Chapter 019: The Swap

With the help of the Moonlight Box, time reversed, and Wang Bo soon arrived at a point one month earlier.

At this point in time, Matthias had captured Samantha Nishimura, intending to sacrifice her to Himiko to resurrect Himiko and then leave the island.

But this guy, ugly as he was, dreamed big; he never expected that once resurrected, Himiko would immediately kill Matthias and turn him into a half-dead monster... a Stormguard.

However, when Wang Bo arrived one month earlier, he found the island eerily quiet, with no one around.

No Himiko, no Matthias, no Samantha, and no Sun Brotherhood.

Wang Bo looked around and saw the entire island empty.

There weren't even any buildings from World War II.

Logically, the Yamatai Kingdom should have had WWII-era structures; Wang Bo remembered that in 1940, during WWII, Japanese soldiers had landed on the island with some scientists and built military and research facilities.

They hoped to study the cause of the storms and find a way to control them, thereby aiding their fight against the US in the Pacific. If they could find the cause of the storms, defeating the US military would be no problem.

The soldiers' exploration gradually moved from the island's periphery to near the密室, but they never expected that the Stormguards were secretly watching their every move.

Whenever a soldier was isolated, the Stormguards would seize the chance to kill.

In the end, only a small number of soldiers reached the room before the Coronation Chamber, and they were quickly slaughtered by the guards. They never entered the chamber, and the military failed to complete its research plan.

With Japan's defeat, the soldiers on the island were abandoned, and all supplies were left to rot.

Eventually, these soldiers and scientists all died on the island.

But the island Wang Bo now saw was empty, with no WWII-era buildings except for some ancient ruins.

This quickly made Wang Bo realize something.

This wasn't the Yamatai Kingdom of a parallel world, but the Yamatai Kingdom of this world.

So Wang Bo put away the Moonlight Box and brought Lara out of the Time Villa.

Once out, Lara saw Wang Bo and immediately asked, "I saw someone in the Time Villa who looks exactly like me. Is that Himiko?"

"Yes, that's Himiko from one year later," Wang Bo nodded. "After you delivered yourself to her, she took over your body. I caught her and stuffed her into the Time Villa, but there's another Himiko at this earlier time point, so I didn't bring her out."

As he spoke, Wang Bo also brought Himiko, Xiaoqing, and Xiaobai out of the Time Villa.

The three women looked around immediately after coming out.

"Where is this place?" Himiko found it seemed familiar, but different from her memory.

"This is the Yamatai Kingdom," Wang Bo said.

Himiko didn't speak, because she simply didn't believe this was the Yamatai Kingdom.

After looking around, Lara stood on the mountaintop and gazed down, saying, "I think I recognize this place. This is the Yamatai Kingdom from my first visit."

"Exactly, that's it," Wang Bo nodded.

Himiko was uncertain.

Lara said, "So we've returned to my world?"

"No, this is still a parallel world," Wang Bo shook his head.

Now he had fully figured out what had happened.

Lara couldn't help asking, "What exactly is going on?" She was getting more and more confused.

Wang Bo drew a horizontal line on the ground. Above the line, he drew a ship and an island; below the line, he drew an island.

"Let me explain to you now." He pointed to the ship and island above the line. "This is your world, Lara. As a fledgling adventurer, you and your companions sailed on the Endurance to the Dragon's Triangle to find the legendary Yamatai Kingdom."

Then he pointed to the island below the line. "And this is the Yamatai Kingdom of this world, the island we are on now."

Wang Bo pointed above the line. "In your world, Himiko possessed great power and refused to accept death, so she invented the Fire Ritual, using dark arts to take over one young body after another, living until now."

He pointed below the line. "But in this world, our world, this Himiko also had great power, but she grew to loathe it and ultimately chose death."

Himiko seemed to understand something and snorted, "Foolish!"

Wang Bo ignored her and continued, "Lara, when you and your companions in the other world entered the Dragon's Triangle and approached Yamatai, you encountered a storm. The Endurance sank, and you fell into the water, entering the world of the mummies."

Lara nodded upon hearing this.

Wang Bo went on, "Then you and your companions were washed ashore on Yamatai. But at that moment, something miraculous happened."

Xiaoqing couldn't help asking, "What happened?"

Wang Bo moved his fingers slightly, swapping the island and ship above the line with the island below.

Lara suddenly understood. "You mean that when I entered the mummy world, the Yamatai Kingdom of my world and the Yamatai Kingdom of this world swapped places."

Wang Bo showed a gratified smile. "Exactly. That's also why when you returned to the world and first entered Yamatai, you didn't encounter Himiko."

"Because the two worlds' Yamatai Kingdoms swapped," Xiaoqing said.

Wang Bo nodded. "I just used the Moonlight Box again to return to one month ago. That means we are now at a point one year and one month before the original time. But we are still in the mature Lara's world. That's the most troublesome part."

Lara asked, "Why do you think that?"

Wang Bo said, "Because at this point in time, Matthias is performing the sacrifice ritual, and your Samantha is about to be possessed by Himiko. But this is happening in the other world, so we can't stop it."

Although Wang Bo was powerful, he wasn't yet powerful enough to stop a sacrifice ritual across worlds.

Perhaps when he could freely travel between worlds, he could do that.

But not now.

"Then what should we do?" Lara grew anxious. "Just do nothing and let Himiko take over Samantha's body?"