Chapter 60: Pocket Watch

Chapter 60: Pocket Watch

Wrongly Used Projector’s ability was very special. It could be used to monitor people, but it isn’t very strong by itself. It was a single-use prop that could only be used for ten minutes. It was very likely that the ten minutes would already be over before you saw anything important.

But with Xing Ye’s starting abilities, it was a very frightening ability. As long as you had the points, it could be used forever.

Furthermore, as long as Xing Ye could remember the QR code, he could use it over and over again in any world. Any player he’s met would become his spy, helping him explore the most dangerous areas.

Xing Ye and his teammates just had to watch the projection peacefully in the corner to get important clues.

When Guan Ling heard Xing Ye’s starting skills, his jaw dropped open wide enough to fit a goose egg inside. He blinked his eyes, “Then doesn’t that mean the more QR codes you see, the stronger your ability becomes? Can you use unlimited QR codes?”

No matter how precious the QR code was or how special its ability, Xing Ye could duplicate it as many times as he wanted. Instead of using up his ability during a fight and becoming useless, it would become stronger and stronger.

The most convenient thing was that other players didn’t know what their special QR codes did and had to rely on luck, but Xing Ye could use it beforehand and have complete control over the battle.

No wonder Di Kuang lost so wretchedly! With such an ability, it wasn’t surprising at all.

Guan Ling excitedly kissed the stones he threw just now, “This luck is amazing! I even got lucky just throwing a few stones.”

After kissing the stones, he fell in front of Xing Ye with a plop and spoke, his voice filled with sincerity. “Boss, I’m willing to give my life for you. I’m just begging you, please take me in! I’ll give you all the QR codes I find later! I don’t care about QR codes anymore, I’ll just focus on using my starting abilities to assist you, okay? Just leave a bit of points for me at the end.”

Cao Qian and Xing Ye were completely dumbfounded. Guan Ling was just too much of a bootlicker.

“Boss, I’m putting all my chips on you. Anything can happen, if I bet wrong, so be it. Please, bring me with you!” Guan Ling said.

Xing Ye’s little puppet face was expressionless. “Only for this world. We’ll part ways in the next world.”

“No way, how could that be!” Guan Ling said, “Although people from different camps can’t team up, we can use the link function. If we adjust it so the three of us enter the game at the same time, there’s a high chance of us all entering the same world. If a following fate player wants to enter a world with an opposing fate player, it’s very easy. However, if you’re an opposing fate player, there’s no way unless you have a binding prop like Di Kuang.”

So there were binding props. Xing Ye secretly nodded, but still shook his head. “We’ll see how you perform in this world.”

Guan Ling was very excited, “What do we do next? Refill our energy stores?”

“Of course not. Even if we knew how, we don’t have any primary ore. Besides, we can always just get it replenished in the city. Why would we waste our energy on that?”

“But… if you two run out of primary ore here, I don’t think I’ll be able to do anything alone…” Guan Ling said worriedly.

“No, I don’t think we’ll run out of energy. Randy just said all of that to scare us, so we feel like we’ll definitely run out of energy here. That way, we’ll have no choice but to listen to him in the mines. Furthermore, what he said about the feeling of low energy stores might not necessarily be true either. If he can think of a way to make us feel like that in the mines, he could use it to pressure us into signing some sort of unequal contract for his help. What if his starting ability involved using contracts to control people?”

Guan Ling was dazed. When he heard the risk about running out of energy, the only thing that occupied his mind was worry. He hadn’t even begun to consider any other possibilities.

First, Randy expressed his goodwill, making it so everyone would think he didn’t have any hostility. Then, he would use pyschological tactics to slowly make everyone trust him. Then, if they run into danger, they would accept his help and potentially fall into his trap.

“But what if we really run out of energy? We can’t trust our luck.” Cao Qian said apprehensively.

“But you can trust Old Nect,” Xing Ye said, “He was the one who wanted us to explore this place and checked over our bodies. He wouldn’t want us to run out of energy and die before we even reached the mine’s entrance, right?”

Guan Ling finally understood. No wonder Xing Ye had always been so calm, it turns out he had already planned everything long in advance.

“Let’s find somewhere near the cave to rest for a while. We’ll wait for Randy’s group for another thirty minutes before using the projector to see what they’ve experienced. That way, we can always know what’s happening over there.” Xing Ye ordered.

The reason why they wouldn’t leave the mine is to disguise themselves, making Randy think they were a group of cowardly but greedy people who just waited by the door, refusing to go inside but still wanting to get intelligence from them.

The three and the mirror walked somewhere away from the exit’s line of sight and rested for a while before Xing Ye activated the projector.

He chose to play the scene twenty minutes after Randy and the city lord’s son entered the cave. The projector was best used at night, so the projection on the cave wall was very clear.

Randy’s flashlight was very bright, enough to see everything in the mines. Piles of transparent stones covered both sides of the mine walls. Randy muttered, “It’s all primary ore, and the purest form of primary ore at that. Each piece contains at least ten times more energy than the ore at the government controlled mines.”

“Wow, there’s even sound!” Guan Ling said excitedly. The feeling of watching others without having to lift a finger yourself was just too good.

The city lord’s son: “The system said that all the neighboring lands of the Puppet City were Benedict’s. It looks like he had two mines and left the inferior one to the puppets while keeping the good one for himself.

The two discussed as they explored. Neither of them stopped to pick up the primary ore off the ground. The way they didn’t need money was very enviable.

As they went deeper into the mine, there were more and more bodies of dead puppets on the floors. They all had big holes on their heads, stomachs, or waists.

“Their nucleuses were taken. These puppets are already completely dead.” Randy inspected the bodies and declared.

“They have the insignias of the city lord’s private soldiers on them. They’re the group my father sent.” The city lord’s son said. He seemed to be very good at acting out roles. Even though there wasn’t anybody else there, he still kept his character settings and called the city lord his father.

“We have to be careful now,” Randy said cautiously. “Look, there’s no signs of damage anywhere else on their bodies aside from the hole. This shows the enemy understands the structure of these puppets very well and knows clearly where their nucleuses were located, killing them with one strike.”

The scene came to an end. Even though it was only five minutes, they learned a huge amount of information.

If Benedict was hiding inside the cave, there’s no way he would be weak with both armed weapons and an energy source. It was enough to destroy the entire puppet city.

Xing Ye activated the projector again, but this time, he didn’t continue playing it from when the previous scene stopped. Instead, he fast forwarded it for another 20 minutes, so it was almost playing in real time.

This time, the scene was very chaotic. A fully armed puppet that looked similar to a mechanical robot was currently attacking Randy and the city lord’s son as they arduously dodged its attacks.

This time, Xing Ye and the rest had a clear image of the mine’s appearance. It didn’t look like an illegal mine at all. The interior was propped up by reinforced steel bars. Even if Randy and the city lord’s son let out big attacks, it wouldn’t make the mine collapse.

The mine’s construction was far superior to the level in puppet city. The puppet attacking Randy and the city lord’s son was also even more advanced than the newest top-tier models in the city.

The two were both using weapons to ward the puppet off with difficulty. It seemed like neither of them wanted to use their starting abilities and QR codes yet.

However, the firearms of this era were very weak. It’s just like as mentioned in fairy tales: they’re strong enough to shoot down a few birds, but were utterly useless against a robot’s hard body.

“Is that Benedict?” Guan Ling asked.

“I doubt it…” Xing Ye pointed out the differences for Guan Ling. “Benedict is an engineer. Even if he makes himself a puppet, his fingers would still have to be very nimble so he could continue making puppets. But look at this puppet- the sole purpose of its arms is to attack. One hand is a gun, while the other hand can shoot out hooks. It’s very unlikely this is Benedict, it’s probably just a soulless puppet he made to protect himself.”

“And there’s probably more of them.” Cao Qian added.

Just as the city lord’s son and Randy evaded the robot’s hook, another mechanical robot appeared from a dark cranny and thrusted its hook through the city lord son’s chest, pulling out a lump of something white and translucent. When it was dragged out, countless white threads scattered on the ground, the ends of it connecting to the city lord son’s puppet body. It looked exactly the same as the nucleus threads Xing Ye had connected when he was getting his arm changed.

The city lord’s son’s nucleus threads hadn’t broken and were still connected to his nucleus. He shrieked in pain, his agony clear.

His hand was cut off by the other puppet with an electric saw, making it impossible for him to use QR codes.

Guan Ling nervously clenched his fists. Even if they wanted to save him, they could only watch.

The city lord’s son shouted, “Save me, save me! My starting abilities aren’t good for this kind of fight, you have to save me!”

Randy was also surrounded by 3-4 robots, but his movements were very agile, smoothly dodging attacks as if he had eyes on the back of his head. He even had time to reply to the city lord’s son, “If I save you, how will you thank me?”

“I’ll cooperate with you, I’ll listen to anything you say in this world!” The heart-rendering pain of his nucleus threads being dragged out made the city lord’s son scream everything without thinking.

“As you wish.” Randy’s puppet revealed a huge smile. His mouth was very big, so the smile seemed to split his entire jaw open, creating an image straight out of a horror movie.

He didn’t tap his wristband. Instead, a pocket watch magically appeared in his hands. He lightly pressed on a button on the watch and suddenly, all the puppets stopped moving.

It wasn’t just the puppets who had froze. Even the flicker of the flames lighting up the mine had stopped moving.

Time stopped when Randy pressed the pocket watch.

Randy casually strolled over, but instead of saving the city lord’s son, he put the pocket watch on the city lord son’s nucleus. The hour and minute hands on the watch revolved crazily as the city lord’s son’s nucleus became smaller and smaller, until it ultimately disappeared.

Randy smiled. “Since you promised me, then give all your remaining time to me.”

Clatter. The city lord’s son fell to the ground, turning into an empty shell.

The projection came to the end, leaving the four viewers not cold, yet shivering.

“Thank goodness I didn’t go with him,” Guan Ling rubbed his arm, getting psychological goosebumps. “You guys, that following fate player, did he just lose the game or…”

Xing Ye and Cao Qian didn’t speak. They were thinking the same thing as Guan Ling.

If he just wanted to eliminate a player, why would he go to such trouble?