Inside Competition City.
Yang Qian and his group stumbled out of the room, completely exhausted.
–Wow, so many people.–
He had thought his own gang was already a force of some scale in the city, but he never expected so many people to be gathered on the platform ahead.
A figure waving a colorful scroll was hawking in the crowd.
–My name is A Guo. Any boss here want to invest in me? I’ll split the Void Zero Chronos I draw fifty-fifty, and the Model Device gets first sale!–
Before he even finished, numerous folded rays had already gathered on his chest, almost forming a light cone. The man’s grin was so wide his face seemed about to crack as he lined up in the lottery queue, waiting for his turn to try his luck.
–You’ve used up your ten chances! Swap with me, it’s my turn!–
The platform front was in a hubbub, a crowd clustered around the big spinning wheel.
A man wearing a worn, brownish-yellow leather jacket, with a long sword sheathed in leather strapped to his back, pulled the lever one last time, then was immediately grabbed by the shoulder and yanked over.
His teammate took him over in one swift motion.
Next to the newcomer, two people clenched their fists—one of them with a blood-stained bandage wrapped around his hand.
–Old Xu, go for it!–
Old Xu’s eyes grew resolute. His firm hand gripped the electrical switch lever.
–Ah—up we go! Give me the mysterious prize!–
Click!
—-Congratulations! You have won a Fine Apron. With it, your dinner will taste even better!–
–Again!–
Click! Clack! Click! Clack!
The roulette wheel kept spinning, and soon the ten chances were used up. Old Xu, his face crumbling in despair, was yanked out by someone.
–No envelope… no… fake, a bunch of tricks.-
He muttered bitterly to himself, when suddenly a burst of cheers erupted beside his ear.
–I got the envelope!-
Riiip! The envelope was torn open in an instant, and the man poked his fingers into the opening.
[I have obtained [Sub-Ether Channel Trial Pack: Dark Gold Hub City].]
{Handsome guy, 150,000 Chronos years, plus future protection and a monthly free Chronos deduction subsidy.}
{Sell this to me—I’ll give you 300,000 Chronos years and a villa in Hub City!}
{200,000 plus a Cent-Arms kit, boss, sell it to me!}
–Give it to me!- Someone snatched it from his hand.
In the chaos of darting silver light beams, the man who had drawn the envelope quickly used his own red –pawl,- sacrificing his qualification to continue the match in order to avoid being attacked.
Seeing this, some of the covetous onlookers helplessly abandoned their plans to snatch it.
Yet just as the five-second countdown was about to end, a faint light flickered in the sky beside the blazing sun!
Swish! The man gripping the envelope suddenly crackled and popped, turning into a pitch-black human-shaped charcoal. The trial-pack photo paper still fluttered between those lively fingers.
The crowd erupted in uproar.
The crowd’s hair stood on end as that cone-like streak of light instantly tore through the sky, shot down onto the platform, and precisely struck down the man who had just snatched the photo.
{I am Lü Bu. Touch the picture, and you die.}
Hundreds of people on the platform swiveled their heads, glaring at the man in a thin down jacket and baseball cap, with eyes radiating utter contempt for everything, as he strode out of a Magic Tooth room.
A group of red Moxel followers emerged behind him, closing in on this spot.
–Lü Bu! You dare to enrage everyone here?!–
The man ablaze with red light in the crowd had barely finished his roar when a beam of light descended from the sky.
Bang! Still wedged among the crowd, he instantly turned into a stinking, foot-odor-emitting lump of charcoal.
–Ah!–
The people around him recoiled in terror, nearly knocking over those beside them and causing a stampede.
A pale-faced boy stepped forward from Lü Bu’s side; everyone in front parted to make way. Just as the boy was about to reach the human-shaped charcoal still clutching the photo paper, someone suddenly reached out and snatched it.
–Haha, it’s mine! I’ve already used up my barbed claw—only struck at the last second. There’s nothing you can—–
–Good. Your teammates, everyone you care about, won’t survive past the middle of this month. If you’re thinking of borrowing an investment of over ten thousand years to get away, sorry—before this Demon Hero Hall vanishes, you can neither pull it off nor send it out.–
Zhou Yu smiled as he stepped forward, looking at the person clutching the photo and the two teammates behind him.
The two stared in terror at the man enveloped in a layer of energy like curved water droplets. The next moment, they only felt a sharp pain, their vision blurred, and their consciousness dissipated…
–You needn’t have given me the photo, because it was already ours.-
Zhou Yu smiled and looked at everyone ahead:
–All the envelopes here are ours. Come on, everyone, line up and start drawing one by one.-
{People of the 41 cities, we will invest in you. Together, you can take him out…}
–Brothers, everyone together…-
Boom!
A dazzling flash erupted in the sky!
Before the person in the crowd could finish speaking, he was reduced to charcoal in a flash reminiscent of a camera’s flash.
Some who had been tempted immediately backed off.
{Why isn’t anyone moving! Whoever kills the troublemaker, I will reward him with 50,000 Chronos.}
{Whoever wants to leave here, we will give you investment, and guarantee not to withdraw it.}
Threads of information flickered, but no one dared to respond.
Lü Bu tugged at the brim of his hat. –Keep an eye on this place. Zhao Yun, let’s continue.-
……
–Lü Bu.- Yang Zicang furrowed his brows tightly.
Perhaps due to the influence of his rank, Lü Bu’s satellite Enightmare’s attack range had unexpectedly shrunk.
If this continues, its satellite Enightmare’s attack range will shrink to the thickness of a bucket, a bowl, or even a bottle cap—at which point the countermeasure Li Mi had in mind will fail.
In the scene, Lü Bu, with only Zhao Yun at his side, steps into the next room swarming with monsters—the Magic Tooth Chamber.
Two or three hours later, Yang Zicang saw the two of them pass through the third water curtain and reach the critical battle point that Boboli had designed.
In Boboli’s design, the two cities of the Demon Hall of Heroes are pieced together, entwined like the –Taiji Double Fish,- and the core gear assembly forms the –black and white- yin-yang eyes.
At this moment, the psychic field of the Demon Hall of Heroes directly connects the geographic spaces of the two cities. Each city can collect at most four colors of pawls; the fifth, differently colored pawl must be obtained from the opposing city before one can qualify to reach the –eye position- and open the waterway leading to the final room.
–To have made it here by the third day—looks like you really might reach the final room within five days.-
Yang Zicang examined the cube imprisoning him once more.
Suddenly, Lü Bu and Zhao Yun’s discussion came to his ears. Following Zhao Yun’s pointing finger, Yang Zicang caught sight of what appeared to be several large palaces of various colors in the distant gaps between the rotating gears.
{In the duel of the Battle of the Twin Cities, participants can go to the Five-Colored Hall to obtain the right that makes all spectators invest in them.}
–What?-
{Reminder again: as soon as you reach the range of the Five-Colored Hall, you automatically acquire the financing right, and you can freely decide whether to let the accumulated Chronos break through ten thousand years.}
{Duration of the financing right — three hundred and sixty-five days!}
Yang Zicang stood up in shock.
–This is something Croft came up with too!-
……
–Heh heh, that’s my amendment.-
Somewhere, Croft was lounging leisurely on a chair, his feet propped on the wide desk, watching the –Live Broadcast of the Permanent Magic Hero Hall- before him.
And on the desk in front of him stood a triangular brass nameplate engraved with the words: 【First Session Permanent Magic Hero Hall Expert Advisory Group Chief Consultant: Grand Designer Dwight Croft Officer】.
–As the proposer of the emergency advisory group, I need to show off a bit, or how else can I intimidate those factions in the council? Heh heh… how else can I live up to the enthusiastic investments of all these spectators?-
……
A small gray-black engine appeared in Yang Zicang’s palm.
[I have been informed that the sub-aether space is being sealed as well.]
–Even the ether channel can be sealed.-
Yang Zicang raised his head. On the surface of the cube, faint ripples of dense energy slowly spread.
–Can only wait? No…-
Yang Zicang entered a state of deep contemplation, isolating all perception of the outside world.
–Although one can see the outside from inside, it’s hard for mental power to sense what’s out there.-
Yang Zicang’s mind raced with distracting thoughts. He stood up and walked over to the toilet.
–Even with the help of the ‘Power of Mind Manifestation,’ it’s still difficult to perceive.-
He could only wait until the fifth day!
By then, would he still be in time?
Bloop bloop bloop bloop.
The water curtain of the toilet rippled.
Even if it weren’t for the city’s ranking, didn’t he still have an additional reward given by the councilor, placed as a prize in the year-end city ranking battle? What would that reward be?
As the surface of the water puddle inside the toilet calmed down, Yang Zicang’s finger hovered over the flush button.
Suddenly, a thought struck him.
–The toilet?–
In the empty room, the young man stood before the toilet, his hand frozen above the flush button.
–The water surface is always at this level… where does the flushed water go? If it’s manifested from energy, then my excrement isn’t made of energy.–
Yang Zicang’s heart tightened.
He sensed the –Power of Mind Manifestation– within him. Perhaps because he was in confinement, or because the Lost Illusion Company rarely applied for such a benefit, this mental enhancement power from some powerful entity had not yet been revoked.
Yang Zicang stared intently at the water surface.
If all things were communicating with him in some way during Chime Night, then the substance that carried his own aura must be easier to grasp.
[I, the insignificant quadrilateral, activate Chime Night.]
–It’s up to you now, the gift from a lost fate!-
Yang Zicang pressed the flush button.
[I, the insignificant quadrilateral, begin to exercise the –Right of Mental Manifestation.-]
With the help of the powerful –Right of Mental Manifestation,- –Chime Night- quickly located this flush of hot water.
It was swiftly carried by the water rushing out of the tank, hurtling toward the narrow space.
The Right of Mental Manifestation traced its trajectory in the sea of the mind—the toilet, through a mysterious passage, rapidly brought the excreted waste out into the outside world.
The feedback of a dim, decaying, intensely repulsive aura… Yang Zicang forcibly suppressed his inner discomfort.
The Paleshade Wyrm hesitated as it rushed toward the sewer, only to be quickly blocked by a mysterious energy.
–The psychic power really did connect to the outside… but what now… what should I do…-
In a room ten or so departments away, Huan Bao’er of the Rippling Star Division cast a faint sideways glance.
–Huh?- She put down the hand propping her head, a slight twitch at the corner of her eye. –This little one sure works fast when it comes to stirring things up.-
With that, she continued shifting her gaze toward the ancient screen ahead.
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