Chapter 328 - 12: Treasure

3911.

Jiang Ran stared at the four digits.

Based on his understanding, if Pompey had written these four digits on his suicide note, it had to be something of immense importance.

Considering Pompey’s life’s work was this Virtual World, the number 3911... had to be related to the project and the world itself.

Connecting the dots between Pompey’s depression, his eventual suicide by gunshot, and this suicide note filled with regret and despair, it wasn’t hard to piece together the whole story—

As the creator of the Virtual World, Pompey might have keenly sensed years ago that this world was caught in an endless loop, repeating every 39 minutes and 11 seconds.

It could have been a hardware failure or a software bug. In any case, this phenomenon caused the Virtual Digital World to crash and reboot, crash and reboot, crash and reboot... Time was simply stuck, unable to move forward.

’This analysis is logical, but there are a few points that don’t hold up under scrutiny.’

Jiang Ran rested his chin on his hand, organizing the contradictions in his mind—

1. According to Pompey’s plan, the Virtual Digital World was supposed to run for 30,000 years. On the uninhabitable Earth outside, massive robotic factories were still maintaining and producing equipment.

Even if it couldn’t reach that theoretical 30,000-year mark, it definitely wouldn’t collapse after just a few decades.

After all, this was the ultimate winner who had defeated all other geniuses and won the game!

How could such a brilliant and powerful person make such a rudimentary mistake?

Not to mention, Pompey had prepared for this project for so long and so thoroughly. He even possessed Lilith and the power to destroy the world... Given all that, if he ended up creating a Virtual World that would crash after only a few decades, it would be an absolute joke.

Therefore, his earlier speculation was flawed at its very foundation.

2. If this infinite reset every 39 minutes and 11 seconds had already started several years ago, then the current date couldn’t possibly be September 17, 2045.

Just as Jiang Ran, who had experienced several loops, could never see the 10:40 sun...

If this glitch had appeared years ago, the current point in time would still be stuck back then. It couldn’t have possibly continued onward.

To be conservative, let’s assume Pompey fell into depression five years ago, in 2040.

He would have remained depressed within the constantly resetting, infinite loop. Time would be perpetually stuck in 2040, with absolutely no way of extending to the present day in 2045.

By the same logic, the young waitress who poured him juice could never have grown to be 16. She would have been stuck at age 11, resetting, resetting, resetting... She would have been 11 for her entire life, never getting to eat her 12th birthday cake.

But the fact was, even after Pompey’s suicide, this Virtual World continued to run stably for another three years, and the juice girl grew to the age of 16 without a hitch.

This proved that before today, the Virtual World’s servers had never experienced any glitches whatsoever.

And that was the paradox.

If there had never been any glitches,

If there had never been a single reset before,

Then why would Pompey fall into depression and kill himself?

’What’s even harder to explain is, how did he even get the number 3911?’

Jiang Ran shook his head.

He couldn’t figure it out. But a fact was a fact; there had to be some other hidden reason for Pompey’s suicide.

Perhaps he had somehow "calculated" the number 3911, seeing the Virtual World’s future in advance. That might be why he called it [the end of everything].

But this was the grand project the man had poured his entire life into. Before this day arrived, he would have had several years to work on, repair, and change this glitch.

Wasn’t committing suicide and giving up three years ago a bit too soon?

Such an act didn’t fit the profile of a genius.

Jiang Ran looked at the man beside him, who was mourning solemnly. The man happened to be wearing a digital watch.

He reached out, grabbed the man’s wrist, and turned it toward himself.

"Hey, what are you doing?" the man asked, confused.

Just then, the time on the watch face ticked over...

It changed from 10:39:10 to 10:39:11.

The anomaly occurred right on cue.

"What-what-what-what-what-what-what-what-what-what-what are you doing!"

The man began to convulse, his shoulders shrugging and twitching violently, like a lagging character in an online game as he continued to strike at Jiang Ran.

The sky suddenly turned black, then yellow, then red. The sun smeared into a long streak, like a trailing tear of blood.

Pompey’s bronze statue flickered nonstop, its rough color blocks jumping up and down. In an instant, it toppled over, its head glitching into the floor’s texture, disappearing and reappearing, disappearing and reappearing.

Jiang Ran turned his head.

A nose was pressed against his own, eyes staring into his own. He had just opened his mouth when the world plunged into darkness.

He couldn’t see or hear anything. An endless black screen, endless darkness. This was undoubtedly another reboot of the Virtual World.

「A few seconds later.」

The sky was clear and the sun was high. The aroma from the cake shop across the street wafted over as the young waitress approached from behind with a glass of orange juice.

"Sir, would you like to try our new orange juice?"

The girl looked at Jiang Ran as if seeing him for the first time and smiled slightly.

"It’s free, you know!"

Jiang Ran touched his stomach.

It was flat.

He was back to being famished.

But at this point, probably not even a glutton like Wang Hao would take advantage of the free orange juice anymore.

"Thanks, maybe next time,"

Jiang Ran gave her a wave and ran toward a shared hoverbike on the side of the road.