Chapter 19: The Punisher

In the city.
In a desolate area of crumbled buildings, Yu Fei and two members wearing caps arrived at a shadowed spot.
Amid the sound of shuffling footsteps, a graceful, curvaceous silhouette wearing white slim-fit trousers walked out from the shadows opposite them.
“Is it Zhou Diao today, or Zhou Chan?”
From a subtle waft of floral scent, Yu Fei and his group stared at her exquisite face, involuntarily swallowing.
As expected, this woman is irresistibly stunning; even dressed in men’s clothes, she still exudes an alluring charm. The three men beside Yu Fei had already let their minds wander, for it was rumored that a pair of twin sisters shared the code name “Diao Chan.”
“Do you really have the A-grade resonance crystals in your hands?” The charming woman raised her chin slightly, looking at the three.
Yu Fei opened the box in his hand, revealing the crystal emitting a faint red glow inside.
“Not bad, brothers. What about the armor?”
“We haven’t gotten the armor yet.” Yu Fei closed the wooden box containing the frequency crystal.
“There are still three days. If its original owner doesn’t report the intertwining-zone deviation, we can use it to enter the A-class intertwining zone.”
Another slender figure emerged from behind the woman.
He was entirely clad in handsome black armor, with a greatsword on his back. The man inside the armor spoke in a muffled voice:
“You pay too much attention to those so-called headquarters rules. It’s just a garbage organization made up of celebrities from Earth. Let’s go in tonight. We’ve already recalled several strong operatives. Ma Chao, Lu Zhishen, and Peter Pan will all come. It’s a pity about Zhang Fei, though.”
“No.”
Yu Fei said with a slightly annoyed tone:
“Our people aren’t all here yet. These two days are a good time to nurture the models for the new recruits. We must secure the two hospitals in the new district. So, let’s wait three more days.”
Suddenly, they received a mental-image transmission, freezing them all in place instantly.
“What? A monster stock issuance!”
One person squeezed out an incredulous voice from his throat.
Yu Fei stared in disbelief at the image transmitted.
“It’s targeting Yang Zicang!”
……
Luo Xin, tall with a well-proportioned build, was watching a newcomer who had arrived last month emerge from a now-dilapidated clinic.
“Phew, it’s a triangle,” said the person beside him.
Luo Xin raised a hand to signal him to shut up.
“What ability does he have?”
“Well, it’s…” The man hesitated, looking embarrassed.
Seeing the devouring gaze from Luo Xin’s companion, the young man quickly blurted out: “It’s double infusion—capable of storing twice the volume of blood as liquid inside the body.”
The two sighed disappointedly as they looked at the small clinic.
“Still, it’s okay. At least with you around, I won’t have to carry so much water when we go out.”
“But… it seems there’s also a secondary ability.”
Luo Xin looked up: “What is it?”
He hadn’t expected this triangle-patterned individual to possess two abilities—such a probability might only occur once in forty to fifty people.
“It’s… the ability to aggregate low-concentration glucose in water, which can restore mental energy and replenish physical strength.”
Luo Xin gritted his teeth, glancing at the clinic.
In the air before several people, a faint, hair-thin, winding white line extended.
“Ah, Captain Luo Xin, did you receive that?”
“I’m talking to someone else. Why?”
This team member quickly urged Luo Xin to disconnect the mental link and accept the financial display from this pattern.
After doing so, Luo Xin’s expression changed drastically.
In the sensed projection, a figure was crouching at the edge of a large metal pipeline that seemed to extend into an abyss-like wall.
All around, from a third-person perspective, were countless rat-like monsters frenziedly screeching upward.
“Captain, with so many rat monsters, how did that guy get over there?”
“It’s him!” Luo Xin identified Yang Zicang with just a glance.
As the local authority in this area, Luo Xin was naturally aware of the existence of the broken large pipeline. However, because merely approaching it would trigger a frenzied attack from the rat monsters, he never had a chance to go up. Now, that kid had managed to do it.
But that wasn’t even what astonished him.
What astonished him was that the perspective owner of this sensing image was a large rat standing upright on two legs!
Its steel claws gleamed with a blue-cold light, gripping a silvery-white spear-like weapon! And in front of it stood an energy shield!
The monster was actually conducting model fundraising!
{I, by the mandate of the Council of Reviewers on the Trajectory, seek to eliminate the cowardly and clear the hidden dangers.}
The rat-man enforcer raised its left claw, extending its four-centimeter-long sharp fingernails to point at the figure of YangZicang above.
{For those who invest 500N of time sequence in me, they shall be entitled to the complete time sequences of all who perish here in the next quarter-hour, regardless of offsets.}
The crowd erupted in shock—even consumed time sequences could be distributed to investors, that was utterly terrifying!
“Council of Reviewers?”
Countless recipients of the funding muttered this strange title; had YangZicang somehow offended such an existence?
Thud! The monster slammed the weapon in its right claw heavily onto the ground, producing a dull roar that brought everyone’s attention back.
Even from its sound alone, one could tell this weapon was extraordinary.
No sooner had the monster finished speaking than a subtle glint of light traced from a height above, curving around a blind spot and hurtling straight toward it.
Bang! The light radiating a golden phantom crashed into the force field, finally shattering it, while that tiny pebble also disintegrated completely.
This indicates that the two are evenly matched in sequence.
[Goddess Brothers Alliance provides a 500N investment for the Punisher.]
Everyone who received this visual feed sensed this feedback. Those nearby had heard of this name, which represented a moderately powerful force operating on Right Street. This team unhesitatingly chose to invest in the monster.
[Mountain Village Group provides a 501N investment for the Punisher.]
Before the Rat Punisher, two silver rings resembling simple circular bands appeared.
It gripped them with its hand, flicked its steel fingers, and one silver-white ring slipped into the body of a rat about the size of a dog that was beside it. With a “Howl,” the rat let out a roar, its body instantly expanding as black mist spread like armor, enveloping its rapidly forming bulky humanoid frame.
It flicked the other ring as well, sending it into another rat’s body.
“Squeak!”
The surrounding rats seemed to receive a command, all scampering after letting out roars, rushing out one after another through the broken pipes.
These two massive rat-men moved swiftly, stepping on the backs of the rats that recklessly charged out of the iron pipes, propelling their bodies into a leap.
All onlookers were horrified—these creatures unhesitatingly ran to their deaths in their relentless rush to kill that man.
What exactly did that guy do to make these rats so enraged?
Yang Zicang, standing at a higher position, broke out in a cold sweat as he waved his hand.
Bang, bang, bang!
Several flashes of silver-gold light precisely struck the heads of rats leaping out like tigers and leopards, and with a popping sound, several figures exploded mid-air.
“That guy doesn’t even have the most basic weapons—he’s purely suppressing them with Temporal Sequence.”
“Is he a savage!” exclaimed the onlookers outside.
In their eyes, Yang Zicang was using stones as a shotgun.
If he attacks with a Temporal Sequence only slightly exceeding the enemy’s, the target would suffer only ordinary damage.
That level of confrontation is akin to a fistfight on Earth.
For instance, those trapped inside a bus trying to smash the iron door would only create dents even if they burned over thirty years of lifespan striking it.
However, if the Temporal Sequence exceeds the target’s defense twofold, it causes severe damage. At threefold or more, it unleashes a devastating blow to that part—much like when Yang Zicang punched Zhang Fei’s arms into dust with three times the Temporal Sequence attached to the arms.
As for these rat monsters, their lifespans are only about a decade; even if amplified, it’s merely tripled or doubled—mere tens of years.
Encountering Yang Zicang, who casually attaches a century’s worth of amplified Temporal Sequence to a tiny pebble, their already fragile bodies magnify the impact they receive, bursting apart as if hit by a firecracker.
But at this moment, Yang Zicang, having eliminated these figures, did not receive any temporal feedback from them!
“What!” Yang Zicang felt a chill run down his spine.
“Killing monsters without gaining time—is this the punishment?”
……
Yet in a scene unseen by eyes, these lifeless rats emitted threads of black mist that surged up the passageway, brushed past Yang Zicang, and drifted into the cave behind him.
They passed through the gaps of the broken-iron-locked door, which was not quite airtight, converging into the belly of the figure inside the great hall.
……
As Yang Zicang stood in astonishment, two stout figures had already landed lightly at the passageway’s entrance. The rats, sacrificing their lives as stepping stones, had allowed these creatures, transformed by the aura, to successfully arrive here.
“Roar!” Their chests glowed with triangular auras as they charged forward swiftly!
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Two steel claws grazed past him, just a hair’s breadth away.
Yang Zicang’s eyes widened, his body swaying like a blade of grass in the wind amidst the attacks of these two.
“Hang in there, big brother!”
Liang Xi ran anxiously through the now-empty monster nest.
In a picture conveyed by the rats’ perception, the ratman leader holding a silver-white spear had already reached the broken edge of the passageway, looking upward into the sky.