[23:35:47]
Ningcheng.
Outside Venus Bar.
Drunk people scoffed out the back door of the bar. In the light and shadow of the neon lights, someone noticed a man leaning against the door.
The man was smoking a cigarette, wearing an outdated trench coat that looked as if it came from nowhere. But the other party is a natural clothes hanger. The proud height and the almost perfect body proportions make this kind of clothes wear different temperament on him, and he is abruptly raised several grades.
It is a pity that, looking up along his figure, his face is hidden in the shadows, making it difficult to see.
Meeting such a man here, even if he can't see his face clearly, is enough for a daring person to step up and strike up a conversation.
"Handsome guy." The young boy with dyed chestnut hair walked over, his trousers straddled loosely around his waist, revealing his thin crotch, "Agree?"
The red star flashed between the man's slender fingers.
Smoke rings came out of his mouth.
"No appointment."
The voice of the other party is also very pleasant to hear. It belongs to the mid-bass that is not too heavy, but has a lot of flavor. The resonance effect when speaking makes people itch.
The young boy was very bold, got closer, and hooked his fingers on each other's belt provocatively: "Don't be so cold, let's play together, it's better than smoking a smothering cigarette here alone."
The hand loosened the belt, but did not leave.
Continuing down like a snake, just as he was about to make the next move intentionally, someone suddenly pinched his wrist.
The young boy was caught off guard by a sharp pain and cried out.
"No appointment."
The man said it again, with a biting coldness in his voice, and said mercilessly: "Go away."
The young boy was thrown away.
As a result, the man's face hidden in the shadows was also revealed.
It was a very ordinary face, the eyebrows were not thick and stylish enough, the nose was not stiff enough, and even the lips were extremely plain, except for a pair of eyes that were still deep, but also unexplainably sullen. Can't help but let people down, this ordinary face doesn't match this coveted figure at all, it's a waste of the creator's masterpiece.
The young boy has a very strong self-esteem. After being rejected, he was about to have a seizure, but he lost interest in seeing such a face. He scolded his wrist and left.
Venus is a gay family in Ningcheng, the name sounds gaudy, but it is actually a rare clean night scene.
The man showed a look of disgust, and after driving away a fly, it made him feel that this place was smoky.
He snuffed out the cigarette butt in his hand and easily flicked it into the trash can.
Today he did not wait for the person he wanted to wait for.
Maybe that person won't come today.
He got up and left, putting his hands in the pockets of his trench coat and entering an alley.
In the early winter of Ningcheng, the night was very cold, and the night wind was like a knife.
The man walked through the non-stop night of Ningcheng, walking through alley after alley, through the bustling business district of Ningcheng, through the overpass between high-rise buildings, and through the bustling noise.
He lives in a cheap hotel.
With a little simple, unremarkable work, you can pay the rent without any impact.
xiaoshuting.cc
The area where the hotel is located is dark and impoverished. There are small vendors who wake up from morning to night, young people who live in the basement and work hard, as well as gangsters who are not doing their jobs properly, or dark-prostitutes who greet customers with laughter. He is out of place here, yet blends wonderfully.
He listened to the whispers of laughter in the next room, opened the door, and touched the switch on the damp wall.
"Snapped."
The moment the dim light came on, he suddenly narrowed his eyes.
There is one more person in the room.
The visitor wore glasses and a white shirt, and was under forty years old. Just entering middle age, it makes the visitor look young, with a bookish air that makes people feel a little familiar, but it is completely different from the coldness.
"Professor Sheng." He said coldly.
"Team Song." Sheng Yun's brows were slightly wrinkled, "You're hard to find."
They had already met in the Rubik's Cube mission, and it was very simple for Sheng Yun to fully understand his identity.
However, Song Qinglan used a simulated face, which could simulate different facial features, making it inconvenient for Sheng Yun to search him.
"As a time witness from the future, I believe you must have recited the three laws of the sky: never change the past, never talk about the present, and never be obsessed with the future." Sheng Yun said, "Strictly speaking, you are not against it. These three, because you're obsessed with the past."
Song Qinglan raised her hand and gently touched it behind her ear, closing the simulated face.
His originally handsome and handsome facial features were exposed like this, facing Sheng Yun with his original face, and he did not hide the indifference towards Sheng Yun on his face.
Sheng Yun didn't mind this dissatisfaction, but said: "The inspectors in 1456 haven't found you missing yet, but you travel frequently, and even if you turn off the communicator, it will inevitably leave traces, and they will find you sooner or later. "
"It's too risky for you to come to me." Song Qinglan said with disdain, "Aren't you afraid of being discovered by the inspectors, and all your efforts will be forfeited?"
"Don't be afraid." Sheng Yun said, "Since you and Sheng Han will come to me, it means that in your time and space, I have not left any clues, and you will go back that day to find out the truth, so I am very safe."
As a father, Sheng Yun seemed too ruthless when he said these words.
As an elder, he was still young at this time and had no dignity.
But Xie Sian, the traitor of the Vault Twelve Team, is right. Although Sheng Yun and Ji Yushi don't look alike, the temperament of the two people and the way of talking during analysis are very similar to a certain extent. The type that people fear is indeed a father and son.
Song Qinglan gritted her teeth.
Just perceiving such a trivial point was enough to make his heart bleed.
He is in a bad state these days, he knows it himself.
If you can't close your eyes all night long, fall asleep a little bit, you will wake up from blood red hands. He is like a drug addict with a hundred ants eating his bones. He has to jump one by one to see what he once looked like in time during the monsoon, and the burning desire will subside a little.
Just watching, can't do anything.
Can't do anything.
He didn't know if it would go on like this, he would lose his mind and rush out desperately to let Ji Yushi get to know him.
I knew him three or five years in advance.
In advance of everything they will have happened in time, no matter what the stability of time and space, no matter what grandfather paradox, no matter what the circle of fate.
He didn't want to care at all.
Be a defector.
When robbing Ji Yu before this incident, before he returned to the original time and space, the two fled to another time and space together.
Song Qinglan had this idea more than once.
In the face of Sheng Yun's arrival, it was difficult for Song Qinglan not to express her anger at this elder who had "passed away", but the other party's calm tone made him feel unbelievable, and her anger towards Sheng Yun made him less respectful of Sheng Yun.
Song Qinglan sneered: "You are indeed very safe. When you saw that he was killed by mistake, you were able to turn around and leave."
Speaking of this, Song Qinglan's eyes suddenly turned red, and her eyes were full of anger, "I don't care what you call balance, and I don't care how much sacrifice you have made for this world, maybe you are indeed a great man in a certain sense, but you are completely He didn't fulfill his responsibility as a father, and it's not worthy for him to keep your death in his heart for seventeen years!"
Lost his parents at the age of eight.
Amnesia, cognitive impairment.
No one's childhood was like this.
Sheng Yun was scolded, but he didn't explain a word.
He took off his glasses and pressed the center of his eyebrows with exhaustion. He was still young, but his hair was already gray.
"I thought you might be very good friends." Sheng Yun murmured, "That's why he will bring you back to such an important day, but now it seems that this is not the case... Your relationship is far from mine. as you think."
"That's right," Song Qinglan declared directly, "He's mine."
Sheng Yun was not surprised at all.
He traced the traces of the captain surnamed Song in time and space, and the other party's performance was enough to explain any problems.
As an unfathomable scholar and a scientist who has seen the big picture, Sheng Yun's understanding of time, space and the world may be more than the world imagined, perhaps even wider than the imagination during the monsoon.
Except for the moment when he was accidentally killed during the monsoon, Sheng Yun did not show any gaffe.
Even now, who has witnessed his own death and has no choice but to travel incognito in various time and space, the shirt on his body has no wrinkles and is clean.
Song Qinglan: "Why, do you still care about his sexual orientation?"
Sheng Yun shook his head: "No, I'm very happy. In the future I can't see, someone will love him like this."
In fact, the time they spent together after establishing their relationship was limited.
Song Qinglan's throat tightened.
Sheng Yun put on his glasses again and asked, "So, what step will you do for him?"
Song Qinglan didn't answer immediately.
Because he keenly grasped the deep meaning in Sheng Yun's tone, he clenched his fists subconsciously: "What do you mean?"
Sheng Yun said: "Or, are you willing to sacrifice for him, even your life?"
"You know too little about us. We may have experienced no less than you." Song Qinglan replied from the gap between her teeth, "As long as this ending can be changed, I can die for him a thousand times."
The arrogance and determination in the young man's tone made Sheng Yun stunned.
Once upon a time, he also had such courage, although not for love, but also with passion.
Time and space jump will make people forget the importance of time and ignore everything that he has around him. He has not felt this way for a long time.
After a brief hesitation, Sheng Yun said "very good", then returned to the table full of dirt in the hotel, and opened the transparent panel he brought.
Song Qinglan stood still, watching him closely.
"For me, it has actually been several years since that day." Sheng Yun said while typing on the keyboard, "In addition to looking for you, I have also achieved some results over the years."
Song Qinglan looked slightly surprised.
He knew that what Sheng Yun was talking about was the "sky vault in the sense of all times", which was the parent system of the vault of heaven later.
The interface flashes.
The logo of the sky dome appears in the holographic projection cast by the transparent panel.
Immediately afterwards, a mechanical female voice sounded: "Hello, Sheng Yun, you are welcome to use the sky. It is detected that your current time coordinate is November 22, 1451, which is 12 years away from your end point. The time and space of the current coordinates are The number of fluctuations is 7, and a total of 7 transition activities are interacting…”
Her voice made Song Qinglan feel familiar. She was broadcasting the starting coordinates and destination coordinates of the seven transitions. She was precise and detailed, and she even monitored the activity tracks of all the Sky Branches in the world at this point in time.
This is the prototype of "the sky in the sense of all times".
Song Qinglan did not expect that Sheng Yun would be able to develop to this level in such a short period of time.
"It's not my fault alone."
As if guessing what Song Qinglan was thinking, Sheng Yun said, "Besides me, there are many people like me working hard for this in time and space, and some of them have paid thousands of times more than me. For example, you are in The one I've seen in the Rubik's Cube."
Song Qinglan suddenly thought of the chubby middle-aged man, and also thought of the rumored R&D team that was mad, mad and dead.
That is to say, maybe they are not what the outside world guessed, but everyone used different ways to escape, hiding in an undetected time and space and working silently.
Seeing the change in Song Qinglan's expression, he clearly understood everything, and Sheng Yun nodded to him.
"We got more than that."
Sheng Yun re-entered a piece of code.
Immediately afterwards, another softer, more human female voice appeared.
"Welcome, Song Qinglan, you are welcome to connect to the sky, and it is a pleasure to meet you again. It is detected that you have performed congratulations. You have completed 13 A-level tasks, 21 B-level tasks, 2 super-S-level tasks, and 1 S-level task. Level quest, current rating: Super 1 star. Your reward has been cleared, do you need to perform more quests to get more rewards?"
Song Qinglan was really shocked now.
Time, time and space, what kind of existence, for the first time, he felt that he was in it like a mess, and deeply realized its horror and his own insignificance.
"When the prototype was just made, the complete body of the Vault of Heaven Mother System appeared and replaced it." Sheng Yun said, "We are like... only sown a seed, and it is already in an unknown future. It has grown into a tree that shakes the sky, and when the seed appears, it has already controlled all time and space. Perhaps, this is the original meaning of 'the sky in the sense of all times'."
All eras cannot exist at the same time.
It can exist in all eras at the same time.
Song Qinglan folded her arms: "Can its appearance change this matter?"
Sheng Yun shook his head: "What happened to Sheng Han in 1439 is already history and cannot be changed. But in 1456 when you came, he was still in a state of transition to that time and space, and his death was not the final outcome. ."
Song Qinglan slowly put down her hand.
"Time is a line. As long as your original line remains unchanged, there is an infinite possibility of development. That is to say, you can choose to go back to 1456 from another time point." Sheng Yun said, "Thank you for being obsessed with the past, There was no immediate return to the original time and space of 1456 to allow this to be carried out."
When Sheng Yun is not in the monsoon, his analysis of things is far less clear than in the monsoon.
To him, it was like explaining 1+1=2. It was too simple and too short.
But Song Qinglan quickly thought of something and asked, "What do you mean, our original timeline remains unchanged, and the established fact that we return to the past remains unchanged, but we return to the original from another point in time. timeline?"
Reverse thinking, that is - travel back from the future.
And they happened to be in the future of 1470! !
The sky girl said: "I will grab you during your transition in 1456, take you to 1470, and overlap the current time point with this time point."
Song Qinglan suddenly understood: "Is this forming a time anchor?"
And the anchor point is the third second they were hijacked.
It's like they are in a huge time anchor and never leave. They will randomly overlap with themselves in a cycle of the Ouroboros quest, respawning together at the starting point.
"It's understandable," Tian Qiong said. "To be precise, it is the time anchor that belongs to you and the monsoon."
"The Ouroboros mission in 1470 is both the future and the history for you. What you need to pay attention to is the paradox generated by the overlapping of new time and space. On the basis of maintaining the final result, try not to affect the existing history. Mission After completion, you will return from 1470 to 1456, after the time coordinate is for you to exchange mission rewards."
That is to say, they return to the time coordinates of the original time and space, and they will come after 1439 when he accompanies the monsoon.
In this way, the timeline remains unchanged, and the history remains intact.
What happened to them in 1439 is nothing but the past that exists over and over again in the Time Anchor.
In addition to a small time anchor, there is a larger time anchor that only belongs to the two of them.
It must be very difficult to understand the meaning of this sentence with other people on the side.
Sheng Yun's meticulous logical thinking is even better than that of Ji Yu's time. Since he can get along with the perfect golden cicada, he can also come up with a perfect resurrection from the dead.
"I just asked if you were willing to sacrifice for him." Sheng Yun faced Song Qinglan, "It's because of the triggering conditions of the time anchor."
Saying that, Sheng Yun took out a pistol.
Small silver-white pistol-gun, imitation ppk style, named Diamond Bird.
Father and son have similar preferences.
Song Qinglan took it, the heavy, cold body of the spear nestled in his hand, reminding him of the palm that was gradually cooling in his arms.
Triggering condition of the time anchor: all members die.
And this is his time anchor with the monsoon, and what he needs to do is self-evident.
"Why did you do this?"
Song Qinglan asked in a deep voice.
Sheng Yun knew that Song Qinglan was asking about "the sky in the sense of all times".
Tian Qiong's gentle female voice said: "I have reminded you that after my calculation of more than 170 million times, your team's winning rate is higher than the average of all time and space guardian teams. I hope you can lead the team and perform more tasks. , time-space-dimensional stability needs you."
Song Qinglan grinned silently, not knowing whether she was smiling or sarcastic: "So how many tasks are the conditions?"
Sky: "Next, I have prepared 3 super S-level tasks and 1 A-level task for you and your team."
"My team." Song Qinglan said, "I didn't fucking promise you for them, don't blame me for breaking my promise."
The sky was silent and did not refute, maybe it already knew the result.
This feeling of hanging up is very unpleasant.
The gun is still full of energy bullets.
Song Qinglan, who was a scholar in Ji Yushi, pulled the safety catch and was suddenly silent for several seconds. He put away all his expressions and asked the last esoteric question: "So, is it because of this time that you originally hijacked Team Sky Seven?"
Cause and effect, which comes first
Did the original hijacking come first, and then did everything happen later, or did the parent system hijack the entire team because of everything that happened later
Perhaps what we didn't see during the monsoon was this larger circle.
They are among them, and ants are generally running around in the sand table.
"I can't answer your question." Tian Qiong said, "The development of time is happening at the same time in my place, regardless of cause and effect, without distinction between before and after."
Song Qinglan put the gun to her heart.
The answer didn't matter to him anymore.
Sheng Yun, Inspector, 1439.
It's all history.
Either way, he'll be back to square one.
Before pulling the trigger, he heard Tian Qiong say: "You have triggered a branch task, which exceeded the original task conditions, and named the task for you: [Overload]."