Humanity’s time is about to end

He sat‌‍⁠‌‌‌​‍⁠‍‌⁠⁠⁠⁠‌⁠⁠​⁠‍‌‌​ up from the floor and slowly recounted what had happened inside the screen.

The High Peak’s officers and the Brain researchers immediately began a discussion. An Yu listened for a while. The thing that was panicking the Main City the most wasn’t actually Zhong Ke; it was the lingering fear that An Yu had almost been trapped in a dead person’s timeline, and their shock that his mental power could change at all.

As he was listening, Qin Zhilu switched him back to their private channel.

“Have you ever heard of Fu Xi Animation?” Qin Zhilu asked, completely out of the blue.

An Yu was stunned for a full two seconds. “Fu what?”

“The production company for ‘Super-Aberrant Kindergarten’.”

An Yu said, bewildered, “I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of it. What about them?”

Qin Zhilu spoke in a casual, chatty tone. “The main creative team has gone mad. In a new episode released two hours ago, they suddenly gave Bunny An a ‘CP’.”

An Yu’s mind worked sluggishly for a long moment. “Commander, what is a ‘CP’?”

Qin Zhilu let out a low “mm” and slowly explained, “It’s when two people steadfastly choose each other. They are equals, they understand each other, and they watch over each other. They eat and sleep together, keeping each other company, until death.”

An Yu digested this carefully. “Oh. Commander, Ling Qiu said that’s called a ‘spouse’.”

Ling Qiu had also asserted that his ‘low-life’s’ genes had already lost him the right to choose a mate.

“…Whatever you call it,” Qin Zhilu said a little helplessly. “They added such a person for Bunny An. It’s an octopus person.”

“Oh…” An Yu’s mind was still blank. “Is there a problem with that?”

“Because Black Tower firmly believes that Bunny An holds a significant meaning for you, any major plot change surrounding this character could interfere with your psyche, so they are currently negotiating with the animation company. But the creators are being surprisingly insistent, claiming they were struck by a divine inspiration and that this plot point will definitely make the show an even bigger hit.”

An Yu frowned, deep in thought for a while, unable to understand why the Commander was suddenly talking about this.

What did this have to do with the mission??

Qin Zhilu suddenly chuckled. “The moment your consciousness returned, you were almost overwhelmed by the feeling of rage. I’m just telling you this as a piece of gossip. Are you a bit more relaxed now?”

Rage…

An Yu instantly recalled certain emotions. He buried his face in his hands and whispered, “Yes, Commander. Being tricked by him was deeply humiliating. For a moment, I could barely contain my anger. It wasn’t His anger from deep inside. It was my own.”

He paused, then continued in a volume only the two of them could hear, “I thought I wasn’t going to get out. Thank goodness that at the last moment, time seemed to freeze for an instant, and I grabbed that chance to escape. But… before that, I was actively trying to awaken the thing deep inside, hoping He would save me.”

Qin Zhilu’s voice was calm. “Did you succeed?”

“No,” An Yu murmured quietly. “Before, I had to work hard to suppress Him from coming out, but this time, I couldn’t sense He at all.”

He finished and waited quietly for the Commander’s response, but Qin Zhilu said nothing. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly brought the topic back. “If they have to give Bunny An a CP, an octopus person is a good choice. After all, you seem to like octopuses. I’ll persuade Black Tower to accept the change.”

An Yu was bewildered again. In his confusion, he suddenly heard a gasp.

The blue morpho butterflies dissipated. An and Ning stared at the central screen, stunned.

Flame, who had been quietly giving instructions to Lumen, also stopped and looked at the screen with a cold expression.

The accumulated time on the central screen suddenly exploded and increased significantly.

An Yu said, “Zhong Ke is intensifying his plunder of District 34’s time. For those who are fated to die, he’s no longer resetting their pain, but accelerating their deaths.”

Lumen, however, slowly shook his head, his back to him. “It doesn’t seem to be entirely like that.”

Ning frowned in confusion. “Actually, after you entered the screen, the speed of this accumulation was already increasing. We were prepared for what you said. But that last spike… it was much faster than before. Does District 34… really have that many people?”

An Yu’s heart sank. A terrible premonition suddenly surfaced.

Amidst the noise on the public channel, a High Peak decision-maker suddenly shouted, “Urgent! District 02 reports an anomaly! Three patients in intensive care immediately died from sudden hemorrhage. The condition is inconsistent with their pathology. District 02 suspects a new abnormality!”

Almost simultaneously, another person reported, “Anomaly at the Plant Seed Museum! The plants that broke ground a short time ago all collectively and prematurely entered their fruiting stage a few minutes ago! Zhu Tao and Feng have already departed to investigate!”

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Amidst the chaos, a unique alarm blared piercingly.

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Qin Zhilu let out a deep “Mm.” “Feng Jian wrote in the report that Slade suffered a severe mental shock during this mission. Fortunately, at the mission’s end, his mental power was still at 49% and its decline was slowing. It should have been enough to hold on until a mental-type healer Protector arrived for support. But…”

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The time console room was also plunged into a dead silence. Even the maddening ticking of the clocks seemed to stop. Flame’s expression was terrifyingly dark. Ning and Lumen looked up blankly at the number on the central screen, which was still skyrocketing. An opened his mouth, as if to say something, but in the end, he just pulled his hood down and lowered his head in silent mourning.

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Although his personality was sinister and cruel, in humanity’s fight against the aberration, he was, without a doubt, a respected comrade. His mission recordings had been carefully watched and studied by almost every Protector.

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An Yu’s breathing was even and his expression was calm.

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After a long time, Flame spoke. “Every Protector must, and rightfully should, walk toward their death to prevent the sandbox from overturning. But—”

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Before today, he truly had never felt it.

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An Yu slowly raised his head and his gaze swept across the screens in every direction.

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“Everyone. District 34 has unfortunately encountered its most severe plague and aberrant swarm at this time. The loss of hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of lives is making Zhong Ke’s time ability infinitely stronger.

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“Humanity’s time is about to end.”

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The High Peak spoke with grim resolve. “Protectors in District 34, at all costs, you must do everything in your power to find Zhong Ke and stop him!”

At the same time, another wave of anomaly reports flooded in.

“High Peak! Electronic time is distorting again, fluctuating forward and backward erratically!”

“Molly has issued another warning to humanity! She’s live-streaming, swearing that this is absolutely not a server error!”

“The general public is starting to notice. All kinds of theories are spreading on social media. The mass panic may trigger unpredictable riots!”

Hundreds of Bait Cities, countless innocent people, all began to experience inexplicable time distortions.

Pain was reset, joy was plundered. People who might have been saved were caught off guard, dying without any explanation.

The High Peak said solemnly, “He is making a show of force to humanity.”

At the same time, a circle of screens around An Yu suddenly plunged into a frenzy of rewinding and fast-forwarding. Amidst the blur of static, Zhong Ke’s sinister, smiling face flashed rapidly between the screens, moving so fast that it almost seemed he was appearing on all of them at once.

An Yu met his gaze through those screens. His golden eyes were without a ripple. Even the contraction of his pupils was no different than usual, not trembling violently as it had before any of his previous outbursts.

His anger was silent. Separated by time and space, he faced the low-life.

In his earpiece, Qin Zhilu suddenly spoke. “Although I don’t know why your mental power fluctuated for that instant… you can’t sense Him, probably because you are in the process of fusing with Him.”

An Yu was slightly stunned. “Fusing?”

“Ever since District 53, He has been continuously awakening, and you have been continuously accepting. I told you long ago not to draw a line between you and Him. He is just the other, suppressed part of yourself. You were never meant to be in opposition.”

“Don’t doubt it. That moment that helped you escape from death, that was your own new potential, spurred into existence.”

“Time. Stagnation.”

An Yu took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

“Commander,” he said, staring at the hundreds and thousands of screens flashing chaotically, “I am very sorry for my failure just now. But please allow me to try one more time.”

“Mm,” Qin Zhilu’s voice was calm. “Go.”

Zhong Ke’s face flashed across innumerable screens, throwing the time console room and everyone watching in the Main City’s screens into disarray.

Only An Yu stared at those screens without blinking. After a moment, he gently closed his eyes.

Time and space. They both have their own unique methods of compilation.

The Commander had been the first one to tell him this, but his own understanding of the phrase seemed to be growing deeper and deeper.

A few seconds later, An Yu’s eyes snapped open. His gaze shot directly toward a screen in the corner. Almost simultaneously, that perfectly normal screen dissolved into static. Space fluctuated. In an instant, An Yu was once again on the far side of the room, and without hesitation, he plunged his consciousness into it.

Author’s Note: