Chapter 19: Time Flow Difference

After seeing off the delighted old village chief and his son, Lin Yu couldn’t help but shake his head.

This world really is still wildly fantastical!

Dai Meng clearly possesses the strength to stand against the Demon King’s army, yet he dares not seek recognition through power like him—he must beg for favors just to reclaim his family’s former glory.

According to Lin Yu’s knowledge, this same situation persisted even a thousand years later: the Hero’s party, though immensely powerful, nearly faced execution for disrespecting the king.

Most absurdly, they truly dared not resist, and only escaped through sheer verbal persuasion.

One can only say that class rigidity and servile thinking in this world are still far too severe—it desperately needs an outsider like Chen Sheng or Wu Guang to shout out that famous saying from his past life in Huaxia…

“The road is long and heavy, Fulaimei!”

Lin Yu sighed, then promptly put the matter out of his mind.

…

…

The next day—or rather, the second day in Fllien’s world.

At dawn, Lin Yu finished engraving the Holy Scripture and opened the chat group, refreshed and alert.

He had kept the group closed all night as a small experiment to test his hypothesis.

Sure enough, when the chat interface unfolded in his mind, the group messages still lingered at the point when he had closed it the day before…

Lin Yu’s heart stirred slightly, and he sent a message: “Good morning, everyone!”

The chat group fell silent for a moment, then Su Haoming, the most idle member, replied immediately.

【Su Haoming: Good morning, boss!】

【Su Haoming: Is it already morning there?】

【Su Haoming: If so, wasn’t it just midnight just now?】

【Lin Yu: Just now?】

【Su Haoming: Yeah, didn’t you just log off a moment ago?】

【Su Haoming: By my count, it’s been less than a minute…】

So it’s true…

Lin Yu thought to himself.

Ever since noticing the overall activity level, he had suspected a difference in time flow between worlds.

By convention, the earliest members should have received the chat group’s time simultaneously.

But because Lin Yu’s physical form was too massive, even the chat group needed ten years to complete its bonding with him, meaning he joined a full decade later than the other three original members.

Yet when Lin Yu finally joined, he discovered the other three had only entered three days earlier than him.

Three days versus over three thousand days—that’s a time flow ratio of roughly 1:1000+.

This ratio is absurdly extreme—it’s even visibly apparent!

If true, then when other members spent seconds sending a message, Lin Yu would need thousands of seconds—over an hour—to receive it.

But that wasn’t the case; his conversations with the other three were smooth, with no prolonged delays.

Considering this, Lin Yu had dared not jump to conclusions.

Only now, having confirmed the existence of a time flow difference, did he form a new hypothesis.

After a moment’s thought, he sent another message.

【Lin Yu: Brother Su, I think I’ve discovered something.】

【Lin Yu: Can you help me run an experiment?】

【Su Haoming: Sure!】

Receiving the reply, Lin Yu immediately explained the experiment.

He kept the chat group open, had Su Haoming time him, and after exactly one minute, they compared clocks—perfectly synchronized.

Then Lin Yu had Su Haoming start timing while he himself closed the chat group and silently timed one hour in Fllien’s world.

When he reopened the group an hour later and asked Su Haoming for his result, he found that one hour for him equaled only three seconds for Su Haoming, who had kept the group open.

It’s definitely the chat group’s doing!

This thing, incomprehensible even to Lin Yu, somehow forcibly erased time flow differences between worlds, forcing two people from different realities to communicate at identical speeds.

This touches upon time rules Lin Yu has yet to master!

Lin Yu was profoundly astonished—and his anticipation for the chat group’s possible capabilities grew even greater.

After all, if the chat group can resolve issues involving time, then surely it can solve his own problems too?

【Su Haoming: So boss, what exactly were you experimenting with?】

Seeing this new message, Lin Yu calmed himself, organized his thoughts, and shared his conclusion.

【Su Haoming: Wait, let me process this.】

【Su Haoming: You mean there’s a time flow difference between worlds, which operates normally when we close the chat group—but gets forcibly erased when it’s open?】

【Lin Yu: Exactly.】

【Su Haoming: No wonder you suddenly said ‘good morning’…】

【Su Haoming: But if that’s true, why didn’t we notice it before?】

【Lin Yu: Perhaps because your worlds’ time flows are too similar to be obvious.】

【Su Haoming: Then in that case, the chat group must have a standard time flow as a reference!】

Seeing this, Lin Yu was surprised.

After yesterday’s exchanges, the images of the three members were already formed in his mind.

Su Haoming’s image was that of a typical modern college student: knowledgeable, yet with a naive, unpolished gleam in his eyes.

But he hadn’t expected this guy to think so quickly—he’d immediately grasped this layer.

…Looks like he just lacks life experience, not actual stupidity.

【Lin Yu: I thought the same.】

【Lin Yu: Regarding this, I have two hypotheses.】

Lin Yu: First, the chat group established its internal timeline based on the first member who joined. Second, the chat group itself has a fixed time flow standard—an out-of-the-box setting—which also points to another serious issue: the true origin of the chat group!

【Su Haoming: …】

【Su Haoming: Boss, uh… is this really something we can talk about?】

【Lin Yu: [Grinning]】

【Lin Yu: If trouble comes, I’m the tall one who’ll take the hit—what are you afraid of?】

【Su Haoming: Don’t scare me, boss! I’ve waited so long for this golden finger—I want to use it to get rich!】

【Lin Yu: Alright, I suppose thinking at this level is too much for you.】

【Lin Yu: In any case, I’ll probably need to keep the chat group open constantly to stay synchronized with you.】

【Su Haoming: …I still can’t wrap my head around it—our worlds have a thousandfold time flow difference. May I ask, boss, how old are you exactly?】

【Lin Yu: That’s a good question. I don’t know.】

【Su Haoming: Over four digits?】

Four digits?

Including the time spent wandering in the void, it’s far beyond that!

Of course, though those years were long, to Lin Yu they meant little.

After all, time is merely a measure of change.

Without comparison, no matter how long, time is meaningless.

So, for this question, Lin Yu didn’t know how to answer.

After a moment’s hesitation, he replied with a smiley face.

【Su Haoming: Huh—】

【Su Haoming: No wonder you’re the boss—you’re truly not like us mortals!】

【Lin Yu: …】

【Lin Yu: Don’t say that. I just got lucky and crossed over into this world. You’d be the same if you had my luck.】

The same?

Not at all!

In Tang Gui’s world, Su Haoming’s expression turned complex—he couldn’t imagine what version of himself would emerge after enduring such vast time, but whatever form he took, it would certainly not be the one he was now.

Lin Yu himself always believed his current status came merely from luck—he’d stumbled upon a newborn universe.

But in truth, not everyone could endure near-eternal eons of utter, hopeless void and still retain their human mind.

Frankly speaking, this is no longer a state achievable by ordinary humans!

On this point, none has more authority than the world consciousness of Fllien’s world.

To It, Lin Yu is a primordial divine who sees himself as a “human,” possessing a constant mental state and an obsession so fierce it could swallow the world consciousness whole…

(End of Chapter)