Chapter 24: This is a Bit Scary!
The next day.
Marcus woke up slowly, but immediately realized a big problem.
Everywhere he looked was a familiar layout and furnishing; he was back in his own room.
Yes!
Marcus clearly remembered booking a hotel room the night before, but this morning he found himself in his own bedroom. This was a bit terrifying, wasn't it?
"What happened..." Marcus suddenly had a flash of insight. He looked at his computer desk; his phone was neatly placed there. He got up and picked it up.
The time displayed on the phone was 1:01:27 PM on June 6, 2014.
This time...
Time Cage!
Time Reversal!
Marcus knew that the real world was trapped in a Time Cage, a Time Cage with the ability to rewind time. He clearly remembered that yesterday was July 7, 2014, and if nothing unexpected happened, today should be July 8.
But an unexpected event occurred; today was June 6th. He had been passively transported through time again?
"System, are you there?" Marcus asked in his mind.
"Hello, host," the Transcendence System responded.
"Phew!" Marcus breathed a sigh of relief. He had been worried that the Transcendence System might be eliminated by time reversal, but now it seemed that the Transcendence System had clearly survived!
"Wait!" Marcus discovered another blind spot.
"Why are my memories still so clear?" Marcus asked in confusion.
Logically speaking, his memories should have been erased by time reversal, but he remembered that yesterday was July 7th, he remembered the existence of the Transcendence System, and he could even recall details from the Terminator world.
"Given that the host is in a dangerous situation of time reversal, the system has automatically allocated 1 destiny point to eliminate the adverse effects of time reversal on the host," the Transcendence System responded.
Marcus immediately checked the Transcendence System's log records and found the corresponding destiny point usage records. One of them was indeed for resisting time reversal.
"What exactly is the mechanism of this time reversal?" Marcus inquired. "Is there no pattern to its time reversal intervals?"
The Transcendence System responded, "The time reversal mechanism of the Time Cage is currently unknown, but given that the Time Cage exists in an ordered manner, the time reversal mechanism is highly likely to be controllable."
According to the Transcendence System, the time reversal mechanism is artificially controlled!
"..." Marcus was speechless.
If that were the case, wouldn't the creator of the Time Cage be invincible within it?
After all, if there's a problem, time reversal is possible—who could withstand that?
"Let's go, let's go back to the Terminator world," Marcus said without hesitation.
Although offsetting the negative effects of one time reversal only requires 1 point of destiny, Marcus was still reluctant to part with it, as destiny points were far too precious.
"By the way, can we go to the Terminator world at any time?" Marcus added.
"Yes, host, we can go to the Terminator world at any time," the Transcendence System responded, then added a reminder, "Please note that since the universe where the Terminator world is located is inconsistent with the universe of your original world, the system will not be able to determine the timeline of the Terminator world before entering it."
"Understood. Hurry up and enter the Terminator world, before I get time-reversed again and lose destiny points, my mentality will collapse," Marcus complained.
The Time Cage thing is complete cheating!
After a moment of disorientation, Marcus found himself in a secluded alley. He quickly surveyed the situation outside the alley, his brows involuntarily furrowing.
"Is the timeline confirmed?" Marcus asked in his mind, "This doesn't look like 1984!"
The cars outside the alley didn't look like they belonged in 1984!
"Please wait, the system is connecting to the River of Time and Destiny," the Transcendence System responded.
A few seconds later, the Transcendence System continued to provide feedback, "The system has officially anchored the time node. It is now a little past 1 p.m. on March 7, 1995, in the Terminator world of Los Angeles."
???
Marcus was completely bewildered.
What the heck?
He just went back and spent a day in the real world...
okay!
He experienced a time reversal in the real world.
But in the real world, such a small incident has already caused almost eleven years to pass in the Terminator world?
Although almost eleven years have passed, Marcus considered it briefly and decided to go to the FBI Los Angeles field office first.
Marcus had already tasted the benefits of having "authority," and this time he naturally wanted to try to gain "authority" as well.
After all, it was already 1995, and if there were no accidents, the brand-new liquid metal Terminator T-1000 would be coming soon, right?
Without having "authority," facing the powerful liquid metal Terminator T-1000 would be very troublesome.
FBI Los Angeles field office.
When Marcus arrived, even though nearly eleven years had passed, he could still see familiar elements.
"Hello, is Director Garrett here?" Marcus asked at the reception desk.
The receptionist was a young woman who politely asked, "Hello, sir, which Director Garrett are you looking for?"
"Director Richard Garrett," Marcus stated accurately, but he noticed that the receptionist's expression was a little strange, as if she recognized him?
"Please wait a moment, I need to check the records," the young receptionist replied, and then operated the computer.
About a minute later, Marcus frowned slightly. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed several people had surrounded him, some even with K-9 units.
Marcus turned to look at the agents surrounding him. Before he could make a move, the FBI agents drew their weapons and shouted warnings.
"Hands up!"
"Don't move!"
Marcus had been a member of the FBI before, and he knew very well the consequences of ignoring warnings. He slowly raised his hands to indicate that he posed no threat, and asked, "Who is the head of the Los Angeles field office right now?"
No agent answered Marcus's question. Instead, an agent with a K-9 unit approached him. As the dog drew closer, all the agents became even more alert.
When the dog sniffed Marcus closely but didn't alert, the agents surrounding him breathed a slight sigh of relief.
One of the agents said, "Sir, for your safety, please cooperate with our inspection."
Marcus nodded. "No problem. How will you conduct the inspection?"
"Please move slowly and try not to do anything that might cause misunderstanding. We will take you for an inspection," the agent replied.
"Okay," Marcus readily agreed.
Following the agent's instructions, Marcus moved as slowly as possible, while the surrounding agents remained armed and on guard. This situation made Marcus frown inwardly.
What had happened while he was away?
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