Wendy Lynch stared at the cheerful, lighthearted future email, her mind going completely blank. Jared Carter hadn’t gone missing. She hadn’t become a suspect, either. There was only a seemingly flawless team-building trip and a potential suitor named Kyler Lowell. This... What on earth was going on?
The entire crisis seemed to have been erased from the timeline out of thin air! This was even more bizarre and blood-curdling than her becoming a murder suspect. Something she didn’t know about must have happened to cause such a massive divergence in the timeline!
Her attention immediately zeroed in on the only new clue in the email: Kyler Lowell.
This was the first time this name had appeared in the future emails. Without hesitation, Wendy reopened the team-building roster she had checked earlier. Soon, she found the name under the Algorithm Team Six list.
[Kyler Lowell, Male, 31, Algorithm Team Six, Technical Rank P6.]
P6.
Wendy felt a jolt of surprise. To reach P6 in his early thirties meant Kyler Lowell was far from ordinary. P6 was essentially a grassroots management level. Going any higher meant either becoming middle management or being directly transferred to ByteDance. Either way, his future was undeniably bright.
According to the company’s hierarchy, Kyler was highly likely the head of Algorithm Team Six, making him Jared’s direct supervisor.
A peaceful future, a seemingly happy ending. This made Wendy feel even more unsettled than a clear red flag. After all, she knew that in the original timeline, Jared had vanished without a trace—neither dead nor alive.
A terrifying thought suddenly sprang from the depths of her mind without warning. Could this Kyler Lowell, who had popped out of nowhere... be the true culprit behind Jared’s disappearance? Once planted, this seed of suspicion grew at a terrifying speed, spreading wildly through her mind.
She began to retrace the entire logic. If Jared’s disappearance was truly a premeditated murder, then the killer was highly likely someone familiar with him, someone who could easily pull him away from the group. As the team leader, Kyler fit this condition perfectly! Kyler could effortlessly order Jared to follow him away from the main crowd and attack him on a secluded path. Once he killed Jared, all he had to do was tie a rock to him and sink the body into the lake without leaving a single trace.
And the reason why the timeline had shifted so drastically this time... was probably because Kyler had noticed her observing in secret. Perhaps sensing the risk of exposure, he hadn’t made a move during the trip. Instead, he tried to get her contact information afterward to probe her further.
To climb to P6 by the age of thirty-one... Kyler’s competence and emotional intelligence had to be top-tier, or else he wouldn’t have been promoted so quickly.
Having figured this out, Wendy felt a chill shoot straight up her spine to the top of her skull. She sighed deeply. The situation hadn’t improved; on the contrary, it had gotten much worse. However, she didn’t dwell on it this time, as she had already made her decision yesterday. Since things were escalating, her only choice was to stay out of it. After all, she was absolutely not going to put herself in danger for a stranger.
The next morning, the alarm clock rang right on time. Wendy opened her tired, bloodshot eyes. Even though she had decided not to interfere, she had still tossed and turned all night. She quickly washed up and changed into the sportswear and hiking shoes she had laid out yesterday.
Looking at her exhausted reflection in the mirror, she opened the fridge, grabbed an iced latte she bought a while ago, and chugged it down. Downing a large bottle of iced coffee finally gave her a slight boost of energy. She left the GPS tracker at home, not wanting to trigger the timeline where she became a murder suspect. However, driven by some strange impulse, she clipped the DJI mini action camera onto her clothes.
Everything was ready. Wendy headed to the gathering spot downstairs at the company.
By 8:30 a.m., quite a few people had already gathered in the parking lot outside the building. Colleagues from the administrative department were doing a headcount and handing out energy drinks and snacks. The air was filled with the cheerful laughter of her coworkers, their faces brimming with excitement for a day of getting paid to slack off. Soon, two luxury buses slowly pulled into the lot.
An HR colleague picked up a megaphone and shouted, "Shirley Lowell and Wendy Lynch from Logistics... along with everyone from Algorithm Team Six, get on Bus One!
"The rest of Logistics and Algorithm Team Seven, get on Bus Two!"
She, Shirley, and Regina Campbell followed the crowd onto Bus One. The bus filled up quickly. With a roar of its engine, it slowly drove out of the parking lot.
This team-building trip was essentially a free vacation, and on top of that, the tour guide hired by the company was excellent at livening things up. In just a few moments, the atmosphere inside the bus reached a fever pitch. The men and women on board began introducing themselves one by one.
"Hello everyone, I’m Shirley Lowell..."
"I’m Regina Campbell..."
Wendy also gave a brief introduction, then shifted her gaze to Algorithm Team Six sitting in the front rows.
A skinny man in a plaid shirt and black-rimmed glasses stood up. Looking a bit stiff, he pushed up his glasses and spoke softly. "H-hello everyone, I’m Jared Carter from Algorithm Team Six. I’m currently a P5, and a local from Ramspire..."
With that, he hurriedly sat back down. Wendy’s gaze lingered on him for a moment. This was the coworker who was destined to vanish. He looked honest and unassuming, even a bit clumsy—not at all like someone who would attract a fatal disaster.
Immediately after, the man sitting next to Jared stood up. He wore a simple gray windbreaker and had plain features, the kind that would blend seamlessly into a crowd. Yet, a perfectly calibrated smile rested on his face, giving off a warm, amiable aura that put everyone at ease.
"Hello everyone, I’m Kyler Lowell, the head of Algorithm Team Six.
"I’m thrilled to be on this trip with all the handsome men and beautiful ladies from Logistics. I hope we all have a fantastic time today!"
His voice was resonant and his tone friendly, instantly earning a round of applause from the bus. A P6 technical expert, the head of the algorithm team. His presence really was on another level.
Wendy’s eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. One was the future missing victim. The other was her prime murder suspect. However, the next scene made her brain short-circuit instantly.
After the introductions ended, Kyler and Jared didn’t maintain the usual distance of a boss and a subordinate. Instead, they leaned in close, whispering continuously to each other about something. How did this close rapport look anything like a sinister killer and his soon-to-be-murdered prey? They clearly looked like the best of friends!
Wendy felt like her brain could no longer process this. Could it be... all her previous deductions were wrong? Was the information in the future email just a coincidence? Did Kyler ask for her contact info simply because he was genuinely interested in her? And was Jared’s disappearance completely unrelated to Kyler, hiding some other secret entirely?
The situation was becoming increasingly baffling.