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[Alexandr Korol]

you exist in, is different. That’s how it works. So, my friend and I are discussing this topic, and at one point, I say, “Listen, what if I buy an apple, put it on the table in front of me, and at that moment start working on “Alternative History”? Let’s see what happens to the apple — will it age faster, or will it not age at all? That would be interesting.” And at the very moment we are discussing this — and mind you, I am a skeptic, and before this, I had never experienced any malfunctions with my speakers, no sound issues — on my table, I have one speaker, and another is far away in the corner of the room, against the wall. Suddenly, the speaker on my table starts playing out of sync. It doesn’t play at the same time as the others, as if it’s lagging behind. I don’t know, maybe it’s speeding up by a few seconds, or maybe it’s lagging — I’m not sure. But the point is, it is no longer in sync with the other speakers. Time has shifted. And because it is within my field, at the moment when I begin recalling “Alternative History,” time begins to change, and the speaker starts to fall behind. Naturally, my friend is sitting there wide-eyed, in complete shock. Then I call Big Alexander and, of course, tell him everything. I ask, “What is happening? What is this? What is actually going on?” And suddenly, I remember that for probably over ten years, Big Alexander has constantly been telling me, “We are ahead of time,” “We’ve outpaced time by three years,” “We’ve outpaced time by a year and a half.” He’s always talking about being ahead of some kind of time, always competing, always racing against something, and I never really understood it. Seriously, I never even mentioned it in the first or second volume because I simply couldn’t explain it. I honestly didn’t understand what he meant, even though he kept saying, “You did great, we’ve outpaced time again, they won’t catch up,” or “They’re behind, we’ve moved three years ahead of them.” And I’d just think, “What?” For years, I never asked him what he was talking about. I would just nod and say, “Yeah, yeah, okay,” and leave it at that. But now, I ask him, “Alexander, I don’t get it. Where are we ahead? Who are we ahead of? What kind of time are you talking about?” Then I tell him the story about the speaker, and he brings it up again, saying, “That’s exactly it. That’s what it is. You’re doing it, but you don’t even realize it.” And he tells me that whenever he goes somewhere — wherever that is — he ends up completely frozen. What does he mean? Where does he go? What does he do to himself that he ends up almost covered in frost or ice? What is that? And he would always give examples like that. And I really start to notice