But “near-infinite” isn’t truly infinite. For example, the Yellow River might seem endless to a person standing beside it, but from a satellite’s perspective, it’s finite. The possibilities of time seem infinite, but to Miss Lin, they were limited. The satellite can measure the Yellow River from space; Miss Lin can observe time from outside of it.
For her, every possibility had already been seen. Nothing could surprise her anymore—or so she thought. Five minutes later, she changed her mind. She met a boy—a boy who had never appeared on her Time Orb before.
Actually, Miss Lin wasn’t sure it was five minutes. That kind of uncertainty was rare for her. She could always spin the orb back to any moment—how could she not know the exact time? The problem was, after countless attempts to return to that moment, she never saw the boy again.
A time node could branch into many possibilities, and Miss Lin had observed them all. But the possibility of meeting this boy simply didn’t exist. In other words, there was no way for her to encounter him—past, present, or future.
It was like the legendary general Guan Yu, even if he trained every day with the best doctors and lived for a thousand years, he could never fight Qin Qiong. No matter how many times he tried, he might defeat Lu Meng, Cao Cao, or even Lü Bu, but never Qin Qiong. Because on his Time Orb, that possibility simply didn’t exist.
The boy had appeared in her shop out of nowhere. They didn’t even have a chance to speak—just a brief moment of eye contact. Before Miss Lin could react, the boy vanished, like a ghost.
Miss Lin didn’t feel afraid. Instead, her curiosity was about to explode! This boy existed in neither the past nor the future—only in that single instant. No matter how many times she spun the Time Orb, she couldn’t find that possibility! She’d never encountered anything like this before—something that simply shouldn’t happen in her world!
A bug in the system! Miss Lin leapt up in excitement, wishing someone were there to high-five her. She’d always thought life was boring—not just for her, but for everyone. Like that pine tree enthusiast, who bought a tree just to watch it grow for twenty years. Wasn’t that as dull as her endless sleeping?
So maybe this world was created by some third-rate deity. Everyone could control time, but they were forever trapped by the limits of their dimension. Life was torture. Who could believe this world was naturally formed, or that people had free will? Miss Lin certainly didn’t buy it. But at least now, she’d found a crack in the world.
But what good did it do? Her excitement faded. She still couldn’t escape this world. People were four-dimensional beings—unless someone figured out how to conquer the fifth dimension, she’d always be stuck here.
Even after discovering the world’s flaw.
Miss Lin grew despondent again and wandered into the shop’s back room. There was a special counter there—completely black, as if wrapped in cloth. On the counter was a note: Not for Sale. Miss Lin frowned at her own handwriting—so ugly, she couldn’t believe she’d written it.
She spun the Time Orb of the note. The words vanished. Another spin, and they reappeared, neater this time. That was something she’d do a week from now—wipe off the old note and write a new one.
No need to do it twice—just set the note to a week later, and it was done.
Miss Lin felt sleepy again, but there was one more thing she wanted to check. Carefully, she lifted the counter’s lid and peered inside. The azure sphere inside spun slowly, as always. Two other, hastily made spheres spun nearby. Behind them was a black curtain, painted with several spheres in their positions, and not far off, a huge white sphere.
She sighed at her own laziness. Even after all this time, she hadn’t bothered to shape the other two spheres properly, and the painted backgrounds were even more slapdash. She wondered how those worlds would react if they ever discovered the truth of the universe.
But that day would never come. Just then, Miss Lin noticed spaceships appearing around the two smaller spheres. She was surprised—they’d reached this stage already? She checked the Time Orb of the blue sphere. It had spun to the end.
It was about to be destroyed.
And also about to be reborn.
“Whatever!” Miss Lin closed the lid, yawned, and shuffled back to bed. “Tomorrow will be better!”
Chapter 02
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