In the Time Stop Series

Two hours later, Hao Shuai lay on his bed looking utterly dead inside. His body felt exhausted, and his heart even more so. He had excitedly traveled to Chronicle World, only to run into several thugs with knives trying to rob him before he had even left the alley. Luckily, he ran fast. After sprinting through two streets and shaking them off, he immediately returned.

Hao Shuai thought about how he was supposed to dominate countless worlds in the future, yet now he had been chased through the streets by a few thugs. This was practically a stain on his future career as a big shot!

Look at those big shots next door. When they traveled through worlds, they either got beginner gift packs, had systems stuff all kinds of awesome skills into them, or were directly teleported near their objectives. And him? Other than an infinite storage space, his teleportation was random. Who knew which cave the Superpower Crystal was buried in?

After resting on the bed, Hao Shuai began reviewing the reason for his failed trip: blind impulsiveness.

It seemed he needed to make a proper plan. Hao Shuai got up, sat down at the desk, took out a blank sheet of paper, thought for a while, and wrote two words on it: Safety.

As someone who lacked a sense of security, the first thing he should consider was safety.

The fact that he could travel between worlds had to be kept absolutely secret from people in the real world. He could not tell anyone, could not bring people from the real world to other worlds, and could not bring people from other worlds back to the real world. These were the most basic principles.

After all, traveling between worlds! Who wouldn't be jealous of something like that? If the various countries found out, they would probably do whatever it took to obtain it. Setting aside research alone, just the land and resources of other worlds would be enough to tempt people. Not to mention there were countless worlds.

If word got out, it probably would not just be countless organizations and small countries coming after him. Even the five rogue nations would wage war over it.

Fortunately, he did not have any family or close friends. The only person who could be considered family, the director of his orphanage, had already passed away. His girlfriend had just broken up with him too. As for the few classmates he could call friends, they had barely kept in touch after graduating college. He did not need to worry about anyone discovering his secret.

So long as he did not fool around in the real world, the real world was still relatively safe for now.

What he mainly needed to consider now was his safety after traveling to other worlds. Thinking of how he had been robbed in Chronicle World, Hao Shuai felt immensely relieved. Fortunately, those thugs had no guns and could not outrun him, allowing him to escape. Otherwise, he might have died before ever accomplishing anything.

He had been lucky last time, but Hao Shuai did not dare guarantee that he would be so lucky the next time he entered Chronicle World. After all, that was Rice Country, where gunfights happened every day. Safety really was not guaranteed there.

Thinking of this, Hao Shuai added another rule for himself: if he could not ensure absolute safety in a world, he would either keep a low profile and develop cautiously or not go at all. Only worlds where safety could be guaranteed were suitable for cutting loose.

As for how to protect himself, things like magic, immortal arts, martial arts, and superpowers were still somewhat unrealistic to consider. At present, the best means of self-protection was getting a gun, so he could protect himself while obtaining the Superpower Crystal.

There was no point dreaming about getting a gun domestically. The quickest and most convenient option would be going to Rice Country, but given his circumstances, going abroad to buy a gun was unrealistic too.

It seemed he could only consider getting a gun in another world~~~

Having skipped over the question of safety, the next issue was how to develop.

No matter where he was, development required money. As long as he had the power of money, ninety-nine percent of problems could be solved.

"Money, money. Society really can't do without you..."

Sitting in his chair, Hao Shuai sighed. His prospects might be bright, but if he wanted to develop, whether in the real world or another world, he could not do without the power of money.

Being broke was his biggest problem right now. No matter how bright his prospects were, they were still only prospects; he could not eat them. With only a little over a thousand yuan on him, what he urgently needed was a sum of money to sustain his life. That was the most important issue at present!! And in Chronicle World, having no dollars was absolutely not an option either.

But how was he supposed to make money? There was clearly no way in the real world. If there had been, Hao Shuai would not have suffered ten breakups. He could not seriously claim his stomach was bad and live off a woman, nor could he become a male escort. If he really did that, Hao Shuai would probably become famous throughout countless worlds.

Then he could only consider how to get money from other worlds. But ancient worlds were too chaotic and dangerous, while modern worlds gave him no identity. He was too weak to rob anyone and had no skills to rely on theft.

Sure enough, other than being handsome, he was good for nothing!

Hao Shuai tried hard to recall all the movies, TV dramas, anime, and novels he had watched, hoping to find a world that was both safe and easy to make money in.

Hao Shuai thought for a long time but could not remember any world that was particularly suitable. He only regretted having watched too few movies, novels, and TV dramas when he needed them. It seemed his breadth of knowledge was still too narrow.

Unable to think of any solution, Hao Shuai decided to watch a movie to relax.

Hao Shuai skillfully opened My Computer. Just as he was about to open the movie drive, his eyes involuntarily drifted to the study materials drive beside it, and his finger clicked into it before he could control himself.

The study materials were not Hao Shuai's. Although Hao Shuai often got dumped, he had never lacked girlfriends, so he only occasionally watched them to study some new "positions."

These 800 gigabytes of study materials were the fruits of four years of labor collected by Hao Shuai's loser shut-in roommate. When they graduated from college, the roommate had given them, along with the computer, to Hao Shuai.

When Hao Shuai saw a file labeled "Internal Materials" in the folder, an idea immediately popped into his mind.

Hao Shuai first connected to that world, then went outside to buy a baseball bat. After returning, he changed into an outfit that made him look like a student, then opened the movie and studied it in depth. This time, he was genuinely studying.

More than an hour later, Hao Shuai vanished from in front of the computer.

When Hao Shuai appeared again, he was already on the streets of Japan. Although he could not speak Japanese, he could more or less understand written Japanese by guessing. Following the signs, Hao Shuai quickly ran toward a nearby high school.

When Hao Shuai reached the school entrance, he happened to see Teacher Toni Ooki, who looked somewhat like Jay Chou, walking into the school. Hao Shuai immediately followed him inside.

Luckily, Hao Shuai was naturally fair-skinned and had only recently entered society, so he still had a student-like air about him. Otherwise, he probably would not even have made it through the school gates.

Hao Shuai followed Teacher Ooki to the entrance of a classroom. When he saw Teacher Ooki sneakily pull something resembling a remote control from his pocket and prepare to press it, Hao Shuai darted behind him with a whoosh, swung the baseball bat, and struck the back of Teacher Ooki's head.

With a bang, Teacher Ooki honorably went down. Hao Shuai hurriedly picked up the remote control that had fallen to the ground and pressed it.

The previously noisy school instantly fell silent. Everyone stood completely motionless. Hao Shuai walked into the classroom and headed toward the prettiest girl he could find in the class.

He first placed a finger under her nose to see whether she was breathing, then moved it to her chest to check whether her heart was beating.

"After being stopped, people have neither breath nor heartbeat, yet they still have body heat. What principle is this?" Hao Shuai wondered as he checked the nutritional intake of Japanese high school students.

"Not bad. Kids these days are very well nourished," Hao Shuai muttered to himself.

Of course, Hao Shuai only satisfied his urge to touch. He would not dare actually go further. In this Tokyo Heat world, who knew whether they had a habit of taking part-time jobs off campus, or whether there was anything wrong with their bodies?

Unable to figure out the principle behind the Time Stop device, Hao Shuai gave up thinking about it. He walked out of the school gates, canceled the Time Stop, and vanished.

When Hao Shuai returned to Tokyo Heat World, half an hour had already passed.

"As expected, the Time Stop device can only be used in this world. Once I leave this world, it has no effect at all. It's a little disappointing, but I didn't have high hopes to begin with," Hao Shuai consoled himself.

Since the Time Stop device could only be used in this world, it was perfect for getting some startup capital.

Hao Shuai strolled down the street, looking at the shops along the roadside. In the end, he entered a jewelry store.

Looking at the bustling jewelry store and the various jewels, jade, and gold accessories inside the display cases, Hao Shuai decided to "borrow" them as startup funds for his future big-shot career.

It might have been somewhat immoral, but could borrowing from the little Japan really be called "borrowing"?

Hao Shuai took out the Time Stop device and pressed it. The entire jewelry store immediately sank into stillness. He then walked behind the counter, took out a large bag, packed all the jewelry, accessories, and jade from the display cases into it, and stored it in his space.

After putting away the jewelry, Hao Shuai entered the police station across the street. He swaggered over to the criminal investigation unit and took several detectives' service pistols.

After finishing all this, Hao Shuai canceled the Time Stop and returned to the real world. As for what would happen afterward to the jewelry store and the detectives who lost their guns, that was none of Hao Shuai's concern! In any case, he would never return to this world.