An Accident Occurs

However, Huang Si had been a bit of a prankster since he was a child.

Since it was fundamentally impossible, Huang Si didn't mind trying to see what it felt like to create an object that exceeded his own upper limits.

Would a window pop up with a "ding" sound, prompting: "Illegal warning: Insufficient memory!"?

Hahaha, Huang Si found the thought hilarious.

Thinking this, he tried to use his consciousness to read the pattern belonging to "himself" on the Creation Book.

The pattern was large and long, but the process of Huang Si reading it was unexpectedly smooth. Could it be that because it was himself, he could understand it instantly?

Following the established procedure, Huang Si projected the pattern into reality using his power and condensed it.

At that same instant, Huang Si's entire body paused slightly.

Then, he suddenly sat up from the sofa, clutching the book.

"Scared the hell out of me!" Huang Si exclaimed. What had he just experienced? An out-of-body experience?

No, he had left his own body and entered the inside of the book!

Huang Si was stunned by this terrifying phenomenon for a long while. After a moment, he suddenly realized that the book had undergone some changes.

Huang Si hurriedly opened the book in his arms. It had indeed changed. The second page still held the symbol he had drawn earlier, but starting from the third page, extremely complex patterns and symbols appeared, continuing on and on.

3, 4, 5... he counted all the way to the 104th page before he saw the end of the patterns.

"These patterns are actually quite easy to understand. This... should be my own structural composition, right? How did I get recorded into the book?"

Huang Si understood the changes in the book as a matter of course, as if the book were a part of himself.

Thinking about it carefully, could it be that his consciousness moving into the book earlier was what caused him to be "imprinted" onto it?

Huang Si felt his hypothesis was quite reasonable.

So, the question arose: since he could record himself, could he create himself?

After turning the question over in his mind a few times and studying the patterns in the book for a long while, Huang Si decided to tempt fate and give it a try.

After all, he had never been one to play it safe since he was a kid. Since it was bound to fail anyway, why not try it for fun?

Thus, Huang Si used his consciousness to comprehend the patterns in the book. The process was extremely smooth. Next, his power condensed invisibly in the air, attempting to manifest the pattern of himself from the book into reality.

Next, Huang Si's entire body paused slightly.

Then, he was struck with horror:

"How terrifying!"

Huang Si jumped up from the sofa, clutching the book, his heart pounding incessantly. What had he just seen? He had actually watched his own arm from the perspective of the book?

Could it be that he had turned into the book just now?

Consciousness leaving the body?

Soul transfer?

Huang Si tried to find a way to calm himself down.

Suddenly, he sensed a change in the Creation Book, so he opened it impatiently...

Huang Si discovered that reading his own record was exceptionally smooth...

So, Huang Si decided to try creating himself in reality. It would fail anyway, so it made no difference.

A moment later, Huang Si jumped up from the sofa again...

He did not know how much time had passed. At one point, after checking the status of the patterns in the book, Huang Si inadvertently looked up at the wall clock.

Hmm? Why was it already 9 o'clock?

Hadn't he just finished lunch and leaned back on the sofa to rest?

It felt like no time had passed at all, so how could it be 9 o'clock?

There was no light outside the window, and his phone was out of battery. For tracking time, Huang Si relied entirely on the wall clock and his laptop.

Huang Si had experienced this before; for instance, when playing games, it was easy to lose track of time. Sometimes he could play from 6 PM until 3 or 4 AM without even realizing it, as the time simply slipped away.

Then, he would go to work the next day with panda eyes and catch up on sleep at his desk.

But he wasn't playing games right now. Aside from when he was delving into his creation abilities, he found every day difficult to endure. How could it be that he had only leaned back with the book for a moment, and it was suddenly 9 o'clock?

Even if he had accidentally fallen asleep on the sofa from 1 o'clock until 9 o'clock, that would be too exaggerated, right?

Could it be... Huang Si was struck with horror. When his consciousness attached itself to the book, was the flow of time different than when he was in his human form?

In other words, had he spent eight hours in the book before returning to his own body?

This hypothesis seemed quite reasonable and explained the lost time.

"Wait, I don't feel hungry right now." Huang Si discovered another new point of doubt.

If those 8 hours had been consumed normally, then from 1:00 to 9:00, it would have been impossible for him not to feel any hunger; under normal circumstances, he should have been starving long ago.

So, when his consciousness was not residing in his body, did time still flow normally for his physical form?

To verify this hypothesis, Huang Si decided to risk another experiment.

In other words, to return to the Creation Book once more.

This was risky, as there was a possibility he might not be able to return, or even that it could cost him his life. But Huang Si simply could not let it go without figuring out the mystery of those missing 8 hours.

He held the book, feeling that after this latest rubbing, his connection to it seemed even tighter.

With a slight shift of his intent, Huang Si felt his perspective shift again, and he was back inside the book.

Now that the book was his body, he felt nothing out of the ordinary, only the ability to sense certain records within himself.

The largest of these records was the total of 102 pages of "rubbing" patterns he had left behind previously.

Huang Si felt that he could potentially record something new inside the book, but at the same time, he was unable to delete or modify any of the old records already left there—whether it was the name on the title page, the molecular composition and object structures on the second page, or the 102 pages that belonged to him.

However, there was no need to leave a new record.

Huang Si withdrew from the book. He returned to his body and immediately glanced at the wall clock.

9:24.

Everything was normal; the flow of time was basically consistent with his perceived time.

It seemed that the movement of his consciousness could not affect the flow of time, so why exactly had he lost those 8 hours?

Huang Si immediately went to the study to fetch paper and a pen.

He decided that from now on, he would watch the wall clock and record the current time every 5 minutes.

If the time record were interrupted, he would be able to know during which interval he had lost time.

And so, Huang Si began recording the time while pondering the problem.

When the time record reached 9:40, Huang Si thought of another question.

"Since I can record my own information in the book, does that mean I should also be able to create another 'me' in reality?"

Huang Si quickly shook his head, dismissing the thought: "No, the battery alone would consume a significant amount of power. With my current power limit, even if I used it all up, I couldn't create a second self."

Besides, creating a second self was not a particularly pleasant experience.

Huang Si just let the thought pass.

However, recording the time constantly was a boring task. By 9:45, Huang Si finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Let's just try it and see if I can create another me in reality. It's not like I have enough power to actually do it anyway."

Thinking this, he acted on it. Huang Si used his consciousness to read the record of himself within the book, then used his power to condense it in reality—

He froze, his pen stopping mid-stroke.

Then, Huang Si jumped up from the table.

"That's terrifying! What just happened?"

Following that, Huang Si looked around in confusion. "How did I get to the table? Wasn't I just holding the book and leaning on the sofa?"

He looked down at the tabletop and saw an A4 sheet of paper and a pen, with a string of times recorded from top to bottom.

Starting from 9:25, recorded every 5 minutes, the last time was 9:45.

Huang Si felt baffled. Why would he be writing down 9 o'clock on a piece of paper? Wasn't he just resting after finishing lunch? His stomach still felt full.

Huang Si looked up at the wall clock and was stunned into silence.

The time displayed on the clock was: 9:47!

How could 8 hours have passed without him feeling a thing?

Had time vanished? No, then how could he explain moving from the sofa to the table?

Furthermore, the handwriting on the paper was undeniably his own. Yet, he had absolutely no memory of writing those records.

Huang Si quickly realized the crux of the problem: had he lost his memory?

After calming down, Huang Si considered his usual behavioral patterns. It was highly likely that he had discovered he was losing his memory, so he had used the time-recording method to observe exactly when he would lose it.

Huang Si recalled that he had a vivid and clear impression of everything that had happened over the past few days. But starting from when he finished lunch today and lay on the sofa holding the Creation Book, things had gone wrong; he had no memory of anything from that moment until now.

Judging by the time clues he had recorded, it seemed he had lost his memory once before 9:00, which was why he had started keeping the time records. Unfortunately, he now had no memory of that period either.

Huang Si pondered what the cause of the memory loss might be.

The most likely culprit at the moment was the book, as Huang Si felt a strange sensation that there were new records in it.

He opened the book to take a look and was shocked by the massive record that now extended to page 104.

"Did my memory disappear because it was rubbed into the book?"

Huang Si speculated. But that still didn't feel right.

If the book consumed memories, why did it only consume those 8-plus hours, and what was the pattern behind this consumption?

Right, it might be better to consider how he himself would handle the rubbings in this book.

"I might try to read them. But would reading the rubbings affect my memory?"

For the sake of safety, Huang Si took out paper and a pen and began to record on an A4 sheet:

"It is now 9:51. I have discovered that I seem to have amnesia, having lost over eight hours of memory. Furthermore, I had another bout of amnesia before 9:25; the notes on this paper are from two different periods. I have decided to replicate the things I might do, and before each action, I will leave a record in advance."

"First, I ate lunch at 12:00, and around 1:00, I came to the sofa to lie down. I was holding the Creation Book when I suddenly wondered if I could observe the structure of the book, so my consciousness entered it, and I was no longer in my own body. When I left the book, I found it was already 9:47. I had about eight hours of missing memory. Then, I felt that the book had changed. After opening it, I discovered that 102 pages of records had been added, and they were records about myself. So, next, I will try to use my consciousness to read and understand the rubbings about myself in the book."

Huang Si tried to enter the Creation Book with his consciousness, understood his own structure, and then withdrew.

The process went smoothly. He glanced at the time and then used his pen to record:

"9:53, I have come out. The time has not changed, and I have not suffered amnesia. This indicates that reading and understanding the rubbings of myself is a safe action and will not cause memory loss. So, the next thing I might do is: find a way to attempt to create a second self in reality."

Huang Si had a deep understanding of himself; he quickly deduced the actions he might take and made a record.

Then, he channeled his power, attempting to condense a second self in reality.

Huang Si's figure paused slightly.

Everything was like a tightened mainspring, returning once again to the starting point.