Deceitful Game

Chapter 19 Changes in World Lines

Mingpo quickly got out of bed and hurried to the next room.

Mingpo is now back to an hour ago, and about forty-five minutes have passed since he left the instance.

In other words, this should be fifteen minutes before Mingpo returned to the present world.

But it seems we arrived a step too late.

The room was almost exactly the same as before.

Pajamas were still lying on the blankets, and there was an open can of cola on the table that hadn't been finished. Now that Mingpo was physically present, he touched the cola can and found it was still a little cool and had dewdrops on it.

They must have just left not long ago.

...Did I miss it again?

Mingpo frowned, but quickly came up with a solution.

He took out his phone and called his disobedient dog son directly.

It rang only once before being answered; the other person was clearly walking down the street and using their phone.

A surprised voice came from the other end of the phone: "Aper? Where have you been? You've been missing for a week! I thought you were dead!"

"Never mind that for now," Mingpo said seriously. "Where are you right now?"

Upon hearing Mingpo's words, Ai Shiping realized something and replied seriously, "I'm at Ouya Plaza, what's wrong?"

"Come back right away, and don't go out for the next few days. Absolutely don't go out, understand?"

Mingpo asked sternly, "What are you doing going out all of a sudden?"

"Why don't you go to the company and take a look?"

The voice on the other end of the phone sounded cheerful: "My boss messaged me, asking me to come to the company to hand over my work. I'll be starting next month."

……company?

Upon hearing this, Mingpo paused for a moment.

He countered, "Which company?"

"The God of No Face Studio...wasn't that the one you introduced to me? What's going on lately? Is there another case of H1N1?"

Do you know where it is?

"certainly."

As he spoke, Ai Shiping gave him an address.

It was exactly the same place Mingpo had just visited, down to the last detail.

Mingpo felt a chill run down her spine.

He realized that the problem might be bigger than he had imagined.

"Don't go for now. No matter who messages you, blame it on me. For the next few days... no, for the next week, absolutely do not leave the house, understand?"

"...What about picking up the package?"

"You can stay inside the residential compound, but you can't leave."

As Mingpo spoke, she realized that her words might have been a bit too harsh.

If this rebellious son realizes something is wrong, it might arouse his curiosity and rebelliousness, which would be bad.

So Mingpo casually explained, "I might be back anytime soon, but I've lost my keys."

"Oh, okay. You didn't even tell me you were going on a business trip... Where did you go? Why is your phone not working? I already told you, you should replace that useless fruit of yours."

"Okay, okay, just keep it a secret until I get back."

After Mingpo finished speaking, she hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief.

He thought for a moment and then sat down next to Ai Shiping's computer.

He searched for "Ouroboros" and, sure enough, found a whole bunch of walkthroughs with over a million views.

He searched for Attorney Chen again, but couldn't find the person.

"...Just as I expected."

Mingpo murmured softly as she entered the time.

The second option in the input method directly displays the current day's time:

2023年5月20日14:06:41

"What's going on...?"

Mingpo murmured softly.

But in the very next moment...

He watched in disbelief as the time displayed in the input method seemed to be soaked in a line of dark golden worms before disappearing without a trace.

Mingbo paused for a moment, then typed "shijian" again.

So the second option that popped up in the input method became:

2026年3月4日14:00:22

He suddenly opened his eyes wide.

Mingbo realized what had happened, so he immediately searched for Ouroboros again.

But this time, I couldn't find anything. The pop-ups either talked about the Ouroboros or the Möbius strip. I even saw a video of shooting down the ring and a demo of something from the game "Counter-Strike Online".

He opened his browser and checked his search history. He discovered that his search for "Ouroboros" had vanished without a trace.

He immediately took out his phone and called Ai Shiping.

"What now?"

The other party asked impatiently.

"Say it again, what were you planning to do just now?"

"Are you getting dementia, Amber? Are you going to turn into a grandma?"

Ai Shiping couldn't hold back any longer: "Didn't I just say... a friend invited me to a livehouse and bought me tickets. You changed your mind again? I just told them I wasn't going."

In that instant, an indescribable, chilling coldness spread through Mingpo's heart.

He was silent for a few seconds, then said casually, "It's nothing. Send me your friend's WeChat. I need to talk to him about something."

"OK."

"Oh, right."

Mingpo casually asked, "What games have you been playing lately?"

"The delta, and also the Yan-Yun region."

"You're not playing MMOs anymore? Didn't you like playing MMOs?"

"Yan Yun is also considered an MMO, I guess. It's mainly because those two are more profitable right now. MMOs haven't been doing so well in recent years. I made some money playing Eternal City with people before, but I'm not really interested in playing it anymore. I was really looking forward to Eternal Tower 2, but it's already been shipped out. The Koreans never disappoint when it comes to letting you down. Are you planning to play an MMO? The storyline in Baboon is pretty difficult to follow lately, so I wouldn't recommend you go back to it—speaking of which, didn't you buy a Switch 2 and ZA? I saw your console and cartridges arrived a while ago, but you haven't opened them yet. If you're not going to play them, I'll give them a try first?"

Ai Shiping spoke eloquently.

Clearly, unlike Mingpa, he remains passionate about games even without Ouroboros.

"Okay, go ahead and have fun. Just don't go out for a while."

"Oh, okay, okay, Grandma, you're being so fussy. You're coming back next week, right? Or the week after? I'll treat you to barbecue when you get back."

"You want to eat, right? Where would you like to go?"

"Does Hulun have beef? The one you mentioned last time that was delicious?"

"...Okay. I have something to do, I'll hang up now."

As Mingpo spoke, he pressed the button to end the call.

His straight back seemed frozen in place.

Mingbo remained silent for a while, then slowly began to delete his browsing and search history.

He had never heard of any of the games Ai Shiping had mentioned, not even one of them. Mingpo hadn't even heard of the barbecue restaurant he'd mentioned... let alone any memory of eating there with him.

Is such a chaotic and broken world really necessary to exist?

A thought popped into Mingpo's mind.

The entire world is being recklessly altered by the power of leverage.

A person's current emotions, past memories, and future plans all collapse and crumble in the face of that indescribable force, and are wantonly erased and altered.

Before it, everything that mortals cherish is so fragile—life, experiences, emotions, all will vanish in the torrent of time.

That was a force that law, morality, and violence could not stop. It was as if it came from the authority of a higher dimension.

"...Is this really a power that mortals can possess?"

If I hadn't become a deceiver, even my own memories would probably have been rewritten.

That kind of thing is absolutely not allowed.

Mingpo lowered her gaze slightly, but her fists were not clenched, and even her furrowed brows relaxed. Her face was expressionless, and her gaze was calm as still water.

But that doesn't mean he's not angry.

If his friends were here, they would know that this is exactly how Mingpa looks when he is provoked!

It was the anger of having one's territory invaded—neither flamboyant nor violent, but silent, relaxed, and cold.

Like a snake, like a wolf.