicate the precision of a clock.”

Nightmares and hallucinations, though mysterious, are ultimately just illusory scenarios woven from human consciousness.

It is absolutely impossible to replicate something like a pocket watch and make it work precisely in a dream or hallucination.

Just like the movie Arthur watched in his previous life called "Inception," the spinning top in the movie served a similar purpose.

A spinning top in a dream can keep spinning forever, but one in reality can't, and the same goes for a pocket watch.

If you have a general sense of the length of a second in your daily life, you can easily notice something is wrong if you keep staring at the pocket watch in your dream.

Leonard also said that when nightmares weave dreams, they should try to avoid including things that are too detailed or specific in the dream.

A fake thing is still a fake thing, and it can never become real.

Seeing that Derrick seemed to understand, Arthur continued:

"So since it's not a hallucination or a dream, then it must be another possibility."

"That is, at a certain point, you are forced or voluntarily entered a strange space or state where time flows to a certain extent, but is fixed within a certain range and cycles repeatedly."

"In other words, you are no longer on a complete timeline, but a period of time that has been cut off by some entity. As long as you reach the end of the period of time, you will return to the beginning of the period of time."

"In this situation, there aren't many ways to end the cycle. Either an external force forcibly breaks the balance, or the key point that caused this period of time to be intercepted is found."

External forces forcibly disrupted that balance? Upon hearing this, "Justice" Audrey, "Magician" Fors, and "Sun" Derrick all subconsciously glanced at the calm and leisurely "Fool" at the head of the bronze table.

No, I can't always ask Mr. Fool for help... He didn't speak directly, probably because he wanted to test my ability to handle these kinds of things... Derrick realized something and thought for a moment before saying:

"Mr. Chariot, what do you think is the key point?"

Before Arthur could answer, "Justice" Audrey guessed with great interest:

"That little boy, Jack? When facing him, you can't just kill him?"

“That’s one idea, but there’s another,” Arthur nodded. “That is to figure out whose power Little Sun and the others encountered.”

"Whose power did they encounter? Mr. Chariot, do you mean that Little Sun and the others' ordeal was deliberately orchestrated by some being?" Audrey asked, unable to hide her surprise.

“No, it couldn’t have been intentional.” Alger denied the idea. “If an entity with the power to capture time periods were deliberately targeting them, the people of Silver City wouldn’t have survived. So it must just be some residual power.”

Arthur nodded in agreement:

“That’s right. All strategic planning depends on intelligence. Once we figure out who the force that Little Sun and the others encountered came from, things will become much clearer.”

"Could it be related to that organization called Redemption Rose?" Fors suddenly had a bright idea in her eyes.