A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

Chapter 628 Stealing the Space-Time Rift, Leaving Zeref with Nothing to Absorb

What if we changed "Reverse Future" to "Parallel Universe"?

You really dare to think and act!

So, have you been eating too much these past seven months? Has that cake shop on the street started releasing a new product every week? You can't eat like this, no matter how much you crave it!

The afternoon sun was warm, but Kira felt a chill on his scalp, unsure if it was because the air had gotten colder recently or because his hair was thinning.

Hoplet seemed oblivious to Kira's strange gaze, and continued, "The world we live in now has been different since the moment I arrived here!"

"Because in my timeline, no one came looking for me seven months ago. In other words, the current timeline is a completely different world from the one I was in before!"

"As long as you don't do this kind of research like I did, and don't use the solar eclipse after seven months, the differences between the two worlds will be even greater!"

I know that. Future Lucy and Future Roger are examples of that!

Kira picked up a fork from the table, took a big bite of cake, then sipped a small sip of vanilla latte to moisten his throat, before turning his gaze back to Hoplette.

"Before either breaking the eclipse or killing me, the two timelines must be parallel worlds! But maintaining this situation indefinitely is difficult! What are you going to do?"

"And most importantly, how are you going to get back?"

The same logic applies: if the other party's plan succeeds but they can't go back, then creating a parallel world is completely meaningless; but if they do go back, everything done beforehand risks failure.

"How can you guarantee that your original world won't disappear after you go back?"

"And how can I guarantee that my current timeline won't be significantly negatively affected?"

These three questions are problems that Hopelight must solve, and also problems that Kira needs to consider.

If it affects his current timeline, Kira will definitely not let the other party's actions go unchecked, even if the other party is his future self.

As demonstrated by the future Rogue in the original work, even the same person can turn to the dark side due to certain events. Therefore, even if Hopelight is Kira's future self, he cannot completely trust her.

"Hmph... Don't worry!"

"First and foremost is the issue of global security. If things get out of control, at worst we can just destroy the eclipse, declare the experiment a failure, and then I'll slink back to my original world."

Hoplett had clearly considered Kira's concerns and had prepared a simple and crude solution of starting over from scratch. "Anyway, once I go back, I'll know whether my original world has been erased or has become a parallel world."

"Of course, before I have to give up, I still want to struggle as much as possible to see if there is a way to become a parallel world."

"You should be able to accept this, right?"

Kira's eye twitched: You're really fearless... But that's just my personality!

"can!"

"This is indeed the best backup plan. As long as it doesn't cause too much of a problem, I don't care about anything else... even if you destroy the Kingdom of Fiore, I won't care. After all, I'm quite interested in your research topic."

Zeref created the Eclipse Gate to travel through time, so why can't he create a parallel world himself?

That would be such a disgrace to my identity as a time traveler if word got out!

For Kira right now, what's important are undoubtedly his guildmates and some friends outside the guild. As long as Hopelet's actions don't affect their personal safety, the situation isn't considered dire.

Even if some of them were to go bankrupt as a result, he wouldn't intervene.

No! He might lend them money, and then...

Hehehe... You guys don't want people to know that you owe money and don't pay it back, right?

The strange laughter made Hoplet frown and her heart tighten.

Goodness... Although I often laugh like that, it's for outsiders or for my guildmates, not for myself!

Moreover, laughing yourself and hearing others laugh are completely different feelings!

Suddenly, Hoplett understood why the guild members always looked at her strangely whenever she laughed like that.

What are you laughing at? You're acting so frivolously!

"It's nothing! I just suddenly thought of something happy."

I don't believe you for a second! We're the same person, why are you pretending to be a respectable person in front of me?

The two understood each other but kept quiet, maintaining a unique tacit understanding.

"Mmm...this cake is really good! The latte is delicious too!"

Kira ate with relish, leaving none for Hopelet, who didn't seem to mind and simply sat quietly.

Time slipped away silently.

"The second point is, how do we avoid the situation where two worlds become one?"

"Hmm... Do you have any clue about this now?"

"not yet!"

Hoplet sighed helplessly: "This is my first time trying this, after all. I haven't experimented with it before, so I don't know if I can maintain the parallel world indefinitely. But I think if I can stay here until the point in time I traveled to, things might be different."

Why are you dressed so early?

Kira rolled his eyes, then swallowed a big bite of the soft, fragrant cake. The sugar stimulated his taste buds, sending signals of 'happiness' and 'enjoyment' to his brain.

"You're probably thinking to yourself right now why I'm dressed so early! The answer is, I need enough time to research and utilize the power of time that was created after the solar eclipse."

"That is, in the final chapter of the original work, Anna prepared to use it to deal with the time rift of Acnologia."

A time rift? How audacious!

"Could it be that you've already found that thing?"

"Not yet! I don't know if it's because Anna hid it, or if I'm just not up to the task. Anyway, I've spent several months looking for it, but I haven't found it yet, so I'll keep looking!"

The act of scooping out the cake suddenly stopped.

Why didn't you find a place before coming over?

Hoplet stood with her hands on her hips, laughing heartily, her expression extremely smug: "Once I get my hands on the power of the time rift, Zeref won't have anything to absorb anymore! Oh hahaha..."

Now that Kira has a way to deal with the Annihilation Curse, Zeref will most likely not disregard Mavis's safety and directly absorb the 'Fairy Heart' as he did in the original work.

But just thinking about how he, like in the original work, confidently declared in front of everyone that he would absorb the power of the space-time rift, only to find that everything was gone, made Kira feel good.

"Well said! I'm waiting for your good news!"

"Finally, the third point is how to get back. How are you going to get back?"

Kira had expected the other party to suggest using a solar eclipse, a spacetime rift, the Protoss Realm, or even the magic of the God of Time, but he was completely taken aback by the answer the next moment.

"I have no intention of going back!"

"puff--!!!"

"What did you say?!"

Kira spat out his coffee and froze, suddenly losing interest in even the cake in his hand.

Hoplet seemed completely unconcerned, looking at Kira and saying, "That's normal, isn't it? My goal is to create a 'parallel world.' As long as I'm still in this timeline, it means the experiment was a success!"

Indeed, this is much better than coming and going, but...

"Are you kidding me?! I will never allow such a thing!"

Kira unconsciously raised his voice. He could get along well with Dispel, but that didn't mean he could get along well with himself!

"And what about your world? Without you, the guild will be in a lot of trouble, won't they?"

"And what about the real estate and money from that world... what are we going to do with all of that?!"

The air fell silent instantly.

A bad idea popped into Kira's mind.

Could it be bankruptcy?! No, no, no... they said they're not bankrupt!

Could it be that something's wrong with the guild? No, no, no... If that's the case, then Hoplette's goal shouldn't be parallel worlds, but rather reversing the future!

The two stared at each other for a long time, until Kira was about to say, "I'm going to smash the Eclipse Gate right now," when Hopelight once again made a surprising statement.

"Haven't you noticed yet, Kira?"

"You should be able to see that although I have magic of the same nature as you, my magical power is far less than yours! This is not due to the eclipse, nor is it due to the world's rejection; the reason is simpler than that!"

A strange light flashed in his sky-blue eyes.

"I am not human, but an artificial human!"

Chapter 629 Departure and Return to Daily Life

Not human, but an artificial human?

Kira gasped sharply.

The sun overhead was obscured by white clouds, making the little house seem much darker and even the air a bit colder. The wind chimes stopped playing, leaving only the tassels beneath the glass beads swaying gently.

As the light and shadow shifted, the expressions on the two identical faces seemed to change unpredictably.

Without hesitation, Kira used his magical perception to look him over from head to toe—don't misunderstand, this is similar to the Byakugan's ability to see chakra pathways, not X-ray vision.

Therefore, all Kira saw was a ball of magic, from which he could discern its size, nature, origin, and flow.

For a normal mage, the mental energy displayed should resemble a thermal image, with more magic power in the heart and brain areas and less towards the extremities.

This is because magic power is actually distributed throughout every part of a mage's body, not just flowing through the meridians.

But the magic of this Hoplett is different!

In Kira's perception, there was a spherical magical source within his body, which acted as an energy core, flowing throughout his body via complex pathways similar to meridians, just like the mechanical soldiers of 'Judgment' Vaal!

Kira was completely stunned: "Wait...wait! You mean androids? Like Androids 17 and 18 from Dragon Ball?"

He was simply amazed. Had magical technology become so powerful in just seven months?

Hoplet was quite pleased with Kira's bewildered expression and smiled slyly: "No!"

"Huh?!"

"Numbers 17 and 18 were created by modifying humans, while I was created entirely by magic and technology. My body is a mixture of your flesh and blood clone and special metals, while my thoughts, memories, and behavioral patterns are derived from your personality additions, memory digitization, and mechanical text programming."