Time Traveler Help Hotline

In the blink of an eye, the dilapidated buildings around Ji Mo quickly repaired themselves, were painted and renovated, and he once again stood on the land of what everyone considered to be the "normal" world.

Just as he was about to approach Mara, a static crackled through his earpiece.

"Ji Mo? Ji Mo... heard... a reply..."

The headset signal was intermittent, and the sound inside was severely distorted, but it was not difficult to hear the emotions that were being conveyed.

"Xiao Jiu?" Ji Mo tentatively replied.

"I hear... they're building... this crappy equipment..."

Jiu Chonglou's angry voice rang out continuously. She seemed to have exhausted all the methods she could think of, and you could even hear the applause of traditional repair methods.

After a round of ping-pong, the static in the headset disappeared, and a sigh of relief was followed by the word "It's done."

Before Ji Mo could even ponder what had "become" in, a portal that could only accommodate one person at a time quietly opened and appeared out of thin air on the street, without causing any panic.

"What are you standing there for? Come in quickly," Jiu Chonglou urged.

"……good."

The familiar studio environment, and the familiar yet worried face of my childhood friend.

"Where is Chen Zhuzhu?" Ji Mo looked around and saw only Jiu Chonglou.

"Don't you even look at what time it is? I saw she was anxious because she couldn't help, so I let her go back first," Jiu Chonglou said speechlessly.

As Jiu Chonglou spoke, the portal was rapidly closing. She glanced at it before it completely closed, her expression grave: "What's going on over there? This is the first time I've seen you out of contact for so long."

"Can't you see?"

"We only saw you enter that dilapidated royal city, and then we lost sight of it."

"...This world seems to have an appearance and an inner world. The surface world, that is, the material world, is dilapidated and decadent, lacking everything as Jane said before. But after entering the royal city, people will fall into the wrong perception."

While thinking about something, Ji Mo said:

"In their understanding, although they were forced to a corner of the world by the disaster, they were still able to make a living."

"So there's actually a distinction between appearance and reality..." Jiu Chonglou mused. "You should still remember how to handle this kind of situation, right?"

"I remember. The first priority is to investigate whether this descent was a voluntary choice by the victims or purely due to external forces, without their knowledge."

This is why Ji Mo wandered around the royal city and tried to gather information from some people.

If it's the latter, allowing the victims to proceed smoothly is merely a side effect. Ji Mo could simply forcefully awaken these people.

Some people may not be able to distinguish between reality and dreams after waking up, but as time goes by, this feeling of gain and loss will gradually weaken and eventually disappear.

If it's the former, those who are lost in their dreams are very likely to become enemies, choosing to betray their saviors in order to maintain their dreams.

This is experience gained from countless tragic endings.

Sometimes it is important to learn to respect other people's fate and let them live or die on their own.

Based on the world's background and Jane and Tina's behavior, Ji Mo believes that it is highly likely that they were aware of the situation and acted voluntarily.

Ji Mo explained his analysis, and Jiu Chonglou sighed softly, "It's the same choice again. When they realize that everything is beyond redemption, they invest the remaining resources to let their people die in their dreams."

No fewer than twenty such civilized methods of suicide have been recorded in the archives of the Sanchuan Tailor Shop.

"In that case, the person seeking help cannot stay here." Jiu Chonglou nodded in agreement. "Fortunately, his connection with this world is not deep. If all else fails, we will have to knock him unconscious and take him away."

Respecting the fate of others presupposes that they have no connection with you.

Based on the information revealed by the person seeking help, his concept of happiness does not require him to stay in this world.

Jiu Chonglou walked to Ji Mo's side, patted him on the shoulder, and opened the portal again, but was about to leave first: "As for bringing back the person seeking help, I'll do it. You lack the means to deal with this kind of situation."

"...Actually, there's one more thing."

"Varied--"

Before the word "幺" even landed, Ji Mo's hand, which had been hanging on his spatial ring, moved!

A burst of sword energy erupted without warning.

Jiu Chonglou's composure froze instantly, replaced by utter astonishment.

She looked down at the slash mark on her chest, and with a hiss, her upper and lower body slowly separated and fell to the floor.

An ordinary person wouldn't die immediately if cut in half at the waist, let alone a superhuman.

Jiu Chonglou dragged his upper body, laboriously raised his finger to point at Ji Mo, his lips moving as if he wanted to question something.

Ji Mo raised his sword, and once again brought it down, causing the head to roll to the side.

"First of all, she prefers to call me Old Man Ji."

"Secondly, she definitely dodged that sword strike."

In terms of output, Jiu Chonglou may never catch up with Ji Mo in his lifetime, but in terms of escape and survival ability, several of them cannot compare to one Jiu Chonglou.

Ji Mo will never forget his first real battle with Jiu Chonglou when he officially entered the world of superhumans, which ended with him being defeated after being exhausted and finding an opening.

Jiu Chonglou gave him no chance to hit, his body covered in countless trigger-type spatial jump spells, interlocking with each other while also incorporating rebound-type mental magic.

At that time, his level was not high enough. As long as he accumulated enough attempts and his skill level was high enough, it would eventually take effect.

The memory of the crushing defeat came to an abrupt end. Ji Mo sheathed his sword and stared expressionlessly at the lifeless corpse of "Jiu Chong Lou," the blood flowing from its cross-section staining the floor crimson beneath his feet.

Even though he knew it was all fake, seeing the familiar face lying in a pool of blood still made Ji Mo feel agitated.

What aroused Ji Mo's suspicion was that when he synchronized with Tina and the others' perspectives, "Jiu Chong Lou" contacted him.

Am I also becoming one who needs to be given "happiness"? This was Ji Mo's first reaction.

But this didn't give Ji Mo complete certainty about his guess; he needed more evidence, so he returned to the program room.

If it were the real Jiuchonglou, he would definitely be able to dodge this attack and restore the damage he caused to its original state.

Conversely, it is fake.

But this raises another problem.

In theory, he possesses the ability to be "invulnerable to all laws," making him immune not only to any false memories or perceptions imposed upon him, but also to any attempt to read his memories.

By reading the hero's memories, all that can be known is the existence of Chen Zhuzhu and the program; Jiu Chonglou has never appeared on the program.

Even if, like Jiu Chonglou before him, he succeeded once by gambling on quantity without Ji Mo's knowledge, the memories he gained would definitely be fragmented. As long as he keeps talking to him, he will eventually reveal a flaw.

Rather than being easily seen through, it's better not to pretend to be Jiu Chonglou and contact yourself in the first place.

"Either someone already knew my information and deliberately led me here, or the source of the technology by which the people here establish their understanding of happiness comes from..."

"……pollute."