No one expected that when first meeting Dehya, they thought she was a brawler type—yet the two key advances came entirely from her pushing them forward. She was actually the thinker type!
In any case, with Dehya's efforts, the possibilities of 'time loop' and 'memory deletion' were ruled out. Though Lumine hadn't used much brainpower herself, the events began progressing.
Lumine's talent skill might just be finding external brains—with the help of an 'external brain,' she also started suspecting that she wasn't even in reality to begin with.
If not in reality, then everything made sense—Dehya's injuries and the resetting of various supplies could all be explained.
Most importantly, it finally clarified why, even after removing the Akasha, they could still hear that "beep—".
Good thing they didn't boldly go to the bathroom like Nahida suggested—otherwise Lumine would have wet the bed.
Now the rare thing was that all sources of information were cut off, but fortunately the Traveler had a new idea.
[The Traveler: "We… why have we never considered leaving the city?"]
As soon as these words came out, the readers had an epiphany—yeah? Why?
The Traveler might have had her thinking locked by the Akasha, this 'Sophon'—but how did even we overlook this? What was outside the city like?
With the Traveler's initiative, she naturally acted on thoughts—but before acting, the Traveler planned to discuss it with Nahida first.
Nahida was very important. Everyone currently was in the 'false' part of the loop—she could be said to be the only real one, or rather, she was a bug.
'Outside the program,' uncontrollable, hard to detect—wasn't that exactly a bug?
Of course, theoretically, Nahida wasn't a BUG—she was the administrator, just currently hacked.
Nahida told the Traveler that the Traveler had actually had the idea to leave the city before and had even acted on it.
But the result… the Traveler directly didn't return at night, only found by Nahida the next day—and with no memories of outside the city, fundamentally unaware of what was there.
[Nahida: "You've also had many nights of 'not returning home,' so at the time I didn't think this proved anything."]
Spread the word—Lumine often not returning home at night made mom very worried.
Not just Nahida was worried—the readers were too. This really made everyone both curious and afraid—what mysterious, unfathomable place was outside the city? Would touching it cause disappearance?
Nahida restored all the Traveler's memories, yet solely lacked the memories from outside the city? This was too eerie, right?
Could it be that the Traveler who left the city directly vanished, and the one who returned was actually someone else?
Or perhaps there were several Travelers outside the city? They were linked to each other—leaving the city would enter another 'cycle'?
If so, it would make sense that the returning Traveler had no memories from after leaving.
The readers let their imaginations run wild, never considering the possibility that Nahida was a 'save point.'
After the Traveler left the city, she directly disappeared—without time to return and save, the next day when the save was cleared, crying and fussing wouldn't help; she could only re-explore.
Repeating this way, who knows how many 'accounts' had been 'banned.'
The readers didn't know—they now just felt it was a bit terrifying, starting to scare themselves.
Some timid readers were already hesitating whether to continue—without sheer curiosity, they wouldn't want to keep reading.
Lucian had written some ghost stories before, but they couldn't compare to the fear brought by psychological horror.
Now immersed in this story, the readers worried about falling asleep and getting trapped in a loop.
In the end, curiosity triumphed over fear. They worried about looping if asleep—but without understanding the reason, they couldn't sleep at all!
This was clearly little Furina's inner monologue. Frightened, she shrank in bed, wrapped tightly in blankets, only her head peeking out to read—like the readers right now.
Beside her pillow was a dedicated communicator for Lucian, ready to call for reinforcements at any time.
Little Furina was just reading the part where on the 'next day' the Traveler's memories were awakened by Nahida—this time, the Traveler was going outside the city.
[Paimon: "…Memories are back!"]
Memories are back! Not many, but useful—I am now the complete Paimon! Memories, I have returned!
The now-complete Paimon clearly knew more than Lumine, because Lumine had no memories from after leaving the city.
In the story, Lumine suggested going to the city gate—she wanted to leave and investigate, but Paimon and Nahida knew they had actually gone out once before.
This time the Traveler had properly 'saved'—Nahida informed the Traveler of the save data; it was something that happened 'yesterday.'
[The Traveler's memory: "…Can't turn back… there are numerous 'spaces' there, the 'Sabbath of the King of Flowers in Sumeru City' is just one of them…"]
In the illustration, Lumine's eyes widened in shock—this is my own voice? But what is this memory? So unfamiliar…
Time rewound to 'two days ago'—this was the true 'next day' after the Traveler decided to explore outside the city.
Near the city gate, it wasn't just the Traveler wanting to leave—many merchants also wanted to exit, but all were stopped by the guards.
[Merchant: "I'm really in a hurry—the shipment at Port Ormos has arrived. If I don't hurry over, won't it just wait to be stolen…"]
Unfortunately, the guard said: I know you're in a hurry, but don't be for now.
All that could be said was that this merchant was truly pitiful—people used for mining, goods lost too—he hit rock bottom all at once.
[Guard: "That's your own problem. Next time you have similar needs, register and report in advance."]
Though pitiful, the Akademiya wouldn't care about others—the guard paid no mind to the merchant's sob story.
As for the reason for not allowing exit—the guard didn't know either; he was just a small fry, naturally not privy to the Akademiya's plans.
No intelligence could be gathered here—the Traveler and Paimon hid in the shadows, planning to climb the wall and 'go online.'
[Paimon said: "If we can't ask the purpose, then let's be direct—find a spot to climb over the wall. Those guards don't have a thousand hands or a hundred eyes anyway."]
Raiden Ei: ? Feels like you're insinuating something!
The Traveler agreed to climbing the wall, but only one person needed to go out.
[The Traveler: "Paimon, you stay behind."]
This time the Traveler was smart—if both went out and both lost memories, wouldn't leaving one behind be better?
[Paimon aggrieved: "Eh!? Why? Are you going to leave me behind?"]
As soon as these words came out, the readers' hearts ached—aggrieved Paimon was so cute.
That little look in her eyes—like she was about to cry. What to do? Though it hurt, they still wanted to see more… slurp.