No wonder he couldn't find anyone. The person hadn't even been in this world to begin with.
"What kind of time travel?" Jiang Lianqiu pressed on. "Did he go to another timeline, or did he simply run off to another world?"
"Either is possible. Further analysis is required."
Von Noymiau did not immediately give an answer.
Jiang Lianqiu grew curious. "If someone really could return to the past and do something that changed history, what would happen to us?"
"Would we disappear because history had changed?"
Von Noymiau shook her head.
"Actually, Commander, technologies involving time form an enormously complex system." Von Noymiau paused before explaining further. "But one thing is certain: to the cold universe, 'time' is a meaningless concept."
Jiang Lianqiu could understand that. Forget technology as advanced as Mech Servants—even twenty-first-century humanity had vaguely begun to realize that humanity's understanding of time contained far too many points that seemed untenable against the universe's cold laws.
This seemed to line up with some aspect of the Aeon of Memory's philosophy in the Honkai: Star Rail Universe.
Perhaps, in Fuli's eyes, Remembrance was the essence of everything, while time was not.
Because life and worlds possessed Remembrance, time came to have meaning.
Jiang Lianqiu only turned those headache-inducing metaphysical questions over in his mind once before giving up on them. He focused on the matter at hand.
"Roughly how long will it take to get an answer? If we confirm that Dio went to another timeline rather than another world, can we continue tracking him?"
Jiang Lianqiu frowned.
If Dio had gone to another world, he couldn't be bothered to care. But if he had gone to this world's "past," then he probably couldn't be allowed to run wild.
"I'm afraid not... uh..."
Von Noymiau had just denied Jiang Lianqiu's question when her expression suddenly froze.
A moment later, she looked at Jiang Lianqiu with an incomparably strange, astonished, conflicted gaze. "...We can, Commander. We can!"
"What happened?" Jiang Lianqiu felt as though Von Noymiau was looking at him like one of her research subjects.
Before Von Noymiau could answer, a flicker of data streamed through Belfast's eyes. She opened her mouth, walked to Jiang Lianqiu's side, and said softly:
"Master, do you remember the incident that erupted in the Tokyo District, which we discovered at the same time after you noticed something unusual here?"
"I remember. Didn't we already send people to investigate?"
"Yes." Belfast nodded. "Our people have already made contact with the target—the man named Jotaro Kujo. Incredibly, the moment they met, he said that he intended to return something 'we gave his grandfather, Joseph Joestar, in the past.'"
"—A scale from the Time Bug..."
Jiang Lianqiu: "..."
After a full minute of silence, Jiang Lianqiu rubbed his temples and let out a groan.
"My head's a little scrambled. Let me sort this out. We gave Joseph a Scale of the Time Worm in the past? Where did we get a Scale of the Time Worm?"
The Time Bug—those were legendary higher-dimensional creatures that parasitized time itself, perhaps even monsters that were the manifested consciousness of time itself, though that remained uncertain. The scales that fell from them were unquestionably priceless treasures. If Jiang Lianqiu had something like that, would he give it to Joseph? He would absolutely place it in the Starport for proper research.
"Maybe we only obtained the Scales of the Time Worm because of this operation?"
Belfast's eyes brightened.
"Then... would I really give something like that away?" Jiang Lianqiu did not consider himself generous enough for that.
Unless...
After using the scale he was about to receive from Jotaro Kujo to return to the past, he obtained a second Scale of the Time Worm.
Only if he had two in hand would he possibly give the extra one to Joseph, ensuring that his future self would definitely obtain at least one scale. Joseph would pass it on to Jotaro Kujo, and Jotaro Kujo would ultimately hand it to him in the future, completing the loop of history.
At that thought, inspiration struck Jiang Lianqiu, and he voiced a bold idea. "Tell me, is it possible that I'm the 'grandfather' senior mentioned?"
"Huh?" Belfast was dumbfounded.
"No, that's not what I mean. I mean, could the reason Senior's grandfather was so formidable during his lifetime have something to do with me?"
"And Kars, that ultimate life-form—we couldn't find him in space. Maybe we went back to the past and blasted him into dust?"
Jiang Lianqiu's thoughts began to spiral...
Before you continue