I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

This is perfectly normal. After all, the images appearing in the magic mirror come from a time loop in the "future," and the images displayed in the bronze mirror represent other possibilities. Naturally, the amber from this time loop wouldn't appear in the transparent coffin. But before Duke could look away, he heard Annie make a somewhat strange sound: "Eh?"

Duke immediately turned back to look at the image in the magic mirror—but the image on the bronze mirror hadn't changed at all; Amber was still lying quietly in the transparent coffin with her hands clasped in front of her chest. Duke frowned and asked softly, "What did you see?"

"I...I must be seeing things," Annie rubbed her eyes. "I think I saw Amber disappear."

"Disappeared?"

Duke was taken aback.

“Annie wasn’t seeing things.” Just then, Ida spoke up, frowning as she stared at the bronze mirror, as if trying to discern something from the seemingly still image on its surface. “Amber did indeed vanish for a moment.”

"Disappeared suddenly for a moment?"

Duke frowned as well, then squinted and stared intently at the "person in the mirror" in the magic mirror. Soon he witnessed the scene Annie had described—the image on the bronze mirror suddenly went black and flickered, like a television losing signal, creating a momentary black screen effect before returning to normal in the next instant.

But Duke quickly realized that it wasn't a black screen, because the transparent coffin was actually still in the frame. The only thing that suddenly disappeared like a television losing signal was the amber inside the transparent coffin! She reappeared after a brief disappearance, as if nothing had happened.

To be honest, Duke wondered if he was seeing things, but since this wasn't the first time it had happened, he was absolutely certain that it was something that was actually happening in the mirror image.

Ida raised an eyebrow, as if she had thought of something or seen something in the image, but Duke did not notice her expression. His attention was completely focused on the image of the person in the mirror. He stared at Amber with a serious expression, waiting for the next "loss of signal" to occur.

Soon, the third "loss of signal" occurred, followed by the fourth, then the fifth, the sixth, and so on. Amber's "loss of signal" became more and more frequent, with shorter and shorter intervals, while the duration of the "loss of signal" became longer and longer. At first, it was just a fleeting moment, but later it disappeared for more than a second!

Finally, after nearly a hundred consecutive "loss of signal" attempts, the constantly flashing amber disappeared from the transparent coffin and never reappeared... and the scene of the person in the mirror ended there.

Duke frowned deeply.

"Duke, do you understand what this means? Why is Amber unconscious in the transparent coffin? And why is she constantly disappearing?" Annie rubbed her temples, asking helplessly. Clearly, she had no clue what to do, which was why she pinned her hopes on Duke, whose intelligence was a notch above hers. "Do you have any ideas?"

Duke shook his head, then nodded: "Although I have no idea, it doesn't matter, I have a way."

"Huh? What method?" Annie was slightly taken aback, but quickly realized what Duke was about to say, and looked at Duke with a strange expression: "You wouldn't be thinking of..."

“That’s right.” Duke glanced at her and, seeing the strange expression on her face, guessed that she had already figured out what he was planning. At the same time, he took out a poisoned apple from his inventory and said with a grin, “I’m going to start selling it right away.”

Although the items Duke obtained from the limited-edition gacha machine were reverted due to the time loop, the single-pull opportunities granted by the time loop remain in Duke's possession. Furthermore, it seems that what he will draw in each future single pull is fixed—Duke previously obtained two single-pull opportunities by completing the Animal Chess Witch game, drawing a Golden Apple and a Poison Apple respectively. In the last time loop, Duke's single pull also yielded a Golden Apple.

In this time loop, Duke used two time loop single-draw tickets and once again drew the Golden Apple and the Poison Apple.

It seems that the gashapon machine in this star map system appears to be completely random, but the order in which items are dispensed is predetermined... something about Mahjong Soul cards and mountain codes.

Duke looked down at the blood-red peel of the poisoned apple in his hand, then waved it around a couple of times, adding with a grin:

"I am preparing to commit suicide."

Everyone except Annie: "?"

Now, everyone except Annie understood what Duke was up to.

"Since this scene appeared in the bronze mirror, it means that this scene must have appeared in some cycle of the 'future.' So, as long as I keep committing suicide and forcing Carol to go through time loops, theoretically, even a dog could write a masterpiece on an infinite scale by randomly typing on a keyboard. And if I start committing suicide infinitely, as long as I repeat it countless times, sooner or later I will also happen to encounter the future possibility of Amber appearing, right?"

Duke flashed a somewhat manic smile:

"Honestly, I'm quite curious to see whether Carol goes crazy first, or I do."

Obviously, everyone already knows the answer to this question—after all, no one knows whether Carol has gone mad or when she has gone mad, but everyone present can see that Duke has completely gone mad!

If Carol was still hiding in some unknown corner observing them, she would probably be getting anxious by now.

After all, Duke's plan was completely exploiting a bug here—since the inevitably correct prophecy tells me that amber will definitely appear in the transparent coffin in some future time loop, then I can just start infinitely advancing the time loop. On an infinite time scale, sooner or later I will encounter the correct possibility...

No, no, no, Duke wasn't really playing hard to get. He didn't expect to get lucky with infinite possibilities. He just wanted to torment Carol, who kept manually restarting time, and force the city lord to admit defeat, break the time loop, and hand over Amber, right?

The same thought flashed through the minds of everyone present.

However, before Carol, who was probably already anxious in the shadows, could reappear, Ida hurriedly stopped Duke from biting into the poisoned apple, saying:

"Duke, wait a minute. I know why Amber keeps disappearing. I think you should listen to me first before you do anything!"

Chapter 463 Quantum Cloud

Upon hearing Ida's words, Duke stopped what he was doing and looked at her with some curiosity, waiting for her to explain what had happened to Amber.

Seeing Duke put down the obviously poisoned apple, Ida breathed a sigh of relief. To be honest, if Duke forced Carol to go through a time loop by committing suicide, it wouldn't have any impact on Ida—after all, after losing her divine position, this former god couldn't retain her memories in the time loop and wouldn't remember that Duke had done something so heinous, so it wouldn't add any pressure to her.

However, Duke won't ask the Magic Mirror the same question in the next cycle or any subsequent cycle—and even if he did, the Magic Mirror's answer might not be the same. Therefore, Ida will never see the scene that just appeared again, meaning… if Ida doesn't tell Duke what she knows right now, she will never have the chance to learn about it again.

In that case, even if he restarts through countless suicides and waits for the "future" when amber appears in the transparent coffin, he probably won't be able to seize the opportunity at all.

Listen carefully.

Ida's voice echoed in Duke's mind.

Ida and Duke were not familiar with each other. Although God's fate was once tied to Duke's, it was only because he resurrected himself through a cheat item. And this bond was broken after Amber resurrected Duke through a cheat item in the parallel world. Now, apart from knowing each other and maintaining a relatively consistent goal, they didn't have much of a relationship.

They weren't friends, nor did they ever have any romantic relationship. In fact, in Ida's eyes, Duke's image wasn't exactly great.

He's a complete madman.

After the witch's game in the virtual world, the destruction of the floating city in the parallel world, and now facing the choice of time loop.

Duke's image in Ida's eyes had long been fixed in this awkward way.

But don't get me wrong, Ida doesn't hate Duke. On the contrary, she approves of this crazy guy in front of her... To survive in this shitty world, Duke needs the madness he's showing right now. Only this madness can help him protect everything he wants to protect.

So, I won't fight to the death for you, and I won't waste the rest of my life in this city after I'm free. But before I leave the floating city, Duke, I want to see just how far you and Carol can go, just how crazy you two can get. Until then…

Ida pursed her lips, silently uttering her thoughts to Duke:

"I don't want to see you regretting it later."

“While I don’t think I’ll regret it, you should still say what you want to say.” Duke shrugged. “Ida, what exactly do you want to say?”

"The reason why Amber keeps disappearing from the Magic Mirror's image is simple—her state is not stable enough. She is not fully immersed in the world shown in the image." Ida spread her hands, still maintaining the previous mysterious spell. She did not speak, but continued to use telepathy. However, Duke could still feel the "certainty" in her thoughts. "I'm afraid that even in the possibility shown by the Magic Mirror, Amber only 'stayed' for a short five minutes."

The image from the magic mirror only lasted for five minutes.

Duke raised an eyebrow and countered, "What do you mean by 'not being in a stable state'? 'Not being fully immersed in the world depicted in the image'?"

After hearing Ida's description, he had some guesses and thoughts, but he wasn't sure—he only knew that if the facts were as he guessed, the situation would probably be troublesome.

“I don’t know what happened to Amber, or what Carol did to her.” Ida shook her head and said solemnly, “Her current state is very similar to a strange creature I once saw in another dimension. That kind of creature has no physical form; it is a product of 'possibilities' stacked together, always maintaining a quantum superposition state. Once an observer happens to see them, the quantum superposition state collapses, and they are determined in the real world and gain physical form.”

Duke's expression was somewhat strange, because the person in front of him, a present-day alien and former-god from another world, was talking to him about quantum physics, quantum superposition, and the observer effect. This strange feeling was no less than if you had transmigrated to a cultivation world and happened to find that the cultivators in that world had just created an oracle machine and started calculating NP-complete problems.

Of course, upon closer reflection, it's understandable. After all, this is a floating city that intersects with countless other dimensions. Ida lived here for hundreds of years, so it's possible that she encountered any kind of witch game or other dimension. Among those other dimensions, there are probably technological worlds like the "Cretaceous" witch game, so it's normal for her to know some scientific theories.

Not to mention, the foundation of this floating city is magical technology. In Duke's view, the magical technology of the ancient magical empire even touches on causality and dark energy, technologies that Earth civilization simply cannot imagine. In terms of scientific spirit and the level of technological development, it is not necessarily true whether the ancient magical empire or Earth civilization is superior.

It is quite normal to find theoretical research here that is similar to that in Earth's quantum physics.

Duke reached out and rubbed his temples, then asked, "You mean... Amber is exhibiting this quantum superposition state only because we observed her through the magic mirror, causing her quantum superposition state to collapse and regain form in reality?"

“No, if that’s the case, there’s not much we can do.” Ida shook her head. “The situation is a little better… Amber just got lost in the quantum cloud and can’t get out for the time being. Carol said Amber is in this room, right? I suspect there’s an unobservable quantum cloud in this room, and Amber was taken into that quantum cloud by Carol and can’t get out.”

Ida didn't explain what a quantum cloud was, but just from the name, you could tell it was a "different space" composed of things in a quantum superposition state, just like the mud tentacle monster he had encountered in a parallel world. Although you couldn't see or touch it, and you couldn't feel any spatial fluctuations, it was definitely somewhere in the room.

It might have been hiding in a quantum cloud that was in a state of quantum superposition!

Amber was also in a quantum cloud, but unlike it, she didn't know how to leave the quantum cloud!

Duke's expression changed instantly.

This would mean that his plan to continuously commit suicide to advance the time loop has failed, because if Amber is lost in a quantum cloud in both this time loop and the "future" time loop, then continuously advancing the time loop will not help her at all.

Duke now has two options: either trust and wait for Amber to find a way out of the quantum cloud on her own, or find a suitable "observer" perspective to cause the superposition state of the quantum cloud to collapse and help Amber escape, or find other methods that are more in line with this world of swords and magic... for example.

“Through the power of fate, she was pulled back into the macroscopic world where possibilities are certain.”

Chapter 464 The Quantum Mystery

Duke didn't explain what he meant by the method, but Ida, whose fate was once tied to Duke's, immediately understood what he meant—after Amber resurrected him in a parallel world using a cheat item, Duke broke free from the bond between him and Ida, and then re-bound himself to Amber and share his fate.

Duke's statement about "using the power of fate" likely refers to his own destiny.

However, as he thought about this, Date suddenly began to ponder something.

If her shared fate with Duke can be so easily and directly unbound and reconstructed in this way... then can the fate of the floating city bound to the apocalypse also be unbound and reconstructed in a similar way?

Could Carol's hidden method be something like this?

Ida pondered for a while but couldn't find a solution. After all, Duke shared her and Amber's fate because of the extremely rare transit ritual of "resurrection," while the floating city was a city, not a creature, and therefore neither could die nor have the possibility of "resurrection."

Furthermore, the fate of the floating city being bound to destruction and apocalypse is not due to "resurrection," but rather foreshadowed from the very beginning of its construction. If Carol intends to untie the floating city's fate from destruction and apocalypse through "overwriting," she would at least have to do something commensurate with "building the floating city."

Honestly, if she could rebuild the floating city from scratch, why didn't she just follow the parallel world model, destroy the old floating city to confront the apocalyptic crisis, and then lead everyone in the old floating city to the new one?

Ida pondered for a moment but could not come up with an answer.

She was willing to discuss this issue with Duke. As the core of Carol's hidden plan, he probably knew more and more uniquely than her. However, his current attention was entirely focused on rescuing Amber. Ida was afraid that if she suddenly changed the subject, he would turn on her and fight her to the death.

Ida thought about it for a moment, but ultimately didn't bring up her conjecture to Duke—guessing the full picture of Carol's plan wasn't the most crucial thing right now, and with Duke's abilities, wouldn't he realize that? Ida even suspected that Duke had already thought of this possibility back in a parallel world, after he experienced a resurrection and the untying of his fate, but he just hadn't told anyone about it.

Then, the mute woman slowly exhaled, and the power in the air gradually dissipated. At the same time, she continued, "If Amber is truly trapped in a quantum cloud, then the most optimistic scenario is that she has found a way to leave the quantum cloud, gradually freeing herself from its range. And this most optimistic possibility is not low, after all, we saw Amber appear in the real world through the magic mirror, didn't we?"

But Duke, who had just been infinitely optimistic (referring to his plan to exploit the bug to torment Carol), now frowned and showed extreme pessimism: "Who knows how many time loops that scene will take place in? The most optimistic scenario is that Amber leaves the quantum cloud on her own and returns to the real world, but what about the most pessimistic scenario?"

“…She will get lost in the quantum cloud.” After a moment of silence, Ida continued, “And once Amber gets lost in the quantum cloud, even if you go through time loops and go back to a day ago, you probably still won’t be able to find her.”

"Huh?" Duke's expression changed instantly. He rushed to Ida, grabbed her collar, and demanded, "What did you say?"

"What's the point of you getting angry with me here? I'm just stating the most pessimistic possibility. The reality is unlikely to be that pessimistic. Amber is far from being in the worst situation yet."

Ida casually brushed Duke's hand away, then clasped her hands together, and some unseen and intangible power coalesced in her palms—in Duke's eyes, the mute, having lost her divine position and divinity, was not much weaker, but rather became more mysterious. Before becoming mute, Ida was a legendary genius who could rival Lady Scarlet, and was among the witches of the floating city.

This means that Ida possesses some kind of exclusive magic and can also use her own legendary destiny normally.

During her time as the mute, Ida didn't use these fancy things much. After all, as the guardian of the floating city, her power was so great that she could make bricks fly. Even the Miracle Witch had a hard time competing with her true form (referring to her divine side). But now it's different. She has lost the power called "god," but she is gradually regaining the skills and abilities she once relied on for survival.

Then, Ida reached out and gently tore open a small opening in the space in front of her, reaching inside to search for a moment. Soon, she pulled out a somewhat strange-looking creature from the opening and placed it in front of Duke—it looked like a whale, but was very small, easily lifted by Ida with one hand and displayed.

Date casually remarked, "This is the creature I mentioned before, created by the superposition of possibilities."

"what?"

Duke looked at the little whale in Ida's hand with surprise. He was not only surprised by this creature, which was a product of the observer effect, but also by the fact that Ida had casually found such a creature—wasn't it something Ida had seen in some alternate dimension? Or was it something that could be found everywhere, and she had just found the right angle of observation, causing its possibility to collapse into reality through observation? Or was it that the small opening in space that Ida casually tore open could connect to any alternate dimension?

Both the former and the latter sound rather outrageous.

Duke shook his head, stretched out his finger and gently poked the little whale. He felt a very clear touch on his fingertip, which meant that the little whale was real... But Ida looked away immediately after he touched the little whale.

Then, a somewhat familiar scene appeared: the little whale underwent a strange change. It suddenly became illusory and trembled, like a television without a signal, and disappeared from Duke's sight in an instant, only to reappear mysteriously.

"Once I change my perspective, the possibility of it taking shape will revert to a quantum state."