Chapter 4 2. The protagonist explains the relevant settings of the event

I became aware of my "physique" when I was in the first and second grades of elementary school.Having said that, it doesn't mean that I started to have this special physique since then.I guess, this should be innate!Although the memory is a little fuzzy, I am afraid that similar things have happened since childhood when I had no self-awareness, but I didn't notice it at the time. My name is Kutaro Oba.However, almost no one ever calls me Kyutaro.The vast majority of people call me "Q Taro", and my surname is "Oba", so I am often nicknamed it. It is a name that only middle-aged and elderly people feel nostalgic for.In the Showa 40s, Q Taro was the protagonist of national comics that were popular in Japan at that time, but it was a completely unfamiliar name to our younger generation.Anyway, I don't want people to make fun of someone else's name.

I am sixteen years old, a senior high school student, and I am studying in a complete middle school in Angui City——Private Haisheng Academy.As long as I wear the uniform of Haisheng Academy, one of the few preparatory schools in the city, on the street, most of the adults passing by will pay attention to me.Although I wanted to go to a public high school in the city, under the order of my mother in the name of "hope", I took the entrance examination for the high school of Haisheng Academy, and then I was successfully listed.Hearing this, everyone will always say to me in unison, "Your brain is so good!" and feel sincere admiration.To be honest, my mind is not as good as others imagined, on the contrary, it is quite bad.This can be proved from the fact that my grades in the school year are always in the bottom of the list.

Due to the ease of being admitted to a prestigious school, and the inexplicable rebellious psychology, under the involuntary laziness, the school grades naturally plummeted, and such things have been heard from time to time.However, my situation was different, I was not in the right mind from the beginning.So why can I be admitted to a high school?This is actually due to the "physical constitution" mentioned above. There is a saying that people will blurt out when they see me, that is - "You look older than your actual age".If someone meets me and chats with me for a few words, it will feel like talking to an old man sitting on the promenade basking in the sun and drinking rough tea, and he can't help but want to chew dried yellow radish for tea.However, even I have to admit that this comment is really pertinent.Because physically, although I am only sixteen years old, I am probably thirty years old mentally... no, even older.I must first solemnly declare that this is not an exaggeration, but this figure can be accurately calculated.

The occasion that made me notice my "physique" was when I was eating as a child.When I was young, I was an elementary school student who could live on pure appetite.However, since the color of the tea was the same every day, I couldn't help but wonder, and unconsciously muttered: "Why is it fried eggs and potato salad again!" But my mother scolded me: "What are you talking about? Didn't you eat a hamburger yesterday?" At the time, as far as I could remember, the burger had been eaten days before.Although I found it strange, my stomach was so hungry that I ate nothing in the end.The next day, the tea on the dining table was fried eggs and potato salad again. "Why is this again!" Accidentally, the complaint blurted out again, so my mother glared at me and said, "What are you talking about? I ate hamburgers yesterday!"

Even elementary school students who can live well without worrying about other things just relying on pure appetite will eventually notice something suspicious, not just about the dishes.The conversation between my parents and my brothers at the dinner table was exactly the same as what I had said the day before yesterday.For example, "foreigners are not picky eaters, it doesn't matter whether they eat whale or tuna" and so on.Because it was a topic related to eating, I listened to it unconsciously. "Foreigners are not picky eaters. It doesn't matter whether they eat whale or tuna." They repeated the same conversation as the day before yesterday, word for word.

When I became aware of it, I found that this situation did not only occur at home, even at school, teachers and classmates would repeat the same conversations and actions as the day before yesterday. "Listen carefully, everyone!" The female teacher with black-rimmed glasses and a Chinese-character face stared wide-eyed at the students and said, "You must never approach the shrine on the mountain behind the school! Do you know?" "Teacher, why?" In the elementary school I was studying at that time, Oda, who was competing with me for the number one idiot in the class, asked a question. "Could a ghost come out?"

"Don't say things that have no scientific basis!" "No scientific basis? What does that mean?" "What an idiot! Listen clearly, the things in the Houshan Shrine are scarier than ghosts, even scarier." "Is that a monster?" "Student Oda, there are no monsters in this world! You can't keep watching strange cartoons! The ones in the shrine are people, human beings. There is a very bad, very bad strange uncle who will hang around there, and when he sees a cute A little boy or a little girl will do something that should not be done. So it is very, very dangerous, very, very scary. Does everyone know this? You must never go to the shrine in the back mountain, otherwise terrible things will happen Yo."

"Something you shouldn't do? What is it?" "This, this is, that... that is to say, that, right! Before... There was a girl from a certain school who was playing at the shrine, but she was arrested by that uncle. It was very scary, very scary! And it was very pitiful He was forced to take off his underwear!" "Teacher, why did that uncle take off her panties?" "Then, that uncle also took off his underwear. Speaking of which, everyone should know what happened afterwards!" "Are you going to swap panties?" In order to avoid misunderstandings, let me clarify that Mr. Oda didn't mean to play tricks on the teacher, but asked because he really didn't understand.However, in fact, what the teacher wanted to express by beating around the bush was less than half of what the precocious students could understand in the elementary school class at that time. Even I mistook it for exchanging underwear.In retrospect, it wasn't really that big of a deal, it was just a bit off topic.The first class that morning ended with this conversation.However, such a conversation was repeated in full the next day.

"Listen carefully, everyone!" Like a ferocious beast vying for the same prey as "yesterday", the teacher's blood was pumping, and he said with a serious expression: "You must never approach the shrine on the mountain behind the school! Do you know?" "Teacher, why?" Oda's blank tone was exactly the same as "yesterday". "Could a ghost come out?" "Don't say things that have no scientific basis!" "No scientific basis? What does that mean?" "What an idiot! Listen clearly, the things in the Houshan Shrine are scarier than ghosts, even scarier."

"Is that a monster?" "Student Oda, there are no monsters in this world! You can't keep watching strange cartoons! The ones in the shrine are people, human beings. There is a very bad, very bad strange uncle who will hang around there, and when he sees a cute A little boy or a little girl will do something that should not be done. So it is very, very dangerous, very, very scary. Does everyone know this? You must never go to the shrine in the back mountain, otherwise terrible things will happen Yo." "Something you shouldn't do? What is it?" "This, this is, that... that is to say, that, right! Before... There was a girl from a certain school who was playing at the shrine, but she was arrested by that uncle. It was very scary, very scary! And it was very pitiful He was forced to take off his underwear!"

"Teacher, why did that uncle take off her panties?" "Then, that uncle also took off his underwear. Speaking of which, all the students should know what happened afterwards." "Are you going to swap panties?" In this way, in the first class the next morning, the same conversation must be repeated.It started with the teacher saying that he was not allowed to go to the Houshan Shrine, and ended with Oda-san talking about exchanging underwear.Besides, it's not just the panty-swapping dialogue that's repeated.From breakfast dishes, dodgeball wins and losses during recess, who cried who after an argument, who stepped on dog poop on the way home from school, to dinner menus and TV shows, and more.Everything that happened from the day before yesterday was repeated almost exactly. Suddenly, this repetition ends and the real next day finally arrives.And on the real next day, there will naturally be no fried eggs and potato salad on the table, and the dialogue during the meal is not an outrageous complaint about whether foreigners eat whales or tuna.And Oda's idiot-like speech of "swapping underwear" really became what happened "yesterday" and became a topic of discussion among the students in the class. After such an explanation, you should be able to understand a little bit about my physique!In other words, for me, what happened in the same day is always repeated several times.But I seemed to be the only one who knew about this matter, and the people around me didn't notice it at all. They just repeated the same words and deeds as the day before yesterday, just like puppets equipped with precision instruments.To me it was repeated many times; to others, however, it was just a normal day, just a normal day.What's more, they are completely unaware that they are like a video tape being played continuously.These things are only perceived by me--that's the whole thing. I privately refer to this phenomenon as a "space-time black hole".In other words, after falling into the black hole, if you fail to get out of the hole, the same day will continue to repeat.For example, if there is an accident of being stabbed by a flying needle, the injury process will continue to repeat itself. A "black hole" will suddenly appear on a certain day.As far as my current experience is concerned, there seems to be no rule at all when it will fall into a black hole.If it is frequent, there will be more than a dozen times a month, and at least once every two months. However, there are clear rules for the size of a black hole and the duration of falling into it.The area of ​​the black hole is from midnight on the day of falling to twelve midnight on the next day, which is a full twenty-four hours, and the period of falling is nine days.Counting nine days is just my subjective idea. In fact, the elapsed time is only about one day.Therefore, strictly speaking, "nine times" should be more accurate.If we call the period of falling into the black hole "yesterday" or "the next day", it will confuse the real "yesterday" with the next day, so we still use the first round and the second round to describe and compare it is good. There is no doubt that when falling into the black hole of time and space, basically, except for me, everyone else will repeat the same words and deeds no matter whether it is the first round or the second round.Therefore, under this premise, you can deliberately make the words and deeds of the first round and the second round completely different.If you want to say who is going to deliberately change, in theory, it can only be me. Although this is nonsense, once the real world falls into the black hole of time and space, I am the only one who can act differently from the "previous round" according to my own will.This is because only I am aware of the repetition phenomenon.As long as I do something different or say something different to someone in the first round, or in the second round, of course the other party has to change.For example, if I didn't say "It's fried eggs and potato salad again", my mother wouldn't refute it for no reason, "I ate hamburgers yesterday"! This is what is special about my "body constitution". What should have happened in the first place will be changed because of my deliberate intervention. I discovered the virtues of this physique while my dad and brothers were watching the nightly baseball broadcast on TV. It was a regular game between the Giants and the Hanshin Team. As a result, the Giants won the game, but the process of the game was quite strange.The game was supposed to be a pitching battle, but for some reason, the Giants hit batters first through ninth in the fifth inning, hitting nine home runs in a row, leaving them far behind. Open opponents, resulting in an unprecedented astonishing record.Dad, who is a Giants fan, was dancing for joy; but Shi Shifu, the anti-Giant team, fell to the ground, beating his chest in disbelief; Fujitaka, a fan, looked like he had nothing to do with himself , just plucking his nose hair, yawning again and again.In short, the house was very noisy that night. I didn't particularly support any team. After watching the game, I scratched my head and farted. I thought it was a normal night and fell asleep as usual.However, when I opened my eyes again, I found that the day that caused the commotion had fallen into a black hole in time and space. Same as the "previous round", the broadcast of the game started.The excited father had beer and edamame in front of him; Shi Shifu, who was only a high school student, secretly drank beer; Fujitaka, who picked his ears with an ear pick.In short, everyone was excitedly gathered in front of the TV, but I seemed to be lacking in interest.Isn't that so?The result was already known, and the Giants won a landslide 9-0, with nine consecutive homers hitting the icing on the cake. "The Giants will win anyway—" I slipped out.Hearing what I said, Dad was very happy to hear it, but it angered brother Shi Shifu. "What nonsense are you talking about! The game hasn't even started yet, so how do you know who won or lost!" The result of the game was really nine to zero.Everyone's reaction was almost exactly the same as the "previous round".Brother Fujigao didn't pluck his nose hairs, he only yawned again and again.Perhaps because of my interruption, the reality has changed a bit. When it came to the "next round", the idea of ​​a prank suddenly appeared in my heart. "Hey, hello, everyone!" I said to my dad and brothers who were watching the baseball broadcast, "Do you have a hunch that something might change in the fifth inning?" "What are you talking about? Is it a prophecy imitating? "Everyone looked at me one after another.But the final result is as mentioned above. My father and brothers did not feel sincere admiration for me, and unconsciously, my position became neutral.On the "next round," I simply spelled out a prediction of how many home runs the Giants would hit in the fifth inning.As a result, the Giants hitters literally hit nine home runs in a row.Dad danced happily; brother Shishifu stared at me suspiciously; brother Fujitaka was so surprised that he didn't pluck his nose hair, and didn't even yawn. Overwhelmed with complacency, I used magic again in the "next round" and made a prophecy that "the Giants hit all home runs from one to nine."My father and my brothers laughed at me at first, but after seeing the result, they all fell silent.On the contrary, my father was very unhappy, and my brothers also stared at me as if they saw a freak.Because it was a little scary, I shrank all the farts I should have let out. It's a bit over the top.After a while of self-reflection, I quietly watched the battle in the sixth, seventh, and eighth rounds. It wasn't until the "last round" that I made a bet with my dad: "If the Giants win, give me pocket money." Brother Shi Shifu, who felt that the bet was too small, couldn't help saying proudly: "Idiot! If the Giants win a complete victory, I will give you all the comics in my collection." As a result, the pocket money that fell from the sky, as well as the comics collected by Shi Shifu's brother, all fell into my hands.If you bet in the third or fifth round, you will definitely start all over again in the end, returning to the original point.The pocket money and comics I got by accident will naturally disappear from my hands.However, just because the ninth round is the "last round", it will become the "decisive version" of the baseball broadcast event. That's pretty much the whole thing.As mentioned earlier, the space-time black hole will repeat what happened on a certain day nine times, and the first round is the original version.Then came the second round, the third round, the fourth round, the fifth round, the sixth round, the seventh round, the eighth round, and finally, the ninth round as the end.From the second round to the eighth round, no matter what you do, you will return to the original point, but what happened in the last round, which is the ninth round, is the original "what happened that day" to the people around me. What Happened"—for me, it's the final "definitive version".Of course, if my words and deeds intervene, there will be a significant difference between the results of the last round and the first round.By the same token, if I wanted to, I could have made the last round, which was the final version of that day, exactly the same as the first round.In other words, I can change the original established facts with my own will. Readers should have already guessed the reason why I was able to enter Haisheng Academy with a high deviation value.That's right!There is nothing better than school exams that can maximize the benefits of black holes.On the day of the entrance exam, I accidentally entered the black hole. As long as I passed the exam once, all the questions will be clear. When the next round comes, I just need to remember the correct answer.What's more, until the last round, you can review it a total of eight times.In this way, how could you not get a high score? At the beginning, if I knew enough is enough, I would be fine, but I got full marks.The reason is that I don't know how many points I need to get to meet the standard of human studies, so this is considered a security strategy... Of course, it is also affected by vanity to some extent, but I didn't expect this to cause a big commotion.The difficulty of the Human Studies Examination of Haisheng Academy is one of the highest among schools in the country. For Haisheng Academy, it is unprecedented for the students to get full marks since its founding. It will cause a great commotion. However, the phenomenon of the so-called space-time black hole is only my "physique", not "ability".If it is ability, I can enter the black hole as I like.In this way, he can also get the title of genius at will.But because this is just a pure "constitution", it is impossible to predict when the black hole will be generated.Undoubtedly, I couldn't go into the black hole with the timing of the regular exams. Even if I was lucky occasionally, the exam day was repeated several times, but the exam schedule was always divided into several days, and at most I could only use one of them. My status in the school, from an unprecedented genius, was reduced to a hopeless idiot in a blink of an eye.Because the results of the entrance examination were surprisingly different from my usual results afterwards, it also caused public opinion that there may be fraud in the entrance examination of Haisheng Academy, which aroused the public's intense concern. "Could it be that someone leaked the entrance exam questions?" The school is also carrying out specific actions to find the suspect among the teaching staff. When I think about it, I feel that I have done something wrong. Not just entrance exams.As early as when I was in elementary school and junior high school, my grades had been polarized—either I was outstanding, or I was so bad that I was blindfolded.The former is of course due to the use of black holes.Therefore, in my family contact book, there are always comments such as "the ability is more than enough, but the concentration is very insufficient". The benefits of black holes aren't just for school exams.As mentioned earlier, if it is between the first round and the last round, that is, the period from the second round to the eighth round, no matter how I intervene, I will eventually return to the original point.To make an analogy, it's like pressing the reset button of a video game. No matter what you do, you will start all over again indefinitely.For example, suppose there is a female classmate who feels good, as long as you chat with her several times in a row, whether it is about giving birth to family members, interests, or even her first love, etc., you can ask as much as you can within eight rounds .Afterwards, in the last round, in the name of divination for her, all the previously learned information can be used.Most girls like divination, so she will be greatly surprised if I hit her information one after another.Although these things came from her mouth openly in advance, but because of the "reset", the other party naturally didn't remember these things. In middle school, when I was particularly concerned about the opposite sex, I used this kind of almost fraudulent divination to attract the attention of girls.However, after attracting attention, there was no more content, which made my heart feel more and more empty.Although it is a good way to attract the other party's attention through divination or riddles, the enthusiasm of the girls for me cannot be sustained.I don't mean to blame the girls.Between men and women, even if there is a rare opportunity at the beginning, the woman still has a strong interest in the man, but if the man's connotation is not enough, the woman's enthusiasm will cool down sooner or later. The same is true for exams.If the test date happens to fall into the black hole, I can get a good grade.But after all, it was not obtained by strength, but by using improper means, just like fraud.Therefore, even if I get full marks, there is no sense of accomplishment.I gradually started to care about it.At first, I just wanted to use my "physique" for fun, but my heart gradually became empty. Although my heart has become empty, I still do not hesitate to use my "physique" as long as the situation forces me to, whether it is a school exam or trying to win the favor of a girl.The entrance exam of Haisheng Academy is the best example.I know very well that if I fail to pass the exam smoothly, my mother will not look good on me in the future.So when I found out that I happened to fall into a black hole on the day of the human studies exam, I was really excited and overjoyed. The reason why I often get comments like "you look much older than your actual age" or "young and mature" is probably caused by this physique.I always put on a broken look, holding a negative and optimistic attitude, and no matter what I achieve, there will be no excitement on my face.Having said that, it's also troubling that I don't have the ambition to challenge myself without black holes. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, in terms of the frequency of falling into a space-time black hole, there will be at most ten times a month.Although I haven't done precise calculations, on average, there are three or four times a month.Every time you fall into the black hole, even if the "decision version" is removed, there are still eight rounds.In other words, subjectively, I lived eight days longer than others.Calculated in this way, every month I live one month longer than others. Roughly calculated, it is twice the objective physical age.After such an explanation, readers should be able to fully understand that even if I claim that my mental age is over thirty years old, you will not think it is an exaggeration. If I can't take advantage of the advantages of black holes for fun, my life will only be miserable, and this is the annoying thing about black holes.There is no doubt about it, you can try to spend eight of the same days over and over again and you are guaranteed to get bored.It doesn't matter whether the repetitive things make people happy or not, the repetitive life itself is a painful thing.After Hua fell into the black hole of time and space, if her life was the same as that of the first round, she would definitely feel boring. Therefore, in the second round, she would want to do something different.However, if the third round is the same as the second round, it will feel empty and boring, and you will want to mess around.For the same reason, it is the same in the fourth round.After that, I gradually felt empty in my heart. In the end, I simply let the result of the last round be exactly the same as the first round, making it the final "decision version".Every time I can't figure out what I'm doing, I always feel that everything I do is in vain, and the emptiness in my heart is growing day by day. Probably because of this reason, people always think that I am old-fashioned.If I hadn't been forced to fall into a space-time black hole, I'd like to live a retirement-like life of seclusion, like picking fleas for cats on the porch, and living a leisurely life of napping all day long. However, I am only a freshman in high school, and the world will not allow me to retire and live in seclusion.Although I don't know what to do with my physique, I can only keep an optimistic attitude and continue to move forward on the road of life. Another advantage that black holes can use is that they can avoid various accidents.Of course, the premise is that the accident happened to fall into the black hole on the day of the accident.When I was in elementary school, there was a discussion in my class about someone stepping on dog poop on the way home from school.The sufferer who stepped on shit was none other than me.When I began to wonder "why do I step on the same place every day", I also noticed that the dishes on the table and the conversations between family members were always repeated over and over again.It's just that I couldn't fully grasp the laws of black holes when I was young. For example, I didn't know how many rounds to repeat before the real day would come the next day, or I didn't know that the last round was the "decision version". Therefore , the bitter fruit I tasted at the time was that my new sneakers were always stained with a khaki color that couldn't be washed off. Although I didn't know how to prevent myself from stepping on dog shit at the time, but now I have a very thorough grasp of the laws of black holes.Even if I unfortunately encounter a major accident, as long as I happen to fall into the black hole that day, I can definitely change my destiny and be saved.For example, if I have a major car accident where I get hit by a truck, just by keeping myself out of the way of the crash from the second round onwards, I can avoid that crash if I keep doing that until the last round.This method is not limited to being used on oneself, it can also be used to save others. However, so far, the opportunity to make full use of the advantages of black holes has not come.Since the shit incident in elementary school, no matter whether it is myself or the people around me, I have never encountered any unexpected accidents.Apparently, I had no luck witnessing the accident. In this world, of course, various accidents or man-made crimes occur every day.Even if you don't witness it directly, you will know the news from the newspapers.Therefore, if the tragic accident happened to be published in the newspaper on the day I fell into the black hole, then a sense of mission would arise in my heart, thinking that it was God's will that gave me this "physical constitution".For the sake of this world and mankind, I am willing to contribute my own strength and do something useful. But it didn't take long to realize that I had overestimated my abilities.Taking traffic accidents as an example, if only one car accident is published in the newspaper, it is still within the acceptable range. What if several articles are published?The first problem encountered is to decide which car accident to deal with first.Even without regard to time, it is physically impossible to prevent accidents in different places at the same time.I can only decide which one to deal with first. In other words, most of the time I have to give up dealing with more than two car accidents. Having said that, I also once thought that it would be better to save one than to stand by.But the question is, how do you decide who to teach?At the beginning, I thought that the death accident should be the first priority, but then I thought again, wouldn't it be more tragic if that person didn't die but became a vegetative state?Once such confusion arises, the principle of saving lives will change again.Moreover, it is not only traffic accidents that are reported in the news.What should I do if there is an accident on the seaside or on the mountain, burnt to death in a train, gas explosion, typhoon, earthquake, etc.?Let alone a murder.Since there will be disasters beyond my ability, doesn't that also mean that I have to presuppose the priority of various situations from the beginning? After a series of thoughts, the boredom in my heart made me decide to give up my original idea of ​​saving the world, and I also realized that my own abilities are ultimately limited.So I made up my mind to only apply the advantages of the space-time black hole to myself or a third party around me, or to the events I witnessed with my own eyes.In this way, the advantages of the black hole that can be fully utilized originally become unable to be fully utilized in the end, and can only be used by me selfishly.When I fell into the black hole of time and space and saw the reports in the newspapers, even though I felt a little subtle, I didn't feel guilty about "I could have rescued me, but I just stood on the sidelines". "What should happen will happen eventually.", "Anyway, no one will understand the mystery." This kind of thinking made me a believer in fatalism and unknown theory, and it also made my personality more mature. After repeated reflections, I finally came to the conclusion that human beings' self-interested nature is the key to their own survival.Perhaps this kind of statement sounds like rationalizing one's own behavior, but isn't this also a matter of course?Rationalizing your own behavior can just reinforce the conclusion that you just lived for selfishness.Therefore, although I regret everything, I have to change my original salvation mentality and declare that I can only save myself.Even if I were to expand the scope of salvation, at most it would only involve family members or close friends.Even so, in essence, the cruel fact of "self prior to anyone" has not changed in the end. As mentioned, I don't know if I'm lucky or not, but I don't have the chance to witness accidental or man-made events.In other words, in the past sixteen years, I have never encountered any accidents, and neither have my relatives and friends.So far, I have not used space-time black holes effectively.If I insist on telling a case, it has only been used in the high school humanities exam.In the long run, however, exploiting black holes may actually be harmful. Or it should be said that thinking about how to effectively use one's troublesome "constitution" is a kind of mistake in itself.What should be called "ability".Or "Physical"?To be honest, I think "disease" would be a more appropriate description.That is to say, I have to suffer from this "symptom" all my life.Thinking about how to use black holes effectively is like having a cold and starting to think about whether you can't eat French food. There is no reasonable logic to follow.I think that the use of space-time black holes will only increase troubles, and I have always felt that this idea is reasonable.Until the New Year's period of the year after high school... —— Notes: --