Chapter 820: Curved Time
The middle-aged woman who had been invincible just a second ago was killed in the blink of an eye. This made the curly-haired female player, who had originally planned to rush up and die together with her, instinctively step back, creating distance and warily observing the players around the corpse.
The scene fell silent, and everyone present looked like they could be the one who had made the move.
No player spoke, and naturally, no one admitted to killing the middle-aged woman. However, since she was already dead, this fight could be temporarily put to rest.
The curly-haired female player used a body bag to pack up her companion's corpse and returned to stand beside Xu Huo and the others.
A night passed. When the sky lit up as usual the next day, the number of players who had survived from the train had shrunk to two-thirds of its previous size.
Nearly four days had passed since they encountered the dimensional storm, and the Orbital Supply Department still hadn't appeared. This plunged the players, who had just begun to hope, back into the despair of possibly not receiving rescue. Arguments and fights broke out frequently. Some were injured, others were robbed. However, since it was broad daylight, everyone held back somewhat, and to avoid exposing their own items, they didn't go for the kill.
"Hey, what's that?" Yan Jiayu gazed into the distance and suddenly spoke.
Xu Huo followed her gaze and noticed a fluctuation at the boundary line of space at the edge of his vision. It was like looking at something through steam—the originally horizontal line began to undulate.
"That should be an alternative timeline," the train commander said, instructing someone to record the distant scenery with an instrument.
"A timeline? Can time be seen?" Yan Jiayu asked.
"Time is just a relatively convenient concept for humans. Things in some spaces don't change according to the methods we understand, so the concept of time isn't entirely accurate," the train commander said with interest. "According to the sci-fi understanding of multidimensional space, every frame of time and space can extend into countless possibilities. However, this doesn't happen in dimensional rifts. The complexity of space and timelines far exceeds human imagination and comprehension. The time we see can be simply understood as a straight line, but in some spaces, 'time' is a curve."
"Time is a curve?" Most of those present didn't understand, but the old man said, "Is it like the difference in time flow in cultivation novels?"
"That's just a very small part of the pattern," the train commander said. "But the curve is only the surface phenomenon we see with our eyes. In reality, the curve is produced by the special movement of space. It's like observing a planet from a macro perspective—you can see changes in its terrain and water flow, but if you're on it, you wouldn't feel a thing."
"So this is a spectacle. The appearance of such a curve indicates that a particular space is going through a special period."
Many players had already taken out items to record the scene before them. Xu Huo looked at the hazy landscape and said, "If time is a curve, does that mean if someone enters a 'curved time' space from 'straight line time' and then returns to 'straight line time' at a special moment, they might complete a time-space journey?"
The train commander glanced at him with a smile. "In the game, there's almost no such opportunity."
The old man seemed to know a bit about it. He said to Xu Huo, "When you first enter the game, the time to complete instances basically matches the normal months, weeks, and days. As the instance difficulty increases, the time span for clearing them grows. The standard seven-day clearance model isn't practical, so the time within instances extends accordingly. But it's still converted according to a certain ratio. Generally, after leaving such an instance world, it's impossible to get a ticket to the same world again in a short time. The chance to verify time-space travel is very small."
Small was one thing; the game would definitely plug that loophole.
Moreover, even if the conditions on both the game and player sides were met, for such a special space, the key was how to safely operate and complete it.
If you weren't an expert in this field, relying solely on a bit of popular science from others, you'd never figure it out in a lifetime.
The "Curved Time" disappeared. The train commander raised his hand to check his watch. "The rescue team is here."
As soon as he finished speaking, a track-laying train appeared in the distance. At the front of the train was a fully automatic track-laying instrument. It repaired the tracks as it moved, making it slower than a normal train, but still very fast from the players' perspective.
The train stopped near them. Members of the Orbital Supply Department in uniform greeted the train commander and then instructed them to board.
The players who returned to the train were almost moved to tears. Someone said, "I never thought I'd see a train and feel like I'm seeing family!"
The words were a bit exaggerated, but compared to the torment of waiting aimlessly by the tracks, even fighting on the train didn't seem so objectionable.
After the staff boarded, they had their own separate carriage, while the players were asked to go to the rear carriages. No one really cared, but as they were leaving, Xu Huo heard the train commander tell the Orbital Supply Department to report the "Curved Time" incident.
He paused thoughtfully, suddenly realizing another thing. The Game Government was searching for Dr. Wu, and Dr. Wu had been moving between different game zones. Ordinary methods like tracking and trailing should have long since become ineffective for their cat-and-mouse game. Could it be that they hadn't clashed within "Curved Time"?
Had Dr. Wu been moving between different game zones just to distribute the S-series potion?
His ability to successfully evade the Game Government's pursuit might not simply rely on items and player power, but also on his understanding of the time-space order.
However, looking at it from this angle, it also showed that time-space travel wasn't so easy to accomplish. Even if it were possible, it wouldn't be as convenient as ordinary people imagined. Dr. Wu had a daughter. If time-space travel could be done at will, Dr. Wu would definitely go back to the past to find his daughter. And to control Dr. Wu, the Game Government would try the same method to get his daughter in their hands.
It was unclear whether there had been any confrontation between them on this front. Judging from the results, basically, neither side had made progress for decades—Dr. Wu hadn't completely shaken off the Game Government, and the Game Government hadn't truly caught Dr. Wu.
There was another small issue here. The letter-like notes Xu Huo had seen among He Pu's belongings seemed to predict the future. Could it be that items that touched upon "prediction" or "causality" all bore traces of "Curved Time"?
If so, was Dr. Wu's placement of the Perfect Potion random and arbitrary, or did it have a specific purpose?
Like He Pu's notes, was his acquisition of the Perfect Potion purely coincidental?
"What's wrong with you?" Yan Jiayu looked at him strangely.
Xu Huo shook his head slightly. "I was thinking, if Curved Time exists, does that mean anything can be corrected through trial and error?"
Yan Jiayu laughed instead. "Curved Time isn't cyclical time. Curved Time should still move forward, right? How could it be that good? What has happened is fact. How could it be easily changed?"
(Chapter End)