Deceitful Game

Chapter 298 The Limit of 81 Seconds

"One minute and fifteen seconds..."

Gao Fan's voice came from behind Ming Po: "It's a little too much."

"Don't worry, I've got it figured out."

Mingpo casually remarked, "But it's true... next time, I'll set an alarm in my head. It'll go off once at sixty seconds, and then click once every second when it's down to ten seconds."

Plugins of this caliber can be easily configured; there's no need to download any special software.

"But... why eighty seconds?"

Mingpo asked curiously, "From what you're saying, everyone else also takes eighty seconds?"

He hadn't even mentioned to Gao Fan the specific timeframe requested in the letter he received, yet Gao Fan already knew it directly.

This suggests that it is highly likely everyone gave the same time.

This is probably why the agents are not subject to any restrictions on their usual behavior, yet they are allowed to be scattered across various places.

As long as there are enough of them and their activity range is sufficiently dispersed, there will always be situations where they just miss the target mission at some point. "Eh~"

Gao Fan's lips curled up, and his tone became excited: "I actually know that!"

Glasses, soybeans, fingers.jpg

"Tell me more!"

Mingpo moved closer.

As he leaned closer, he couldn't help but feel a sense of感慨 (gǎnkǎi, a feeling of mixed emotions,

This kind of lively atmosphere-building activity used to be done by Ai Shiping.

Now that Ai Shiping's personality has become much more silent and aloof, Mingpo has naturally filled that gap.

As it turns out, Mingpo is not actually unable to interact with other people.

After all, in this life, Mingpo's friends are not limited to Ai Shiping. In his previous life, he only had Ai Shiping as a friend, mainly because he stubbornly did not want to contact other people... or rather, he believed in his heart that "he could only have one friend."

At that time, Mingpo was obsessed with the idea that only in this way could she prove that she was not at fault.

If he also contacts people other than Ai Shiping, it means he wants to betray this friendship.

And now...

Although Minpo has lost another virtue and the world has become cyberpunk, his personality is much more cheerful and normal than in his previous life. This version of Minpo makes no attempt to hide his murderous intent and arrogance, yet he is surrounded by many people.

Friends, mentors, leaders, seniors, juniors...

Even Mingpo's behavior became much more natural and carefree. She was no longer so crazy, no longer so extreme... no longer thinking about how to die a magnificent death every day, and no longer having such a perverse and twisted desire for a friendship that would never betray her.

Now that his past life memories have awakened, on his way here, Mingpo curiously compared the two versions of himself. He wanted to know why the two versions of himself had such different personalities.

Although the underlying themes are still arrogance, loneliness, and bloodlust, even the art style is different.

According to Mingpo's understanding... there was a big reason, which was actually because she was sick when she was a child.

Because at that time, Mingpo was very ill and needed to spend every day at the research institute.

This also allowed Mingpo to meet many people his age.

He was surrounded by many adults... and those researchers paid close attention to him.

Because he was so sick, this case is still very valuable.

Even disregarding Mingpo's father's status as a "war hero," this unique manuscript certainly shouldn't be subjected to dangerous operations like slicing. Anyone who dares to slice a precious, rare manuscript—his mentor would slice him to pieces!

"The key is not eighty seconds, but eighty-one seconds."

Gao Fan said earnestly, "This matter is very important... Shi Ping, come over too!"

"Eh."

Ai Shiping responded and walked over.

When Gao Fan saw Ai Shiping also come over, he lowered his voice and said seriously, "You two must remember this, but you absolutely cannot tell anyone outside! Not even in the Deceitful Game... This is top-secret information that only the board of directors of the eight giants is qualified to know." "Tell us quickly, we're listening," Ming Po urged.

"Because 81 seconds is the lock time of the 'Tianwen' system."

Gao Fan said with utmost seriousness, "Eighty-one seconds after the Deceitful One appears on the current timeline, the Tianwen System will lock onto the flow of time, thereby accurately determining and recording the complete process of this time operation."

"In other words, as long as you exist in the past or the future for eighty-one seconds, then why you came and from which moment will all be recorded by Tianwen."

"...Is it because the Tianwen System belongs to Millennium Technology?"

Ai Shiping also asked softly, "If it exceeds eighty-one seconds, will Millennium Technology record the visit?"

"I'm afraid not."

Mingpo slowly shook her head.

He understood.

And the answer Gao Fan gave next was exactly the same as Ming Po had expected!

"The answer is simple... If the past can be changed within eighty-one seconds, the world will change silently. Perhaps some deceivers will remember the previous world, but so what?"

"But what if it's a deceiver who's stuck in the past for too long, and they change that past..."

"Then his past before he performed this operation was also backed up by Tianwen."

"……I see!"

Ai Shiping slowly opened his eyes, took a deep breath, and hissed, "Like a computer backup?"

"That's right!"

Gao Fan nodded vigorously: "If you linger in the past for too long, then this change will be 'recorded,' including what the world was like before the change and what it is like after the change..."

"This means that this period of time has been anchored in a certain sense. Since the record has been created, whether it is authority, title, prophecy or inquiry... it can investigate 'what the world was like before', so someone can trace back to the point in time before the change and turn history back."

"And for example, the change you made... because you completed it within the allotted time, the Tianwen system of that era hadn't had time to lock onto you before you returned to the future. Therefore, this operation was completely unknown... you disappeared from history!"

"Even if someone wanted to revert the past, they wouldn't know exactly where the problem stemmed from, leading to the current state of history. Unless it's a conman who happens to know 'the person you killed,' retains past memories, firmly believes that this person's death was the direct cause of the world's change, and can even pinpoint the exact time of death... only then would they actively travel back in time to try and prevent it from happening. Otherwise, even if they changed the past, it would merely be creating a new history. And because most people are unaware of the '81-Second Binding,' their traces will be recorded and locked by Tianwen. We only need to check the archives to directly find the locations where these histories were altered."

In other words

Ai Shiping opened his eyes wide.

"In other words," Mingbo continued slowly, "if we want to change the past and end this era completely... "each time we use the chips to travel to the past or future, we only have a maximum of eighty-one seconds to use them... as soon as the time runs out, we'll be immediately locked out, right?"

"Once you're locked on," Gao Fan said with a very serious expression, "it means death."

"Because the entire 'future'... the infinite future will become your endless enemy!"

"An endless stream of enemies!"