"The core is the chat group."
Eisen's voice was steady as he patiently explained.
"Before the rollback happens, you temporarily travel to another member's world via the chat group. After I finish rewinding the world on this side, you come back. Of course, I'll precisely burn away the you from that point in time, so we don't end up with two of you."
"But we can't do it that way this time. Because the main purpose of this rollback is to completely sever the connection between you and the Primordial Lord. So this time, we're going to rely on the underlying rule that members of the chat group cannot truly harm one another."
"During the rollback, I'll use the power of the First Flame to completely erase your body and soul at the current point in time."
"Huh?!" Ling shrank back in fright.
"Don't be scared," Eisen soothed her.
"Under the protection of the chat group's rules, your consciousness will be safely preserved. Once the world rollback is complete, that consciousness will merge with the you at the target time point. That way, we achieve the goal of cutting the Primordial Lord's link—while ensuring your memories and sense of self carry over into the new past."
Eisen summarized:
"No matter which approach we use, it all depends on the chat group. They can't use the chat group to flee to other worlds like you can, and they also can't receive protection from the chat group's rules during the rollback. Their memories will be wiped along with the world reset."
Ling let out a long, drawn-out "Ooooh," her voice full of disappointment—but she understood the logic.
But the disappointment was quickly washed away by a new idea. Her eyes lit up again.
"Boss! Then by your logic, I can actually go back to when I was really little, right?"
"Even after we use the rollback to successfully cut the Primordial Lord's connection, if I use the chat group to go to other worlds… wouldn't that mean I could go back to before I was even born? That could change so many tragedies!"
Eisen looked at her eager face and sighed helplessly.
"Sorry." He rubbed between his brows.
"Feels like I've been pouring cold water on you nonstop, but the answer is still no."
"Mm… how do I explain this?"
Seeing the color drain from Ling's face, Eisen scratched his hair in frustration, searching for the right words.
"Time isn't what we normally perceive it to be—a straight line flowing forward. Or rather, linear time is only a surface phenomenon."
His eyes brightened as he found an angle.
"Let me give an example! Say I want to create a story. The core event is a peak showdown between two unmatched masters, a duel that decides who stands at the top of the world."
"Then I build their past around that core event: Do they have a blood feud? What encounters did they experience that turned them into peerless powerhouses?"
"At the same time, I also design their future: Who wins the duel? And how does victory or defeat reshape their lives—and the entire world's order?"
He looked at Ling to check if she was following.
"See? From the characters' perspective inside the story, they have a complete-looking past, present, and future. But from me—the creator's perspective—logically, the duel event comes first, and then the past and future are derived to serve that event."
Ling blinked and tried to digest the brain-bending concept. Her brows knit together—she was still confused.
Watching her struggle earnestly, Eisen suddenly had a flash of inspiration.
"Right! Ling, don't you run a video rental shop? You're super familiar with videotapes, aren't you?"
"Mm-hm!" Ling nodded rapidly. This was her home turf.
"Good. Imagine this."
"For a character in a movie playing on a videotape, they 'have' a past and future that goes far beyond the physical length of the tape."
"But for us holding the remote—no matter how we rewind, the earliest we can return to is the moment the tape starts recording. We can never go back to the character's true childhood that was never recorded onto the tape, right?"
"Because their past is constructed and implied by the writer and director—through limited runtime, plot setup, dialogue, and flashbacks!"
Now that he'd used videotapes—something she understood—Ling's eyes widened.
"Ah! I think I get it!"
Eisen nodded in approval, but his gaze quickly deepened as he looked at her.
Ling could rewind to a point in the past by manipulating Ether, but she couldn't retain her memories. Every rewind felt like her first time living it—like replaying the same tape again and again, trapped in a fixed loop.
Ling could also use events happening in the present to retroactively define and alter certain details of the past.
Maybe… from the perspective of higher-dimensional beings, the world Ling lived in was essentially a pre-set videotape playing out?
But in the end, Eisen didn't share that speculation with her.
A world being "a videotape" wasn't rare.
A world could just as easily be a book, a poem, a game, a dream…
For Ling—still weak at this moment—touching truths about the nature of existence too early had no practical benefit. Worse, it might drag her into nihilism and kill her drive to move forward.
Eisen pulled his thoughts back and returned to the practical issue.
"So, back to your question. The First Flame's burning touches the foundational rules that keep the world running. If you cross past a critical event node and leave behind only a 'fake past,' the entire world will collapse."
"Like a videotape that's been completely burned—leaving only meaningless residue. It can't play anything anymore."
Ling's expression immediately turned deadly serious. She understood the severity and nodded hard.
Then she asked cautiously:
"Then… how far back is the earliest we can go?"
Eisen closed his eyes, sensing the flow and structure of time.
After a moment, he opened them and gave an answer.
"About a year and a half ago."
"A year and a half ago…" Ling murmured, sinking into memory.
Soon, her eyes lit up.
She remembered it—her first contact with Fairy, and the reason she began receiving those fragmented memory flashes, was exactly a year and a half ago!
It even seemed that her future self, when rewinding time, had also chosen that same point!
The group owner's explanation perfectly matched her real experience.
"So that's how it is…"
Ling mulled over the theory, whispering thoughtfully.
"If my world really is a videotape… then the moment I got Fairy might be the true beginning of the entire story…"
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 80)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 80)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 80)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter50)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter50)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter50)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter50)
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