August 28, 2624…

Still the same day.

The dream’s timeline hasn't changed.

But everything else in the dream… all of it has changed.

“Hold on.”

Lin Xian supported himself with one hand against the mossy, muddy stone wall, and pressed the other against his forehead, thinking.

[Space-Time Butterfly Effect].

Obviously.

The dream once again underwent a [Space-Time Shift].

So, what was the reason for the shift?

What was the source?

What was the anchor point?

When did the butterfly flap its wings?

Lin Xian opened his eyes...

He recalled the news he saw before going to bed yesterday:

《Donghai University is receiving and organizing Xu Yun's research materials and unfinished papers, and will follow Xu Yun's last wish to publish them to the world.》

“Perhaps that’s the reason.”

His heartbeat calmed, and the lost sense of security gradually returned.

This was still his dream, that was certain.

He hadn't checked the news today, but judging by the looks of it, Donghai University must have publicly released Xu Yun's research data.

“No, that’s not quite right. Even if it wasn't publicly released, as long as official organizations intervened in the matter and received Xu Yun's research data, that moment would have become an [Irreversible Anchor Point].”

“Because official organizations are huge and reliable. It's only a matter of time before they release the data according to Xu Yun's wishes. If the officials hadn’t intervened, and Xu Yun's research data was left in the lab, and the thesis hadn't been completed, everything would be an unbacked-up unique copy. To really cause damage… there would still be some variables.”

Regardless…

The space-time butterfly flapped its wings after all, and the space-time shift happened.

It’s just that this time, the butterfly's wings must have been flapping so hard they were smoking… causing one hundred and eight thousand tornadoes to turn the future world of 600 years later into a completely new look.

This was logically reasonable from a space-time perspective.

But the problem is—

“[Why has the technological level of the future world regressed instead?]”

Lin Xian looked left and right.

No matter how he looked at it… the level of technology, the economy, the standard of living here were all too backward.

In the previous dream, although it was also backward, the gap with Lin Xian's 2023 was not large. It could at least be considered a modern city.

But the scene before his eyes… Lin Xian’s grandparents' house that he used to visit as a child was more developed than this place!

At least his grandparents' house was accessible by road.

But here, the winding flagstone roads, not to mention cars, even bicycles would have their frames bent.

Looking inside the small store again…

Almost everything was wrapped in old oil paper.

Tungsten light bulbs, thermos liners, shoelaces, shoddy hardware, colorful shampoos, and various snacks that you wouldn’t dare eat at first glance…

What’s going on?

A perfectly good 2624…

How did the living scene regress to the 1980s and 1990s?

If Xu Yun's thesis was published and the dream world changed drastically, with starships, cannons, space elevators, and the like… Lin Xian wouldn't find it strange at all.

Because that would be logical.

Even Professor Xu Yun himself had said that once the hibernation capsule was released, the world pattern might be rewritten, and human technology would inevitably enter an era of rapid development, with an immeasurable future.

But rapid development…

How did it fly backwards?

Lin Xian couldn't convince himself and couldn't accept the facts before his eyes.

Even if Xu Yun's thesis was published and the technological level of the future world was still stagnant, and he was still "born" in that square, he could accept it.

But after this thesis was published, technology regressed by decades!

“What exactly happened in these 600 years?”

…

Inside the small store.

The vest-wearing old man stopped fanning himself, and looked at the tall man at the door with an uncertain expression:

“What’s wrong, young man? Are you buying something?”

“No, no…” Lin Xian waved his hand:

“Grandpa, I wanted to ask—”

*Bang.*

Just as the two were talking, a man in black clothes and a black hat suddenly rushed out from behind Lin Xian.

He was fast!

After knocking over the shelves outside, he reached out and grabbed the money box on the glass counter, and ran away!

“Hey!”

The old man immediately jumped up! Grabbing the thief's arm:

“Put it down! Put it down, you! Ah—”

The thief kicked the old man in the stomach, and the old man fell directly beside the glass counter, wincing in pain.

He pointed at the departing thief, looking at Lin Xian:

“Young… young man… help me… catch…”

“Ah, okay.”

Lin Xian turned around, parkour skills fully activated, and chased after the black shadow in the night.

He happened to have a lot of questions to ask this old man, and it would be easier to communicate if he helped him get the money box back.

The thief was obviously familiar with this area.

Turning left and right, he walked on the rugged path as if it were flat ground, jumping left and right, dazzling Lin Xian.

But Lin Xian was no pushover either.

His parkour skills over the years had not been neglected for a single day. He kicked left and jumped right, and after a few hairpin turns, he directly caught up with the thief!

“Take this!” “Ah—”

With a flying kick, the thief fell directly to the ground.

Lin Xian took a stride, straddled him, and pinned him down, then snatched the money box from his hand and put it behind him. Just as he was about to tie him up—

*Tss!*

The sound of a sharp knife entering flesh.

Lin Xian’s eyes went red, and he looked at his chest…

The thief had a dagger hidden in his waist!

It was now deeply embedded in his heart!

*Pfft!*

As the thief pulled out the dagger, the huge blood pressure squeezed the blood out of the wound, spraying it far away.

Lin Xian felt a burst of weakness, just as he was about to stand up…

“Damn you, meddling in other people’s business! Meddling in other people’s business!”

*Tss! Tss! Tss! Tss! Tss!*

The thief was vicious and accurate! Stabbing Lin Xian's vitals with every knife! Another knife to the neck! Another knife to the head!

…

…

*Thump*—

Lin Xian jumped directly from the bed in his bedroom!

Breathing rapidly.

Clutching his heart.

His heartbeat was fast, and it wouldn’t slow down!

Lin Xian gritted his teeth and reached for the lamp on the bedside table, pressing the switch—

*Click.*

…

In the suburbs of Donghai City, in a lakeside villa, the huge crystal chandelier in the living room lit up.

The entire room was as bright as day.

“Since you’re home… then turn on the lights…”

A withered, wrinkled hand moved away from the light switch.

The old man closed the door and walked in, looking at the fair-skinned teenager squatting among the messy books:

“I’ve told you so many times, it’s not good for your eyes… your eyesight is already very bad.”

“Or do you think reading in the moonlight is cool? I think you should be past that age… Ji Lin.”

Ji Lin was focused and didn’t speak.

He rolled the *Mathematical Monthly* magazine in his hand, and used a pencil to quickly write on the magazine's subpage.

*Whoosh*—

He quickly finished writing and threw the magazine aside.

Then he picked up the February issue of the *Mathematical Monthly* next to him.

The old man walked forward and picked up the magazine on the ground.

This was the January 2022 issue of the *Mathematical Monthly*. Because this villa had been uninhabited for a long time, the ordered magazines and newspapers were neatly stacked in a pile in the living room.

The old man turned to the page where Ji Lin had just written…

It was a page of *Sudoku*, a very difficult mathematical game.

The Sudoku grid is a nine-palace, and each palace is divided into nine small squares.

Given a certain number of known numbers and solving conditions in these eighty-one grids, use logic and reasoning to fill in the numbers 1-9 in the other blank spaces. Make sure that each number from 1-9 appears only once in each row, each column, and each palace.

This is a game that tests intelligence and mental arithmetic power. Even world-class masters need three to four minutes to complete this high-difficulty version of Sudoku.

*Whirr*—

Ji Lin threw the February issue over again.

The old man lowered his head…

This February issue also had an irregular high-difficulty Sudoku on its subpage. But in the time it took him to pick up the magazine and flip through it… Ji Lin had already finished it.

Looking up again, Ji Lin under the moonlight had picked up the March issue of the *Mathematical Monthly*, turned to the subpage, and started working on a new Sudoku.

“Actually, even if you didn’t come to Xu Yun’s memorial service this time, I was planning to call you to Donghai.”

The old man seemed to be used to Ji Lin's silence and didn't take it to heart. He muttered to himself:

“Xu Yun… he shouldn’t have died.”

“If he shouldn’t have died, how did he die?”

Ji Lin’s pencil swiped across the magazine, not looking up, rarely responding softly.

“Because someone killed him!”

The old man gritted his teeth, his voice a little hoarse:

“I know Xu Yun too well… He’s a good person, but his talent is indeed a bit lacking. Not to mention one Xu Yun, even ten Xu Yuns, one hundred thousand Xu Yuns! He could never have developed the hibernation capsule filling liquid in his lifetime!”

“So what?”

Ji Lin blinked his half-opened eyes, threw the March issue of the *Mathematical Monthly* on the ground, the Sudoku on it was completed in one go, without any signs of erasing or alteration.

“So, someone secretly tampered with things, changing everything!”

The old man took out a rolled-up stack of names from his pocket and threw it to Ji Lin:

“I suspect someone is…”

“[Distorting history]!”