Tiangu Training Base.
“Yuan Ting.”
“Here!”
“Zhi Ze.”
“Here.”
“Cen Le.”
“Here.”
Chi Yu put away the roll call book. “Good, everyone’s here.”
Yuan Ting’s features were bold and expressive. He scratched his head, unable to help complaining, “Instructor, there are only three of us. Why even take roll call? You can tell at a glance.”
Zhi Ze’s eyes were a very unusual gray color. He said, “Then why did you respond so loudly?”
The girl on the left with a soft, cute appearance but cold demeanor, wearing silver-framed glasses, was named Cen Le. She turned her head. “You two are so noisy.”
Chi Yu clapped his hands. “Alright, alright. Do you know what a sense of ritual is? We were supposed to recruit four people, but we didn’t fill the quota, did we?”
“After a month of training, you’ve surely become quite familiar with each other,” he cleared his throat and said, “but it’s not enough. Excellent ability users who can protect ordinary people should experience more actual combat.”
“You enjoy premium resources and are members of the elite team. In the future, you’ll face even more dangerous, ferocious exotic beasts. When they ravage cities, you must shoulder your responsibilities.”
Chi Yu spoke with passionate enthusiasm, his intonation rising and falling.
Yuan Ting, Zhi Ze, and Cen Le—the oldest not yet seventeen—felt very fired up when they first heard these words, but gradually grew numb.
Zhi Ze: “So, are the three of us going out for training?”
“There’s a mission,” Chi Yu’s expression turned serious. “The high-level exotic beasts in F City have already been eliminated. It’s now a contaminated area between light and moderate levels. The remaining exotic beasts’ levels are just right for you all.”
Yuan Ting: “Great! How many do we kill?”
Chi Yu: “Fifteen hundred per person. Low-level exotic beasts don’t count. One high-level exotic beast can substitute for one hundred mid-level ones.”
Yuan Ting froze.
Fifteen hundred per person? The three of them together would be forty-five hundred. Yuan Ting calculated and gasped.
Zhi Ze and Cen Le’s expressions also became serious.
Chi Yu’s face finally revealed a trace of coldness. “Whenever you complete the quota, that’s when I’ll pick you up.”
“There’s an ability user base in F City’s center temporarily established by Tiangu and free ability users. You can cooperate with them. As for how to complete it… figure it out yourselves.”
“I’m only giving you five months. Anyone who exceeds the time limit gets kicked out.”
“The three of you go in, and three must come out. If even one is missing, the entire elite team gets replaced!”
All three simultaneously gasped silently.
Chi Yu said solemnly, “Did you hear clearly?”
“Yes, sir!”
“Depart immediately.”
Chi Yu watched the three promising seedlings run off, pulled out a cigarette and took a drag. At the end, he paused, suddenly frowning as he looked toward the sky.
“Why does it feel like someone’s watching us…”
***
Yuan Guang
Gong Du looked at the mirror in his hand, making distant eye contact with Chi Yu from afar. He turned the mirror face-down on the table and muttered, “Still so perceptive.”
Uncle Fu: “Leader, are you really going?”
Gong Du: “I’m going.”
Otherwise, how could this final script proceed if he wasn’t together with the protagonist group?
Uncle Fu: “Then what about Yuan Guang? I’m afraid the Left Envoy will cause trouble.”
Gong Du: “I’ll have Shi-ge stay here to watch over things.”
He pointed at the empty air. Behind him, an overwhelming expanse of blood-red color vaguely appeared. Just for an instant—it was unclear what it was—it quickly disappeared.
A semi-transparent shadow appeared beside him, gradually condensing into a person.
The person who appeared out of nowhere looked exactly like Shi Deng, but appeared more mature, in his twenties. His eyes were pure deep blue, with black hair that had dark red tips adorned with small bells.
This was a special alternate identity Gong Du had created in this world.
From the first time he reset the timeline, he discovered that Shi Deng’s past, present, and future had been fractured. Before he stopped resetting, they didn’t affect each other.
Baldy said this was a bug produced by the manga world not being fully formed.
So he simply extracted the “past” and “future,” injected his own consciousness into them, and together they explored ways to successfully separate the manga world.
The “future” Shi Deng was older. For easier distinction, Gong Du called him Shi-ge.
The “past” Shi Deng was smaller. Gong Du called him Xiao Deng.
Now his script required the two of them to help him act together.
Shi-ge had a young adult appearance, his features fully matured, somewhat lazily: “Usually you don’t let me materialize. Why do you need my help again this time?”
Shi Deng coughed lightly and secretly poked Uncle Fu.
Uncle Fu was using a special dye to color Shi Deng’s hair. While dyeing, he said, “The leader wants to go out and play, leaving you at Yuan Guang to handle affairs.”
Shi Deng: “…”
You didn’t need to be quite that blunt.
Shi-ge smiled, his deep blue eyes revealing no emotion. “The thirteenth time, and you still won’t give up? Wouldn’t returning to the correct timeline be better?”
“Look at yourself now.”
He stood behind Shi Deng, leaning down slightly. Together they looked at the large mirror in front of them.
Identical faces. Clearly the young adult was older, yet Shi Deng was already permeated with a heavy air of twilight. His long hair was gray-white, his heterochromatic eyes very dark, the red pupil eerily strange.
He said, “Stop lingering in the wrong timeline.”
Shi Deng lowered his head. “…One more try, Shi-ge. This time, I’m different.”
He glanced at the small medicine bottle on the table.
Shi-ge stopped talking and leaned to the side, watching Uncle Fu dye Shi Deng’s hair.
Uncle Fu felt some heartache. He said, “Leader, be careful not to get water on it, or the hair color will fade. If you’re going to find them, do you want to materialize Xiao Deng and bring him along?”
Shi Deng: “I’ll ask him later. I’ll only bring him if he’s willing to come out.”
He faced the mirror, clumsily putting a blue contact lens over his right eye. Both eyes became deep blue, though if one looked carefully, the left was slightly lighter.
After Uncle Fu dyed even the last wisp of gray-white at his hair tips dark red, Shi Deng stood up and turned in a circle. “How is it? Not bad?”
Uncle Fu nodded repeatedly, praising with a smile, “Good, good. Youthful, energetic, beautiful young man.”
“Wait a moment.”
Shi-ge walked over, lowered his head slightly, and slowly braided a few small braids behind Shi Deng’s ear, adding small bells. After finishing, he stepped back. “Alright, go ahead.”
Shi Deng glanced at it, his expression complicated. He just opened his mouth.
Shi-ge: “Don’t say it.”
Shi Deng: “…Fine, I’m leaving.”
Though the crooked braids were really quite ugly.
After Shi Deng left, Uncle Fu said, “I’ll trouble Shi-ge for this period of time, and also with what’s underneath Yuan Guang…”
Shi-ge nodded. “I know.”
[Hahahaha laughing to death, Shi-ge finally appeared, still refusing to give up on making Shi baby give up (dog head)]
[Shi-ge’s braiding skills are really nothing to compliment. Originally it was pretty good, but then it became slightly ugly. But speaking of which, the more times he resets, the more childish Shi baby becomes~]
[Hehe hehe, so now it’s max-level Shi baby entering F City newbie village?]
[In “Youth Arc,” Shi baby was also a noob. After clearing the F City dungeon, he came out all dazed hahaha.]
[What are you all laughing about (contemplative jpg.) Are you selectively ignoring this detail?
#image#
The youth subconsciously glanced at the small medicine bottle on the table, and the smile at the corner of his mouth faded considerably. He said, ‘…One more try, Shi-ge. This time, I’m different.’
This time is different? How is it different?
So what kind of medicine is that?]
[Could there be some problem from going back and forth through timelines? Every time he travels back, his hair turns whiter. Now it’s completely white…]
[There’s definitely side effects, but this cat never analyzes places hiding unknown knives. Haven’t we been stabbed enough times already? (lying flat)]
[#image#
The youth fumbles with putting in contact lenses.
He’s also dyeing his hair and wearing contacts—why does he seem like a delinquent youth… I feel both heartache and amusement.]
[Afraid Idiot Brother, Sarcastic Guy, and Sister Le won’t recognize him, right?]
[But they don’t remember him anyway (cat confused jpg.) (cat tilts head and stabs jpg.)]
[Giao, people die when they are stabbed…]
…
The feeling of talking to oneself was rather marvelous, and different from the previous world.
Gong Du held a white-furred, blue-eyed cat and hid near F City.
F City was a contaminated area between beginner and intermediate levels, a place for the protagonist group to practice and level up. He had—oh, what the manga defined as the “Youth Arc”—passed through here as their companion and friend alongside the protagonist group.
But at that time, his awakened time ability was still very weak and not fully activated. He was quite miserable. So in all those many subsequent resets, he never came back here again.
This was the second time.
He was thinking about how to infiltrate the protagonist group this time. After all, those guys at the very beginning were quite easy to fool—they believed whatever he said, without him having to make up much.
He could just act casually.
***
Shi Deng held the cat and checked the time on his phone.
A moment later, he raised his head to look at the sky where the sun was already setting. If he remembered correctly, that idiot Yuan Ting, Zhi Ze, and Sister Le would arrive here at this time.
He zoned out. His hand felt heavy—he had pulled out some fur from the kitten in his arms. The kitten yelped and actually spoke in a milky voice: “Shi Deng, don’t pull my fur!”
Shi Deng snapped back. “…Sorry, Xiao Deng.”
Xiao Deng was his past, only seven years old, still with a child’s mentality. As for how old Shi-ge specifically was, he didn’t know. Shi-ge never said what happened in the future.
To put it plainly, their forms of existence were rather strange, half dependent on his power.
Also, seemingly because Xiao Deng was weaker than him, he could transform Xiao Deng into other biological forms, but he had no way of dealing with Shi-ge.
When Xiao Deng became a cat, he was just a kitten.
“…I already said it’s fine if I just follow you as a ghost.”
Shi Deng: “No, Zhi Ze might see through it.”
Xiao Deng coolly hummed and stopped talking.
Shi Deng’s ears twitched as he looked into the distance. “They’re here.”
***
A car suddenly drove past, stopped for a few seconds, then sped away, leaving behind a trail of exhaust and three people looking at each other.
Yuan Ting: “…Coach Chi ran away way too fast.”
Zhi Ze: “Let’s go.”
Cen Le, carrying a backpack, pushed up her glasses and looked toward F City ahead. “First, let’s find the ability user base here.”
This city had already become half a ruin, shrouded in large swaths of ominous gray. Their current position was in the suburbs. Looking from here, they could vaguely see smoke still rising in some places.
Yuan Ting: “But we don’t even have a map or positioning. If we wander around randomly using our abilities, won’t we get exhausted to death?”
Cen Le sighed softly and looked at Zhi Ze. “Can you use prophecy?”
Zhi Ze’s ability was controlling earth and wood—very attuned to nature. But he also had an additional ability—
Prophecy.
However, this special ability’s leveling relied on chance encounters. Zhi Ze’s prophecy ability was still at the beginner stage—he could only use it three times a day, and could only predict things related to them.
Zhi Ze smiled. “The only thing here related to us should be the ability user base, right? I’ll try.”
He casually picked up a leaf from the ground. “I prophesy.”
Silver-gray light floated up on the leaf. It instantly flew out, heading east for a few seconds before suddenly pausing and sharply flying south.
Yuan Ting nearly crashed into a tree. While following the leaf around the turn, he cursed, “Zhi Ze! Are you reliable or not?!”
The three of them chased after the rapidly southbound leaf, afraid of losing it.
Zhi Ze laughed lightly and retorted, “You’re the idiot. Sister Le is fine.”
Cen Le reminded them, “Watch the road.”
They ran further and further south. After running for about ten minutes, there wasn’t a trace of human presence—it even gradually became more deserted.
Zhi Ze frowned slightly. “Wait, I feel something’s a bit—”
His pupils contracted. He shouted, “Dodge!”
**
wannaberecluse On SRTT Chapter 50.1