Four Split Personalities

Ji Xiaoge couldn’t help but laugh and said, "So did that child end up becoming a mage who maxed out his strength and constitution to slay dragons?"

"No, that didn’t happen. But about half a month after that, after being thrown around by the pseudo-space-time flow a few times, I appeared thirty years after the child-naming event. Since I had nothing else to do at the time, once I confirmed the time period, a burst of inspiration hit me and I ran all the way from the northern region of the Griffin Dynasty to that tiny place of yesteryear. Guess what?"

The past A Sang shrugged his shoulders and made a comical face, reflecting, "The kid had already taken over his family’s farm, still named Gandalf, and his parents could still recognize me."

The rest was simple. The A Sang of the time immediately sensed something was amiss and after several attempts, he discovered that he indeed could influence the ’future’ to some extent, which led him to conduct a series of research on this phenomenon.

"The conclusion is just what I said earlier."

He looked intently at the two people on the light screen in front of him and spoke in a grave tone, "Naming an ordinary child from an ordinary family can affect the future, but if I try to influence events that are ’established facts’ in history, such as trying to warn the ancient Dragon Clan to beware of the Sun Dynasty, it will certainly be corrected in various ways. For instance, me from 1750 years ago warning the Dragon King with words like ’Be cautious, you’ll soon be wiped out by the Sun Dynasty,’ the Pride of Giant Dragons would still become the Descendants of the Dragon Clan, and the Dragons, who only held out for seventeen days, would still not make it to the eighteenth day. Perhaps my warning was ignored or maybe despite taking precautions, the Dragon Clan was overcome because the Sun Dynasty deployed two more corps, or perhaps because the Dragon King got amnesia from a rock hitting his head, or more likely, because the influence I exerted was directly eradicated by some force. In any case, the Dragon Clan was destined to fall on the seventeenth day, an unchangeable fact."

Ji Xiaoge wrinkled her nose and muttered, "Then what did you mean by ’reality’ just now?"

"Just the literal meaning."

A Sang sighed and said with a bitter smile, "Although Long Lao Shi is a high-level Observer at Sky Pillar Mountain, and Sky Pillar Mountain is the organization with the most secrets in the world, what happened to me is still unprecedented. Therefore, even if Long Lao Shi devotes effort to researching it, he can only come up with a few hypotheses about my current situation. The most reliable one is that I was thrown into a timeline that doesn’t actually exist in reality, something akin to a time snapshot existing like a prolonged documentary. Although I can hop around in it at will and even ’edit’ it to have some influence, a documentary is still just a documentary, not the real history of this world. I might be able to make slight modifications to this film, but it’s impossible to affect reality, for example... um, like if I’m copying homework and write ’The Qin Dynasty fell in 207 BCE’ as 208 BCE, but that only exists in my notebook, it wouldn’t actually cause the Qin Dynasty to fall a year earlier, do you understand?"

Motan and Ji Xiaoge, both possessing decent understanding abilities and combined with A Sang’s vivid description, inevitably understood, with the former softly saying after a brief moment of thought, "However, just now, you discovered that the hypothesis Long imagined was actually incorrect."

"That’s right, just now."

A Sang spoke solemnly, caressing the thick Continental General History in his hand, "You two, like me, are players, possessing a uniquely genuine trait across countless timelines. Mor even discussed my issue with the teacher at Sky Pillar Mountain. Obviously, if there is a completely, definitively real timeline in The Realm of Innocence, it would certainly be the one where you two, Xiao Lu, and all players besides myself exist. However, just now, I successfully interacted with you using a book from more than 1700 years ago. You saw the ’Hakuna Matata’ I wrote, you saw the Pikachu I drew, which means... ugh... it means that this history I’ve lived through isn’t a false if or a fan-made route, but actual, real history, truly real!"

Motan and Ji Xiaoge were both momentarily speechless, with the latter even asking with the caution of witnessing an epic, "And then?"

"Ah? There’s no ’then’."

However, A Sang’s voice suddenly relaxed, nonchalantly saying, "Anyway, that’s the situation, that’s the thing. I’ll continue my research however I’ve been doing it."

"Uh..."

Ji Xiaoge was abruptly left speechless.

"Haha, to put it simply, two ideas were definitely proven, which will save some detours in the future."

Leaning against the fireplace, A Sang chuckled and said helplessly, "Knowing the truth doesn’t necessarily change my situation, and there are still many unsolved mysteries, such as why possibilities like the butterfly effect that easily cause time paradoxes weren’t eradicated, or the true nature and specifics of the pseudo-space-time flow. Anyway, I’ve long been prepared for a prolonged battle, but now it’s definitely going to be more enjoyable, at least I’m playing the same game as you guys, at least I’m not living in a dream."

Motan also nodded with a smile and sincerely said, "Keep it up. If there’s anything we can help with, you can contact us through Lujiang anytime, or we can contact outside the game as well."

Then, the three of them stopped discussing the issue of "time." A Sang even exchanged contact information with Motan for outside the game, clearly planning to keep each other posted at any time.

They chatted for a while in this small workshop, spanning 1750 years in time, with most of the time spent listening to A Sang talk, while Motan and Ji Xiaoge listened.

It was clear that this fellow, who had been forced to play solo shortly after the server opened, was indeed a bit lonely. Although he was no different from everyone else in the real world, entering the game every day to play solo without friends or kin made his days in the long stream of time quite oppressive. So, this rare opportunity to meet two "own people" in the game made him thoroughly unleash his chatter.

Motan and Ji Xiaoge were also happy to chat with him. On one hand, they could somewhat sense his gloom, and on the other hand, the stories A Sang told were very interesting, such as historical figures having peculiar habits. Even though the history wasn’t familiar to them, they still found it very engaging.

...

Realm of Innocence system standard time PM19:39

"Hu Ha~ Thank you guys for chatting with me for so long; these days, I’ve been almost bored sick."

A Sang sighed with relief, putting down the glowing Iron Mane Book and speaking to the two people on the screen, "Night Song, you just need to wait till that beacon cools down. After leaving the Timing Tower, you should be able to use it to get back to Sky Pillar Mountain. As for Mo... I can try to adjust the Teleportation Array here in the workshop, but since you’ve already used it in the ’future,’ it’s probably tough to send you back to Diesel’s place, so you might have to walk back... Sorry about that."

"No need to apologize; this isn’t your fault."

Motan shook his head and smiled, "Plus, this trip was worthwhile for me, as you helped me complete several tasks in one go."

"What tasks?"

A Sang and Ji Xiaoge asked simultaneously.

So, Motan briefly mentioned the series of tasks he had completed earlier.

"Uh... So, you’re saying my trap accidentally wiped out an important clue in your sixth part of the sequence."

A Sang scratched his head guiltily, then suddenly his eyes lit up...

"Wait! If you’re looking for the Dragon King’s Tomb, I might have a way!"

Chapter 573: End