"Just how long have we been here?"
Lin question made Yama lift her eyelids, but she didn't respond, focusing entirely on investigating the tall tower before them.
Lin continued pondering his question: "Time in a Bubble Universe flows differently than in the Proper World. In this Bubble Universe, we've effectively spent ten years. So, how much time has passed in our original world?"
According to Yama, it was only their consciousness that came here, meaning his body was currently in an unconscious state. Even if the time ratio was 1:10, a year would have passed in the Proper World. If the Honkai erupted again...
"The materials are ordinary concrete, red brick, and rebar..." Yama analysis had results. She rubbed her fingers against the wall. "But it can't be damaged."
As her voice fell, she punched the wall. A fist that should have blasted a hole in a fragile wall didn't even elicit a sound.
"This isn't an original product of this Bubble Universe." She withdrew her fist.
In other words, this clock tower used to record twenty-four hours was an external creation, and the rule of pushing time forward ten years every twenty-four hours might not be an inherent law of the original Bubble Universe either.
"If they are using us for something, they will definitely try to induce us." Yama glanced at the Lin beside her, her thin lips pressed tight. "One of the people we've interacted with might be the person who imprisoned us in disguise. But so far, no one has induced us to do anything, except..."
Except the Monkey's Paw.
A clear direction was written on the clock tower at that time. Did that person believe this non-coercive approach would allow the two of them to achieve their goal?
"Fulfilling a wish is indeed triggered unconsciously, but if you were thinking of a piece of cake at the time, or a wish that couldn't be fulfilled like mine, then the paw wouldn't work."
This raised a question. If Lin and Yama didn't create conflict and didn't use the paw, and just waited until Yama was capable of leaving the Bubble Universe, what would the captor gain? Not knowing the goal was the most troublesome part, as it meant they had no starting point.
"...Then we wait." Lin sat down, leaning against the wall of the clock tower. The fatigue in his body hadn't vanished, so resting was good. "If you can't find the target, let the target find you."
What would happen in another twenty-four hours? Yama also sat down silently, hugging her knees. She gazed at the disappearing stars, her thoughts unknown. Lin couldn't stop his eyelids from closing and gradually lost consciousness.
Ding-dong.
A heavy bell sound exploded in his ear. Lin and Yama, who thought they would go ten years into the future, were completely unprepared for what happened after the bell rang this time.
An intense wave of dizziness made Lin unable to stand. This time, he crouched directly on the ground, supporting himself with one hand, waiting for the dizziness to end. After an unknown amount of time, Lin finally suppressed the churning nausea and stood up with stars in his eyes, immediately seeing Yama with her back to him.
"Where are we..." Lin hadn't finished before he noticed something was wrong. The air quality had changed drastically.
"...It seems our estimate was wrong." Yama stared silently at the world before them.
In a world filled with desolation, they stood lonely beneath this tall tower.
...
"It can be basically confirmed that nearly a hundred years have passed since last time."
Lin found a newspaper beneath a mixture of a heavily weathered car hood and rocks. The date on it was the same as their high school period. Yama, with her higher mobility, had scouted around and found things that could confirm their current point in time, determining the time span through environmental surveys.
"But I haven't died of old age, and it's impossible for humanity to perish within a hundred years." Lin confirmed his body was the same as before, though all his internal and external injuries had vanished.
"...No, you forgot one thing." Yama picked up a piece of dry soil and blew it into powder with a gentle breath. "Even without the Honkai, those two were still killed by the Speaker, and we were still attending Chiba Academy."
Even without the Honkai, events still followed the same trajectory as the Proper World. It was as if... the ending was the same, but the conditions and process had changed.
"In my world, humanity was wiped out by the Honkai. In this world, humanity has also perished, but this time it might be nuclear war, an alien invasion, or something of the sort."
"Nuclear war?"
"Has Einstein not yet invented the nuclear bomb in your world?" Yama paused before saying, "If there were no Honkai energy, nuclear energy might have been discovered and applied much earlier... It's a mass-destruction weapon that uses light-heat radiation, shock waves, and induced radioactivity from a nuclear reaction to cause damage and destruction, as well as large-scale radioactive contamination. It causes indelible harm and pollution to the world where humans live."
Lin vaguely remembered Einstein was indeed using the previous civilization's data to build something. Could a nuclear bomb be one of them?
"But there's no radiation here, so it might not have been caused by a nuclear bomb... no, the reason is no longer important."
True. If the ending must be the extinction of humanity, it was entirely possible a planetary-class Honkai Beast from Alpha Centauri had come to Earth to kill everyone. To Lin and the others, these were just "settings." Now they were in a very bizarre situation: there was no one left to talk to except each other. To use another game metaphor, they had walked into the post-story world of a Bad Ending route—everything interactive had vanished, and they had no exit button; the save was completely broken.
After confirming this was a world of nothingness, the two returned to the clock tower and leaned against the wall, silent. Was this the future they had to face? Lin gazed at this desolate, bleak, dark yellow world. Would it be the future of his world? No, by then, he would be dead anyway. Not having to face the end of his own world actually made him feel slightly better.
Yama, however, watched with a different gaze—one that had seen such a scene countless times.
"...Want to talk?" After an unknown interval, Yama asked softly.
"..." Lin met her with silence, neither agreeing nor refusing.
Yama brewed her thoughts for a long time before suddenly saying: "Someone once told me that just lips touching lips doesn't count as a first kiss."
"...?"