Wells, who was actually the Reverse-Flash, had vanished. In his place was a mentor holed up in STAR Labs, responsible for training Barry Allen.
Zhang Tianran pretended that nothing had happened. He had not even moved out of the "home" he had lived in for decades.
Because to a Speedster, there was nowhere they could not find.
At the very least, Zhang Tianran could not think of anywhere he could run to.
Although he tried to act as if nothing had happened, Zhang Tianran had not gone to STAR Labs for over a week. For a new employee, that was absolutely a serious dereliction of duty.
However, STAR Labs had long since fallen into decline after the Particle Accelerator explosion. Other than Cisco and the others, there were no real rules or regulations left.
After answering the call and casually making up an excuse to brush off Cisco and the others' concern, Zhang Tianran stared at the calendar on his computer for a long time.
The idea that had surfaced more than a week ago rose in his mind again. It was dangerous and carried enormous hidden risks, but...
In the end, Zhang Tianran made up his mind. He firmly memorized the time displayed on the computer, then closed his eyes tightly.
In an instant, bolts of white lightning silently flickered throughout the room. After lasting for several seconds, they slowly faded away. Other than a vial of serum now sitting on the computer desk, nothing around him had changed.
A minute later, Zhang Tianran opened his eyes and stared fixedly at the item before him—the Permanent Ultimate Speed Serum!
Ultimate Speed was a serum developed by Hunter Zolomon to enhance the Speed Force. Although it could make a Speedster faster, it would severely damage the body's cells.
This serum could not only make Speedsters faster, but also grant ordinary humans the speed of a Speedster.
Unfortunately, ordinary human bodies could hardly withstand such tremendous speed. It was all too easy to vanish while running at extreme velocity...
A true death without even a corpse left behind!
But not everything was absolute. August Heart, the future Godspeed, obtained the Speed Force after using Velocity 9 and actually found a way to permanently stabilize its effects.
The one before Zhang Tianran should be the Permanent Ultimate Speed Serum.
If... his future self had not made a mistake.
That was right. Zhang Tianran's earlier act of closing his eyes as though meditating had merely been to record the current moment in his mind.
Within a timeline, there was no such thing as before or after.
Since the Speed Force had already appeared before Zhang Tianran, time in this world was no longer hidden from him.
In other words, as long as the future Zhang Tianran had any chance of gaining the ability to travel through time, then... the current Zhang Tianran could receive help from the future.
A true case of helping himself!
Theoretically, anyone who trusted their future self enough, knew for certain that time travel was possible, and had a chance of gaining the ability to return to the past in the future could change the present.
That naturally included having his future self bring back a dose of Permanent Ultimate Speed Serum that could turn him into a Speedster.
Time was merely a term given by humans. Under normal circumstances, humans could not interfere with the timeline, much less alter the past from the future.
Because that was a paradox, a paradox that simply should not exist. But if time travel truly were possible, then there would be no distinction between before and after within the timeline.
The future was the past, and the past was the future.
Zhang Tianran was taking advantage of precisely this point to directly seek help from his future self. As long as his future self had even the slightest possibility of mastering the power of time, he could help himself at this moment.
Of course, that was contingent on his future self trusting his current self enough and being willing to do so.
On that point,
Zhang Tianran was very confident. "The Speed Force... may not be entirely reliable, but the most important thing right now is to have power. No matter how flawed an ability is, it is still better than having no power to resist at all."
Zhang Tianran raised the Ultimate Speed Serum and injected it into his body with almost no hesitation.
At that moment, Zhang Tianran lost all sensation in his body. A void flashed before his eyes, followed by a dazzling silver-white expanse.
Before Zhang Tianran could figure out what that silver-white light was, everything around him suddenly disappeared, as if it had never existed.
Zhang Tianran looked at his hands in confusion. He did not feel any different, as though nothing had changed...
But soon, Zhang Tianran discovered that everything around him had become utterly silent. Every sound had vanished.
After carefully examining his body and confirming that nothing major had gone wrong, Zhang Tianran walked to the window.
Outside... the entire world seemed to have been frozen. Zhang Tianran casually picked up a book and let go...
At once, the book stopped in midair, as though Earth's gravity no longer existed.
"This... should be the Super Speed of a Speedster. Time outside has not stopped flowing. I have merely become too fast..." A smile appeared at the corner of Zhang Tianran's mouth.
The plan had succeeded!
Next, he needed to familiarize himself with this power. Then he would find a way to completely master the Speed Force and truly make this power his own.
Although he had already lived in this world for more than ten years, Zhang Tianran had not forgotten his previous memories. He understood clearly that... every Speedster's power came from the Speed Force created by Barry Allen.
The final destination of all Speedsters was the Speed Force. Even Barry Allen, its creator, was no exception.
So, although he had found a way to obtain the Speed Force, he would ultimately need to find a way to deal with it. Zhang Tianran did not want to end up becoming a puppet of the Speed Force...
However, that was a matter for much later. For now, he should go run to his heart's content...
Transforming into a streak of silver-white lightning, Zhang Tianran left Central City and began running without restraint.
The sensation of seeming to merge his body with lightning was truly intoxicating.
But Zhang Tianran's trouble soon arrived.
It was not that some superhero had discovered him. Rather, his clothes could not endure such extreme speed and eventually vanished from friction.
After all, Zhang Tianran had only just acquired the Speed Force and did not even fully understand how to control it. Protecting his clothes with the Speed Force was out of the question. It was already no easy feat to protect his own body.
He ignored the matter of his clothes. No one could see him anyway. Zhang Tianran simply removed all restraints and began fully sensing the Speed Force within his body while trying to control it.
Finally, after running for who knew how long and getting lost countless times, Zhang Tianran found Central City again and returned home.
The first thing Zhang Tianran did upon returning home was find some clothes and put them on. Only then did he begin sorting through what he had gained.
After that unrestrained run, Zhang Tianran had gained a preliminary grasp of the Speed Force.
There were two ways to control the Speed Force. The first was accelerated thought, and the second was accelerated movement. However, when Speedsters ran, they usually deliberately controlled the ratio between accelerated thought and accelerated movement.
Otherwise, many problems would arise.
If their thoughts were too fast, everything around them would seem frozen, while the Speedster moved at an ordinary person's running speed.
If their thoughts were too slow, they would be unable to distinguish directions or avoid obstacles. It was even possible for them to smash headfirst into something and die...
After all, even though Speedsters possessed Super Speed healing, they could still die.
After gaining a preliminary understanding of his abilities, Zhang Tianran finally felt somewhat relieved.
At this stage, Zhang Tianran should be considerably faster than Barry Allen as the Flash, which meant he was also considerably faster than the Reverse-Flash.
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