Scene shift.
Saiki appeared in a bathroom with black lines all over his head.
[Why—ah.]
Saiki sighed helplessly, said nothing more, turned the doorknob, and walked out of the bathroom.
Only after going outside did Saiki realize he had just walked out of a public restroom.
Saiki observed the surroundings and found the buildings here weren't very old, nor did they have a strong futuristic tech feel.
(Looks like the era is close to my time, just don't know what world this is.)
"Hehe, bro, are you a foreigner? Your hair is pretty rare."
A voice came.
Saiki turned his head toward the sound. A young man about 20 years old walked over carrying a bag of vegetables.
The man was around 1.79 meters, with a smiling face, but his eyes were different from normal people's—they were red.
But Saiki didn't care about eye color; he had seen plenty. In his world, transformed by his superpowers, there were still many with colorful hair and eyes.
What surprised Saiki was that this man wasn't speaking Japanese, but—Chinese.
After hearing Chinese, Saiki froze for 1.5 seconds, quickly thinking about the current situation in his mind.
(I see, so this time I traversed to a world without me or a parallel line. Otherwise, seeing my hair color wouldn't be strange, but hearing him speak Chinese, and looking at the buildings here, this should be China, just don't know the exact era.)
"Hello, are you listening to me?"
Seeing Saiki thinking about something and seemingly not noticing him, the man thought for a moment, switched languages, and greeted again.
"Didn't understand what I said? Then I need to switch languages."
"Excuse me, where are you from?"
"Di che paese sei?"
"Iz kakoy ty strany?"
"Konnichiwa, anata wa doko no kuni no hito desu ka?"
"…"
(If I don't speak, are you planning to go through every language in the world?)
[Enough, stop, no need to continue, I understand.]
Saiki interrupted the person in front of him from showing off more languages, acting as if Saiki himself couldn't. He could also use different languages and transmit them directly to his mind via telepathy.
"Oh, whew, you scared me. I thought you were mute. But you didn't open your mouth, so how can I hear you speaking? Is this ventriloquism?"
[Mm… don't worry about it, just treat it as that.]
Saiki laughed it off. He didn't want to explain; explaining would be too troublesome. Saying he had superpowers—even if in other worlds it didn't matter much—others wouldn't believe it anyway and would think he was an idiot. Better to leave it like this, as long as no suspicion.
"No, no, I feel like it suddenly appeared in my mind. This isn't ventriloquism."
(/"≡ _ ≡) (Ah! So troublesome.)
Just as Saiki was thinking whether to knock the person in front unconscious, Lin Fan put on an "I know" expression and spoke.
"Oh oh, you must have gotten a clear-the-stage reward, right? I get it."
(Clear the stage? What clear the stage?)
"Hello, my name is Lin Fan."
(Lin Fan… if I met someone with this name in real life, I'd absolutely avoid getting involved.)
Lin Fan smiled and answered, then said in surprise: "Wait, you can speak Chinese? Then why didn't you speak it from the start?"
(Only noticing now? Your reaction time is way too slow.)
Lin Fan smiled mysteriously, looking at Saiki: "So what's your name, foreign friend?"
[Before asking my name, first tell me, what era is it now?]
Lin Fan paused for a moment, then laughed.
"What are you talking about? Of course it's October 9, 2024. How do you not even know that? Are you a time traveler or something?"
(Yes, I really am a time traveler.)
[I see, mm, thanks, I'll get going first.]
Saiki nodded in thanks, then quickly walked away.
"Wait, you still haven't told me your name!"
Lin Fan quickly caught up.
(Why so persistent?)
Saiki didn't want to get entangled, he still had things to do, so while running he quickly said his name.
[Saiki, Saiki Kusuo, goodbye, probably won't see each other again.]
After saying that, Saiki sped up again and disappeared around a corner.
"Running so fast, hmph, no one can outrun me."
Lin Fan saw this and sped up to chase, but at the corner, Saiki was already gone.
"Caw—Caw—Caw"
It seemed a few crows flew across the sky.
"Saiki Kusuo? Japanese? What a weird name."
Lin Fan muttered a few words, then a voice appeared in his mind.
『Congratulations on completing the task of making friends and obtaining the reward for getting the name of a "foreigner", system points +10』
Lin Fan clenched his fist, face full of excitement.
"Wow, awesome, didn't expect just befriending a foreigner would give such a generous reward. Before, clearing one stage only gave 1."
...
At this time, Saiki hadn't gone far.
He had only come to a street two towns away from the previous place.
(Yare yare daze, ran into trouble, "special traversal". I've explained this before. The so-called special traversal encountered during time-space travel, abbreviated as "special traversal".)
"Special traversal": It happens because someone with time-space travel ability changed the past or future, producing time-space fluctuations, plus someone in another world is "summoning".
The person summoned to that time-space cannot return unless they complete the task sent by the one who summoned them.
(Yare yare daze, troublesome, very troublesome. Normal time-space travel, the person with the ability can control which time-space and timeline to return to, though they might go wrong.)
(But "special traversal" is different.)
(It's irreversible, forced from among countless unpredictable time-space travels, with an extremely small probability of encounter.)
(How small? You know lottery odds, right? Even smaller than that, if 1 billion people traversed at the same time, maybe only one would encounter it.)
(But I encountered it…)
(And not just once, I encounter it once or twice almost every year. Such tiny odds, yet I meet it frequently. Not because of anything, probably because I'm the protagonist!)
(For details, please refer to chapter 161…)
Thinking of these years dominated by special privileges, Saiki couldn't help but shiver all over.
Saiki quickened his pace, because people around had already started getting curious about his pink hair and taking photos and such.
Soon.
Saiki walked into a dark, empty alley with a depressed face.
Until he reached a dead end, facing the wall with a cold expression.
[Come out.]
"..."
"Rustle rustle"
The sound of wind blowing, trash drifting from the corner, then…
Nothing happened.