Chapter 2101: Curved Time
Tang Ming coldly swept his gaze over everyone. "With you?"
"With us." Shen Liang put on an exaggerated expression, patting his chest. "No way, no way, you don't actually think that being an A-rank player with a time item means you can do whatever you want, do you? You're not the only one here with a time item."
This act was enough to provoke Tang Ming, but before he could act, Wang Ling spoke up again. "I only have one question: Are you a Temporal Super Evolver?"
The situation was already clear. Wang Ling believed that Xu Huo had definitely begun time evolution; otherwise, he couldn't have spotted the problem so quickly. And even if he hadn't, the fact that he could see through the trick already put him ahead of everyone else—unless there was another Temporal Super Evolver present.
"It's less than an hour until 12:03. No one knows what will happen when that time comes, so let's not waste any more time." Wang Ling turned to Xu Huo again. "If there's anything you need us to do, just say the word."
Xu Huo shook his head slightly. "It's not that I'm deliberately hiding anything, but we can't advance any further."
"What do you mean? Explain clearly!" Long Jianfeng was getting anxious.
"If I'm not mistaken, the 23 streets of Pumpkin City don't simply have different time flows," Xu Huo began to explain slowly. "We estimated that there's a time difference of about 15 minutes between each street, with Street 12 as the dividing line, and the streets on the left and right are symmetrical."
"If it takes 30 minutes to walk from the southernmost end of Street 12 to the northernmost end, then walking from Street 16 might take 60 minutes. But because the time on the two streets is different, 30 minutes on Street 12 might equal 60 minutes on Street 16, so it's not strange that we arrived one after another."
"Now, check your watches."
Meng Wenguang was the first to speak. "From the Sunlight Tree to the Time Tower, it took us less than 20 minutes."
Shen Liang followed. "About the same for me."
Then Xu Huo and Wang Ling's group checked theirs—their timing devices also showed only 20 minutes had passed.
"That contradicts what you said," Wang Ling frowned. "Does that mean there's no time difference between the streets?"
"That's not right either. We deliberately took a detour. Meng Wenguang's group took 20 minutes from Street 12 to the Time Tower, and we took 20 minutes from Street 23 to the Time Tower. How could the time spent be the same? Under normal circumstances, even if everyone arrived at the Time Tower at the same time, our timing devices should have shown at least 40 minutes had passed... Could it be that Pumpkin City didn't affect our watches?"
"That's possible," Xu Huo said. "But if we look at it from a different angle—distance—it's equivalent to someone on Street 23 spending the same amount of time but covering two to three times the walking distance of someone on Street 12, yet both arriving at the destination simultaneously."
"You're going in circles and confusing me," Long Jianfeng couldn't help but say. "What's the difference between this and different time flows?"
"Could this be the legendary Curved Time!" Shen Liang suddenly slapped his thigh.
Wang Ling, Tang Ming, and the others all looked at Xu Huo. "Is it really Curved Time?"
"How would I know?" Xu Huo said flatly. "I'm not an expert in this field."
"But if there were a way to travel through time and space in this world, it would probably be close to this state."
"Different spaces have different time flows. Perhaps one second in one space equals one year in another. But one second, one year—the traces left on a player don't change. That's why it's common knowledge among players that you can't travel back in time."
"Pumpkin City has created such an environment. In the same amount of time, Street 23 covers several times the walking distance of Street 12. That is, walking forward for one minute, Street 12 advances 100 meters, while Street 23 might have already covered 300 meters. But when Street 23 reaches 100 meters, it has already surpassed Street 12 from the perspective of actual occurrence. So if we jump from the 300-meter position on Street 23 to Street 12, we should end up at the 100-meter position on Street 12. If we jump from the 100-meter position on Street 23 to Street 12, we should end up at roughly the 33-meter position."
"Only this can achieve so-called time travel—not using time as the main measure, but using actual occurrence as the basis. Jumping from the self at 300 meters back to the self at 100 meters."
Everyone fell silent. After a moment, Wang Ling said, "Whether walking 100 meters or 300 meters, it's still a time process. Time isn't unified, but it's still time. Shouldn't the changes time brings to each person be the same?"
Kong Ying and the others nearby wore expressions of "completely giving up on thinking," while Tang Ming's face shifted between shades of uncertainty. "No matter which street you take, the time to reach the destination is the same. Although it's hard to explain, the time is indeed the same. In the same amount of time, the distance walked on Street 23 is doubled. We don't need to figure out the principle. Just treat it as Curved Time—Curved Time works like this, and that's that."
"Arranged according to the time gap between each street, at 9:17 PM on Sunshine Tree Street 12, the incident where Dr. Wu's wife and daughter were killed corresponds to 9:32 PM on Street 13," Xu Huo continued. "That is, the tragedy at 9:17 PM on Street 12 has already happened. But if you jump back from Street 13, 9:32 PM can just catch up to 9:17 PM on Street 12. The same applies to the subsequent streets. If you jump back from the last street, Street 23, before 12:02 AM, we can all return to before 9:17 PM on Street 12."
"This should undoubtedly be the time-jumping rule of Pumpkin City."
"So that's it. No wonder the clocks on Streets 15 and 16 were running backward. Now it seems the time has already passed the node where we could jump back to save people." Meng Wenguang immediately said, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's hurry to Street 23!"
However, Xu Huo, Wang Ling, and the others didn't move. After a moment, Xu Huo said, "This is what I meant by 'we can't advance any further.' We don't know how to perform the time jump."
Even if they rushed to Street 23, it would be futile.
"Can't we use a time item?" Long Jianfeng quickly said. "You guys try using your time items!"
Xu Huo looked at Tang Ming, who twitched the corner of his mouth. "Last night, I went back and forth between Street 12 and Street 16 multiple times to check on Dr. Wu's daughter and Dr. Wu himself. If it were possible, I would have succeeded yesterday."
"It's 11:25." Yue Rui reported the time. "We don't know what will happen at 12:03. If our situation is similar to Mr. Tang's, then the earliest players among us to arrive here will leave Pumpkin City early, and after leaving, our memories might be altered."
If they lost their memories after 9:17 PM, then all their efforts today would be wasted.
The only option was to have Tang Ming wait near the Time Tower and, tomorrow, let Xu Huo and the others enter Pumpkin City early.