Good News: Time Stopped. Bad News: One Minute

Bai Ye's feelings were complicated.

There was good news and bad news before him.

The good news was that although he had transmigrated into the era of the Great Cataclysm two hundred years in the future, where civilization lay shattered, resources were scarce, the locals were rough and simple, and radiation and mutated monsters were everywhere...

He had a cheat ability, and it was incredibly powerful—time stop!

The bad news was... one minute.

Yes, one minute. His time-stop ability only lasted one minute per day.

What could one minute even do? It was not enough to make a bowl of instant noodles...

The only consolation was that this minute could accumulate. If he did not use it today, then after midnight, it would become two minutes the next day.

Bang!

The roar of gunfire interrupted Bai Ye's thoughts.

It was immediately followed by a crowd's savage cheers.

He looked up and saw that Gray Soil Town's central square was packed with people.

It was nighttime. Bright incandescent lights illuminated countless shifting silhouettes in the square, and together with the wild cheers, it looked like a dance of demons.

"Another one played to death? That's already the third. Tsk, tsk. Don't these savages ever get tired of watching?"

Bai Ye stretched, working his numb legs as well. The iron chains around his feet clanged sharply.

Yes, he was a slave of these crude savages.

Gray Soil Town was a human settlement of eight hundred people. Towns like it were everywhere across this wasteland.

At that moment, a table stood at the very center of the square.

A young man in a floral shirt sat beside it with a cigarette hanging from his lips. Across from him sat a corpse with a hole blown through its head.

The corpse still clutched a strange revolver. Its entire body was made of white bone, with long, winding blood-red patterns across it like writhing veins.

Those eerie veins covered not only the gun itself, but even extended into the corpse's right hand, deeply rooted within it.

The absurd, grotesque sight was like having five IV needles stuck into one hand, all pumping in five bottles of fluid at once.

Sizzle...

Accompanied by a scalp-crawling sucking sound, the revolver drained the corpse into a dried husk.

The group standing behind the man in the floral shirt cheered excitedly.

"We won again! We won again!"

"As expected of Magic Hand Li You! He actually won three rounds in a row. If he wins a few more, he'll probably meet the containment conditions for the forbidden item [Breath of Bones]!"

"Hahaha... [Breath of Bones] belongs to our West District now!"

In contrast to their excitement, the crowd gathered behind the dried corpse—the people of the East District—stood with dark expressions, deathly silent.

"Which one of you is going up?" Tan Jie, the East District's leader, swept his subordinates with a cold gaze.

Everyone his eyes passed over guiltily turned away, not daring to meet his stare.

Seeing his men remain silent, Tan Jie grew even angrier. Yet beneath that anger was a trace of helplessness. He only had a little over twenty core members under him, and three had already died.

If more died, he would become a leader with no one left under him. How would he rule the East District's lowlifes then?

"Trash! Every last one of you is trash!"

The East District people hung their heads, afraid of drawing his ire. Many cursed inwardly, If you're so capable, why don't you go up yourself? You're only making us do it because you're afraid to die!

The East District's silence only made the West District more arrogant, and all kinds of filthy insults rang out.

At the edge of the crowd, a raggedly dressed youth with his feet bound by iron chains curled his lips into a faint smile. He was Bai Ye.

He knew his opportunity had come.

An opportunity to escape the fate of a slave and take control of a forbidden item!

Bai Ye was currently a slave of the East District. When he had first transmigrated yesterday, he had still been an East District lowlife. Then he had used his time-stop ability once, causing a tiny little accident, and today he had become a slave.

He looked at [Breath of Bones] on the table, information about forbidden items flashing through his mind.

A century ago, a Great Cataclysm had swept across the entire world, shattering civilization. Animals, plants, and even certain inanimate objects across the globe had mutated to varying degrees.

Forbidden items emerged as a result. [Breath of Bones] was one of them, mutated from an ordinary revolver and possessing bizarre abilities.

To use a forbidden item, one had to meet its containment conditions, because forbidden items were no longer inanimate objects. They were living beings!

They had minds of their own. Only by fulfilling their conditions could one gain the right to use them, commonly known as having them acknowledge an owner.

The containment condition for [Breath of Bones] was simple: gamble with one's life!

In this wasteland, where civilization had faded, a 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. The game involved loading one bullet, then spinning the cylinder. Where the bullet landed depended entirely on luck.

The two gamblers took turns shooting themselves, handing their lives over to fate to see whom that single bullet would strike. After several rounds, whoever remained alive was the winner.

Before [Breath of Bones] became a forbidden item, it had been the tool used to play Fate Roulette. Perhaps because it had shot too many people, or for some other reason, this ordinary handgun had become a forbidden item.

The containment conditions of most forbidden items were related to their past experiences. Thus, its condition was to win at Fate Roulette. Winning once was not enough; one had to keep winning until it acknowledged them!

Only those fortunate and brave enough could earn [Breath of Bones]'s favor.

Bai Ye glanced at the clock hanging on the square's stone wall. 23:49!

Just wait a little longer... It was not time yet. His ability would only recover after midnight.

"Tan Jie, if no one in your East District dares to come up and gamble, then [Breath of Bones] will belong to our West District."

The West District's leader, King Snake, sneered. The metal prosthetic in his left eye socket flashed with an eerie red glow.

Tan Jie said darkly, "I was the one who found this forbidden item. Don't even think about getting your hands on it, West District!"

"Oh?" King Snake gave a strange laugh. "How many days have you had that forbidden item? Your East District people are useless. Not one of them can make it acknowledge an owner. Now mutated monsters outside have their eyes on Gray Soil Town. Without a forbidden item, how are we supposed to deal with them?

Since your people cannot make [Breath of Bones] acknowledge an owner, are you going to stop my people from trying?

Are you going to doom all of Gray Soil Town for your own selfish interests?!"

His words changed the expressions of many residents in town. The residents did not care whether the East District or West District leader obtained the forbidden item. They only cared whether they could survive.

Watching the restless crowd, Tan Jie's expression became increasingly ugly. He knew that if he forcibly claimed the forbidden item, he would provoke everyone's fury. These people would not hesitate to tear him, the East District leader, apart if it meant surviving.

But the thought of handing the forbidden item over to someone else was even more unbearable than killing him.

The East and West Districts had been opposed for years. Though they appeared harmonious on the surface, friction often broke out between them. Tan Jie knew perfectly well that once the West District obtained the forbidden item and repelled the mutated monsters, their next target would definitely be him.

Whew.

He took a deep breath and said solemnly, "I, Tan Jie, will naturally not destroy Gray Soil Town for my own selfish interests. Forbidden items belong to the capable, but..."

His tone shifted as he stared coldly at King Snake. "The East District hasn't lost yet!"

King Snake smiled disdainfully. "Looks like you won't give up until all your people are dead. Then keep gambling. I'd like to see who in the East District dares to come up!"

Tan Jie turned around, his grave gaze sweeping over the East District members. His underlings shrank back one by one in fear.

But his gaze did not settle on them. It passed over them and turned toward the East District residents watching from the crowd.

"Residents of the East District, I, Tan Jie, promise you this: if any one of you can make [Breath of Bones] acknowledge an owner, then from this day onward, you will be my brother, Tan Jie's brother! You will be the East District's deputy leader!"

The East District people looked at one another, but no one answered. The atmosphere became awkward for a moment.

Hadn't plenty of brothers been killed by you, Tan Jie? Who would dare become your brother?

Tan Jie's face darkened with anger. His thinking was simple: even if his own subordinates could not obtain the forbidden item, it should at least fall into the hands of an East District lowlife. Anything was better than letting the West District have it.

Yet despite offering such generous terms, these lowlifes had not given him a single response.

Just as he fumed helplessly, a crisp clink of chains rang out.

"Move aside! Anyone who didn't know better would think our East District had no one left!" A youth's arrogant voice came from the crowd.