Chapter 6: Returns

“Haha, you’ve actually gotten younger. Was that dwarf really that weak? I should have finished it off myself!”
A familiar voice came from behind the bus.
“Hmph, your opponent is me, you beast!”
A white zigzagging beam of light shot forward.
[I detected someone about to engage another enemy. They have made a kill-or-be-killed choice, vowing to destroy the opponent. At the same time, they are requesting investment, with a 50% dividend as the return.]
It was Bai Yuan. Yang Zicang glanced back in annoyance and sure enough, there he was—that guy in the white trench coat.
There had never been a 30% option; he had been lying from the start. Yang Zicang suddenly realized it was a test!
At that time, that man had already seen right through the four of them as newcomers.
This guy had run off earlier, but now he was back. Yang Zicang could already see that the symbol flickering on him was a triangle.
“Hey, you’ve gotten stronger, kid. Let’s take down this Red Model guy together! Otherwise, if another nightmare bus shows up on their side, things are going to get even worse for us.”
“Get lost, liar. He’s mine!”
Yang Zicang shouted as he picked up a stone from the ground, channeled all his strength into it, and hurled it backward.
[3600 time units invested.]
Seeing Yang Zicang’s action, the bus, which had already witnessed the destruction of the monster’s armor, instantly sank into the ground. The stone grazed its back, letting out a rumbling boom, and blasted a massive chasm on its back.
“Director Huang!” Yang Zicang’s furious shout echoed through the tunnel.
The monster let out a mournful cry.
A faint golden-white light carrying 3115N swirled back.
The ground there turned dark and, like a splotch of filth, surged to the side, vanishing into the wall of the passage.
It had escaped.
Inside the train that had burrowed underground, Huang Xu broke out in a cold sweat. He had completely sobered up from his earlier arrogance.
He was no god—just someone with an overwhelming advantage over ordinary people. That guy just now, he was the most terrifying existence at the moment!
“Ha, he got scared off by us.” Bai Yuan’s handsome figure appeared from behind, chuckling.
There was some bloodstains on his clothes, suggesting that some of the people controlled by the train had been dealt with by him.
“Give us back our time units.” Yang Zicang shielded himself with his armor and glared coldly at this man who looked tough but was, in truth, just another newly-modeled individual.
“What?” Bai Yuan dug at his ear, feigning incomprehension.
“I said, give us back our time units. You tricked a girl out of thirty years of her life—have you forgotten that? That was never an investment!”
The young man walked toward the opposite side, no longer fearing these so-called “elders” of this world.
They were all a bunch of rotten people who schemed to cheat others out of their lifespans.
“Ah, you mean that. Wasn’t that a gift from you to me? I protected you, so this is the fee.”
“Very well, I’ll come to collect it myself.”
A phantom-like flame once again emerged from Yang Zicang’s fist, an accumulation of thousands of years of time.
Bai Yuan let out a sneer:
“You really don’t understand anything, do you? I’ve joined the faction that hunts monsters. Are you going to attack a brother of the same faction? You have no idea what the consequences will be…”
Yang Zicang instantly turned into a dark shadow, appearing beside the man like a speeding train.
The eyes beneath Bai Yuan’s hat brim hadn’t even had time to shift to the side before he saw a gigantic golden fist hurtling toward his head.
Why is he so fast?
A sense of tension arose in Bai Yuan’s heart; suddenly, he heard the sound of investment.
[An anonymous person wants to make an active investment with me.]
[I have gained 400N.]
“Bang!”
This punch sent Bai Yuan flying backward, but he only slammed into the wall and rolled on the ground a few times.
[400N withdrawal.]
He wasn’t dead.
When the fist hit his face, he realized just how terrifying the blow he had just endured was.
Thankfully, he had obtained investment protection at the critical moment. Thank goodness—it seemed someone from headquarters happened to be monitoring this scene.
Rolling on the ground, Bai Yuan felt the pain radiating from his cheek and thought with lingering fear, this newcomer really doesn’t know anything! Since someone invested in him, didn’t anyone teach this bastard the most basic rules?
Yang Zicang glanced at his fist. The golden light on it had vanished.
[One opponent was killed. The investment has yielded returns, so the investors have fully withdrawn their timelines and taken the corresponding profits.]
[My current remaining additional principal is approximately 505.4N, and my current remaining investment timeline is 167.10N. All of this is thanks to me, the Great Quadrilateral.]
All the numbers converged into the small ring on his chest: 673.2N.
“Oh, you actually dared to hit me.”
Bai Yuan glanced at his hat, which had flown off to the side. His expression shifted several times, and his voice deepened as he said:
“The Monster Hunter faction doesn’t allow killing among its own members. I advise you to pay me a hundred years, and we’ll pretend this never happened. Otherwise, you’ll be punished! You’ll have all your extra time confiscated and be thrown into prison for three entire months!”
“So someone is threatening others with their own life. What Monster Hunter faction? Who organized it? They only said no mutual killing. Didn’t they mention anything else?”
Yang Zicang walked step by step, the numbers in the ring on his chest rapidly decreasing as his hand regained a force field.
Bai Yuan was taken aback: “What do you mean?”
“Since you’re so greedy, how about I give you this armor? Do you want it?”
Yang Zicang’s figure flickered, and he appeared beside him in a flash, his hand glowing with a golden phantom pressing firmly against his throat. Under such suppression, the man whose internal organs still ached had no strength to resist.
The dark red, shattered armor was tossed onto his person, and Bai Yuan felt a strand of icy malevolence writhing out from it, as if trying to burrow into his flesh and blood.
“What is this thing?! Ah, this evil nightmare isn’t dead yet! Take it away, get it off me!”
He watched in horror as root-like streams of dark red energy seeped from the armor, extending into his body, as if the monster was trying to revive itself through them.
Suddenly, a beam of light refracted over, and Yang Zicang perceived a wooden office, within which sat a man shrouded entirely in black mist.
{Allies, do not slay each other.}
“Right, we’re all allies here, Vice President, please reason with him. I’ll drop that hundred-year compensation demand.”
Bai Yuan said this to the empty space beside him.
Clearly, he had also been drawn into the Mental Link by this mysterious person.
Yang Zicang’s face was twisted with excitement, and he sneered viciously, “Allies? He tricked my friend out of over thirty years of life—how is that being allies?”
On the ground, Mu Xiaoyu and the other two hidden in a corner of the alley watched in shock at the expression of that man in the projection screen.
In such a short time, he had undergone such a tremendous change, not only instantly killing the pursuing dwarf but also knocking down the man who had stolen his life with a single punch.
Watching this scene, Mu Xiaoyu’s eyes brimmed with tears. She knew he was doing this for her, and from his muttered words, she realized someone was advising him through this mysterious connection.
{In this world, that’s just how it is. Anyway, no killing among ourselves; everything else is fair game.}
A voice inside the office advised solemnly.
Yang Zicang responded, “Now I’m playing by my own rules too. This armor, I think it’s great; he’ll definitely like it. If I can master it smoothly, wouldn’t that mean adding another treasure? I’m doing a good deed.”
{You’ve been influenced by the model’s mind control.}
The man creased his brows.
{Considering that your model is square-shaped, I’ll allow this transgression of yours once.}
Then, the vision of that communication scene vanishes.
Waiting on the ground, Bai Yuan stared blankly with his mouth agape. He stiffly turned his head toward Yang Zicang, his voice trembling:
“Bro, I’ll pay it back now, I promise. Please, just take that thing away.”
“Too late.”
A cold glint flashed in Yang Zicang’s eyes—it was the look of kill intent.
“Ah! Murder!”
Sensing the golden phantom gathering on the fist, Bai Yuan immediately changed his tune, shouting:
“Wait, I’ll give you all my temporal segments. Don’t hit me—if you do, the damage will cancel each other out, and you’ll lose out too.”
Yang Zicang was filled with a murderous intent, but after his expression shifted several times, he painfully suppressed his fist, which had been raised mid-air, ready to strike down repeatedly.
In the end, he resisted the exhilarating pleasure that only brutality could bring.
Bai Yuan, drenched in cold sweat from the oppressive killing intent, finally realized that the man wasn’t just bluffing.
[Bai Yuan returned my investment and overshared the profits, totaling 128 N.]
Was this his entire lifespan? But the guy hadn’t even aged.
Yang Zicang, panting heavily, got up and kicked Bai Yuan in the stomach, making the man groan and curl up in pain—a shrimplike figure of misery.
“I never want to see you again. If I do, I’ll beat you every time.”
“Take care, bro… ouch, hiss~”
……
Yang Zicang sprinted through the underground passage, still pondering the messages he’d received from the model.
“Huh, this damn world doesn’t completely lack a moral compass. At least there’s a bare minimum, ready to be broken at any moment.”
As he grew more familiar with the so-called model, his speed increased, but it required a constant output of time-chips—1 R for every second. In a minute, two months would be gone. Truly extravagant.
He returned most of the others’ investments and dividends, except for Mu Xiaoyu’s.
“Little beauty, can you hear me? I’m heading to the next stop. We’ll meet up there.”
When he’d struck Bai Yuan earlier, two major organizations had promptly withdrawn their investments, but some scattered investors’ time-chips hadn’t been pulled yet.
It seems they aren’t particularly concerned about this so-called camp rule.
Yang Zicang didn’t know that his performance just now had shocked many investors who had invested their own lifespan in him. The aura of a single lethal blow made several investors exclaim that he was a madman.
Many people began to re-evaluate the subway station, which had initially been looked down upon, for it had managed to produce a quadrilateral.
On the ground, Mu Xiaoyu wiped away tears of joy as she sobbed with relief.
She said to the two elderly figures beside her, “Let’s head to the next station. He’s waiting for us there.”
“Okay.” The two followed the now noticeably rejuvenated, somewhat plump woman in her thirties as they hurried over.
Over twenty minutes later, the three spotted Yang Zicang’s figure on the road ahead.
Then her perception screen vanished; the ten years she had invested were returned, along with an additional two and a half years of dividend from the timeline.
For the girl, this was an unexpected delight.
“You’re amazing!” The girl rushed over and hung herself on Yang Zicang.
The two old men exchanged a glance and both shrugged their shoulders.
“Guess we’re no longer the priority when it comes to dating,” Liu Ming joked.
The slender Mu Xiaoyu let go, standing on the ground, and spat at him with her cheeks puffed out in anger. “Pah! What nonsense are you talking?”