In the sealed black room, Qing Chen could watch movies in his head and had the willpower to persist, but Liu Dezhu could never do what he did.
Lin Xiaoxiao estimated the boy would mentally collapse once they passed the 48 hours mark.
In actuality, if other students of the same age were to be in Liu Dezhu’s position, they might not necessarily be able to do better than him.
However, this guy was cowardly and greedy for wealth. If it weren’t for the fact that he was previously an ordinary high school student, even death would be too good of a punishment for him.
Qing Chen believed the incident in Laojun Mountain could have been entirely prevented if this guy had stopped playing around just a few hours earlier and checked his communication device.
Liu Dezhu's pleas resounded throughout the dim corridor, but Qing Chen remained unmoved.
As Lin Xiaoxiao said, he had passed the most difficult hurdle in his heart: he had now learned how to face this cold, cruel world.
Li Shutong told him, “When we make decisions, the rare times when it’s necessary to disregard the standard criteria of ‘cruelty' or ‘benevolence'. In the journey of life, the only thing you need to do is make the best decision.”
Qing Chen sighed, “But Liu Dezhu has too many shortcomings. Sometimes I really want to give up on him.”
“Give up? Why?” questioned Li Shutong with great interest. “If you want to choose a proxy in the Outer World, then currently speaking, Liu Dezhu is very suitable. He’s crafty and greedy, but he’s not assertive. He lacks courage but has a lot of vanities. If you replace him with someone assertive, ambitious, brave, and disciplined, will that person be willing to play as a puppet for you?”
Qing Chen sank into thought.
Li Shutong asked him again, “Alright, the first thing has been solved, what’s the second thing?”
“To settle a grudge and ask a question,” replied Qing Chen.
…
Countdown 163:00:00.
Five hours had passed since this round of transmigration. The sky had taken on a grayish-white hue, about to usher in the first streak of dawn.
In the ninth district of City 7, a young man was pushing a wheelchair, on which sat a longhaired girl with injured legs.
They were moving in the dark streets beneath the buildings, a world different from the gorgeous neon holographic painting in the sky.
The pitter-patter of shoes splashed upon contact with the wet ground.
There were countless graffiti on the walls by the roadside, and along the way, homeless people were sleeping under blankets of plastic sheets, mountains of garbage piled up around them.
All the pipelines were rusty, yellowed, and unmaintained.
This was the slum of the cyber city, ruins, and depression as far as the eyes could see.
Slogans of revolt and the smell of decay were everywhere.
Everything was incompatible with the colorful world above the sky.
The girl quietly looked around, fear and anxiety muddling her expression.
The young man made multiple turns on the streets as he pushed the girl as if hiding from something.
“Wang Yun,” a cold voice came behind them.
Wang Yun quickly turned around and was shocked to see Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen. They were also sitting in wheelchairs, and their faces still looked very weak and pale.
The people pushing their wheelchairs were time travelers hired by the Hu and Zhang families. Although they couldn't help Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen to handle the troubles from Chen Corporation, they could assist them with some daily tasks.
Hu Xiaoniu spoke in a low voice, “Before we transmigrated back to the Outer World last time, you left alone because you were afraid that today would happen, right?”
Wang Yun pursed her lips and said nothing.
According to the plan, she would leave in a convoy of cars across the vast plain outside the city and travel along the outskirts of forbidden land no. 119 to reach City 3.
This wasn’t in line with her original plan to go to City 18, but she had to get out of here as soon as possible. There was no other choice.
Her parents paid a large price in the Outer World to buy her this escape plan.
At this moment, Wang Yun was looking at Hu Xiaoniu in panic. “How did you find me?”
Hu Xiaoniu calmly explained, “You’re waiting for the time traveler hired by your family to pick you up and send you away. But it just so happened that I found one of them before transmigrating and doubled the payment in order to buy your whereabouts. Finding them is easier than finding you.”
The man behind Wang Yun whispered an apology, then let go of the wheelchair and left silently.
Between the narrow buildings, in the dim alley, the injured girl sat alone in her wheelchair.
“What do you want?” Wang Yun rasped.
“Why did you sell us out?” Hu Xiaoniu asked, feeling low. “We’ve been classmates for more than a year. We were friends.”
Wang Yun asked back, “Then what did I do wrong to make you guys choose to exclude me ever since that day?”
Hu Xiaoniu realized Wang Yun was talking about the night they were captured after going to Jiang Xue's house.
At that time, Wang Yun was the first to regain her consciousness and be interrogated by the thugs.
She couldn’t withstand the pressure and revealed about all four of them being time travelers while crying and begging for mercy.
Later on, the rest of them woke up and witnessed this scene.
Hu Xiaoniu hesitated for a moment and said, “We weren’t ostracizing you. We didn't speak much to you because we thought you must’ve felt unwell, so we wanted to give you some space to calm down by yourself. Nobody meant to blame you. When you asked Bai Wan’er to change our itinerary, everyone thought you wanted to quickly take the load off your mind after the turmoil, so we immediately agreed without further discussion.”
“Stop being hypocritical,” Wang Yun slumped to the ground, tears slowly streaming down her face. “Maybe you didn't blame me, but Bai Wan'er did. The day after the accident, she told me she wanted to move out and live alone, she said she couldn't continue living together with the person who sold her out!”
Hu Xiaoniu fell silent.
Wang Yun's voice grew louder and louder, “They only picked me first because I was the first one who woke up. Do you think I’m the only one who’d spill? It’s because you guys haven’t had your turn yet! If you guys also cracked under interrogation, what right do you have to look down on me?!”
In the end, her voice once again subsided. “I just want all of you to experience the same thing I did, so you won’t have the right to look down on me anymore.”
Wang Yun couldn't accept that her utterly disgraceful appearance was seen by others, so when someone reached out to her after the incident with a promise of a better future, she was swayed.
Zhang Tianzhen suddenly asked, “But why were your actions so resolute? You even told the gangsters about Xiaoniu having two phones. I can somehow understand your feeling, but I’m sure everything you did was not only to get some peace of mind. You also wanted to reap other benefits, am I right?”
At this moment, numerous footsteps were approaching, and several men in black rushed over.
They were a little taken aback by the scene in the alley, but still stood behind Wang Yun.
The other time travelers hired by Wang Yun's family had finally arrived.
In an instant, a confrontational situation was formed between the two sides.
The Wang family had more people than expected. There were only 3 men on Hu Xiaoniu's side, but 6 men came to reinforce the other side.
A sense of security, at last, returned to Wang Yun. She calmed herself down and stared at Zhang Tianzhen. “Yes, I did for another benefit, a benefit that neither you nor Liu Dezhu could give me. Now please step aside. We’ll still be classmates once today is over.”
Behind Hu Xiaoniu and Zhang Tianzhen, the three time travelers hired by their families glanced at one another, each showing the intention to retreat.
The Hu and Zhang families did reward them in the Outer World, but they didn’t want to risk their lives just for money.
Note from your translators:
We've reached Chapter 100! Thank you so much for reaching this point with us, and we certainly would not have made it to this great milestone without all your support.
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