A Wealthy Hostage

If the hostage was someone from the Dragon Ball anime, Sun Yu really couldn't just leave them to their fate.

So Sun Yu did his best to squeeze out a kind smile and grinned at the hysterical robber. "Hey, buddy..."

"Ahhh... Don't come any closer!" The robber was so terrified he nearly lost his wits. In his panic, a gunshot rang out. He had accidentally fired, and the muzzle was very close to the hostage's head. Even Lana's super speed wouldn't have been enough to stop the bullet in time. Besides, Lana might not even care whether the hostage lived or died.

Looks like I'm the one who has to save the world in the end, Sun Yu thought with a sigh. He might not be as fast as Lana, but he had the Sharingan. During the year he spent aboard the spaceship, Sun Yu had uncovered one of the Sharingan's new abilities.

Everyone knew that, aside from its heaven-defying ability to copy techniques, the Sharingan also possessed incredible perception. It could see through any move and track objects moving at high speeds. After a year of research... Actually, Sun Yu had only noticed the time displayed on the ship's digital clock slowing down after he'd activated his Sharingan by chance. That had made him wonder whether the Sharingan could affect the passage of time.

After conducting several experiments, he confirmed that activating the Sharingan really could influence the flow of time. When he exerted himself to the limit, he could stop time in the area around the spaceship for two seconds.

His Sharingan was practically an upgraded version of the Sharingan!

For an ordinary person, two seconds passed in the blink of an eye and wouldn't change anything. But for Sun Yu, it was a whole different story.

The instant the robber fired with a bang, Sun Yu activated his Sharingan. A Stasis Time Field formed within a radius of several dozen meters, and everyone present froze in place as if under a body-binding spell. The two seconds of stopped time began.

First, Sun Yu spent 0.01 seconds darting over to the robber. The man was still wearing an utterly horrified expression, looking as ridiculous as could be.

Sun Yu had no interest in staring at the filthy robber. He gently plucked the bullet out of the air, turned it around, and aimed it at the robber's knee.

Now that was what you called getting shot in the knee!

Getting shot in the knee—or struck by an arrow—was already an old joke, but Sun Yu couldn't help imagining the poor robber recalling this miserable period of his life in the future and saying, "I used to be an excellent robber. I even robbed the biggest bank in the world, until I took a bullet to the knee..."

Imagining the robber's expression as he said it, Sun Yu clamped a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing, and even threw in a little beatboxing.

The hostage had been rescued. What should he do with the remaining 1.5 seconds? Sun Yu looked toward Lana, bored. That should have been harmless, but the moment he did, he nearly got a nosebleed. Sun Yu's Sharingan really did have incredible perception! In his eyes, the soft Battle Suit Lana wore seemed almost transparent, letting him shamelessly ogle her curvaceous figure.

Sun Yu's Sharingan had some ability to see through things. It wasn't as clear as the Byakugan, but that was fine. A person shouldn't be too greedy!

Lana's figure is getting more and more incredible. I'd better look less in the future, or I'll end up malnourished. Sun Yu joked to himself, but his eyes were still fixed on Lana, greedily taking in the view.

"Hey, Kael, why are you looking so lecherous? What are you thinking about?" Lana suddenly barked at him, startling Sun Yu so badly that his Sharingan vanished at once.

Sun Yu stared at Lana in shock, his heart lurching. Wasn't there still half a second left in the time stop? How is Lana free already?

A soul-piercing scream rang through the hall. It came from the robber, but Sun Yu had no interest in paying attention to him anymore. To his dismay, he realized that the time-stopping effect of his Sharingan was much weaker against someone stronger than himself.

"Kael, why were your eyes red just now? It was scary!" Lana walked over and asked.

"Huh? Haha... They do that sometimes. I haven't figured out why!" Sun Yu said with a laugh.

Before Lana could ask anything else, Sun Yu picked up a bag of cash from the floor and prepared to leave.

At that moment, the East City police officers at the entrance finally mustered the courage to come in. Trembling, one of them said to Sun Yu, "Sir... No, young hero, mighty master, please leave the cash behind. We..."

"Get lost!" Sun Yu snapped, his eyes turning cold.

Could they get one thing straight? He was here to rob the bank too!

"We're the police of the people of East City..." The officers swallowed, then said with grim resolve, "If... if you insist on taking that bag of cash, then we'll have no choice but to..."

They looked as if they wanted to raise their guns, but their hands were shaking so badly they could barely hold on to them.

"Hmph!" Sun Yu snorted and walked over to the officers. They immediately collapsed to the floor in terror, unable to get out a single complete sentence.

Hey, is there really any need to be this afraid of me? Three black lines appeared on Sun Yu's forehead. If I hadn't gotten there before Lana just now, you'd all be lying in the hospital morgue by now!

"Um..." A timid voice came from behind Sun Yu. He turned around and saw the hostage he'd just rescued.

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Um..." The hostage had clearly worked up a great deal of courage. He addressed Sun Yu and Lana. "If the two of you are short on money, I have some savings. I could... I could lend you some."

"Oh?" Someone had gone out of their way to offer him money. Sun Yu certainly couldn't refuse. "What, are you rich, old man?"

The hostage smiled sheepishly at Sun Yu's question. "I run a company. I've made a little money over the past couple of years. If you don't mind, could you do me the honor?"

Sigh, looks like I won't be robbing a bank today. I didn't even get to punch an ATM to pieces. What a waste!

"Fine. We're hungry, so take us somewhere to eat first, then buy us some clean clothes. That work for you?" Sun Yu casually tossed the cash he'd taken from the robber to the East City police officers and said as much.

"No problem, no problem!" The hostage even patted his shoulder bag to show that he had plenty of money inside. "I'm Briefs. May I ask what I should call you two?"

"Kael'thas. If that's too much trouble, you can call me Sun Yu. This is my cousin, Lana... You can call her Sun Shan!" Sun Yu casually gave his real name. He didn't want people on Earth calling him Kael'thas, and while he was at it, he gave Lana an Earth name too.

Hearing the name Sun Yu had given her, Lana's pretty face turned red. She pouted and said, "Hey, Kael, don't go giving people random names! My name is Lana!"

Sun Yu pretended not to hear Lana's protest. Amid the East City police's profuse thanks, he walked out of the bank, with Lana and Briefs—their newly promoted meal ticket—following behind him.

"Come on, let's go clear out the whole food street!"