Director Ha was also dazed from the cold. In a few short days…or hours…or minutes… Never mind, that wasn’t important, it didn’t know what the difference in passage of time between the little world and the outside world was. It had no idea how much time had passed!  

At any rate, in a very short span of time, it has successively experienced danger in the rain with Junjun, running around with Junjun in the contest game, managing to get food, and having a great demon with the same scent as Yu Hua taken it to share it among strangers. It had slept out in the open with Junjun. It had waited until the match started and drunk a bit of warm water in the lounge. While Yu Hua had been taking part in the contest, Junjun had found a room where he could give Xiao Ha a bath. When it had been washed and its fur brushed, their surroundings had changed. 

From the warm little contest room they had gone directly to ruins where it was -40°C. Only Director Ha’s external fur had dried. The fur close to its skin was still damp. The cold wind blew, and the Siberian husky was instantly frozen into a popsicle. 

And Junjun was only wearing a single layer of summer clothes. The child and dog yelled in the cold and finally found a board where they could avoid the wind and snuggle up against each other to keep warm. Director Ha used its belly fur to keep Junjun warm while Junjun brushed shards of ice off of Director Ha’s back. 

As they helped each other, the child and the dog thought that the board keeping them out of the wind was their only refuge. Now someone had overturned their sheltering board. How could Director Ha not be angry? 

It hadn’t seen clearly who had come. It hopped up and immediately let out an enraged howl at this person, its throat letting out a long “Awwwwwooooo!” Listening to it closely, it sounded something like human speech. 

After it had called twice, Junjun pressed down on Xiao Ha’s chest. Director Ha at once quieted down. 

Junjun said, “Yu Hua-gege? Shushu?” 

In each world, levelers were impacted by the world’s power and the upgrading of their own physical condition. There would be slight changes to their external appearances. These changes were very faint. You couldn’t see them over the course of a world or two. But after hundreds and even thousands of worlds, compared to the person’s original appearance, the difference would be very large. 

This Yu Hua was different from the young man in the eleventh level. He was also different from Director Yu in the real world. He was somewhere between the two. This made Junjun very confused. He wasn’t sure who this person actually was. 

Director Ha had had experience with levelers’ features changing, so it guessed at once that this was Yu Hua. It didn’t dare to call out anymore. Tail between its legs, it hid behind Junjun. Junjun’s short, skinny body couldn’t block Director Ha’s increasingly large form. A dog’s face with a black nose stuck out from behind the little boy. 

“This dog seems to have a special ability. Is it a local mutant or something else?” Guan Shaoguang asked deliberately while knowing the answer. 

Yu Hua’s gaze swept over the dog and the little boy’s trembling bodies. He waved his hand slightly. Warmth flowed into the child and the dog. 

The frost evaporated from Director Ha. Its fur was lush, and with the help of this warmth, its body was instantly no longer cold. Hiding behind Junjun, it called a grateful “awooawoo” to Yu Hua. 

Junjun very politely gave Yu Hua a pioneer’s salute. “Thank you, Yu Hua-ge-shu.” 

“Pft.” You Zhengping couldn’t hold back a laugh. What kind of address was “ge-shu?” The poor child. 

Junjun also offered Yu Hua a piece of milk candy with both hands. Yu Hua-ge-shu had helped him. He had to be grateful, though he only had a few pieces of candy left. 

Yu Hua took the candy from the child’s hands, met the boy’s sincere eyes, and nodded. “Take them to the assembly point and give them some clothes.” 

Guan Shaoguang frowned and got two sets of adult-sized padded jackets and padded shoes to give to the boy. Levelers accumulated goods like these so they wouldn’t have to spend points at a critical moment. 

You Zhengping gave Guan Shaoguang an odd look. He had thought that Guan Shaoguang would take this opportunity to kill Junjun and the husky, but instead he didn’t make a move. He was even somewhat gentle towards them. 

There were no other living beings in the ruined city. Yu Hua took the others to the assembly point. You Zhengping found that Yu Hua was probably using wind and fire type powers. The wind lifted him, Junjun, and Xiao Ha into the air, and the fire power kept them warm, keeping them from being harmed by the cold wind around them. 

Meanwhile, You Zhengping’s frostbite had been healed at some point, and Yu Hua had been able to stop Guan Shaoguang’s slowing of time. 

Zhen Li had said that the great master clearer had every type of power. He could use all the abilities. 

But that was wrong. 

Since understanding natural law power, You Zhengping had gained some practical experience in the use of special abilities. Apart from the origin ability, the abilities that Destroyers could equip from the System were mostly one time use. This showed that even the System couldn’t let someone completely grasp a power attribute that didn’t belong to their origin ability. Special ability users could only truly use their own power. 

But Yu Hua was different. Healing, attack, illusion, space and time… He seemed to hold every kind of power, a special ability user across all attributes. Why? What was so special about his origin power? 

You Zhengping kept his eyes on Yu Hua, not blinking. It was unclear whether he wanted to delve into the truth or whether he simply wanted to remember Yu Hua from every time period. 

His gaze was too ardent. Yu Hua reached out a finger and poked You Zhengping’s cheek to turn his head, moving his gaze away. 

“Stop looking,” Yu Hua said coldly. 

You Zhengping opened his mouth and bit Yu Hua’s finger. Yu Hua frowned and avoided his teeth. He unwrapped the milk candy Junjun had given him and tossed it into You Zhengping’s mouth. 

In a freezing world, eating a sweet piece of milk candy, feeling the warmth of it—You Zhengping smiled lightly and kept his attention fixed on Yu Hua. 

Guan Shaoguang, borrowing the wind power to fly behind them, numbly turned his head away, not looking at these two anymore. Guan Shaoguang looked at the husky and Junjun. Director Ha was covering Junjun’s eyes with its paws. Its doggy face was solemn. 

With You Zhengping here, his little world kept going wrong. With Yu Hua here, he couldn’t kill You Zhengping. Guan Shaoguang’s brow furrowed tightly.  He didn’t know whether to change times again and look for another opportunity to get rid of You Zhengping. 

As he pondered, Yu Hua had already taken them to the gathering point. This must have been a square in the city center. Some people had lit a bonfire and were already waiting. 

There were a few people lying beside the bonfire. Their forms were covered with white cloths. They were obviously dead. 

Yu Hua landed. When everyone saw him, they came to surround him. But he didn’t pay attention to any of them. He took his arm candy You Zhengping over to the bonfire and pulled away a white cloth. 

The person under the white cloth was a bloody mess, their features hard to distinguish. Yu Hua looked at this person’s arm. There was an armband around their upper arm with a name written on it: Geng Yi’an. From the figure, this was a woman. 

Yu Hua covered her face with the white cloth, then pulled away the second white cloth. The second person’s face was intact. This was a middle-aged man with a little beard. From the rise and fall of the white cloth, it looked like the lower half of his body was gone. Yu Hua didn’t continue lifting the cloth away. He covered the man’s face back up. 

There were four people in all. After looking at each of them, Yu Hua said in a cold voice, “Why did they die?” 

A girl with her face covered in tear stains who had evidently been crying pointed at a grown man with his head down. She angrily denounced him: “It was him! He didn’t listen to your orders and insisted on going to the quartz mine to absorb energy and search for the source crystal. We were attacked by a beast, and Geng-jiejie and the others died to protect us. There are two other teammates whose bodies we couldn’t even bring back!” 

“I held a vote to go in to look for the source crystal!” The man quickly raised his head to contradict her. “The world energy stored in the quartz mine can make us stronger, and the source crystal can upgrade our origin abilities and let us gradually escape the System’s control. Weren’t there many people backing me at the time? Why are you pushing it all onto me?” 

Carrying a piece of blood red crystal with both hands, the man came up to Yu Hua and smiled ingratiatingly. “This is the source crystal. A source crystal with this degree of purity can upgrade the special abilities of a dozen levelers. It’s worth a suitable loss.” 

Some others nodded and also chimed in, “That’s right, that’s right. All the ones who died are levelers with common power types. The healing types and the ones with unique attributes are all still alive. We haven’t lost anything.” 

“Who voted?” Yu Hua said expressionlessly, not taking the source crystal.

The crowd couldn’t clearly understand his intention. They helplessly exchanged glances, not daring to raise their hands. 

The girl who had been crying also didn’t know whether Yu Hua approved of this exchange for the source crystal or whether he placed more value on their companions’ lives. She didn’t speak. 

“The purity of this source crystal is pretty good,” Yu Hua added. 

Now everyone began to get their bearings. About ten people raised their hands. Yu Hua said, “That’s quite a few of you.” 

The leading man said, “We did it for the good of the group. Look at how much power that source crystal has!”  

Yu Hua took the source crystal from his hands and smiled faintly. “You’re right. So all of you can take this source crystal.” 

The leading man smiled in relief. 

But the next second, the “rule writer” appeared in Yu Hua’s hand. He quickly drew an “X” over the leading man’s face. 

“No, no!” The leading man only had time for a scream. Then it was as if he had been negated. He gradually became transparent and finally disappeared in midair. 

Yu Hua tossed the blood red source crystal among the gathered crowd of those who had voted in favor. He coolly said, “Here’s what you wanted.” 

The source crystal burst into blood red radiance. The faces of the voters changed. They scattered desperately in all directions, but a circle drawn with a brush had appeared on the ground, and they couldn’t walk out of that circle. 

The source crystal exploded. Enormous power surged within the circle, not a drop of it leaking out. 

The blood red radiance flickered constantly in the ruined central square. The people inside the circle shouted for help, but no one dared to intercede for them. Even the girl who had just been crying was scared into covering her mouth. She had only wanted to denounce them and ask Yu Hua to tell them off. She hadn’t expected that Yu Hua would act so decisively, not leaving them any chance to survive. 

Guan Shaoguang closed his eyes and turned his face away, not looking at the people inside the circle calling for help. What Yu Hua had decided, no one could resist. 

Someone carefully came over to Yu Hua and pleaded, “Cap-captain, there are levelers in there with healing, light, and plant powers. Isn’t punishing all of them too…” 

“Are those abilities very important?” Yu Hua said. 

“N-no.” The person who had pleaded didn’t dare to say anything else. 

No one resisted. Everyone stood by and watched as those people died in the explosion of power. They watched as the energy of the source crystal exploded unstoppably within the circle Yu Hua had proscribed, unable to leave the circle. 

The temperature around them gradually rose. It wasn’t so cold anymore. 

Director Ha, wrapped in a human’s padded jacket, was so hot it stuck out its tongue and panted. For it, a bit of coolness was more comfortable. 

It had once again covered Junjun’s eyes, not letting the child see this scene. 

When the explosion of power ended, Yu Hua walked over to the white cloths. There was a ball of high heat flames in his hand. It instantly burned up the corpses. 

“Collect them, then take them to places they liked and bury them,” Yu Hua said. 

The girl who had protested picked up a few jars in a daze and divided the ashes up among them. She stuck them into the System’s space. 

No one dared to speak. They didn’t even dare to breathe too loudly. They pretended to be busy, though it was unclear what they were busy about. 

Yu Hua swept his gaze over the rainbow-haired head beside him and asked, “You still haven’t let go?” 

You Zhengping had just been dazzled by Yu Hua’s power. He had found that Yu Hua was a little too strong. Wasn’t it only after five hundred levels that you could grasp natural law power? None of these people looked like they had passed five hundred levels. 

“How many levels have you passed?” You Zhengping asked, not answering Yu Hua’s question. 

“I don’t remember clearly. Has it been four hundred?” Yu Hua said carelessly. 

Liar! This person even remembered that he had passed 3,841 levels. How could he not remember how many he had passed now? 

“398 levels,” Guan Shaoguang answered. “After level 100, we started encountering people who had passed different numbers of levels. There aren’t so many high grade levelers, after all, so we were matched at random.” 

You Zhengping ignored him. Instead of wasting his energy dealing with Guan Shaoguang, it was better to concentrate on gaining Yu Hua’s trust, so that the current powerful Yu Hua would get rid of Guan Shaoguang for him. 

“Let’s put up the tents,” Yu Hua said. 

He casually raised two tents—one small one, which he gave to the husky and Junjun, and one big one for himself. The big tent was spacious with one person sleeping in it, but it would be a little crowded with two. 

Yu Hua signaled with his expression for You Zhengping to let go. You Zhengping turned a blind eye. 

Seeing that he was going to be like this, Yu Hua actually didn’t say anything. He went into the tent with his arm candy, and You Zhengping crowded in. 

The two of them lay down on the wool cushion inside the tent. Yu Hua took hold of You Zhengping’s chin and asked, “Who told you that I like rainbow hair?” 

“Hm?” You Zhengping clutched at his hair. “I didn’t dye it like this willingly, it was… How about this, do you have a wig? I can put it on, and you can look at that.” 

“No one would waste their limited System space to carry along something like a wig,” Yu Hua said. 

“Then you’ll just have to put up with it,” You Zhengping said, pulling a long face. 

Yu Hua found that he was very patient with this person. He had just been filled with murderous intent, but it had calmed the instant he had seen the rainbow-colored head. 

He stuck his hand into You Zhengping hair, his palm pressed against the back of his head. Lowering his voice, he said, “Did someone tell you that I would feel well disposed towards hair like this, and so you dyed it like this to seduce me?” 

You Zhengping licked his lips. A bit sadly, he said, “When have you ever been well disposed towards anyone?” 

“During my eleventh level, I met a… Why am I telling you this?” Yu Hua said. “Do you want to stay with me?” 

During his eleventh level? Wasn’t that me? You Zhengping’s eyes lit up. But this was wrong. Didn’t he only arrive at time nodes? Given Guan Shaoguang’s principles, nothing he did should have any impact on history. Why did Yu Hua still remember his rainbow hair from the eleventh level? He felt more and more doubts and suspicions. He was beginning to think that this little world was no longer as simple as Guan Shaoguang had said. 

“Of course I want to stay with you,” You Zhengping said frankly. 

With one hand on the back of You Zhengping’s head, Yu Hua moved the other hand from holding his chin to stroking his lips. In a husky voice, he said, “If you stay with me, you can’t disobey my orders. If you disobey a single one, you’ll end up like those people just now, understand?” 

“Were you angry that they didn’t listen to your orders, or were you angry that they got their companions killed and placed too much value on special ability attributes, not treating levelers with ordinary special abilities as people?” You Zhengping’s words struck Yu Hua to the heart. 

Yu Hua paused and very slowly said, “If they had only listened to me, they would have lived. Anyway, those who disobey me will die.” 

Remembering the pure university student he had seen only a few hours ago and looking at this increasingly cruel and cold Yu Hua, You Zhengping sadly touched his face and said in a gentle voice, “I know you want to protect everyone.” 

He was a Protector. He understood better than anyone else the feeling of wanting to protect everyone.

He also understood the pain of being able to protect everyone but failing because of some people’s selfishness. 

Yu Hua heard him, and it was as if his cold mask came off. He slowly approached You Zhengping, his lips drawing nearer and nearer. 

You Zhengping closed his eyes, waiting for his husband’s kiss. 

But at the last moment, Yu Hua turned his head away and in a somewhat angry tone said, “You’re a pretty good leveler. Why do you insist on throwing yourself at someone powerful and doing these things?” 

You Zhengping: “???”

---

Author's Note

Yu Hua (on the surface): Stop looking. 

Yu Hua (inwardly): Keep looking.

Yu Hua (on the surface): Eat this candy. 

Yu Hua (inwardly): Eat…

Yu Hua (on the surface): How could you seduce me with your arts? 

Yu Hua (inwardly): I want to sleep with him, but I’m a gentleman. 

You Zhengping: Seriously, Yu Hua, are you all right?