Naming Technique of the Night

Haicheng Pudong International Airport Lounge.

A boy quietly sat on a seat.

He looked straight ahead, holding a scrambled third-order Rubik's Cube in each hand.

With his slender, nimble fingers dancing, the two scrambled cubes were spinning rapidly, pausing every few seconds for a second, then spinning quickly again.

Strangely, the two Rubik's Cubes were never solved.

It was as if a novice was randomly fiddling, unable to play with the Rubik's Cube at all.

The bustling crowd at Haicheng Pudong International Airport, but the boy sitting amidst it, appeared exceptionally quiet and solitary.

The clamorous everything had nothing to do with him.

Not far from the lounge, a group of young people, who were heading to Island Country to participate in a Texas poker tournament, saw this scene and suddenly stopped in their tracks.

It wasn't yet boarding time, so everyone didn't have to rush to the plane.

"Someone's playing with a third-order Rubik's Cube," a young man said with a laugh.

The crowd followed his gaze to the boy, but after watching for a while, they turned their heads away in boredom: "Novice."

"Yeah, if you can't solve a third-order Rubik's Cube in less than 10 seconds, you haven't even begun. Without mastering single-handed solving, trying to learn dual-hand solving is like trying to run before learning to walk," one of them said.

The term Sub-10 referred to solving within ten seconds and was considered professional in speedcubing terms.

These individuals also seemed to play with Rubik's Cubes, but dismissed the boy's speedcubing skills as below par. They were elite students from Haicheng University, traveling to the Island Country for the Texas poker tournament, then planning to go for a heavy backpacking trip and soak in an onsen at "Takayama Hida."

Takayama Hida, also known as the Northern Alps Mountain Range.

The name was quite fascinating.

In 1896, British missionary Weston compared the scenery of the Hida Mountain Range to the beauty of the Alps in Europe, and thus the Hida Mountain Range became renowned as the Alps Mountain Range in the Island Country...

Later on, the Island Country directly established the Alps National Park here.

The other young people found places to sit.

Only one among them continued to gaze intently at the boy.

He found it a bit odd.

"Ren Yan, stop staring, you'll make him uncomfortable," one of them said.

However, the young man named Ren Yan didn't look away. He suddenly noticed something—the boy's Rubik's Cube hadn't ever been solved, but every time it paused, the pattern was identical.

Exactly the same.

Moreover, the rhythm of the boy's single-handed cube turning was extraordinarily peculiar, resembling a repeated melody.

At first, Ren Yan thought the boy was DNF'ing.

DNF, in speedcubing terms, meant that professional players, failing to solve the cube within their target time, abandoned the solve and scrambled anew.

But later, Ren Yan realized it wasn't the case.

Like a normal player, the goal was to make each face the same color, yet the boy's goal each time seemed to be to restore a complicated pattern identical to the previous one.

This behavior seemed as if afraid of playing too incredibly, causing others to think he was merely a novice.

Ren Yan glanced at the electronic watch on his wrist, timing it silently.

4.983 seconds.

The boy's single-handed 'solving' speed was 4.983 seconds.

If considered this way, solving the cube in an average of 5 seconds single-handedly, and with both hands simultaneously, was very odd indeed.

It's notable that the current world record for single-handed solving was 4.693 seconds.

Ren Yan watched the boy for a long while.

Then, he walked over to the boy, curious: "Have you ever participated in a cube competition? I haven't seen you at any championship. Do you want to compete? I can introduce you to the registration process. Let me introduce myself; I'm Ren Yan, the Vice President of the National Speedcubing Association."

The boy looked at him expressionlessly, continuing what he was doing.

Then, Ren Yan suddenly noticed that both of the boy's hands showed signs of frostbite—those purplish marks wouldn't disappear until summer.

He couldn't fathom what circumstances could cause a pair of hands to freeze like that.

"Attention all passengers, flight HO1333 from Haicheng Airport to Osaka Kansai Airport is now boarding..."

The boy stood up, calmly walking towards the boarding gate through the priority first-class channel.

Completely ignoring the young people.

Ren Yan's companion laughed: "He's just playing around, why invite him?"

Ren Yan shook his head: "He's not just playing around."

Strangely, someone so skilled at playing the cube had never participated in a competition.

Was it disdain, or ignorance of such competitions?

In fact.

Many people practice speedcubing to compete, but the boy did not.

He practiced to kill Jindai while multitasking.

Constantly improving his computational ability while multitasking.

The boy felt he still had shortcomings in this area.

Ren Yan regretted watching the boy's back, knowing the cube for many was just a hobby, irrelevant for study or livelihood, so participating held little significance.

And there's nothing to be done if he doesn't want to compete.

Through the boarding gate, the boy continued playing with his Rubik's Cube in the first-class cabin, which was relatively empty except for one middle-aged man.

Upon boarding, Ren Yan noticed the boy still quietly playing with the cube.

As if the boy had no other hobbies or emotions.

For unknown reasons, Ren Yan found the boy strange, unable to pinpoint why.

When the plane entered the stratosphere, the flight attendants served meals.

The other man in the first-class cabin stopped after two bites, seemingly finding the food unappetizing.

However, the boy ate slowly, finishing every grain of rice in the bowl, meticulously consuming all the fruits and desserts.

The flight attendants, witnessing this, felt the boy had obsessive-compulsive disorder, as if cherishing every bite.

Only the boy knew the sacrifices made for his food, how precious normal food was.

So from now on, each meal, he would eat thoroughly, not wasting a bit.

Two hours later, the plane landed.

Passengers disembarked, navigating through the lengthy and complex Osaka customs.

Upon exiting the airport gates, the boy reached out, plucking a hair from the middle-aged man who was also a first-class passenger.

Then, using two fingers, he inserted the hair into the man's spleen, stirred, and pulled it out.

Effortlessly, without a trace.

The boy released the hair onto the ground, continuing forward.

Everything happened too fast. The man felt a pain in the back of his head, then a stabbing pain in his waist. The bleeding from the internal wound caused him to kneel quickly, draining his strength.

Life, likewise.

Someone called for the airport staff, who arrived to find the man had already died.

His heartbeat and breathing had completely stopped.

The following passengers were puzzled, thinking the middle-aged man had a heart attack.

But soon, someone noticed otherwise. Blood kept seeping from tiny pores in the man's lower back, wetting his clothes.

Airport staff shouted: "Murder case, seal off the area, call the Osaka Prefecture Police Headquarters! No one is allowed to leave, fetch the surveillance footage!"

The passengers were shocked. How did a simple trip turn into a crime scene?!

One passenger said: "We didn't commit a crime, why restrict our freedom? I remember him, he was a first-class passenger on flight HO1333, disembarking before us. You should find others who disembarked with him."

At that moment, Ren Yan scanned the crowd for the boy but found he had long disappeared.

Ren Yan had no evidence, but he was certain the boy did it.

Only then did he understand why the boy seemed strange—his gaze was too calm, as if without a single emotional ripple.

The police arrived and checked the footage, seeing the boy pulling hair to kill.

No wonder there was no weapon found at the airport—the boy used hair as his tool. The wound's diameter matched the hair's thickness.

At the airport, everyone underwent several checks. If anyone had carried a weapon, it would have been found.

However, no ordinary person would consider using hair as a weapon.

This hair even came from the middle-aged man himself.

The police were puzzled; it had to be a Time Traveler murder case—only Time Travelers had such eerie abilities.

A policeman whispered: "Notify the Mysterious Business Department; we're not qualified to intervene."

The Mysterious Business Department emerged after the time travel incidents, dedicated to handling Time Travelers.

Everyone inside was controlled by the Jindai Consortium, serving its will. Their authority was vast, even influencing the Island Country's political situation in the Outer World.

The boy was Qing Chen, and he had killed a Time Traveler from the Mysterious Business Department.

Secretly responsible for contacting Jindai Time Travelers within China, retreating due to tense situations.

Unbeknownst to him, even after retreating to the Island Country, he was killed.

At this moment, Qing Chen had no other thoughts.

He only thought of two things—revenge and survival challenges.

A02 secret military base was renowned throughout the Federation, one of Jindai intelligence's largest training bases, infamous like the Siberian demon training camps.

Qing Chen gleaned far more information from Takahashi Toshiki and Zhao Shuai's memories.

Because they had once trained a batch of male Time Travelers here at A02.

The discovered Time Travelers in northern cities were sent to A01, A02, A03 secret bases for two months of brutal training.

One purpose was enhancing their combat skills, the other brainwashing, fostering allegiance to the Jindai Consortium.

When Qing Chen was imprisoned in A02, the second batch of Time Travelers had just graduated, completing their 'graduation ceremony' by hunting down 496 prisoners, before returning to Northern Cities 20, 21, 22.

Each batch of nearly a thousand Time Travelers underwent the harshest combat training, graduating one after the other, forming large organizations to help Jindai complete its control over the Island Country in the Outer World.

They searched for undiscovered Time Travelers.

Previously, Li Family Season Champion and Qing's Family Si Nianhua expertly planned and conducted targeted replacements in the Island Country.

Even with such preparation, after minor disruptions, they were forced to retreat by Jindai's organized Time Travelers.

It wasn't that Ji Guanya and Si Nianhua weren't formidable, but it was Jindai's territory—they had already done beyond imagination sneaking here and causing such havoc.

This time to the Island Country, Qing Chen didn't seek help from Kunlun or Kyushu—the aid from Ji Guanya and Si Nianhua was enough.

As the Mysterious Business Department's Time Travelers swarmed in, Osaka Kansai Airport's entrance was blocked.

A sniper shot rang out, a department head fell.

Only then did everyone realize the murderer hadn't gone far.

...

Another chapter before midnight