This Isn't Theft, It's Cross-Dimensional Academic Borrowing

Kamar-Taj, Library

The temple was unnaturally quiet at night, with only the occasional crackle of butter lamps echoing through the empty corridors.

A serious, round face sat behind the librarian's desk.

Wong wore headphones, his eyes closed, holding a book titled <Introduction to Quantum Mechanics: From Beginner to Giving Up>—clearly influenced by Jiang Li's theories earlier that day. His body swayed gently to Beyoncé's "Single Ladies," and he silently hummed along.

"Ahem."

A rhythmic tapping on the desk forcibly cut short his musical enjoyment.

Wong removed his headphones and looked expressionlessly at the two uninvited guests before him.

"The library is closing." Wong's tone was colder than the wind in the Himalayas. "Unless you have a written borrowing permit from the Sorcerer Supreme, no books from the restricted section may be taken out. Not even a single sheet of paper."

"Don't be so serious, Wong."

Jiang Li leaned over the desk, pointed at Gwen behind him, and spoke with complete sincerity. "We just want to find some books on... 'how to treat cross-dimensional motion sickness' or 'quantum entity stabilization.' That doesn't count as dark magic, does it?"

"There are no such books." Wong put his headphones back on. "And don't call me Wong. Call me Librarian. It's a title of respect."

"Sure, Beyoncé's number one fan," Gwen muttered.

Jiang Li shrugged and pulled Gwen away.

Once they left the library corridor, the night breeze felt slightly chilly.

"Looks like applying properly was ruthlessly rejected." Gwen looked worriedly at her flickering fingers. "What's Plan B? Going through the back door with the Ancient One?"

"Plan B?"

Jiang Li glanced around the empty corridor, a familiar confident smile curling across his lips.

"In a top hacker's dictionary, there's no system that can't be entered, only back doors that aren't hidden well enough. Magical defenses are just another kind of firewall. And if it's a wall, it has cracks."

He raised his wrist and turned the Omnitrix dial.

"Wong is a diligent librarian. He can guard against people and physical objects, but he can't guard against... a ghost from another dimension."

"It's Hero Time!"

A cold gray mist instantly spread out, and the surrounding temperature dropped several degrees.

Jiang Li vanished. In his place floated a ghostly alien with a single purple eye, its entire body wrapped in gray skin. The stripes across its body resembled a dead man's burial shroud, radiating an unsettling aura.

An Ectonurite—Ghostfreak!

"Wait here."

Ghostfreak's hoarse, sinister voice sounded as though it had come from Hell. Then his body gradually became transparent until he disappeared completely.

He passed directly through the library's heavy wooden doors as if they were nothing more than a thin layer of smoke.

Inside the library.

Wong remained immersed in a sea of pop music, completely unaware of a chilly breeze drifting over his head and stirring the pages on his desk.

Jiang Li, as Ghostfreak, did not go looking for the dark magic book Kaecilius had hinted at. He had no interest in summoning Dormammu. Instead, he headed straight for a special display stand at the deepest end of the library.

There were no books there.

Only an antique bronze pedestal, with an ancient eye-shaped pendant floating above it.

The Eye of Agamotto.

It was also one of the most powerful artifacts in this universe—the Time Stone.

"So this is a fragment of infinity... the key to controlling dimensions."

Jiang Li dropped his invisibility—Wong was listening to music with his back turned anyway—and extended a pale ghost claw toward the pendant.

Just as his fingers came within a few centimeters of the Eye of Agamotto—

"Bzzz—!!"

The Omnitrix suddenly erupted with an unprecedentedly violent vibration!

This was not an alarm triggered by Ultron or magic, but a... higher-dimensional resonance.

The green glow on the dial began flashing wildly before finally turning into a dazzling gold!

[High-dimensional Time Stream detected... Matching DNA sequence...]

[Chronosapien genetic lock... activated.]

As if answering that power, the metal eyelid at the center of the Eye of Agamotto abruptly opened, revealing the emerald radiance of the gem within.

The green light intertwined and collided with the Omnitrix's golden glow in midair.

"Argh!!"

Jiang Li felt his consciousness swept into a rushing river. He saw the past, saw the future, and saw countless enormous gears turning within the cracks of the universe.

"So this is... the weight of time."

At that instant, Ghostfreak's form was forcibly dismissed.

Golden light surged as the sound of gears meshing rang out, along with the ticking of a second hand.

"Click—tick—click."

In his place stood a massive mechanical alien, entirely golden, with a transparent glass cover on his chest through which intricate gears spun at high speed.

A wind-up mechanism sat atop his head, making him resemble a walking ancient grandfather clock.

A Chronosapien—Clockwork!

"Ti... me..."

Jiang Li's voice had become extraordinarily slow, carrying a mechanical echo. Every word struck the eardrums like a heavy hammer.

He felt everything around him slowing down. Wong's page-turning looked like an extremely slow replay, while dust hung suspended in the air.

"Who's there?!"

The enormous disturbance finally alerted Wong. He yanked off his headphones and sensed the terrifying temporal fluctuations.

"Stop!!"

Wong roared, the Wand of Watoomb in his hand instantly lighting up as he turned to rush over.

But everything was too slow. In Clockwork's vision, Wong moved as slowly as a snail.

"Just borrowing... a spark."

Jiang Li, as Clockwork, finished speaking slowly, and the gears in his chest abruptly halted.

"Time... stop."

"Bzzz!"

The entire library fell into absolute stillness. The world turned gray and white.

Wong's expression froze in the instant of fury. The magical whip he was about to fling stopped in midair, and even light ceased to travel.

Jiang Li did not take the Eye of Agamotto—the Omnitrix had already recorded time's frequency. Instead, he took heavy steps toward the library entrance.

One step, then two.

Three seconds later, time resumed flowing.

"...Unforgivable!!" Wong's roar had only just emerged as his whip lashed down viciously.

"Crack!"

The whip struck empty air.

No one was there anymore.

Only a trace of temporal turbulence lingering in the air, along with books shaken onto the floor, proved that something huge had indeed been there.

"Damn it!" Wong's face changed drastically as he hurriedly checked the Eye of Agamotto. "Thank goodness, the Stone is still here. But..."

He suddenly smelled something scorched, coming from the direction of the restricted section.

In the courtyard.

Gwen was waiting anxiously. Suddenly, her body began flickering violently again. This time, even her hands became translucent, as though she were about to dissolve into the air.

"Jiang... I can't..." Gwen weakly dropped to her knees, her consciousness beginning to blur.

"I'm here."

Heavy footsteps sounded.

Golden Clockwork stepped out of the void, as though he had taken a step from the river of time itself.

"Hang on... this might be a little... dizzying."

The gears in Jiang Li's chest began spinning wildly, alternating clockwise and counterclockwise with urgent ticking sounds.

"Time... synchronize!"

A gentle golden-green beam enveloped Gwen.

Jiang Li was not simply rewinding her time. He was using the Chronosapien racial gift to adjust the flow of time around Gwen, forcibly synchronizing it with this universe's quantum frequency.

Like forcefully setting two inaccurate watches to the exact same second.

"Bzzz—hum."

The static-like flickering around Gwen gradually settled, and the tearing sensation receded like a tide. Her figure became solid again, and her colors returned to normal.

The light faded.

Gwen stared at her hands in surprise. That tangible sensation had returned.

"You did it!" Gwen jumped up excitedly and hugged Clockwork's cold metal leg. "Thank you, big guy! I feel like I just got a good night's sleep!"

Jiang Li dismissed his transformation and returned to human form, collapsing weakly onto the ground and gasping for breath.

Controlling time consumed an enormous amount of mental energy. It was more exhausting than transforming into Humungousaur and fighting a battle.

"Don't celebrate too soon."

Jiang Li wiped away his sweat. "This is only temporary. It's like patching your system. To solve it completely... we need to send you home or find a connection point."

"An impressive operation, but also an extremely dangerous one."

A gentle yet authoritative voice sounded.

The Ancient One was standing in the shadows of the corridor at some point, slowly waving a folding fan in her hand, her gaze profound.

"You used the Time Stone's wavelength to awaken that alien creature's potential. You stole time, Jiang Li."

"Ancient One." Jiang Li felt somewhat nervous. After all, he had been learning by stealing right in front of her. "I did it to save someone."

"I know. Although time's flow is destined, there can occasionally be tributaries." The Ancient One did not seem to blame him. "But your theft caused an enormous disturbance in space-time."

She raised her head and looked toward the library.

"A loud noise can often cover the sound of a mouse's footsteps."

At that moment, Wong came running over, panting and covered in dust, fury written across his face.

"Ancient One! Something happened! Just now, that golden giant triggered temporal turbulence, causing the restricted section's alarm system to fail briefly!"

Wong gritted his teeth and said:

"Kaecilius took advantage of it to blast open the defensive formation, killed two guards, and stole a page from the Book of Cagliostro! We were lured away!"

Jiang Li: "..."

Gwen: "..."

Jiang Li awkwardly rubbed his nose and looked at the Ancient One. "If I said... this was also a kind of 'coordination,' would you believe me?"

The Ancient One sighed, closing her folding fan as the amusement vanished from her eyes.

"No. This is the inevitability of fate."