Nobita's Time Heist

One day, I came home and my dad pulled out a book of paintings by a famous artist. As he looked through it, he reminisced about the past, saying, "Back in the day, your old man was a talented and dashing young man. There was even a wealthy man who funded my art studies! Life is so strange; just by choosing a different path, you embark on completely different lives..." Blah blah blah...

Nobita couldn't understand such profound sentiments at that time. He only knew that if his father went to learn painting and became a famous painter, he would definitely be very rich. He could buy as many remote-controlled cars, model airplanes, and comic books as he wanted, and dorayaki would be a piece of cake. No one knows what Doraemon was thinking, but he actually felt the same way and wanted to experience the freedom of dorayaki too.

So, the two mischievous kids displayed amazing wisdom—they wanted to go back in time, help their father pursue art, and then be reborn as the children of a rich man.

As they played along, halfway through their matchmaking efforts, Doraemon realized something was wrong and cried out in alarm. It turned out they had overlooked a crucial issue: Nobita was the child of Nobisuke and Kataoka Tama. If his father became a painter and a wealthy man, his life trajectory would drastically change. Naturally, he wouldn't be able to meet his mother, and therefore, Nobita wouldn't exist. This chain reaction nearly shattered the anchor point that saved the timeline—a mystery even the Time Police would find perplexing.

Even worse, Da Xiong used the same "determination needle" on his father, just like Wang Mang did, giving him a hard push at a crossroads in his life. Fortunately, his father remained clear-headed and, after making up his mind, refused to live off his wife for the rest of his life.

He chose something more long-term and more personal than art or money.

From a pragmatic perspective, it seems a bit foolish, but Nobita has always been proud of his father's choice, and that pride remains unchanged to this day.

……

"In short, what she means is..."

“If he doesn’t meet his father and mother, he will never have existed in the first place, right?” Nobita’s tone was inexplicably heavy. “Then, because I am some kind of ‘anchor,’ the past I choose will become a fixed destiny, and in this way, he will completely disappear from the entire timeline.”

"What's wrong, Nobita?" Shizuka noticed his resistance and asked softly, "Isn't this method good?"

“It’s very practical, but… I’m not sure…” Da Xiong hesitated for a moment before asking, “What happened to the people he saved while he was traveling around practicing medicine? Without Nostradamus’s help, could they survive the plague?”

There was silence on the other end of the conversation.

A few seconds later, perhaps after consulting Asur, Shizuka's tone was less certain than before, "Well, most likely... they'll all die. Because Nostradamus isn't an ordinary doctor; his ability to save lives is closely related to his occult arts. Even if an ordinary doctor were willing to help these people, they couldn't replace his presence."

"In short, if his parents had not met, everything related to him would have disappeared. The 'past' anchored by the Time Anchor is protected by the sacred timeline and will not trigger a spacetime vortex. However, it will trigger a phenomenon called 'time burst'."

“A bullet that exceeds the speed of sound will create a sonic boom. Similarly, the influence of a single point in time will spread outwards and create a time boom. Because he affected too many people before and after his death, the fate of these people will change, even tens of thousands of them. And once the fate of these tens of thousands of people changes, it may involve hundreds of thousands more... there is no upper limit—this is the price we must bear.”

"This is the only solution that Asur-chan can think of."

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The exchange of thoughts is very quick; in just a few dozen seconds, everything that needs to be said has been said.

It seems that Nobita doesn't have many choices.

"Ha, who says doing good deeds is useless..."

Nobita sighed, looked at Nostradamus, who was no longer human in the virtual interface, and said with a wry smile, "Didn't I save your life?"

Chapter 248: The Dictator's Button

Unsurprisingly, Nobita once again finds himself caught in a moral dilemma—in war, achieving strategic objectives usually requires sacrificing something, and even someone with future gadgets like him is no exception. Nostradamus is no easy opponent, and with his ultimate attack, defeating him fair and square has become incredibly difficult.

This guy is basically running a script, linking his health and mana bars to the fountain, endlessly regenerating health and mana every second. Even if you blast him to pieces a thousand or ten thousand times, he can revive using his time-traveling magic. Just as he predicted, no matter how powerful Nobita is, he can't "stop being human" like him. And being human inevitably limits one's combat abilities. After truly blasting him a thousand or ten thousand times, Nobita himself will inevitably tire, thus revealing an opening.

He can wait.

He could even do nothing at all, just wait and see with Nobita, waiting for this moment to arrive. After all, time is always his friend.

The only way to defeat him is to erase him from history. Not "kill," but "disappear." Disappearance means that this person named Nostradamus never existed. And someone who never existed naturally has no magic to offer.

But... those he had saved during the plague were now like hostages, firmly tied to him. Although to Nobita living in the 21st century, these people had long since turned to dust, they had still truly lived and existed in this world.

Is it worth altering the life trajectories of so many people just for one's own benefit?

Without this once chivalrous itinerant doctor, will the lives of these patients, who are already halfway to their coffins, change for the better?

He couldn't keep deceiving himself like that.

He felt that he probably couldn't bear the consequences of the so-called "time burst." His past experiences of messing things up told him that he had to be extremely cautious when it came to things involving modifying time.

Seeing the increasingly severe "high-energy reaction" on the screen, Nobita took a deep breath and tried to clear his mind. He racked his brains, countless gadgets flashing through his mind, trying to figure out which one was the most suitable for the current situation and could perfectly resolve the crisis.

"Time machine, replication mirror, return mirror, future diary, leaves from four-dimensional space..."

"Give me one more hand, Doraemon..."

……

……

……

"Nobita!"

The moment Shizuka's anxious voice entered his mind, it was as if a flash of inspiration had pierced through his entire body, and Nobita finally came up with an idea.

At this moment, the torrent of magic from the spider-faced creature's mouth finally compressed to a terrifying degree. It was still a simple and brutal release of magic, but by continuously absorbing power to build up the box, it had reached a point where it could penetrate anything. According to the analysis given by Shanda Cross, this attack was enough to damage the outer layer of the machine.

"Regardless, I'm still quite satisfied with this time-traveling chase scene." Seeing that Nobita hadn't moved an inch for so long, the Spider-Man assumed he'd given up and sneered, "That was wise, Nobita, that's about right..."

"It's time to end this—!!"

He nodded.

Its entire head bloomed like a flower, and black sand condensed into rings of fleshy tentacles. At its very center, a torrent of magic, like a meteorite, tore through the atmosphere and shot out.

……

"We can't let him 'absolutely not exist'..."

"Thump—!!!"

A sound of air being torn apart came, and a stream of magical energy, like a surging tide, flowed down from top to bottom.

……

"Just make him 'relatively non-existent'."

In a blinding flash of light, Nobita decisively pulled out a prop that he had kept hidden away for many years and that was quite educational.

"【Dictator Button】—!!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

The cat-type robot's main focus is childcare. Doraemon seems unconventional, often engaging in silly antics with Nobita. However, his general education is consistently excellent, even surpassing the level of typical childcare robots. This is because his approach is more heartfelt. If a comparison must be made, Doraemon is like Nobita in the robot cat genre. In the process of educating Nobita, he himself grows little by little, and this two-way emotional bond is often more solid.

In his memory, the most memorable instance was when he used this gadget, allowing nine-year-old Nobita to truly experience what it was like to be a dictator. The story is so classic that it no longer needs to be told.

Afterwards, he also asked Doraemon if the gadget could really erase people. If so, why did everyone turn back to normal later? Or was it just creating a logically consistent illusion?

Doraemon's smile froze on his face. Clearly, as a perennial underachiever in the 22nd century, he wasn't entirely clear on the "principle" of this gadget either. But it was rare for Nobita to show any curiosity about something, and it seemed inappropriate to remain silent. After stammering for a while, he managed to offer a rather vague explanation.

The person doesn't truly disappear; this tool doesn't yet possess such power. However, it can temporarily "deceive" the timeline, infinitely diluting the person's "existence" at each point in time until it becomes undetectable by the timeline itself. During this period, the person's true form is briefly transported to an open subspace, where they remain unconscious.

Just before being engulfed by the light, Nobita raised the button above his head, pressed it, and shouted, "Nostradamus, vanish!"

It doesn't have to be a real name. In fact, when Nobita made Gian disappear, he said "Gian" instead of "Takeshi Gouda".

As long as you can recognize who the name you are calling refers to, that's enough.

……

The beam of light that was about to strike vanished instantly, along with the terrifying human-faced spider, which disappeared without a trace.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Strange, isn't that Nostradamus? How could he be here..." Shizuka's memory also began to falter, because the two sets of memories differed too much. If Nostradamus didn't exist, many of the things she experienced couldn't be explained, including the mess here. Therefore, what should have been a mundane replacement, like the passing of a breeze, made Shizuka sense something was amiss.

I may have noticed it, but I just can't remember the person who doesn't really exist.

"I remember, something went wrong in the 21st century, and that's how we got here in the time machine. This should be the year 8 AD, right? We first saw a lot of monsters in Copperheart Village, and after we defeated them, we entered Chang'an City. And then, and then... and then what was it again?"

She tried hard to recall, but her memories were like broken threads, impossible to piece together.

"Asur-chan, do you know... are you alright?" Shizuka had originally intended to ask about Asur's condition, but upon turning her head and seeing Asur's deathly pale face, she was startled. "Why do you look like that? Did something happen?"

This time, the girl's expression was no longer one of astonishment, but rather one of fear.

She stared blankly at the empty sky, as if she had seen some indescribable monster.

Chapter 249: Abulaka Tabula!

When the word "space" is mentioned, most people can't actually imagine a concrete thing. It seems that these two words, taken alone, refer to an endless white world. On this superflat continent, there is nothing alive or dead, no landmarks, and no celestial bodies can be seen when you look up. This snow-white world stretches on and on until the very end of the world.

Nostradamus is currently in such a subspace.

"hiss……"

The spider-like creature, larger than a mountain, began to shrink rapidly, like a balloon punctured with a needle. Its once inexhaustible source of magic now seemed to have completely dried up, no longer responding to his calls. Instead, it rapidly dissipated from his body, merging into the empty world. He tried everything, but could not stop the escape of magic; what followed was a weariness he hadn't felt in a long time.

Overdrawing the strength of the present, the past, and the future to take out a huge loan that can never be repaid seems to come at a price.

"How...how is this possible...Are you kidding me!" Nostradamus's power rapidly dissipated, and he finally couldn't maintain his composure of having everything under control. True to his reputation as a veteran occultist, without any prompting, relying solely on his extraordinary intuition, he realized his situation. "This place...can it really transcend the flow of time?!"

"Wow, you know a lot."

The next moment, with a gentle turn of the knob, Nobita also teleported himself into this subspace. The last time he saw a subspace created by this kind of tool was in the world created by the [Horizon Tape]. This world was very similar to that one; time didn't even flow here. It was only because of Nostradamus's special physique that he wasn't forcibly frozen.

"You..." Nostradamus's expression changed repeatedly, his white beard seemed to flutter up one by one, and he asked through almost gritted teeth, "Have you erased my 'past'?"

“I would never do something so tasteless.” Da Xiong waved the dictator button on his hand at him and laughed. “Xiao Shan once told me that in ‘this universe,’ magic and mysticism are destined to be eliminated. Only a small number of people can master this power and make use of it. In short, this kind of thing is not universal and will cause huge barriers between people.”

"But this is different."

He raised the dictator button in his hand and said in a deep voice, "The fruits of science can still be used by anyone with no talent for mysticism, even if it's not me."

Nostradamus didn't say anything more, just quietly looked at Nobita, seemingly lost in thought or looking for another opportunity to attack.

"Admit it, your era is long gone. Even if you wanted to destroy all of humanity's achievements so far, you wouldn't dare to do it in the 22nd century. Because you know very well that in a technologically advanced civilization, there's no guarantee that they won't have ways to retaliate against you. You can only look to the past and act when human civilization is in its infancy and completely powerless to resist."

"But that's where it ends."

"Are you telling me all this because you're planning to kill me?" His narrow eyes narrowed slightly. Even now, with his last trump card exposed, he maintained the composure of a mystic and sneered, "I told you before that your spiritual sense is very high. If you specialize in mystic arts, your future achievements will definitely be no less than mine. In a sense... it's a loss to the mystical world that you didn't choose this path."

"But right now, you are just a mortal and have no way to interfere with me. The little magic I have left is enough for me to use a secret spell to curse you to death ten thousand times."

His eyes once again emitted a blood-red light, and dark spiritual energy swirled around him, forming a solid magical barrier. Even without exploiting this transdimensional bug, his inherent magical power still surpassed that of an ordinary mage. Vast magical power erupted from his spiritual body, his figure gradually blurring and dissipating, even staining the pure white space somewhat black. Only his red eyes darted within, emitting an eerie light, like a wild beast lurking in the darkness, ready to pounce.

“After I kill you, this space will no longer be able to confine me... Even if I stay here for a thousand or ten thousand years, I will eventually use my spiritual sense to find a way out.”

Goodbye, Nobita!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"boom!"

The next moment, countless savage beasts from the shadows suddenly moved, splitting into countless teeth and claws within the darkness, and pounced towards Da Xiong. An overwhelming wave of spells followed, almost engulfing his body.

At that moment, Nostradamus keenly sensed something was wrong—he wasn't as confident of victory as he seemed. After several exchanges, Nobita's various gadgets had almost completely thwarted his offensive. In this battle of attack and defense, he had been trapped in his opponent's territory and was preparing for a desperate fight, so naturally he dared not underestimate his opponent and used all his strength to unleash his curse.

In his mind, Nobita would probably pull out some strange gadget to fight him, and the back-and-forth between the two sides would inevitably last for some time. When the dust settles, it's hard to say who will ultimately prevail.

But... he didn't do it the way he wanted.

In fact, from the beginning, Nobita had been standing still, his hands hanging naturally at his sides, as if he were asleep. He had laid bare all his weaknesses, as if he were just waiting for Nostradamus to come and trigger the curse. This fearless attitude instantly alerted Nostradamus, and he almost withdrew his spell.

Unfortunately, it's still too late.

Just a second before the spell touched Nobita's body, he suddenly looked up and revealed a rare, cold smile.

“Abracadabula!”

classic.

A classic incantation so widely known that even ordinary people could recite it, it actually holds no meaning in the realm of mysticism. However, in this context, the fact that it was uttered by Nobita amplified Nostradamus's ominous premonition to its peak.

“Buzz——!”

A blinding light flashed, and his spirit-formed body was thrown several feet away, as if struck by a heavy hammer out of nowhere. He clutched his chest, his form growing even fainter, and his magic power dwindling. This was the first time he had ever experienced such a sensation, and he froze for a moment, looking down at his hands, repeatedly confirming his suspicions, still unable to believe reality.

Nobita remained standing in the same spot, having withstood the curse attack unscathed, and simply looked at him calmly.

"Return spell..."

"You... used a curse-reversal spell on me?! How is that possible?!" He roared like a madman, clearly his worldview had been greatly shaken. It was rare for a dead man to be so emotional.

"Even a highly talented mystic would need at least seventy years to fully master this kind of magic! In the mystical world, which emphasizes the offense and defense of elemental magic, 'curse' is already a very difficult spell, and 'curse reversal,' used to counter curses, is even more unattainable... How could you, a mere mortal, possibly use such magic?!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

"Really? Is it something that amazing? I don't know." Nobita said calmly, with a hint of sarcasm, "I just invented it myself."

Chapter 250: The Silver Swordsman

[Encyclopedia of Magic].

If I had to choose, this is one of those items that is often underestimated but possesses immense power, reflecting one aspect of the 22nd century's ongoing research into the mystical realm. There's not a single word about it in the dictionary, but whatever spell you write down will become usable. Of course, its effectiveness is quite broad, so when setting up spells, it's best to choose words or actions that are unlikely to be unintentionally repeated by others.

Any kind of magic will do.

For Nobita, it was just another day of routine – being chased home by Gian. No one knew if Gian was trying to train his sprinting ability, but Gian was always a step behind, the fist just missing his head by a hair's breadth. Over six years of elementary school, Nobita's overall physical education skills hadn't improved much, except for his exceptional sprinting ability.

Back home, seeing him chased and out of breath, Doraemon didn't even react. The same scene played out every day, and he was pretty used to it, calmly flipping through his comics while secretly planning what gadgets he'd give him next. But this time, Nobita's thought process was even more peculiar than usual. He felt that his cowardice stemmed entirely from "this being a world without magic," and that if there were magic, Gian and the like could be taken care of in no time.