Chapter 621: A Teammate Drops at the Start

A teammate falls at the start of the match

Dry. An extreme, absolute dryness.

The moment his five senses recovered, Cheng Shi discovered that the place he was in was unbearably sweltering. The instant this dry air was drawn into his nostrils, it seemed even more parched than the flesh-and-blood body it inhabited, brutally scraping away the last few threads of moisture clinging to his mucous membranes.

His consciousness followed right behind and woke. He felt a sudden tightness in his nose and instinctively wrinkled it. Before he could register what was happening, a surge of warmth gushed out from his nostrils.

His nose was bleeding.

Cheng Shi froze, then snapped his eyes open. But he paid no attention whatsoever to the two streams of blood already running down past his lips and chin and dripping onto the floor. Instead, the very first thing he did was pull out his watch and check the time.

In the Bureau of 【Time】, no one can afford to ignore time.

But one look nearly scared the soul right out of him.

7:59:55!

Five seconds short of the hour!

Damn it, he couldn't just sit and wait for death!

Cheng Shi's nerves snapped taut. The top of the hour is extremely important to 【Time】—after all, Its edicts are precision and punctuality—so in the Bureau of 【Time】, every single hour mark must be treated with the utmost seriousness.

Especially after that flashy stunt pulled by the Time Walker Jiang Chi in the trial two rounds ago, which had filled Cheng Shi with wariness toward the first hour mark of any new round.

So the instant he pulled out his watch and saw the time, this cautious warrior immediately whipped out a cavalry lance and, without even looking, swept it horizontally behind him.

There was someone behind him!

Although only two seconds at most had passed between opening his eyes and the sweeping strike, in those two seconds Cheng Shi had already used his peripheral vision to take in the entire surroundings.

The place he was in was unmistakably a run-down inn. Both the mud-plastered walls and the bed frame cobbled together from rotten planks told Cheng Shi that the starting point of this trial was hardly well-off. And the two wooden beds pushed right up against each other in front of him conveyed one more piece of information: this was a double room.

An inn having a double room was nothing strange, but as a player's arrival point, it was impossible to ignore.

And while his peripheral vision was scanning the surroundings, Cheng Shi's hearing and sense of smell weren't idle either. At the very moment he had checked his watch, he had heard heavy and coarse panting and the sound of metal scraping from behind him, and had also caught a faint whiff of blood in the air.

With every kind of anomaly on display, Cheng Shi made his decision without hesitation, which was why he had given this roommate of his the warmest possible greeting.

One cavalry lance strike!

Of course, Cheng Shi wasn't looking for trouble. He simply didn't want to run into another "trap" like the Pointer Knight again. At least at this hour mark, until he was sure of the identity of the person behind him, he could not let 【Time】's tricks play out a second time.

The rule of the Time Battlefield is that it must be opened at an hour mark free of conflict, and that conflict must be concluded by the next hour mark. So if you let the conflict start early, you can skip the chance to use the first hour mark to open the Time Battlefield!

And so, the next second......

"Clang—"

The shriek of metal on metal exploded. Cheng Shi felt his right hand go numb; the lance he had flung out seemed to have slammed into some lump of iron. He froze for a beat, then decisively released his grip and dodged aside. And in the very instant he sidestepped, a streak of silver light sliced past—the tip of a slender sword stabbing toward the spot where he had just been standing.

But the sword tip was angled low; judging by the direction of the thrust, it wasn't aimed at any vital spot, but rather at the fleshier butt and thigh area.

"......"

Cheng Shi's heart jolted. He retreated several steps in quick succession, and a glance at the sword tip's position told him that this teammate behind him was clearly no devotee of 【Time】 either—the other man was defending against 【Time】's methods just the same.

He used the momentum to roll away. Seeing that the time on his watch had already ticked past the hour mark, he chuckled lightly as he rose from the corner of the room, dusted the dirt off himself, and with a broad smile called out a greeting to this equally cautious teammate:

"What a coincidence......"

But the words had barely begun when Cheng Shi couldn't continue. His smile froze on his face, and a look of astonishment crept over his features. He looked at the burly man in front of him, sized him up from head to toe several times, then cupped his fists in salute and said admiringly:

"Impressive, I salute you. This is the first time I've ever seen someone bring cosplay into a trial.

But bro, who are you cosplaying? Lu Bu or Xiang Yu?"

Indeed, the man before Cheng Shi was unusually tall—at least one meter ninety-something—and his entire body was clad in martial armor and heavy gear, right down to combat boots wrapped with greaves. This exaggerated getup was hard not to mistake for a cosplay enthusiast.

That also explained the earlier clang of metal—because the lance Cheng Shi had swept back had struck this man's fine-steel vambrace, leaving only a faint grayish-white mark on it. It hadn't broken through the defense at all.

What drew the eye, though, was that the sword in this fully armored man's hand was exceedingly slender, looking more like a reincarnated warrior of great might who had taken up foil fencing.

The man wore no helmet, just a head of short, choppy hair. His brows and eyes were sharp as blades, his gaze hawk-like. It should have been an utterly domineering presence, except for the two red streaks running down from beneath his nose, which instantly lent his image a touch of the comical—and which, to be fair, slightly eased the oppressive weight of his full plate armor.

Cheng Shi pressed his lips together, barely holding back the corners of his mouth.

Tsk. Looks like in the face of dryness, everyone is equal.

But beyond those two trickles of nosebleed, Cheng Shi also noticed that the man was wounded—and quite seriously at that.

The faint smell of blood from earlier hadn't been coming from the man's face; a little nosebleed wouldn't let off a scent that quickly. What Cheng Shi had smelled was clearly emanating from somewhere beneath the burly man's armor.

Someone willing to go all-out before a special trial—now that's interesting.

The burly man's hawk-like gaze swept along the path Cheng Shi had taken to dodge. Seeing the face of the teammate before him, he was briefly stunned, then laughed and shook his head, his eyes full of emotion.

"Cheng Shi, I really didn't expect to run into you."

"......"

Cheng Shi couldn't laugh anymore.

The worst-case scenario had finally arrived. After several trials, his face had already become well-known in the peak-tier Bureau, and from now on, more and more people would probably recognize him.

But judging by the other's tone, the man seemed quite familiar with him?

There was no hostility in the other's eyes—so, a friend of someone, then?

Cheng Shi rolled his eyes thoughtfully, picked up the lance from the floor and stored it in his spatial inventory. Seeing that the man hadn't taken the opportunity to attack, his conviction in Zhong De Xiang Fa grew even stronger. So he straightened up, flashed a brilliant smile, and got straight to the point:

"Sorry, in 【Time】's trials you have to be careful. I wasn't targeting you on purpose. Since we know each other, I suppose I don't need to introduce myself.

But I don't know what to call you, bro?"

"Qin Xin." The armored warrior let out a hearty laugh. He had just been about to step forward and extend a hand in friendship when his face went white and he staggered, falling backward.

Watching this teammate who seemed like a friend about to collapse to the ground from loss of strength, Cheng Shi frowned and immediately raised his hand......

And covered his own ears.

"BOOM—"

The heavy armor crashed to the floor, shaking the entire room for an instant. Dust rained from the ceiling, and for a moment the room was like a sandstorm.

Watching this scene, Cheng Shi was a mix of shock and suspicion.

Good thing I covered my ears fast, otherwise with that racket...... wait, no—Qin Xin?

Cheng Shi's brow rose — the last time he'd heard that name, it had been from Zhen Yi.

Back then, Zhen Yi had been playing his future self, pointing at a scar below his ribs and saying, "This is from Qin Xin. The man isn't bad, but his luck stinks. If you can avoid him, do."

So this was the Qin Xin who made Zhen Yi say "avoid him if you can"!?

Cheng Shi's gaze instantly turned appraising. He was wondering what on earth had happened between this guy and Zhen Yi to leave Zhen Yi with such a grudge.

Could it be that he was afraid of being punched into a pulp, so he came out with that mocking line?

But it was true — just looking at the man's build and gear was enough to make plenty of players keep their distance.

But why did she say Qin Xin had bad luck?

Thinking it over carefully, in history, whether it was Xiang Yu or Lü Bu, that kind of luck...

Hiss—

It probably wasn't what he was imagining, right?

For a moment, countless thoughts flashed through Cheng Shi's mind, but he quickly came back to himself and looked even more cautiously at the heavy-armored man collapsed on the ground.

"Brother?"

Qin Xin gave no response at all — even his breathing had grown faint. It didn't look like an act. Cheng Shi's brow furrowed. He flicked out a scalpel and held it in his palm, left a die at his feet, and walked slowly toward the man.

It wasn't long before he confirmed that Qin Xin really was injured, and badly. To have entered the instance with wounds this severe could only mean that, right up until the moment the Special Trial began, his battle had not yet ended!

What a warrior — this guy couldn't be... a follower of 【War】, could he?

Mid-thought, Cheng Shi suddenly stopped in his tracks and began backing away, putting more distance between himself and the man.

It wasn't that he didn't intend to save him — he first had to clear himself of suspicion, because he had already heard hurried footsteps outside the door.