Chapter 148: Three Chips, Three Situations |
Ming Po easily crushed the Time Chip; it took no more effort than snapping a calcium milk biscuit.
Crimson flames erupted from the Time Chip, roaring as they completely filled his vision of the world.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on a high-speed train.
The business class seat had been reclined flat, the window blind was pulled down, and a thin blanket covered him. He could faintly hear the clatter of a keyboard and the low volume of a short video playing nearby.
—He was still alive.
Ming Po threw off the thin blanket and raised the phone clutched in his hand.
He unlocked it with a glance, and his ongoing itinerary automatically popped up.
Train G1415, Shanghai South Railway Station to Wuhan Station.
12:00 PM, approximately two hours until arrival.
Ming Po frowned slightly.
In his memory, he had never visited this city. Even looking at the itinerary on his phone, he still couldn't recall anything about it. To avoid introducing too many variables to the past, Ming Po didn't do anything unnecessary and directly ended the Manifestation.
Red flames swept through the world once again, burning that past history to ashes.
Ming Po remained where he was, standing before the Bacchus Shrine.
So far, all Ming Po had done was unlock his phone and check the time.
Even though he ended the Manifestation, his past self would only feel as if he had woken up with a start to check if the train was nearing the station. This alteration to history was practically nonexistent.
Ming Po glanced at his phone, which had no signal, and confirmed the current date.
Naturally... it didn't quite match the countdown on the wall.
The countdown had advanced by a total of four days, but the date Ming Po currently saw was March 11, 2026.
Ming Po still remembered how, upon exiting his first game, he had watched helplessly as the date jumped from May 20, 2023, to March 4, 2026.
It was after that moment that the Faceless God Studio vanished into thin air.
And now, time had changed once again.
Ming Po was even getting somewhat used to it.
Time altered silently when no one noticed. It wasn't a change where an altered past affected the present; rather, days, months... or even years simply vanished out of thin air, yet reality itself remained largely unchanged.
It was as if... some past years had been burned away by someone.
The only relatively stable thing was the countdown on the wall in Ming Po's house.
At least when Ming Po wasn't in a game, its tally never skipped or rolled back. Even on the day when May 20, 2023, turned into March 4, 2026, the countdown didn't change in the slightest.
"[Let me return to March 1, 2026, at twelve noon.]"
Ming Po declared once more.
This time was extremely close to March 4, the last date in his memory.
He applied slight pressure with his right hand, crushing the chip.
—But, nothing happened.
It was as if the chip was merely a fragile piece of pastry.
Ming Po raised his eyebrows slightly.
He took out another Hour's Red Copper and declared in a low voice, "[Let me return to February 1, 2026, at twelve noon.]" And this time, Ming Po couldn't even crush it!
"...Interesting."
Far from being annoyed or confused, his eyes lit up instead.
Three chips had produced three completely different effects.
This experiment had given Ming Po a tremendous amount of information.
The fact that the chip leading to February 1 couldn't be crushed meant that the request could not be fulfilled.
The method of returning to the past was to "transmit memories into one's past self." If his self at that specific time could not bear those memories, it meant he was already dead at that point in time.
As for the chip that was used but took no effect... it was likely because his past self at that time had already been selected as a Deceiver. During that period, he was participating in a Game of Deception.
The direct influence of Time Chips on a Deceiver had a delay.
Just as he could return to the past in an attempt to save Ai Shiping from being struck and killed by a car, the Red Queen could return to the past to rewrite the ending and prevent an explosion, Gao Song could return to the past to kill his own brother, and the Witches' Coven could return to the past to create more ancient Deceivers.
But there were some things that simply couldn't be done.
For example, returning to the past to attempt to resurrect a teammate who had already died in a Game of Deception; or, like the 'Raccoon' from the beginner game, transmitting memories to a past self who was currently participating in a game.
These alterations would violate a certain "taboo," preventing them from taking effect in the "present." The result was that if a chip was used, "absolutely nothing would happen."
But in reality, the Time Chip had already taken effect, just... its effect was placed in the "future." After this cycle of world collapse, he could recover his "past life memories" when the future timeline reached March 1.
However, although Ming Po had grasped certain rules through observation... he still couldn't fully comprehend exactly which situations would take effect and which wouldn't, nor the underlying reasons why.
Perhaps experienced Deceiver organizations had researched this more thoroughly, but since he was essentially an unaffiliated player, he could only rely on trading information or fumbling around on his own.
Currently, Ming Po's understanding was...
Certain events, once they happened, would be "anchored."
The most prominent of these was the outcome of the Game of Deception.
Because if such an alteration were possible, then when someone failed their Promotion and became a Host, their organization could just send other Deceivers back to the past to stop them from participating in the Promotion.
If that were the case, it would be identical to "loading a save file."
That would mean having countless opportunities to keep trying the Promotion. Promotions would no longer be so dangerous.
Therefore, there was only one possibility—that a Host must save themselves by "signing a contract with a Deceiver to clear their own Promotion ritual." That was why there were so many Hosts struggling to be resurrected.
In other words, no matter how a Time Chip was used, it was impossible to directly save a Host.
As for the specific "anchoring rules," Ming Po had not yet tested them out.
It might be related to the Game of Deception itself, to the death of a Deceiver, or to the Time Chips. From this perspective, some people could be resurrected while others could not... Perhaps it was also related to whether their own chips had been stripped away. But at least two things were certain.
First, all Deceivers lived in the same timeline; they all lived in the "present."
The timeline had already been altered by someone, which meant that almost everyone's "past" had been changed. Just like his current self in this world, who inexplicably had to travel far away on New Year's Day to a place he had never visited before...
That was indeed something the "self" of this timeline had experienced.
But it was not something that appeared in "Ming Po's" memories...
Because back in 2023, Ai Shiping hadn't even died yet.
In other words...
If all Deceivers, a period after their birth, attempted to return to the past, they would find that the past in their memories was almost completely different from the past they observed.
This was probably why those Deceivers who had existed for a long time no longer cared much about the "past."
Because the past they were familiar with had long been altered by other Deceivers, and might have even been modified beyond recognition when they were still weak.
And since Deceivers themselves were independent of the timeline, they remained oblivious to these alterations.
Just like... how Ming Po had no idea when the Faceless God Studio had disappeared.