A time traveler arrives in the Multiverse with an ability that turns confident assumptions into reality. If he believes an ordinary object should perform an impossible task, the rules of the world may simply adjust to make it happen. A bicycle can rise into the sky, common equipment can behave far beyond its normal limits, and even the human body can ignore expectations that should be absolute. The power sounds convenient, but every new idea raises a larger question: if reality keeps obeying what he thinks is “scientific,” how long will it be before no one—including him—can tell where logic ends and imagination begins?
Chapter 19: 019: Mr
Quinn Eager to try out the invention from his dream, Kraft inadvertently lost track of time. It wasn’t until Alice reminded him that he calmed down from his excitement and let out a huge yawn. “Well, I’m going back to take a nap…” With his excitement gone, Kraft’s eyelids instantly grew heavy, and he dragged his feet listlessly toward his room. “Come wake me up in half an… no, an hour.” Ever since Alice came into his life, Kraft had ditched that screeching chicken alarm. Isn’t it much nicer to be woken up by a cute, soft robot girl? Who needs a screeching chicken! “Got it~” Alice replied, then slipped back into the kitchen to continue preparing breakfast. That second nap was uneventful; Kraft hadn’t even had time to dream those peculiar dreams before Alice woke him up. After getting up and finishing breakfast, Kraft took Alice with him to go out and buy a pet. There were quite a few pet stores in Chinatown. In addition to the mainstream pet stores that mainly sold cats and dogs, there was also a very traditional flower and bird market that not only sold all kinds of birds but also insect pets like crickets and grasshoppers. However, Alice had no interest in those insects, and since they couldn’t wear scarves anyway, Kraft decided to head to the most ordinary pet store. As was his habit, Kraft always tried to recreate everything from his dream as closely as possible during his first test, so his first choice was naturally to buy a little black cat. He’d even thought of a name—a phonetic translation of Mr. Sakamoto’s name from the dream—and decided to call it Sakamoto. However, as soon as he entered the pet store, Kraft’s gaze was drawn to another creature. He imagined what it would look like with a red scarf around its face, and it felt incredibly familiar. “Did I used to have a dog of this breed?” Kraft habitually scratched his head, then asked the pet store clerk, “Hello, do you have this breed of dog in gray?” “Sorry, kiddo, but Shiba Inus only come in four coat colors: red, black, sesame, and white. There’s no gray variety, you know~” The young clerk shook her head and explained to Kraft in a friendly tone. “Also, white Shiba Inus are quite rare, and we don’t have any in stock right now. The little one in the cage is a red Shiba Inu. We do have black and sesame Shiba Inus here as well, though they’re not on display. Would you like me to show them to you?” “No gray ones?” Kraft furrowed his brow. He’d seen Shiba Inus before—most were indeed this reddish or yellowish color—but he hadn’t paid much attention to it in the past. It was only now, associating it with the red scarf, that he felt a gray Shiba Inu would be just right. “Never mind,” Kraft shook his head. There was no point in dwelling on something he couldn’t figure out. If there weren’t any gray ones, he’d just have to find one in a similar color. “Could you please show me the black Shiba Inus?” Kraft said to the young saleswoman. “Please follow me.” The saleswoman led Kraft into the back room, where cages containing pets were neatly stacked. As the two entered, they startled the cats and dogs inside. In an instant, the room was filled with the rising and falling sounds of meowing and barking. “Shh—be quiet. If you keep making a fuss, I’ll deduct from your food rations, you know~” The young saleswoman skillfully calmed the noisy pets and led Kraft to a cage. “This is the black Shiba Inu, and the one next to it with the more mottled coat is the sesame Shiba.” “Hmm… it’s a little different from what I imagined…” The black Shiba’s coat pattern was very different from that of a red Shiba, and it was a far cry from the gray Shiba Kraft had in mind. “Then let’s go with the red Shiba out there.” Kraft wasn’t one to overthink things; compared to the others, the red Shiba outside felt closer to the dog he remembered. “Okay~” The saleswoman was delighted to have closed the deal. She led Kraft back outside, placed the red Shiba in a portable carrier, and handed him its pedigree certificate, along with a small bag of dog food and a chew stick that she said the dog really loved. “Alice, have you picked one out yet?” Kraft, carrying the dog crate, found Alice crouched in the corner, gazing adoringly at a cat, and tapped her on the head as he asked. “Oh! These little ones are just too cute—I completely forgot!” Alice was crouched on the floor, cradling three kittens of different colors in her arms, looking utterly blissful. Just as I thought—this girl is completely unreliable… Kraft sighed in exasperation, scanned the nearby cats, and picked out a Bombay cat that bore a seven or eight out of ten resemblance to Mr. Sakamoto from his dream. After having the sales clerk put it in a carrier, he grabbed some cat food and pet supplies, then headed to the front desk to pay. “Let’s go!” Kraft tapped Alice on the head again, exasperated, then handed her the carrier with the little black kitten and a large bag of pet supplies. Lifting the dog’s carrier with one hand and tugging Alice along with the other, he headed for the exit. “Aaaah~~~ Let me snuggle for five more minutes—” With a look of reluctance on her face, Alice was dragged out of the pet store by Kraft. “You’ve got the cat right there in your hands! Go home and cuddle it to your heart’s content!” “Oh! That’s right!” Alice realized suddenly. She held the carrier up to her face, gently rubbing her cheek against it, and apologized to the little black cat with a doting expression: “I’m sorry~ I totally neglected you.” “Oh, right, big brother, we need to name them first.” After apologizing to the little black cat, Alice took a couple of quick steps over to Kraft and reminded him. “Hmm, let’s call him Mr. Quinn.” Kraft lifted the cage in his hand and, without hesitation, blurted out the name that had suddenly popped into his head. “What about this little one?” Alice gestured toward the cat carrier. “Um…” With the name Mr. Quinn already in mind, the name Sakamoto that Kraft had originally considered didn’t seem quite right anymore. “How about we call it Mr. Bane?” “But… this one’s a girl.” “Uh… then let’s call her Beya.” Kraft hurriedly pulled out Quinn’s pedigree certificate, glanced at the gender listed there, and only then let out a sigh of relief. It was a male dog. So there was no need to change his name after all—a relief for Kraft’s OCD. The two of them brought Mr. Quinn and Miss Beya to Kraft’s private workshop, handed the two pets over to Alice to look after, and Kraft dove straight into his studio. Unlike when he’d created Alice, Kraft couldn’t make head or tail of the technology used to create the [Talking Scarves], nor could he understand it. So he didn’t try to pull any tricks; he simply followed Dr. Dongyun’s instructions from his dream to the letter, mechanically replicating the process. Since the process wasn’t particularly difficult and didn’t require any thought on Kraft’s part, he finished the scarves quickly. By the time Alice had lunch ready, Kraft had completed both scarves. “Can they really make them talk?” Alice stared expectantly at Quinn and Beya, who were still completely unaware of what was going on. “I think so…” Kraft wasn’t actually very confident, because compared to Alice—a robot—the scarf that made animals talk seemed more like an item from the Mystical Side than a scientific creation. So far, none of the Mystical Side creations Kraft had replicated had been successful. “Let’s just give it a try anyway. It’s just a scarf—it won’t hurt them.” As Kraft spoke, he handed a scarf to Alice, and together they tied it around the two pets’ necks. “Can… can they talk now? Beya-chan~” After tying the scarf around the little black cat, Alice couldn’t wait to ask. The little black cat, Beya, first scratched at the scarf around her neck with her paw, then shook her head vigorously twice. "You tied me too tight, Meow, you idiot!" A slightly shrill female voice came from Beiya’s mouth. “Oh, s-sorry! I’ll loosen it up for you right away!” Alice frantically adjusted Beya’s scarf. “Is this better?” “Mm, that’s much more comfortable~” Beya stretched lazily, wagging her tail as she spoke, her originally sharp voice now taking on a languid tone. “Wow!” Quinn, who had been staring blankly at Alice and Beya’s interaction, suddenly jumped to his feet. “You can actually talk!” Then, realizing what had just happened, he jumped again. “Wow! I can actually talk, too!” “Um… it seems like this dog isn’t exactly the brightest…” Kraft rubbed his nose, quickly pulled out his phone, and started searching. “Dog intelligence rankings… Shiba Inu… ranked outside the top 79… It’s actually lower than the ‘Three Stupid Sled Dogs’…” “Slander! This is blatant slander!” Quinn pressed his nose against Kraft’s phone screen, wrinkled his nose, and bared his sharp, gleaming white fangs. “Hahaha, you dumb dog.” Upon hearing Kraft’s announcement, Beya couldn’t help but burst out laughing. “Do you want to fight?!” Quinn quickly turned his furious gaze toward Beya. “Don’t bully Beya! She’s a girl!” Alice immediately ran over to stand up for Beya. “Big brother! They’re picking on me!” The speed with which Quinn sought backup was truly unlike that of a dog breed ranked 79th in intelligence. Watching the dog wagging its tail frantically at him, Kraft twitched the corner of his mouth. But since it was a dog he’d chosen himself—and since it had come begging to him—he figured he might as well give it a hand. Kraft tapped a few more times on his phone. “The intelligence of the Bombay cat… one of the three dumbest cat breeds…” The corner of Kraft’s mouth twitched again. His pet-picking skills were truly unmatched—he’d randomly picked two creatures with seriously questionable intelligence. “What?! That’s impossible! I’m smart, you know!” Now Beya wasn’t having any of it either; she screamed and lunged toward the phone in Kraft’s hand. “Stop messing around!” Kraft quickly raised his hand, dodging Beya’s lunge. “Hahahaha! You didn’t see that coming, did you? You’re even dumber than I am!” Quinn stuck out his tongue and laughed gleefully at her misfortune, only to get slapped right on the nose by Beya as she spun around. “How dare you sneak-attack me! You beast!” Having been attacked, Quinn wasn’t about to let it go; he turned his head and lunged at Beya to bite her. “Take this! RUA!” “Aaaah! No fighting! Stop it, both of you!” Alice was frantically trying to break up the fight. Somehow… I have a feeling things are going to get pretty lively around here from now on… Watching the chaotic scene of cats and dogs leaping about before him, Kraft’s mouth twitched uncontrollably. A big reason I made the protagonist a time traveler was because of this dog. Earlier, while searching for various inventions for the protagonist, the moment I saw Mr. Sakamoto’s scarf, I immediately thought of Mr. Quin. The everyday plot of this book is basically carried by the “slice-of-life” dynamic of one person, one cat, and one dog. As for the references to Mr. Quin and the “Great Qin” slang, even if you’re not familiar with them, it shouldn’t affect your reading, so I won’t go into detail here. If you’re interested, you can look them up on Baidu or check out a meme encyclopedia or something. Also, regarding the Shiba Inu and the Bombay cat, I decided on the breeds first and then looked up their intelligence levels—I didn’t intentionally choose these two “dumb” ones. Besides, when it comes to those online rankings, the ones for dogs might be a bit more authoritative, while the ones for cats seem a bit suspect, so really, they’re just for a laugh.
