One-Eyed Monster

Igor felt puzzled, he couldn’t understand what exactly was happening.

After all, making a choice within oneself is something only oneself can know. Where did Nonoa’s confident tone come from? It was completely incomprehensible.

Could it be that when Igor makes a choice, Nonoa can clearly know what choice was made?

If that’s the case, then that’s a bit terrifying!

Originally, Igor was already overwhelmed by fear, and now there’s another fear added, it’s simply unbearable!

Igor hoped Nonoa would stop being cryptic.

”I said, you’ll understand what I mean soon enough!” Nonoa actually didn’t know how to express it, but he knew that since Igor could consider it now, he would soon understand how to experience time in the Border Realm.

In the Border Realm, there’s no sunrise or sunset, no reference for time, and you can’t even know how long it’s been here. Constant running is always so repetitive, making it impossible to know how long you’ve been running or how much longer there’s left to run. Everything seems infinite, without end, and this feeling leaves one confused, like there’s no concept of time, making Igor a bit perplexed.

In the blink of an eye, could he become an old man, or in that instant, has he experienced time?

In the Border Realm, time feels blank, you can’t perceive it, yet it truly exists.

Igor just wanted to know how time is measured here, how to tell if it’s one day or two...

Previously on Guru Mountain, during his time at Moonflow Stream, Igor was caught in a Time Trap, and back then he used a very primitive method to judge the passage of time. That was to rely on his appetite, at that time he perfectly exemplified a foodie’s control over food, distinguishing between a two-day portion and a one-day portion very clearly... This peculiar method allowed him to successfully see through the Time Trap created by the double-faced Arnold and fight several rounds in the Time Gap with Arnold.

However, that time there were reference points. No matter what, Igor found the real time in that Time Trap, the time he was familiar with, and Arnold could use a Time Leap to make two days feel like one. Could such a thing happen in the Border Realm too?

If a period here equates to a few years outside, wouldn’t that be terrible!

The key is he can’t eat here; his existence here is a single-minded consciousness, and this consciousness doesn’t need to eat!

So Igor was very confused, and the more confused he got, the more fearful he felt.

This is a fear of time, afraid of wasting time here and ending up with regret, but then if he advances rapidly, he fears time will be so rushed that he might miss the key points.

This is where Igor is more conflicted, and this conflict slowly transforms into fear.

But Nonoa didn’t immediately comfort Igor, although now during the run, Igor’s fear was very evident.

Certain things, in the end, must be experienced and felt by oneself.

Nonoa understood this deeply. When you put an answer in front of someone, they might not understand its mystery because without personal experience, it appears very fragile, and the memory will quickly fade. But if this answer is sought out by oneself, it will be deeply engraved within and will never be forgotten...

So Nonoa now remained silent, waiting for Igor to discover on his own.

Time exists, it’s just that how to measure this time requires a comparison object.

Nonoa had been a Wandering Consciousness for a long time, during which he was muddle-headed, not knowing what time was, and in the beginning, just like Igor, he was filled with fear, which gradually turned into numbness...

Without a concept of time, he drifted in this Border Realm, sometimes devoured by this Soul Devourer, sometimes spat out by that...

Repeating such experiences over and over again, until becoming so numb. This numbness made Nonoa at that time like a living zombie, carrying a pack and wandering all day around here...

Not knowing the concept of time led to such an outcome, becoming among the four or five percent the least hopeful person...

Igor was now still in the phase of fear, and under normal circumstances, he would step by step go through the same experiences as Nonoa.

But Igor didn’t think he would degenerate; he just couldn’t know time, and it was only temporary.

This confidence, Igor didn’t even know where it came from...

Nonoa knew that once Igor grasped the concept of time, he could truly establish himself in this Border Realm. Now Igor was still a rookie who just stepped into this Border Realm, though this rookie was progressing rapidly, learning the method to release energy in a short time.

Igor seeing Nonoa silent, stopped asking too, after all, this was his own confusion, and maybe Nonoa didn’t care about time, as he has no body to return to.

He didn’t know that Nonoa was silent to let him face these things alone, to let him experience on his own...

In this Border Realm, mastering time grants control, that’s the rule they found out through their long period of struggle here.

Time is life, time is money... these old sayings are totally nonsense in this realm, here, time is everything.

Igor ran, Igor thought, Igor observed...

The energy in him was about to overflow, he needed to release it!

”Should I just release the energy like this? I feel it’s a bit of a waste to just release it!” Igor suddenly asked, although within he still held the fear of not understanding time, he now had to solve the problem with his own body.

”Not a waste, you will gain more.” Nonoa said.

”Then I’ll release it!” Igor waved his hand, sending a wave of energy directly into the sky.

Nonoa silently watched all this, he felt Igor was getting closer and closer to that answer.

”I discovered something, the process of this energy accumulation seems like a cycle, I released it once just now, now it’s full again, whether I’m running or resting, this energy always condenses on time...”

”Yes, you’re right.”

”Wait!” Igor suddenly seemed to realize something, ”Condensing on time, could it be, this is the measure of time here!”

”Yes, you finally discovered it yourself!”

Just like that, Igor found the foundation to stand on in this Border Realm.