Though killing one another in the Shibin Wastes wouldn’t grant the victor the opponent’s Chronos, this rule did not apply to monsters.
{Impressive. As expected of the strongest opponent.}
The voice of the moon-shadow monster echoed.
Before joy could even fade away, this mental voice rang out in Chin Mong’s mind. His eyes dimmed with a flicker of sorrow.
–Ha, just as I thought… this time it won’t be so easy.–
Yang Zicang sighed, imbuing a stone with Chronos. In an instant, a phantom glow flickered to life around it.
–I’d like to know—if the target you chose continues to grow stronger from here on out, will you grow stronger along with it?–
The monster, its body pierced through, bore two halves of a split skull. Its eyes, tilted upward, quivered slightly as the pupils swiveled to gaze at him.
{No. But it’s a fact that I am stronger than you, so don’t delude yourself into thinking you can grow in this very moment.}
The monster’s arm pulled itself from the ground, reaching for the spear shaft that had stabbed through it.
The instant its grip closed around the silver spear, Yang Zicang had already activated Grav-Arc. A twisted suction force materialized beneath the monster’s body, and with a solid thud, the area below its lower abdomen was shattered and devoured into a miniature black hole. The remaining part of the silver spear was drawn into the void with a sharp whoosh and vanished without a trace.
The faraway onlookers were utterly horrified; the pain must have been excruciating, yet the monster seemed completely indifferent.
The monster’s blackish-blue face split in two, but the flesh inside writhed and swelled, restoring the missing parts to fullness.
It had transformed into two heads!
–You possess a body that can regenerate like a plant—this is indeed an ability that can counter mine,– Yang Zicang said, his expression growing solemn.
{Do you know why?}
–What?–
{Because the moment I saw you, as a projection of the moon, I gained a new bloodline ring.}
Yang Zicang’s heart stirred.
Suddenly!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Yang Zicang’s toes touched the ground, and his body swiftly retreated as the thorny forest before him exploded with a roar, countless glints of cold light carried by blasts of energy hurtling toward the figure opposite!
Every shard of shattered thorn was enveloped in pale virtual flames!
[Trajectory Regulation!]
Hundreds of fragments before him twisted their paths, slamming into nearby thorns, crashing together in a massive collision that burst into a thick cloud of smoke.
The phantom of Paleshade Wyrm shot forth from the explosive air current, charging straight at the monster.
{Even if this bloodline ring—once craved by countless in the world I came from—is but a fleeting shadow of existence!}
The monster pressed its hands together and pulled with immense force.
A dark-golden cross-shaped star flickered between its palms! A dreamlike, undulating force field emerged!
｛Willforce.｝
Bam! The invincible Paleshade Wyrm slammed headfirst into this barrier.
Yang Zicang, having already consumed seven to eight thousand amplified Chronos, lacked the strength to withstand further assaults. He had to temporarily retreat, avoiding the blast radius.
He attempted to infuse the Paleshade Wyrm with over a thousand Chronos capital. The nightmare beast, merged with him, instinctively bit into the eerily flickering dark-gold force field!
Bang! The force field shattered into fractured streams of air.
But in that fleeting moment, the monster had already summoned a second –Willforce– field, stopping it cold.
–So this kind of force field exists.–
Expend your capital against an enemy’s amplified Chronos was a fool’s errand. Helpless, Yang Zicang had no choice but to disperse the No-mind Wyrm and retreat even farther.
The surrounding little light motes all darted upward collectively, chattering incessantly as they evaded the explosion.
｛A celebrity! He’s one too!｝
｛Yep, yep! The pale one who can’t reveal their alias~ How adorable~ Don’t lose heart; wear a smile!｝
｛Yep, yep!｝
……
In Hubville, Ju Yin Chase, who had just risen for an early breakfast, brewed a cup of stomach-warming black tea when he suddenly heard an urgent report from someone in the City Management Hall.
His body vanished from the spot in an instant, reappearing on the stone steps outside the hall.
–What’s going on?–
Ju Yin Chase burst into the solid wood room filled with vintage screens, where several staff members on duty pointed at the monitors.
–Boss, see for yourself.–
Ju Yin Chase looked at the brass typewriter, from which a sheet of paper protruded, covered in gray-black fine print.
—【Breaking News】
—A large co-frequency landform has emerged in the Shibin Wastes; the Moon’s Projection has once again appeared there after five years.
—During the new Human Sabbath, a celebrity with a fame exceeding fifty suddenly arose, and he has joined no Cargo Crew.
—Chin Mong ushers a new era into the Shibin Wastes.
–Chin Mong?–
He’ll surely secure a spot on this weekend’s rankings.
Ju Yin Chase gave the text a casual glance, then turned to look at the screen. Nearly every monitor displayed the same location, albeit with slight differences in perspective, like various spectator angles at a single arena.
The land depicted on them was far more vibrant and lively compared to the ever-bleak darkness of the Shibin Wastes.
And they all focused on a shabby camp at the foot of a mountain.
A monster exuding an aura of terror was locked in combat with someone. Although its movements were still sealed, merely by controlling plants, it forced those outside into a panicked retreat.
–Is that… Yang Zicang?–
Ju Yin Chase took a closer look at the figure outside that semi-transparent patch of land—it really was Yang Zicang!
His face lit up with delight; the kid hadn’t let him down. Being here meant his reputation was sure to rise, making this week look stable too!
But… he glanced at the typewriter beside him, and Yang Zicang’s name was nowhere on it.
A soft gasp escaped someone in the room. Ju Yin Chase turned to look as the monster punched the barrier at the edge of the land patch again and again, each blow making the semi-transparent boundary tremble violently, the flickering fold lines on its surface growing slower and slower.
–Boss, that guy was incredible just now. You didn’t see it—he ambushed that moon-shadow monster and speared it clean through from top to bottom with a single shot.–
–Pierced through?–
–His two heads originally formed one, but that guy cleaved them out of him with a strike.–
Ju Yin Chase leaned in closer to the screen. Injuries were clearly visible on the monster’s body, and those two heads had indeed grown after being split in half by the spear thrust. This realization made his expression turn grave.
–We’ve discovered another new ability of theirs,– Ju Yin Chase said.
The staff members in the chairs nodded, and one said, –The Moon Shadow Monster himself said he gained a new bloodline.–
Ju Yin Chase felt a shiver run through his scalp.
The Moxel on his chest manifested, shooting toward the void.
……
On the other side, Yang Zicang kept trying to contact Morris and Bopoli, but neither responded.
Gritting his teeth, he silently cursed the two pig-headed fools. Watching as that region was about to break through its suppression and manifest in this world, Yang Zicang decided to activate the InvestMoxel.
He hoped, in this godforsaken place, to scrape together enough Chronos for a response!
But just then, Ju Yin Chase’s Syn-Link arrived.
–Perfect timing, Director Futown,– Yang Zicang said, his spirits lifting.
{Don’t let him rope you in, ZiCang. The one on the other side should be a [Justiceer].}
–Justiceer? What the hell is that? Never mind that for now—just give me Invest. No, forget it—don’t invest anything. Go wake up Morris!–
He wasn’t entirely confident in Ju Yin Chase’s moves.
On the other end, Ju Yin Chase sent someone to knock on Morris’s door.
{A Justiceer is a new identity born when Moon Shadows face the most exceptional Elect. They awaken many memories or knowledge about their world, becoming as real as true life here.}
–So what?–
{We can’t let them bring information from the past into this place.}
……
Chin Mong clutched his head in agony, his body aged considerably as he struggled to suppress that landmass through the significantly dimmed Moxel, yet he could not prevent its rapidly clarifying topography no matter what.
Bang! Bang!
The monster smashed the zigzag lines writhing on the landmass’s membrane with a single punch, finally erasing the suppression. Justiceer stepped out of the landmass in one stride, with a circular halo flickering beside its pupil.
Yang Zicang only felt that the scene, still distant a moment ago, had suddenly appeared right in front of him.
The steel claws, gleaming with cold light, swiped toward his head in a flash.
[DISPATCH!]
The ability acted on the opponent, but the arm only wobbled faintly, barely altering its trajectory. In the nick of time, Yang Zicang relied on his martial instincts honed through training to twist his body and dodge.
Ju Yin Chase’s voice echoed in his mind.
{The information you exchanged with it touches upon the fundamental truths of the world, and your words will significantly shape the course of the world.}
Yang Zicang’s eyes suddenly shot wide open.
The earlier dream scene involuntarily came to mind.
—Don’t become the master here.
—They are watching.
Boom!
Yang Zicang flipped and leaped backward, rolling away. The spot where he had stood exploded violently. Justiceer stepped out of the smoke, both of its heads fixed on Yang Zicang.
–Your mind is not focused enough. With such a combat attitude, how can you continue to grow stronger as time flows?–
It actually emitted a real voice, and the language had even become Chinese. Had he learned his own language?
The few people in the distance stared in horror at this thing that had appeared almost instantaneously, all of them terrified at the thought of what they would do if it suddenly appeared before them.
–The world has actually been turned into this state by them.– The monster’s aura of hateful oppression diminished considerably, replaced by a trace of human emotion.
–What exactly do you…– Yang Zicang suppressed his urge to inquire, the stifling sensation leaving him profoundly uncomfortable.
–Want to know? I’ll tell you.–
{Don’t ask! If the present is destined to become the past, what benefit would any of this bring?}
Yang Zicang abruptly looked up.
The mouths on Justiceer’s two heads twisted into an indescribable smile, carrying both disdain for the young man before him and a measure of unconcealable melancholy.
–I don’t need you to say it!– Yang Zicang shouted.
Paleshade Wyrm charged forward wreathed in blazing golden light. Justiceer’s figure quickly blurred into afterimages, dodging its attack while snapping his hands together again, conjuring a dark-golden cross-shaped radiance that manifested a ripple force field.
With a bang, the ground erupted, scattering churning energy and muddled afterimages of earth and soil in all directions.
[I have come to understand three types of force fields corresponding to different levels of defense.]
Yang Zicang gritted his teeth fiercely, pushed off the ground with a burst of strength, and his body launched into a soaring leap, hurtling backward through the air.
Bang!
[I have neutralized 1000N.]
Seizing the moment as the foe evaded, Yang Zicang landed and shot over ten meters away, steadily increasing the distance between them.
He twisted his neck to look behind—dozens of meters away, a grin spread across the monster’s face.
–You see, I arrive.–
The monster said calmly. Then Yang Zicang once again found the monster naturally materializing within his field of vision, as if it were an ordinary person within a discernable distance.
This was its ability—to instantly appear right before him!
It swung a claw wreathed in golden brilliance, instantly unleashing a mirage of countless claw shadows before his eyes.
[Silent Night!]
Yang Zicang shut his eyes, arched his body backward, and dodged the onslaught of claw-shadow.
–Why do you keep babbling? Didn’t I tell you—I don’t want to hear it!–
Hum~ A Lance materialized abruptly, striking at the monster from behind.
Having tasted defeat once, how could the monster fall for the same ambush twice?
Its body spun sharply, sidestepping the blow. The Lance, its momentum waning, arced low and plunged into the earth.
–Not bad. You possess both psychic attacks and nimble combat techniques—two of the new three fundamentals. No wonder you’ve allowed me to acquire a new bloodline to rectify your future.–
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