Who Stands Supreme at the End of the Wasteland?

The residents of the East District all looked surprised. They had never expected that there would really be an idiot willing to step forward and die.

This Fate Roulette was different from the usual one. Normally, one only needed to win a single round, but now they had to keep winning until they earned the Taboo Object's recognition. Li You, the Magic Hand from the West District, had won three rounds in a row and fired five shots without being recognized. The difficulty was obvious.

"Who? Who's that brave?"

Everyone turned to look and saw a ragged young man slowly approaching, chains wrapped around his ankles.

The young man's face was covered in mud, making his features impossible to see. Only his eyes shone exceptionally brightly, utterly out of place among the people around him.

The eyes of these people were either numb and dull, or cruel and greedy. Yet the light in the young man's eyes had never gone out. It was a flame woven from civilization and savagery.

"Bai Ye?!" someone cried out.

"Wasn't he insane before?"

"Obviously. If he weren't insane, would he step out at a time like this?"

"I heard that when Bai Ye went hunting in the wasteland, he seemed to get contaminated by something. When he came back, he'd gone completely mad, always muttering stuff like, 'I am the god of the New Era! From today onward, I shall stand above the heavens...'"

"Not just that. I even heard him reciting poetry. Something about, 'Who stands supreme at the end of the wasteland? At the sight of Bai Ye, all paths turn to void. Wind and snow have weighed on me for two or three years, yet I tread through snow to the mountain peak...'"

Hearing their whispers, Bai Ye's face darkened as unbearable black history flooded his mind.

When he had first transmigrated here and discovered that he had awakened the ability of Time Stop, he had immediately skipped ahead to his "I don't eat beef" phase.

He had proclaimed himself the god of the New Era and treated everyone as a pathetic nobody.

As it happened, Tan Jie and his men had come to collect protection money. Bai Ye had flown into a rage on the spot. What trash? A mere East District ruler, an ant-like creature, and he dared collect protection money from a god?!

He had unleashed a torrent of insults. Facing the black muzzles of Tan Jie's guns, he had been about to display his divine might and use Divine Power—only to freeze up. Time Stop had lasted two seconds before ending, because he had already wasted over fifty seconds experimenting with his ability.

That was when he discovered that he could only stop time for one minute per day.

After that, he had ended up like this, going from a commoner to a slave.

In the era of the Great Cataclysm, there was no shortage of people whose minds had been contaminated. Tan Jie and his men had simply assumed he was crazy. Since they did not want to waste labor, they had demoted him to a slave.

The past was too unbearable to revisit. Fortunately, Bai Ye's face was filthy, so no one could see his expression.

When Tan Jie, the ruler of the East District, heard that someone had volunteered, he was overjoyed. But when he got a clear look at the person, his expression immediately turned strange.

Bai Ye?!

Wasn't this brat insane?

Just that morning, the brat had stood before him proclaiming himself a god, babbling nonsense about creating a New Era...

"You..." Tan Jie began, then stopped.

"My illness is cured. I accidentally ate poisonous mushrooms in the wild before and had some hallucinations," Bai Ye said without changing expression.

He had always loved telling little lies.

Seeing that Bai Ye spoke clearly and no longer called himself a god, Tan Jie's face brightened. He knew that there were indeed poisonous mushrooms in the wild that could cause hallucinations. Some people even deliberately sought them out to eat.

"Little White, I thought your mind had been contaminated, which is why I demoted you to a slave. Don't worry. As long as you contain [Breath of Bones], I won't just restore your resident status—I'll become sworn brothers with you! From then on, you and I will have the final say in the East District!"

Tan Jie's tone was exceptionally warm. After all, making empty promises cost nothing.

Bai Ye smiled disdainfully. He had swallowed enough empty promises in his previous life. His boss had served them up every day, and he was already sick of them. Naturally, he would not believe Tan Jie's nonsense.

"Unlock it." He shook the iron chain around his ankle.

Hearing Bai Ye's impolite command, a cold glint flashed through Tan Jie's eyes. Yet he smiled and said, "Look at my memory. I nearly forgot. Someone, unlock Little White's chains."

One of his underlings ran over with a key and unlocked Bai Ye's ankle chain.

Bai Ye stretched his somewhat stiff legs, then kicked the dried corpse on the chair.

Bang!

The dried corpse flew more than three feet and shattered all over the ground.

His arrogant entrance drew countless sidelong glances. He wanted to keep a low profile too, but his strength would not allow it!

With the ability to stop time, how could he possibly keep a low profile? Though he only had one minute and could not become the god of the New Era, surely he could still be an arrogant man?

Across from him, Magic Hand Li You narrowed his eyes and grew slightly wary as he watched the young man make such an overbearing entrance.

He had some impression of this East District youth. Some said Bai Ye was a lone wolf of the wasteland who rarely interacted with others and survived by hunting.

In these times, anyone who dared hunt alone in the wasteland was not to be underestimated.

But he had later heard that Bai Ye had gone insane. He had not expected it to be from accidentally eating poisonous mushrooms.

Still, would a wasteland hunter accidentally eat poisonous mushrooms? Was he starving, or simply seeking excitement?

While Li You was thinking, Bai Ye had already taken a seat across from him.

If he were not afraid that Tan Jie would surrender immediately, he definitely would have waited longer before coming up.

Because it was now 23:55.

After that earlier blunder, he had thoroughly researched his Time Stop ability. He had even figured out its source: time desynchronization!

Time desynchronization sounded complicated. In reality, explaining it... was also complicated.

Only by standing upon the dimension of time could one fully understand time's mysteries, just as low-dimensional beings found it difficult to comprehend higher dimensions.

He could not accurately describe the principles of his ability with words. Only through metaphors could his brain barely understand it.

Simply put, the world he had come from—the civilized world from two hundred years ago—and the current Great Cataclysm world did not have the same flow of time.

There was a one-minute discrepancy between the two worlds.

Whether before or after the Great Cataclysm, humanity had defined a day as twenty-four hours.

But if calculated according to twenty-four hours, then while a day in the civilized world was twenty-four hours, a day in the Great Cataclysm world was actually one minute slower: twenty-three hours and fifty-nine minutes.

He did not know the cause of the discrepancy. It was probably caused by the Great Cataclysm a hundred years ago.

His soul, as a twenty-four-hour being, had come to a world of twenty-three hours and fifty-nine minutes. Every day, he gained an extra minute of freely usable time!

That was why Bai Ye could stop time for one minute every day.

"Let's begin," Li You said.

"Are you going first, or am I?" Bai Ye knowingly asked, trying to stall for time.

Li You frowned. "Naturally, we determine the order with rock-paper-scissors. Even if you've never played Fate Roulette, didn't you understand after watching just now?"

Bang!

Bai Ye slammed the table. The sound startled the people from both the East and West Districts, and some even instinctively reached for their guns.

"Who are you calling blind?! Who the hell are you calling blind?! Say that again if you've got the guts!"

Li You stared in astonishment. "When did I call you blind..."

"You fucking dare say it again!" Bai Ye instantly flew into a rage, grabbed Li You by the collar of his floral shirt, and looked ready to beat him up.

Click, click...

King Snake and the others from the West District all drew their guns and aimed them at Bai Ye.

Tan Jie and the others behind Bai Ye reacted as if triggered, hurriedly drawing their own guns and aiming them back.

Both sides stood at sword's point, as though a firefight could erupt at any second.