Love Code at the End of the World

My dad squeezed my hand, wailing tearfully. It made me anxious.

“Dad! Dad! What happened to Mom?!”

“Mom was hit by a car!” Loki suddenly replied. I looked at him blankly while he stared back at me angrily. “Sis, where have you been?! Where have you been?!” he cried. His eyes turned red as he yelled, “Did you know that mom talked about you every day, saying that you definitely didn’t die and you would return? But did you come back?! Were you there when she was lying on her sickbed?! Were you there?!” He began tearing up too. I had nothing to say to his intense interrogation.

“As long as you’re back… It’s great that you’re back… You came back in time to see her one last time… She wants to see you the most…” Dad said. He took a deep breath, wiping away his tears.

I shivered. I couldn’t accept everything that was happening. I couldn’t accept that my mom was going to pass away. It seemed like only yesterday when I’d parted from them. She’d still had a head of black hair and a fashionable dress. Her age had been nowhere to be found, like a celebrity. She’d looked like a beautiful thirty-year-old in her forties.

“Where’s Mom? Where is she?!” I asked loudly.

“At Central Hospital…” Dad replied tearfully.

“I’ll bring you!” Loki dragged me out by the arm, running outside.

“Loki! Loki! Slow down!” My dad quickly closed the door behind him.

It had been twenty years. Time seemed to stop and go as it wished. I’d returned from Kansa Star after only five years, but it had been twenty years on Earth. Time was out of anyone’s control. If it wished to, time could make you experience a century in the blink of an eye and make you part ways with your loved ones.

I panicked again. What if I return to Kansa Star again? How much time will have passed when I return to Kansa Star from Earth? How long has it been on Kansa Star? Raffles, Harry, Ah Zong, Xing Chuan, and the others must be worried sick. I can’t just go missing like this. How can I do this to the people of Radical Star, who entrusted me with their future?

I was confused. The fact that mom had had an accident left me no space to think about other matters. I only wanted to return to my mom as soon as possible. I didn’t want to part ways with my family the moment I arrived on Earth.

Loki drove really fast. Cars had improved tremendously over the past twenty years. The car’s design was beautiful and it seemed to be running on electricity. There were more fly-overs too. There were hanging railway trains under the bridge, and cars drove both on and below the bridge. It saved space and increased traffic volume. But… There were still too many cars.

“Loki, slow down,” Dad said, holding onto the armrest anxiously.

“Don’t you want to bring Sis to Mom sooner?!” Loki sounded angry.

“You’re acting as if you want to die sooner!” Dad cried furiously.

Loki stomped on the emergency brake, yelling, “If she could return today, why didn't she return before?! Every year at family reunions on Chinese New Year, Mom said that Sis would be back, and everyone treated her like a madwoman! No one believed what you said! To prove them wrong, I even started studying quantum physics!”

“You studied quantum physics?!” I asked in surprise.

He turned to reply to me angrily, “Yes! That d*mn quantum physics! A musician like me had to study quantum physics just to figure out where you went!”

I looked at him blankly, muttering, “That’s not our style…”

“Loki! If your sister could come back earlier, she would definitely have done it! She came back only today, so that means she could only come back today!” Dad cried.

I looked at my dad, not knowing what to say. My dad knew me well, but it couldn’t lessen my sense of guilt toward my family. I couldn’t forgive myself, so how could the younger brother I’d suddenly gotten forgive me? He must have had it tough.

“Just drive,” Dad said, sighing. Loki wiped away his tears and continued driving.

“Lil’ Bing, where have you been all these years?” Dad finally asked. He looked at my clothes with a strange expression, asking, “What are you wearing? Why do you look like Spider-Man or Captain America from the Marvel movies?”

“She has a toy gun too. Hmph.” Loki said, rolling his eyes at me. He was still pissed at me. He should have been pissed at me. He’d wanted to be a musician, but he’d studied quantum physics instead because of me.

I looked at my dad, explaining, “Dad, this is a nanotech battle uniform.”

Loki smirked lightly, muttering, “Hmph… She really thinks she has superpowers…”

My dad was dumbfounded. I raised my hand, saying, “Look.” I clenched my right hand and light flowed across my suit. The sleeve quickly extended and wrapped around my hand, and a helmet shielded my face. Dad was surprised at what happened, and he was ata loss for words.

I turned to look ahead. I realized that Loki was surprised, looking at the back mirror too, but the car in front of us was at a complete stop. “Bro! Watch out for the car in front of you!”

“Emergency brake activated,” the car suddenly said. I was stunned, but the car came to a complete stop.

I looked at the car in surprise, asking, “The cars on Earth run on AI now?” I’d left Earth for twenty years. I was surprised at how advanced the technology on Earth was now, even though Kansa Star’s technology was far more advanced.

“It’s not AI yet. It’s just a simple smart widget. What… kind of black market tech is this…?” Loki turned to look at my battle uniform in surprise.

My helmet disappeared and I replied, “This isn’t black market tech. It’s just smart nanomachines."

His eyes locked onto the gun on my waist. “Is your gun… real too?!”

I withdrew the ‘toy gun’ he’d been referring to earlier, looking at him seriously. I replied, “It’s real.” The gun suddenly transformed into the hilt of a lightsaber. Bzz. The lightsaber appeared in my hand, and Loki recoiled in shock.

“Dang… A lightsaber! How is this possible?!” He wanted to touch it out of curiosity.

I quickly put it away, warning him, “Don’t touch it. Your hand will burn.”

Loki looked at me in shock, asking, “Was it… really a wormhole back then?! Did you go to the future?! Did you come back to change the future?!”

“Did you come back to kill someone? Lil’ Bing, you didn’t become a murderer, did you?!” Dad asked, looking at me in horror.

My dad was a full-on sci-fi fan. So, he’d watched all the Marvel movies, Star Wars movies, and Terminator movies. As my dad was a sci-fi nut, I reckoned my younger brother was one too.

I put away my weapon, answering, “Not to the future, but to another planet. It’s hard to explain in such a short time. Oh yeah, Dad, why did I… suddenly get a younger brother?” I asked, pointing at Loki.

Loki’s earlier excited expression from looking at my weapon was immediately replaced by sorrow and disappointment. He turned back sadly, replying softly, “It was because of you, too…” As he spoke, the car started moving again.