As everything came to a standstill, everyone froze in place in an eerie fashion. Only the three armed thugs were exceptions.
That was because Time Stop locked all of a target's states in place, meaning no external attack could harm someone affected by Time Stop. Pandora had only activated it to protect the innocent bystanders from getting caught up in this. There was no need to protect the three armed thugs.
It seemed Pandora did know, more or less, how to spare me trouble, even though she had never understood why I was so afraid of it.
The sudden change left the three men, who had been swaggering arrogantly just seconds earlier, standing there in stunned silence. A sight that belonged only in movies had completely robbed them of their ability to react.
The burly man in the middle recovered first. He realized that the skinny student he had been holding hostage had become as immovable as a mountain. No matter how hard he pulled, he could not drag him even an inch. He decisively released the hostage, drew another pistol from his waist, instantly becoming a dual-wielding gunman, and warily scanned his surroundings.
"Emperor," Pandora's voice came through the mental link, "without support from the Shilin Outpost Base, False Stasis can only last fifteen minutes."
"Got it," I replied to Pandora in my mind. This method of communication really was convenient. "What's False Stasis?"
"Sub-Time Stop Phenomenon." Pandora seemed to wobble slightly, but she patiently explained, "It freezes information interactions within a designated area, producing an effect similar to Time Stop. However, it cannot interfere with the normal Timeline and can only perform the freezing operation. Therefore, it is called False Stasis."
"Okay, I didn't understand any of that." I nodded vigorously and declared with great momentum, "Now that