Time in a collapsing world

Chapter 1303 Group Chat

"Please look here."

"Oh……"

What did you see?

"A watch."

"What else?"

"That's all..."

Su (Memory Entity) smiled as she put away the pocket watch, her movements unhurried, as if she had just been playing a harmless little game.

"Looks like I've lost." His tone was gentle, with a hint of self-deprecation. "The design of this hypnosis game still needs improvement; it didn't work on you at all."

Kiana tilted her head, looking at him with a puzzled expression: "Uncle Su, what were you doing shaking your watch for so long? I thought you were going to do a magic trick!"

"Almost." Su stood up and straightened his robes. "The magic trick failed. I need to go back and think about it some more. You guys continue playing."

"Oh... okay?" Kiana blinked, watching him push open the door and walk out of the small dark room. His back view still had that calm and indifferent look.

The moment the door closed behind her, the gentleness on Su's face faded slightly.

At the end of the corridor, Aponia (Memory) stood quietly.

Their eyes met in mid-air.

Aponia shook her head slightly.

Su walked silently to her side and asked in a low voice, "What about Mei's side too..."

“Hmm.” Aponia’s voice was soft. “I tried to guide her mentally—under the guise of recalling the past. But I was blocked again. Not by resistance, not by rejection, but by… my power simply couldn’t reach the surface of her consciousness. Something, like a transparent film, completely enveloped her mental world.”

Su pondered for a moment: "It's the same with Kiana. I thought that with her personality, she would be the easiest opening among the five. But when I tried to go deeper, all I felt was a 'blank' – not a defense, but 'nothing' there. It was as if my consciousness reached out and could only touch a smooth wall, without any gaps to hold onto."

“It’s the same thing,” Aponia said. “It’s protecting their mental well-being.”

The thing from "outside" was not only in contact with the five children, but was also building an unbreakable defense for them in a way that they could not understand.

“Don’t act rashly for now,” Aponia finally said. “Continue to observe. So far, it hasn’t shown any malice, and in fact… the five children are more stable than before. But we need to figure out what it really wants.”

Su Weiwei nodded.

Outside the small dark room, Sirin, Bronya, and Seele were sitting on a bench in the rest area, waiting.

Sirin crossed her legs, listlessly flipping through a borrowed book—the cover of which read "Illustrated Guide to the Plants of Paradise (Fictional Edition)"—while Bronya closed her eyes to rest, and Seele sat obediently to the side, quietly eating a lollipop that appeared out of nowhere.

Seeing Kiana and Mei walking over from the other end of the corridor, Sirin slammed her book shut: "Why did it take you so long? What do they want with you?"

"It's nothing!" Kiana skipped over in three steps, her face beaming with smugness, "Come ask me, come ask me!" "Uncle Su said he wanted to play a hypnosis game, but he kept shaking his watch for ages and I didn't feel a thing! In the end, he said the game was a failure and he needed to go back and think about it some more~ How about that, am I amazing? I fooled him without him even noticing!"

She stood with her hands on her hips, her tail practically sticking up to the sky.

Celine stared at her for two seconds, then spoke expressionlessly:

“If you want that ‘helper’ to be exposed, you can speak louder.”

Kiana's smugness froze on her face.

Mei gently smoothed things over, "Alright, alright, at least on the surface everyone's passed muster. Mr. Su didn't press the issue in the end, did he?"

“That’s because that thing blocked it for you.” Sirin stood up. “Don’t think it’s because you’re a good actor. Since it chose to help us, it won’t let us give ourselves away. But don’t get too cocky. Those memory entities are all very shrewd. If you’re not careful, they’ll find a flaw.”

Kiana, unusually, didn't argue back, only muttering, "Okay, okay..."

Bronya opened her eyes, her gray pupils sweeping over the group: "Bronya thinks it's best not to stay here any longer. Let's return to the accommodation area and discuss this further."

Xi'er obediently followed, glancing back at the small dark room before leaving, and whispered, "Uncle Su... is actually a very nice person..."

“Being a good person is one thing, but having a stance is another.” Xilin said without turning her head. “They want to protect us, and we want to go out and find our brother. These two things are currently in conflict. There’s no right or wrong, but we can’t be foolish.”

The five people left the rest area and walked further and further away along the eternal corridor of Paradise.

Paradise of the Past - Accommodation Area

Although it's called the "accommodation area," it's actually a small, independent space that simulates an outdoor environment. There's a lawn, a stream, and five uniquely styled independent cabins, which were specially built for them by Vilvi (Memory Entity)—in her words, "We can't let the kids sleep on the training field, that would be too inhumane~ although I'm not exactly inhumane myself."

The five of them gathered in the largest building—the "dormitory" shared by Kiana and Mei. The doors and windows were tightly closed, and Bronya had set up a small signal jamming device in the corner (although she wasn't sure if it would work on the Memories, it was just for peace of mind).

"Alright, now you can talk freely." Kiana plopped down on the sofa. "How do I join that 'group chat' thing?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, all five of them simultaneously felt a slight flash before their eyes—

A semi-transparent interface appeared in their respective fields of vision.

The interface is very simple: a pure white background, a few simple text boxes, and the words "[Our Little Group~]" written at the top in crooked font.

“This thing…” Sirin frowned, “can it really bypass the monitoring of those memory cells?”

Of course!

New text appears on the interface.

[This is a separate space of consciousness; your memory-like friends can't see it even if they wanted to! But remember, after leaving here, it's best not to directly reveal what you were saying in your conversations, as it might be discovered~]

"Can you please stop appearing out of nowhere every time?" Kiana complained. "It's terrifying."

But I didn't "appear" in your lives; I was just typing in your heads.

Kiana was speechless.

Mei carefully chose her words before speaking: "Did you help us fend off Mr. Su and Ms. Aponia's probing today?"

[Yeah, yeah~ That squinty-eyed guy tried to hypnotize you, so I temporarily 'hid' your consciousness layer; all he saw was a blank slate~ That nun tried to guide your memories, so I smoothed out your mental fluctuations too~ How about that, aren't I amazing!]

"You're amazing..." Mei said with a hint of helplessness, "but could you please tell me in advance next time? I thought I was really daydreaming."

[If I told you beforehand, wouldn't your reactions be a bit off? Those memory modules are quite sophisticated~]

Celine stared at the interface: "Who exactly are you? Why are you helping us? And your tone..." Why does it sound so much like that annoying person?