The Wristband's Proper Use

"Gone again..."

Lin Xu sat up in bed and vigorously shook his foggy head.

Mercenaries, gunfights, a spaceflight base, a spaceship, an apocalyptic disaster...

The same plot as always.

But the good news was that this time, he had made it farther than before.

He raised his hand. The silvery-white wristband on it was slightly hot, and the number displayed on it was "2."

This thing was the key to his ability to "come back from the dead."

A month ago, he had received this wristband and entered that "future world" for the first time.

Back then, he had thought he would soon be able to travel between two worlds, resell supplies, and reach the peak of life.

But he quickly discovered that it was nothing like that.

Every time he entered that world, he was on his way to attack a civilian spaceflight base.

And every time, he only had one final hour.

If he failed to board a rocket and leave within that hour, that world would be destroyed in a remarkably standard "end-of-the-world" fashion.

Blinding flashes, radiation, explosions...

It was not like a dream, where falling from a height would make him wake up instantly.

He could feel the experience of dying with perfect clarity.

The searing pain, the discomfort of his organs being corroded, the suffocation and intense vertigo before death...

Every time he left, he had to endure a brutal ordeal.

It hurt like hell, okay?!

So many times, when there was clearly no hope left, Lin Xu had snatched a gun from the skull-faced guy and put a bullet through his own head.

At least leaving that way did not hurt as much.

—But then again, what exactly was that flash that caused the apocalypse?

A nuclear explosion could be ruled out first. Lin Xu had once tried not attacking the base at all, instead driving away from the city at nearly three hundred kilometers per hour.

But no matter how far he ran, the flash always blanketed every inch of land without discrimination.

What kind of nuclear bomb could have such a massive range?

Even the Tsar Bomba had a total destructive radius of less than one hundred and fifty kilometers.

Maybe it was some kind of cosmic ray burst?

But if it were a cosmic ray burst, what would be the point of escaping on a spaceship?

Without the protection of the atmosphere, would he not just die even faster in outer space?

Lin Xu did not really understand the motives of his counterpart in that other world, but from the clues so far, the plan to "seize a spaceship and evacuate" had definitely been carefully considered.

After all, he had gathered such a well-trained, professional team, and even the target selection had been highly deliberate.

They did not rob an official base; they robbed a civilian commercial one.

They did not rob a transport spacecraft; they robbed a sightseeing spacecraft.

With such a meticulous plan, it could not possibly turn into a farce even if they succeeded in the end, right?

That would be pretty absurd...

Lin Xu picked up the glass of water beside his bed, took a drink, and rubbed his throbbing head.

This was an aftereffect of entering the other world.

There was no physical exhaustion, but the mental drain was no joke.

That was probably why the wristband displayed a number.

When that number reached zero, he would be unable to enter again for a while.

He had to wait until his energy recovered before he could continue suffering in that world.

The number was still at 2, but Lin Xu did not plan to continue.

It was time to get up and have a late-night snack.

He grabbed the phone by his bed to order takeout, when a WeChat message popped up in the notification bar.

He opened it and saw that it was from the team lead of the company's R&D group.

Jiang Xingye (Test Craft Flight Control Development Team Lead): "Bro, why haven't you updated your part of the code yet?"

Lin Xu checked the time.

22:32.

The message had been sent exactly two minutes ago.

What a grind...

After thinking for a moment, Lin Xu typed a reply.

"I can't update it for now. The main issue is with the PID control algorithm."

"There are a lot of problems in the original code, mainly details like servo jitter and overly large correction angles."

"The test board we're using now has poor performance and can't support enough servo output. To solve this, we need to use incremental PID control."

"But I tested it, and during the incremental process, the servos may lock up for unknown reasons, causing the program to crash."

"I haven't found a solution yet, so I can't update it."

After sending the message, Lin Xu could not help but sigh.

The company he worked for was a private rocket company called Skyvault Technology—the very company he had robbed in the wristband's world.

Although the company had developed quite well twenty years later, right now...

It was somewhat less than satisfactory.

At this point in 2025, the company was considered something of a unicorn nationwide, but that did not change the reality of its weak technical capabilities and research strength.

It claimed to be building civilian rockets, but in reality, nothing it had built had ever even left the stratosphere.

Even a fresh graduate like him counted as a core member of the development team. Jiang Xingye was only two years older than him, yet she was already a team lead.

That showed just how desperately short-staffed they were.

There was no helping it. Any R&D personnel with even a little ability had been absorbed by the national teams, leaving only scraps behind.

People like him, who had some technical skill and met the requirements but had not joined the national teams, all had their own reasons.

Lin Xu, for example, simply wanted fast money.

After all, an annual salary of several hundred thousand right after graduation was not something the national teams could match.

As his thoughts gradually drifted away, Jiang Xingye's call came in.

The moment she spoke, she asked directly, "Could the program crash be because the PID increment is increasing too fast?"

"Probably not."

Lin Xu instinctively shook his head and replied, "If it were an out-of-bounds issue caused by the rate increasing too quickly, a simple limit would solve it."

"But I tried that. It didn't work."

"To troubleshoot it, we'd have to go through it bit by bit. Otherwise, we'd need to scrap it and start over."

As soon as he finished speaking, Jiang Xingye's tone became somewhat anxious.

"That won't do. You need to hurry."

"The deadline is the day after tomorrow. We have to present it to the boss then."

"We can't exactly go in with a half-finished product, can we? If the boss isn't satisfied, won't all our bonuses for the second half of the year go down the drain?"

"I want the bonus too."

Lin Xu said helplessly, "But sis, do you think this workload is reasonable?"

"We agreed that I'd only handle the servos, but now the parachute deployment control is under me too. How am I supposed to finish all that?"

"I know..."

Jiang Xingye sighed on the other end.

"There's nothing I can do either. Aren't I, the team lead, also doing the work myself? I still have to write the attitude adjustment algorithm. You have no idea how complicated the needle-valve control section is... Forget it, let's not talk about that."

"Hang in there. When the bonuses come through, I'll give you a bigger share."

"...I'll think of something."

Lin Xu answered while clutching his hair. Jiang Xingye heard the exhaustion in his voice and comforted him, "That's just work, little bro. You'll get used to it."

"Want to come out for a late-night snack? Maybe talking it over will help us solve it."

"No. I'm afraid what you want to eat isn't a late-night snack."

Lin Xu refused. "I'll order takeout in a bit, then get online and make revisions after I eat—remember to reimburse my late-night snack."

"You bastard... Forget it, eat by yourself. If you're really tired, get some sleep. Maybe you'll figure it out in a dream?"

"I'll take that blessing."

Lin Xu gave a perfunctory reply as he turned on his computer, but in that instant, something suddenly occurred to him.

Figure it out in a dream?

Wait.

If the world inside the wristband was twenty years in the future...

Then the problem he could not solve now should have been solved long ago twenty years later, right?

No.

In that world, Skyvault Technology must already have a complete, mature flight control system.

What if he simply went there and copied the code?

While physical objects could not be brought back...

Could the information stored in his mind possibly be forgotten?

Lin Xu instantly grew excited.

Could this be the wristband's proper use?

He hung up and raised his left hand.

The wristband's charge bar was slowly recovering. The number was still 2, which meant he could enter that world twice more within the next twenty-four hours.

That was enough!

With a thought from Lin Xu, his consciousness was abruptly hollowed out.

In the next instant, he appeared in that other world once more...