Chapter 63 Chapter 63 (2/2)
“From the moment we found the head until Morita’s death, it was about two minutes.” Ji Yushi spoke concisely, “That is to say, the time in the room with the head is two minutes in the future. There is a time difference between the two rooms.”
His thoughts were a little messy. After saying that, he corrected himself, “No, it should be that there is a time difference between the three rooms.”
They were all traversers, so they have naturally learned a lot about time and space.
But Zoe wasn’t like the seventh squad who had faced all sorts of strange situations. She was shocked, “How could there be a time difference in the same time and space? It makes no sense…..”
The situation here was similar to the city and rainforest and surrounds in the Chaos mission.
If it was Song Qinglan, he would be able to immediately follow his train of thought.
In many cases, Ji Yushi didn’t need to say everything for Song Qinglan to fully understand what he wanted to convey and they could analyse the situation together. The other teammates also only needed to ask questions and they could solve it together.
Ji Yushi didn’t have the time to explain to Zoe his adventures with the time anchor and the crevice in time and space. He could only go straight to the main topic: “You are right. Under normal circumstances, there shouldn’t be a time difference in the same time and space. Conversely, you can think about it another way. What if these rooms are not from the same time and space?”
Zoe was stunned by Ji Yushi’s bold speculation. It was temporarily difficult to accept.
Ji Yushi had already swallowed his medicine completely. Only the bitter taste remained in his mouth.
Perhaps it was just a psychological effect, but he was considerably better, “Do you have anything unimportant on you that you can lend me? We can throw it in to confirm this speculation.”
Zoe took out a packet of gum from her pocket. When Ji Yushi received it, she felt that it had appeared at the right time and chuckled, “Want one?”
In a short amount of time, he had readjusted his mental state.
It looked a little unbelievable to Zoe, but she just attributed it as a skill possessed by everyone in the seventh squad.
Ji Yushi gave Zoe one and ate another one himself. Much of the bitterness in his mouth was gone.
The two chewed gum to relax.
It was actually rather strange situation.
Zoe, “You’re not throwing it in?”
“No need.” Ji Yushi held the packet of gum, “Just the thought of throwing the packet of gum in is enough. Zoe, can you check the room on the right for me?”
Zoe climbed up the ladder suspiciously. Her eyes widened in shock, “T-there’s half a packet of gum!”
This was something Ji Yushi had expected. He threw the gum back to Zoe, “Compare it. Is it yours?”
After confirming that it was her gum, Zoe’s mind was a mess.
The courses she had studied, the practical experience she had gained, and her experiences after being hijacked, it all spun around in her mind.
Ji Yushi gave her time to think and didn’t interrupt her.
It took Zoe a full minute before she could speak again, “Could it be that the time in this room is two minutes in the future and it would show what might happen in two minutes?”
After entering the room, they had discovered Morita Yu’s head.
Two minutes later, Morita Yu did just that and his corpse also appeared in the room on the left.
Zoe said, “If I don’t throw the gum in and don’t fulfil that possibility?”
Ji Yushi stood in the middle of the room. He raised his arm to check his communicator, “It has been two minutes now. Check again. Is the gum still there?”
Zoe looked back and was surprised, “It’s gone!”
That half packet of gum had disappeared like a ghost.
After Zoe got off the ladder, Ji Yushi told her his thoughts, “If we really threw in the gum, the room on the right should be the same as the room on the left; both would have a half packet of gum.”
In this case, the order of it happening would be exactly the same as what happened to Morita Yu.
After experimenting, this idea of Ji Yushi’s was proven.
Those three rooms indeed had a time difference, and they couldn’t directly cross over.
Ji Yushi was still in thought. Chuck’s death mentioned by Zoe and Morita Yu earlier also happened the moment he entered a room. Was there a time difference between only some of the rooms or was there a time difference between all the rooms? Could it be that their safety actually had nothing to do with the colour of the rooms?
Ji Yushi asked, “Zoe, Morita said that the ball in the room where Chuck entered and died in was yellow?”
Zoe said, “Yes. Did you think of something?”
Ji Yushi shook his head, “Not yet. I need more information.”
The theory that they could go to rooms of the same colour had been overturned. It seems that there was still a possibility of death even if they did that. They searched around. Except for the two strange rooms with red balls, the rest were one yellow, one green and two blues.
Zoe thought of a way. She threw a piece of gum into each room to observe the consequences, but they all fell quietly onto the floor without any interference. Ji Yushi also checked the room that was two minutes in the future. It didn’t seem to be affected by the other coloured rooms.
It seems that there was no time difference between the remaining rooms, but even so, they didn’t dare haphazardly make a selection.
They seem to be trapped here.
*
The Tetris blocks changed quickly. It fell down at an almost unimaginable speed, clearing row after row.
Ji Yushi sat on the ground, his slender and pale fingers controlling the black and white console in his hands. His expression was focused and he appeared to be fully engaged with the game. The points accumulated rose extremely quickly. If he were to participate in a Tetris tournament, there was no doubt that Ji Yushi would come first.
In a setting like this, Ji Yushi sat there for two hours.
There was no doubt that even if he stayed there longer, he wouldn’t be bored.
Zoe was able to remain calm at first but after some time passed, she started to pace around the room anxiously. She had been here longer than Ji Yushi so her mentality was naturally also different. Seeing that Ji Yushi was still playing his game, she even considered the notion of leaving on her own.
She couldn’t wait any longer.
“Really not going?” Zoe picked up her gun and decided to choose a random room to enter.
Green or blue are fine.
As long as it wasn’t the yellow that killed Chuck or the terrible red rooms on the left and right hand side, she could give the other rooms a try.
Ji Yushi didn’t look away from his game and just said, “Like I said, I need more information.”
Zoe said, “Ji, you have just been sitting there and doing nothing. Even if you want more information, we don’t have any.”
Ji Yushi said, “Firstly, we are not the only traversers here. Secondly, every time someone enters a room, the room they were originally in would move. The movement of that room is not independent and would definitely cause the surrounding rooms to similarly move. Why don’t we wait a little first? Perhaps the surrounding rooms would be different the next time we check.”
Zoe was almost convinced by this. She was dumbfounded for half a second before she quickly retorted, “So what if the surrounding rooms change? Can you choose which room to go into?”
Ji Yushi said, “When the surrounding rooms change, we can test it out again. That way, we can collect more information. There is no useful information for us for the time being, but it is at least safe here.”
Zoe messed up her hair anxiously. Ji Yushi’s words were not just nonsense.
She calmed herself down and waited with Ji Yushi for another three hours.
Except for the sounds of the two of them breathing, these labrynth-like rooms fell into dead silence.
They took turns to check the surrounding rooms several times and saw no changes.
Zoe couldn’t wait any longer, “We need to get out of here!”
Ji Yushi looked at her.
Zoe said, “Look. If there are really a lot of rooms here, perhaps too many to count, even if we wait here until we die, the surrounding rooms won’t move. Why don’t we choose between the blue and green? Perhaps we may end up picking the right one and getting more information from that.”
Ji Yushi asked, “Which one do you want to choose?”
“It’s very simple. There are two of us.” Zoe said, “Why don’t we flip a coin? The one who loses will go first. You can choose any one you like. If it is the right one, we can go together. If it is the wrong one, the other person can survive and move on. It’ll be fair like this.”
Zoe liked it to be fair.
But Ji Yushi didn’t agree, “What if both are wrong?”
Zoe, “So what? It’s better than sitting and waiting.”
Although she would never do something like that, she kind of understood what kind of mentality that person who had used them as a test subject had.
Ji Yushi continued to sit there. He shook his head, “Sorry, I choose to stay.”
Zoe bent down next to him and spoke earnestly, “I really hope the right one is chosen. This is a mission and that Tianqiong said there are rewards. Even if it’s risky, it’s creating an opportunity for the other person, isn’t that right?”
Ji Yushi’s expression showed no changes. His dark eyes looked at her calmly, “I’m sorry. It’s because I want to succeed so I won’t want to take risks. If you want to leave, you can go ahead.”
Zoe was stunned.
She suddenly realised that besides being calm, this beautiful black-haired young man was also very ruthless.
She angrily huffed, “If I left the room, the rooms would move the moment the door closes, and you get the information you want without needing to do anything. It’s not fair!”
Ji Yushi, “Then you can choose to stay.”
Zoe was left speechless. She could only mutter, “Ji, you’re too terribly calm. There is no warmth from you. You probably don’t have a girlfriend with you like this.”
Ji Yushi said, “Oh, I like men.”
Zoe had already taken down the ball, “Whatever. It doesn’t matter if it’s men or women. You give off a feeling like you don’t need anyone.”
She opened the door to the room with the green ball. A hole appeared on the ground. The gum she had thrown was still there and it overall looked rather safe. While preparing to do down, she said, “If I succeed, I succeeded because of my courage — It will prove that a Guardian 70 years in the future is stronger than 70 years ago! If I die in the green room, you must remember that I created this opportunity for you. You owe me one, Ji.”
After saying that, she disappeared into the hole.
“Beep——–” Following that sound, the door closed.
However, at the same time.
“Beep——-” With that sound, the moment that door closed, another door opened.
From that door, Zoe entered.
Behind her was the alive and well Morita Yu.
They seem to be unable to see Ji Yushi and was completely unaware of his existence.
He watched Morita Yu jump off the ladder and say, “I have always been dealing with administrative work before and originally wanted to be a Recorder, but I signed up as a Guardian because they were short in people. In terms of combat power and experience, I’m still very inadequate so I’m not very close with my teammates.”
Following that, Ji Yushi saw ‘himself’ appear and similarly climb down the ladder.
He silently opened his mouth and mouthed along with his ‘other self’, “Those doing administrative work have their own strengths. After a few more missions, you will gradually become familiar with them.”