Chapter 190: Steins;Gate Premieres! (Part 8)
After learning about the world of the future from John Titor, Rintaro Okabe couldn't get the matter out of his head. Eventually, he made up his mind—to first investigate this so-called "SERN" organization.
Scouring the internet for information, he discovered that SERN was an abbreviation for a world-class nuclear research institution, headquartered in another country, and known for being at the forefront of cutting-edge scientific research.
Curious, Okabe turned to someone with deeper knowledge in such matters: Itaru Hashida. As expected, Daru—his hacker comrade—was well-acquainted with SERN.
Without wasting time, Okabe requested Daru to hack into SERN's website. After several intense hours of effort, Daru finally succeeded in breaching their system.
The two immediately dove into SERN's recent experiment logs, but frustratingly found nothing of substance.
Daru attempted to dig deeper, but the moment he tried accessing the core database, he ran into an unexpected obstacle—strange, indecipherable encryption. Even for someone of Daru's skill, it was completely uncrackable.
Their investigation had hit a dead end.
That's when it struck Okabe—something from his conversation with John Titor.
"Maybe… the IBN 5100 can decrypt this kind of code!"
Fired up by the idea, Okabe tried to take action—but the reality was brutal. They had absolutely zero leads on the whereabouts of the legendary IBN 5100.
With no other options, Okabe was forced to shelve the plan for the time being.
The next day, on his way to the laundromat, Okabe happened to run into Makise Kurisu. The two ended up in a discussion about the existence of time machines. No matter how passionately Okabe spoke, Kurisu dismissed it all as pseudoscience, scoffing at what she called childish delusions.
Unfazed, Okabe declared that one day she would believe him. He even shared with her the story of the IBN 5100 and the conspiracy that loomed behind it.
Naturally, Kurisu rejected it all, dismissing it as nothing more than a figment of his overactive imagination.
By now, Okabe realized—only by finding the IBN 5100 and using it to decrypt SERN's hidden database could they hope to unravel the mystery.
And so, he threw himself into the search with everything he had.
That's when, to his utter astonishment, he discovered that Mayuri's friend at the maid café—Faris NyanNyan—had a lead on the IBN 5100.
What surprised him even more was where it had been kept all this time: enshrined in a local temple managed by none other than Luka Urushibara, the shrine's delicate and androgynous miko.
After some negotiations, Okabe finally got his hands on the legendary machine. Elated, he immediately called Kurisu, wanting her to witness the turning point of history with her own eyes.
. . . . . . . . . . .
With a visibly reluctant Kurisu in tow, they lugged the heavy machine back to the lab. Just as Okabe was preparing to begin the decryption, Daru hit him with a problem.
The IBN 5100 was just too ancient—it couldn't run without a slew of additional parts.
Their grand operation ground to a halt. While Daru busied himself acquiring and assembling the necessary components, Okabe and Kurisu were left with nothing to do but pass the time chatting.
Time slipped by until, deep into the night, Daru suddenly let out a loud squeal of triumph, startling everyone in the lab.
They rushed to the screen.
"Did it work? What does it say?"
"Hold on, let me check…" Kurisu said, eyes scanning the decoded text. Her expression slowly darkened.
"Control over spacetime. Destruction of history through spacetime manipulation. In other words, the creation of a utopia—both in the past and the future. That is the true objective of SERN, post-2000."
"A utopia… or a dystopia?"
"Don't jump to conclusions. It might just be coincidence. Let me read the full report."
Kurisu quickly dug deeper into the file and found a detailed section of the document.
"This experiment involves high-energy particle collisions intended to trigger spacetime displacement."
"Spacetime displacement? Isn't that… time travel?!"
"No way— This has to be fake, right?"
"How could it be fake?! SERN's been researching time travel since forty years ago… just as we feared."
"Wait— let me keep reading. Phase One—construction and activation of the Large Hadron Collider. Phase Two—calibration and operation of the lifter system. Phase Three—animal testing. Phase Four…"
Suddenly, Kurisu's voice faltered. She gasped and instinctively covered her mouth.
"…Human experimentation."
"What—? Can we see the details of those experiments?" Okabe asked, his tone suddenly heavier.
After a brief hesitation, Daru pulled up another file. This one contained the results of all fourteen time displacement experiments.
He opened one at random.
"Experiment No. 8 – Subject deceased. After the experiment, a corpse suspected to be the subject's was found in an old newspaper dated April 3, 1921. The body was gelatinous and fused halfway into a wall, causing a local sensation at the time."
"This is…?"
"A jellyman…?" Kurisu muttered.
"In other words, even if it's not perfect… they really did succeed in sending people back in time?"
"Keep reading!"
The group hurriedly reviewed the remaining documents, reading through all fourteen experiment logs. Each told the same horrific story—subjects were warped into the past, found with contorted bodies, their flesh gelatinized, and consciousness lost long before discovery.
"So it's true… SERN has been developing time travel technology."
Faced with evidence this undeniable, even Kurisu—ever the skeptic—could no longer refute the truth.
After a brief, heavy silence, Okabe suddenly threw back his head and let out a booming laugh.
"So it's clear now! We just have to beat SERN to the punch! If we create a perfect time machine before they do, we'll leave them in the dust! With that, we'll gain the power to change the world—to stop the Dystopia before it ever begins! HAHAHAHAHAHA!!"
Kurisu could only stare at him, utterly exasperated.
And on the other side of the screen, the audience watching this unfold wore much the same expression.
"Rintaro Okabe is being way too reckless. Wouldn't the normal reaction here be to alert the government or something? What if something goes wrong with the time machine?"
"Seriously. Their enemy is a global organization with who-knows-what kind of resources. That's terrifying."
"But honestly… a time machine in anyone's hands could lead to Dystopia. Human desire is the real danger here."
"That's why the only real solution is to prevent the invention of time machines altogether. Or, better yet, make the data public so that everyone has access—create a balance of power through mutual deterrence."
"Too bad neither option is realistic for someone like Okabe. He's just an ordinary guy."
"If it were me, I'd destroy all data related to time travel, then leak everything about SERN to the world. That would turn SERN into a global enemy and force their research underground, under constant surveillance."
"Yeah, that sounds a lot more responsible. But knowing Okabe… well, he's a full-blown chuunibyou. This decision totally tracks with his mindset. Deep down, maybe he wants the power of a time machine too."
"Desire is the root of all human conflict. That's just the way things are."
"..."
The comments section buzzed with conflicting opinions. Anyone who had truly grasped the weight of the story so far couldn't help but criticize Okabe's reckless ambition.
After all, what could one person really do against a global juggernaut like SERN?
But in the end… perhaps this was just the way the story had to go. And so, they watched on in silence.
Compared to the more attentive viewers, a large portion of the audience still hadn't fully grasped the plot. Even now, their understanding barely extended to "there's a time machine" and "the protagonist wants to build it." Nothing more.
But where the general audience showed confusion or mild concern, the reactions among more distinguished figures—like Emperor Hubbard and General Wilhelm, along with numerous knights—were far more serious. They understood all too well the consequences that Rintaro Okabe's reckless actions might bring.
"This is bad," Emperor Hubbard murmured gravely. "Okabe still has no idea what he's doing—or what he's about to do. He's completely unprepared."
General Wilhelm gave a slow nod.
"To save the world, you must either protect the world as it is, or possess the power to build a new one from its ashes. Otherwise, 'saving the world' is nothing but destruction in disguise."
The Emperor's eyes narrowed as he continued:
"Indeed. While his intention to stop SERN may be noble, the time machine itself is a contradiction. Its very existence will shatter the foundations of the old world—every law, every structure we've built. What follows is inevitable evolution. But evolution doesn't come without pain. The moment Okabe creates the time machine, whether he realizes it or not, he becomes the trigger for the world's end. He is the architect of destruction… because he sees only the potential, not the peril."
As a monarch who had weathered countless reforms and revolutions across the empire's thousand-year history, Emperor Hubbard had long since learned this cruel truth. Many policies once heralded as harbingers of a brighter future had only ushered in deeper corruption. Many systems created to preserve strength had ultimately hastened decline.
If even laws and governance bore such risks, how much more dangerous would a world-changing technology be?
The invention of the time machine was guaranteed to plunge the world into chaos. Yet the one standing at the helm of this storm—Rintaro Okabe—was little more than an idealistic boy, barely more than a blank slate.
In that alone… lay a tragedy of staggering scale.
Unlike the concerned citizens and wary rulers, however, the mages—researchers and seekers of the arcane—had a completely different perspective.
Their reactions were not driven by fear of destruction, but by pure, unfiltered curiosity. In many ways, they were not unlike Okabe himself: dreamers who looked to the unknown not with dread, but with wonder. The records of SERN's time travel experiments stirred something primal within them, and soon, debates began to spark across mage circles.
"Why do all the test subjects end up jelly-like? That banana did the same, didn't it? Is that some kind of natural consequence of time travel?"
"It might be tied to the experiment structure. SERN's test plan has four stages, right? The first was that massive energy collider—probably to generate a spatial rupture through sheer force. The time machine must be shoving objects through that hole, forcibly making them traverse time. But the hole is likely microscopic, meaning whatever gets pushed through is crushed, twisted—reduced to a shapeless mass."
"Ah— it's similar to teleportation magic in theory!"
"Exactly. In teleportation spells, enormous magical energy is concentrated into a ritual array, and the spatial coordinates are twisted through internal magic currents. That creates a bridge between two points—literally a hole through the world."
"Of course, those unstable spatial states are insanely dangerous. That's why teleportation requires massive amounts of energy to stabilize. It's why only Grand Mages—Arch Mages, really—can use it. You need power just to keep the world from tearing itself apart."
To the mages, this wasn't a crisis. It was a revelation.
Theories collided like lightning. Inspiration flowed like mana.
This wasn't the end of the world.
It was the opening of a new frontier.
"In the movie, after completing the first step, the second involves using a strange device called the 'Lifter.' So, with just those two devices, time travel is supposedly possible?"
"Uh… that's probably just fictional lore."
"Regardless of whether it's fiction or not, it's incredibly fascinating."
"If the setup in the movie actually works, doesn't that mean spatial teleportation magic is effectively the prerequisite for time magic? That if we just solve the next piece of the puzzle… we could really achieve time travel?"
"That's…"
The discussion among the mages grew increasingly heated. But when it came time to consider actual experimentation, most of them instinctively fell silent.
After all, putting aside whether time magic could even be developed, there was a much bigger obstacle—the question of whether the Mage Tower would even allow such research.
Time manipulation meant rewriting history. If left unchecked, the consequences could be catastrophic—world-altering and impossible to predict.
Even the instructors seated atop the platform—those who could wield spatial teleportation magic with ease—held their tongues. On this matter, not even the most senior Arch Mages dared express an opinion. In the end, silence prevailed.
At the summit of the Mage Tower, within the inner sanctum of the Arch Mages, silence reigned as well.
It was only after a long pause that Administrator Hohenheim finally let out a weary sigh.
"To seek the true essence of magic is the solemn duty of all mages. Matters of moral restraint and social order are not within our jurisdiction. If anyone wishes to pursue research into this domain, they are free to do so—but there is one condition."
"All findings must be reported and presented in the Grand Lecture Hall. Secret research is strictly forbidden. Anyone caught conducting such studies in private will be punished… with the same severity as those who perform forbidden necromantic experiments."
"Understood."
No one objected. The gathered Arch Mages all nodded in solemn agreement.
To them, equating time magic with necromancy was not an exaggeration. If anything, it might've been too lenient.
For as enticing as the mysteries of time were, the potential consequences of truly unraveling them… were beyond comprehension.
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