Good News: Time Stop; Bad News: One Minute
Bai Ye's mood was very complicated right now.
There was a piece of good news and a piece of bad news before him.
The good news was that, although he had time-traveled two hundred years into the era of the Great Cataclysm, where civilization was shattered, resources were scarce, local customs were rustic, and radiation and mutated monsters were everywhere...
He had a golden finger, and it was extremely powerful—Time Stop!
The bad news was... one minute.
Yes, one minute—his time-stop ability was only available for one minute a day.
What could one do in a minute? It wasn't even enough to soak a bowl of instant noodles...
The only consolation was that this minute could accumulate and stack. That was, if he didn't use it today, after twelve o'clock passed, the next day it would become two minutes.
Bang!
The roar of a gunshot interrupted Bai Ye's train of thought.
Immediately followed by the sound of savage revelry.
He raised his eyes and saw that the central square of Gray Soil Town was surrounded by a dense crowd.
It was currently the dead of night, and the bright incandescent lights in the square illuminated countless churning figures, which, paired with that wild cheering, looked like a dance of a thousand demons.
Played someone to death again? This is already the third. Tsk tsk, aren't these savages ever going to get tired of watching?
Bai Ye stretched lazily, taking the opportunity to move his numb legs, causing the iron chains on his feet to emit crisp clanking sounds.
Right, he was a slave to these vulgar savages.
Gray Soil Town was a human settlement of eight hundred people, and similar towns were everywhere across this wasteland.
At this moment, a table was placed in the very center of the central square.
Sitting next to the table was a young man wearing a floral shirt with a cigarette in his mouth, while sitting opposite him was a corpse with a hole blown through its head.
In the corpse's hand was still gripped a bizarre revolver. It was forged entirely from white bone, and winding, slender, blood-red patterns grew upon the bone, resembling a series of writhing blood vessels.
The eerie blood vessels not only covered the gun body but even extended onto the corpse's right hand, digging firmly into it.
That absurd and grotesque sight looked as if a person had five IV needles stuck into their hand at the same time, infusing five bottles of fluid all at once.
Sizzle...
Accompanied by a hair-raising sucking sound, the corpse was sucked dry into a mummified husk by the revolver.
A crowd of people standing behind the floral shirt man cheered jubilantly.
"Won again! We won again!"
"As expected of Magic Hand Li You, he actually managed to win three games in a row. Guessing after a few more wins, he'll be able to meet the containment conditions of the taboo object [Breath of Bones]!"
"Hahaha... [Breath of Bones] belongs to our West District now!"
Compared to the excitement of this group of people, the crowd watching from behind the mummified corpse—namely the people from the East District—wore gloomy expressions and absolute silence.
"Which of you is going up?" Tan Jie, the East District commander, scanned his subordinates with a cold gaze.
Everyone swept by his gaze guiltily averted their eyes, not daring to meet it.
Seeing his subordinates remain silent, Tan Jie felt his anger grow, but beneath the anger was also a trace of powerlessness. The core members under his command numbered only twenty-odd people, and three of them had already died.
If people kept dying, then he, this East District commander, would end up a commander with no troops left under him. How would he rule the pariahs of the East District then?
"Trash! You're all a bunch of trash!"
The people of the East District drooped their heads, terrified of drawing trouble upon themselves, and quite a few secretly cursed, If you're so capable, you go up. Aren't you just afraid of dying so you're making us go?
The silence of the East District made the West District even more arrogant, with various foul and abusive remarks constantly flying.
At the tail end of the crowd, a ragged youth with his feet bound in iron chains curled the corners of his mouth slightly. This person was none other than Bai Ye.
He knew his chance had arrived.
A chance to shake off his slave's destiny and wield a taboo object!
Bai Ye's current identity was that of a slave in the East District. When he had time-traveled here just yesterday, he was still an East District pariah, and then he used the time-stop ability once, causing a tiny, tiny accident that resulted in him becoming a slave today.
He looked at the [Breath of Bones] placed on the table, information regarding taboo objects flashing through his mind.
A century ago, a great cataclysm swept across the entire world, causing civilization to shatter. All the animals, plants, and even some dead objects worldwide underwent varying degrees of mutation.
Taboo objects emerged as the times required, and the [Breath of Bones] was one of them, mutated from an ordinary revolver and possessing bizarre abilities.
To use a taboo object, one had to meet its containment conditions, because taboo objects were no longer dead items, but living entities!
They had their own thoughts, and thus only by satisfying their conditions could one gain the right to use them, commonly known as master recognition.
The containment conditions for the [Breath of Bones] were very simple, and that was gambling with one's life!
On this wasteland where civilization was not manifest, a very thrilling gambling game was popular—Fate Roulette.
Fate Roulette was a game specifically for gambling with one's life.
A revolver could hold six bullets, and the gameplay of this game was to load a single bullet, then spin the cylinder. Where the bullet landed depended entirely on luck.
The two gamblers took turns shooting themselves in the head, entrusting their lives to fate to see which person that single bullet would strike. After a few rounds, whoever remained alive was the winner.
Before the [Breath of Bones] had turned into a taboo object, it was a prop used to play Fate Roulette. Perhaps because it had shot and killed too many people, or due to other reasons, this ordinary pistol mutated into a taboo object.
Most taboo objects' containment conditions were related to their past experiences, so its containment condition was to win at Fate Roulette—winning one game wasn't enough; one had to keep winning until it approved of them!
Only a person who was sufficiently lucky and brave could win the favor of the [Breath of Bones].
Bai Ye glanced at the clock hanging on the stone wall of the plaza: 23:49!
Wait a little longer... the time hadn't come yet; his ability would only recover after twelve o'clock.
"Tan Jie, if no one in your East District dares to come up and gamble, then the [Breath of Bones] is going to belong to our West District."
King Snake, the West District commander, sneered, the metal prosthetic eye in his left socket flashing with an eerie red light.
Tan Jie said with a gloomy face, "The taboo object was found by me in the first place; don't even think about getting your hands on it, West District!"
"Yo-ho." King Snake let out an eccentric laugh. "How many days have you had the taboo object in your hands? It's your East District people who are trash; there isn't a single person who can make the taboo object recognize its master. Right now, our Gray Soil Town has been targeted by mutated monsters from the outside—how are we supposed to deal with mutated monsters without a taboo object?
Since your people can't make the [Breath of Bones] recognize its master, are you going to stop my people instead?
Are you going to doom the entire Gray Soil Town for the sake of your own selfish interests!?"
His words caused quite a few residents in the town to wear varying expressions. The residents didn't care which commander from the East or West District obtained the taboo object; they only cared about whether they could survive.
Watching the unsettled crowd, Tan Jie's expression grew even uglier. He knew that once he forcefully monopolized the taboo object, it would definitely arouse public indignation, and these people wouldn't mind tearing him, this East District commander, to pieces just to survive.
Yet the thought of handing the taboo object over to others was even harder to bear than killing him.
The East and West Districts had been antagonistic for many years. Although they maintained a surface harmony, friction occurred constantly, and Tan Jie was well aware that once the West District mastered the taboo object and beat back the mutated monsters, the next target they dealt with would inevitably be himself.
Hah.
He took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "Naturally, I, Tan Jie, will not destroy Gray Soil Town for my own selfish interests. Taboo objects should belong to the capable, but..."
His tone abruptly shifted, and he stared coldly at King Snake, "The East District hasn't lost yet!"
King Snake smiled dismissively. "It looks like you intend to let your own men die completely before you quit. Then let's continue gambling. I'd like to see who in the East District dares to come up!"
Tan Jie turned around, his solemn gaze sweeping over the people of the East District. His underlings shrank back one by one in fright.
However, his gaze did not land on his underlings, instead passing over them to look at the observing East District residents.
"Residents of the East District, I, Tan Jie, make a promise here: as long as any of you can make the [Breath of Bones] recognize its master, from this day forward, you are my Tan Jie's brother! You will be the East District vice-commander!"
The people of the East District looked at each other in dismay; not a single person replied, and the atmosphere became somewhat awkward for a moment.
Weren't there already few enough brothers who had been led to their deaths by you, Tan Jie? Who would dare to be your brother?
Tan Jie looked furious. His idea was very simple: even if his own underlings couldn't get the taboo object, at least he had to let the taboo object fall into the hands of the East District pariahs. In any case, that was better than it falling into the hands of the West District.
Yet he hadn't expected that after putting forth such great sincerity, not a single one of these pariahs would respond.
Just as he was flying into a powerless rage, the crisp sound of iron chains colliding rang out.
"Step aside, all of you! Anyone who didn't know better would think my East District had no one left!" The arrogant voice of a youth rang out from within the crowd.
Before you continue