Chapter 175 Dystopia of Time

After Brother Jue and Ben Bu were hauled onto the spaceship, they were separately locked into two transparent cylindrical containers.

Subsequently, Dr. Dian Dian and his substitute robot each fitted Brother Jue and Ben Bu with respirators inside the containers. Then, the doctor went to the operating table on the side, used the computer to control the closing of the hatches of the two containers, and... began to inject "water" into them.

Of course, those transparent liquids that flowed into the containers through the pipes, which looked like "water," were not actually "water"... but an organic liquid used as a transmission medium.

After a lot of research and experimentation, Dr. Dian Dian discovered that the blood of the Tetraformians (whose bodies transform into solid, gaseous, liquid, and pseudo-light states in cycles of one cosmic century—a necessary physiological phenomenon for this race) in their solid form can be refined into an "ultimate conductor," which is also one of the necessities to drive his device.

"You don't need to worry too much." Dr. Dian Dian said to the two heroes in the containers while busying himself in front of the screen, "When my Vibration Instrument is successfully activated, the power supply device will automatically stop; at that time, if you are lucky, you may still be alive." He paused, "Oh... but then, after your bio-energy is drained, you will have to face the hyper-spin... so..."

The doctor tilted his head at them at this point, revealing an indifferent expression.

Clearly, this guy no longer cares about other people's lives; in fact, what he is about to do is devastating to the entire universe, so... one or two lives are indeed not worth his attention.

"Tch... looks like I'm really going to hang here..." On the other side, Brother Jue, who was completely submerged in liquid, thought to himself, "I wonder what the resurrection mechanism is after dying in the Free Exploration Mode... Could it be like Kenny (naturally referring to Kenny from *South Park*), waking up the next day at the save point, and everyone around me doesn't remember that I died? Or... a direct rollback?"

Just as he thought of the word "rollback," a flash of inspiration struck Feng Bujue's mind: "Wait... this guy just said that his device is called a 'Light Cone Vibration Instrument,' right..." He immediately recalled the setting about hyper-spin, and suddenly realized, "Damn! No wonder he said 'the time is almost up'!"

In that instant, Feng Bujue finally understood Dr. Dian Dian's purpose...

"No wonder he said I haven't seen the whole picture of his plan yet..." Brother Jue thought, "Capturing heroes is just one part of his plan; today he set up this game, using the unique 'heavenly timing' of the hyper-spin, and the 'geographical advantage' of this dangerous area of Warm Ocean Star, and the cooperation of us two idiots..."

From his use of the word "idiots," it was not difficult to see... that Brother Jue's mood was quite dejected at this moment.

Because he is the kind of person who habitually looks for the cause in himself when experiencing failure.

The situation before him... although it seemed that the responsibility was not on him, mainly due to the opponent's premeditation and the difficulty of defending against it, Feng Bujue still saw it very clearly... He knew that he was ultimately affected by the "hyper-spin" factor and was a little too rash in his actions; if he could have been more cautious, he might have been able to avoid falling into this situation.

"Well... the time seems to be up."

About two minutes later, Dr. Dian Dian muttered while looking at the screen, and then pushed a control lever on the operating table.

Immediately afterward, the equipment around the two containers all lit up, and the cabin was filled with bursts of noise; and Feng Bujue and Ben Bu... both clearly felt that the "power" in their bodies was rapidly draining away.

This feeling of "drainage" was obviously different from the burning sensation of fatigue they felt after being poisoned by the gas; to use an analogy, the latter was like excessive blood loss, while the former was like having organs directly removed.

"Ugh—mmph—" Only three seconds after the machine started, Ben Bu's muffled shouts came out through the respirator; his voice could be heard outside the container.

Feng Bujue didn't yell, because... the shock in his heart at this moment was enough to make him ignore the physiological pain.

"Whoa, whoa... this isn't good..." As Brother Jue thought this in his mind, he was watching his Survival, Stamina, and Spirit stats all drop, and... the "maximum" was dropping.

Fortunately, the "power supply device" did not work for too long; about twenty seconds later, the surroundings suddenly fell silent...

In fact, this was no ordinary "silence," but an extremely unusual tranquility, as if... the thing called "sound" had disappeared from the world.

Feng Bujue quickly realized... the "hyper-spin" had begun.

Surprisingly, when this "silent" realm descended, Dr. Dian Dian actually opened the hatch and ran outside the spaceship.

Almost at the same time, the power supply device also stopped working.

As Dr. Dian Dian said, Feng Bujue and Ben Bu did not die after the power supply ended; because their bio-energy was very abundant, the Vibration Instrument had already been successfully activated before they were "drained."

Not only that, after the "power supply" process, the effects of the poison gas were also "extracted" along with their energy, which allowed the two to regain their mobility.

It's just... at this moment, Brother Jue and Ben Bu's physical fitness had dropped to the level of ordinary Earthlings; immersed in the liquid, they... couldn't even break the containers around them.

Besides, even if they broke the containers, there was still the doctor's substitute robot standing guard outside; with the two's current combat power, they probably couldn't withstand one punch or kick from the opponent.

However... no one expected that an unexpected turn of events would occur just a few seconds later...

Under the effect of the "hyper-spin," the outer walls of the containers Feng Bujue and Ben Bu were in abruptly disintegrated on their own.

Then, two full tanks of conductive fluid flowed into the cabin, and the two heroes each removed the respirators from their faces and climbed out of the containers.

And until the two stood still, the substitute robot facing them remained motionless.

Although Ben Bu couldn't figure out what was going on for the time being, Brother Jue had realized that the substitute robot's reaction indicated that... Dr. Dian Dian himself was probably no longer in this time-space.

"Fo—llow—me—" Two seconds later, Brother Jue patted Ben Bu on the shoulder and said to him, one word at a time.

Since sound could no longer propagate normally, Feng Bujue could only communicate with Ben Bu using exaggerated mouth movements and sign language.

Although Ben Bu wasn't smart, he could still guess such a short sentence that was spoken so slowly.

Thus, under Feng Bujue's lead, the two quickly left the spaceship and returned to the open space outside.

At this time, the scenery on the surface of Warm Ocean Star was a scene of chaos; things like plants growing backward, objects spontaneously turning into dust (just like the outer walls of those two containers just now), and clouds moving at high speed like living things... such scenes that violated the laws of nature were very common in hyper-spin.

The truly concerning thing now was... a "light gate" about ten meters high and three meters wide, shaped like a jujube pit, appeared directly in front of Dr. Dian Dian's spaceship.

"As expected..." When Feng Bujue saw the light gate, he thought in his heart, "Because it's impossible to judge the actual size of the space-time rift, the Vibration Instrument's generation device was built outside the spaceship..."

While thinking, he was already walking towards the rift.

He had only taken a few steps when Ben Bu patted him on the shoulder from behind...

Feng Bujue turned to look at Ben Bu; although they couldn't speak to each other, the latter's eyes already revealed obvious doubt and unease.

"Stay here..." Feng Bujue still said with his mouth movements and gestures, "...is also death."

He didn't say much; on the one hand, the other person wouldn't understand if there were too many words, and on the other hand... this sentence was actually enough.

Ben Bu also understood Brother Jue's meaning; he frowned and pondered for a few seconds, swallowed, and looked back at Brother Jue with a look of helplessness mixed with a bit of relief, and nodded.

Thus, the two of them, one in front and one behind, walked into the "light gate" ahead...

…………

The situation after entering the space-time rift was surprisingly peaceful.

This kind of experience was very strange to Ben Bu, but Brother Jue was very familiar with it... because it felt similar to "teleportation"; it was just that this was the first time he had walked in this white light with his own feet.

Step, step...

Feng Bujue precisely adjusted his stride length to calculate the distance traveled and recorded it.

After walking exactly fifty meters, Feng Bujue suddenly felt a huge pulling force coming from ahead... This force was so terrifying that Brother Jue didn't have time to react and was dragged forward.

When Ben Bu, who was following behind, saw this, he wanted to reach out and grab him, but unexpectedly, when Ben Bu's palm crossed an invisible boundary, he was also affected by that force, and then... he was also dragged away.

Bang—

When this gravitational pull dissipated, a loud noise flooded into the two's ears.

This was simply a cruel attack for the two who had been in a silent environment all this time.

Feng Bujue and Ben Bu both knelt on the ground, instinctively covering their heads and closing their eyes, enduring the vibration and pain that went straight from their eardrums to their brains.

A moment later, when the two regained their senses and reopened their eyes, they found that... they were on a flat rocky ground; judging from the surrounding scenery and the sky, this was still Warm Ocean Star, but the hyper-spin seemed to have stopped.

"Hoo..." After Ben Bu adjusted his breathing, he opened his mouth and said, "Are you okay?"

"Not good." Feng Bujue was also telling the truth, "But I won't die for now."

"Mm..." Ben Bu understood Brother Jue's meaning; his condition was similar to Brother Jue's; although he wouldn't die, his combat power had been weakened by seventy to eighty percent, "I'm about the same..." He paused and asked, "Poker Face, what... what exactly happened just now? Did we lose our hearing because of the poison gas or because of the machine's effect? What was that glowing door? Why did the hyper-spin end after we walked in for a while?"

"We never lost our hearing." Feng Bujue began to answer almost without thinking, "The reason there was no sound was because the hyper-spin was having an effect; similarly... the reason the two containers that held us broke was also due to the material decomposition effect caused by the hyper-spin." He paused slightly and continued, "As for that glowing door, it was undoubtedly created by the 'Light Cone Vibration Instrument' that Dr. Dian Dian was talking about; simply put... that is a relatively safe and extremely tiny (relatively speaking) space-time rift."

"Uh... like a time tunnel?" Ben Bu interjected, understanding only a little.

"You could say that." Feng Bujue replied.

"So... we are currently on Warm Ocean Star at another point in time?" Ben Bu asked again.

"It should be." Feng Bujue replied.

"Wait..." Ben Bu's expression changed drastically when he heard this, "In that case... the Warm Ocean Star in front of us could have another hyper-spin happen at any time!"

"Ah..." Brother Jue replied weakly, "That is indeed a problem..."

"Hey! This is a matter of life and death, okay!" Ben Bu couldn't be as calm as him, "If we don't find a way to escape this planet, we'll be done for in less than three hundred cosmic weeks!"

"There's no use in you being anxious." Feng Bujue replied, "Let alone that our physical abilities have already been weakened, even in a non-weakened state... we are not the kind of species that can travel through space with our bodies; so, without a spaceship, we are powerless."

"Didn't we and Dr. Dian Dian's spaceship still..." Ben Bu just wanted to say something.

Brother Jue interrupted, "Assuming that the point in time we are currently at is in the 'past,' then these two spaceships obviously have never landed on this planet; and if we are in the 'future,' then those two spaceships must have already been destroyed to the point of being unusable under the influence of who knows how many hyper-spins."

Unfortunately, Feng Bujue already had a conclusion about something that Ben Bu had just started thinking about—a terrible conclusion.

"Right!" After thinking for a few more seconds, Ben Bu said again, "What about that Dr. Dian Dian? He came here too, right? Why can't I see him?"

"Him ah... he definitely came." Feng Bujue tilted his head and replied, "But I estimate that he has already flown out of the planet's atmosphere at this moment."

"What?" Ben Bu was shocked, "How is that possible? Didn't you just say... that there couldn't possibly be any spaceships here, whether in the past or future?"

"Hmph... he doesn't need any spaceships." Feng Bujue said, "Don't forget, Dr. Dian Dian is a modified person; he can completely make himself into a form that is 'able to survive and travel in space.'" As he spoke, he gestured around with his eyes, "In fact, to carry out this time travel, he would have to carry out such a modification; even he probably can't be sure whether there is a 'planet' in his position after he travels through time."

"Huh?" Ben Bu didn't understand this sentence, so he asked with a question.

"Sigh..." Brother Jue sighed and explained, "This is a problem that many time travelers will overlook... Time machines in the general sense only change the time coordinates, but do not correct their own spatial coordinates in the universe... In that case, even if we don't consider the fact that the universe itself is constantly changing, we must at least consider the planet's own revolution and rotation... Otherwise, under the premise that the time axis has already changed but the space axis still overlaps, 99% of time travelers will end up in outer space... If they are unlucky, they might even be embedded in the Earth's core."

"Oh!" After listening, Ben Bu widened his eyes; in the next few seconds, he first made a gesture of sudden realization, and then cold sweat flowed down his face, "Then... it's already considered very lucky that the two of us were able to land safely on the planet's surface!"

"It may not necessarily be due to luck..." Feng Bujue replied, "I think there are two possibilities: first, it's indeed because we are lucky; second, Dr. Dian Dian also solved the problem of the space axis when designing the ritual..." He shrugged, "It's just that the probability of the former is very low, while the latter... is not only low in probability, but also extremely difficult and may not be successful. Of course, in any case, with Dr. Dian Dian's personality and wisdom... he will definitely make all the preparations before taking action; so, whether it's outer space or the Earth's core, he should be able to cope with it."

"Then... what should we do?" Ben Bu muttered, "Are we just waiting to die..."

Feng Bujue did not respond to this question, because, just as Ben Bu's voice fell, a giant shadow of a spaceship appeared in the sky above the two's heads...