Those Who Speak of Right and Wrong Are Themselves Troublemakers

His thinking was the same as mine.

The key to solving this problem was resolving the issue with time.

He, too, could not figure out what had happened to the time we were in that had caused it to stagnate.

But time standing still did not mean everything had stopped.

It was not as simple as Ding Ru had previously said—pressing the pause button on the world.

"So where do you think the problem behind time stagnation lies?"

I asked him, though I knew he might not know the answer either.

"I think the problem should lie with the system. Other than the system, I can't think of anyone else capable of something on this scale." As he said that, he frowned slightly.

I asked whether he had thought of something else.

He looked at me. "I don't know whether I should say it. After all, this is only my guess. I'm not sure myself."

"Say it. There's no question of whether you should or shouldn't. It doesn't matter whether you're right or wrong. I can make my own judgment."

He smiled. "Then I'll say it. Do you think everyone who came here is really you? Could one of them be different? Could they not actually be us, but rather..."

He deliberately stopped there.

His words made my heart jolt.

Of course I knew what he meant. He suspected that one of these versions of me might have been mixed in by the system.

"You know, if the system tampered with things, it would be difficult for us to determine whether that person was truly one of us. You remember that other you, right? For a long time, hadn't you always believed he was the you from Negative Space?"

I nodded. He was right. I really had believed that other