The establishment of the Time Travelers Alliance began in the first year of Conan

Chapter 200: The Second Timeline War Begins! (Seeking monthly votes at the end of the month QAQ)

Lin Sheng had been watching the radiance of the sun surrounding him, or rather, the radiance of [Shinichi Kudo], for a long time.

Urged on by the universe, these radiances became like tangible flames, the fireballs resisting and expanding, trying to envelop themselves, or transforming into ropes to tightly bind and burn themselves.

The universe is trying to throw this traveler, who does not belong to this universe, out of it.

That's obviously impossible.

The constancy of the CYZ effect determines everything.

He is now “standing” here, in the center of this pale sun.

Lin Sheng could see time flowing from the infinite distance, from the end of time, slowly converging here—the storyline, the reality line, and the alliance…

They are constantly creating new history and new futures, and then, the end of the loop, Conan Edogawa's "experiences," the dual timelines, and the war of the alliance...

Those unalterable processes, under the selection of that pale sun—

I was given a choice of three options.

He was thrown into that illusory, yet non-existent, new timeline by Shinichi Kudo.

Lin Sheng carefully "watched" this slow process.

And His gaze is powerful.

The new characteristic of the CYZ effect, or rather, the characteristic that the alliance has been using but has never discovered—comprehensibility—forces this process to open its doors to Lin Sheng, allowing the latches of the knowledge lock to open automatically.

Just as the Red Magic willingly offered all its secrets to Lin Sheng, a portion of that radiance was also intertwined within the dual timelines—

It was entangled in the first seventeen flashbacks, which occurred on the second day of the battle for Shiho Miyano.

Yes, if it weren't for the universe itself subtly reminding us of the dual timelines.

If the universe hadn't secretly slipped a "note" into the story's timeline under its own guise, reminding the two timelines, which were patching up loopholes, to "pay attention" to Lin Sheng's actions—

A dual timeline simply cannot detect that one has already been rewound many times.

Even the universe is the same.

If it weren't for the fact that "Shiho Miyano" was affected by the "minor impact" of the CYZ effect, which triggered the mechanisms of the universe, no one except the Alliance would have known.

Lin Sheng's exquisite imitation of Shinichi Kudo's selection timeline will make it impossible for the Detective Conan universe to detect this.

Just as the universe did not discover that the first day of the battle for Shiho Miyano had actually been rewound 98 times.

The universe was discovered to have its timeline reversed when Ms. Miyano's assistant insisted on bringing up the topic of "the boundaries of science."

That was the league's penultimate rollback of Day 1, and a rather radical attempt—

Just like when Shiho Miyano heard her assistant so abruptly and ramblingly start lecturing on the "boundaries of science."

This is, of course, because the [story timeline] wants to try to interfere with the Alliance.

But in reality, this is also the "result" of the [story timeline] doing this.

On the first day of the battle for Shiho Miyano, the alliance itself was the cause and effect that guided the actions of the timeline.

……

The first day of the battle for Shiho Miyano.

The first real day, the first time backtracking.

"Seven days from now, Shinichi Kudo will learn that GSSRA has been officially established. This is the best outcome we can hope for after all the delays."

Shigenobu Hitomi had tried to discuss with other council members the possibility of keeping it from Conan Edogawa, and the research team had even simulated many contingency plans.

But all of them ended in failure.

A global organization is incorporated into both the story timeline and the present timeline, and these two timelines offer countless ways to break through the Alliance's blockade.

"We must always remember that this is a war on timelines!"

"The prophecies given by the prophecy machine are infallible, which means that the case of the third pointer is very likely related to the timeline, and the black-clad organization that received 'extraterrestrial technological support'..."

This time, the alliance has no storyline or historical precedent to simulate or reference.

Even though Lin Sheng tried to recall the Conan fanfiction he had read in his previous life, he couldn't remember if anyone had ever tried to speculate on what would happen if an alien civilization was behind the Black Organization.

After all, what Conan fanfiction would be written like this!
This development, completely detached from known information, made the atmosphere in the executive meeting room somewhat solemn.

The silence was broken by Shigenobu Hitomi's voice:
"The loop ultimately occurs within the story's timeline, coupled with changes to the Black Organization's backstory..."

"Furthermore, the [real-world timeline] has also been enhanced."

These two sentences were like heavy hammer blows; every word was an echo of that hammer striking the air, hitting the hearts of every executive member and making the air in the meeting room even more oppressive.

This will undoubtedly raise the bar for Shinichi Kudo.

In fact, if the ritual hadn't already begun, and if the war between the two timelines and the Alliance hadn't become so intense that the Alliance had to intervene directly, then...

At that time, the Alliance would definitely have stood on the side of the [story timeline] to prevent GSSRA from being established.

When the alliance's situation was projected and placed in front of everyone at the executive level, everyone's hearts grew heavier.

"This time, our CYZ effect redundancy is only a little over one hundred strings."

During the meeting, Shigenobu Hitomi spoke in a very serious tone. She surveyed everyone present with her sharp gaze, and the undeniable seriousness in her words grew even stronger.

"The redundancy is only one-fifth of that before the last [cycle]."

"With the vast majority of devices now using time crystals, if Shiho Miyano altered the formula for APTX-4869 during these seven days..."

Shigenobu Hitomi paused for a moment, then pulled up the files on the timeline devices currently used by the Alliance that utilize time crystals.

The densely packed documents that popped up immediately filled the sky above the conference room.

In particular, the device file for the time tracing instrument was placed at the very beginning by Shigenobu Hitomi, with a note next to it indicating the amount of APTX-4869 required to start it.

"The output of the perpetual motion machine is absolutely insufficient, which means that most of the alliance's operations will be completely paralyzed."

"Every day that comes adds another day of uncertainty, meaning that Shiho Miyano could restart her research on APTX-4869 at any time, guided by the story's timeline."

Now, time is counting down every minute and every second. For the league, this race against time has already entered its final countdown on the first day.

Shigenobu Hitomi clenched her fists and suddenly slammed them onto the conference table, the loud sound echoing through the spacious conference hall.

A determination appeared on her face, and her voice carried an unwavering resolve and urgency that could almost burn like fire.

"We'll do it on day one!"

Her voice suddenly rose, like a sharp blade slicing through the pervasive dullness in the conference room.

"The alliance must try to get Shiho Miyano out of that pharmaceutical research institute on day one!"

Once the initial plan's objectives were set, the entire alliance immediately sprang into action.

More contingency plans and possibilities emerged as the situation unfolded on the first day, and the timing department generated simulations and predictions accordingly.

In particular, the head of the Narrative Studies Department raised a crucial point.

"We must understand one thing: the predictions of oracle machines are bound to come true."

The head of the Narrative Department knew all too well what the prophecy foretold.

"This means that the third pointer case will inevitably be a timeline war between us and the two timelines."

Shigenobu Hitomi frowned slightly; she already understood what he was trying to say.

Amidst the thoughtful gazes of everyone, the head of the Narrative Studies Department continued:
"Moreover, if we postpone the third pointer case to be resolved for another 7 days, we will inevitably be facing off against the enhanced dual timelines and the enhanced GSSRA and the Black Organization."

He projected the entire document from the prophecy machine, containing the "tactics" and all the information about the "Moonshadow Island" case, his voice carrying a solemn, prophetic tone:

"Plus the prophetic foreshadowing of [the cycle] and the 'timeline war'..."

"but--!"

This executive advisor, the head of the Narrative Studies Department, projected his pre-prepared plan onto the central leadership.

"The prophecy machine didn't say when or where this timeline war took place, nor did it predict who started it. Perhaps we can take the initiative!"

"Take the initiative in this timeline war into the hands of the Alliance!"

This time, the league has no intention of following the original storyline.

In the final summary and arrangement of the first day, Shigenobu Hitomi presented the goals that the alliance must strive to achieve in the next seven days.

"Our first task is to locate Shiho Miyano, rescue her, and get her connected with the Gray Team. Then, by using Professor Agasa's identity, we can strike first and make Ai Haibara appear under the control of the League."

The connection between Shiho Miyano and Ai Haibara appeared in the air with her words. The analysis by the temporal department clearly showed the subtle connection between the two through those flashing time points.

Moreover, dozens of departments within the research team had already submitted applications regarding the transformation process of Shiho Miyano into Ai Haibara.

“Then, we need to guide Ai Haibara to meet Shinichi Kudo.” Hitomi Shigenobu paused for a moment, then added, “In this process, we may be able to use some of the historical momentum to guide her to discover the temporary antidote for APTX-4869 and help her create it.”

"The most important point is that it must be done within these seven days—"

"Whether it's guiding Ran Mouri, or guiding Professor Agasa and anyone else who can help, we need to make Conan Edogawa turn back into Shinichi Kudo once during these seven days, during this period when it's difficult to interfere with the dual timelines."

"The Alliance must ensure that Conan Edogawa still believes he is Shinichi Kudo and has not given up on the idea of ​​returning to his high school student identity."

"Finally, if possible, the Alliance will attempt to proactively guide [Shinichi Kudo] to activate the [Loop] for the first time in this real-world timeline war, and try to deliver the pointer to Conan Edogawa within these seven days, while simultaneously fixing everything in place."

Thus, in the final second of the first day of the battle to secure Shiho Miyano's signature, because the first day had not yielded satisfactory progress—

The story's progress bar has been reset by the League.

A new day has begun.

Second regression...

Third regression...

Even in the first ten or so backtracking attempts, the alliance continued to patiently try, repeatedly test and make mistakes, and propose new solutions, just as it had always done.

After all, it was only a dozen or so attempts, and the league was almost on the verge of success, with several victories practically beckoning to them.

However, no one anticipated that this regression would continue so tirelessly, repeating itself endlessly, even until the last hour of the first day before the 98th regression—

This process of looking back seems to have no end in sight.

In the executive meeting hall, after so many repetitions, almost everyone had become somewhat numb.

There was no idle chatter; the optimism of the initial few resets and the excitement of the first breakthrough were drowned out by one failure after another.

Everyone just habitually collects and organizes the final data, and habitually sends it to various departments at the research and execution levels...

Even thinking has become a habit. They habitually try to find a breakthrough in all the past files and records, then organize their thoughts, discuss them, and try to send them to the timing department for simulation.

Then, as is the routine for every day, the last hour is another regular meeting for the executive team.

The hall today appears exceptionally spacious, even more so than during the last retrospective.

It's less like a meeting hall and more like a gray field, a forest of concrete.

At the request of the executive level, members of the Sustainable Infrastructure Department replicated "a day" of the entire town of Beika at a near one-to-one scale.

Now, just like adjusting the world's time in a game, Shigenobu Hitomi adjusted the timeline of Beika Town to 3 PM on the 98th day, and also brought up the 3 PM time points of the previous 97 Beika Towns.

With the time vision provided by TDD, the "multi-dimensional time display" of the research layer, and the dimensional layering technology of the Sustainable Infrastructure Department—

As the entire space is mapped into a special multidimensional maze, through those interwoven time points, all the councilors of the executive layer simultaneously appear in the historical records of 3 PM in 98 Beika Towns.

Immediately afterwards, with the adjustment of the coordinates, everyone appeared near the location marked by Ms. Miyano, which was supposed to be where Shiho Miyano was being held.

Everything is exactly the same as Beika Town today, except for the sky.

The skies over thirty-three of the Beika towns were dyed a striking yellow, while the rest were covered by an increasingly heavy red.

Even on the 98th day that the executive councilors were truly facing, although the sky had become paler, its color remained yellow.

This color creates a slightly somber atmosphere. Yellow symbolizes unsolved mysteries and another near-success that ends in failure.

A silent pressure hung in the air, and the same thought echoed in the minds of every member of parliament—the alliance's original plan had failed.

This time, the alliance still failed to bring Shiho Miyano out of the Black Organization.

This is absolutely a huge problem.

Shigenobu Hitomi took a deep breath, forcing herself to look away from the colors emanating from the sky and to strengthen her resolve.

"We probably have two more chances, and then we'll have to move the timeline to the next day."

"The redundancy of the CYZ effect is reduced to less than 20 strings, and regardless of the usual protection of the [Eternal First Strike] or the memory erasure procedure for anomalies caused by flashbacks..."

【Eternal First Strike】This task force's uniqueness is just like its name—

All team members underwent a magical timeline transformation surgery.

Shigenobu Hitomi summarized the current situation once again, and then continued:

"For the final backtracking, we will need to use at least 10 strings of the CYZ effect. The alliance needs to clean up some of the problems caused by the previous backtracking."

She looked up and fast-forwarded the timeline to the moment the Alliance launched its attack on the "disappeared" pharmaceutical research institute.

"Our approach is definitely not wrong."

"The principle behind 'disappearance' currently appears to be the misalignment of the 'disappeared person' in the timeline of the story."

"But no matter how the [story timeline] hides that research institute, at a certain point in time, it will definitely have a definite value to ensure that the 'disappeared' object does not break away from the timeline."

"In this way, even if the [Story Timeline] automatically records the [Historical Process] characteristics of all members who join the alliance, theoretically, any interference from the alliance will be located in a different time dimension relative to the research institute."

"But the magical timeline has an idealistic aspect; this is the realm of magic."

"As long as they find the research institute hidden in the 'time interlayer' first, their idealism will cause their timeline to continue its interaction with the 'disappeared' object according to their own environment."

After the 20th backtracking, the alliance found the timeline node values ​​hidden in the research institute.

After the 25th time travel, the Alliance discovered that the magical timeline could resolve the timeline separation phenomenon of "separation after a moment of contact".

In the 26th to 98th backtracking.

[Eternal First Move] successfully breached the research institute thirty-three times.

Of the thirty-three times, the task force breached the restaurant twenty-nine times, successfully reached the corridor leading to Shiho Miyano's room seventeen times, opened the door seven times, found Shiho Miyano, and persuaded her.

However, there were only three times when Shiho Miyano was almost successfully taken away from the research institute, including this 98th time rewind.

As everyone's consciousness connects to the 98th timeline of history, the perspective shifts to the situation encountered by the task force known as "Eternal First Strike".

Once again, everyone in the execution layer witnessed [Eternal First Strike] breaking through and entering the research institute where Miyano Shi was kept.

The sky was a very pale yellow.

This was the closest the alliance had ever come to success.

However, for Meng Han, this was his first mission after accepting the magical timeline.

Previously, he was the guide in the [Destiny Shines] team.

"OK, we're all in now."

After confirming once again that the connection between TDD and the [Gate of Cycles] was still stable, Meng Han recorded their current time point.

Immediately afterwards, he threw a paintball at a wall in front of him and then contacted the other twelve team members through the communicator in his helmet.

"Everyone maintain formation according to the maximum value of the magically affected field."

"Keep an eye on where the paint splattered on the door. We'll fall into that 'time tunnel' in three minutes."

"If you find that there is no yellow paint on the glass door of the research institute in front of you, get out of there immediately! Understand?"

"receive."

"clear."

……

The colorless glass door signifies that the magical timeline has subjectively confirmed an illusory possibility—

This means that from that moment on, the player's "historical process" began to "ghost around".

When the door stained with yellow paint came into view, only three people remained with him.

Then, they were met with a hail of bullets that had been waiting at the door.

With the departure of the "first mover," the [story timeline] immediately launched a counterattack against the interference of this alliance.

"Activate acceleration program to dodge bullets."

Then one of the members was hit in the barrage of fire; there were just too many bullets, and he couldn't dodge one of them.

Then, just as the operational plan stated, the armor on his body, which even a supernova explosion couldn't destroy, now acted like an ordinary bulletproof plate—

In the interlayer of time, in this "hidden" realm, the "bullets" in the "story" mean "casualties".

However, this was decided from the very beginning in the contingency plan.

Because the signal indicator in Meng Han's helmet told him from the beginning that there were actually 7 people who came in together.

Those three team members were invisible from the start.

Of the four remaining team members, one "injured" member will act as "bait," while he and the other two, as combatants with an A-level "breakthrough ability," will cover the wounded member while attempting to break through to the restaurant.

—They are the main force that attracts the [story timeline].

One of the other three team members will check the data of APTX-4869 to see if there are any changes from the last time.

The other two will try to sneak into Shiho Miyano's door and try to bring her out.

"We were sent by Ms. Miyano to rescue you, Shiho Miyano!"

With the information provided by Ms. Miyano and the display of the replica of the amber necklace, just like the other six successful attempts, Shiho Miyano changed into a bulletproof vest brought by a special task force member.

And this is the most common reason for so many failures.

Shiho Miyano isn't invisible; she can't use those devices because they don't fit her "persona."

Therefore, covering Shiho Miyano's evacuation from the research institute was the most difficult part.

The enemy is fearless, their equipment is all "story-based," and the environment also contributes to the attack on the task force.

After all, stories are capable of creating so many coincidences:
Ceiling collapse, floor sinkholes, falling walls...

And most importantly—

“If we take Shiho Miyano away, it means that her ‘disappearance’ will end, and the [story timeline] can detect that her timeline has disappeared from the state of disappearance.”

Therefore, at the last moment before Shiho Miyano left the research institute, those bullets, flying glass shards, and collapsing ceiling...

Their targets will all be Shiho Miyano herself.

This is the significance of the "wounded soldier"—he will try to replace the disappearance of a timeline, and try to connect himself to the result of "Shiho Miyano being hit".

One life for another.

This was the last solution the research department could come up with.

In the 98th backtracking, the alliance ultimately adopted it.

But the alliance still faced defeat—this only delayed the [story timeline] for a moment.

"Shiho Miyano was hit" was immediately replaced with "hesitated because of the deceased's attempt to help her".

In the ninety-eighth rewind, the "Eternal First Strike" team suffered its first loss.

Only twelve people returned.

Fortunately, with the ninety-ninth time travel, the team member who had been lost in death was forcibly pulled out by the CYZ effect.

This sparked another wave of research into the CYZ effect at the Institute of CYZ Studies, as the CYZ effect has shown new characteristics.

Of course, that's not important to the alliance. What's important is that the operation still failed.

The results of the first day left the executive councilors speechless for a moment, and then a voice rang out from the sky.

"What if we increase manpower? What if we get more people to eliminate all the unexpected factors..."

"【Eternal First Strike】can no longer increase manpower."

Another executive councilor responsible for liaising with the Department of Magical Research immediately said that this would not work.

"If there are any more, the magical field won't be enough to cover everyone."

"Once the idealistic nature of the magical timelines truly becomes connected in reality, they will be immediately discovered by the fact that [Shinichi Kudo] has erased the magic, and will be immediately erased by the dual timelines or even the universe."

After a moment of silence, Hitomi Shigenobu finally made her decision, and her voice broke the deadlock in the conference room.

"In other words, there's no way we can bring Shiho Miyano out on the first day."

The simulated city gradually dimmed, and the conference hall quickly shrank back to its original size.

Her eyes revealed an undisguised decisiveness; as the Speaker of Parliament, she had a responsibility to make decisions, and her voice became even more resolute.

"Let's adopt the B-series contingency plan."

"Even if we fail, we should try our best to gain an advantage for the next review. At the very least, we should make this day meaningful."

"Let [Eternal First Strike] split into two groups. One group goes to the funeral home, and the other goes to find Yamazaki Whiskey, who has been separated by the [Story Timeline]. Give him some time crystals and CYZ effects, and let him try to contact Miyano Shiho."

……

Then, as the Alliance finally let time flow backward, it was time for the story timeline to explain the "flashback phenomenon".

Don't forget, the CYZ effect is "constant"!

Although the fact that [Eternal First Move] entered the research institute on the "first day" that was recognized by the alliance was abandoned by the alliance itself.

This meant that, theoretically, Shiho Miyano was indeed not affected by the CYZ effect at the end of the first day.

However, the [story timeline] was affected.

Just as the confirmed outcome on the first day revealed.

[Story Timeline] It is necessary to confirm that the flashback phenomenon is Ms. Miyano's assistant and the guards sent by Ms. Miyano to rescue Shiho Miyano.

Then, the existence of the alliance was explained by the conversation about the "boundaries of science" that the assistant mentioned.

All of this makes perfect sense.

So much so that the universe was slow to react until it was confirmed that Shiho Miyano was "truly" affected by the "CYZ effect".

The universe immediately began trying to tell the two timelines that they themselves were being rewound by the Alliance.

But the universe's reminder seemed somewhat... slow and silent.

This is caused by the dual timelines themselves.

Because the universe must cleverly avoid Lin Sheng's gaze on the dual timelines.

This often results in the dual timelines being backtracked just as the reminder is about to approach, or even before it gets close to, the dual timelines themselves.

Thus, it wasn't until the seventeenth timeline ended and the eighteenth timeline began that the dual timelines finally received a warning from the universe.

Fortunately, for the dual timelines themselves, as long as the second day hasn't truly ended, it's not too late.

And so, just like the Alliance silently retraced the two timelines.

After realizing they were facing failure, the two timelines began to cooperate fully for the first time.

Moreover, they also silently altered several nodes of the original trajectory.

They were confident that the alliance wouldn't discover this until the most crucial moment.

(End of this chapter)