Chapter 63: Debut Night – 4

[All candidates must do their best to deal with the outbreak of Defenders, sealing them within one hour. Otherwise, everyone in the area will have their lifespan reduced by three hundred years.]
Yang Zicang, hearing the punishment notification resounding in his mind, had a profound look in his eyes.
He felt no emotional fluctuation witnessing the pile of fallen people on the stairs. This would have been unimaginable just a few days ago.
Upon pushing open the door, an odd mixture of various smells confronted him.
“Don’t kill us.”
On the floor lay several women ranging in age from teens to their thirties and forties.
“We were captured. Please let us go.”
Yang Zicang wrinkled his nose, glancing at them. His gaze skimmed over the body of Xiao Xun, who had died wide-eyed in a chair, before fixing on one person ahead.
The White Shadow Thought-Dragon hovered beside that figure, ready to consume his Psychic Body at any time.
“Are you from Xiongying Group?”
“No, no. I’m just a member of a small organization. This, this is your Nightmare Beast? I’ll give you all my Time Sequence items. Please, let me go!”
“I’m not on your side, so your proposal cannot be accepted.”
“Huh? Then this Nightmare Beast…”
A sweeping bolt of light shot forth.
“Yang Zicang, we need to leave here as soon as possible. Come with us.”
“Has Mu Xiaoyu been sent in?”
“Are you crazy? At a time like this, you still want Xiaoyu to come in and die?”
“Forget it if she hasn’t. I’m just worried that Ma Chao might come looking for her. Tell her to hold on and not fall asleep.”
Yang Zicang looked at the trembling man across from him and said to him:
“Contact Ma Chao and tell him to come here. Otherwise, I’ll conduct a time sequence financing in three minutes, instructing everyone implanted with a station to come to me.”
The man opposite wondered if he had misheard something.
“I’ll give each of them three hundred years of time sequence and help them eliminate the station implanted in their consciousness.”
“But even if I broadcast a call for Ma Chao, how can he get here? Sun Xin has already disappeared… Oh! And there’s Shao Min. But Shao Min—surely you haven’t killed him too, have you?”
What Shao Min? I don’t know any of you people’s names.
Yang Zicang snorted coldly: “Ma Chao planted a will station for you. Don’t you know that?”
The man’s body trembled.
It seemed he hadn’t been aware of this before.
“Don’t worry. If he doesn’t come, in three minutes I’ll give everyone a demonstration of how I’ll remove Ma Chao’s will station.”
Chu Qiang, the man opposite, having heard Yang Zicang’s conversation with this person, looked at this man in disbelief through his perceptual perspective—and at the strange creature vaguely floating in the air beside him.
Mastering the ability to render Ma Chao’s dearly cherished power ineffective…
The man was about to spread the model when suddenly his eyes lost focus, as if he had fallen asleep standing, and he murmured, “I’m sleepy.”
[Woo——]
The whistling sound of the speeding subway seemed to rapidly approach from a world of nothingness.
Yang Zicang waited, about to see this person soon…
The reddish-yellow train quickly broke through the air and appeared, its front few carriages still somewhat illusory, but by the middle section, they were extremely real.
“Chi~”
On this twenty-first-floor high-rise building, a carriage came to a steady stop behind this person in the misty backdrop of clouds.
The door whooshed open, and a familiar figure appeared at the entrance with a smile.
Yang Zicang looked at his face and suddenly said with some murderous intent, “Zhao Bomin!”
But Zhao Bomin turned a deaf ear.
Chu Qiang, seeing this from the other end, finally understood what kind of ability Ma Chao possessed!
He didn’t need people to fall asleep at all; instead, people would naturally fall asleep before he arrived!
Zhao Bomin’s gaze changed from warm to dull, and the smile on his face began to fade, eventually becoming the expression of the others controlled on the train:
“Get on, if you dare.”
Yang Zicang looked out the window.
Far away, voices and cries for help came from all directions. Once they knew that three hundred years of the timeline could be deducted at any time, many people began to resort to any means necessary.
Perhaps this is the reason why people here are unwilling to inform newcomers about the end-of-month deduction—bloody hunts can erupt at any time.
He looked back at Zhao Bomin, who was now expressionless.
“People who get on the train become puppets, right.”
The White Shadow Thought-Dragon surged into motion, lunging down to tear at the train.
The train’s body stiffened, letting out a strange, muffled roar as the steel of its cars bulged, making it seem as if the White Shadow Thought-Dragon had nowhere to bite.
“As I thought, they’re all mental constructs.”
A quadrangle flickered, and Yang Zicang poured amplified Chrono into the White Shadow Thought-Dragon. Its body turned a faint red, and the train also shifted to the same color.
The voice of Malevolent Nightmare rippled out.
{Kill its master!}
The train writhed like a dragon or serpent, and from its vanished front car, a translucent shape emerged, hurtling toward Yang Zicang.
Mental speed was incredibly fast before he could react, Yang Zicang found himself inside the train.
“Huh, is this the same feeling as when the White Shadow consumed me?”
“No, your body is actually here.”
The carriage was clean, and from the opposite seat, a young man with both legs planted got up; he was wearing a silver uniform.
A discarded suit of armor lay by his feet.
Ma Chao lifted his chin slightly, “You came up alone? Where’s the master of that Malevolent Nightmare?”
The look he cast at Yang Zicang showed an extreme, almost arrogant detachment.
“Are you Ma Chao?”
“I asked you a question. Are you deaf?”
{Its master is the one before you!}
The train once again rang with a deafening telepathic voice.
Ma Chao’s emotions flickered with a trace of disturbance.
“Did you acquire the telepathy?”
YangZicang said coldly, “Your horse has better eyesight than you.”
As he walked forward, he proactively severed the Mental Link with Chu Qiang, whose mind had been struck hard, and instead connected with Mori.
Chu Qiang still couldn’t believe that the person who was just a newcomer yesterday was now facing off against one of the top powerhouses of the Hero Unit!
Unfortunately, the Mental Link was cut off, and he had no idea what would happen next.
Would he die?
……
On the train.
In the young man’s hand appeared a palm-sized dark red kaleidoscope, with a blood-red eye on it.
The model flickered, and the kaleidoscope expanded into countless beautiful patterns, like a flowery garment enveloping both Ma Chao and the train. The attack from the White Shadow Thought-Dragon outside was instantly like gnawing on cotton.
“I underestimated you. In just three or four days, you’ve gained an extra ability — you’ve been to the Complete Stamp Emblem world, haven’t you?”
“What kind of equipment is this, able to resist mental attacks?”
Ma Chao raised his hand, and from the carriage behind him, a blank-faced person walked over, holding a longsword with both hands.
“Looks like there’s no way for us to communicate.”
Energy surged behind YangZicang, and the phantom of the White Shadow Thought-Dragon appeared.
Whoosh! Ma Chao’s legs shot out like rockets, and the sword blade in his hand sliced through the air at lightning speed.
YangZicang nimbly sidestepped on the spot, without even using the model’s ability, dodging the blade’s attack by a hair’s breadth.
“That’s not the kind of strength and skill you can develop in a year or two. You’ve been to the Stamp World too.”
The two figures twisted past each other as they crossed.
A fist wreathed in red phantom flames flew toward him. Yang Zicang blocked it with his left hand, and the impact sent both of them stumbling backward.
[I’ve neutralized 15000 N.]
Ma Chao’s expression shifted. With a single clash, he had already half consumed his timestream reserves.
“Why didn’t you bring Zhang Fei’s armor along? Oh, those hypocrites took it away, didn’t they? Let me give you an offer—join the Heroic Elite.”
“Not unless you make me your leader.”
“You’re not even fit to shine Lü Bu’s boots.”
Bang! Yang Zicang chopped down with his palm, leaving a trail of afterimages. Ma Chao twisted every joint in his body, which cracked audibly, as he contorted out of the way.
He couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. What kind of Stamp World had this guy been to?
Logically, even after undergoing extended training in those worlds, one still needed time outside to develop a body capable of replicating the strength from those dreams.
A red light flashed across Ma Chao’s chest. Several distorted, translucent threads shot out from the carriage walls. The White Shadow Thought-Dragon materialized quickly, snatching these incoming strands in its mouth.
“Looks like you’ve come with quite the arsenal, haven’t you.”
Ma Chao gripped his sword in silent fury, charged forward, and slashed rapidly as he closed in.
Yang Zicang stepped forward into an archer’s stance; the kick felt as solid as a grandmaster’s, radiating an overwhelming pressure as his hand shot out into a punch in a blast of wind.
A faint gray-white phantom flame fist shot straight toward Ma Chao’s face.
“Get lost!” Ma Chao raised his longsword and dispersed the fist shadow with an upward slash.
But in that instant, the gale exploded violently, and his charging body was immediately thrown backward, knocked over by the powerful blast.
[I have offset 999N.]
Ma Chao twisted his body, performed a backflip, and landed steadily, a slight freeze flickering across his expression.
[I invest 7000N for Mori!]
[Mori wants to invest 9000N for me.]
“I didn’t expect you to be this strong already. Since that’s the case, I’ll let you see my full strength.”
A deep, strong surge of energy swirled around Ma Chao as he wiped the corner of his mouth.
Yang Zicang let out a faint snort. “I figured a ranked member of the Xiongying Unit wouldn’t be this feeble. So this is the secret technique you’ve cultivated. Not bad, it has thirty years of power behind it.”
“Bastard, who do you think you are to judge me?”
Swoosh! The longsword swung, carrying a fierce, tiger-like sword aura.
They pushed forward inch by inch; the red phantom flames slithered through the space but did not dissipate, instead lingering along the path they had traveled.
As Ma Chao’s figure moved, the red lines spread around him like a silk cage.
Yang Zicang’s heart tensed. Attacks whose trajectories could freeze in the air—even if only for a few seconds—were incredibly hard to evade.
“No wonder so many people fear you.”
“Still trying to dodge? Can your wind fist shatter my shackles!”
Ma Chao’s sword grazed past Yang Zicang several times, but red phantom afterimages lingered around him, ready to trigger at the slightest misstep.
Yang Zicang coldly watched the crimson flame blade hurtling toward his face, the sword aura flickering on either side of his head.
“Why would I need to shatter them?”