THE TIME DOME
Part Three
Marcus picked up a board from the floor, crept up behind the man, and suddenly struck, knocking him unconscious with a single blow.
A splash of cold water brought the man awake with a shudder. He found himself bound to a chair, hands tied behind his back, unable to move. Standing before him was Marcus, his face cold.
"You're Night Blade?" Marcus hurled the man's Apple laptop to the floor. "Don't bother denying it—I already found your login trail on that computer."
"Heh heh..." The man chuckled, his face growing paler, coughing repeatedly.
"From now on, when I ask you something, you answer. If you want to play tough—" Marcus pulled out the Swiss Army knife from his pocket and revealed the gleaming blade. "I have a hundred ways to make you wish you were dead. Even if everything resets tomorrow, I don't think you'd enjoy a full day of unrelenting pain."
Marcus's heart was also pounding as he said this—he was no brawler by nature, but circumstances had driven him to become an executioner.
Unexpectedly, the man was remarkably cooperative. "Don't waste your energy. I admit it—I'm Night Blade. And if I'm not mistaken, you must work in the network division."
Marcus was startled. "How did you know?"
"Heh, it's not hard to guess. Who else but network division personnel could have tracked me down?"
With both sides' identities out in the open, Marcus wasn't sure where to begin. The man prompted him: "You want to know about the dome, don't you?"
"Yes, the dome... how did you know it would appear?"
"I certainly know. This dome is a gift to me."
"A gift?"
"That's right. I'm the chief bio-materials engineer at the Second Academy of Sciences. The material that makes up this dome—I developed it."
"You locked us in here?" Then Marcus dismissed the idea. "That's impossible!"
"Of course it's impossible—I don't have that kind of power on my own. I just knew in advance that this would happen, that's all."
"Why? Why did all of this happen—why?!" Marcus roared, unable to contain himself.
"Getting upset won't help. Listen to me carefully. Do you know about particle collision experiments? Alright, by the look on your face, you don't. A particle collision experiment is when high-energy particles are used to bombard stationary particles, accelerating the annihilation of matter and antimatter—it's a form of basic physics research. It's a method for humanity to understand the microscopic world, but this method carries an unavoidable side effect... I think you've already guessed what it is."
"Time... looping?"
"Precisely—time decay. Because particle collisions cause matter annihilation, they produce time decay in a certain area. This decay alters the normal flow of time, causing it to loop back to its starting point after a certain duration—like a snake that's circled around and bitten its own tail."
"So, time decay is what happened here?"
"Exactly." He nodded. "And through data simulations, we had long predicted this outcome. My team and the particle collision team are different departments—my team's mission was primarily to research the dome material to respond to the incoming time decay. Once the decay zone appears, it must be contained immediately, or it will spread and eventually cover the entire Earth."
Marcus had already pieced together the root cause. "The dome is meant to seal off the time decay zone?"
"Yes. The dome material is the best way to contain the decay zone. It can form in a day and self-adapt, quickly fusing with whatever it touches. This prevents the decay zone from seeping out through underground fissures. The only misfortune is that the decay zone happened to appear right here in Luo City... As for why I'm here—" he gave a self-deprecating laugh, "you can see the state I'm in. I don't have much time left. Late-stage lymphoma, already spread throughout my body. Less than a month to live. Before the particle collision experiment, I'd already submitted an application to stay inside the time decay zone. This way, I could live forever, trapped in infinite looping time."
"You madman!" Marcus grabbed him by the collar. "You don't want to die, so you make an entire city's people die with you?"
"Don't be so dramatic, this wasn't our original intention..." He coughed repeatedly, rattled by Marcus's grip.
"Not your intention? Who are you kidding? When the time decay zone appeared, why weren't we evacuated? Why lock us under this dome! You... you clearly planned to abandon us from the start!"
"It's not abandonment, and things aren't what you think." He sighed. "The time decay zone appears just two hours after the completion of the particle collision experiment—there simply isn't enough time for evacuation. On the contrary, evacuation would cause massive social panic. The dome was the only solution. And I barely made it here myself—arrived just half an hour before the time dome formed."
This was no divine judgment, no alien arrival—just a human experiment that had brought everything crashing down.
Marcus suddenly lost the target of his hatred. He slumped, untied the man's bonds, lit a cigarette, and smoked it furiously. "Why did you post that message on the forum? What were you trying to do?"
"Nothing much—just a friendly warning, I suppose." Night Blade rolled his sore shoulders. "And someone like you eventually found the truth, didn't they?"
"I didn't come here to discover the truth—I came to find a way out. You were part of this whole experiment, so you must know how to leave this place."
"What? You want to leave?" He looked at Marcus in surprise. "Time here is infinite, life is infinite, resources are infinite—everything is infinite. We're completely free of all constraints, and we can't even age a single day. Why would you want to leave?"
Marcus gave a cold laugh. "So this is your so-called 'Terror King descending from the heavens, ruling the four quarters in the name of happiness'?"
"That's right. The dome's sudden appearance is terrifying, but under its canopy, everything is joyful, isn't it?"
"Of course not." Marcus pointed out the window. "Haven't you seen what's happening out there? Murder, robbery, rape—the law of the jungle. Every person's crimes are worthy of the gallows! You call this beautiful? This is a living hell!"
He merely laughed. "Heh, this is only temporary. People haven't adjusted to life under the dome yet. You don't understand emerging social behavior—new social systems require a certain accumulation period. Once people adapt, they'll naturally develop a new social structure and code of conduct, one completely unfettered by material and biological constraints. Do you realize what that means? It would be the most radical revolution in human civilization."
"But have you thought about the children who will never grow up? And the people who are suffering right now?" Marcus thought of the woman in difficult labor. "The patients being tormented by disease, who can't even die!"
"With the birth of anything new, sacrifices must be made."
Looking at his sanctimonious face, Marcus wanted to punch him again, but he knew that even killing the man would change nothing. Just as he was about to leave, Night Blade called after him: "Do you really want to leave?"
"Yes."
"Think it through—to leave means you'll never be able to come back in." He paused. "You'd be giving up paradise."
***
Marcus left the warehouse as full darkness fell. He checked his watch—past one in the morning. Less than two hours until the next reset. He needed to use this remaining time to find JOJO.
He headed for the rooftop terrace of Luo City's most famous revolving restaurant, where there was an open-air bar. JOJO had been a regular there, and Marcus hoped to try his luck.
When he reached the bar, the sight before him stopped him cold. A group of naked men and women were tangled together in carnal abandon. Expensive liquor bottles lay scattered and overturned across the floor. Under the neon lights, it was a spectacle of pure decadence.
It appeared that these men and women had come together by chance, mere strangers. But under these circumstances, who cared about that?
Sure enough, among the writhing bodies, Marcus spotted a familiar figure and cried out:
"JOJO?"