A flat little salted fish doll.

The distortion of space suddenly stopped, the sounds of the world vanished instantly, and spacetime returned to normal.

Xiao Pei observed the changes around her, her expression gradually becoming complex.

"It really is her..." she murmured softly.

Ye Jiang used her healing powers to restore Ye Yanran's health. The bloody wound on her neck disappeared, but her lips remained pale, indicating that she had lost too much blood.

Ye Yanran was still asleep. Ye Jiang glanced at her to make sure she was alright, then turned to look at Xiao Pei.

"Boss," she called out.

Then he asked, "What is she?"

Although she was treating Ye Yanran, she didn't miss Xiao Pei's murmur.

Xiao Pei wiped her face. "Ye Jiang, how did you end up here so tragically?"

Her face was weary. "Luckily you saved that person over there, otherwise we would have had to go through time again. This 'protagonist' is precious; he can't die. If he dies, time will rewind, trapping us in a cycle."

Ye Jiang's expression shifted slightly. Could Ye Yanran's death cause time to reverse?

This is abnormal. Why would time and space be tied to the life and death of a single human being? This is a bit... childish.

Seeing her expression, Xiao Pei nodded. "Yes, this isn't time travel."

Xiao Pei slumped her shoulders in frustration and despair. "Xiao Ye Jiang, you didn't expect this, did you? You didn't time travel."

"Hey, you didn't have any fancy dreams of time travel or becoming a great person when you came in, did you? If it wasn't time travel, you won't cry, will you?"

Ye Jiang: "..."

Chapter 153 The Flat, Salted Fish.

Ye Jiang never had such a beautiful dream, but someone else did. He didn't cry; he died.

Setting aside the unimportant people and things in her mind, leaving only the most important ones, Ye Jiang asked, "Boss, what are you talking about if it's not time travel?"

Xiao Pei scanned the villa with her eyes, trying to deduce what had happened, and replied, "Ye Jiang, did you also 'travel' here from the Watch Mountain Range?"

Ye Jiang replied with "yes," and Xiao Pei showed no surprise upon hearing this, before proceeding to explain the truth behind the "time travel."

She said, "The magnetic field of the Watch Mountain Range is very special; generally, superhumans' abilities tend to malfunction when they enter."

"An earthquake further amplified this special power, strengthening the magnetic field. Now it can not only affect the abilities of ordinary superhumans, but also influence spacetime, randomly selecting unlucky passersby."

They were thrown into different timelines, which led to the disappearances of citizens. Ming Xia and I entered the Watch Mountain Range to search for the missing citizens, but as soon as we entered the mountains, everything went black, and when we opened our eyes, we found ourselves in an unfamiliar world. That's how we concluded it at the time."

But actually it isn't.

"The first world we arrived in was ten years before the present world. The location was a remote little town nestled in a boundless wilderness, and I... I happened to know that place."

"I know that in three days, this remote town will be hit by A-Rank Polluted incident. The town will almost be destroyed because of this incident. In the end, the death of a member of the Ability Control Bureau prevented the destruction of the town. And someone will be upgraded from B-Rank to A-Rank in this disaster."

"It's me, I've been promoted to A-Rank."

"Ten years ago, I was on a mission and passed through this area. I only stopped briefly to rest when I encountered the A-Rank Polluted incident. A large number of Polluted from the wilderness came on Pilgrimage and crowded into this city. This small city didn't even have a branch of the Ability Control Bureau, only a small office. The executive captain of the office was a B-Rank ability user, and his team members were all low-level, below D-Rank."

"We fought the Polluted together, but even I, at the highest level, cannot handle this disaster."

"It was that B-Rank captain. He used his death to hold off the A-Rank Polluted, allowing me to advance, and finally, we barely managed to win this battle to defend the city."

"That captain, he's preparing for his wedding. If it weren't for the A-Rank Polluted incident, he would be marrying his fiancée in two weeks."

"That's such a shame."

"When I opened my eyes and found myself in this city from ten years ago, a surge of joy welled up inside me. I thought, now I can easily protect this city without needing anyone's sacrifice. And that captain, he will happily marry his bride after the battle. I will make up for the regret from ten years ago."

"... I'm the one having a beautiful dream."

"Three days later, the A-Rank Polluted arrived as scheduled. The Polluted surged into the wilderness, but I easily cut them down. I also easily killed the A-Rank Polluted. Thus, a disaster that threatened to destroy the city came to a safe end."

I thought I had eliminated the regret with my own hands.

"But before we could celebrate, time began to rewind, and when I opened my eyes, Ming Xia and I were back ten days in the past."

"I refused to believe it, and waited once again for the A-Rank Polluted to arrive, intending to kill Polluted. But... time started over."

"Let's try again."

"Let's try again."

"Again..."

"I was trapped in this unsolvable loop until Ming Xia couldn't bear to watch any longer and stopped me from interfering. I watched with my own eyes as that captain died in the same A-Rank Polluted incident that I had experienced before. This time... the time loop is over."

"There's not much to say. Then the world suddenly collapsed, mountains briefly appeared, and in just a second or two, we were thrown into the next timeline."

"And so we entered several worlds and came to a conclusion."

"We didn't travel through time; we just fell into a past event that actually existed—it's... an illusion."

"All the worlds we experience are actually just illusions reconstructed by the magnetic field of the Watch Mountain Range Watch Mountain Range, drawing upon the memories of those who have passed through them. These illusions have a protagonist, and everything in the world revolves around that protagonist, with other elements added as appropriate. The first world was constructed based on my memories, except that the protagonist of the illusion wasn't me, but that captain."

"The protagonist of the illusion is very important. He must reach his due end in this reconstructed past. He cannot be allowed to live when he is destined to die, nor can he be allowed to die when he should be alive. Otherwise, the story will have to start from the beginning."

"If the protagonist of this world's illusion ends in death, then he must be kept alive before reaching that death. It doesn't need to be that his experience is exactly the same; as long as he lives before the ending, the illusion will adjust accordingly and ultimately guide the story towards the ending he deserves."

"The protagonist of a fantasy world is not chosen randomly; generally, they possess a very distinct protagonist trait."

"Like the captain in the first world, his tragic death is the most prominent feature in this world, so he is the protagonist."

Xiao Pei had already stopped searching. She leaned against the stair railing, her strong, warrior-like body slightly hunched, gazing into the distance with a distant look in her eyes.

"So, don't try to change anything, don't fantasize, just observe and wait for the story to end," she said in a hoarse voice. "This is just an illusion based on memories, it's fake, and the real past, that person's story, has already ended. Now, only some spectators have arrived."

Ye Jiang: "..."

So it turns out... it wasn't time travel. This isn't real; it's just an illusion.

She looked at Ye Yanran, who was sleeping against the railing. Xiao Pei noticed where her gaze fell and said, "Ming Xia and I only recently fell into this illusion. The first thing we did after entering was to search for the protagonist of this world. We searched for everyone in this city in this timeline who seemed to be the protagonist."

"First, there's the city's mayor, whose outstanding achievements during her tenure have driven the city's prosperity and development; she has the qualities of a protagonist. Second, there's citizen Jing Qiu, who was recently named one of the city's most touching figures. Besides her, there are several others; they are all experts in their respective fields with remarkable achievements. And then there's this one— Ye Yanran, the director of the Special Affairs Office established half a month ago, leading her team to handle the Living Dead incident."

Xiao Pei's expression suddenly became complicated. She had first met with those who possessed protagonist-like qualities, experiencing a time reversal along the way, before finally arriving here to see the person she most considered the protagonist—

Ye Yanran, Director of the Special Affairs Office.

It turned out that the Special Affairs Office was established at this time, and what shocked her most was that Polluted had already appeared sporadically long before the Disaster Day.

Ye Jiang's expression was also complicated. Xiao Pei said that Ye Yanran was the protagonist of this world, and Ye Yanran was special enough, but the most powerful evidence was that her death would trigger a time reversal in the illusion.

If Ye Yanran the main character...

What was her final fate?

What happened to Ye Yanran, who was a real person in the past, in her original timeline?

Lost in thought, Xiao Pei suddenly asked, "Ye Jiang, what happened here?"

Why did a Polluted die upstairs? Why are so many people asleep?

Ye Jiang frowned at the mention of this, remembering the woman in the top hat.

In fact, Ye Jiang did not think it was wrong for a woman to kill a Polluted. Of course, a woman could kill a Polluted. Ye Jiang's decision not to kill Polluted was just her personal choice. If the woman insisted on killing, they could have a physical argument, and then the winner would decide the fate of the Polluted.

But the woman didn't do that. Instead, after promising not to kill him, she secretly used such petty tricks, which made Ye Jiang very unhappy.

Ye Jiang frowned, outwardly remaining still, but secretly began searching for the woman. She had already grasped the woman's characteristics and should be able to find her... yeah right.

There was a problem. The search ability she used so smoothly on Cao An wasn't quite enough for that woman. The target on the generated map was sometimes visible, sometimes not.

Moreover, it can only determine a general direction.

Ye Jiang: "..."

She pursed her lips.

"?" Xiao Pei asked in confusion, "Ye Jiang, what are you doing?"

Unable to find her target, Ye Jiang said with a tense expression, "A woman played a trick on me... I can't find her."