TYMIMA Chapter 25

Two hours ago.

 

Oil lamps had just lit up in the cramped passage, the air trembling from uneven heating, casting wavering ripples on people’s faces.

 

On the uneven floor tiles lay several chunks of Pouncer meat that Lance had cut open with the Black Mamba Fang, still emitting a foul smell.

 

Pouncers were still crawling toward the light in droves, but they were only struck down by abilities when they lunged at someone’s face.

 

“Have you gone mad or stupid? Don’t you want points anymore?”

 

Once again, there was an unsurprising internal division.

 

Students who had escaped from the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl last time unanimously stood on the informed side, while the death-bound faction led by Ashlen and Tu Mo were still desperately fighting for ridiculous points.

 

The two factions even showed signs of confrontation.

 

“I’ll give you one more chance. Stop acting so neurotic!” Ashlen twisted a Pouncer’s neck with his beast claws, shaking off the bloody meat fragments from his hands, seemingly trying to intimidate those people with this display.

 

“You go ahead.”

 

“Yes, we’re giving you first place. We don’t want it anymore.”

 

“Just consider us stupid, it’s fine.”

 

“It can’t be explained anyway.”

 

Everyone seemed less anxious now, because as long as they found that door and passed through it, they would infinitely travel back to an earlier moment. Then next time, they should return to outside the underground city.

 

Getting out of the underground city meant everyone would be safe, so whether Ashlen died in this timeline or not wasn’t so important anymore.

 

They didn’t even need to feel any guilt.

 

Lance observed carefully that these people could righteously let Ashlen go to his death because currently, the numbers in both factions were almost equal.

 

People always gain courage beyond their abilities in groups, and also gradually lose feelings that belong to humanity in groups.

 

But he truly didn’t care about Ashlen’s life or death. After all, this fool had already died twice.

 

Tu Mo had originally been determined to compete with Ashlen, but he seemed more perceptive than Ashlen. The attitude of half the people opposite didn’t seem fake; they seemed to know something he didn’t.

 

But Tu Mo couldn’t figure it out.

 

Just before entering the underground city, everyone had been eager and ready, but after entering, they suddenly changed.

 

“Go ahead and leave, you bunch of cowards! Everyone else, follow me. Let the school and guild representatives see your performance!”

 

“Let’s go! Who the hell are they trying to scare!”

 

“Stay away from these jerks at school in the future. They’re all a bunch of scared chickens.”

 

“Right, damn it, if I had known, I wouldn’t have teamed up with those two. Bad luck!”

 

“Brother Mo, let’s ignore them. I knew those two E-levels were no good!”

 

Under this pressure, Tu Mo couldn’t express his concerns and hesitations. He could only grit his teeth and continue killing Pouncers with his remaining teammates, heading deeper.

 

Liu Bo couldn’t help but mutter: “Wow, some people really die every time.”

 

But he was also grateful. It was precisely because he had followed Lance and Zhan Pingchuan’s team, with Lance’s ability to predict danger and Zhan Pingchuan’s A-level protection, that he could be an informed person rather than stupidly going to his death.

 

After all, even knowing about time regression, the moment of death was truly dying. The self in that timeline would never return.

 

Lance watched coldly with folded arms, unable to suppress a smile.

 

Sure enough, when people are in different positions and conflicts escalate, they don’t think about using facts and evidence to persuade the other side. Instead, they become increasingly irrational, determined to hit the wall no matter how hard it is.

 

While enjoying this ridiculous scene, he forgot his disguised identity and inadvertently revealed the demeanor of the White Pharaoh.

 

Death was a common thing to him. People die in various ways all the time in this world. It was no longer serious, no longer sacred. Like the hidden coldness in this world, Lance was just a bit colder than them.

 

It was precisely because of this that Lan Wendao secretly established the Black Lantern Society, hoping he could become a normal person through repeated help requests, observing those civilians struggling on the edge of life and death.

 

But Lance didn’t believe he would become compassionate because of this, nor did he believe that others in the Black Lantern Society would become compassionate.

 

But it didn’t matter. Life was so boring, academics so simple, with no challenges, no excitement, no suspense anywhere. He was willing to spend time doing missions for entertainment.

 

Zhan Pingchuan saw him tilting his head, resting in the shadow between two oil lamps. Due to the darkness, he couldn’t see his expression clearly.

 

“What’s wrong?” But he instinctively asked, feeling that Lance was different from usual.

 

Tang Li and Liu Bo also looked over.

 

Lance instantly withdrew the smile from the corner of his lips, his hands gently rubbing his arms, his gaze innocent and pitiful as he looked toward Zhan Pingchuan.

 

“Cold.”

 

With his reminder, Tang Li felt it too: “Indeed. Counting the regression time, we’ve been here for several hours. I’ve got goosebumps all over.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan met Lance’s gaze, raised an eyebrow, and said: “You Omegas are so delicate.”

 

But inside, he felt both soft and pleased.

 

No Alpha dislikes the feeling of being relied on and needed by an Omega, especially by an Omega whose pheromones are highly compatible with his.

 

If Lance were smaller, Zhan Pingchuan would even want to tuck him into his pocket to keep him warm.

 

He really envied those who had seen the little version of Lance.

 

Tang Li: “We Omegas do have slightly more delicate skin and weaker resistance than you Alphas. Who would have thought we’d need to be with you Alphas—”

 

Before he could finish complaining, he saw Zhan Pingchuan quickly take off his school uniform jacket and directly wrap it around Lance: “Wear this.”

 

Tang Li: “……” Variable snow mountain, huh?

 

“Uh.” Liu Bo looked left and right, then asked with a stiff face, “Do you want to borrow my jacket?”

 

Tang Li looked at Liu Bo, who was covered in stone fragments, and smiled sweetly: “Thanks, but no need.”

 

This guy truly lived up to his marmot form animal system. When escaping, he always wanted to burrow into the ground. If Zhan Pingchuan hadn’t repeatedly pulled his head up, he probably would have become that monster’s winter food reserve.

 

Liu Bo breathed a sigh of relief: “Thank you, thank you. To be honest, I’m a bit of a clean freak.”

 

Tang Li: “.”

 

Lance actually had a slight case of OCD too, but Zhan Pingchuan’s jacket had a faint scent of gentian pheromones and carried warm body heat, so he made an exception and didn’t refuse.

 

He even tugged at the collar, wrapping it tighter.

 

Before long, the Pouncers were killed and scattered, and all the passages in the underground city were revealed.

 

Ashlen and Tu Mo had already rushed toward the direction of the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl, just as they did each time they went to their deaths.

 

“We’re free! Everyone, quickly go through the door. This time, if we go back a few more hours, we can get out of the underground city!”

 

“Hurry, hurry! Don’t push.”

 

“Damn, once I get out of here, I’ll never come to this hellhole again in my life.”

 

“We need to report this to the school immediately. Let’s all be witnesses for each other, otherwise people will think we’re crazy.”

 

Following the oil lamps, stepping over the Pouncers’ corpses, they once again found that door.

 

The rusty iron door dimly showed a bronze color, with that ancient text still intact on the door.

 

Students who had hesitations when pushing the door last time now had no psychological barriers at all. They successively poured through the iron door, with no one bothering to remind the death-bound faction that there was a way to survive here.

 

Lance once again sank into a trance.

 

The feeling was like motion sickness, so exhausting and uncomfortable that he could barely open his eyes.

 

But he wasn’t worried about falling at all. When he relaxed and leaned back, he knew he would definitely rest against a chest.

 

However, before he could open his eyes, he heard someone cry out in shock: “What’s going on?”

 

Lance couldn’t ignore the discomfort but forced his eyes open, only to find flickering flames around him, a dim glow, and two dismembered Pouncer bodies lying on the ground, with nearly five hundred people standing in the passage.

 

“Hmph, ignorant. This thing is called a Pouncer, an E-level beast. They have tremendous reproductive ability—a single egg sac can produce hundreds, so they often appear in groups.”

 

The person providing this explanation had expected universal praise, but unexpectedly, many people, including the one who had cried out, paid no attention to his words.

 

They were talking among themselves, with panic, anxiety, and helplessness alternating on their faces.

 

“This can’t be. We clearly went through that door.”

 

“Did we not move forward at all this time? Are we in the same position as before?”

 

“Could it be that the door is set to not allow exit from the underground city? No matter how many times we go back, we’ll ultimately die here?”

 

“If that’s the case, I’d rather be a fool who knows nothing. This is too painful.”

 

“Help! Can anyone in the broadcast room hear us? There are monsters here, get us out quickly!”

 

“I don’t want to participate in the competition anymore. Please, God, can you let me go back to outside the door?”

 

Many people desperately held their heads and crouched down, even imagining what it would be like to have their stomachs emptied by that thing.

 

Ashlen, watching this ridiculous farce, sneered: “Have you all gone mad? Performance art?”

 

No one paid any attention to his words. The informed ones were in breakdown due to this failed regression.

 

Tu Mo, seeing classmates and teammates who had been normal just moments ago now crying bitterly and banging their heads on the ground, felt a chill.

 

“Are they possessed?”

 

Although Tang Li and Liu Bo appeared relatively calm, their voices had begun to tremble.

 

“Brother Zhan, Classmate Lance, what… what’s going on?”

 

Lance coldly observed everything happening before him, feeling no particular turmoil about this sudden situation.

 

According to Murphy’s Law, the more you worry about bad things happening, the more likely changes will occur.

 

He just wondered if this was truly a dead end, if Si Hongche’s purpose was to completely exterminate all the freshmen.

 

It seemed the secret of the rebellion suppression was fundamental to the Federation government. No matter what, Blue Pivot would not allow it to be leaked.

 

Zhan Pingchuan, as always, remained emotionally stable. He even joked: “Now we just have to pray that someone in our batch has a powerful background, so Star University will fear them dying here and have a change of heart, opening the door to save us.”

 

Powerful background?

 

The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener took it to heart. Lance’s eyelid twitched as he sensitively glanced at Zhan Pingchuan.

 

Tang Li clapped his hands together, saying excitedly: “I remember there is one—Sun Pangpang. His father seems to be the chairman of Trident Guild.”

 

“Trident Guild?” Zhan Pingchuan raised his eyebrows, seeming to have some impression.

 

But his expression instantly changed as he criticized mercilessly: “What kind of powerful background is that? Got into Star University with a bunch of sports, music, and minority group bonus points, and still only ranked second-to-last in the school. If he really had ability, he would have been admitted without exams.”

 

If it weren’t for this guy, would he be ranked last?

 

He had worked so hard with endless practice questions to get in, nearly straining his eyes.

 

Just thinking about it made Zhan Pingchuan furious.

 

Tang Li: “……” Second-to-last, and you, my friend, are last.

 

Liu Bo: “……” Is it appropriate for someone with a background of picking up trash and stealing bicycles to talk like this?

 

But both of them wisely held their tongues.

 

Lance couldn’t help but curl his lips, following Zhan Pingchuan’s lead: “Hmm… I don’t think he counts as having a powerful background either.”

 

It should at least be at the level of the seven major guilds like High Tower Guild or Ghost Eye Guild for Blue Pivot to be cautious.

 

But unfortunately, he had concealed his identity when applying.

 

Tang Li: “?” Even this can be hard-praised? 666, no wonder he melted Kilimanjaro.

 

Lance put away his smile, adopting the demeanor a good student should have, and very obediently and earnestly suggested: “Actually, it’s not necessarily completely hopeless. We can do an experiment.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan seemed to immediately understand his meaning, raising an eyebrow and continuing: “The controlled variable method?”

 

Lance’s heart skipped a beat, feeling an inexplicable sense of crisis. He suddenly felt that Zhan Pingchuan’s thinking was far more agile than he had imagined.

 

Perhaps the composure Zhan Pingchuan was displaying wasn’t confidence from being S-level, but because he had already thought of this point.

 

So Lance became more cautious, waiting for two breaths before continuing: “One possibility is that the door can’t regress to outside the underground city, but when we came in, the oil lamps weren’t lit yet. If regression has a starting point, it should be the earliest time. Another possibility is that we didn’t trigger the correct regression conditions this time.”

 

The first two triggers versus the third non-trigger—something had indeed changed.

 

Liu Bo hurriedly asked: “What are the correct conditions?”

 

Lance was just analyzing: “We need to try.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan thought the same: “The most basic is the timing. The first regression, we encountered the monster and everyone started running, then it succeeded. The second regression, the monster killed Ashlen, someone reminded the remaining people to enter the door, and it succeeded again. But the third time, everyone eliminated the Pouncers and directly entered the door, resulting in failure.”

 

Lance: “Mm, it’s possible that the monster is the trigger condition.”

 

Liu Bo: “So, we need to wait outside the door for that thing to kill Ashlen before we can succeed?”

 

Lance: “Perhaps.”

 

Seeing hope for survival, Liu Bo excitedly called out to everyone: “Everyone, calm down. Perhaps we didn’t trigger the correct conditions this time. The door is right there. If we try a few more times, we can definitely get out.”

 

When people are desperate, they need someone to step forward and give hope, even if that hope is slim.

 

So even though Liu Bo was an E-level with little presence, his words were taken to heart.

 

“He makes sense. We can try several times. Maybe one of those times we’ll get out?”

 

“But we don’t know the trigger conditions. If we keep trying like this, our energy will eventually be depleted.”

 

“Do you have a better idea?”

 

“Hey, that E-level, explain more clearly. How should we try?”

 

Liu Bo turned back to look, and seeing that Lance and Zhan Pingchuan had no intention of speaking, he reluctantly said: “You… you all think about when everyone entered the door the previous two times.”

 

“The previous two times…” Holy shit! That’s right! The previous two times, they all entered the door after that thing had killed people.

 

“So, our timing was wrong?”

 

Someone subtly pointed out Liu Bo’s hint, as it was indeed inappropriate in the current situation to explicitly say they should wait for Ashlen to be killed by that thing.

 

“I think we can try. The door and that thing both suddenly appeared this time. They must have some connection.”

 

“Rest assured, after I get out, I’ll definitely persuade my father to negotiate with the school to cancel this competition.” The speaker was the male student named Sun Pangpang. Although he had been wailing at the camera for a long time without receiving outside help, he was still confident in his ability to influence the school’s decision.

 

“Are you joking? You just entered and already want to leave? A few Pouncers scared you this much?”

 

Ashlen, watching these people act crazy for half the day—praying to gods, breaking down in tears, as if they wouldn’t survive until tomorrow—was so annoyed he almost wanted to bury them all right now.

 

Now that annoying E-level had said a few words, they were rejuvenated as if they had been injected with adrenaline, as if Liu Bo had spoken some profound truth.

 

Everyone looked at Ashlen in unison.

 

No one contradicted his words. Everyone viewed him as the key condition for triggering the regression.

 

Many people silently thought, no one should remind him, just let him go. After all, he had gone many times already and should be used to it.

 

“You’re all giving up the points here?” Ashlen sneered.

 

Everyone nodded in unison.

 

Ashlen: “Oh, so you’re handing over first place.”

 

Everyone transformed into ninja turtles.

 

Ashlen snorted: “Let’s go. There will always be some fools who fall behind on the path to leveling up.”

 

Everyone: “……”

 

Under the leadership of Ashlen and Tu Mo, the death-bound faction slaughtered all the Pouncers and headed deeper.

 

The informed faction quickly found the area near the iron door, but this time, no one rashly entered.

 

After some time, predictably, shrill and piercing screams came from the distance. Everyone’s spirits lifted, and they poured into the door.

 

After experiencing four regressions, Lance had a splitting headache. He wasn’t sure why he was having such a strong reaction.

 

But when he regained consciousness, he found flickering lamp shadows and pervasive stench—they had failed again.

 

“It’s over, all over. We really can’t get out. I heard with my own ears that Aishi… has already, you know.”

 

“It seems it just wants us to die here. That thing is too powerful.”

 

“I’ve had enough, I’ve had enough! Why are we the ones encountering all this? I just came to attend school!”

 

“Let me out! Blue Pivot, do you hear me? Let me out!”

 

“What are you all shouting about? Have you gone mad?”

 

“You startled me. Making a fuss as soon as the lights came on. I thought you were possessed.”

 

“Right? They look possessed to me too. Is there something strange about this beast?”

 

“How could that be? This is just an E-level beast, the Pouncer. They…”

 

The two factions quickly split again at the beginning.

 

“Hmm, it seems it’s not about timing.” Zhan Pingchuan raised an eyebrow.

 

Lance closed his eyes, trying to recall all the regressions. Since childhood, he had a photographic memory—anything he saw would be stored as images in his Spirit Realm system, remaining for a long time.

 

So with a little recollection, the several regressions appeared before him like a documentary. He carefully screened for differences among the comparative images.

 

Suddenly!

 

Lance sharply raised his eyes: “There’s another possibility—numbers. Using the encounter with the monster as the trigger point, during the first regression, only a small portion of people entered the door. I estimate around 121 people, and then we went back one hour.”

 

Although he said “estimate,” in the images in his mind, this number was certain. He had calculated it very easily.

 

However, due to his undercover identity, he didn’t want to appear too outstanding.

 

Lance gradually slowed his pace and continued: “The second time, with experience and someone reminding about the path to survival, about 242 people entered the door, and we went back two hours. So—”

 

“Adding the time for queuing and checking into the underground city, it means this time at least 363 people need to enter the door to go back three hours, ensuring everyone is outside.” Zhan Pingchuan said.

 

Lance nodded.

 

Tang Li was surprised: “You… calculate quite quickly.” He had just understood Lance’s logic, but Zhan Pingchuan had already considered everyone’s queuing time.

 

Zhan Pingchuan lowered his eyelids, sweeping an unhappy glance: “Classmate, I may be ranked last, but I’m not intellectually disabled.”

 

Tang Li awkwardly stuck out his tongue.

 

Zhan Pingchuan then turned to Lance with interest: “But first in the grade is indeed first in the grade. Little Lance, how are you so smart?”

 

His speech was casual, joking, but his eyes held undisguised admiration. That gaze was burning and bright, completely reflecting Lance’s image.

 

Zhan Pingchuan inexplicably felt that it seemed to have become a long-standing habit.

 

No matter when, where, or how many times, whenever they met, he would always like Lance.

 

“Is being smart a bad thing?” Lance asked with a smile, his usually innocent fox-like eyes showing a hint of playfulness.

 

But at least at the moment of asking, he hadn’t realized that he had already begun to test Zhan Pingchuan’s acceptance of his true self.

 

Zhan Pingchuan hooked his reddish-brown hair, saying cynically: “It’s good. I haven’t told you, have I? Actually, my father has taught me since childhood to find a smart and beautiful wife, just like my mother, who managed both the family assets and him in perfect order.”

 

“Family… assets?” Lance savored these two words carefully. To maintain his pure persona, he tried hard not to ask whether “family assets” referred to cans, cardboard boxes, or bicycle wheels.

 

Tang Li didn’t have such high emotional intelligence. He sighed with sympathy: “So your mother was so outstanding. What a pity. If only she hadn’t died on her way to buy you lamb shumai, bravely saving a drowning child.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan: “…………………..”

 

“You…” Lance looked at the lifeless Zhan Pingchuan incredulously, full of curiosity about this combination of a bicycle-stealing father and a self-sacrificing mother. “You were even born in a family of honor?”

 

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 (advanced chapters available on kofi)