User of the New Data Archive

Zhang Ye, unwilling to accept it, asked several more times. Yet no matter what he asked, Miss Minutes remained emotionless. Even when Zhang Ye cursed at her, she showed no other reaction whatsoever.

It was as if Zhang Ye had merely hallucinated what he heard. But he could guarantee with absolute certainty that he had truly heard Miss Minutes speaking to him just now. There had been deep regret and helplessness in her voice, a tone Zhang Ye suspected he would never forget for the rest of his life.

After staring at Miss Minutes for a long while, Zhang Ye's initial unease gradually settled. After all, anyone who witnessed such a shocking sight would feel endless terror. Fortunately, Zhang Ye was no longer "alone." Although Miss Minutes was not human, she still counted as company.

That allowed Zhang Ye to calm down and carefully consider his current situation.

To be honest, Zhang Ye had experienced this star-filled scene once before. It was when Pietro and he had used the Time Twister to travel through time. But the starry sky back then had been brighter and carried a natural aura, giving off a tranquil sense of thriving life.

However, the place Zhang Ye was in now was clearly not a normal dimension. Though he had only been here for a short time, everything around him felt perilously unstable, as though it could be swallowed by that heavenly curtain at any moment.

Fortunately, while everything here might have looked real, Zhang Ye was certain that it was merely a virtual image, as if the scene had been projected directly into his mind.

Otherwise, faced with such a horrifying sight and that terrifying contamination, the moment Zhang Ye observed it, it would have invaded his consciousness and achieved Cognitive Contamination or corrupted his body.

Yet Zhang Ye had watched it for so long, and nothing had happened. It had not even noticed him, this "spectator." That meant it was not real—or rather, it was only one of the visual records stored within the Time Twister.

And the thing that had brought him here was undoubtedly the Time Twister. Zhang Ye did not know what had happened to the Time Variance Authority, but he was certain of one thing: this Time Variance Authority was definitely not the one from the TV series in his memories, the one established by Kang.

Because no matter how powerful Kang was or how much influence he wielded over the Multiverse, he could never have affected DC's Multiverse, much less observed such a terrifying scene.

Zhang Ye was immensely curious about the origin of this image. He wanted to know who could stand in such a magnificent place and observe and record such an astonishing sight.

But before that, Zhang Ye focused all his attention on the expressionless Miss Minutes. She was still mechanically rambling on.

"Data lost. System archive error."

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Ye interrupted her.

"Since the system archive is corrupted, rebuild it."

This time, as Zhang Ye finished speaking, Miss Minutes finally stopped repeating those icy words and showed a trace of human-like response. Her eyes slowly moved before finally locking onto Zhang Ye.

"Create a new data archive?"

Zhang Ye narrowed his eyes slightly, nodded, and replied.

"Yes."

"Creating new data archive. Data archive successfully created. Updating system space. Residual data information detected."

"Data has been damaged and is unavailable. Recovery in progress. Recovery failed."

"Backup data detected. Updating."

". Backup data cannot be extracted. Insufficient permissions. Clear damaged data?"

"Don't clear it." Zhang Ye immediately refused. Although he did not know what the damaged and inaccessible data was, once it was deleted, there would be nothing left. That was not what Zhang Ye wanted to see.

"Retaining and caching original data. Updating data archive. Update complete."

"System rebooting."

"Ding—"

With a crisp chime, faint ticking sounds came from Miss Minutes' body. At the same time, her expression immediately became much more animated.

She smiled at Zhang Ye, moved a little closer to him affectionately, and asked with a smile.

"Hello, I am Miss Minutes, assistant steward of the Time Variance Authority. Would you like to retain my original name, or give me a new one?"

Zhang Ye's mouth fell slightly open. His heart was clearly far less calm than he appeared. Though he did not know exactly what had happened, judging from the current situation, Miss Minutes might have become his "exclusive possession" and bound herself to him.

Seeing this, Zhang Ye could not help but laugh in speechless disbelief. So this transmigrator had finally gotten a "system," huh? And such a strange system at that.

"Keep your original name, Miss Minutes. Tell me about the environment I'm currently in."

"Understood. This should be an image preserved in the previous data archive. There are no similar records in the system. Perhaps the data has been damaged or rendered unusable. I am also unable to detect where we currently are."

"Then can I leave this place?" Zhang Ye asked again.

"At any time, Master."

At that, Zhang Ye finally let out a long breath. It was best that he could leave. Still, this was a good place. At least no one could interrupt his conversation with Miss Minutes here, so Zhang Ye was in no hurry to leave.

After all, what they were about to discuss was no simple matter. If anyone else overheard it, accidents could happen. Zhang Ye was not worried about Pietro learning these secrets, but there was still that old bat outside. And with a Kryptonian capable of listening in on the entire world, Zhang Ye did not dare make a spectacle of himself.

"Don't call me Master. Call me by my name. I'm Zhang Ye."

"Understood. Would you like to register a new identity?" Miss Minutes tilted her head—or rather, her whole body.

"A new identity? What identity do I have now?" Zhang Ye asked curiously.

"You are currently the user of the data archive, the master of the Time Twister, and my master. You possess the highest authority over this data archive." There was even a hint of admiration in Miss Minutes' voice.

So that's how it is. Zhang Ye nodded silently, rubbing his chin. No wonder I can't access the previous data or the records stored in the backup. The previous user probably set permissions that prevent me from viewing them. But it doesn't matter. As long as they weren't deleted, I'll figure them out someday.

But now, Zhang Ye asked the question he most wanted answered.

"After Little Barry Allen ran for so long, how much power did he charge you with?"