— — — — — —
[Mission World ID: World-4]
Veyron had just arrived in the new world via the chat group's teleportation system when something odd caught his attention.
A prompt popped up in front of him: [Activate Space-time Gap to resume the mission?]
He frowned slightly.
Space-time Gap? He was familiar with the term.
As a supporting feature of group missions, Spacetime gaps allowed group members to operate in other worlds without disrupting the timeline. No matter how long they stayed away, they could return to their own world as if no time had passed.
But why was this prompt showing up after he'd already arrived?
With a sigh, Veyron simply chose to activate it. Then, using the "world anchors" he had previously set—one to lock his position in World-4 and another dropped when he first arrived—he began hopping back and forth a few times to test things out.
A few minutes later, with his theory confirmed, he sat down on a public bench by the street.
'So this is a reversed version of a Space-time gap…'
In the past, the standard gap would pause time in his origin world while he was away—ensuring no timeline desync when he returned.
But this one worked in the opposite direction.
As long as he didn't actively engage with anything that might distort time, his home world could be treated as "paused." Or, to be more precise, time here in World-4 was flowing infinitely faster compared to the outside.
"Got any insight into this 'time' situation?"
He reached out directly to World-4's World Will.
Although he hadn't interacted with this world much before, the fact that he could drop a world anchor on his very first visit—and have it stick—already meant this world didn't exactly hate him. So, having a little chat wasn't going to be an issue.
「There's a noticeable time gap between my world and the one it's set to merge with. To reduce post-fusion dissonance, I've accelerated my own timeline to catch up. Once the two are aligned, I'll return to normal flow.」
"I see…"
Veyron nodded slightly.
The merged World-∞ currently used World-0's timeline as its core reference point—putting them in the 2010s.
But World-4, judging by what he'd seen, was still stuck in the late 1990s.
If this were ancient history, even a gap of two or three hundred years wouldn't cause that much disruption.
But between the late 20th and early 21st centuries? A 20-year difference could feel like an entire generational rift.
Now that the Space-time gap thing was settled, it was time to figure out where he was exactly. More importantly—who were the key protagonists or "lucky ones" in this world that he needed to bond with?
Spreading out his divine will, he instantly scanned the entire planet—a world over ten thousand kilometers in diameter—like it was nothing.
But really, he didn't even need to go that far.
Right behind him, separated only by a wall, a group of lively teenagers were out on the school field—laughing, shouting, and basking in the glow of youth.
And just a hundred meters down this very street was a familiar school sign: {Sōbu High School}
Ah… Sōbu in Chiba.
So this was that world.
He'd just arrived a little… early.
"Hey there, little lady—checking out the school you'll be attending in the future?"
A black-haired, blue-eyed girl was walking along the street, sneaking curious glances through the fence into Sōbu's campus. Veyron gave her a friendly wave and greeted her with a smile. "How old are you now? Seems like high school's still a bit down the road for you."
The girl shot him a wary glance—then quickly walked away without saying a word.
"...Tch."
Veyron clicked his tongue in frustration.
"Sure, I got to meet one of the key targets face-to-face right away… but damn, she's not exactly the approachable type, huh?"
---
Chiba Municipal Sōbu High School
A fictional high school from the light novel My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong, As I Expected—also known as OreGairu—and its related spin-offs.
And when it comes to OreGairu…
The two main destiny-bound protagonists are obviously Hachiman Hikigaya, the male lead, and Yukino Yukinoshita, the female lead.
Unfortunately, as Veyron had just concluded after scanning the world—
He'd shown up too early.
Forget Yukino's generation—at this point in time (late 1990s), even her older sister Haruno Yukinoshita hadn't been born yet.
So, after doing a full divine scan of the planet, Veyron locked onto a second person—someone who also appeared in the original work, had some actual plot relevance, and crucially, was already born by now.
"Hey, hey—wait up, little one!"
Near the entrance of a side alley, a small girl—no more than three or four years old—paused, curious about the tall, handsome stranger calling out to her from within the alley.
Veyron gave her a serious once-over, then dramatically widened his eyes in mock surprise like every Manhua villain.
"Whoa! Incredible! You've got spiritual energy bursting right outta your head, you know that? For someone so young, your bones and muscles are already super refined! You're a once-in-a-century martial arts prodigy!"
Veyron even managed to make the beard move—despite not having any hair there.
"Put that girl down—now!"
A loud, angry voice cut through the moment, interrupting Veyron's improv act.
It was the same black-haired girl he'd seen earlier near the school. She sprinted over, stepping between him and the child, shielding the little girl behind her while glaring at Veyron with a mix of fierce protectiveness and righteous indignation. She held up a personal alarm device threateningly.
"Take one more step and I'll press it! You really don't want something like this permanently staining your record, do you?"
"...Actually, I meant to ask you this last time."
Veyron reached into his pocket—though in truth, he conjured a small mirror out of pure psychic energy—and took a look at his reflection.
"Miss Yukinoshita… do I really look that much like a bad guy?"
The girl didn't back down. Still guarding the child, she narrowed her eyes and replied coolly:
"It's because you don't look like one that makes you more dangerous. Guys like you, who seem harmless, can get away with doing awful things before anyone catches on—"
She paused.
Mid-sentence, her eyes locked onto his with a sudden jolt of realization.
She looked at him again—this time with a mix of surprise and suspicion. Her gaze held a blend of:—Admiration for his striking features and mysterious aura,—Disappointment that someone so good-looking had seemingly gone astray,—And revulsion at the shady motives she imagined he had.
"...Wait. You know who I am?"
"Of course. You're the current heiress of the prestigious Yukinoshita family here in Chiba. Kind of hard not to recognize you."
As the girl—Yukino's mother, still a teenager herself and going by the name Yukiko Yukinoshita—stared at him with growing wariness, Veyron gave her a warm, innocent smile and nodded.
.
.
.
OG Author's Note:
Yo~ It seems the biggest wall blocking me from fully exploring certain routes in the multiverse… is all these unnamed people in the original stories.
At least "Inukimi" got a popular fan nickname over the years. But characters like Yukino's mom? Yeah… nothing.
When naming these types of characters, I usually run things through Google Translate to make sure the Japanese version of the name sounds decent enough. But I'm not super familiar with Japanese naming culture, so if anything feels off, I hope the experts out there can go easy on me. Constructive criticism is welcome—no need to go full flame mode.