I don't want to conquer witches anymore.

After vividly demonstrating this point, Ida shook her head again and focused her attention back on the little whale in her hands. It no longer exhibited the previous sudden "loss of signal" state, but instead began to struggle violently, trying to break free from Ida's grasp. Unfortunately, its strength was insufficient, and it was unable to escape from Ida's clutches.

"There are many of these creatures in the quantum cloud. I found it in another quantum cloud. The quantum cloud in this room is too chaotic and hidden for me, probably because the constant repetition of time makes it difficult to observe. Therefore, I am not confident that I can find Amber. In contrast, you, who can retain memories in the time loop, have a better chance of finding this quantum cloud. The only problem is that you must be careful of these creatures while you are searching for the quantum cloud."

Duke tilted his head, subconsciously glancing down at the little whale in Ida's hand. Although it was struggling violently, it didn't cause Ida any trouble; on the contrary, it had a harmless and cute quality. He really couldn't see anything to be wary of in this creature.

"Heh, you're a bit strange? Well, try it yourself then."

As she spoke, Ida casually tossed the little whale in her hand to Duke, who instinctively opened his arms and caught it. However, after getting his hands on it, Duke raised an eyebrow slightly—the little whale was much heavier than he had imagined, and he almost dropped it.

After leaving Date, its condition changed drastically in a very short time.

It is a creature composed of a superposition of a large number of possibilities. Its essence is a quantum superposition information group in a high dimension. These information can collapse into different results under the different understandings of different observers. In Ida's eyes and hands, it is a "well-behaved" little whale, but in Duke's hands, it has been transformed into other forms in a short period of time.

The baby whale transformed into a tiger shark of normal size. It suddenly flipped over and struggled out of Duke's arms, first striking Duke with a powerful tail whip, knocking him to the ground. Then it opened its blood-red maw and bit down on Duke's upper body.

However, the tiger shark didn't get a taste of Duke's flesh. It bit at nothing, flipped in the air, and shook its head in confusion before belatedly realizing that there was someone on its back. Duke sat sideways on its back, frowning as he said, "When it transformed into other forms, there wasn't even a process?"

"As soon as the primary observer's observation is interrupted, the next observation will cause these strange creatures to mutate."

As Ida's voice rang out, the remaining tiger shark that Duke was sitting on underwent another strange change. It suddenly disappeared as if it had lost its signal, causing the unsuspecting Duke to fall off its back and land somewhat awkwardly. Then it reappeared, but this time it was no longer a marine creature.

It transformed into a black knight, clad in heavy, jet-black armor, riding a fierce steed, and wielding a jet-black spear with its tip pointed at Duke. The moment it appeared, it launched an attack on Duke.

"drink--"

Duke narrowed his eyes, abruptly turned his head to dodge the attack, then stomped his foot and magically produced a remote control-like device in his hand. In the next instant, he seemed to have activated a short-distance teleportation, suddenly appearing behind the Black Knight from in front of it.

Before the Black Knight could react, Duke raised his hand, holding a neon revolver loaded with bullets called Death Finger, and pointed the bullets and the muzzle at the back of the Black Knight's head.

Duke pulled the trigger without hesitation, and then, the red lightning of Death Finger burst forth, striking the Black Knight in the head.

The Black Knight crashed to the ground, then, like a television screen that had lost its signal, it trembled violently a few times before disappearing. This time, it did not change its state again and reappeared in the same spot.

Duke put away the neon revolver and said calmly, "It's not that difficult to deal with."

But he didn't wait for Ida's rebuttal or answer, nor did he hear anyone else, such as Annie, speaking. Duke was slightly taken aback, then suddenly turned around to look behind him—but he didn't see his companions.

Whether it's Ida, Anne, or Zun...

He was still in the core cabin of the floating city, but now he was the only one left in the core cabin—even the true "owner" of this place, the magic supercomputer No. 5497, had disappeared from where it was originally located.

For a moment, only Duke and the transparent coffin remained in the empty room.

Duke was stunned. He instinctively opened his mouth to say something, but was astonished to find that there was no concept of sound here. He was clearly speaking, his vocal cords were vibrating, but no sound came out. He casually cast a spell, slamming it towards the floor. Magic responded to his action, condensing into a spell, but even a valid spell failed to affect the target floor, nor did it create any sound.

Duke fell into an eerie silence.

Soon, his thoughts began to split, and his brain seemed to lose control, starting to think about different things at the same time. Without human control, his brain had no concept of priorities. Whether it was difficult thinking or trivial details, Duke's brain was doing them all at the same time. This simultaneous thinking without regard to priorities made Duke's thinking efficiency incredibly slow, to the point of "negative growth".

Duke not only failed to resolve any of the issues in his mind, but also allowed these issues to intertwine, making the situation even more complicated.

Next, Duke's body began to undergo mutation.

He blinked, and then his brain, running on multiple threads simultaneously, told him that he now had three arms, and what he saw were indeed three coexisting arms, but the attempts stored in his brain told him that an ordinary person should only have two arms...

However, at that moment, Duke's vision blurred.

The world has restarted once again.

Duke, in a daze, entered the next time loop.

……

Duke suddenly woke up, then gasped for breath. Coming out of that strange state, he was like a drowning person finally surfacing and taking his first breath of air.

But soon, he realized that the scene in front of him was somewhat familiar, and he showed a surprised expression.

Therefore, this time he did not wake up in the transparent coffin, but returned to the original time and place once again—DAY0's alluring west coast.

He went back to the time before Amber was kidnapped by Carol!

but.

Duke quickly realized something was wrong—he didn't see Amber among his companions.

"Where's Amber?" Duke suddenly looked at Cecil, who was standing beside him, and repeated his question, "Where's Amber?!"

Cecil looked at him with some surprise and asked in return:

Who is Amber?

Chapter 465 Seemingly Possible Possibilities

Who is Amber?

"Cecil, what are you talking about? Why don't you recognize Amber?"

Duke suddenly became excited and grabbed Guangbao's shoulder. Cecil was startled by his excitement and instinctively pulled her hands away from Duke's. She looked at him timidly, as if she was afraid of his behavior, like a frightened little animal. She shrank back and asked softly, "So, who exactly is Amber, Duke? Why do I know her?"

Cecil's behavior and words stunned Duke. He stared at her blankly, as if he were looking at a complete stranger. In turn, she seemed to be looking at a stranger he didn't know well either.

Is this person really Cecil?

A thought flashed through Duke's mind, and then he suddenly looked up at the others present, Ida, Annie, and Xiao Hei... but the sense of unease in Duke's heart grew stronger.

For some reason, Duke felt that his companions seemed somewhat unrelated to him. They didn't seem to be the same people he knew, but they weren't completely unrelated either.

"Seemingly true but actually false" is the best adjective.

Duke rubbed his temples, stood up, and looked around at the tranquil and alluring West Coast. At the same time, he checked the Star Chart System, which gave him a notification that he had obtained a single draw ticket. The Golden Apple and Poison Apple he had drawn before had also disappeared. Duke only had four single draw opportunities left to use—clearly, all of this meant that Duke had experienced a completely new time loop.

However, it is definitely not an ordinary time loop.

This time loop not only resulted in Amber's absence, but Duke's body also did not collapse!

This is clearly the save point where the time loop began, which is the daytime of DAY 0. In previous time loops, without Duke's intervention, the same events would definitely occur at the same time points, but this time is different. Duke did not experience death again, and he was not even using a divine body from the beginning, but rather the original body he found in the core chamber of the floating city.

"This is strange. Could it be that this isn't a 'time loop' at all, but rather a 'pseudo-time loop' created by some being, one that even a divine body can't replicate?"

Duke muttered something under his breath, his voice barely audible, but someone suddenly spoke up, answering Duke's words: "It's not that we can't reproduce the divine body, it's just that we can't reproduce your divine body."

All eyes turned to the direction of the suddenly speaking voice, especially Ida, who immediately adopted a posture of high alert—because the person who spoke was none other than Miss Carol, the city lord of the floating city!

But Duke seemed out of place, raising an eyebrow and taking the initiative to walk towards Carol's location without hesitation!

The city lord was wearing a pure black bikini top, which fully displayed her beautiful figure. However, her face was flushed because of this somewhat unusual outfit. Although it was not evident in her tone, it could be seen from Carol's expression that she was worried, as if she was concerned about whether this daring swimsuit was suitable for her.

Carol looked up at Duke, who was walking towards her. She was about to force a bright smile and greet him when she froze for a moment. Duke didn't stop in front of her. He didn't care about the swimsuit Carol was wearing. Instead, he walked faster and faster until he was right in front of her and punched her in the face with his fist clenched!

"Boom-"

The sound of a fist striking rang out just before it actually hit Carol. Carol, who was about to dodge, paused for a fraction of a second, seemingly trying to figure out why the sound had occurred. But it wasn't until Duke abruptly stopped his fist and revealed the remote control he was holding that she realized the sound was created by Duke through his omnipotent trickery.

Duke pivoted on his toes, smoothly switching his attacking arm from his right to his left. His right hand, which was originally aimed at Carol, was instantly activated by pressing the "cheat item" button, while his left hand, which was used to swing the arm, made a chop gesture and slashed at Carol.

He doesn't need to use much strength, and he doesn't need to conserve much energy.

With his cheat device, Duke only needs to "hit" Carol to pose a fatal threat to her!

Unlike before, Duke truly intended to kill Carol this time.

"Because even if time loops occur, Amber still doesn't appear... This makes you realize that Amber has begun to get lost in the quantum cloud, and it even directly affects all her possibilities. In any possibility of the world, she no longer exists."

However, Carol managed to dodge Duke's attack. She leisurely paused time and then slowly retreated in front of Duke—she knew that Duke, with his Star Chart system, could remain fully conscious during her time-stopping.

"Even though you didn't understand what I wanted to do, you were convinced that I wasn't your enemy. Even if I wanted to do something, my ultimate goal was to save the floating city. Even Amber's disappearance didn't change your mind... until now, you realize that Amber is really in mortal danger."

Carol paused for a moment, then smiled and asked in return:

"Do you intend to kill me, Duke?"

"Tch." Duke clicked his tongue lightly, put away the cheating device with obvious displeasure, and said with a sneer, "So what if it is?"

“I don’t mind.” Carol shrugged, standing in a time-stopped state, and looked with interest at Duke’s companions behind him. Apart from Duke and Amber, no one was immune to her time-stopping ability, not even the mute Ida. “Do you know why this place is different from the previous time loops?”

"Because this is one of the other possibilities?" Duke retorted. "Are you going to spout a bunch of nonsense about quantum physics?"

Carol coughed awkwardly after Duke stole her line, then shrugged: "That's right, this is the floating city among the other possibilities... Duke, if you want to save Amber, you need to find her among these possibilities where Amber doesn't exist."

"Or perhaps I could defeat you and force you to hand over the amber, wouldn't I?"

“Let me make it clear beforehand, I have no way of bringing Amber out of the quantum cloud.” Carol shrugged. “To be honest, you’ve all misunderstood me. I wasn’t the one who put Amber into the quantum cloud.”

Duke glared at her: "Who else could it be but you? Me?"

Carol paused for a moment, then clasped her hands together: "Hey, it really is!"

Duke: "?"

Chapter 466 Fate's Drift

In the version of the story Duke heard from Anne and Ida, Amber and the Little Prince were kidnapped by Carol, but according to the suspect's own account, she seems to have a completely different answer:

“I didn’t kidnap Amber and the Little Prince. That Black Prince you brought back from the parallel world is a real pain and a real cunning. Why would I take him away? As for Amber, she can maintain consciousness in my time stop just like you, and she does it even better than you. She can use her abilities to move briefly in my time stop, while you can’t even speak without my permission.”

“Amber noticed my presence at the time. In order to protect the little prince and you who were regaining control of your body, she fought me briefly, and then accidentally wandered into the quantum cloud. I did not kidnap her, much less send her into the quantum cloud!”

Carol spoke with utmost righteousness, and Duke listened to her story with a frown, eventually believing her to some extent.

The story she told matched Duke's facts in many ways. Ida and Anne concluded that Amber and the Little Prince were kidnapped by Carol simply because they sensed the time stop, but neither of them actually witnessed Amber and the Little Prince being kidnapped by Carol.

In fact, they only realized what had happened after the amber disappeared.

Therefore, their judgments are not necessarily accurate.

As for Carol, if she didn't lie to Duke, her words are naturally much more credible than the "imagined" answers given by Ida and Anne.

Duke frowned, pondering whether Carol's version of the story was believable. At the same time, he coldly retorted, "What did you mean by what you said earlier? What do you mean by saying that I was the one who let Amber into the Quantum Cloud?"

"It means exactly what it says, you're the real culprit!"

Carol smiled with a hint of schadenfreude, seemingly amused by the uncertainty surrounding her rival's fate. However, Duke quickly detected a touch of bitterness in her smile before she continued, "In all my hundred-plus reincarnations, Amber has never grown this fast. Therefore, she never faced this risk before the floating city's doomsday destruction—if it weren't for you, Amber naturally wouldn't have grown so quickly."

"what?"

Duke looked at Carol with a puzzled expression.

Duke was undoubtedly involved in Amber's growth. He hadn't known Amber for very long, only a few months, not even a year, but in those few months, Amber had transformed from a delicate elf princess who, upon encountering an unexpected event, could do nothing but scream, teleport away, and crouch down in fear, into the Amber she was now.

At Anne's urging, they stormed into the Tower of Babel, intending to kill a true legend (Norton).

In order to keep up with Duke's pace, he did not hesitate to force his way through the Gate of Truth and immerse himself in the Sea of ​​Truth, thus obtaining the secret art of time.

Having obtained the Mythical Armor from Duke, and through his own combat techniques experienced via the Time Arcane Arts, he controlled the Mythical Armor to save Duke from his desperate situation.