TYMIMA Chapter 26

Zhan Pingchuan thoroughly experienced that timeless saying: one lie often requires ten thousand lies to cover up.

 

His persona was now completely collapsed, his family background complex, his parents so bizarre that he was speechless. No wonder Lance was looking at him that way.

 

But now wasn’t the time to come clean. As one of the few secret members of Ghost Eye Guild, a pioneer in investigating the truth of the rebellion suppression, he couldn’t throw responsibility behind him just because he had developed feelings during a mission.

 

Zhan Pingchuan could only avoid Lance’s curious gaze, turning to give Liu Bo a look: “Speak!”

 

Liu Bo hadn’t been able to interject earlier. Now suddenly prompted, he first froze, then as if awakening from a dream, raised two thumbs up: “Honor! Honor! So honorable!”

 

Zhan Pingchuan hissed, feeling his teeth itch, wanting to kick Liu Bo. He barely restrained himself: “Who told you to talk to me? Go tell them!”

 

“Oh, oh, oh.” Liu Bo finally came to his senses. He couldn’t help but speculate whether big shots all concealed their achievements and fame, actually letting him take the spotlight.

 

Liu Bo quickly cleared his throat, relying on his natural advantage as a marmot form, and howled loudly: “Stop being depressed! Ah—”

 

His voice was extremely penetrating, making people instantly alert.

 

Ashlen was startled, almost squeezing out urine. He gritted his teeth, turned to glare at Liu Bo, and cursed: “Do you have a death wish?”

 

Liu Bo had no time for his profanity. Taking advantage of everyone’s silence, he spoke with the clearest, most resonant voice of his life: “Even if we just failed, it doesn’t mean we can’t get out. If it’s not a matter of timing, then it might be about numbers! Think carefully, in the two times we were able to regress, didn’t the number of people entering the door increase?”

 

This possibility he provided made everyone fall into thought, looking at those around them.

 

“How many more people were there the second time compared to the first?”

 

“Quite a lot, almost half.”

 

“I think we can try. It’s better than waiting to die here.”

 

“I have a feeling it should be about numbers. Have you noticed that this regression seems to be rewarding us? It appeared, helping us escape death. The more people we bring in, the further we get from death.”

 

Ashlen was once again confused and simply stopped thinking: “What nonsense. Is what this E-level says worth discussing?”

 

However, the informed faction no longer took Ashlen seriously. After all, he was just a brute destined to die.

 

People discussed in groups, finally realizing that the biggest problem now was how to bring more people through the door.

 

The informed faction and the death-bound faction had completely split. Each thought the other was stupid and wouldn’t listen to anything they said.

 

“We need to bring more people, right? Worst case, we knock them out and throw them in?”

 

“I think at least more than ten. Is there anyone with a high awakening level who can go over there and bring a few back?”

 

“Wake up. Both A-levels are over there. Who can you possibly bind?”

 

“How about this—we first tell them the door’s location, then they can do whatever they want. Surely some will be able to run in.”

 

“They won’t come with us to find the door.”

 

“What if someone follows them, then shows the way when they’re running?”

 

“Haha, you’re so sure you can escape? Then you go. Whoever wants to commit suicide can go.”

 

“Exactly. What if that thing catches up to you?”

 

Liu Bo was about to say that they needed at least 363 people to return to outside the underground city, but Lance tilted his head slightly and raised his hand to grab his arm.

 

Suicide?

 

In a flash, Lance’s mind recalled the death application of Oliver, the former member of Blue Pivot’s Second District.

 

His heart stirred slightly, and suddenly he had another idea.

 

Zhan Pingchuan tilted his head, glancing at the back of Lance’s pale hand.

 

So what if he grabbed another Alpha’s arm?

 

He needed to show the aura of the main wife. As the ancients said, the one closest to the water tower gets the moon first. As the ancients also said, as long as this palace doesn’t die, you all will remain concubines.

 

Thinking this, Zhan Pingchuan persuaded himself to be magnanimous.

 

Completely unaware of the threatening undercurrents beside him, Liu Bo stood with his mouth open, looking at Lance in confusion.

 

He was about to say that the regression time and number of people had a multiple relationship—the first time was 121 people, one hour; the second time was 242 people, two hours. They had been in the underground city for nearly three hours, so this time they needed 363 people.

 

However, Lance’s action made him swallow his words: “Classmate Lance?”

 

Lance was still wrapped in Zhan Pingchuan’s jacket, but because of his gesture to stop Liu Bo, the jacket had opened slightly. The cold wind of the underground city blew in, quickly leaving small bumps on his neck.

 

Hmph, still needs this palace.

 

Zhan Pingchuan directly reached out, grabbed both sides of the collar, and wrapped the jacket back around him. Lance didn’t refuse at all.

 

Lance was currently searching for something in the chaotic crowd of both factions. He even stood on tiptoe, leaning against Zhan Pingchuan’s chest for balance, trying to see everyone’s face clearly.

 

Zhan Pingchuan took the opportunity to hold Lance’s waist—a narrow piece that seemed like it could be embraced with just two hands. The long reddish-brown hair swayed back and forth right in front of his nose.

 

Lance suddenly turned his head and asked Zhan Pingchuan: “Who was the girl who first discovered the door?”

 

Caught off guard, Zhan Pingchuan’s palm against Lance’s lower back gave a firm stroke. A pure and righteous good youth nearly fell into becoming a villain taking advantage of his roommate.

 

Zhan Pingchuan coughed lightly before carefully considering Lance’s question.

 

He only remembered someone excitedly shouting that the door had appeared, and then everyone had rushed over. No one had noticed who had first discovered the door.

 

Liu Bo and Tang Li also looked at each other blankly.

 

Liu Bo: “Was it… was it the one in the yellow clothes with two braids? I remember she was in front of me.”

 

Tang Li: “No, she went in around the same time as me. She definitely wasn’t the first.”

 

Everyone had forgotten the key person who initiated the time regression. Strangely, that person also no longer spoke up.

 

Lance’s pupils contracted slightly. Those scenes appeared again in his Spirit Realm system—screaming, roaring, running, death, blood, cries for help, falling, entering the door again and again, dizziness again and again…

 

Time, numbers, actually in multiples.

 

If one carefully noticed the number pattern, it would be easy to determine the rule. But would the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl, created by the Outer God in its dreams, really follow human rules?

 

Were 121 and 242 coincidences or… deliberate?

 

Lance suddenly realized he might have misspoken. He shouldn’t have mentioned 121 and 242, let alone predicted 363. Now everything he said would be transmitted through the cameras to unknown people.

 

Lance released Liu Bo’s arm, murmuring: “Let’s do an experiment.”

 

Zhan Pingchuan’s alert nerves immediately tensed up, putting “this palace” behind him: “You think…”

 

Lance looked at him, their gazes colliding. Neither spoke, but they both saw deep and lengthy implications in each other’s eyes.

 

After several life-threatening cycles, they had both forgotten about the cameras they couldn’t remove from their bodies.

 

Despite his alarm, Zhan Pingchuan still relaxed in front of the camera, curling into a smile: “Tsk, you red-haired ones, could you all be transformed little foxes?”

 

Lance needed to remind Zhan Pingchuan that they were still in Si Hongche’s unknown web, but he couldn’t reveal too much, nor could he let Zhan Pingchuan realize he was connected to Kluova’s death.

 

He could only, as a top student in the grade, reasonably question this matter. So he lowered his head, shook the ends of his hair, and emphasized in a muffled voice: “It’s reddish-brown.”

 

Liu Bo looked left and right, completely at a loss. He didn’t understand how the topic had shifted to hair color.

 

From the chaotic crowd, Ashlen was heard boasting: “Ignore these lunatics. Follow me and cut through these Pouncers!”

 

The death-bound faction, as if showing off, cut the Pouncers into flying flesh and blood in front of the coldly observing informed faction, hissing and screaming.

 

The ground was quickly covered with bluish-white dead fish heads. Ashlen retracted his beast claws and sneered: “Let’s go, seize the Frightening Bird in one go.”

 

Tu Mo also restored his muscles to normal, saying disdainfully: “Isn’t it too early for big talk? It’s not certain who will get the first kill on the Frightening Bird.”

 

Ashlen’s smile deepened. Just a day ago, he had successfully developed his first-tier ability. It was as if the gods had helped him become the strongest among all the freshmen at this crucial moment.

 

He wasn’t in a hurry to suppress Tu Mo’s momentum. Once they found the Frightening Bird, he would definitely make Tu Mo pay!

 

At this moment, someone from the informed faction looked over.

 

“Hey, just a reminder, Ashlen has developed a first-tier ability.”

 

Another from the informed faction smiled: “Yes, Tu Mo, right? Soon your neck will be bitten off—really broken, with blood shooting up more than a meter high, smearing the entire ceiling.”

 

“!” Ashlen’s face instantly changed, cold sweat flowing down his back.

 

His first-tier ability was precisely [Extreme Bite]!

 

Tu Mo immediately looked at Ashlen with sharp eyes. He cautiously hid his jealousy and shock, gritting his teeth and sneering: “Is what they’re saying true?”

 

Another informed person interjected: “But don’t be sad, because soon Ashlen will join you, and he’ll be even worse off.”

 

“Yes, all his internal organs were emptied out, leaving just a bloody skin. It almost scared me to death.”

 

“His intestines were still hanging from that thing’s beak, like a necklace it was carrying around.”

 

Perhaps to vent, the informed ones’ words were highly sarcastic, seemingly intent on angering Ashlen and Tu Mo to the point of spitting blood.

 

After all, whenever the informed faction and the death-bound faction confronted each other, these two were always causing trouble.

 

“Nonsense!” Ashlen, humiliated and angry, revealed his claws and charged forward. His expression was fierce, clearly about to take lives.

 

Dying here meant losing the memory of regression, becoming a complete fool. Several informed people turned pale and quickly retreated.

 

After all, they truly couldn’t defeat Ashlen.

 

Tu Mo was equally unwilling to believe his death would be so miserable. Suspicious by nature, he instead scrutinized those informed people: “You want me and Ashlen to fight each other, so you can benefit from our conflict, right?”

 

The passage immediately became chaotic again. It seemed that before the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl even arrived, a tragedy would unfold among the crowd.

 

Someone helplessly called out: “What should we do? These people just won’t believe us and insist on going to their deaths. How can we ensure they enter the door? Are we just going to cycle endlessly?”

 

At this point, Sun Pangpang, the prince of Trident Guild, jumped out: “Unless… unless someone can hold that monster back longer. Remember the second time? It was because more people delayed that thing for quite a while that so many were able to run in.”

 

Immediately someone refuted him: “What kind of joke are you making? Even A-levels get instantly killed. Who else can hold it back? Besides, knowing they’ll die in this timeline, who do you think would be willing to sacrifice themselves?”

 

Sun Pangpang angrily retorted: “Then we’re finished. We can’t reason with them, we can’t defeat them. None of these people will survive, and next time they’ll still stupidly oppose us!”

 

Ashlen and Tu Mo were already preparing to lead people deeper. The more the informed faction tried to stop them, the more they felt something good was waiting ahead. The conflict between the two sides had reached a point where reconciliation was impossible.

 

Lance knew clearly that some people wouldn’t believe until they saw the coffin. He also understood that the only one who could hold back the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl was…

 

His fingers, hidden in the school uniform jacket, slowly clenched, his nails pressing against a palm line, leaving deeper and deeper marks.

 

But his instinctive reaction wasn’t that his palm hurt, but that the jacket was so warm he was reluctant to take it off.

 

He knew he should use every method—whether enticing, provoking, or pleading—to get Zhan Pingchuan to hold back the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl. But those malicious thoughts, though they had surged to his throat, seemed blocked by something, and he couldn’t utter a single word.

 

What if he had guessed wrong? What if the current Zhan Pingchuan died in this timeline? Would the past Zhan Pingchuan then not remember why he had given his jacket to him?

 

Lance didn’t even understand what he was regretting—such a tiny, insignificant thing.

 

Zhan Pingchuan, however, chuckled at this moment. With a casual expression, he pretended to be relaxed as he stretched: “Sigh, then it has to be me.”

 

He had once thought that death was far from him, and there was no one worth risking his life for. His family background was good, his talent was good, his luck was even better. With such a life, it was difficult to have the impulse to give up one’s life.

 

However, they had to continue for everyone to get out, for Lance to get out.

 

It turned out that when things were truly laid before him, his heart would act before his mind.

 

Similarly, before Lance had thought things through, he had already blocked Zhan Pingchuan’s path.

 

Lance raised his eyes, his amber pupils unblinking. He didn’t say anything to stop him, but his fingers gripped Zhan Pingchuan’s short-sleeved shirt more and more tightly, wrinkling it.

 

His breathing deepened, his chest rising and falling, even feeling irritable due to his inability to vent.

 

Why did it have to be Zhan Pingchuan?

 

He could have schemed for anyone to die in Zhan Pingchuan’s place. He was cunning enough, cold-blooded enough. He didn’t care about the lives of any unrelated people, and yet—

 

An S+ beast made all his proud tactics a joke.

 

Zhan Pingchuan looked down at his wrinkled chest and found that Lance’s knuckles had turned red from gripping.

 

He didn’t care about his school uniform at all. Instead, he poked Lance’s nearly meatless hand, his fingertips tracing along the raised veins like navigating a maze.

 

Because it tickled, Lance had to loosen his grip a bit, and the redness in his knuckles dissipated.

 

But because of this, his brows furrowed even tighter, his round eyes narrowing to an almost explosive state.

 

Zhan Pingchuan couldn’t help but tease: “Whose Omega is so angry, almost turning into a ball? Anyone who didn’t know better would think her husband was about to die.”

 

Lance: “……”

 

It was both unlucky and frustrating. He wanted to give up and not care anymore.

 

Just then, Zhan Pingchuan suddenly put away his smile and said very seriously and softly: “Don’t worry, I won’t die. Wait for me to find you.”

 

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