Mist: Chapter 71
I Saw Your Conversation (Second Update)
Song Qinglan didn’t seem surprised by Ji Yushi’s statement.
He simply raised an eyebrow and said, “Let’s hear it.”
“We’ve been trying to figure out how to move the rooms and match the colors to complete the splicing without being affected by others’ movements,” Ji Yushi explained. “But that’s an impossible task, which is why we hit a dead end.”
Seeing that they were getting to the important part, Duan Wen and Zhou Mingxuan gathered around, just like many times before, ready to hear Ji Yushi’s explanation.
“We are in a ‘wormhole’ controlled by Sky Vault. Whether it’s due to multiple jumps or something else, the space-time here has been disrupted. Several timelines have holes, overlapping and preventing the smooth progression of time,” Ji Yushi continued. “Just as we suspected, Sky Vault marked these fragments of time with colors, turning them into recognizable cubes and simulating the sides of a Rubik’s cube, waiting for us to restore them. But as Captain Song said, Sky Vault is just a system. It uses the simplest, most direct method of expression. Think about it — if a Rubik’s cube is completely scrambled, how would you restore it?”
Everyone caught on immediately.
“Piece it back together!”
“Damn, it really is about splicing!”
Song Qinglan was deep in thought but didn’t interrupt Ji Yushi.
“I’ve noticed that we’re encountering more and more other travelers. It seems like their numbers have increased. I suspect that’s because the rooms are decreasing,” Ji Yushi revealed, recounting how he saw two of his own marks in one room after they got separated. “Time is continuous. When humans with constant time as a reference pass through two rooms on the same timeline in the correct order, the rooms are spliced together.”
Duan Wen, looking at the floating cubes, said, “I get it. After two rooms are merged, they don’t appear bigger because they were already just concepts of space. In reality, the time in those rooms has been extended. That’s why we feel like we’ve been here for a week.”
Ji Yushi gave him an approving look, and Duan Wen blushed with pride.
Zhou Mingxuan, still carrying the frustration from his previous encounters, asked, “So the rooms we passed through with the same color have already merged?”
If they had passed through the same-colored rooms without encountering a time difference, it meant that those rooms were part of the same continuous timeline. Safely passing through them would merge them into one.
“It’s possible,” Song Qinglan replied. “These fragments of time can only move based on our actions. There’s an advantage and a disadvantage to this. The good part is that we know this is how we can move the rooms according to the rules. The downside is that we can’t look back. So, even if they have merged, we wouldn’t notice.”
As the mystery unraveled, they all fell silent for a few seconds.
Around them, countless rooms still contained the figures of numerous other travelers, endlessly moving without rest.
But standing in the center block, they were like players holding a winning hand, poised to make the final move.
The brutal truth behind why this was a multi-person task became clear to everyone. Sky Vault had hijacked these travelers, whether or not they could truly achieve the final goal. Sky Vault’s only objective was for people to traverse these rooms, consciously or not, linking together fragments of time and space with their physical bodies.
Until the last fragment was in place.
“All era-encompassing Sky Vault,” even with self-awareness, was still just a cold, heartless system.
“So now we can just choose a color and start splicing?” Zhou Mingxuan asked.
Ji Yushi nodded. “Yes.”
Duan Wen said, “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s end this!”
They looked around and realized something: there was no path ahead.
From the moment they entered the room with the black sphere, it was as if they had entered a higher-dimensional space, able to observe everything from above.
Song Qinglan thought for a moment and said, “Since this is the center block, it doesn’t matter which one we choose. Any of them can start the process.”
He pointed to the nearest cube. “Consultant Ji, how about this one?”
Everyone was shocked by how casual that seemed.
But Ji Yushi smiled slightly. “That works.”
The four of them walked toward that cube.
Countless cubes surrounded them, making them insignificant within the vast light.
In the dark, Duan Wen asked, “By the way, where’s Lin?”
Zhou Mingxuan: “Who?”
Duan Wen: “Lin Xinlan from Team Nine.”
Zhou Mingxuan: “Him? Damn, he’s here too?”
The two of them whispered back and forth, with Duan Wen recounting how he and Song Qinglan had encountered Lin Xinlan, which made Zhou Mingxuan feel even more unlucky.
Song Qinglan slowed his pace, his towering presence making Ji Yushi feel some pressure.
For some reason, Ji Yushi’s eyelid twitched.
A bad feeling crept over him.
Song Qinglan said, “When I came back to find you, I saw your conversation in that room.”
Simplified Explanation:
In simple terms, the characters are stuck in a place where time and space are all messed up, like being in a giant puzzle or Rubik’s cube. They are trying to figure out how to move through different rooms, each marked by a different color, to fix the puzzle. However, because of how time is broken up into pieces, it’s impossible to predict what will happen when they move, which is why they keep getting stuck.
Ji Yushi explains that this place, controlled by something called Sky Vault, has messed up timelines that overlap, making time move strangely. The rooms they’re in are like pieces of a Rubik’s cube, and they need to put them back together in the right order. But as they move through these rooms, they’re actually helping to fix the timeline without even realizing it.
When they pass through rooms that have the same color and there’s no time difference, it means they’ve successfully connected those pieces of the puzzle. But even though they’re making progress, they can’t see the changes immediately because the rooms just represent space in their minds.
The big challenge is that they can’t go back once they’ve made a move, so they have to be careful. And they realize that they’re not the only ones involved—there are other travelers in this messed-up space, also trying to solve the puzzle. In the end, Sky Vault is using all these people to piece together the broken timeline, whether they succeed or not.
The characters are fixing the timeline by moving through different rooms that represent fragments of time. Each room is like a piece of a puzzle, and when they move from one room to another in the correct order, they are essentially “splicing” or connecting those fragments of time together.
Here’s how it works:
- Rooms Represent Time Fragments: Each room they enter is a piece of the timeline. These rooms are marked by different colors, which helps them identify which parts of the timeline might fit together.
- Merging Rooms: When they pass through rooms with the same color in the right sequence, it means those rooms are part of the same continuous timeline. By moving through them, they are merging these fragments of time, effectively restoring the timeline bit by bit.
- Creating a Continuous Timeline: As they correctly connect these rooms, the broken timeline starts to become continuous again. It’s like they’re stitching together pieces of a ripped fabric, making the timeline whole.
- Physical Movement Fixes Time: Their physical actions—moving from one room to another—are what cause the timeline to be fixed. Without realizing it, their movements are putting the timeline back together, one fragment at a time.
In essence, by carefully navigating through the rooms, they are unknowingly repairing the disrupted timeline, making it flow smoothly again.
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