Chapter 27: Questioning and “That’s Impossible”

“Oh? Ha.”
Yang Zicang’s tone turned cold again:
“Trust is like gold, sir. If both parties in an investment kill each other within twelve hours of the investment ending, the victor gains no timing at all—instead, there’s a penalty of deducted investment quota, right? This was the information my model conveyed to me when I first almost killed someone.”
Yang Zicang stood up and gazed into Luo Bin’s somewhat drowsy eyes.
“So, tell me, what do you want me to help with? If you don’t say it now, I’ll unilaterally cancel this agreement.”
[I returned 300N to the investor and distributed 25N as dividends.]
“Oh, wait a minute.”
Luo Bin felt the 300-year ordinary investment that Yang Zicang had returned to him, and his head started to ache.
This little bastard was planning to run away.
And as if afraid he wouldn’t know that mutual attacks between both sides of the investment would cause losses, he deliberately reminded him.
Seeing this pudgy guy still hesitating, Yang Zicang’s heart was pounding, but his face showed an imposing demeanor.
“Goodbye!”
“Hey, wait, don’t go. I just want you to help us fly over a grand canyon—this should be a piece of cake for you.”
“Is that all?”
Yang Zicang turned his head, utterly distrusting every word that came out of Luo Bin’s mouth. Just as Wang Yu’an had said outside, he wasn’t their first choice, either.
Luo Bin gritted his teeth:
“If you can tell me that your model has one more crucial ability, then half of the full-timeline authority for a millennium is yours right now.”
Yang Zicang’s eyelids flickered briefly.
“Why are you so fixated on the complete capabilities of my model?”
“It’s not about valuing your model’s abilities, rather…”
Luo Bin hesitated for several seconds before steeling himself to continue:
“I was given the opportunity to upgrade my model capability. Most of the upgrade conditions had been met by the end of last year, but the most critical one is still lacking.”
“Upgrade of model capability?”
YangZicang looked up at Luo Bin. Could it be something similar to his own ascension in level?
Luo Bin said, somewhat nervously:
“I’ve already revealed the most important piece of information to you. This was originally meant to be part of the reward I’d offer you later—consider it an advance payment. So, could you please answer my question? And don’t tell me the answer outright; let me find it out myself.”
“Ha, ha, I see, then go ahead.”
YangZicang sighed, planning to humor this man for now.
Turning back around, he sat down opposite the large wooden box, the young man calmly staring at the other, a blue-hatted, bulbous-nosed figure.
At this moment, Luo Bin’s expression also turned sober, shedding his lazy drunkard’s demeanor—though this forced seriousness look somewhat comical.
Three years of dissolute drinking had completely reshaped his character, transforming him into a greasy-looking, grizzled stout man with a burly build, smelling of alcohol.
This was also why he deliberately kept a middle-aged appearance. Perhaps younger features paired with this drunkard persona would have been even more jarring.
Luo Bin tried to adopt an interrogating stance and said:
“You didn’t use any special skill at the time?”
“No.”
“Since it wasn’t the wind manipulation ability, then what was it?”
“Aren’t you not supposed to be told the answer directly?”
YangZicang suppressed the urge to answer and said instead.
Luo Bin cleared his throat: “Heh heh, it’s okay once I ‘ask’—this counts as my intelligence gathering result.”
“Weren’t you asking a moment ago as well? Oh, does begging not qualify as gathering intelligence?”
“Now I’m asking you!” Luo Bin said angrily, nearly slapping the large wooden crate with his hand.
The smell of alcohol wafted over, and Yang Zicang felt a slight tickle in his nose.
“It’s the changing trajectories.”
“Oh, still changing trajectories…” Luo Bin smacked his lips, his head feeling a bit dazed.
Changing trajectories was information he already knew.
“What do you mean?” Luo Bin looked up and asked.
“Your very first question was already infinitely close to the answer.”
“Huh?”
“As I said, it’s still changing trajectories—but the trajectories of over thirty thousand explosive shards.”
“Oh, over thirty thousand…” Luo Bin nearly lost his balance. “What are you talking about?”
“The number. The trajectories I change aren’t just one; there are many. Isn’t this the data you obtained after luring me into answering?” Yang Zicang propped himself up. “Don’t you believe me?”
“But, what about the force field…”
Luo Bin’s brain finally seemed to show signs of grasping the reason.
“Nearly thirty thousand trajectories reversed, plus the new trajectories born from their collisions.”
Yang Zicang said loudly, “In total, three to four seconds, with over four hundred thousand trajectory changes accumulated. This is the power of my model—the so-called wind shield you mention!”
Crash!
With a dull thud, Luo Bin fell onto his bottom, scattering the beer in his hand all over the floor.
He swiftly pushed himself up from the ground, “This—this can’t be.”
The chubby man was acting somewhat dazed and unsteady, “No matter what, it’s impossible!”
Just as he finished speaking, the ring on the stunned Luo Bin’s chest emerged on its own.
[I, the Mysterious Triangle, have gathered a sufficient amount of reasonable intelligence. I begin to unearth the deep secrets buried within.]
[The final 【Uplift】 has now commenced.]
Luo Bin’s breathing grew rapid.
“I’ve gathered reasonable intelligence. My ability is about to improve—you’d better not be lying to me. But how can there be so much… Wait, if it’s about raising the grid rank.”
Yang Zicang looked a bit sheepish but was actually flaunting modestly:
“I happened to receive temporary help from a councilman, using something called ‘Void-Zero Timing’ to temporarily elevate my grid rank to the Ten-thousand-rank.”
Luo Bin felt his mind go blank, and a sense of epiphany surged in his heart—so that’s how it is!
“You, you, ah! Does your grid rank increase in quantity? Not attributes like speed or range, but quantity? Answer me quickly, isn’t it!”
“Is an answer still necessary?” Yang Zicang, with arms crossed over his chest, said leisurely, wearing a faint smile.
“Ah!”
With Yang Zicang’s confirmation, the rotating triangular model on the scrawny man’s chest suddenly paused. The small trails of light on Luo Bin’s chest burst open abruptly, diffusing into the air and vanishing.
“What’s happening?”
Yang Zicang lowered his hands, feeling as though something was wrong with Luo Bin.
“Good heavens! Perfect intelligence from a quadrilateral, deceiving the masses and known to no one!”
Luo Bin cried out, clutching his head.
“It’s triggered, elevating the model… At last, I too am about to become a quadrilateral!”
Yang Zicang’s pupils contracted.
“So that’s what ‘Uplift’ means!”
So this was the real reason Luo Bin had unhesitatingly invested his millennium of full temporal authority in himself.
No wonder he had managed to survive three years in this place without dying.
Seconds later, streaks of silver lines of varying lengths shot forth as if from nothingness.
One, two, three—they plunged into the chest-circlet.
The three lines did not form a triangle but a quadrilateral with a gap.
“Ah! I have to succeed in the advancement!”
Luo Bin growled from his throat: “If this was false intelligence, I’m done for.”
At the gap, a faint glimmer of light flickered.
“The fourth line has been born!”
Luo Bin exclaimed in shock, then shouted with tears of joy:
“Hell yeah! Hee-hee, it’s actually a perfect-grade intelligence! I’m a quadrilateral too now! Oh my, Mother!”
He was both overjoyed and incredulous.
The glimmer stretched into a line, filled in the gap, and formed a quadrilateral.
Luo Bin flipped over the large wooden crate and jumped across, wrapping his arms around Yang Zicang.
“Hahaha.”
After flailing about joyfully for a while, Luo Bin rolled on the ground laughing maniacally.
“I made it!”
Yang Zicang stepped back silently, watching him from a few paces away.
“Looking back, I doubt you held a very high rank before. Haven’t you seen that anime? Once you eliminate all impossibilities, whatever remains must be the truth. The information was right in front of your eyes, yet I had to repeatedly tell you that the key was ‘quantity’—and you still didn’t believe it.”
“You don’t know shit.”
Luo Bin was clearly in a much better mood; though his words were cursing, they carried the tone of close friends.
“But, I really have to thank you this time. Heh, please keep it secret. Next, I’m going to work on becoming a behind-the-scenes big shot.”
“A big shot who’s hiding every day drinking beer, huh.”
Yang Zicang said with a smile, also feeling quite excited inside: “But the fact that you can advance to a model is indeed important.”
Are there any pentagons in this world?
In a situation where no one is very friendly to newcomers, trying to gather such intelligence is really tough.
“Can everyone advance to a model?” Yang Zicang looked at him.
“Tch—I just got lucky, being the first to collect the perfect hidden intel on the quadrilateral. Otherwise, there’s a high chance I wouldn’t have advanced to a model. You have no idea how hard this is!”
So it did sound difficult indeed.
“Ah, gimme a kiss!”
“Get lost!”
Bang! Yang Zicang kicked away the greasy man lunging at him.
……
After a while, Luo Bin stood up invigorated and walked to a nearby box, opening it to retrieve several file albums as thick as bricks.
“The front and back of each page here contain intelligence data on some person, monster, or terrain.”
Yang Zicang’s eyes went wide. “That’s insane. Do you work here or something?”
Luo Bin shot him an annoyed glare.
“You have no idea how exhausting it’s been for me to gather all these over the past two years. They are part of the criteria for advancing the model capability.”
“Moreover, not everyone can obtain this chance to upgrade the model. It only occasionally appears within B-level intersecting zones, with a very low probability. As for me, well, it was purely a matter of luck.”
Saying this, Luo Bin pointed to his own brain again.
“For the sake of this opportunity, heh, my once-good buddies… sigh, it’s better not to mention them.”
So there were still such good things lying within the intersecting zones.