Water from the public tap flowed over Xia Xiu's hands. The icy groundwater began restoring reason to his somewhat chaotic thoughts. He cupped some water in both hands, then splashed it onto his face.
After calming himself down, Xia Xiu went to sit on a long bench in a secluded corner of the park. From there, he could look up and see the moving hands of the clock on the Clock Tower.
It was 11:10. Amelia Watson would appear in another fifty minutes.
He could now be certain that what he had just experienced was no hallucination. Time really had begun rewinding. What he needed to establish now was exactly what this "Time Reversal" consisted of.
Xia Xiu raised his left hand and spoke in an indifferent tone:
"Overclocking!"
A blood-red interface appeared.
[Overclocking failed!!!]
Xia Xiu slowly lowered his left hand. He could now confirm one thing: he was inside a sealed domain-a [Timeline Narrative] loop. The "Time Reversal" just now had not truly turned back time. It was more like reloading a story save in a game.
Manipulating time was somewhat difficult on the land of Terra, but it was not beyond the realm of possibility.
Something had probably placed a [Narrativization] seal on the Brussels Region where he currently was. This area was now an independent [Narrative Layer]. Everything that happened here was a derivative [Consequence] arising from the [Base Line]. Time here had not actually accelerated; this place had simply been severed from the present world.
Of course, this sort of [Timeline Narrative] could become genuine "Time Reversal."
The second law of Thaumaturgy: the part affects the whole.
As long as the story within the [Narrative Layer] was released, and the deeds within this area were sufficient to distort and deceive the [Ether Sea],