High School of Demon Hunting

"How do you stop time?"

"How to travel through time?"

"How to escape time?"

"How can one feel time?"

"How to release time?"

"— What is this? A brain teaser?"

During dinner, Xiao Xiao looked at the questions on the parchment on Zheng Qing’s desk, adjusted his glasses with interest, and murmured, "I think I’ve seen these questions somewhere before."

"Really!"

Zheng Qing’s spoon paused slightly in midair, and the lump of mashed potatoes on the spoon began to slowly slide down under the force of gravity, but he didn’t care at all and eagerly explained: "— These are the five questions the professor listed on the blackboard before ending this afternoon’s Dimensionism class, as our homework, he will ask about them in the next class..."

After speaking, he looked expectantly at the short Warlock, hoping that this Doctor could help him solve this problem.

"Is graduate student homework so arbitrary?"

The Fat Wizard next to him, stuffing a bacon sandwich into his mouth, raised his head full of envy and spoke somewhat unclearly, "I feel like all your questions could be answered with just two words..."

"Which two words?" Zheng Qing looked at Xin in great surprise, his spoon still suspended in midair.

"Magic."

The Fat Wizard poked a boiled broccoli with his fork and casually tossed out these two words: "Magic can stop time, magic can travel through time, magic can escape time, magic can make you feel time, magic can also release time... isn’t that right?"

Plop.

The mashed potatoes in Zheng Qing’s spoon finally succumbed to gravity and fell back into the plate.

"Hmm... it sounds a bit reasonable."

He did not pay attention to his mashed potatoes, only looking again at Xiao Xiao, thinking about the Fat Wizard’s answer: "Isn’t there a saying in classical magic theory — magic power never fears being wasted excessively because magic power can always find another dimension to continue being used, even if it falls into the Two-dimensional World, as long as magic power can still circulate, it will still be effective, and it will eventually be used by the beings of this dimension — this sentence, if you replace ’magic power’ with ’time,’ is also very appropriate."

Doctor Xiao raised his chin slightly, looking at his two roommates through the lower part of his glasses.

"That Fat guy’s answer is like saying ’because we live, we aren’t dead,’ that’s nonsense."

He did not hold back his contempt at all, pausing before speaking again: "But after you both interrupted like this, I remembered the answers to these questions... ’Kissing can stop time’ ’Reading can allow time travel’ ’Music can let people escape time’ ’Writing can let people feel time’ ’Breathing can release time’... These are the words left by the famous Traveling Mage Matt Hagg in one of his works. I remember this Mage was best at extending certain beautiful moments through some exquisite magic skills... but I think what your teacher in Dimensionism theory wants is probably not this answer. Because this answer is too philosophical, and it has nothing to do with Dimensionism theory."

Zheng Qing nodded in agreement.

But at that moment, he was no longer troubled as he had been a few minutes ago, because now his parchment had at least two different answers to submit for homework.

He used the spoon to scoop up another lump of mashed potatoes and stuffed it into his mouth.

"Could it be related to dimension expansion?"

He thought of the content of the next class and the picture in today’s class, simply describing it to his companions: "...in short, according to the book, ’symbols can be expanded in the spatial dimension, but sound can only be expanded in the time dimension.’ For example, an Alchemical War Puppet, its two-dimensional diagram can be referred to as a ’Magic Projection’..."

"Blueprints!"

The Fat Wizard suddenly interjected, providing Zheng Qing with a better reference: "The design blueprints of an Alchemy Puppet might require thousands of pounds or even tons of parchment; in a certain sense, those blueprints are the reduced form of the Alchemy Puppet."

Xiao Xiao nodded, then shook his head.

"The answers to those questions by Mr. Zha should indeed be related to dimension expansion."

He first affirmed Zheng Qing’s guess, and then slowly analyzed: "— in terms of spatial three dimensions, the time dimension is very lofty, just like the constant flow of time that waits for no one. For a Big Wizard initially involved in the field of time, wanting to grasp the essence of time in one fell swoop is extremely difficult, so our normal approach is through ’Jade of Other Hills’... just as a Mage with low divination talent learning trend divination may start with drawing a Line Drawing."

"Speed!"

A flash of lightning crossed Zheng Qing’s mind, and he suddenly understood: "Expand the time dimension in the direction of speed! I remember a saying — if speed has no limit, then time is meaningless — so, speed can escape time!"

"Bingo!"

Xiao Xiao snapped his fingers with a dull sound, simultaneously offering another expansion direction: "A Mage whose talent is insufficient to comprehend the time dimension can do the same; they can start with the simplest part — memory. The dimension of consciousness intersects with the dimension of time, birthing a famous virtual dimension, the imaginary dimension of memory experienced by its owner. In this way, it materializes time, allowing the Mage to truly touch truth, ferrying across the river of time by laying down the first plank."

"So which question does ’memory’ answer?"

The Fat Wizard looked left and right with interest: "Can memory conduct time travel? Can memory feel time? Can memory stop time?... Hmm... I suddenly think this answer is a bit more appropriate than magic power."

"That’s because memory is the boat used to peek into the river of time."

A slightly hoarse voice suddenly rang out, startling the three young Wizards. Zheng Qing tilted his head to look to the side, saw nothing, while Xiao Xiao and Xin stared at Zheng Qing’s ear with a ghost-seen expression.

"— Snake!"

"— Spoke."

The two, one after the other, were tongue-tied.

Zheng Qing immediately realized who was speaking — it wasn’t his fault, compared to last night, this Little Dragon seemed to have grown a bit bigger today; although it could still hang on his ear using the Transformation Technique, its color had deepened notably — at the same time, he was quite surprised that this big shot was willing to join in the casual chat of a few young people.

By now Xiao Xiao had also come back to his senses, glancing inquiringly at Zheng Qing.

Zheng Qing gave a barely perceptible nod.

"... memory is the fundamental dimensional line constructing consciousness, or the soul; its status in dimension theory is no lower than time. Using it to interpret the time dimension will naturally fall into a predicament similar to interpreting it with magic power."

The Little Dragon seemed to have thought of something, quite eager to talk: "— but you can use ’memory’s’ several ’sub-dimensions’ to answer this question. For instance, reminiscing can stop time, recalling can conduct time travel, amnesia can escape time, remembering can feel time... and, hey, loss-gain can release time."

Zheng Qing understood the first few, but the last one he chewed over several times, unable to grasp its deep meaning.

"What kind of memory is loss-gain?" Xiao Xiao was evidently more curious than him about this point.

"Loss-gain is not a memory; it’s a cross-dimensional concept," the Little Dragon’s voice once again turned lazy: "— under constraint conditions, everyone’s total amount of time is fixed; as long as you know how to use others’ time, you can release your own time. This process is ’loss-gain’."

So, it was merely complaining about wasting everyone’s time?

Zheng Qing rolled his eyes mentally.

He developed a new understanding of this stingy creature.