Better to Rely on Yourself Than Beg Others!

Wells, who had been Reverse-Flash, disappeared. In his place was the mentor stationed at S.T.A.R. Labs, responsible for training Barry Allen.

Zhang Tianran acted as though nothing had happened. He hadn't even moved out of the "home" he'd lived in for decades.

Because, to a Speedster, there was nowhere they couldn't find.

At the very least, Zhang Tianran couldn't think of anywhere he could run to.

Although he tried his best to pretend nothing had happened, Zhang Tianran hadn't gone to S.T.A.R. Labs for over a week. For a new employee, that was undoubtedly a serious dereliction of duty.

However, S.T.A.R. Labs had long since fallen into decline after the Particle Accelerator explosion. Aside from Cisco and the others, there were no real rules or regulations left.

After answering the phone and casually coming up with an excuse to brush off Cisco and the others' concern, Zhang Tianran stared at the calendar on his computer for a long time.

The thought that had surfaced over a week ago rose in his heart once more. It was dangerous and carried enormous hidden risks, but...

At last, Zhang Tianran made up his mind. He firmly memorized the time displayed on his computer, then closed his eyes tightly.

In an instant, streaks of white lightning flickered soundlessly through the room. After several seconds, they slowly faded away. Other than a vial of serum appearing on the computer desk, nothing around him had changed.

One minute later, Zhang Tianran opened his eyes and stared intently at the item before him—Permanent Ultimate Speed Serum!

Ultimate Speed Serum was a drug developed by Hunter Zolomon to enhance the Speed Force. While it could make a Speedster faster, it would severely damage the body's cells.

Not only could this serum make Speedsters faster, but it could also grant ordinary humans the speed of a Speedster.

Unfortunately, ordinary human bodies found it difficult to withstand such tremendous speed. It was very easy to vanish while running at extreme velocity...

Truly leaving no corpse behind!

But not everything was absolute. August Heart, who would appear in the future—Godspeed—obtained the Speed Force after using Velocity 9 and actually found a way to permanently stabilize its effects.

And the one before Zhang Tianran should be the Permanent Ultimate Speed Serum.

If... his future self hadn't made a mistake.

That's 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 the timeline, there had never been any such thing as before or after.

Because the Speed Force had already appeared before Zhang Tianran, time in this world was no longer a mystery to him.

In other words, as long as the future Zhang Tianran had any chance of acquiring the ability to travel through time, then... the present Zhang Tianran could receive help from the future.

Truly relying on himself!

In theory, anyone who trusted their future self enough, knew for certain that time travel was possible, and had a chance of gaining the ability to travel back into the past in the future could change the present.

Naturally, that included having his future self bring back a vial of Permanent Ultimate Speed Serum that could turn him into a Speedster.

Time was merely a term coined by humanity. Under normal circumstances, humans couldn't interfere with the timeline, much less alter the past from the future.

Because that was a paradox—a paradox that simply couldn't exist. But if time truly could be traversed, 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 had used precisely this point to directly seek help from his future self. As long as his future self had even the slightest chance of mastering the power of time, he could help himself at this very moment.

Of course, the prerequisite was that his future self trusted his present self enough and was willing to do so.

On that point, Zhang Tianran was very confident. "The Speed Force... isn't exactly reliable, but what matters most right now is gaining power. No matter how flawed an ability is, it's still better than having no power to resist."

Zhang Tianran raised the Ultimate Speed Serum and, with barely any hesitation, injected it into his body.

At that moment, Zhang Tianran lost all sensation in his body. A void flashed before his eyes, followed by a dazzling expanse of silver-white.

Before Zhang Tianran could figure out what that silver-white light was, everything around him suddenly vanished, as if it had never existed.

Zhang Tianran looked at his hands in confusion. He didn't feel any different, as though nothing had changed...

But soon, Zhang Tianran realized that everything around him had become utterly silent. Every sound had disappeared.

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 frozen. Zhang Tianran casually picked up a book, then let go...

Immediately, the book stopped in midair, as though Earth's gravity no longer existed.

"This... should be the super speed of a Speedster. Time outside hasn't stopped flowing. I've just become too fast..." A smile flickered across Zhang Tianran's lips.

The plan had succeeded!

Next, he needed to familiarize himself with this power. Then he had to find a way to completely master the Speed Force and truly make it his own.

Although Zhang Tianran had already lived in this world for more than ten years, he hadn't forgotten his previous memories. He understood clearly... 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, the creator of the Speed Force, was no exception.

So, although he had found a way to obtain the Speed Force, he would eventually need to find a way to deal with it. Zhang Tianran had no desire to end up as the Speed Force's puppet...

But that was a matter for the distant future. For now, he should just run to his heart's content...

Transforming into a silver-white bolt of lightning, Zhang Tianran left Central City and began running without restraint.

The sensation of seeming to merge his body with lightning was utterly intoxicating.

But Zhang Tianran's trouble arrived soon enough.

It wasn't that some superhero had spotted him. Rather, his clothes couldn't withstand such extreme speed and eventually disappeared from the friction.

After all, Zhang Tianran had only just gained the Speed Force and didn't even fully understand how to control it. Protecting his clothes with the Speed Force was out of the question. Being able to protect his own body was already difficult enough.

He paid no attention to 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 attempting 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 moment he got home, Zhang Tianran found some clothes and changed into them. Only then did he begin sorting through what he had gained.

And 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 accelerating thought, and the second was accelerating the body. But when Speedsters ran, they generally deliberately controlled the ratio between mental acceleration and physical acceleration.

Otherwise, many problems would arise.

If the mind was too fast, the surroundings would seem completely frozen, while the Speedster moved at an ordinary human's running speed.

If the mind was too slow, they wouldn't be able to distinguish directions or avoid obstacles. It was even possible to run headfirst into something and die...

After all, even though Speedsters possessed super-speed healing abilities, they could still die.

After gaining a preliminary understanding of his abilities, Zhang Tianran finally felt somewhat relieved.

At this stage, Zhang Tianran's speed should be considerably faster than Barry Allen as The Flash. That meant he was also considerably faster than Reverse-Flash.