Volume Six: What She Lost · What I Gained - Racing Against Time

"--Anti-military weapon, 'Disassembler' super-powerful chainsaw!"

Putting aside the incredibly tasteless name... a chainsaw?

Not Holy Sword or anything like that, but a chainsaw?

A chainsaw over one kilometer long?

The edge emitted an ominous, eerie blue light. The bottom of the weapon, held in Julia's hand—or rather, fused with Julia's arm—was an engine rather than a hilt. Spinning at high speed along the edge were tens of millions of tiny Laser Cutter, the buzzing sound maddeningly loud.

It is definitely a chainsaw.

"... Hey, I mean, the smart and cute Julia- chan?"

"Hmm? Well, I know you're amazed by its grandeur and romance," she said, patting the side of the chainsaw with a look of pure delight, sparks crackling from where her metal fingertips touched it. "But don't expect me to lend it to you! Drills are romantic, Multi-turret are the ultimate romance that surpasses them, but chainsaws—"

"--It's the ultimate romance, even more so Multi-turret! Yes, yes, I know!"

I waved my hand impatiently. Of course I know how romantic chainsaws are. From The Texas Chainsaw Massacre to the Resident Evil 4 chainsaw master to Ayumu Aikawa, it's practically Divine Artifact must-have for any guy with a bit of arm strength. But I want to be the one sawing people with a chainsaw, not the one being sawed, damn it!

"Please let me go first! I have an urgent matter!"

"What's the rush?"

Buzzing sound!

The buzzing of the extra-long chainsaw drew ever closer, to its limit, no closer at all.

To be precise... the source of the noise, which is the blade of the chainsaw, just slashed into my skull.

"Wow~~~ Even though this is my first time using it in actual combat, it's really easy to use! Awesome!!!!"

Whoosh!

Half of his head was cut off.

Consciousness turned to darkness--

--A few seconds later, it became clear again.

His body was revived in the flames, but the excruciating pain from being sawed in the head by the chainsaw still lingered.

"..." Where's the chainsaw?

It was clearly a kilometer long, and from a distance it looked like a grotesquely long cutting line resembling Sick Spider, yet such a large target disappeared in just a few seconds.

"Eh..."

Then I discovered it.

Julia has now modified her equipment into something strange again.

Like a shimmering spider—no, no, with so many outstretched "hands," calling it a sea urchin would be more accurate, wouldn't it?

The chainsaw didn't "disappear," it was "disassembled."

A kilometer-long chainsaw was transformed into five hundred smaller chainsaws, each two meters long... although two meters is still quite large.

Julia seemed to have reorganized her previous turret barrage into at least five hundred slender robotic arms, each end of which was connected to a chainsaw that swung around incessantly, producing a more piercing buzzing sound than before. The other end of each robotic arm was connected to a massive column, dozens of meters long and shaped like a spine.

"The external neural extension system—the 'spine'—is complete, and the reusable robotic arm array is complete—whoosh, I've been wanting to try this for ages!"

Standing before this chainsaw-like sea urchin and spine, Julia resembled a Stand user, with several cables extending from the back of her neck, connecting to the mechanical spine... let's just call it the mechanical spine for now.

"Hey Xiao Ye, this thing of mine is absolutely stunning, isn't it! Before I tear you to pieces a million times, can I hear your thoughts?"

"You should just switch careers and become a cosplayer, specializing in cosplaying characters like Haion or Doctor Octopus."

"Beep beep beep--Zero points! Mukuro is alright, but names like Doctor Octopus are so... tacky!!!"

A deafening roar erupted as the enormous spine-like mechanical sea urchin descended from the sky, hurtling towards me.

Two and a half minutes have passed.

Haoyue is now 45 years old, devoted to her husband and children.

Please, Haoyue, just wait for me a little while.

To put it irresponsibly--

If you truly love me as much as you say, then waiting for me for seventy or eighty years wouldn't be a problem, right?

"Hurry, hurry, where is it...?"

Sin Annihilation flapped her bat-like membranous wings and rose into the sky. To gain an excellent view, she grew eyes all over her head, allowing her to observe the surroundings from every angle.

Looking down at the ground, at the space that was once a giant racetrack but is now just a standard semi-circular crater, Sin Annihilation anxious, but this anxiety did not improve his efficiency.

Chunks of flesh occasionally fell from her body, and upon landing, they unfolded into enormous fleshy membranes covering a section of the ground. This was a true carpet search; these membranes could detect every detail on the ground down to the micrometer level and relay the information back to Sin Annihilation. This was arguably the most precise search method in the world.

However, even so, progress was slow. The marbles obtained by compressing the space were too small compared to the entire pit. If they were mixed with small sand and soil, even the Sin Annihilation could not distinguish them with the naked eye. Furthermore, the marbles did not make any sound, did not generate heat, and had no special light effects, so this was the only way to do it.

Given enough time, Sin Annihilation is 100% certain he can find the bead that contains Valentina, Yu Xun, and Casey.

But now...

"Hey... Sin... Extinction?"

The piece of flesh that had been separated earlier to act as an extension of hearing spoke; it was Ye.

"How's the search going?"

"It is estimated to take twenty minutes."

Actually, twenty minutes is already quite risky; generally speaking, it would take twice that amount of time.

"That's far from enough... You should give up for now."

"Ah?"

"Let me."

"Stop fooling around! There's no Blood Energy fluctuation in the compressed space, you can't possibly find it!"

"I've thought this through carefully, so give it to me—Aaaaaaah!!!"

Suddenly, a scream came from the other side.

"... How are you?"

"Haha, I was just cut into many pieces by a chainsaw, but I've already come back to life."

"This looks bad! But even if we change it--"

"Just come here now!!!"

A sudden roar startled Sin Annihilation Mie—Ye usually gave off an absent-minded vibe when he spoke, and rarely showed his annoyance so obviously.

"Julia is a better match for you! You can't do anything there anyway, so leave Haoyue to me. Stop talking nonsense!!!"

"I... I..."

"Is this really a good idea? If you keep searching for the compressed space and still haven't succeeded within ten minutes, then Haoyue's death will be blamed on you! What will Xiao Wu think then?"

Too cunning.

"I see..."

"Don't run away! You've been so distracted since just now, it's like you're having sex with this woman while thinking about other women!"

"Judging from the current situation, that's really the case, then it's truly unfair—"

Clang!!!!

Dozens of chainsaws simultaneously slashed through the space I had just been in. Luckily, I deployed my Flame Wings at the last moment, otherwise—

Click!

Suddenly, a chainsaw appeared from a blind spot behind me and cleaved me horizontally. A barrage of laser beams followed, turning me into a bloody pulp, and then into scorched ashes. The ashes spontaneously erupted in raging Blood Flame, and I was resurrected in just a few seconds, but the pain I felt before my death remained with each resurrection.

"How pathetic! You've been killed by me so easily time and time again. You weren't even trying to fight me seriously!"

"..."

Faced with her piercing, shrill questioning, I simply chose to remain silent this time.

What she said was actually true. I had been immersed in thinking since the beginning, and my fighting with her was just going through the motions. Anyway, I had plenty of lives, so I might as well let her keep killing me until I was dead or alive.

What do I do?

Haoyue is indeed in crisis now, and it's a crisis I never expected.

To let her die of old age in absolute solitude—what a cruel superpower! Most people who were hit by this would die within 0.1 seconds of the outside world. After all, one minute in the outside world is equal to one year in another dimension, one second is equal to sixty days, and 0.1 seconds is also 6 days. If they don't eat or drink for 6 days, they'll be half-dead, if not dead.

But Haoyue can use her special abilities... such as healing the moon to nourish her body. I believe that she can "simply live for several decades without eating or drinking," although it will certainly be very difficult.

The key is her mindset.

In a strange, empty space, they endure decades or even centuries of solitude.

I wasn't there for her.

I'm not worried that she might despair and commit suicide because of intense loneliness, because I understand her. She would never allow herself to die without ever seeing me again; she would definitely try her best to live until we meet again.

But what about growing old?

There's no need to worry about her aging and losing her beauty. With my current strength, I can regenerate her body to a certain extent. In other words, as long as I rescue her before she dies of old age, it will be enough time.

--Something like that, if only that were the case.

If I were in my prime, with strength comparable to a high-level player, I could indeed help her regain her youthful body. But I can't do it now, absolutely not. At most, I can only heal her injuries.

"... Then why don't you take the money?"

Julia suddenly spoke up.

Although I had been pretending not to hear her before, I couldn't pretend I hadn't heard this time.

"What did you say?"

"Money, money," her mechanically cobbled-together, almost robotic voice slurred, "I can intercept signal transmissions, so I heard everything. Your lovely companion is dying of old age, isn't she? You want to save her, but even if you could, you can't restore her youth for now, can you?"

"..."

"Then go get the money, the money from those 'Extra Weapon' that you've already defeated."

"...!?"

My heart skipped a beat.

Did they take the money from the Extra Weapon?

"Isn't that obvious? Don't tell me none of you thought of that. Money, money! When you defeat them, their money will naturally be your spoils! So hurry up and collect as much money as possible! If you guys could become stronger, I wouldn't be so bored!"

"... But how do we do it?"

"You idiots! Are you all model citizens? You don't even loot the corpses after defeating monsters? President Yu gave everyone a bank card as operating funds, and there's enough money in it to buy a medium-sized city! Oh, and don't you dare try to steal it from me, I'm spending it on materials as soon as I get it~"

"..."

Oh, I see. I really didn't think of that. But how exactly do we do it... how do we transfer their money to our account...?

"Well, you won't have that chance anyway, because I've decided to use the secret weapon I'm developing to finish you off!"

The only one in her huge box of parts that had never been opened flew in front of her.

Then, she took it out—