Chapter 23: Rabble

Noisy human voices came from a distance; a panicked group rushed past the intersection ahead. The last man trailing behind had already scurried past, then suddenly turned back to look at the two figures.
“It’s that man!”
“Wow, he’s actually not dead.”
Attracted by the man’s voice, several people turned back and spotted Yang Zicang’s tattered-clothed silhouette at the other end of the street.
“That gun in his hand—it’s a rat-monster’s weapon. Could it be something valuable?” Exclamations came from the crowd opposite, as they noticed the bloodstains and plaster patches on Yang Zicang’s chest.
“Don’t interact with them,” Yang Zicang said gravely in his tattered shirt.
He hadn’t mastered that rifle and wasn’t its owner yet; as soon as anyone approached, the model would alert them that it was a Chrono Weapon. The two ducked away sideways.
Their shouts came from afar: “Don’t run! Come back! This area has been requisitioned by the ‘Auditor’!”
Only a fool would stop.
The figures disappeared quickly from that group’s sight.
Flickering rays from the model transmitted.
[Luo Bin wishes to make a proactive investment for you.]
Rejected.
[Luo Bin wishes to make a proactive investment for you, 100N.]
Rejected! How does this guy locate himself?
[Luo Bin wants to make an active investment in me – 100N full-authority Chrono.]
[Full-authority Chrono cannot be voluntarily revoked; within the time limit, it is at the free disposal of the recipient. Time limit: one month.]
Although the model, under the command of the mind, can automatically ignore untimely financing requests, when faced with this kind of targeted active investment, it seems far more excited than its owner.
After refusing again, a faint shout came from afar in the distance:
“Quadrilateral, I know you’re over there! It’s me, Luo Bin! I’ve had my eye on you for a long time!”
On a distant building, a stout figure with a telescope hanging around his neck shouted.
Vroom!
The sound of a car engine rose from another direction in the distance.
“This is bad!”
Behind him were those people in pursuit, diagonally ahead was someone who wanted to actively invest in him, and the sound of a car from another street was getting closer.
No matter how fast he was, trapped on three sides—especially with that car—it didn’t matter much.
What to do? As soon as anyone got close, they would discover the existence of the Chrono Weapon.
[Luo Bin wants to make an active investment in me – 100N full-authority Chrono.]
[I have received a 100N active investment.]
{Oh hehehe, finally, I’ve gotten in touch with you, buddy.}
“What do you want?”
Yang Zicang knew the other party could definitely hear his voice.
{Do me a favor, and I’ll pay you handsomely.}
Yang Zicang vaulted over the road railing and ran toward the opposite side. Liang Xi, who had no Chrono abilities, ran in the other direction.
The red sun was setting in the west, and a mighty, crimson off-road vehicle came roaring down the road from the far end.
“HALT.”
The modified car screeched to a sideways halt across the road, and the many overloaded passengers onboard swayed back and forth from the drift.
“So you actually didn’t die.”
Judging by the tone, Yang Zicang surmised that someone among the group had broadcast the news of his survival.
The driver was about to say something else when a commotion erupted from the vehicle: “Well, what have we here! A Chrono Weapon!”
Among them, a burly man sharpened his gaze, scanning Yang Zicang directly:
“Ha, I knew it. Inside a nest that’s been occupied by a monster, there’s bound to be something good.”
“What do you mean, ‘occupied by a monster?”
Yang Zicang ran into the building, turning back to ask those across the way.
“You stirred up that big ruckus and you still don’t know? Ha, you’ve done a good deed, but that good deed’s only from the Red Model’s perspective.”
The crowd was noisy and disorganized; one person spoke up loudly:
“Don’t you know? You let the discovered Marked Fiend escape. Now, over in the Xiongying Group, they have the right to know of its existence. This place has already been chosen by them, with time speeded up to breed that fiend’s birth!”
Yang Zicang was suddenly startled. So that was why the councilor had launched a sanction against him—now he finally knew the reason.
The crowd came noisily clamoring off the modified vehicle, and that man pushed his way to the front.
“Your Chrono Weapon—how many years is it? Fifty, or even more?”
“Ha, how many years do you think a weapon could have, one that lets me survive their attack?”
This rhetorical question tempered the crowd’s excited speculation somewhat.
Right, here was just a rookie who’d only now nurtured a quadrilateral shape.
“So that’s how it is. Just barely meeting the standard, huh? Well, it’s still a good weapon—even our team leader doesn’t have one.”
The man’s tone wavered as he said this, showing his unease.
Because weapons like that were only held by very strong teams—it was only natural that his own worthless boss didn’t have one.
“Heh heh, old pal, join our Red Iron Gang, and this Chrono Weapon can belong to the team without having to be turned in. How about it? You can use it anytime from now on.”
“You probably don’t even know that such a good thing has to be handed over, do you?”
“Each team is allowed to keep one or two Chrono Weapons and Modular items. If you join our Red Iron Gang, brother, we’ll all be family from now on, and you can use this weapon whenever you want.”
Yang Zicang sneered inwardly.
A silver-white thread refracted toward him.
{“Don’t waste time with them. Based on past experience, once this place is taken over, many beast-faction people might be herded here. Headquarters will also send people. If they run into you, you’ll definitely lose that Chrono Weapon.”}
It was Luo Bin. Damn, even from that far away, he already knew about Chrono Weapons. Did these people just love to use their models as loudspeakers as a hobby?
Yang Zicang gave a wink to Liang Xi, who was hiding in the building, then turned and walked away.
“Stop! I said come back, didn’t you hear me?”
Yang Zicang turned his head and said, “Killing isn’t allowed here—that’s your headquarters’ rule.”
“‘Your headquarters?’ Hah, boy, you probably don’t know the rest of that rule.”
Before the man could even shout, a crowd surged forward like a disorderly mob in retreat.
Faced with a Chrono Weapon that could cost at least fifty years of life with every strike, no one would easily let it slip from under their noses.
But Yang Zicang still felt a bit helpless. Shouldn’t everyone be focused on fleeing for their lives right now, instead of chasing after a gun they might never get to use?
Yang Zicang swiftly maneuvered his body around a square concrete load-bearing pillar. With the help of the model ability, the long spear he gripped in both hands became incredibly fast to thrust, and with a flick of his wrist, the spear tip dispersed into two gleaming arcs.
Brandishing his spear threateningly, Yang Zicang warned, “Who’s coming first! If you die, don’t blame me for breaking the no-killing rule.”
But the boisterous crowd simply didn’t care about the young man’s threat.
Many were grinning and egging each other on, shouting for everyone to grab the spear and drag it over.
Pft!
The silver long spear flashed, and in an instant, deep, bloody holes burst open in the arms of the three eagerly charging youths.
“Ah, this spear just cost me a hundred years of my life!”
“Me too, dammit, I only had about sixty years of defense prepared.”
The puncture wound in his arm was huge, and blood flowed freely.
As for the third and last injured person, it was as if he had suddenly realized what he was up against, and his head finally sobered up with a sudden jolt.
“This, this…” He couldn’t quite believe it, and in the end, he didn’t utter the words that it might be a Century Weapon. To him, a Century Weapon was too far out of reach, something that shouldn’t appear in his ordinary life.
[Liang Xi wants to add 50N for me.]
Thump! Thump!
After refusing the boy’s new investment, Yang Zicang changed his thrust into a sweep, and with a horizontal strike of his spear, another person was struck on the leg.
“Ahhhh! This guy, he seems to have quite a bit of time-phase.”
That person hopped up while clutching his leg.
Yang Zicang thought to himself, sometimes a motley mob is the most troublesome. They have no idea what’s going on, think that sheer numbers mean power, and don’t really believe that spear tip will fall on them.
“I killed the Ratman Leader—guess how much time-phase I got.”
Yang Zicang bluffed.
Seeing someone actually injured, several people ahead stopped dead in their tracks nervously. Suddenly, two were pushed aside, and a figure with a round , chubby build charged forward, “You bastard!”
Yang Zicang aimed at this man, glowering and furrow-browed like a butcher, and thrust his spear straight at his head.
Whoosh! The spear shot past his ear like a thunderbolt, and with a thud, blood splattered.
Not just his ear—half of this aggressive man’s face was instantly shattered into bloody shreds.
He hadn’t protected his ear, and even his face had only a few decades of time-phase reinforcement.
“Ah! You dare to kill someone!”
“You’re not dead yet, get lost!”
The silver spear slammed hard into his legs. With two muffled thuds, the man’s kneecaps exploded instantly. The fat guy’s entire body crumpled as he fell to the ground, wailing and groaning.
From a face full of murderous intent to utter despair, it took less than two seconds. This was a true brute, one who thought he could intimidate an opponent solely with force.
“Ha, I know the second half of that sentence, of course. It’s all about one’s own skill, right? So come on, my ability is speed. Let’s see if I can break your limbs faster than you can snatch my weapon away.”
The effect of killing the chicken to scare the monkeys was achieved.
The remaining few stood frozen in fear, no one daring to be the first to stand out again.
“He really doesn’t care about temporal offset at all.”
“So this is the confidence that comes from having a Chrono Weapon, damn it.”