Brick Your Counterfeit Watch

"Click click click..."

The orange dial beneath Jiang Li's feet emitted an extremely piercing metallic scraping sound. Although the Omnitrix material was extremely hard, under Jiang Li's stomping, which was infused with Krypton power, fine cracks had already appeared on the edge of the dial.

Mad Ben lay in the ruins, feeling the excruciating pain in his wrist and seeing Jiang Li's emotionless black eyes. His previously arrogant mental defenses completely collapsed.

"I'll tell you everything! Don't ruin my watch!"

"It's Eon the Clockwork! And Bad Ben the Bad Ben! They're the leaders of this alliance!" the Mad Ben cried out in terror.

Upon hearing the name "Clockwork," Jiang Li's eyes flickered slightly.

He knew that the Clockwork, Eon, was actually a variant of Ben Tennyson, but he possessed the power to manipulate time and was an extremely insidious and troublesome interdimensional fugitive.

"Where is their stronghold?" Jiang Li didn't loosen his grip.

"I... I don't know their exact hideout!"

Mad Ben was sweating profusely from the pain and babbling incoherently, "The Clockwork moves through the Time Stream; he has no fixed location! He summoned us variants, promising to give us dominion if we help him kill the good Ben from other universes!"

"My mission is to eliminate this piece of trash who doesn't even have a watch... That's all I know! Let me go!"

Jiang Li stared at him silently for two seconds.

This kid wasn't lying. With his intelligence and status in this evil alliance, he was just a low-level thug responsible for doing the dirty work. It was impossible for him to have access to the Clockwork's core coordinates.

"Fine. I'll spare your life."

Jiang Li removed her foot from the wrist of the Mad Ben.

The Mad Ben felt as if he had been granted a pardon, but a hint of resentment flashed in his eyes. He quietly reached for the watch face, attempting to take advantage of Jiang Li's unpreparedness to switch to a speed-type alien to escape or launch a sneak attack.

But he had just raised his hand.

Jiang Li's left hand suddenly lit up with a black and green grid of data. His finger instantly turned into a piece of black liquid metal and touched the orange dial of the Mad Ben.

[Upgrade] Localized hacking capabilities!

"Sizzle--!"

A blinding spark erupted from the orange dial, and the screen was filled with a garbled display of red text.

"What are you doing?!" The Mad Ben tried to pull Jiang Li's fingers out in terror, but couldn't touch the liquid metal at all.

"Low-level code formatting. Root privileges locked."

Jiang Li uttered a few words in a calm tone and withdrew his finger.

The orange watch on Mad Ben's wrist went out with a "snap" and turned into a piece of scrap metal.

"You can't handle this watch. From now on, you'll live a normal life in this Wasteland universe and reflect on your actions." Jiang Li turned and walked towards Gwen and the No Watch Ben without looking back.

The Mad Ben frantically pounded on the watch face on his wrist, but there was no response.

On the other side of the square.

The "No Watch Ben" wearing a green jacket looked at Jiang Li as he walked over, and was so nervous that she didn't know what to do.

"Thank... thank you for saving me."

The No Watch Ben swallowed hard, his gaze lingering on Jiang Li's perfectly intact green watch for a moment. "You... you're also me from a parallel universe? But you don't look like it at all."

"I'm not."

Jiang Li patted the boy on the shoulder, his gaze softening. "I was just a kind-hearted citizen passing by."

"Don't be discouraged, Ben." Gwen stepped forward, smiling at her peer from a parallel universe. "Even without this watch, as long as you have a brave heart, you can still be a hero. This watch is just a tool; what truly determines its value is the person wearing it."

The No Watch Ben stared blankly at Gwen, his timidity lessening, and nodded vigorously.

Buzz--!

Just then, the space beside them cracked open.

Professor Paradox, wearing goggles and carrying a cane, hurried out, his expression even more serious than before.

"Jiang Li, we're in trouble."

Professor Paradox, ignoring pleasantries, waved his cane, projecting a constantly flashing timeline diagram into the air.

"The Clockwork sensed Mad Ben's failure. He knows that some extremely powerful unknown variable (that is, you) has intervened."

"He abandoned the assassination attempts targeting these peripheral universes and instead focused on the source of the timeline!"

Professor Paradox pointed to a node on the diagram that was radiating golden light.

"Earth-Prime (the Main Universe), which is where the story begins."

"The Clockwork dispatched his most ruthless assassin—'Nega Ben ' in his black and white suit—to hunt down the original Ben Tennyson, who was only ten years old and had just found the watch during summer vacation!"

Upon hearing this...

Jiang Li, who had been appearing extremely composed, suddenly turned cold.

Although he wasn't Ben Tennyson, he was wearing an Omnitrix on his wrist. That ten-year-old Ben was the beginning of all the legendary stories.

Jiang Li could not tolerate such a thing.

"Bullying a ten-year-old child?"

Jiang Li pressed his left thumb against the space knob on the edge of the watch face, a sharp, cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

Jiang Li turned to look at Professor Paradox.

"Send me the coordinates of that universe."

"The coordinates are stable, but I must warn you, Nega Ben is extremely misanthropic and cruel, and the Clockwork may be secretly setting up time traps..." Professor Paradox cautioned.

"It doesn't matter."

Jiang Li turned the dial without hesitation, "Whatever kind of trap it is, if they dare touch a hair on that kid's head, I'll smash their entire timeline."

Buzz!

A spatial portal, more solid than before and radiating a ghostly green light, suddenly formed in the plaza.

"Let's go, Gwen." Jiang Li took Gwen's hand.

"Hmm." Gwen nodded; she knew Jiang Li's protective nature all too well.

The two stepped into the portal side by side.

Professor Paradox remained, along with the No Watch Ben whose eyes shone with hope.

at the same time.

Earth-Prime (the Main Universe), which is the original Ben 10 Universe.

Summer nights are filled with the chirping of insects.

An old RV (the old man's beat-up car) was parked in the lush forest campsite.

And deep in the forest not far from the RV.

A young man dressed in black and white, with extremely empty and world-weary eyes— Nega Ben —was sitting on the trunk of a large tree.

His gaze was fixed on a ten-year-old boy under the tree who had just found the crater and was curiously looking at the green metal ball inside.

"Now is the time."

Nega Ben raised its left hand and pressed it against its black watch face, its tone completely calm.

"Kill this starting point, and everything will end."