Chapter 1 (2/2)

Gawain had no clue on what happened, but after the ignition of the first fire, he felt everything “speed up”. Or rather, his perception of the passage of time became muddled as the events on the land bloomed rapidly, as though he was watching a video that was being fast-forwarded a zillion times. He witnessed the humanoids swiftly building their first primitive clans, which then transformed into an early form of a city-state. He observed as the humanoid race mastered incredible powers and used what seemed like magic to expand their territory. Yet, before he could see what was happening clearly, these early kingdoms fell into ruins one after the other, and the surviving humanoids rapidly built new cities on the foundations of their ancestors…

The humans began to contend for living space with the other races on the land. Various kingdoms and beliefs came and went quickly as they warred with one another while crying out the names of their gods.

The process accelerated, and Gawain gradually began to be unable to process the sea of information that was bombarding him. He saw dragon-like creatures burst into his field of vision suddenly, but did not know if these “dragons” evolved from land or water.

He saw armies with their swords held high and the flames of war that almost destroyed the entire continent, but new civilizations were reborn in just the blink of an eye.

It was only after another lengthy period of time before he realized that the world had never sped up, but that he had “jumped over” a tremendous amount of information.

His “observations” became intermittent glimpses, changing from constant surveillance to glancing down every few years or even decades. When he connected these disparate images together, it gave him the impression of the world accelerating.

He had not realized this before because his thoughts were silent when he had taken a break from his observations.

Now that he restarted his surveillance, his thoughts began to flow seamlessly again.

Thus, he could not have noticed anything wrong with himself.

Impact incoming.

These words flashed across Gawain’s mind like lightning, but the idea of this thought probably took a few centuries to hit him.

He could see the transformation of the land below clearly. At the same time when these words appeared in his mind, another kingdom had fallen from the heights of prosperity to utter ruin again.

Gawain had no idea about what was going on, but he knew this situation was definitely not normal. From the images that only appeared before him every few years and then rapidly swept past his vision, he realized that his thoughts were on the verge of disappearing.

His thoughts barely took up one second for every century that had passed.

The “breaks” in his thoughts were lengthening too.

He noticed that the changes on the land were happening in an unimaginably queer way, and the rapidly evolving “slides” he skimmed over were now almost indecipherable.

At the rate this was going, or maybe after a certain moment had passed, the consciousness named “Gawain” might disintegrate in this strange place completely, and he would slumber in that moment forever, with no chance of revival.

It had been ages since Gawain felt a sense of urgency. He began to think rigorously for a solution to break free from this situation. If he had a brain, his thoughts would be crazily overwhelming it, as countless thoughts spewed out. However, the rapidly changing “slideshow” on the land showed him that his mind had slowed down to one frame per one thousand years.

Of course, putting it this way seemed like an exaggeration, but his actual situation was not any better than before.

Break free from this situation. Break free from this. Break free. Break free….

No matter the means or method, he had to break out of this, even if he had to return to that crashing plane. He could not let himself die in such a strange place in such an inexplicable way!

Gawain felt his thoughts becoming muddled and his mind becoming foggy. His once “seamless” train of thoughts were now breaking up. He thought with all his might angrily, but as a transmigrated being who only had a fixed bird’s eye view, his levels of fury had no impact on his situation.

However, just as he felt as though his thoughts were going to either disintegrate or be silenced into static forever, a voice intoned from an unknown place.

“Power source damaged. Mainframe restart failed.

Initiating escape sequence.”

In the next moment, his fixed perspective disappeared—darkness now engulfed Gawain’s vision.

But his train of thoughts did not stop.

It was the first time in an eternity that he was still able to think when he “closed his eyes”.

He did not know how long he had remained in the darkness. He felt as though he was rolling as he tumbled down into a cold and narrow space. Strange feelings had returned to his limbs, making his mind confused. And in his state of confusion, he vaguely registered a young woman’s faint voice that sounded rather flustered.

“Don’t… Don’t kill me yet! Your ancestor rattling in his coffin is a more pressing matter! The lid is about to blow!”

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