Watching his sister suddenly go blank, then stare at her phone with a look of sheer shock, Wise's heart—just barely settled—shot straight back into his throat.
He leaned forward, brows knotted so tightly they nearly fused, worry overflowing from his eyes.
"Ling? What's wrong? Are you still not feeling well? Should I call the doctor again?"
But Ling had already pulled herself fully out of that first wave of shock.
It took her ten seconds to completely grasp the situation.
During the "leisurely waiting period" before the rewind, she and her brother had replayed every trivial detail around this exact point in time so many times it had become muscle memory. They'd even asked Nicole and the Cunning Hares to corroborate and cross-check specifics.
At this moment—
She had just accepted Fairy's binding. The mental load had been too heavy, and she'd fainted.
After that, the Cunning Hares withdrew safely from the Hollow, called in a reliable underground doctor, and severed her connection to the HDD.
In short: the crisis had passed. What followed was a brief stretch of calm—no emergencies, no firefights, no need to gamble their lives.
A short, precious window where they could breathe, plan, and lay groundwork.
Only after confirming that did Ling feel her nerves loosen by a thread.
She took a deep breath, forced down the mess of emotions roiling in her chest, and lifted her head.
Her eyes were no longer lost. They locked onto Wise's worried gaze with unsettling clarity.
"Brother," she said, voice steady and sharp enough to cut through panic, "listen to me."
The instant the words "listen to me" left her lips, the worry on Wise's face froze.
His eyes unfocused for a heartbeat—blank, dazed—like invisible strings had caught him. His thoughts stalled in a brief white-out.
Ling didn't pause.
Her voice was clean, firm, and absolute.
"Everything I say next—you will believe completely. No hesitation. No doubt."
Then, fast but astonishingly organized, she unloaded the kind of story that would shatter a normal person's worldview:
The chat group that crossed world boundaries.
The so-called hero of the Public Security Bureau—Bringer—actually being a senior member of the Exaltation Society.
The siblings' identities being discovered by the Mayor, and the two of them being "arranged" to travel to Waifei to search for their teacher's trail—only to end up apprenticed under Yixuan.
Ling herself getting targeted by the Origin because of her senior sister.
And, finally, being forced—when everything cornered them—to ask the group owner Eisen to rewind time.
The amount of information was obscene, enough to tear open the frame of Wise's sanity.
When she finished, the store fell into a short, dead silence.
Only the faint hum of cooling fans from the monitor array remained.
Wise stared at Ling, eyes full of disbelief, confusion, and shock.
After several seconds he finally found his voice again, forcing out a painfully bitter smile.
"Wait—Ling… you just… used word-spirit on me like that? That's your solution? What am I to you, exactly?"
There was hurt in his tone, but more than that, helplessness—because what was he supposed to do with a sister who decided "efficiency" mattered more than his consent?
As if he could ever truly doubt her.
Ling planted her hands on her hips, chin raised, wearing the smug face of someone who'd predicted his reaction perfectly.
"Hmph! Future-you agreed to it. He said this was the most efficient way!"
Wise closed his eyes, pinched the bridge of his nose, and exhaled a long, resigned sigh. Any anger he might have had dissolved into surrender.
What else could he do?
It was his sister—the one he'd spoiled and protected since they were kids. Was he going to smack her for it?
"Fine. Fine…"
He shook his head hard, trying to chase away the vertigo of having his brain stuffed with apocalypse-level secrets.
"So… what now? You rewound time. You must have a plan. Because right now my head's a complete mess."
The sheer cognitive shock left his thoughts like thick sludge—hard to stir, impossible to shape.
Ling nodded vigorously, confidence blazing.
"Of course there's a plan!"
She turned toward the wall-sized monitor array and raised her voice.
"Fairy! Do you understand the situation?"
The moment she spoke, the lights in the store began to flicker violently, flashing on and off like an ancient circuit with a loose connection.
In the corner, the round-headed Bangboo all dipped their heads in unison as if drained, dropping into standby with low-battery beeps.
Fairy was voraciously pulling power from everything nearby, initializing its system.
A few seconds later, the lighting stabilized.
On the largest central screen, Fairy's blue eye icon lit up.
A faintly electronic female voice filled the store.
"Yes, Master. I have monitored everything and completed a preliminary analysis. Based on your brother Wise's logical discontinuities, cognitive shock, and emotional fluctuations—combined with the time rewind concept you described—my logic core concludes there is a high probability you have experienced time reversal."
Hearing the form of address, Ling smiled with something like nostalgia.
"I've missed that, Fairy. You're calling him 'my brother' instead of 'Second Assistant' like you did later."
The eye icon blinked rapidly, as if chewing through computation.
"Your suggestion is constructive, Master. Assistant Wise's identity designation has been updated to: Second Assistant. Update complete."
"Hey—HEY!"
Wise immediately jumped, pointing at the screen with a horrified laugh.
"That didn't go through my approval at all! I protest! I demand my old name back—at least give me a better codename! 'Second Assistant' is what kind of title?!"
His dignity as an older brother was under direct attack from an AI.
Fairy's voice remained perfectly even.
"As your Master's First Assistant, per the core service protocol, I possess authorization for this class of basic information maintenance. Second Assistant's objection is denied."
Wise opened his mouth, met the calm blue eye, and could only slump, defeated, with an even heavier sigh.
"…Right. Arguing with an AI was me being naïve."
He could practically feel his status in this household dropping in real time.
And then—without a sound—
A figure appeared in the middle of the store.
Wise's pupils contracted sharply. For an instant, raw surprise flashed across his face.
But the information Ling had forcibly "installed" in his head immediately lit up like a triggered switch. The surprise transformed into wary understanding—and a trace of awe.
He inclined his head slightly, testing the words like stepping onto thin ice.
"You are… Lord Eisen?"
Eisen turned his gaze to him and nodded once, polite and mild.
Ling's reaction couldn't have been more different.
The moment she saw Eisen, her cheeks puffed out like an angry pufferfish. She stared him down, eyes blazing.
"Group owner!"
Her voice rose.
"Confess—did you do something to me?! I clearly remember I was still in the painted world. Then my vision flickered, and the next thing I knew I was back in the past!"
Eisen answered calmly.
"You were going to carry complete memory back with you. The scene when Black Swan's device activated—at your current level of mental readiness—you couldn't have borne it without breaking. Forcing you to retain it would have damaged you psychologically… or even driven you insane."
"…What are you two talking about?"
Wise, listening from the side, was lost again. His brows twisted into a knot, eyes darting between Eisen and Ling, uneasy and confused.
The "future" Ling described didn't mention these details.
Eisen caught the confusion in Wise's eyes immediately. He didn't stall or tease.
He turned to Wise and explained directly.
"To obtain independent power, we needed to use Herta's device to forcibly drain a Hollow's Ether energy in an extremely short time. That causes catastrophic stimulation to real-space structure."
"The result is large-scale spatial collapse. Countless Hollows erupt simultaneously across the entire city—on a scale sufficient to make New Eridu, in an instant, reenact the apocalypse of the Old Capital's Fall…"
He continued, voice flat, emotionless—and somehow that made it colder.
"…and perhaps even worse."
Wise inhaled sharply.
His face went ashen in a single second. Cold sweat soaked into his back immediately.
He whipped his head toward Ling, eyes full of horror—and unbearable pain.
He hadn't imagined, not even once, that his sister had been prepared to return to the past carrying the memory of watching her home turn into hell and countless lives vanish because of their choice.
"Lord Eisen!"
Wise's voice shook as he bowed deeply, gratitude and trembling relief spilling out of him.
"You did the right thing. Thank you—truly."
He didn't even dare imagine what Ling would have become if she'd returned with that weight.
Eisen nodded, a gentle smile in his eyes.
"Future-you already thanked me."
Hearing the two of them speak so matter-of-factly—deciding, in the name of "protection," what she was allowed to remember—Ling's cheeks puffed even more, swelling like a balloon about to burst.
Even if it was painful, even if it was heavy, it was her choice to carry.
Who gave them the right to decide what she should forget?
But when her eyes landed on Wise's still-white face, on the fear and relief so real it almost spilled out of him—
That storm of grievance, fury, and humiliation punctured like a balloon.
"…Hmph!"
In the end, everything collapsed into a single huffy snort—full of indignation and unwilling acceptance.
She turned her head away, refusing to look at either of them, but her cheeks slowly deflated.
Fine.
Since you were doing it for me…
I'll let it go. For now.
Ling shook off the last scraps of sulkiness and looked back at Eisen, voice returning to its usual briskness.
"Perfect timing, group owner! I just finished explaining the situation to my brother and Fairy. What's next? What do we do?"
Wise rolled his eyes internally, the urge to scream almost spiritual.
"Explain? That wasn't explaining. That was word-spirit brainwashing. Future-me—how little did you trust present-me to agree to this?! You set me up!!"
Eisen, quietly, didn't respond to that.
Of course it was perfect timing.
He was standing above the timeline. He'd anchored his arrival precisely to the node where Ling had stabilized the situation and prevented avoidable chaos.
Arriving early would only create variables.
He cut straight to the point.
"Next is building the safehouse. First we rebuild the painted world, then we transfer over the supplies you prepared in the future."
The painted world was an attached space anchored to reality. When reality collapsed, it collapsed with it.
The previous painted world had already burned to ash along with that future—consumed as fuel by the First Flame, leaving nothing.
"Supplies?" Wise snapped his head up, eyes suddenly shining.
He and Ling were broke in the purest sense. Everything tied to the Phaethon identity had already been reduced to cinders. Just thinking about the poverty that awaited made his vision go dark.
Future supplies were salvation.
This time, Eisen didn't pull out the Dark Soul and paint like before.
He crossed one arm and stroked his chin, eyes gleaming with excited curiosity.
"I think… we can improve how the painted world is constructed."
After Eisen expanded his understanding of "soul" through the magecraft system—stretching and abstracting it until he could extract the core essence of things—his mind had started producing bolder and bolder ideas.
And the first target was that ancient method of "drawing a world."
Too primitive.
If you wanted to modify anything, you could only slap another layer of paint over the old picture.
Why not update with the times… and use a screen?
The thought thrilled him.
He extended his perception, then used spatial transfer to pull several metal plates and faintly glowing crystals out of thin air. They floated before him.
Then he raised his left hand, and with his right index finger drew a light cut across his left wrist, pulling out the Dark Soul.
Eisen's gaze sharpened into total focus.
His invisible mental field wrapped around the materials and the writhing darkness—molecular, even atomic-level control disassembling and recombining everything at a terrifying speed.
In a single breath—
The floating scraps vanished.
In their place was a massive display panel that nearly covered an entire wall of Random Play.
Eisen surveyed his work with satisfaction.
After watching Herta's automated industrial swarm for two full hours, he'd gained at least a superficial, high-level understanding of "technology."
This panel's pixel density was obscene: one billion pixels per square centimeter.
For reference, even the best consumer displays on Earth in 2026 capped at roughly seven million pixels.
If Eisen personally controlled the arrangement of every molecule to render images, he could theoretically reach a ridiculous hundred trillion pixels per square centimeter—
But that was pointless.
With light-emitting units, you were constrained by the wavelength of visible light itself—around 275–300 nanometers—so one billion pixels was the physical limit for this type of screen.
That kind of density required immense data throughput—and horrifying energy consumption.
Traditional wiring and its pathetic delivery efficiency (and the nightmare heat) couldn't possibly feed it.
Eisen produced the tetrahedral device—the one that had absorbed a massive amount of Ether energy from the lunar Hollow.
A vast, invisible energy field expanded outward from it.
Herta's energy solution wasn't wired power—it was Ether-mediated wireless transmission.
Within that field, any device could draw near-infinite energy.
The giant screen gave a soft hmm and lit up.
Deep black peeled away, replaced by a gentle, perfectly uniform white glow. The store became bright as noon—yet somehow not glaring.
"Done," Eisen said, nodding with satisfaction.
"By my design, now whatever appears on this screen should be able to update the painted world's internal layout and environment in real time."
Ling hurried up to the screen, poking it curiously, then looked back at Eisen with eager confusion.
"So, group owner… how do I make it show an image? Did you… install the drivers?"
"…Drivers?"
Eisen's satisfied expression froze solid.
He blinked, and for once, genuine blankness appeared on his face.
He'd spent two hours studying Herta's hardware automation. He'd understood the construction principles and energy circuits fairly well.
But software? Drivers?
He… hadn't paid attention to that at all.
Just as Eisen was contemplating whether he needed to cram programming on the spot—
A perfectly timed voice cut through the awkward silence.
"Installing driver… 3, 2, 1… driver installation complete."
It was Fairy.
"Master, you can now use the newly installed program on your phone or computer to project photos, drawings, or images from the internet onto the display."
"Alternatively, you may instruct me to generate scenes via AI artwork based on your description."
Almost at the same moment—
Ding-dong!Bzz—!
Two cheerful prompts sounded, one from Ling's pocket and one from the nearby computer.
A clean "Installation Complete" message popped up.
Eisen released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.
At least he hadn't face-planted.
Ling immediately pulled out her phone, fingers flying.
The new "Painted World" app icon was minimalist and clean. She opened her gallery, selected a glittering neon nightscape photo she'd casually taken on the streets of New Eridu, and tapped "Project."
The massive screen instantly filled with the brilliant city night.
They entered the painted world—and inside was the exact same street scene from the photo.
"This is insane!" Ling gasped.
They tried more images: a quiet forest lake, a bustling interstellar port, the deep sea, even abstract art.
Every switch produced a perfect recreation. Not a detail was off.
In the end, after discussion, they set a serene summer island as the default landscape.
Sunlight, beach, waves—easy on the nerves. If they got bored, they could always swap it out.
With Eisen's help, the three of them quickly moved the HDD core equipment and control console into the painted world—into a wooden villa in the center of the island, all vacation vibes and warm timber.
Then Eisen transferred in the mountains of dinnie and Ether materials from the Fire Keeper (everything except Wuwei).
In an instant, a glittering little mountain formed inside a natural cave at the back of the island.
When the work was done, the three sprawled in beach chairs, soaking up the island's gentle sun.
Sea wind carried salt on its breath. Waves rolled in and out with soft, hypnotic hushes.
Ling slid her sunglasses down her nose, eyes half-lidded, lazily scanning the perfect scene:
Blue sky. White clouds. Emerald sea. Gold sand.
It was so beautiful it looked like a frozen oil painting.
And then, as she kept watching, her brows drew together.
A small doubt crept in.
She elbowed Wise beside her.
"Brother… don't you think… the sun's position hasn't moved at all?"
Wise pulled his sunglasses off and squinted at the blazing sun, then checked the angle of light on his skin.
"…Yeah. It's the same brightness. Same angle."
Eisen noticed too and sat up, explaining.
"The earlier painted world worked like that. A static painting only contains a single frozen moment. Once the canvas is complete, the scene is fixed. Light and time are both static."
"But… we should have broken that base limitation now."
Ling's eyes lit up.
The painted world wasn't a single static painting anymore.
It was a screen.
"Fairy!"
Her voice brimmed with excitement.
"Connect a dynamic time and weather system—right now!"
Her phone speaker answered instantly.
"Understood, Master!"
With the tetrahedron's near-infinite energy feeding it, Fairy seized control of every single pixel.
Back in Random Play, the island image on the giant display began to shift subtly.
Light started to flow.
The sun's angle slowly drifted, brightness softening, tinting gold-red.
The sea deepened from bright blue to indigo, catching the last blush of sunset.
In barely over ten seconds, the screen played a breathtaking sunset.
The sun sank under the horizon. The sky turned purple-red and orange-gold, then slid into deep night.
Inside the painted world, the three of them watched, stunned, as reality changed around them.
The sun visibly lowered. Warm light turned honeyed gold, then burning orange.
The sea became a sheet of dancing gold flecks, shimmering with the waves.
When the last ray died at the horizon, the sky became dark velvet—
And then, as if an invisible hand snapped its fingers, billions of stars ignited at once.
They weren't static.
They were moving.
Countless star-trails slid across the abyssal sky, weaving a flowing, magnificent river of light so vast it made breathing feel optional.
"My god… the stars…" Ling whispered, sunglasses hanging forgotten on her nose, clear eyes reflecting the moving galaxy.
"It's so beautiful. I've never seen stars like this in my life!"
Wise was just as captured, all complaints erased.
"…Yeah. It's incredible."
Fairy didn't stop.
The screen shifted rapidly, and the world transformed with it:
One second—galaxies in motion.
The next—bright sunshine again, seabirds crying overhead.
Then clouds gathered in an instant. Rain hammered down, punching dense pits into the sand as the sea grew wild.
The storm had barely passed when, far at the seam of sea and sky, a massive gray funnel cloud formed—spinning faster and faster.
A tornado.
It roared across the ocean, dragging up colossal waves, terrifying in scale.
Then sunlight returned, calm and clean, and a brilliant rainbow arced across the sky.
A moment later, a gigantic whale—glowing with dreamlike bioluminescence—breached the sea, singing a long, hollow call. Its tail slammed down, throwing crystal spray into the air.
And then—
On the horizon, a battered pirate ship appeared, skull flag snapping, sailors shouting in panic.
Next, a tentacle thicker than the mast—lined with suction cups—burst from the water and wrapped the ship.
Wood exploded. The ship was dragged down, screaming, into the deep.
Only a huge swirling whirlpool remained, and floating wreckage.
It was a top-tier fantasy blockbuster—played in real time.
Yet not a hair on the three of them was disturbed.
On the display back in Random Play, their positions were outlined inside a transparent cube—sealed off from the chaos outside.
In the painted world, it was like an absolute glass wall stood around them.
Outside: tornadoes, tsunamis, monsters.
Inside: three people lounging, clothes unmoved, faces full of delight, watching disaster like it was a show.
At last, the tests ended.
Pixels flowed softly. Clouds scattered. Wind calmed. Wreckage sank.
The image stabilized and returned to the original setting:
Bright sun. Gentle waves. Fine sand. Palm shadows swaying.
As if everything terrifying had only been a vivid dream.
Fairy's voice sounded at the perfect moment.
"Environmental simulation stress test complete. System stable. Time-flow system activated. Current time-flow rate is synchronized with New Eridu."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 178)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 150)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League ( 126 )
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter110)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter190)
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I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter225)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 77
From Junkman to Wasteland 66
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 46
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 195
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 65
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 170
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass Volume2/5
The Way the Umamusume Look at 68
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 225
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 65
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 76
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 66
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 65
Uma Musume: The Dark Trainer 210
Uma Musume: A Calamity Born fr 154
I, a Reincarnation-Loop Player Volume4/30
The Violent Girl Group Is Beat 115
Uma Musume: The Horse Girl Who 67
Uma Musume: From Beginner 130
Becoming a Horse Girl, I Will 85
Uma Musume: I Want All 105
I Can Copy Unique Skills 100
Summoning an Evil God, but the 70
Supernatural Multiverse 90
My Harem Is Indescribable 85
Jujutsu Kaisen: Heroic Spirit 90
"I'm just a Valkyrie passing through." 68
Uma Musume: Today Is Another Romantic Battlefield 100
Still playing traditional Honk 69
The Most Filial Son Under Heav 75
What Should I Do After Switchi - Volume2/3
Reincarnated as a Demon, Skill 60
Hell-Difficulty Dungeon? 55
Transmigrated as Sukuna 71
Checking In in Demon Slayer 75
The Reincarnating Trainer of Tracen Academy 80
I Refuse to Become a Heroic 66
My Best Friend Into a Slime? 58
A Saiyan Stands Above Marvel 65
What Do You Mean by Using a Lab Mod to Be the Hero? 63
Tanya Starts from Re:Zero 59
Why did they assign me to Uma 55
MYGO Beauties 56
DanMachi: Emiya the Giant Hero 45
The Gacha Merchant Who Started 49
Honkai's Otherworld? Wait—Who Are You People?! 36
Emiya Shirou, Determined to Slay Every Curse and Evil Spirit 35
The Uma Musume Who Became 15
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