TYMIMA Chapter 24

Passing through an underground city iron door for time travel? It was unheard of.

 

Yet that’s exactly what happened.

 

The students who had just died under the claws of the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl were all back, not a single one missing, and none of them looked like they were possessing corpses.

 

Lance and Zhan Pingchuan didn’t speak further, but coldly waited for more dramatic events to unfold.

 

After a brief silence of a few seconds, the crowd indeed erupted—

 

“What on earth is going on?”

 

“Am I dreaming?”

 

“Bro… brother, why are you here? Didn’t you go to see your great-grandmother?”

 

“Are you joking? My great-grandmother is in Black Family Village. Where would I go to see her?”

 

A female student trembled all over, on the verge of frenzy: “What are you all talking about?! Have you gone mad?! What championship is there anymore?” She shouted while backing away, her voice completely distorted toward the end.

 

This sharp cry voiced what many were thinking. The male student who had been flattering Ashlen quickly became the center of attention.

 

“What are you shouting for? Are you sick? The championship should rightfully be Brother Lun’s.” The male student was completely unaware, glancing at the female student with disdain, not forgetting to turn to Ashlen with a fawning smile. “Brother Lun, don’t listen to her nonsense.”

 

“Aren’t you surprised that you’re still alive?” the female student murmured.

 

She had seen with her own eyes this male student step forward, intending to call Ashlen out from the white mist. At that moment, Ashlen’s emptied corpse flew out, crashing heavily in front of him, his glasses splattered with blood.

 

He was so frightened that his legs gave way and he fell. Then that thing came out. The male student’s eyes were wide open, his expression indescribably twisted and terrified. He was directly grabbed and crushed into meat paste, crushed finer than dumpling filling.

 

“……” The male student was fuming, spitting three times in the female student’s direction. “You’re the one surprised to be alive! You brain-dead thing!”

 

The female student fell silent. She was pale with fear, looking at the male student as if he were a monster.

 

How could a lump of dumpling filling turn back into a person? What was going on?

 

Lance raised his gaze toward Zhan Pingchuan, speaking in a tone of consultation: “It seems people who died earlier don’t have that memory.”

 

As he said this, his body instinctively leaned a bit toward Zhan Pingchuan. The passage was too crowded and noisy, making it easy to mishear.

 

“Well, this underground city is quite humane, knowing to give us survivors a plot gift package,” Zhan Pingchuan said, also unconsciously leaning a bit toward Lance, causing their shoulders to touch.

 

They both noticed this, but apart from blinking their eyes an extra time, neither changed their posture.

 

Liu Bo was confused by this bizarre development. He vigorously scratched his hair, still unable to resist raising a question: “But they should at least know how they died, right? It would make more sense not to have memories after death.”

 

“I guess this regression takes our defeat of the Pouncers as the starting point. In the timeline that just happened, Ashlen triggered the gol…” Lance’s voice suddenly paused, but quickly, he discreetly changed his wording, “that golden shiny bird, leading to deaths. The people who died remained completely in that timeline and didn’t come back with us.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan lowered his head, looking at Lance with a subtle expression, hesitating to speak.

 

The distance between their eyes was just a hair’s breadth. If Zhan Pingchuan leaned down slightly, he could kiss the tip of Lance’s eyelashes.

 

Lance noticed Zhan Pingchuan’s gaze, his heartbeat irregular for a moment.

 

Had he been discovered after all?

 

Lance was extremely frustrated. He had indeed let his guard down, perhaps distracted by their touching shoulders, and almost mentioned the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl by name.

 

If Zhan Pingchuan were to ask about it…

 

Then he heard Zhan Pingchuan say incredulously: “You call that ugly thing a ‘golden shiny bird’?”

 

Lance: “……”

 

Zhan Pingchuan feigned regret: “Little Lance, your aesthetic sense has basically bid farewell to fashion.” But you can still design the bathroom at home.

 

While breathing a sigh of relief, Lance couldn’t help but secretly mock: Your aesthetic sense is normal? Dressed like a meteor hammer.

 

Liu Bo tactlessly squeezed between the two, continuing the previous topic: “You mean that people at this current starting point are divided into those who escaped from the previous timeline and those who haven’t had time to die yet?”

 

Lance furrowed his brow, his fingers casually playing with the tips of his hair: “But this hypothesis has a paradox. If we escaped here, then where are the original versions of ourselves at this point?”

 

Tang Li: “Could they have merged? I remember in some movies, they set it so that two identical people can’t exist at the same time.”

 

Lance shook his head, indicating he wasn’t sure either.

 

There were indeed many mysterious things in underground cities that couldn’t be explained by logic.

 

“Thinking too much makes you petty.” Zhan Pingchuan, adhering to his salted fish principle of lying down wherever he went, rescued that curled strand of hair from Lance’s hand. “Let’s take it one step at a time.”

 

Lance’s hand was now empty, so his train of thought was broken. He cast a resentful glance at Zhan Pingchuan: “My hair.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan thought his little expression was absolutely adorable, so he quickly stuffed that pitiful red strand back into his palm: “Okay, it’s baby’s.”

 

Lance knew he was treating him like a child, silently rolled his eyes, and stopped playing with it.

 

Liu Bo swallowed this poisonous chicken soup and gave a thumbs up: “Brother Zhan, you’re so open-minded. I need to learn from you.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan accepted this flattery without blushing, boasting shamelessly: “Let’s both strive for it.”

 

At this moment, someone in the crowd finally noticed this shocking familiarity: “Everyone! We seem to have traveled back in time! They’re saying exactly the same things!”

 

“I remember now, I was standing right here, before we encountered that monster!”

 

“Does this mean we’re saved?”

 

Of course, those who had already died didn’t understand the others’ shock—

 

“What are you all talking about? To open the door, we must kill the C-level beast, the Frightening Bird.”

 

“We were fine killing Pouncers just now. Brother, why are you suddenly acting neurotic?”

 

Ashlen was already getting impatient. From his perspective, he had just been slaughtering Pouncers, and it was the perfect time to maintain momentum and press the advantage.

 

“Stop wasting words with them. Let’s go, quick and decisive.”

 

Tu Mo sneered, his tone implicitly confrontational: “What’s the rush? It’s not certain who will find the Frightening Bird first.”

 

Students who had experienced the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl broke down on the spot: “Don’t go! You’ll get everyone killed! We’ll all be killed by that monstrous thing!”

 

“I don’t care anymore, I want to go home, take me home!” The crowd became chaotic again. Some people clutched their teammates’ cameras, crying hoarsely; others collapsed, pounding the walls; some were feeling around where the door had once appeared.

 

Those who had already died once couldn’t help but shudder at this scene. In their eyes, these people seemed suddenly possessed.

 

The crowd gradually split, with students no longer divided by teams but standing in two clearly distinct camps based on their own understanding.

 

The male student following Ashlen grabbed his teammate: “Don’t go crazy, quickly follow Brother Lun!”

 

“I won’t go! Don’t pull me! Brother Lun will die, you’ll all die!” The teammate desperately broke free from the male student’s hand.

 

“What the hell is wrong with you! You want the reward but don’t want to put in the effort?” The male student had reached his limit of patience and punched his teammate to the ground.

 

The teammate didn’t fight back but still looked at him with an extremely desperate expression, as if bidding him a final farewell.

 

Ashlen, his thoughts in turmoil, interrupted: “Forget about him. We’ll explain to the teacher later. He’s expelled from our team.”

 

With that, he led the others in his team toward the depths without looking back.

 

Tu Mo, unwilling to be outdone, called to his people: “Those who want to leave, follow me!”

 

The rest of the uninformed students also followed in unison. People have a psychology of watching excitement, and they were more inclined to follow the big shots to get acquainted, leaving a good impression on the guild representatives watching the live broadcast.

 

Those who stayed behind asked: “Why haven’t the Blue Pivot inspection team responded yet? Aren’t our cameras broadcasting live?”

 

Someone responded dejectedly: “Are you stupid? At this point in time, nothing has happened yet. People watching the broadcast probably think we’ve gone mad.”

 

“I’m starting to wonder if we’re the crazy ones or they are, and if that escape experience just now was a dream.”

 

“Don’t doubt it. It definitely wasn’t a dream. My ability has a cooldown time, and I can’t use it now, which proves I really used it earlier.”

 

“They’ll die if they go, right?”

 

“Probably, but not as many as before.”

 

“But they’ll get us killed too.”

 

“Wait, doesn’t this mean we can find that door in advance? As long as we go through it, we’ll be safe.”

 

“Who knows what will happen if we enter that door this time.”

 

“Do we have a choice?”

 

……

 

Not long after, agonized cries came again from the end of the passage—

 

“He’s dead, the A-level is dead!”

 

“Tu Mo was killed by Ashlen! Ashlen has developed a first-tier ability!”

 

Everything was repeating. Those who stayed behind looked at each other, almost in despair.

 

Lance stood on tiptoe, supporting himself on Zhan Pingchuan’s shoulder, peering toward the accident site: “Five more minutes, and Ashlen will be dead.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan: “We should also prepare to enter the door.”

 

Sure enough, not long after Tu Mo’s death, gurgling chewing sounds came from the depths of the passage, followed by screams that shook the heavens and chaotic footsteps as a group of people rushed out as if running for their lives.

 

“Run this way! Quick, through the door!”

 

The iron door with “Eye of the Living Spring” was still in its original place. This batch of people, familiar with the route, guided the fleeing people toward the door.

 

Some listened and arrived in time; others, in their panic, ran in the opposite direction, becoming souls under the claws of the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl.

 

Lance stepped into the door, once again feeling the suffocating sensation of sinking to the bottom of the sea.

 

Zhan Pingchuan quickly held Lance in his arms. Lance obediently rested against his shoulder, appearing weak as if from low blood sugar.

 

Zhan Pingchuan found that Omegas were indeed weaker than Alphas. When passing through that door, he had almost no reaction, while Lance had to lower his head and take a long time to recover.

 

“How are you? Does little brother need to carry you?” Zhan Pingchuan asked with a smile.

 

“No need.” Lance didn’t want to be that embarrassed.

 

Zhan Pingchuan had to release some soothing pheromones. Lance closed his eyes and, like a kitten, leaned in to sniff, his snow-white ears gradually turning red.

 

How can he be so cute?

 

Zhan Pingchuan thought to himself.

 

Lance slowly opened his eyes, realizing his nose tip was almost touching Zhan Pingchuan’s gland. He pulled back his chin, moving away from his shoulder.

 

He hadn’t actually had enough of the scent, but he quickly adjusted his expression, hiding his reddened ear: “Now it’s…”

 

Zhan Pingchuan stroked his back, his gaze sweeping around, with a half-smile: “This is getting interesting.”

 

Lance rubbed his temples and also looked around, understanding why Zhan Pingchuan found it interesting.

 

“Holy shit, that’s scary!”

 

“What kind of beasts will be inside? I only know about goblins.”

 

……

 

The speakers indeed attracted several gazes from around them, but everyone looked over without as much surprise as before.

 

Actually, from a god’s-eye view, this scene would seem somewhat eerie.

 

The people speaking were enthusiastically chatting with their teammates, only to find that others, including their teammates, were staring at them with tired, deathly eyes, as if observing some rare animal.

 

Lance: “Now we’ve gone back two hours.”

 

##

---

 

 (advanced chapters available on kofi)