Chapter 207, Chapter 207, Cycle
“In addition, we need more funding.”
“Just tell me what you need, and I’ll do my best to cooperate. Ah, if Father knew that I could contribute to solving the nightmare that has plagued him for ten years, he would be very gratified.”
"Then, please sign the family consent form first..."
The researcher in the white coat handed over an agreement.
The filial son's signature flashed by, and he saw the name Karasuma Renya.
...Wait, Ren Karasuma?! Isn't that the famous long-lived ancestor of the Karasuma family? Could it be...?
Morofushi Kagemitsu, who had barely managed to make out a small part of their conversation, suddenly snapped back to reality and realized something. Just as he was about to observe the reaction of the dutiful son, Karasuma, everything in his line of sight began to blur.
Before he could react, these scenes from the past, like excerpts from a drama, seemed to be fast-forwarded, jumping between many different scenarios. The filial son not only targeted his own father but also appeared to have randomly selected many others for experiments, though the final conclusions never met his expectations. Moreover, his physical functions continued to decline, and he never lived to see the conclusions reached.
His physical decline stopped only after a new breakthrough occurred in the local laboratory and the island project cleared out the first batch of test subjects.
Morofushi Kagemitsu kept a close eye on Mr. Karasuma's every move, not missing a single detail in the fast-forwarded content, becoming more and more certain that this "Mr. Karasuma" was the big boss behind the organization, the one he had tricked into investing in so many financial industries.
On the surface, it seems that Mr. Karasuma has used a lot of drugs to keep himself alive. However, the constantly flashing hourglass above his head suggests that things are not so simple.
Does he have that much "time"?
Morofushi Kagemitsu, who had been troubled by the energy of time, was very sensitive to this change and immediately thought of the anti-fraud king's saying of "time for time".
Why is it that even time can be "borrowed" from Karasuma?
He doesn't have an anti-fraud app, so now it's time for fate to demand a "price" from him, right?
Sure enough, the hourglass above Mr. Karasuma's head began to reverse, and two different colors of spacetime energy began to intertwine with the ever-increasing speed of the reversal.
Morofushi Kagemitsu watched the hourglass, which reversed approximately every so often. The intervals between its reversals were getting shorter and shorter, and sometimes it even appeared above the heads of unfamiliar faces. This reminded him of the "special events" that Pisco, Vermouth, and others had hinted at experiencing.
Was it fate that brought them together? Is this a concrete manifestation of being influenced by fate?
He vaguely sensed that his ever-expanding thoughts had encountered some kind of barrier, and his intuition told him that he couldn't think any further. But when the moment actually arrived, he still couldn't quite control the diverging of his thoughts, and it seemed as if ripples were being created on that invisible barrier.
Just when he felt things were spiraling out of control, he finally saw himself in Karasuma's field of vision.
The image of "Morofushi Kagemitsu" is very blurry, but the hourglass above his head is unusually conspicuous. However, this hourglass is broken and gray, without any color.
Zhu Fujingguang: !!!
He paused slightly, as if he understood something, and then continued reading.
Just as he had imagined, this version of himself lived a completely different life, or rather, a life without encountering the anti-war app. When that somewhat familiar rooftop appeared, he understood; this was the inevitable fate the anti-fraud expert had spoken of.
If my hourglass dies, what about the Karasuma's?!
He stared intently at the hourglass that was spinning faster and faster, and then witnessed firsthand the process of the two colors of spacetime energy going from having distinct positions to permeating and merging, and finally returning to two different energies.
In the future where that organization was being led toward destruction, Karasuma's hourglass time energy ran out, turning back to black and white like his own hourglass, and finally shattered.
The time that Karasuma had lost over the years was reclaimed, returning to some void in the sky, crossing the barrier of time like a shooting star, to rewind back to the very beginning.
However, this journey was far too long. When it reached the other side, only a tiny, insignificant wavelength remained, along with the energy fragments that fell as the broken hourglass streaked across the sky.
(Cat contemplating the universe.gif)
One of them lit up Morofushi Kagemitsu's hourglass.
At the same time, he opened his eyes while lying in bed.
Several alpacas circled around him, and when they saw that he was awake, they immediately became overjoyed.
[Anti-fraud expert #26: You're awake? Congratulations, the surgery was a success, you're now a woman...]
Number 148 skillfully used his interrupt skill, pushing Number 26 aside.
[Anti-Fraud Guru #148: Jing, you're finally awake! I knew that amulet was definitely faulty! We tried calling your name in your head, but you wouldn't wake up. It's almost noon, and you're finally showing some reaction!]
[Anti-fraud expert #205: I just checked again, and all your health indicators are within the normal range. Theoretically, there shouldn't be any problems. How do you feel? Are your senses of touch, hearing, etc., still normal?]
Amidst the chatter of the alpacas, Morobushi Kagemitsu sat up somewhat dazedly. His mind was still preoccupied with the hourglass cycle. Upon hearing Number 205's question, he nodded subconsciously.
[Anti-Fraud Guru #198: ...Really? You seem so much slower than usual. Have you gotten stupid?]
A familiar sense of speechlessness welled up in his heart, which finally gave him a sense of returning to reality.
He flicked the head of the little sheep number 198 while getting up to pour himself a glass of water.
[Anti-fraud expert #66: So, Jing, can you finally tell us what happened? You didn't really go to the shrine just to get a good luck charm, did you? And judging from your expression, you seemed to have entered some kind of special state just now?]
[Anti-Fraud Guru No. 11: It's a bit like you've traveled through time again, but we haven't detected any unusual time-space fluctuations. What's going on?]
"It was just a dream, of course it has nothing to do with time travel." Morofushi Kagemitsu drank most of a glass of water, and the thirst was finally relieved. "By the way, our energy shouldn't have changed, right?"
[Anti-Fraud Guru #19: No, without them, we wouldn't be so calm.]
That's good, that's good. I thought I had to pay an entrance fee to come to this dream journey.
[Anti-Fraud Guru #214: What dream journey? Which amulet made you dream about it?!]
Yes, I did have a dream.
Morofushi Kagemitsu began to ponder how to tell them what he had seen in his dream.
After all, according to Number 234, there are some things that need to be kept from them. The statement that "they still retain some humanity" seems to suggest that they are concerned about whether the anti-fraud officers can accept it emotionally.
Those who were police officers or victims of persecution by an organization before their deaths might indeed feel uneasy discovering that the precursor to the app was driving the big boss to develop the organization. However, they wouldn't be truly devastated by such a thing.
Moreover, neither being a fragment of one's own consciousness nor having spent a considerable amount of time with them, Number 234, could be completely unaware of their temperaments. So where did this instruction come from?
He began to compare the anti-fraud campaign with fate.
If fate is unpredictable and time is merciless, then the alpacas with the same abilities certainly gave him a very different feeling.
Human nature... sometimes it's not just about those negative emotions, is it?
He recalled the alpacas' determination to change their inevitable fate, their cooperation with people outside his rescue target, and the various "anti-fraud news" stories with broadened standards...
He silently put down his water glass. These actions, which he normally considered perfectly normal, now became evidence of the anti-fraud officer's "favoritism." But honestly, even if he were number 234, it would be difficult not to be "favoritistic" in this regard...
[Anti-Fraud Guru #26: ...Hello? Jing—are you still listening?]
Number 26's shout easily dispelled his melancholy.
He looked at the restless alpacas, sighed, and began to recount everything he had seen in his dream.
As for the hourglass, he had originally planned to skip that part, thus fulfilling Number 234's request. But if he didn't mention it now, would they really not find out?
In this world, they've become certain that only they can defy fate, and after so much time filling in the gaps and learning from their humanity, it would be a real shame if all of this failed to make them realize their own uniqueness.
Moreover, the initial fate was caused by the instinct to rewind time, and had nothing to do with human nature; at the same time, in the future where they were already dead, Number 234 also appeared naturally, and the anti-fraud officers did not choose to rewind because of their own death.
He had no reason to doubt them.
After hesitating for a moment, he brought up the matter of the hourglass, suggesting that perhaps they could find a way to resolve the time reversal caused by the reclaiming of time by fate.
The alpacas pondered deeply, then one by one crawled back into the computer and began calculating.
[Anti-fraud expert #205: This is indeed a difficult matter. Karasuma Renya has incurred a significant time debt. To prevent this retrograde process, we would need to dedicate an equal, or even greater, amount of time energy to eliminate it.]
So, you're starting to conserve energy again?
[Anti-Fraud King No. 66: There's nothing we can do about it. After altering your inevitable death, although you have a lot of energy left, it's far from enough to offset the time-related energy.]
Ah, if only I had known...
[Anti-Fraud Guru #19: Stop! Don't regret it! Even if we had known this beforehand, we would still have saved you!]
[Anti-fraud expert #198: That's right. From another perspective, in the future you couldn't save, we didn't accumulate enough energy either.]
[Anti-fraud expert #148: Anyway, it's too late for you to regret it.]
...
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