As the blue light of the time-space jump burned an afterimage onto his retina, Lin Yi's combat boots had already crushed the charred, decaying leaves.
Fine purple crystalline dust floated in the surrounding air, traces of leaked energy from another dimension.
Chu Yao emerged from the warp pod, clutching her aching temples. The tactical terminal on her waist was flashing wildly—the positioning system indicated they were currently deep within the East African Rift Valley, but the scene before them was completely different from what she remembered: the original deep valley was now covered by some kind of translucent gelatinous barrier, and the forest within the barrier was withering at a visible rate, with dark purple veins crawling all over the tree trunks, resembling blood vessels drained of their life force.
"The energy disorder index has exceeded the critical value." Long Wu spun his heavy machine gun on his shoulder, the sensor lights on the barrel turning completely red. "This place is even more eerie than the Abyss dungeon in the beginner's village."
Lin Yi's fingertips gently traced the spacetime compass at his waist. Three of the seven stars on the bronze dial were slightly warm—the clues to the Seven Keys of Creation lay within this distorted space.
"Stay alert. Vital signs detected three kilometers away." A green light flashed through Chu Yao's tactical goggles. "Approximately thirty people, equipped...like player-made weaponry from the early days of 'Infinite'."
The crowd paused.
In this era of universal job change, besides time-space legions and interdimensional invaders, there is only one possibility for the existence of a well-organized third-party force—the Neutral Alliance.
These forces are mostly composed of former players who are completely disillusioned with the war. They neither side with the Night Owls' invading forces nor join any resistance organizations, and survive by trading resources in the chaotic zone.
"The leader is a man named 'Grey Falcon'." Chu Yao quickly retrieved information from the database. "Three years ago, during the Sahara campaign, he led three hundred men in a breakout, but later, after his comrades were massacred by invaders, he declared permanent neutrality."
Before he finished speaking, a humming sound of a bowstring vibrating suddenly echoed through the forest.
More than twenty poisoned bone arrows pierced through the air, their arrowheads glowing with a ghostly blue light, clearly coated with the venom of an alien creature.
"Watch out!" Long Wu's machine gun spewed fire, and a hail of metal bullets shattered the bone arrows into pieces.
But the next second, thirty figures leaped down from the treetops. Their equipment was a mix of leather armor from the game and tactical vests from reality. The leader wore a leather eye patch over his left eye and had a scar on his right cheek that ran from his brow bone to his jaw.
"Outsiders, state your names." Gray Falcon's voice was like sandpaper scraping against steel. His composite bow remained fully drawn. "If you dare use your weapons again, your corpses will become fodder for the mutant beasts tomorrow."
Lin Yi raised his hand to signal Long Wu to put away his gun, and took three steps forward.
He could feel the gray falcon's gaze like a knife point piercing the back of his neck—this was the survival instinct of neutrals, who maintained extreme vigilance against anything that might threaten their territory.
"Time Legion, Lin Yi." His voice was steady and powerful. "We need the Seven Keys of Creation, and you are at their coordinates."
The gray falcon's pupils contracted slightly.
He recognized the name—the man who single-handedly slaughtered the interdimensional vanguard camp in the starting village, the monster who could use spacetime rifts to slice the invaders' warships into pieces.
But the vigilance did not diminish in the slightest: "The Seven Keys of Creation?"
That thing had long been marked as taboo by Night Owl's men.
What's the difference between you coming to find it and those monsters?
"The difference is that the Night Owl wants to use it to devour the Earth's origin." Lin Yi took out a dark gold fragment from his spatial ring, a piece of the second key they had found earlier. "But we're going to use it to give everyone who wants to live a way out."
The wind in the woods suddenly stopped.
Grey Falcon's men whispered among themselves, and the eyes of several young men visibly wavered—most of them were ordinary people driven to desperation by the war, and who wouldn't yearn for a real chance to resist?
"Where's the evidence?" Gray Falcon tightened its bowstring. "You say Night Owl wants to devour the Source, what proof do you have?"
Lin Yi pressed his fingertips to his temples, and the bronze pointer of the time-space compass began to spin wildly.
The next second, the scene before everyone's eyes suddenly distorted—it was a frozen spacetime image: Night Owl stood in front of an alternate-dimensional altar, holding a pulsating blue orb in his hand, within which the outline of Earth could be vaguely seen; behind him knelt dozens of humans whose life force had been drained, their skin wrinkled like dried orange peels.
"This is the altar of Night Owl in Bermuda three days ago." Lin Yi's voice was as cold as an icicle. "For every key he collects, he can extract 1% of the energy from the Earth's origin."
Once all seven keys are collected... do you think neutrality will guarantee your survival?
At that time, the entire planet will become his energy battery, and even the air will be sucked dry.
The grey falcon finally loosened its grip.
He stared at the image, his left eye, hidden behind the blindfold, bloodshot—the woman in the picture, drained of her life force, was wearing the same blue dress as his sister who had died three years ago.
"Even if what you're saying is true..." His Adam's apple bobbed, "What makes you think I should believe you can win?"
"Just because of this."
Lin Yi's figure suddenly blurred.
Grey Falcon felt a blur before his eyes, and when he opened them again, the man was already standing on the deformed tree ten steps away.
He raised his hand and waved it lightly. A semi-transparent silver crack opened on the tree trunk. The tree trunk, which had been corroded by the extradimensional energy and made as hard as iron, cracked open like tofu. Ripples of time could even be seen at the cut.
"Space-Time Rift, a Mythical-level class-exclusive skill." Lin Yi leaped back to the ground, a ball of swirling starlight in his palm. "I can freeze the enemy's time, tear apart space to create barriers, and tilt the rules of the entire battlefield to my advantage." His gaze swept over Gray Falcon's subordinates. "More importantly, I can ensure that everyone who joins the Space-Time Legion survives this war."
The forest fell into a deathly silence.
Then a young neutral party suddenly threw down his weapon and knelt on the ground with a thud: "I join!"
My sister is still in a refugee camp in the south; it will be too late if we wait any longer!
"Akai!" Grey Falcon frowned and shouted to stop them, but then saw more people kneel down.
When the boy named Akai looked up, tears were still on his face: "Chief, we've been hiding for three years, but the tentacles of those monsters have still reached into our camp."
Rather than waiting to die, why not fight alongside those who can win?
Grey Falcon stared into Lin Yi's eyes for a full half minute.
Finally, he slammed the compound bow into the ground and ripped off the eyepatch from his left eye—beneath it lay a patch of torn flesh, clearly an old wound corroded by the extradimensional acid.
"When my sister died, she was clutching half a scale she'd torn from an intruder's corpse." His voice was hoarse, like a rusty gear. "Her last words were, 'Don't be a coward.'" He held out his hand to Lin Yi. "Time Legion, Gray Falcon reporting."
"Welcome to the team." Lin Yi grasped the calloused hand, the warmth emanating from his palm more intense than any vow.
Just as the Time Legion successfully absorbed the Neutral Alliance and the camp began to radiate new life, undercurrents were surging in the interdimensional space thousands of miles away.
The owl crushed the crystal ball in his hand with his fingertips, and the purple energy fragments burned to ashes in his palm.
The scene in the surveillance footage where Gray Falcon handed the Silver Falcon Badge, representing the Neutral Alliance, to Lin Yi felt like a steel needle piercing his pupils.
"My lord, should we send shadow guards to silence them now?" the black-robed man kneeling in the shadows asked in a low voice.
"No rush." A cruel smile curved the Night Owl's lips. He turned and walked towards the altar, his fingertips tracing the seven grooves carved into the stone—three of which were already filled. "Go and scatter the seeds of 'Heart-Eating Grass' around their camp." A sinister light flickered in his red eyes. "I want these so-called 'allies' to tear each other's throats open with their own hands."
After the man in black robes accepted the order and withdrew, Night Owl suddenly looked up at the void.
In a dimension beyond his reach, a semi-transparent figure leaned against a light screen, tapping his chin with his fingertips.
"Interesting." Xuan Mingzi's voice carried a hint of amusement as he gazed at Lin Yi and his group, who were inventorying supplies on the light screen. "The allure of a Mythical-level profession truly shatters any neutral calculations." His fingertip traced the "Seven Keys of Creation" mark on the light screen. "However... the location of the seventh key won't be so easy to find."
As night deepened, bonfires were lit at the Time Air Force Legion's camp.
The Grey Falcon's men were setting the newly hunted mutated deer over a fire, the aroma of meat mingling with the fragrance of pine branches wafting into the sky.
Lin Yi stood on high ground, looking at the camp shrouded in the space-time barrier in the distance, and listening to the laughter and chatter behind him—a hopeful sound he had never heard before.
But he knew that this peace wouldn't last long.
The shadow of the owl was spreading across the horizon like a tide.
What he had to do was to grasp at any possible light before the tide overwhelmed everything.
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