Chapter 2: Time Stop?

"Su Xin! Su Xin!"

In a hazy state of consciousness, Su Xin vaguely heard a distant, calling voice.

He opened his eyes in a daze and looked up at his surroundings, only then realizing he was in a classroom.

On the podium, the homeroom teacher said in a gentle tone, "Su Xin, have you been too tired lately? I've noticed you haven't been very spirited these past two days. Why don't you ask for leave and go back to rest for half a day?"

Su Xin had completely come to his senses by now and laughed awkwardly, "I'm sorry, Teacher Wang, I'm fine, there's no need to go back and rest."

"The college entrance exam is in three months. With your grades, there's no need to put too much pressure on yourself; you just need to review step by step."

"Alright, teacher."

Su Xin nodded obediently, picked up a physics study guide at hand, and put on an appearance of focused review, though he was pondering in his heart.

"What on earth is going on?"

These past two days, he had indeed felt drowsy, falling asleep unknowingly in class several times.

It was thanks to him being a top student whose grades were at the top of the school that the teachers of various subjects, knowing he was always diligent and hardworking, did not reproach him for this small matter but instead expressed their concern one after another.

At first, Su Xin thought he was truly too tired, but these past two days, he had clearly made a point of sleeping very early and had plenty of sleep.

Yet, he still felt drowsy today.

This was somewhat unusual.

"Could it be caused by that night?"

After pondering for a while, Su Xin's eyes suddenly shifted, recalling his experience from two nights ago.

After evening self-study that day, he was walking home alone when he suddenly felt as if his head had been pricked by a needle, a sharp, intense pain surged, and his consciousness plunged into a blank void.

He had assumed he was struck by something.

But after he regained consciousness, he found no suspicious objects nearby, nor did he discover any wounds on his head.

He hadn't taken the matter to heart.

But looking at it now, the drowsiness of these past two days was very likely related to that headache from that night.

"Could it be that I've contracted some strange illness?"

Thinking of this, Su Xin felt a shock in his heart.

With only about three months left until the college entrance exam, if he really contracted some serious illness, it might affect the exam and, in turn, his life.

This was by no means an exaggeration.

The college entrance exam is known as thousands of troops crossing a single-plank bridge; it is a turning point in many people's fates, especially for a top student like Su Xin—getting into a prestigious university versus missing the exam are two completely different destinies.

Just as Su Xin was falling into a panic, a chill suddenly spread through his brain, and immediately after, this chill instantly permeated his entire body.

At the same time.

The surrounding faint, noisy sounds all vanished, and the entire world fell into a deathly silence.

Su Xin looked up subconsciously.

He saw that all the people and objects around him had turned into sculptures, maintaining a bizarre, static state; even the curtains by the window remained in the posture of being blown by the wind, frozen in mid-air.

Having watched many classic films, Su Xin immediately thought of a certain possibility and couldn't help but widen his eyes in surprise.

"Is this... time stop?!"

"What exactly caused this?"

After pondering for a moment, Su Xin wanted to stand up and look around, but a clear resistance came from around his body, as if a strong yet gentle wind was blowing continuously against his limb movements.

And when he stopped moving, all resistance ceased to exist.

"Time is stopped, all things are in a static state, and the air is effectively solidified around me, unable to circulate freely, nor will it move aside for my limb movements; therefore, every one of my movements requires pushing through this solidified air, which is why I feel obvious resistance."

"Or perhaps, it is a matter of relative velocity."

Su Xin analyzed the cause in an instant.

He then slowly raised his arm, feeling the magnitude of the resistance, and continued his analysis.

"Logically, in a state of space-time stasis, the relative velocity of every one of my limb movements against the air should be positive infinity, just like moving against a gale of dozens of levels; I should be almost unable to move at all."

"However, the resistance I feel is even a little less than the resistance of moving in water."

"In this way, walking and running shouldn't be much of a problem, but the most critical thing is..."

"Breathing is becoming increasingly difficult."

Su Xin slowly exhaled a breath, but the outside air was not drawn into his body following the change in pressure within his abdominal cavity.

In a state of time stasis, all external rules of motion lose their meaning.

No matter how he inhaled, the air would not rush into his body due to the negative pressure in his chest cavity.

Therefore, he was unable to breathe.

But everything inside his body was functioning normally, including respiration, blood flow, and the vitality of muscle tissue; all were no different from a normal state.

It was as if his body and the outside world were in two completely different space-times.

Yet, his body remained that of an ordinary person, needing to maintain normal exchange with the outside world to survive, such as the most basic and most important thing—

Breathing.

"This is trouble."

Su Xin's expression was somewhat grim.

In his perception, less than thirty seconds had passed, but without prior preparation, he was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe in this state.

He was already on the verge of suffocation.

And at this moment, he suddenly thought of a question.

"No, this isn't space-time stasis."

"If it were truly time stasis, then not only would sound be unable to transmit to my ears, but even light would be unable to transmit to my retinas; my vision should be pitch black."

"But right now, I only feel the light distort slightly when I turn my head."

"Therefore, this should just be a phenomenon caused by other circumstances similar to spacetime stasis."

"For example, time deceleration, decelerated to a degree where the naked eye can hardly perceive changes in the outside world."

"Or, it is that my own Time Acceleration has occurred."

While he was pondering, that chill that had inexplicably appeared in his body just moments ago suddenly receded like a tide.

And as this chill faded away, the outside spacetime instantly returned to normal.

The rustling sound of flipping through books, the scratching sound of pen tips landing on paper, the low-voiced conversations of classmates, the rustling sound of a breeze blowing through leaves—all sorts of minute and complex sounds flooded into Su Xin's ears the instant spacetime returned to normal.

At the same time, a moderate gust of air suddenly erupted around Su Xin, blowing the books stacked on the desk into a mess, the pages rustling loudly.

The sudden transition from an extremely quiet environment to such a noisy one made Su Xin involuntarily frown deeply, and he subconsciously covered his ears.

The other students in the classroom were startled by the sound of the wind and turned their heads one after another to look in Su Xin's direction; seeing that the mysterious wind stopped in the blink of an eye, they just assumed a sudden freak gust had blown up and paid no more attention.

"Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Su Xin took a few deep breaths of fresh air, looked around at the situation that had returned to normal, and had a guess in his heart.

"The spacetime anomaly just now seems to be related to that chill in my body; when it spread throughout my whole body, spacetime stopped, and when it receded, spacetime returned to normal."

"Therefore, in all likelihood, it is not that the external spacetime underwent any changes, but that I myself underwent a change, just like the Flash in the movies; I myself entered a state of super acceleration."

"It is just that in reality, the physical rule changes involved in one's own super acceleration have effects far more terrifying than in the movies."

"In the state of super acceleration, moving one's own body is difficult, and breathing is even more difficult."

"And after the acceleration state ends, the air I exhaled, sweeping through the surroundings at a terrifying speed, could form a moderate gust of wind."

"Then, if I were to blow air forcefully, or if I were to stir up the surrounding air flow while running at full speed, wouldn't the power be even more exaggerated?"