In reality, nothing happened.
Before Sin burst in, Bronya had already finished what she needed to do.
Sin didn't actually see anything incriminating, just a faint, lingering scent in the air that made her subconsciously feel something was off.
Bronya didn't offer any explanation either. She simply bent down, broke a rabbit's neck, and stuffed the small, warm animal into Lin Wei's "bearskin blanket." Then she picked up another and did the same.
Seeing her unyielding demeanor, Sin shot her a displeased look, snatched a rabbit from her, broke its neck, and then went to roast it over the fire.
It's a good thing Seele isn't here, or she wouldn't be able to bear it, Bronya thought to herself, then continued her slaughter of the small creatures...
A while later, Seele returned, out of breath and carrying a large pile of firewood. After a moment's thought, she turned around to find more.
Sin played by the fire for a bit, found it boring, and ran off. Not long after, she returned carrying a deer. She didn't bother to stay long, just dropped the prey and left. A little while later, she dragged a bear back. It was a mystery how her small frame had managed to take it down.
Bronya took out the short knife from her boot and carefully skinned the large animals. She either placed the hides under Lin Wei, covered him with them, or simply hung them at the cave entrance as a curtain.
In short, her insulation measures were becoming more and more professional.
Then, she took the firewood Seele had carefully collected, split the fire into several piles, found some sticks, sharpened them, and skewered small pieces of deer, bear, wolf, and rabbit meat, roasting them over the fire.
"It's been a long time since I've done this," she thought, a strange sense of nostalgia washing over her.
A little while later, Schrödinger returned from outside, carrying several metal objects of various sizes: a large, thin iron plate, a small container that could be used as a bowl, and a small cylinder for boiling water.
Though they didn't look like proper utensils, they were at least... usable.
"Where did you find these?" Bronya was surprised. How could you find these things in a place like this?
"Oh, there were a few scrapped mecha scattered around where you were fighting earlier. I went over there to see if I could find anything useful," Schrödinger shrugged. "The creations of human technology, even when damaged, can always find different uses in other ways."
"..."
Bronya didn't share her sentiment. She just silently picked up the small cylinder, went outside, and slowly filled it with snow. She placed it in one of the bonfires and watched the white snow melt under the flickering orange flames, suddenly feeling that she had been a bit stupid just now...
Schrödinger had made this trip specifically for that. Finding useful things was just an excuse. The real reason was to prove that she had really gone out, to avoid making Bronya suspicious and awkward.
A little while later, Seele and Sin returned with their respective firewood and prey, and they didn't go out again.
Sin proudly showed off her cleverness and sharpness to Bronya. The wildlife in the surrounding area had been truly unlucky to cross her path.
Seele cautiously went to check on Lin Wei, who was sleeping by the corner bonfire. She worriedly asked Schrödinger why he had suddenly become like this, when he had seemed fine in the last loop.
Schrödinger explained briefly. Though she tried her best to use simple words, Seele, who hadn't even finished elementary school, could only half-understand, only knowing that Lin Wei's condition was not optimistic.
"Don't worry, Miss Seele, there shouldn't be any major problems. His main issue now, as you've seen, is that he's constantly consuming energy without getting effective rest. It's like a pool that's constantly draining water without being refilled. It's naturally unsustainable."
Schrödinger comforted her. "But it's different now. You both know each other's 'starting points' in the loop. Even if Mr. Lin Wei is still unable to act on his own in the next loop, you can find this place on your own, and even bring the supplies he urgently needs, just like now."
Schrödinger gestured behind Seele. Seele looked back and saw the bonfire, the food, the door curtain, the utensils...
The once cramped and dark cave now looked quite lively, with a rare sense of human presence.
"When the water being added is greater than the water being drained, he'll recover quickly," Schrödinger said. "Or, you could try taking him away now?"
"Is... is that so?"
After Schrödinger's reassurance, Seele let out a long sigh of relief. "Dr. Schrödinger, what is your relationship with Mr. Lin Wei? Did you bring him here? This world bubble that's so similar to our original world..."
This question had been on her mind for a long time.
"No, I am just this gentleman's temporary travel companion, an emergency guide, if you will. His real 'guide' is probably you, Miss Seele," Schrödinger shook her head. "As for why he came to this world bubble... besides a very small probability of coincidence, the main reason is probably you yourself, Miss Seele. After all, this is the first world bubble this gentleman has experienced."
"Me?"
"It could be a pure coincidence. After all, from a mathematical point of view, even the smallest probability has a chance of occurring," Schrödinger said.
"But there is another possibility. From a quantum perspective, you and this gentleman may have established some kind of weak quantum-scale connection at some point in the past. It is this connection that has increased the probability of you becoming entangled with each other in the Sea of Quanta."
Seele listened very carefully and only understood part of it. She shook her head. "Mr. Lin Wei and I had never met before this world bubble..."
How could I have any connection with him?
"Is that so? Then there might be other reasons."
Schrödinger didn't press the matter of Seele's denial and brought the topic back to the main point. "We currently don't have a complete understanding of the time loop mechanism of this world bubble, or the reasons for its formation. To prevent an accident like the last loop, I suggest you try now to see if you can take him away from this world bubble and to your next destination."
"Now?"
Seele looked at the still-sleeping Lin Wei with concern. Veliona also reminded her in the depths of her consciousness, "Let's wait. Like this woman just said, going through a few more loops will just be a matter of delaying some time. But if we leave now, who knows if the next stop will be smooth sailing or if there will be other accidents?"
Lin Wei is in no condition to be moved around!
Seele strongly agreed with this and explained it to Schrödinger.
"Don't worry, Miss Seele. I just want you to try. Things may not be as simple as you think."
As a 'veteran' who had been drifting in the Sea of Quanta for more than half a century, Schrödinger's insight was obviously much more profound than the novice Seele's.
"You are both outsiders, but you, Miss Seele, seem to be completely different from Mr. Lin Wei. Simply put, Mr. Lin Wei's body has a 'timeline' that is independent of this world bubble, so his state cannot be 'reset' in the loop. Each loop, for him, is the 'next stage' on a linear ladder, both mentally and physically. But for you, Miss Seele, the situation seems to be different."
Schrödinger said, "At the end of the last loop, you seemed to be seriously injured. Theoretically, you should have been completely immobile. But after just one day—not even 24 hours if we were to time it with an hourglass—the Miss Seele who appeared before me again was perfectly healthy. This is the biggest difference between you and Mr. Lin Wei."
"What do you mean?"
Her words had attracted the attention of Bronya and Sin as well.
"To put it simply, you, Miss Seele, at least on a physical level, are still part of this world bubble's cycle. Each time the loop restarts, your body 'restarts' just like this ever-repeating world."
Schrödinger's voice was calmly, almost annoyingly, logical. "If I were to summarize... Miss Seele, you have already integrated into this world's cycle to a considerable extent. I don't think you can leave this world as easily as you thought."
"!"
Seele was startled.
She quickly grabbed Lin Wei's hand, which had regained some warmth, and tried to take him away from the world bubble. But she found that her consciousness was as if stuck in a quagmire. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't pull it out. She was stuck, and her efforts were futile.
Veliona was shocked. Even when she tried, the result was the same.
"Damn it... how could this be?"
Veliona was frustrated. The finish line that had seemed so close was just a mirage. She had thought she could just leave, but now she found that even getting out was a problem. How could she not be angry?
"Dr. Schrödinger, what should we do now?"
In contrast, although White Seele was also panicked, she calmed down much faster than Veliona. "I was already in that hospital when I woke up. Bronya Oneechan and Sin were always with me... no, with the Seele of this world. I knew from the beginning that I was just borrowing this world's Seele's body..."
"Don't talk nonsense! I don't have the patience to take care of a patient by the bedside!" Sin shouted threateningly. "Say that again and I'll beat you up!"
"Quiet down, Sin. There's a patient here," the professional nurse, Bronya, whispered, gesturing with her eyes at the unconscious person who was serving as a "background character."
"Perhaps when Lin Wei wakes up, the two of you can work together and leave this world bubble, entering the next adjacent membrane," Schrödinger said. "If that attempt also fails, you'll need to change your approach. Perhaps, breaking the time loop of this world bubble and letting the flow of time here return to linear development would be a suitable approach."
"..."
Seele was silent. Bronya and Sin were both intrigued.
Or rather, only Seele and Lin Wei, who could perceive these things, could be called the "culprits." As for themselves, who knew nothing, they were at best puppets.
"...Is it... really possible?" Seele asked, bewildered. If she could break this loop, she would certainly be willing to do so. But how could a mere mortal interfere with the laws of the world?
"From a mathematical point of view, in a closed system, a time loop is possible. After all, when the number of participants in the statistics is infinite, it is possible for all the particles in the universe to return to their initial state at the moment of the Big Bang at some point in time. It's just a mathematical thought experiment and shouldn't be applied to reality. But it's really happening in the physical world we're in now."
Schrödinger couldn't possibly explain "Poincaré recurrence" in detail to these three young children, so she just said vaguely, "So the most reasonable explanation is that an unknown external force has interfered with the operation of this world, anchoring a specific moment as the starting point of time in some unknown, strange way, and locking the probability of the loop to 'certain to happen.' When a certain switch is triggered, the 'return command' will definitely be initiated."
She explained it very seriously. Seele and Bronya also listened very seriously, trying their best to understand even if they were confused.
But the ever-impatient Sin was already on the verge of exploding. "What is all this nonsense? Speak human!"
The fact that she hadn't directly slapped Schrödinger on the neck was already a sign of great politeness on her part.
"..."
Even the serious and rigid Schrödinger was at a loss for words. "To put it in the simplest terms, we need to find the specific location of this 'anchor point' and decipher the specific mechanism that forms this loop. Then, perhaps all the problems can be solved."
It sounded like a problem so complex that they wouldn't even know where to begin, but the three girls all had complicated expressions on their faces.
They all looked at the sleeping Lin Wei, and then the other two looked at the bewildered Seele.
If they were talking about an "anchor point"...
Wasn't it right here?