"Don't take it too seriously, it's all made up by this guy."
Seeing Okabe talk about his Organization again, and the new part-timer actually believing him, Mr. Braun spread his hands and said.
"Oh?!" Amane Suzuha showed clear surprise.
"Hmph, just keep thinking that." Okabe Rintaro snorted lightly, turned and went upstairs with his bag: "One day, the world will kneel at my feet."
"Hahahahehe, hmm hahahahaha—"
Okabe Rintaro's maniacal laughter gradually faded, and Amane Suzuha also showed a look of sudden realization, exclaiming:
"So that's what's popular now…"
Halfway through her exclamation, a corn cob suddenly flew out of the dark stairwell and landed precisely in her hand.
"The name was made up pretty quickly."
"Mom, I like this!"
"…You like every one you see, don't you?"
"She's never even seen corn, where did this kid come from?"
"Good catch!"
Night.
Laboratory.
In the dark Laboratory, Okabe Rintaro held a half-eaten corn cob and seriously manipulated the mouse in his hand.
The news of the artificial satellite falling on the Radio Kaikan Building was magnified on the computer screen.
"Around twelve o'clock, it fell, Mayuri and they were right."
Muttering to himself, Okabe Rintaro opened a search engine.
'Dr. Nakabachi meeting'
He entered the keywords and pressed Enter.
Related information quickly popped up.
"…Press conference canceled?"
'Makise Kurisu stabbed'
Enter was pressed again… the result was as expected.
"Was everything I saw an illusion?"
Okabe Rintaro sighed, leaned back, and looked at the ceiling.
Suddenly, ethereal music began to play, and a tense atmosphere spread. A page marked with '@' quickly jumped out from the screen.
Long passages of text and posts with different inclinations quickly allowed people to identify it as a 'forum'.
Without lingering on the content for too long, Okabe Rintaro's hands moved continuously, quickly browsing more content.
"Hmm? John Titor?" He raised an eyebrow.
—'Time Traveler Appears www'
—'Time Traveler Appears www'
—'Time Traveler Appears www'
On the screen, a uniform mocking repetition flashed by, followed by the words spoken by 'John Titor' in a narrative voice, flashing word by word on the screen.
"The Time Machine is monopolized by SERN, and corporations and ordinary civilians cannot obtain it. They only use it for their own benefit, bringing only a dystopia to the world. I came here to change the future, to destroy the dystopia created by SERN, and to reclaim freedom."
Countless seemingly profound images flashed by, countless faces, countless statements, as if to display the very concept of the 'internet' in this way.
"Are you saying SERN is a dictator?" A sharp dissenting voice rang out.
"The so-called grandfather paradox does not exist." Ignoring the dissenting voice, John Titor selectively answered some questions in the post.
—'If you travel through time, will you meet your past self?'
"You might meet your past self. If that happens, the worldline will shift."
—'What is a worldline?'
—'Are you talking about the multiverse theory?'
"Firstly, time is not a single line flowing from the past to the future, but rather like a river formed by countless parallel lines called 'worldlines'."
John Titor's explanation was presented in visual form. In the dark screen, fluorescent dotted lines continuously moved upwards.
"For example, let's say today, you are killed by a murderer."
"But for me, coming from the future, this is incorrect."
"Because the world has already been split into two worlds: one where you were killed and one where you lived."
"Okabe can't sleep at night so he's browsing forums, right?"
"Speaking of which, wasn't this John Titor mentioned in the first episode?"
"Yes, Dr. Nakabachi's Time Machine theory seems to have been plagiarized from him."
"Good heavens, he immediately denied the grandfather paradox."
"Even if you explain the worldline to me so seriously, I still don't understand."
"What Titor said was already quite clear, wasn't it? Anime doesn't have completely useless plots. Since it's mentioned here, it definitely means this thing has significance."
"wwwwww"
"Is this Titor Japanese this time…" Okabe Rintaro muttered to himself, looking at the content on the screen.
"Around 2000, someone claiming to be a Time Traveler appeared on the internet in America."
"He said he was from 2036 and came here through Time Travel to save the future world."
"It caused a huge sensation on the internet at the time, and some related books were even published."
"But now, there are still fools impersonating John Titor, huh?"
The camera subtly lingered on an hourglass for a few seconds, then slowly turned back to Okabe Rintaro.
His hands danced on the keyboard, his fingertips playing a rapid tune.
Clearly, he was arguing with someone.
"You should first check this link and see who Titor is before trying to deceive people." He muttered to himself, intending to find evidence from his saved links to present to the other party.
But in his specially designated 'Organization Related Information (Top Secret)' bookmark folder, he couldn't find the link that should have been there.
Okabe Rintaro didn't think much of it, just casually complained:
"Tonz, that guy, actually deleted Titor's link."
If it was deleted, then it was deleted. He could just search for it again, right?
Thinking this, he reopened the search engine.
But the search results made him freeze.
"12 entries?"
That's right, only 12 entries.
There were only a mere 12 results related to John Titor.
"Impossible!" He subconsciously denied: "Although ten years have passed, it caused such a huge stir back then—"
"How could it be…"
He abruptly kicked away his chair, ran to a nearby bookshelf, and began frantically searching.
"No, no, why?!"
"All the related books should be here, damn it!" Tossing irrelevant books aside, Okabe Rintaro unhesitatingly pulled out his phone and dialed Hashida Itaru's number.
"Hello, Tonz."
"What is it? I'm with Felis-tan…"
"Where did you put the books?"
"Huh? What books?"
"The books related to John Titor, weren't they all organized on the bookshelf? Where did you put them?!"
"Wait, Okabe."
"What?"
"John Titor, who is that?"
Okabe Rintaro's expression turned incredibly grim.