When the Clock Strikes Z: Volume 2 by Ichirou Sakaki

Author:Ichirou Sakaki [SAKAKI, ICHIROU]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: J-Novel Club
Published: 2020-10-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 2: Critical CrossroadZ

We settled into our seats and took to the road. Our goal was clear: reach lab one, locate the time machine, and reset the world.

“An honest-to-goodness time machine,” Shino marveled from the backseat. “What are the odds?”

Shiiko was sitting between Otoha and Shino. Her wheelchair was covered with a plastic sheet and affixed to the roof rack on top of the car. Unsurprisingly, we hadn’t been able to fit it inside.

At present, Shiiko was slightly hunched over, her shoulders tucked inward. She actually looked like a cute girl her age. Behind her youthful exterior, however, she was a genius scientist who’d worked on technology so advanced that it was like magic to the rest of us.

“As I told these two earlier,” she said, “you can’t just travel back in time all willy-nilly like you might see in manga; we’re talking strictly about data transfers here. We can’t undo the damage ourselves, but we can send out a warning message. The average person would probably brush it off as complete nonsense, but a North River Co. employee should respond accordingly.”

“I’m not too familiar with the subject matter at hand,” said Tetsuko, manning the wheel, “but wouldn’t that result in us changing the past?”

“It would.”

“Then what happens to the present?”

“I... don’t know,” Shiiko replied. “I can see us returning to our old lives as though nothing had ever happened. Then again, even if we do end up succeeding, there’s no guarantee that the zombie apocalypse gets nipped in the bud. Experiments have shown that all paths converge into a single, predetermined outcome.”

“Then what’s the point of taking any action at all?”

“The issue here is that we immediately run headfirst into what’s known as the grandfather paradox. By altering the past we remove the need for it to be altered in the present, resulting in a contradiction. Thus, even in the best-case scenario, averting the zombie apocalypse altogether is highly unlikely. That being said, there might just be a fine line where the present could potentially change for the better without causing a paradox. More specifically, erm, the zombies disappearing the exact moment we get the message off... or something along those lines.” Shiiko clearly didn’t feel comfortable making definitive predictions, judging from her uncertain tone of voice.

In short, she seemed to think that once the connection between the zombies and the past had been severed, they’d return to being lifeless corpses.

“Then the dead are going to stay that way... for good,” Shino muttered, her eyes fixed on the case resting at her feet.

“In all likelihood,” Shiiko replied, her gaze also downcast. “Though that might not necessarily hold true... in some unobservable parallel world, that is. The universe continually splits apart, resolving every possible quantum outcome across myriad worlds, if we go by the many-worlds interpretation. Our world will likely remain unchanged, however.”

“So, to dumb that all down for my gamer brain, we won’t have to worry about our memories of the apocalypse disappearing or whatever, but the zombies will probably just poof out of existence?”

“Something like that.

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