[Review Committee Member No. 22 wants to know why I am so certain.]
[22号评议委员想知道为何我如此笃定。]
Yang Zicang coughed twice, spat out a mouthful of congealed blood residue, and said weakly:
杨子藏轻咳了两声，吐出口凝固的血渣后，气息奄然道：
“I understand. I am not worth the Review Committee member taking time out of his schedule just to make me choose an early death. So, if it is poisonous, whether it becomes highly toxic or not makes no difference to me in my current state.”
“我清楚，我并不值得评议委员专门抽空来让我做一个早点死的抉择。所以，若它是有毒的，成不成为剧毒对目前的我来说，没什么区别。”
That was the key.
这就是关键。
“The reason you appeared must be that this thing has a therapeutic effect, but the effect likely cannot make me fully recover.”
“您之所以出现，应该是，这玩意儿有疗效，但效果恐怕无法让我彻底好转。”
This was equivalent to a small reward for enhancing the medicine’s effect.
这相当于是一次提高药物效果的小奖励。
The feeling of being watched by the Review Committee member completely disappeared.
评议委员的注视感彻底消失了。
It would still take some time to fully recover, but the scarred wound was no longer enough to immobilize him. After propping the iron door back in place, Yang Zicang walked out leaning on the spear. Throughout the process, a cool, wriggling sensation lingered on his chest.
完全恢复还需要点时间，但结疤的伤口已经不至于让自己无法行动。重新抵好铁门后，杨子藏拄着枪往外走的过程中，胸口一直出现清凉的蠕动感。
……
Arriving at the edge of the iron pipe jutting out from the cliff, he looked down at the mess below, at the broken passage. The sight was truly devastating. The intense discomfort even pulled at his rapidly healing wound.
来到突出悬崖的铁管边缘，看向狼藉的下方通道断口。简直惨不忍睹。强烈的不适让快速愈合的伤口也牵动了。
A faint ray of obtuse-angled light refracted toward him.
细小的钝角光线折射着而来。
{Ah, Brother Zicang, you—you actually—!}
{啊，子藏哥，你，你居然！}
At that moment, Liang Xi, as the investor, took the initiative to contact him and was shocked to discover that Yang Zicang was still alive! This nearly drove the other party on the other end mad with joy.
此刻，作为投资人的梁喜主动联系过来后，吃惊地发现杨子藏居然还活着！这差点让对方在另一边高兴得发疯。
A sudden warmth filled Yang Zicang’s heart. He said:
杨子藏心中暖意顿生，他说道：
“Sorry, I wasted two hundred years of your lifespan. I’ll find a way to pay you back double as soon as possible.”
“不好意思，我浪费掉了你的两百年寿命。我会想办法尽快为你加倍补上的。”
{No need, Brother Zicang. As long as you’re here… ah!}
{不用的，子藏哥，只要有你在…呀！}
Even as he spoke, Liang Xi saw that unsteady figure actually jump off the cliff.
正说着的梁喜看到脚步虚浮的那人居然跳崖了。
Thud! The moment Yang Zicang’s trajectory shifted and he landed heavily on the iron floor, the model sent back two pieces of feedback.
咚！杨子藏轨迹变幻，重重落在铁板地面的瞬间，模型传来两道反馈。
[My ribs have offset a total of 1.11N.]
[我的肋骨共计抵消了1.11N。]
[My lower limbs have offset a total of 2.6N.]
[我的下肢共计抵消了2.6N。]
[The rest of my body parts have offset 4.3Y.]
[我的其余躯骸部位抵消了4.3Y。]
“Hiss~ Don’t worry, I won’t die for now. Still, it does hurt after all.”
“嘶～放心，我暂时不会死。不过，原来还是会疼啊。”
Yang Zicang stood up, leaning on the long spear.
杨子藏杵着长枪站起身来。
He had a realization: what this Time Sequence was offsetting was the time originally required to fully recover from injuries in the real world.
他有种感悟，这种时序抵消的是在原本世界中，受伤后彻底恢复所需要的时间。
{Brother, can your ability also change trajectories in mid-air? Oh, by the way, Captain Luo Xin just issued strict orders—no one is allowed to kill even a single rat monster inside the monster lair anymore.}
{哥，你的能力是在空中也能变换轨迹吗。对了，刚刚罗鑫队长三令五申，不许任何人在怪物巢穴中再击杀哪怕一个老鼠怪物。}
This was indeed exactly what Yang Zicang had been worried about.
这的确也是杨子藏正在担心的事情。
Just one more.
只差一只。
If even one more rat monster died here, that monster called the “Resister” would very likely emerge into the world. So, people on the outside actually knew about this as well.
这里的老鼠怪物若再死一只，那名为“抵御者”的怪物很可能就会现世。外界的人居然也知道这点。
Yang Zicang was a bit puzzled.
杨子藏纳闷了下。
“Yeah, I was just thinking about whether to arrange some financing to broadcast the situation here. It seems you guys already know.”
“是啊，我刚才还在想，要不要进行融资来广播这里的情况，看来你们已经知道了。”
Along the way, the monsters that had lost their leader reverted to their timid nature, quickly scurrying away and hiding whenever they sensed a human approaching.
一路上，失去首领的怪物们恢复了胆小的本性，发觉到人过来就快速跑掉躲藏起来。
{Brother Zicang, I found something. I just knew there had to be good stuff inside the lair.}
{子藏哥，我找到了个东西，我就晓得巢穴里面肯定有好玩意。}
In the sensory projection, right in front of the teenager, lay a broken vessel on the ground. Hidden inside was an object that looked like an iron incense-burning ball.
感应画面中的少年身前，是个摆放在地上的破碎器皿，它里面藏着个类似燃香铁球的物品。
“The legendary weapon?”
“传说中的武器？”
Liang Xi gave a sheepish smile.
梁喜不好意思的一笑。
{No. It seems like it can stimulate the muscles of living creatures. This stuff inside the lair is what caused the rats to mutate. If that demonic entity doesn’t appear, Captain Luo Xin will definitely take advantage of the leader monster’s death to enter here and search for these things.}
{不是。好像可以刺激生物们的肌肉，老鼠之所以变异，就是巢穴里的这些东西造成的。要是那个魔物不出现的话，罗鑫队长肯定会趁着首领怪物身死的机会，进入这里寻找它们。}
Liang Xi took out the small iron ball, which was merely the size of a pebble, and started heading back.
梁喜取出那只有鹅卵石大小的小铁球，开始返回。
The two spent considerable effort and finally met up near the exit.
两人耗费了不少功夫终于在靠近出口处见面。
“A Time Sequence battle artifact?”
“时序战器？”
When Yang Zicang got closer, Liang Xi suddenly shuddered and stared at the silver long spear.
当杨子藏靠近后，梁喜忽地浑身一震的看向那杆银色长枪。
“Haha, yeah, this is what you’ve been yearning for…”
“哈哈，是呀，这就是你心心念念的…”
Yang Zicang was suddenly hit by an overwhelming stench. The dirt-covered Liang Xi said apologetically, “I… I can only avoid being detected by the monsters this way—by masking my human scent.”
杨子藏突然感觉一股冲天臭味。脏脏的梁喜很抱歉地说：“我，我只能这样避免被怪物发现人类气味。”
“You’re really brave.”
“你真勇。”
Yang Zicang joked, then directly tossed the spear to Liang Xi, which nearly made the kid jump.
杨子藏开了句玩笑，直接将枪丢给了梁喜，这让这孩子差点跳了起来。
“Oh my god, a hundred years—it’s a Hundred-Year Artifact! Ah! Aaaah!”
“天啊，一百年，是百年器！啊！啊啊！”
Liang Xi whooped and hollered as he clumsily flourished the spear on the ground, his skin flushing red with excitement.
梁喜大呼小叫地在地上耍着蹩脚的花枪，兴奋得皮肤都泛红。
This was a rare Hundred-Year Artifact! It was said that in this entire city, only the leaders of a few major teams possessed such a thing.
这可是难以得见的百年器！据说这座城市中，只有几位大团队的首领才有这种东西。
“Brother Zicang, you’re definitely going to become someone great in the future. Compared to you, I’m nothing.”
“子藏哥，你以后肯定成为个大人物，我跟你一比，就什么也不是了。”
Liang Xi returned the spear to Yang Zicang with a hint of disappointment.
梁喜略带失落地将它还给了杨子藏。
“No. We. We will all definitely become great.”
“不，是我们，肯定都会是大人物。”
Yang Zicang smiled, but there was a trace of solemnity in it. “Having skirted the edge of death twice now, I’ve finally understood this truth.”
杨子藏笑道，但这笑容中带着丝郑重之色，“我经过两次生死，已经明白了这个道理。”
“What truth?”
“什么道理？”
The teenager raised his young face to look at the man, whose expression had become somewhat solemn. In the dim light, his profile looked resolute and full of strength.
少年扬起小脸看向这个表情变得肃穆了些的男人。暗淡光线中，他的侧脸轮廓看上去坚毅，且充满力量。
“Survive after being thrown into a deathtrap—that is the performance the Review Committee members need to see from us.”
“置之死地而后生——这就是评议委员们，所需要看到的，关于我们的表现。”
Yang Zicang raised his head to look at the cold ceiling of the pipe, but his gaze seemed to pierce through the endless void, staring into nothingness.
杨子藏抬起头看向冰冷的管道顶端，眼神却像是穿过了无垠虚空，望向虚无。
“Before the end of the month, for myself, for the friends who stand by me, and for all the people I want to protect, I will earn enough Time Sequence to cover their deductions.”
“我要在月底前，为我自己，为跟我一起的朋友们，以及我想庇佑的人们，赚取到足够他们抵扣的时序。”
The young man spoke as if thinking aloud. Meanwhile, Liang Xi was pondering what exactly a Review Committee member was.
青年似自言自语般地低语。而梁喜则在思考评议委员是什么。
He waited expectantly for a few seconds. The model gave no response.
期待的等了几秒，模型没有任何回应。
“Did I guess wrong?” Yang Zicang thought to himself. “Perhaps this level of ordeal isn’t enough to move the Review Committee, or maybe they simply don’t care about any of this.”
“是我猜错了吗？”杨子藏暗自想着，“或许是这点难度打动不了评议委员，又或者他们根本不在乎这些。”
……
Several hair-thin lines streaked past.
几道发丝般的线条划过。
Yang Zicang glanced at the spear next to him. With this thing around, not only could he not return to the base, but he also couldn’t accept any telepathic links. Per his instructions, the young teenager naturally refused all spreading telepathic links as well.
杨子藏看了眼身旁的枪。有这个东西在，不光不能回去驻地，还不能接受任何的心灵链接。有他的叮嘱，小少年也自然拒绝所有扩散的心灵链接。
As they walked, the faint touch of a force field brushed against their skin.
一路行去。力场的微弱触感从皮肤上划过。
Ahead, the dark passage finally revealed a bit more light.
前方阴暗的通道终于显现出了更多些的光线。
[I have finally left this damnable space.]
[我终于离开这该死的空间了。]
Yang Zicang felt that since his latest brush with death, the model seemed to have achieved a deeper resonance with his mind. It could now, at any moment, clearly voice certain impassioned thoughts crossing his mind—such as this very exclamation.
杨子藏感觉自从再次的濒临死亡后，模型像是与自己的心灵得到了更多的深层契合。随时可能清晰地说出自己内心划过的某些激动想法，就比如这句感叹。
So, what exactly was the model?
所以，模型到底是什么？
The passage entrance was right before them. Liang Xi ran out first, a bit skittishly. Yang Zicang smiled as he watched this brother-like child scout ahead.
通道入口近在眼前，梁喜首先略带雀跃地跑出去。杨子藏笑看着这个弟弟般的孩子在前方探路。
Then Yang Zicang’s gaze grew heavy—in his eyes, Liang Xi’s speed was getting faster and faster.
随后杨子藏的目光沉了下来——在他眼中，梁喜的速度越来越快。
This speed wasn’t just his running pace, but also the young teenager’s head turns, the swing of his limbs, and even the dancing frequency of his hair.
这种快不仅是跑动速度，还包括小少年的转头、肢体摆动幅度，乃至于头发的舞动频率。
If his own acceleration merely made an ordinary person’s running posture lighter, approaching a professional athlete’s level, then the change in Liang Xi’s speed right now was “frequency acceleration.”
如果说自己的加速，是让一个普通人的奔跑姿态变得轻盈，接近专业运动员水准，那么此刻梁喜的速度变化，则是“频率加速”。
The farther he went out, the faster his movements became, as if a movie scene had its fast-forward button held down!
随着出去的距离越远，他的动作已快到如同电影画面被按住了加速键！
“Brother Zicang?” “Come on, hurry.” “Hey, Brother Zicang, why aren’t you moving?”
“子藏哥？”“你快来呀。”“欸，子藏哥你怎么不动呢。”
The boy’s overlapping voices came abruptly to Yang Zicang’s ears. His heart involuntarily sank.
杨子藏耳边突兀传来重叠着的男孩的声音，他的心不由自主沉了下来。
“Can you hear me? How’s my speaking speed?” Yang Zicang asked.
“你听得到我说话吗，语速怎么样？”杨子藏道。
A rapid succession of changing expressions flickered across Liang Xi’s face. He ran back, and the closer he got, the more normal his chaotically shifting posture became.
梁喜脸上快速浮现着不断变化的表情，他往回跑来，越跑那快速变换的姿态就越正常。
“Just now…”
“刚才…”
“You heard what I said, right? Did each of my words get dragged out a lot longer?”
“你听到我的话了对吧，我是不是每个字都拉长了很多。”
Liang Xi nodded.
梁喜点点头。
This world was indeed filled with sudden threats at every moment. Clearly, this wasn’t a good place to stop and study. Behind them, in the cave, that demonic entity could emerge at any time. Yang Zicang gritted his teeth. “Let’s get out of here first.”
这个世界果然时刻充满了突然的威胁。很显然此刻不是停下来研究的好地儿。背后的洞穴里那只魔物随时可能出世。杨子藏咬咬牙，“我们还是先出去。”
“Just now I saw your movements become really slow, super slow, like a sloth,” Liang Xi said.
“我刚才看你动作变慢了，非常慢，就像树獭。”梁喜道。
“So, in your own eyes, your own posture was normal?”
“所以，在你自己眼中，你的姿态是正常的？”
They hadn’t taken more than a couple of steps when an airflow swirled in slowly from outside into the passage. The speed of the air movement increased faster and faster, then, after a few seconds, swiftly returned to calm.
两人没走两步，气流缓慢旋转着自外界扩入通道。空气流动的速度越来越快，又在几秒后快速恢复了平静。
Yang Zicang glanced back at the darkness behind him. A faint, elusive sense of danger lingered within that pitch-black pipe.
看了眼身后的黑暗，一种若有若无的危险感萦绕在黑洞洞的管道内。
Was it a problem with the monster lair, or a problem with the outside world? Perhaps the answer lay within this very airflow.
到底是怪物巢穴的问题，还是外界的问题？或许，答案就在这股气流之中。
Time in the area covered by the airflow had been accelerated!
气流覆盖的区域时间被加速了！
Yang Zicang naturally thought of the conditions for the birth of an Evil Nightmare, and that Resister which was about to be born any moment now.
杨子藏自然而然想到了恶魇的诞生条件，以及那马上就会诞生的抵御者。
Could that final rat monster they needed also be offset by time?
还差最后的一只老鼠怪物，是否也能被时间抵消？
Was the purpose of this time alteration to accelerate the Resister’s final gestation? Or to speed up the rats’ deaths?
时间变动的目的是加速抵御者的最后孕育？还是加快老鼠们的死亡？
Either way, the outcome was the same.
无论哪种，结局都一样。
Yang Zicang felt suffocated, in a spiritual sense.
杨子藏感觉到气闷，精神意义上。
……
[Dispatch ability activated. Number of targets marked: 2. I will apply Time Sequence at a rate of 2R per second.]
[调度能力已发动，标记目标数为2，我将以2R每秒运用时序。]
After extracting ten years of lifespan for a fourfold amplification, two figures—one short, one tall—raced swiftly through the ruin-like jungle of steel and concrete.
抽出十年寿命进行四倍增福后，一矮一高两道身影迅捷地疾驰在废墟般的钢筋水泥丛林。
“Faster.”
“再快点。”
The evening sky was filled with a dark purple mist. The sun was about to set; it should be around five or six in the afternoon.
傍晚的天空弥漫暗紫雾气，太阳都快要落山了，此刻应该是下午五六点左右。
[As the great Quadrilateral, I perceive that the Time Sequence trajectory has entered an unstable state of diffusion.]
[作为伟大的四边形，我感知到，时序轨迹出现了不稳定的扩散状态。]
“Brother Zicang, can you feel it? My lifespan is slipping away faster.”
“子藏哥，你感觉到了吗，我的寿命流逝速度加快了。”
Covered head to toe in dust, Yang Zicang frowned and nodded gravely.
身上满是灰垢的杨子藏皱眉地严肃点点头。
Not only was there an acceleration discrepancy between the time outside and inside the lair, but his own lifespan was also ebbing away faster here.
不光这外界的时间与巢穴里有了加速差，自己的生命流逝在这里也变得更快。
But exactly how much faster was still impossible to confirm. Perhaps it was fluctuating as well.
但具体是多少，目前则无从确认。也可能它本就是变动的。
Regardless, this was unsettling news. Apart from knowing that danger was right there, everything else was unknown.
无论如何，这都是让人不安的消息，除了知道危险就在那里，其它一切都是未知的。