Torrential rain poured down. The gloomy canopy of the sky resembled a depressed old man passing away in a hospital bed, and beneath it lay a wasteland dotted with a few shattered billboards.
White Jack stood quietly amid the ruins, toying with his cane as he locked eyes with Clock Maker.
"Hmm, you say... Blue Pigeon is still alive?" Clock Maker asked after a moment.
"What else?"
"Oh, then what was that thing I just dissected?" Clock Maker raised a hand to adjust the chain of his monocle. "A puppet, you say?"
"Take a guess..."
White Jack paused. "But I have to state this upfront: if you kill me, you will never find Blue Pigeon for the rest of your life..." White Jack shrugged. "The whole world will know that Blue Pigeon died by my hands, and that Rain Crow's fated nemesis had his thunder stolen by the legendary white ass of the Leijing Iron Tower."
With that, he turned his head, casting a pitying glance at Rain Crow from the corner of his eye.
By now, St. Honghu Plaza had been completely reduced to ruins. Rain Crow knelt on the ground, and the Shadow of Saturnus slumped limply against the earth like a broken kite.
He wanted to know where the real Blue Pigeon was—before killing Rain Crow, he had to drag the real Blue Pigeon in front of him and dissect him right before Rain Crow's eyes.
Meanwhile, White Jack was shouting like a madman, occasionally covering his mouth with a hand to whisper as if revealing a monumental secret:
"Uh... As everyone knows, Clock Maker and Rain Crow seem to have an illegitimate child.
"And here is a fun fact: Rain Crow's wife seems to be a Martian.
"That's right, which means our Clock Maker is just a grandstanding home-wrecker!"
White Jack bolted off alone into the torrential rain, only to quickly sprint back. He ran circles around Clock Maker, crushing the electronic signboards and mannequins scattered across the ruins.
"So... the question is, could Clock Maker also be an alien spy? Perhaps the Martians and the Moon people each sent out a spy?
"Therefore, Clock Maker is the home-wrecker sent by the Moon people to hinder the Martians from completing their mission—!"
Finally, cheering, White Jack bolted wildly toward the St. Honghu TV Tower. His hollow, deep pupils were illuminated by the tower's glowing lights.
In the curtain of rain that seemed draped in a layer of leaden ash, the TV tower stood quietly like a lighthouse, while a stark white figure raised his arms and shouted in the distance.
"What are you doing?" Clock Maker suddenly asked, turning his head to look at him.
White Jack turned back and retorted, "Don't you find what I said utterly terrifying when you think about it?"
"Are you stalling for time?"
Clock Maker adjusted his monocle, flashing a mocking smile.
"I'm stalling for time? Aren't you the one stalling for time?"
White Jack came to a halt. Hands on his hips, he panted heavily. "I just hope certain unreasonable, self-unaware home-wreckers can leave this place sooner, so as not to disturb the private world between Rain Crow and me."
"Since you're so confident, let me see what you're capable of..." Clock Maker said, sliding a hand into his suit pocket as he took two steps forward.
Immediately after, he casually tossed a bronze pocket watch into the sky. It pierced through the falling rain, spinning rapidly in midair until it looked like a giant coin from afar.
The next moment, the pocket watch cracked with extreme speed. It emitted a rapid clicking sound as it plummeted toward the earth. Ultimately, it blew apart with a booming explosion, splattering into a breathtaking expanse of quicksilver color.
At this exact moment, White Jack was looking up, gazing at the brightly lit TV tower in the rain.
Blazing fire swept toward his back, yet White Jack suddenly lowered his head as if he had spotted a lifesaver. In an instant, a small paper doll appeared in the palm of his hand.
The paper doll crouched in his palm, hugging its knees. Its mouth moved, and it spoke in a faint, eerie voice:
"Eternal Recurrence."
[Eternal Recurrence (from the philosopher 'Nietzsche'): Returns you or a surrounding target to the position held 1.5 seconds ago.]
Undoubtedly, the target White Jack specified was himself.
In an instant, his figure vanished within the explosive flash of fire, only to blink back into existence directly in front of Clock Maker.
Clock Maker froze for a second. Then, adjusting his monocle, he slowly raised his head, looking with displeasure at the hair-raising face right before him.
"What on earth are you looking around for, Mr. Clock Maker... Are you looking for me? It seems people who work in watch shops not only have bad hearing but bad eyesight as well. You've truly suffered. I know being an errand boy isn't easy. Don't people often say childhood trauma affects a person for life?"
White Jack tilted his head, gazing out at the St. Honghu TV Tower through the curtain of rain. The TV tower radiated tricolor lights, shifting between red, white, and blue.
'I have to stall for time and give Rain Crow a chance for his injuries to ease...'
He thought to himself, glancing out of the corner of his eye at Rain Crow lying collapsed not far away.
Clock Maker frowned, staring intently at the freak who was so close at hand.
As if he had spotted a bug suddenly wriggling onto his nose, a flash of gloom crossed his eyes. His right hand pulled a pocket watch from his suit pocket.
"Who permitted you to stand before me?"
Clock Maker muttered darkly, as though talking to himself, and reached out to press the raised button on the pocket watch.
"Who permitted it? Lord White Jack, of course..." White Jack grinned.
At this exact moment, the small paper doll in his palm suddenly spoke:
"Superman Philosophy."
["Superman Philosophy" (from the paper doll 'Nietzsche'): For 1.4 seconds, you or a surrounding target enter an "immune to damage and crowd control" state. (Skill duration will increase as the Spirit attribute strengthens)]
As the cold system notification tone ended, White Jack's body was immediately cloaked in a faint golden light.
At the same time, quicksilver colors enveloped the entire world.
The torrential rain transformed into strands of snow-white silk frozen in midair, the wind-scattered raindrops resembling spiderwebs. The wisp of flame fluttering atop his cane also stalled, frozen in the curtain of rain like a cluster of eerie blue feathers.
Everything in the world had been dyed much the same hue. However... White Jack's body remained shrouded in golden light. In the dull, gloomy world, this touch of gold lingered unyieldingly.
Clock Maker frowned, his lips moving slightly:
"This is..."
This sensation was bizarre. It was as if he were a tyrant ruling over time, yet within this black-and-white world that belonged solely to him, he saw a dancing, singing freak holding a torch aloft.
Originally, the duration of "Superman Philosophy" had been merely 1.2 seconds. But with the increase in Ke Mingqing's core Spirit attribute, it could now be maintained for 1.4 seconds.
Before pulling out this move, Ke Mingqing had envisioned two scenarios:
First, once Clock Maker activated his time-stop domain, if White Jack's "Superman Philosophy" did not count down its duration inside it, then Clock Maker would be completely helpless against him.
Second, if the countdown for "Superman Philosophy" continued ticking down inside the time-stop domain, it could still withstand this round of time stoppage—because Clock Maker's time-stop domain lasted 1.5 seconds, while Superman Philosophy lasted 1.4 seconds.
The duration of the two was nearly identical.
Taking all of this into consideration, Ke Mingqing figured he had a high probability of successfully defending against this round of Clock Maker's time stop.
The world was dead silent.
Standing amid the ruins, Clock Maker raised an eyebrow, staring at the figure glowing completely with golden light. He then slowly tossed out an antique bronze pocket watch.
"Bang—!!!"
Amidst the deafening roar, the pocket watch shattered and expanded into a pillar of flames, yet it failed to breach the golden light even a fraction of an inch.
Clock Maker could not comprehend the meaning behind the scene before him. Even the strongest Esper in the world could not possibly take his pocket watch head-on like this and remain completely unscathed.
But White Jack had done it.
The moment time resumed its flow, White Jack's body was still enveloped in that faint golden glow. This meant his assumption had been correct: within the time-stop domain, the countdown for Superman Philosophy paused.
"I'm curious... what did you do?"
Through his monocle, the man in the suit curiously observed White Jack. He had already begun taking an interest in this peculiar creature.
At the same time, taking advantage of the fact that the duration of "Superman Philosophy" had not yet ended, White Jack hastily pulled a dark-red-and-white die from his inventory.
"Who knows what exactly I did... To me, it's actually as easy as wiping my ass. But it's different for you."
As he spoke, White Jack flipped his palm, and the die slid along his knuckles onto the back of his hand.
"Four."
He softly muttered a number and equipped the Lucky Gloves from his inventory. Tilting the back of his hand slightly, the die tumbled off, knocked toward the ground by the curtain of rain.
The die tumbled in midair, casting ripples over the mist-shrouded ruins. Within the turbulent ripples, the figures of White Jack and Clock Maker warped.
The die slowly rolled twice before coming to a stop on the ground, the number on the top face locking into place.
[Roll 4: Briefly turns your body into an impenetrable statue. For three seconds while transformed into a statue, you cannot perform any actions.]
In that flash, White Jack's body was coated in a cement-like hue.
He hurriedly crouched down, resting his chin on the back of his hand with a profound expression. Sustaining the pose of the famous statue "The Thinker," his body gradually solidified.
Clock Maker tilted his head, gazing with keen interest at the strange statue before him.
The next moment, he casually tossed out an antique bronze pocket watch.
The pocket watch split open, and the quicksilver colors splattered like spilled ink. It dyed almost the entire world the exact same shade, yet it failed to paint even a speck of color onto the dark, gloomy statue.
Not even the slightest hairline crack appeared on White Jack's surface.
His mouth still wore a stiff smile, as if mocking Clock Maker.
"A paper doll..." Clock Maker raised an eyebrow in thought. "Before every time he activates an ability, a paper doll appears somewhere on his body."
His gaze swept over the peculiar statue, trying to locate a hidden paper doll on its body, but ultimately found nothing.
Soon, time resumed its flow once more.
White Jack remained in the pose of the Thinker, standing perfectly motionless in the rain.
"To be ignorant of one's ignorance is a double ignorance..."
Suddenly, a gloomy, profound voice echoed from White Jack's mouth.
But it didn't sound like White Jack's voice.
Clock Maker paused for a moment. He looked at White Jack's tightly shut lips, finally realizing that before turning himself into a statue, White Jack had already placed the paper doll into his mouth.
As the statue transformation dissipated, the stone layer encasing White Jack's body crumbled away layer by layer.
First was his mouth. He kept his lips pressed tightly together, yet a voice spoke out:
"You see... I knew you couldn't do anything to me. The infamous Clock Maker is nothing special."
"Were you looking all around just now to find our Plato?"
At this moment, White Jack abruptly opened his mouth wide. The paper doll Plato, standing right upon his tongue, suddenly looked up, stuck out its paper right hand, and flipped the middle finger.
Clock Maker stared at the paper middle finger expressionlessly. The corner of his eye twitched slightly, and veins popped out on his forehead.
"God damn, Plato flipped the bird!" White Jack hastily clamped both hands over his mouth. "This is not something a great sage should do!"
The torrential rain was still falling. Rain Crow could now barely pull himself up from the ground. He crouched, panting heavily, while the colossal shadow he dragged beneath him remained immobilized.
"Very interesting. Let me see if you have any other tricks." Clock Maker pressed a bony finger against the button on his pocket watch. "Do you know... child, you've started to pique my interest."
"Who knows, maybe I still have a whole bunch of trump cards I haven't shown yet?"
White Jack tilted his head, revealing a teasing smile.
He tucked his cane behind his back, the head of the cane abruptly igniting with eerie blue flames.
Silently, the flame slowly traced a line of text within the rain:
"Mr. Rain Crow, you've probably rested enough. In eight seconds, the moment I leave the cave, launch an attack at me—"
Rain Crow looked up, his pupils reflecting the words forged in fire.
The words continued to sway and shift amidst the heavy downpour: "Remember at all costs, do not attack Clock Maker. Launch your attack at me."
Rain Crow did not understand what White Jack was trying to do, nor did he know what the "cave" he spoke of was.
But he knew that if White Jack hadn't been here, he'd already be a corpse. The only thing he could do right now was cooperate.
Clock Maker flicked a small knife from his suit sleeve. With a swift motion, he drove the blade toward White Jack's mouth.
"Bang—!" Amidst the sound of piercing the air, the blade instantly closed in on White Jack's hands, stabbing straight into his palm.
Clock Maker was an Esper. Compared to other super-human species of the same rank, his physical body was relatively frail. But as an S-rank super-human species, this knife strike was still powerful enough to sever the necks of ten thousand ordinary people.
Unless he was dissecting, Clock Maker generally did not use a scalpel for combat.
He preferred to watch human bodies explode into splatters of flesh and blood, and liked watching quicksilver flames crawl up their torsos as if painting them with the world's most exquisitely blended pigments.
But White Jack made him make an exception.
He had to know what kind of secrets were hidden on this freak's body. Otherwise, every night hereafter, the moment he recalled this scene, he would be unable to eat or sleep in peace.
As fresh blood sprayed out, White Jack broke into a blood-streaked grin. Hidden among his teeth, the philosopher Plato spoke:
"Allegory of the Cave."
["Allegory of the Cave" (from the paper doll 'Plato'): Briefly teleports your figure into a cave. You can leave the cave at any time within 10 seconds, but your spirit will be disturbed by the "bonfire".]
The next instant, a sudden Spatial Rift tore open behind White Jack. Like a gluttonous beast, it sucked in the howling wind and torrential rain, before swallowing that stark white body into its belly.
Clock Maker's blade slashed through thin air. He quickly retracted the small knife into his sleeve, scanning his surroundings with a vigilant gaze.
Yet the ruins were completely empty. Where was White Jack?
Three seconds later, a Spatial Rift opened once more. White Jack squatted inside the cave hugging his knees, staring eerily at Clock Maker on the other side of the rift.
Clock Maker frowned.
"Oh, my God, I actually perfectly defended against three time stops. As expected of me."
White Jack bragged, gracefully flipping back his non-existent hair after executing a perfect dodge, just like the protagonist in some game from India.
Clock Maker turned his head, quietly observing the bizarre cave before him without making any rash moves.
He had witnessed too many of White Jack's unreasonable tricks. Who knew if this was a trap set by him?
White Jack continued, "I heard time suspension is the most dangerous ability in the world, but it seems Mr. Clock Maker's tricks are nothing special. I'll make a bold prediction: you will die from your own ignorance and arrogance."
For smart people, the clumsiest goading tactic was the most effective one. Ke Mingqing always believed this.
Just as he expected, Clock Maker narrowed his eyes slightly.
But this wasn't because the poorly executed provocation worked. It was because for the first time in his life, he had witnessed someone retreating completely unscathed from three consecutive time stops of his.
Finally, choosing rationality amidst his anger, Clock Maker pulled the quicksilver pocket watch from his pocket.
At that moment, White Jack stood up inside the cave and pulled out an hourglass from behind him.
It was an hourglass radiating a golden hue. Lowering his head, he flipped the hourglass upside down. The golden sand swiftly poured from the top down.
[Future Loan Device (single-use B Rank item): After using the Future Loan Device, you can reserve a point in time within the next five minutes. Upon reaching that point, the progression trends of all surrounding things remain unchanged, but time will automatically advance forward by 10 seconds.]
White Jack grinned and slowly pressed the button on the surface of the hourglass.
["Ding"—! The player has successfully set the time. In a future "3 seconds" from now, the Future Loan Device will activate.]
The Spatial Rift was about to close. White Jack leaped out of the cave at that moment, passing through the rift and returning to the ruins in the torrential rain.
He sprinted toward Clock Maker, constantly closing the distance between them until he finally met the activation requirements for the E-grade skill—"Phantom Shift."
"Like a moth darting into the flame, courting your own ruin..." Clock Maker muttered, frowning at him.
Halfway through his sprint, White Jack suddenly blew a whistle.
In that second, Rain Crow placed unreserved trust in this stark white freak. Gathering all the strength he had recovered over the past minute, he abruptly raised his right arm.
White Jack had previously conveyed a message to him with his cane: "You must attack me, not aim at Clock Maker."
Thus, Rain Crow aimed his right hand at White Jack. In that instant, the Shadow of Saturnus slumped on the ground suddenly moved. The massive shadow surged up, raising its slender right arm, and the pitch-black shadow arm extended outward in a flash.
The claws of the Shadow of Saturnus crossed a hundred meters, grabbing toward White Jack's back. They were bound to pierce straight through White Jack's chest!
Clock Maker frowned. He didn't know what was happening, but he still raised his hand and, with a "click," pressed the button on the quicksilver pocket watch in his grasp.
The very next instant, an overwhelming sweep of quicksilver expanded outward. Like a colossal jellyfish, it swallowed the entire world.
And within this transparent, crystalline world, the claws of the Shadow of Saturnus were still extending forward, frantically reaching for White Jack's back.
Clock Maker turned his head, watching this scene with disdain, thinking to himself:
'It's all just a waste of effort in the end... It seems this jumping clown's tricks have finally run dry.'
Soon, Clock Maker turned his head back, looking directly at White Jack in front of him.
Yet in that very instant, within this deathly silent quicksilver world, a burst of radiance as warm as the sun suddenly erupted.
"Wh...at?" Clock Maker paused in shock. He looked up, only to see that the burst of light was originating from White Jack's chest!
White Jack was holding an hourglass. Even in this quicksilver world, the sand inside the hourglass continued to cascade downward endlessly!
He wasn't sure exactly what it was, but the time stop had 0.8 seconds left. With Clock Maker's reaction speed and physical attributes, he had enough time in those 0.8 seconds to pull a thousand meters of distance.
Clock Maker had no intention of taking any chances with his own body. He was the most powerful time-system Esper in the world. As long as he remained cautious enough, his opponents would never seize an opportunity.
But the next instant, the hourglass shattered apart. Following that, the layer of golden light rose high like the sun, illuminating the entire world in a flash.
"This is..."
Clock Maker narrowed his eyes in shock, his vision blurring.
[The effect of the "Future Loan Device" has been triggered. All things will be forced to maintain their existing trends while time advances forward by 10 seconds.]
Clock Maker found it difficult to describe exactly what happened in that moment.
All he knew was that the flow of time seemed to speed up by a thousand, even ten thousand times!
His time-stop domain could originally have held for another 0.8 seconds, but in that moment, the time of the entire world seemed to be forcibly fast-forwarded by God. The quicksilver hues shrouding the wasteland were entirely sucked away, turning to ash and smoke in the blink of an eye.
"How could this be..."
Clock Maker's monocle shattered. He stared blankly at the divine light covering the world, his pupils entirely filled by that layer of golden radiance.
At this moment, his worldview was utterly shattered...
If the time-stop domain could be described as a palace, and he was a tyrant sitting in a pitch-black yet resplendent palace waiting for challengers, then Rain Crow was merely one memorable challenger—an anticipated, long-lost passerby.
But now, a mad dog had appeared before him. At first, he thought this mad dog could only bark a few times outside the palace, but a few seconds later, the mad dog tore a hole and buried the entire palace within it!
The following instant, the world returned to its original state, but Clock Maker's body remained frozen in place.
As if gripped by an invisible hand, he maintained his previous posture, locking eyes with White Jack from afar.
But right at this moment, a flash of blue light swept through White Jack's pupils.
That's right. Even before Clock Maker had stopped time, his body had already displayed the tendency of unleashing the E-grade skill "Phantom Shift."
In this instant, White Jack and Clock Maker swapped positions.
"Bang—!" Howling gales blew in from behind him, and Clock Maker's pupils shrank.
His world spun wildly. When he came to his senses, he had already appeared exactly where White Jack had been standing.
A mocking smile hung on White Jack's face. He thought to himself, 'The moment the Future Loan Device activates, everything maintains its original trajectory and fast-forwards by 10 seconds. So... in this period, the Shadow of Saturnus will pierce through your back, and you have already lost your chance to fight back.'
Clock Maker wanted to turn his head to look behind him, but he couldn't. Just as White Jack had said, for the following ten seconds, his body would no longer belong to him... Right after, the claws of the Shadow of Saturnus pierced through the curtain of rain and swept violently toward him.
In a flash, fresh blood dyed his brown suit red. A bloody wound stretching straight from his ribs to his abdomen appeared on his chest as a shadow-forged claw burst through. His body was nearly cleaved in two.
The claws of the Shadow of Saturnus kept extending forward. Clock Maker's body could not move, suspended much like roast meat skewered on an iron spit.
"Cool..." White Jack watched silently. All he could do was watch.
The ten seconds quickly passed. Surrounding things were no longer forced to maintain the motion trajectories from ten seconds prior, and White Jack's body was thus liberated.
He shrugged, looked at Clock Maker being held high in the air by the Shadow of Saturnus, and turned his head to glance at Rain Crow half-kneeling in the distance.
"Alright, now..." White Jack said eerily, "Kill him."