Countdown 116:00:00.
In an abandoned factory somewhere in Yanjiao, Beijing.
The sound of leather shoes trampling on the concrete ground moved in from a distance, and more than 30 time travelers who were hung on the beams slowly opened their eyes.
They saw hundreds of solemn figures watching them quietly in the dim factory.
Among these people, there were middle-aged men and women, young people, and teenagers who looked like students.
They were wearing black uniforms with the words Jiu Zhou embroidered on the cuffs.
The people hanging on the beams were dripping with blood. The blood flowed down from their bodies, collected beside their toes, and then fell into the dust on the concrete floor.
As the footsteps approached, the crowd silently moved aside to create a path.
He Jinqiu, who was wearing a gray suit, came to these time travelers. He didn't speak, but gently took off his coat, handed it to a middle-aged man beside him, and unbuttoned the cuff buttons of his white shirt.
"All of you are people of the Outer World. Have you considered what are the consequences of the household registration information database being stolen?" He Jinqiu looked at the people in front of him and asked calmly.
A time traveler who was hung on the beam struggled and said, "Even if we are at fault, Jiu Zhou shouldn't be torturing us like this!"
He Jinqiu said slowly, "Let me tell you what the consequences will be. The powerful computers in the Inner World will compare each person in the household registration information with the federal database they have. In less than an hour, they will find out who is a time traveler."
"Among these people, some have become time travelers, and some have not yet triggered the time-traveling conditions, but either way, they'll only have one fate, and that is to be ruthlessly eliminated by the various parties in the Inner World."
"How many people will die? Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Who knows. All of you have been time travelers for a while, and you should know by now how ruthless the corporations in the Inner World can be. They are truly cold machines that don't show any affection .”
A time traveler begged, "We know what we have done is wrong, please stop torturing us."
However, He Jinqiu turned a deaf ear to his pleading, "I can understand a little bit if other time travelers were forced against their wills to execute the corporations' orders. But everyone here has complied with the corporations willingly, which is why you have received tasks so quickly. Am I right? I cannot tolerate this kind of voluntary defection."
After speaking, He Jinqiu picked up a pistol and shot a traitor between the eyebrows, then handed the pistol to the middle-aged man beside him. Without much hesitation, the middle-aged man also raised his hand and killed another person.
He Jinqiu said in a flat tone, "I hope everyone understands that what we are experiencing is a war. The age of long-lasting peace is over, and you may have forgotten how cruel war is. Since the birth of Jiu Zhou, we are doomed to resort to extraordinary measures."
He turned to look at everyone behind him and said, "You, too, know what Kun Lun is experiencing. They are underpaid, barely have any benefits, yet risk their lives every time. Despite being a special forces division just like us, their salary is just over 10,000 yuan a month, even with bonuses, they can hardly earn over 30,000. If they died in combat, their pension is not much different from others. Why is that? That's because they still live in the old age of the past!"
"I hope you all understand that, in this war between the two worlds, you time travelers are the real main players. I will lead you to gain a foothold in the Inner World, and I will also lead you to relieve your worries. Before the war comes, we must first learn to protect ourselves. We must lead this war. This is the glory you must enjoy in return for taking the risks."
After speaking, everyone in the crowd at the back silently stepped forward to get their pistols and pulled the triggers on the dead traitors.
This was to prove their loyalty.
He Jinqiu quietly watched everyone taking their shots, but this was only a small number of people in Jiu Zhou, and it would take a much longer time for the entire Jiu Zhou to agree with his mission.
He needed to progress steadily.
At this time, the middle-aged man brought a tablet, which had the information about the battle in Luo City, "Boss, three time travelers who don't belong to Kun Lun appeared tonight. One is Qing Chen, the Laojun Mountain killer we paid attention to earlier. The second one is a girl, who appears to be able to control the force field. The last person is quite strange. He attacks with a playing card. From his physical ability, we can conclude that he is superhuman, but his level is unknown and his tactics are more ferocious."
On the tablet, a high-definition video was being played. Looking at the angle, the photographer was hiding in a building in Xinglong Community.
He Jinqiu looked at the battle scene and asked "What about the people we had in Kun Lun? Are there any guesses for this girl and that card guy?"
"Our spy said that the girl publicly admitted to Lu Yuan that she was Liu Dezhu's subordinate, so that other person should also belong to the same organization," the middle-aged man said, "This is a small organization, but their individual strength far exceeds that of other time travelers."
The gunshots in the abandoned factory gradually subsided and silence returned.
He Jinqiu was silent for a long time and said, "Luo City is getting interesting. Looks like Li Shutong does have some influence. Arrange our men to investigate Liu Dezhu, and use him to find out the person behind all this."
"Yes, sir! We'll have that arranged right away," the middle-aged man responded, "So, should we focus on that girl and the person who uses cards? I think Qing Chen is just an ordinary person. We don't need to worry about him as much."
He Jinqiu pondered and said, "You can decrease our level of attention on him but don’t give up completely."
"I understand," said the middle-aged man.
"In addition," He Jinqiu glanced at everyone present, "Keep tonight's secret. Mr. Zheng must have a lot of people in Jiu Zhou as well."
…
…
Countdown 117:00:00.
Early in the morning, Qing Chen finished training. Sweat slipped from his chin and dripped to the ground.
Now that he has made it across the gap between an ordinary person and a superhuman, he was a peak E-level. Ordinary training could no longer meet his needs, and he must purchase heavier weights.
Qing Chen still didn't quite know how the level ranking works for the Inner World. He estimated that his current strength was about six times that of an average adult.
So, that night when the assassin wanted to draw the gun but couldn't pull it out, it was because Qing Chen's strength was well beyond his.
Qing Chen was already very satisfied with this result.
The only downside was his recovery of Qi was a bit slow. It may take a whole day to recover the amount of Qi he used in a battle.
Qing Chen raised his hand to look at the transparent Forbidden Item ACE-019 on his wrist. The Marionette String.
In yesterday's battle, this Forbidden Item helped him the most. If it wasn't for the Forbidden Item, he wouldn't be able to succeed so easily.
It was only at this moment that Qing Chen suddenly noticed something strange about the Marionette String.
He saw that the smooth end of the string was now split into two, 13 cm.
The split string looked like a forked hair after not being taken care of for a long time, Qing Chen thought to himself, is the Marionette String being worn out?
This made Qing Chen a little surprised. This was a Forbidden Item, an item that could ignore the existence of the world’s rules. How could it be damaged after a battle?!
Thinking of this, Qing Chen may be more inclined to another possibility: Could it be that after he killed people last night, the other containment conditions were satisfied for the Marionette Strings? Perhaps he would be able to control more people?
But he didn't sacrifice those people to the Marionette String. Could it be that the Marionette String absorbed the souls of those assassins on its own?
Qing Chen looked at the Marionette String. The item itself was 50 meters long. Compared to its original length, the 13-centimeter branch was barely noticeable.
But as the saying goes, little makes more. One day the branch would be long enough to control a second person.
Controlling just one person might not be horrifying enough.
But if he could control 3, 4, or even 10, at one point, it would be a substantial boost to his ability.
If he could control ten more E-levels, then it would be much easier for him to deal with C-level masters like Cao Wei or Qing Huai.
At least when his opponent got seriously injured, he could have a group of fighters swarm up and erode away the opponent's last bit of strength.
Qing Chen was familiar with micromanipulation.
Wait, Qing Chen realized something!
Back when Li Shutong introduced the Marionette String to him, Li Shutong didn't go into much detail but only mentioned that it was an evil Forbidden Item, requiring five sacrifices every month to be used.
But in fact, if this was the case, then the Marionette String could not be considered evil. In the Inner World, an average human life was close to worthless, so a superhuman killing five people would not really be considered evil to their standards.
Now that Qing Chen found out about the new containment condition for the Marionette String, he found himself subconsciously thinking about what kind of things he could do by controlling as many people as possible.
But he neglected how many people he would have to kill before unlocking the Marionette String's next ability!
Qing Chen let go of the idea of quickly expanding his Marionette String since he promised Li Shutong to be true to his purpose.
Of course, for those who deserved to die, he would not let them go either.
At this time, Qing Chen thought of another question: If the Marionette String had a second stage of containment capacity, would other Forbidden Items have it as well?
The Devil Post Stamp, for example. What would its second stage look like?
In the morning, before Qing Chen got up, he heard a knock on the door.
After opening the door, he saw Yangyang standing outside and asked, "Why are you here?"
"It's time to go to school," Yangyang said calmly.
"What? Just go to school then, why are you waking me up?" Qing Chen asked. He glanced at the time and said, "And why so early? It's only 6:50!"
"I want to eat the local breakfast in Luo City, but if I walked too far then I might not find my way to school. I don't want to be late," Yangyang said, "So take me there, and I'll treat you to this meal."
Qing Chen thought for a moment, "Fine, spicy soup, rice noodles, buns. What do you want to eat?"
He went back to the room and asked while washing up.
"I want to try them all," Yangyang followed him into the apartment.
"Please don't tell me you're going to wake me up every morning from now on to go eat breakfast…" Qing Chen said.
"Isn't it great to have team-building activities?" asked Yangyang, "Only well-fed members would fight wholeheartedly for you at critical moments."
"Ptui!" Qing Chen spat mouthwash into the sink and said, "When did you become a member? I told you that the boss has to agree first!"
"But you said you would ask yesterday. Did you ask?"
"The boss hasn't replied yet!"
"Okay, then I'll ask you again tomorrow."
Qing Chen, "…"
He didn't know what to do with this kind of shameless person.
When the bell was about to ring in the morning, Qing Chen and Yangyang walked into the classroom together.
In the last row, Nan Gengchen, Hu Xiaoniu, and Zhang Tianzhen, who were lazily waiting for class to start at first, suddenly regained their spirits.
"Is it a coincidence?" Zhang Tianzhen asked hesitantly.
"They probably happened to meet as they came out," Hu Xiaoniu thought for a while, "With Yangyang's personality, she won't allow any boys in her life."
"Well, it might really be a coincidence," Zhang Tianzhen said, "By the way, last night's news is already in the top three trending list. Some people said that it was all because the Wang family wanted to kill Liu Dezhu."
Hu Xiaoniu frowned, "Do you want to warn the Wang family together?"
The battle last night spread faster than expected.
There were many residents running from the fire at the time, and some people even took a video of Yangyang coming down from the sky. This video largely contributed to the popularity of the battle.
The video was slightly blurry, and the lighting wasn't the best. Liu Dezhu was running wild with his mother on his back, while a huge wave of water behind him was suppressed by a girl falling from the sky.
Because of the distance between the camera and the girl, no one could see the face of the girl with a hood on, but none of this affected everyone's shock toward the otherworldly power shown in the video.
After seeing the video, Liu Dezhu's neighbors recognized him, and people were full of praise for his courage, saying that at a critical moment, the young man disregarded the danger and insisted on sending his mother to the hospital…
Moreover, rumors about that girl also spread, saying that she came specially to save Liu Dezhu.
At this moment, Yu Junyi, the class representative who had been hiding his identity as a time traveler, finally couldn't help it, "Actually, I am also a time traveler, and I happened to be in Prison 18. When I first saw those mechanical monsters in the prison, I was scared. Then I met Liu Dezhu. With him protecting me, other prisoners in the prison didn't dare do anything to me."
Yu Junyi continued, "Liu Dezhu's status in Prison 18 is unimaginable. I think he may be one of the most powerful time travelers now…"
Nan Gengchen sat next to Qing Chen and wrote a note: "Brother Chen, when Liu Dezhu came to school in the morning, he was surrounded by those rich playboys, saying that they're going to City 18 to find him, and some say they are already on their way.”
Qing Chen wrote on the note: "Liu Dezhu is in Prison No. 18. They can't get in there even if they're in the city."
Nan Gengchen replied: "They started studying the federal laws, and they are planning to go to prison collectively. They said that only severe criminals can get into Prison 18. To get in, they have to evade taxes or participate in gang activities that end up with severe injuries."
Qing Chen gasped, those playboys were surely talented!
But haven't these people considered that after committing a crime, there would be a process of investigation and criminal proceedings? By the time they were sentenced, Liu Dezhu would probably be out of prison.
He couldn't imagine what would happen when they realized Liu Dezhu was leaving the prison.
Nan Gengchen wrote on the note, "These rich kids are quite abnormal. When they find that they have a countdown timer on their arm, their first reaction is to travel with a gold bar in their mouth. That is completely different from other time travelers. Money was not their problem."
Qing Chen sighed. When he was busy bringing gold bars back into the Outer World, others were bringing gold bars in from the Outer World. Their experience was completely different.
Nan Gengchen wrote again: "By the way, Brother Chen, you were also there last night…"
"Yeah."
"Next time, you should bring me with you! I'll prepare cameras on a building and record HD videos of the battle. I heard such videos can sell for several hundred thousand yuan each!"
Qing Chen was stunned, this seemed to be a good way to make money!
The paparazzi were all trying to catch trends, and he was beside the trend all the time. Perhaps he could create some trendy events himself?
Of course, now that Liu Dezhu's popularity has passed, his news may not be able to sell for a good price.
However, the new heading line could be: "Girl Who Fell From the Sky" was asking him out to breakfast early in the morning.
Qing Chen turned his eyes slowly to Yangyang, only to see Yangyang looking down at her phone and suddenly said, "Looking at the news, He Xiaoxiao’s group chat system is live, and all time travelers can verify to join the group. But because of the limited capacity of the servers, only one of the twelve groups will open. So, only special time travelers with unique identities in the Inner World will be accepted."
"Will you join?" Qing Chen asked.
"Of course! This is a good opportunity to network with other time travelers. We can exchange a lot of useful information in it," Yangyang said, "But I definitely can't join now. There will be too many hidden dangers if you reveal your identity too early.”
Qing Chen thought for a while and said, "Actually, you can't even if you want to right now."
Nan Gengchen added, "Someone posted on Weibo that there are 13 million people queuing for verification…"
Qing Chen was not surprised.
When a big event was happening around them, everyone would want to join the fun, including time travelers and ordinary people alike.
Looking at it, the number of people in the queue was still increasing rapidly.
He Xiaoxiao might have underestimated the enthusiasm of his fans.
He wouldn't be surprised even if the number of people queuing exceeded 100 million today.
Sure enough, when class was about to end in the evening, the number of people queuing had reached 93 million, and the number was still rising.
In fact, some people were not interested, but later the news became more and more widespread, so many people queued purely to get the number to 100 million.
Just when the number of people in the queue was approaching 100 million, the system suddenly launched a new page: Automatic Screening Review System.
He Xiaoxiao also announced on Tik Tok that the system will screen people through 36 questions.
The number of people in the queue began to drop off.
But something even funnier happened. Within half an hour, someone posted the correct answers to 36 questions on Weibo.
As soon as the answer came out, the number of people queuing increased rapidly again.
For nothing else, everyone just wanted to see how He Xiaoxiao would deal with the situation…
Qing Chen didn't want to follow up with this anymore. He got up and prepared to skip class.
But just before he left his seat, Yangyang grabbed his arm and said, "Don't leave."
Hu Xiaoniu, Nan Gengchen, and Zhang Tianzhen's ears pricked up.
Qing Chen asked helplessly, "Why?"
Yangyang said seriously, "You still have to take me home."
The faces of the melon-eating trio next to them changed instantly. No one expected such a turn of events!
Qing Chen said, "Then you come with me now."
Yangyang thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll go with you."
The melon-eating trio stared dumbfounded at two teenagers skipping class together. They were all speechless.
