The Limits of Time Stop

Buzz!

A dazzling golden clock face rose beneath Bai Ye's feet, and the gears of time ground to a halt.

Every sound in the world seemed to peel away from his ears, leaving only his own ragged breathing between heaven and earth.

Carried by momentum, Bai Ye ran another two meters before barely managing to stop.

As everyone knew, it was difficult for someone sprinting at full speed to suddenly change direction due to inertia. That was why he had not forced himself to turn and shoot, instead decisively activating Time Stop.

When he turned around, he came face-to-face with a pair of pale, lifeless eyes. They belonged to a gray sparrow!

The eagle-like gray sparrow hung frozen in midair three meters above the ground like a specimen, its gray-feathered wings spread wide and its sharp talons pointed straight at Bai Ye's head.

That had been close!

If Bai Ye had activated Time Stop one or two seconds later, his skull would have burst open.

An inexplicable fury surged from his heart. "Trying to blow my head off, huh? I'll blow yours off first!"

Click!

[Breath of Bones] was cocked, its muzzle aimed straight at the gray sparrow's head.

At such close range, against a motionless target, even an elementary school kid would not miss. Bai Ye certainly would not.

Bang!

A blood-red bullet shot from the muzzle. Yet the sight he had expected—a head exploding—did not appear.

Bai Ye froze. He stared blankly at the scarlet bullet suspended in midair, only two centimeters from the muzzle.

It hung there, completely motionless.

"What is going on?"

"Could it be..."

Bai Ye suddenly thought of a possibility. He had stopped time across the entire world. In a world where time had stopped, only he himself and external objects he was touching could move. The bullet had left his body, so it had entered a frozen state as well.

The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. Otherwise, he could only run around naked during Time Stop, since clothes counted as external objects too.

So, he quickly widened the distance between himself and the gray sparrow, then restored time.

The instant time resumed, whoosh!

The previously frozen scarlet bullet instantly vanished from Bai Ye's sight. At the same time, the gray sparrow's head exploded, spraying blood everywhere.

The headless corpse flapped its wings twice before falling to the ground.

"Good, good. Firearms still work. It's just a little more troublesome." Feeling vitality and blood surging through his body, Bai Ye took off running again without looking back.

By then, there was no one left on the street. More precisely, other than Bai Ye, there were no living people left.

Over a thousand gray sparrows were rampaging through Gray Soil Town. In just a few minutes, they had killed more than a hundred people, while everyone else had hidden inside their homes.

Some gray sparrows perched on corpses, tearing and gnawing at them bit by bit. Others crazily smashed against windows and broke inside, and soon afterward, waves of miserable screams rang out from the houses.

Some of them had set their sights on Bai Ye.

The only person running down the street was far too conspicuous.

More than a dozen gray sparrows beat their wings and flew toward Bai Ye in unison.

Bai Ye suddenly darted aside and ran into an alley formed between houses. The cramped terrain prevented the gray sparrows from attacking together, forcing them to come one by one to their deaths.

He stopped, and a trace of brutality surfaced in his unruly eyes.

He coldly watched the first gray sparrow rushing toward him, holding [Breath of Bones] as he waited quietly.

Ten meters, five meters, three meters... now!

Bang!

Bloodlight and muzzle flash burst forth together. The headless gray sparrow dropped from the sky like a crashing plane, its mangled body scraping violently across the ground under the force of inertia and kicking up clouds of dust before barely stopping at Bai Ye's feet.

This time, he did not use Time Stop. Instead, he used the terrain to his advantage. Shooting in the narrow alley at gray sparrows charging directly at him, it was hard for him to miss.

The vitality and blood flowing from [Breath of Bones] merged into his body. Feeling something called strength wildly grow within him, the brutality in Bai Ye's eyes deepened, and a cruel grin curled across his lips.

"Hehehe... become my strength!"

Bang! Bang! Bang...

The roar of the handgun rang out continuously. Muzzle flashes flickered through the dim alley, illuminating again and again the face stained red with blood.

Before long, gray sparrow corpses were piled beneath Bai Ye's feet, and their foul-smelling blood had soaked through his shoes.

Yet gray sparrows still charged at him without fear of death.

"Halftime break."

Like the referee of this battle, with a single command from him, every contestant stopped where they were.

A sharp talon halted half a meter in front of his face. He could even clearly count the feathers on that gray sparrow's body.

In the dark alley piled with corpses, the blood-covered youth lowered his head coldly and loaded bullets one by one with his blood-smeared hands. After loading all six bullets, he flicked the revolver in his hand, and the cylinder instantly snapped back into place with a crisp mechanical click.

The youth raised his head, a savage grin on his lips. "The slaughter continues."

Bang! Bang! Bang...

After emptying the cylinder again, Bai Ye turned and ran, because he had run out of bullets.

This time, he ran far faster than before. His physical abilities had improved again, but he still could not outrun the gray sparrows. That was the advantage of their species—after all, he had no wings.

With no other choice, he repeatedly activated Time Stop to shake off the gray sparrows, wasting quite a bit of time before finally reaching Tire Tavern.

However, upon arriving at Tire Tavern, Bai Ye found the door locked. He pushed it twice and peered through the gap, where he could see many tables and chairs piled behind the entrance.

Someone was inside?

"Open the door!" Bai Ye shouted.

No one inside answered.

So he kicked the door several times.

At last, a voice came from within.

"Leave! Don't lead the gray sparrows here!"

Bai Ye recognized the voice. It belonged to Tire Tavern's owner, Old Wang.

Old Wang was also one of Tan Jie's people. Though he was older, he had read some books, knew how to make wine, and had some cooking skills, so he was specifically in charge of logistics.

He had been the one to name the tavern Old Times. He disliked hanging around with Tan Jie and the others. On ordinary days, he always held a few books from before the Cataclysm and read them, often complaining that he had not been born in the age of civilization.

"Old Wang, it's me. Open the door. There's no danger outside for now. I need bullets to deal with the gray sparrows."

He had temporarily shaken off the gray sparrows with Time Stop, and they would not catch up for a while.

"I know it's you, Bai Ye, but I can't open the door for you. What if the gray sparrows get in while I do?" Old Wang's trembling voice sounded from inside.

"Don't blame me for refusing to save you. I just want to survive. I have no obligation to save you."

Bai Ye stopped kicking the door and stood quietly before it. By then, the gray sparrows circling in the sky had already noticed him.

"I'll say it one last time. Open the door."

There was an unquestionable force in his indifferent words. Panicked inside, Old Wang seemed to be provoked, and he began yelling wildly.

"You really think you're some deputy commander? You're just a brat who got lucky as hell! You haven't even read a book—what gives you the right to order me around?!"

Old Wang shouted as if venting his frustration, but no reply came from outside the door. All that could be heard was the sound of gray sparrows beating their wings as they swooped in to kill.

His face instantly turned deathly pale. He curled up in the corner beside the liquor cabinet, trembling violently, not daring to raise his head and look.