13 Mink Street

After checking their watches, the three captains became quiet.

Even Kansai, who was previously the most grumpy and had a deep prejudice against Neo, now looked solemn.

Of course, he may not have a prejudice against Neo, but a real understanding.

"Three hours, we are three hours behind." Anthony immediately shouted behind him, "Check the watch, set the time under the stars!"

Kansai also immediately shouted: "Follow it."

Neo raised his head, glanced at the starry sky, reached out and tapped the blue shell beside his ear: "Fanny, it's school time."

Soon, the results of the school hours for both sides came out.

Anthony and Kanse are in the early 10s, while Neo is in the early 40s.

Although the two sides were facing each other, there was a three-hour difference in time. Even the starry sky above their heads was different.

"What's going on?" Anthony looked at Neo.

Canse asked: "Neo, what did we do in the next three hours?"

As the captain of the Whip of Order team, the most basic business qualities and basic knowledge are still indispensable. Of course, they will not keep shouting "This is impossible, this is impossible, this is all a scam..."

Now that a strange situation has arisen, what we have to do now is to solve it as much as possible.

Neo said: "You entered the Alais Castle Manor. You left the manor more than an hour later. I had people stop your convoy and found that only the car was left without seeing your people. Wait for me to lead When the team returned, they saw you driving your car from here."

"So, we have entered the mission target?" Anthony looked thoughtful.

Kanse asked: "What exactly is in the manor?"

"I don't know." Neo shook his head.

"you do not know?"

"I did not enter the manor because I felt there was danger, so I decided to abandon the mission."

"So, it was just me and Anthony's two teams that entered the manor?"

"Yes."

Kansai licked his lips and said: "If you take us as the benchmark, we are who we were three hours ago. So, no matter what we do now, we can't change the established ending?"

Neo raised his hand and interrupted Kansai: "I think we should not discuss this kind of philosophical issue now, but should focus on reality."

Anthony asked: "Neo, what do you think happened?"

"I suspect that there is something mysterious in Alais Manor that has affected you."

Kansai asked in surprise: "A sacred instrument that can control time?"

Neo glanced at Kansai and asked, "Do you know what the Time Sacred Artifact means?"

Although time artifacts and time artifacts have always been circulated, it has never been confirmed that they have actually appeared. There are not churches in the church world that worship and believe in gods related to time, but without exception they are all small churches, and even all of them The gods you believe in may be fake and do not exist.

Because time cannot flow backwards and cannot be controlled.

From epoch to epoch, the gods have studied and dabbled with time, but in the end they all failed.

Although God will not stand up and take the initiative to explain that my research has failed, just looking at the passage of each era, how many gods and orthodox churches have been annihilated, it is enough to prove that no god has truly mastered it so far.

Therefore, the Time Sacred Artifact has always been just a concept, known to many people, and has even been presented in literary and artistic works for a long time, but in reality, no trace of it has ever been found.

Anthony asked: "What do you think it is?"

"I guess you may have been deceived or deceived, resulting in this situation."

"We?" Anthony immediately asked, "Why do you think you are not bewitched?"

"Because my team didn't enter the manor."

"How do you know you didn't enter the manor? What if you did but were deceived into thinking you didn't?" Canse asked immediately.

Neo stopped talking.

"If we were just deceived and deceived, why did you appear in front of me?"

Anthony stretched out his hand to grab Kansai, motioning him to stop talking, and turned to Neo: "We will obey your command. Kansai's team and I will all obey your command."

"Why..." Kansai was obviously dissatisfied. He now understood that Neo had belittled their situation from the beginning but exaggerated himself. He obviously wanted to lead as a "savior" These three teams.

That's why he deliberately kept saying "you" and "you" without mentioning that there might be problems on his side.

Neo smiled and said: "Just because I won't hand over the command of my team, and because I don't like to hand over my destiny to others, you can choose to act on your own and continue to the Alais Castle Manor along this road. , you do your thing, I do mine."

"We are willing to unite!" Anthony said.

Kansai muttered "Rogue\

,"But he also shouted: "Okay, I will follow your command. What is the first step?"

"You two teams stay where you are. I will lead my team to the railroad intersection ahead and try to catch the train back to York City."

Kanse immediately shouted: "You want to confirm if there is a problem on your side? If there is no problem, you will go back directly with your people?"

Neo nodded and said, "Yes."

"you!"

Anthony immediately grabbed Kansai and said, "Okay, we will follow your arrangements."

Kansai's chest bulged with anger, but he stopped talking.

Under this situation, if Neo's team can really return to York City, they can at least ask the Divine Cult for help and invite more powerful departments to solve the problems here, so that they can be saved.

It's not that Kansai doesn't understand the stakes here, he's angry about Neo's behavior.

Neo turned around and returned to the members of his team. The previous conversation between the captains of both sides did not avoid the members of their respective teams, especially Kansai's voice was always loud, because in this situation, it is meaningless to hide the people under his command. thing.

Let everyone know the situation at hand. On the one hand, they can gather their thoughts and come up with solutions. On the other hand, they can better direct their subordinates to carry out some orders that are unthinkable on weekdays.

The most important thing is that if the dilemma is established, it means that no one can escape, which is also a way to improve cohesion at this time.

Neo glanced at everyone and said: "I need a team member to join the opposite team now. If we fail to return, he can serve as a coordinate point when we turn back.

Anyone who is tired of living and wants to take risks can come forward. If no one is willing, then we will draw lots. Except for me, fifteen of you will draw lots to choose one person. "

Everyone knows that the person who stays will bear great risks. In this strange situation, it is the most correct choice to escape and enter a safe place as soon as possible.

Karen said nothing and chose not to come forward, preferring to accept the draw.

However,

But Richard took the initiative to take two steps forward and shouted:

"Captain, I'm staying!"

For a moment, everyone's eyes fell on Richard. Richard straightened his back and rubbed the soles of his boots under his feet, pretending to be "a big deal".

Karen looked at newcomer Memphis, who also raised his feet and prepared to step forward.

At this moment, Marlowe stepped forward. To be precise, Marlowe stepped out a little slower than Richard.

Marlowe reached out and grabbed Richard's shoulders, pulled him back, and said:

"Captain, I'm here. I know the formations. If you want to contact us then, it will be more convenient."

"Okay, you stay, the rest of you, move on."

Neo's team passed by Kansai and Anthony's team on the road.

Marlowe stayed.

At the same time, at the end of the team interleaving, two new team members followed behind. They were people from the Anthony team and the Kansai team. Obviously, the two captains also made the same arrangement as Neo.

There was no communication, no introduction to each other, those who stayed stayed, and those who followed followed, the two sides just grew further and further apart.

Finally, the track crossing arrived, and everyone stood by the tracks waiting for the train to York City.

York City is a big city and is also located in York Harbor, so trains are frequent even at night.

Not long after, a freight train came.

"boarding."

Everyone got on the train.

Karen, Richard and Memphis were standing at a carriage connection.

"This mission is very difficult," Karen said.

Richard said: "That's true."

Memphis nodded.

"Didn't you notice anything unusual?" Karen asked.

Richard said: "No, although I have paid close attention to the situation around me, I still haven't."

Memphis shook his head.

The train continues to move.

Karen suddenly noticed that something was wrong with the scenery in the distance. He was clearly getting closer to the place where the lights were densely lit before, but it seemed that in the blink of an eye, the place where the lights were dense suddenly became further away.

Karen grabbed the edge of the carriage with one hand, leaned out, and saw that the place he was about to reach in front of him was the rail intersection where he and others had boarded the train earlier.

This is... back again.

"get off!"

When the captain's order came, everyone jumped off the train and watched the train continue to move forward.

“March on foot!”

New orders were issued.

Everyone started walking on foot. After marching for more than 20 minutes, everyone returned to the starting point.

Richard said a nonsense: "It seems that we can't get out."

Memphis said: "We might not leave at all."

Karen looked at Memphis and asked, "Are we hypnotized?"

Memphis shook his head and said, "It's more complicated than this."

At this time, several crows landed in front. They were pacing there. Neo walked over and waved, and all these black crows disappeared. Obviously, these were messages released by the captain, but the messages could not be passed on.

Everyone seems to be trapped in this huge well. Although there are no edges and corners around it, the moss-covered slipperiness makes people despair even more.

Li checked his watch and said, "It's almost five o'clock, and it's almost dawn."

Karen asked: "Richard, what time is it exactly?"

"Oh, five o'clock... huh? It's half past midnight!"

The same exclamation was also sent out from other positions in the team. Obviously, Richard was not the only one who noticed the change in time.

Karen raised his head and looked at the starry sky above his head. He was actually not familiar with the stars, but he could also feel that the stars in the sky seemed a little different from before.

Soon, the school results came out, and it was indeed less than one o'clock in the morning.

This means that it’s not just this place that everyone can’t get out of, but also time.

"They're gone!" Fanny shouted.

Everyone immediately stood up and looked around. After confirming the number of people, there were 15 people including the company captain.

The team originally consisted of the captain plus 12 members and three non-staff members, for a total of 16 people. After excluding Marlow, who stayed in the two teams, the number was 15.

Everyone else was there, but what was missing were the two team members sent by the two teams to follow them. Karen didn't know their names, but he was sure that those two had come with him and boarded the train together.

"They got off the train." Gray said, "The two of them had been standing with me, and I was responsible for watching their changes. I remember clearly that after the captain gave the order, the two of them got off the train with me. I got off the train and told me my worries about the current situation.

It can be said that just now, they were still by my side, but I didn't realize at all how they had disappeared now. "

"Did the two of them go back?" Bimo asked, "I mean 'were' sent back."

Fanny said: "What about Marlowe? If the two of them were sent back, why didn't Marlowe come back?"

"Because it was the wrong thing to come back," Memphis said.

Everyone turned their attention to the newcomer.

Memphis had no social fear, but said seriously: "They should have gone back, and Marlowe should have come back, but the places they returned to are different, and the place they went back to is not necessarily where we are now. "

"Sorry, I didn't understand..." Fanny said.

"The coordinates are not here with us. There may be one or several fixed coordinates. When their time is up, they will be 'returned' to that coordinate."

"What about us? Why are we still here?" Fanny asked.

"Our team may also be moving coordinates now."

"Move the coordinates?" Bi Mao asked doubtfully, "Why?"

"I don't know, but I feel that if scattered people are alone, they may be 'returned' to the fixed coordinates. As long as the number of people in the team reaches a certain size, we can have mobile coordinates and will only be returned in time. location, but not spatially.”

"Time?" Gray caught the word.

"They are different expressions of time. I don't think the actual time has changed. The actual time must not have changed. What has changed is our perception of time.

The watch and the starry sky above may all be scams. I don’t know what caused all this, but the existence of this phenomenon seems to be deliberately guiding us to recognize the concept of time being cut. "

Neo said: "Memphis is right, don't mention time, don't reinforce this concept of yourself, I don't think there are any time sacred tools in this world, nor does the power of time exist.

We cannot follow its guidance to understand and explore, otherwise we will never be able to leave here.

Now, since we can't get out, we will go back to the hillside where we first stopped for observation. I hope Marlow is waiting to meet us in front. "

Neo didn't say where the two teams would meet us. Karen felt that it was probably because Neo didn't think they would show up at that place, although they would definitely stay there as agreed.

Everyone started to return the same way. As Richard walked, he asked Karen in a low voice: "Is there really no time artifact?"

"No." Memphis said first, "It is said that the God of Light disappeared in pursuit of the power to control time."

After hearing this explanation, Karen was stunned for a moment and asked, "Is there such an explanation?"

There have always been countless speculations about the ending of the God of Light, and the mainstream speculations in each period are different. This is normal. After all, even the study of a novel can be divided into several schools that argue with each other, let alone the light. God?

A relatively unified cognitive statement now is that the God of Light "disappeared" at the end of the last era or the beginning of this era. The "disappearance" here also includes the possibility of falling.

"There are many explanations, it depends on which one you are more willing to accept." Memphis continued, "Time is a force that even gods are fascinated by."

Because only by mastering time can you survive in each era without worrying about being annihilated.

Karen couldn't help but think of what her golden retriever said that night. It used the word "lost" to describe the eternal God.

But if time is really a power that even God cannot obtain and is extremely longing for, then what kind of power is acting on our group of people now?

Karen doesn't know the answer, and the captain's attempts to contact the outside world have failed. The earliest request for Marlowe to send a distress message to the cult must also have failed.

If your own cats and dogs are around, they should be able to analyze and guess more about the situation in front of them.

finally,

The team arrived at the place where they last met with Anthony and Kansai's team. What was not an unexpected surprise was that the two teams that were asked to stay here, together with Marlowe, were nowhere to be seen.

Richard ran to the side of the road and checked, and Karen asked, "What are you looking at?"

"When I asked to stay, I made a small dent here with the sole of my boot. I'm sure this is where I was standing, but the dent was gone."

Karen remembered that Richard, who took the initiative to take on the task, did move a little too much in order to show his indifference.

At this time, Karen heard Fanny suggesting to the captain:

"Captain, I think since we can't get out, let's go to Alais Castle and have a look."

"Yes, Captain, that's it anyway, why not go to the castle and see what's inside." Gray also suggested.

Neo shook his head and said: "But I think that the fact that we did not enter Alais Manor is our biggest advantage now. I don't believe that its effect can last for such a long time.

Everyone, gather together and camp where you are! "

The captain ordered the camp to be set up, and Karen and Memphis walked toward the team. At this time, Karen noticed that Richard did not follow him, and was still looking for his small hole there.

"Richard, let's go and set up camp." Karen urged him.

Memphis also stopped and looked at Richard.

"Oh, okay, here comes Karen."

Richard clapped his hands, stood up, and then, under the gaze of Karen and Memphis, started running in the opposite direction, shouting as he ran:

"Hey, don't run so fast. Just wait for me, Karen!"