“Director Xiao says that Yuan Luori has captured a Destroyer. He wants us to hurry back to base to take part in the interrogation as soon as we’re done with our battle,” Cen Xiao said to You Zhengping, putting down his communications device. 

Reporting on the status of the battle should have been You Zhengping’s responsibility as captain, but after the ice person had vanished, he had stood unmoving among the unmelting ice crystals, as if he had forgotten to report. As deputy captain, Cen Xiao had taken his place in performing this task. 

Cen Xiao didn’t know what You Zhengping had seen. When his spatial ability had emerged just now, Cen Xiao had been aware that the world You Zhengping saw was different from what ordinary special ability users like them saw. 

He and his teammates couldn’t even comprehend what You Zhengping’s so-called parallel spaces and spatial passages meant. They only knew that in the battle just now, the Destroyer head of the league’s power had been unable to break through You Zhengping’s space to harm them, while they could go through doors You Zhengping opened in the space to hurt the head of the league. 

This multidimensional usage went far beyond the scope of the three-dimensional world. But if a human being absolutely had to use speech to comprehend this sort of power and tried to describe it, dropping a dimension and using a two-dimensional piece of paper could explain it. 

Looking at the area around the central park as a picture hanging on a wall, You Zhengping’s power amounted to reflection, photography, or some other copying method of producing a man-made forgery. Then he had instantly moved Cen Xiao and the others into the forgery. 

In this forgery, all power was a tenth of what it was in the original picture. The Destroyer’s power had also been suppressed to one tenth, so their body temperatures had naturally warmed up. Originally, the temperature had been lowered from 30°C to -200°C; the total change was 230°C. After being lowered to one tenth, the change in temperature was only 23°C. Seven degrees above zero couldn’t harm the Protectors. 

To use a three-dimensional example, the forgery You Zhengping had created was ten centimeters away from the original pictures, and it was on a different dimension of the coordinate plane. The Destroyer couldn’t break through the boundaries of dimension to attack the people in the other picture, but they could see them in the reflection, so they had mistakenly thought that those people were in the same space as them, but the attacks they had attempted had failed. 

To explain two-dimensionally, You Zhengping could draw a line between the forgery and the original, and the members of the Protector squad could attack through that line. If the Destroyer wanted to hurt them, the only means was to counterattack at the moment of their attack. 

One wonders who would be able to understand these rules in the midst of battle and then fight back while also outnumbered by the other side. 

Under the absolute control of the law, the Destroyer had had no power to resist. If they had been able to entirely grasp the power of temperature, they might still have stood a fighting chance. Sadly, they had been unable to contain that power and in the end had been crushed between the internal and external attacks, turning into countless ice crystals floating through the air. 

You Zhengping removed the parallel space and returned to the real world with the others. Standing where the head of the league had disappeared with the ice crystals falling on him, he gently closed his eyes. 

“Save me…” The last words the head of the league had left behind using natural law power echoed in You Zhengping’s brain. Cen Xiao and the others couldn’t hear this sound.  

The head of the league hadn’t moved to kill them. They had emphasized that they were going to die, but they had launched their attack as quickly as possible, and had even let You Zhengping understand the true use of his spaces. 

Had they truly not noticed You Zhengping’s other spaces? At the time, You Zhengping’s so-called spatial ability had been to trap objects between two passages. He hadn’t truly established an alternate space. That was why Destroyer 192’s bombs had been able to hurt him. 

It was when the head of the league’s ice power had shattered the first space’s passage that You Zhengping had understood that it wasn’t a true space, only something floating on the surface. 

“Did they really want to kill us?” You Zhengping asked, opening his eyes and turning to Cen Xiao. “Maybe they wanted us to kill them.” 

This was Cen Xiao’s first time seeing his friend look so lost. He sighed. “Maybe they weren’t here of their own accord, but are you telling me that we’re participating in this war willingly?” 

The peaceful world behind the Protectors didn’t allow them to retreat. They built walls with their flesh and blood, not letting the wind and rain outside harm the people within the walls. 

“You’re right.” You Zhengping spread his hand. A few ice crystals were slowly melting in his palm. 

“According to Yuan Luori’s intelligence, there are five battlefields in all in the Xuyang District. Yuan Luori and Luo Huai’s squad working together took Destroyer 183 alive. Director Xiao eliminated the water type Destroyer who wantonly destroyed property and harmed countless passersby near the base. Lian Yufan, along with Feng Kui and Huan Zixu, who suddenly recovered their powers, defeated Destroyer 217, but they don’t have Yuan Luori’s vision, so before they could arrest Destroyer 217, he self-destructed under the System’s control. And we’ve defeated the head of the Clearing League,” Cen Xiao reported the battle situation to You Zhengping. 

“And the last one? Weren’t there five? Who’s over there?” You Zhengping asked. 

“Yuan Luori said that that’s where the most awful power is, but the black-cloaked man went there, and now the whole area’s energy has disappeared.  The black-cloaked man must have taken care of his opponent,” Cen Xiao said. “Lian Yufan, who’s closest, has already gone to investigate. He didn’t find anything unusual. The estate’s residents are safe and sound. Only Captain Liu of the criminal police’s Junjun is missing. He went out before the rain started, and he hasn’t come back. He must have gone somewhere far off. The civil police from the local station are looking for him.” 

“Lian Yufan didn’t see the black-cloaked man?” You Zhengping asked. 

He had just had a peculiar feeling, as though that person who was always on his mind had vanished and was nowhere to be found. 

When the black-cloaked man had unfolded his natural law power, You Zhengping had still been able to sense Yu Hua’s presence.  

“He didn’t, and there were no unusual signs of battle on the scene,” Cen Xiao said. “It must be like before. He helped us dispatch the opponent, then left.” 

According to common sense, that should be right. The black-cloaked man was the clearer, the one the System was doing everything it could to get rid of. Who could defeat him? Since the enemy’s energy had disappeared, then the black-cloaked man must have been victorious. 

But You Zhengping’s feeling of panic grew more and more intense. The lost child, the rescued estate residents… You Zhengping held his chest, hardly able to breathe. 

He rushed to get out his phone and call Yu Hua, but he received a notice of “This party is not in service range.”

“Calling Yu Hua?” Cen Xiao said, nodding. “That’s right, at a time like this, you ought to be worrying about your family. His studio is so close to the battle. He may have been frightened. You have to call him.” 

His friend’s heart was at last returning to his household. Cen Xiao was very glad. He also heard the “This party is not in service range” notice and consoled You Zhengping: “The battle knocked over some signal towers. There are many areas without service. That’s normal.” 

You Zhengping put down his phone and suddenly said, “Get in contact with Yuan Luori. Ask him whether he sensed our presence while we were in the parallel space earlier.” 

“How could he see from such a distance?” Cen Xiao muttered. 

Though he still dialed Yuan Luori and passed the phone to You Zhengping so he could ask for himself. You Zhengping listened to Yuan Luori’s answer: “To survey the battlefields, I borrowed a telescope and stood high up observing the whole Xuyang District. I got such a scare just now. Your energy reaction disappeared completely. I thought that the head of the league had killed you.” 

You Zhengping asked, “You can’t see a bit of the black-cloaked man’s energy reaction?” 

“No,” Yuan Luori said, “he can withdraw his energy field. He must be hiding.” 

“Understood.” You Zhengping broke the connection. 

“What are you worried about?” Cen Xiao reminded You Zhengping, “The black-cloaked man is so strong. Nothing will happen.” 

You Zhengping shook his head. “Apart from the black-cloaked man winning and leaving while hiding his identity, there’s another possibility—that they went into another space to fight. Yuan Luori is limited by the law and can’t see them, just like the Destroyer just now couldn’t attack us.” 

You Zhengping returned the communications device to Cen Xiao and decisively said, “You take the squad back to base to attend the meeting. I’m going to have a look around the estate.” 

He hopped onto his police-issue motor scooter and was just about to start it when Cen Xiao pulled his arm. “If it’s how you guessed and there’s a power that can trap even the black-cloaked man, what’s the use of you going? It’s just a suicide mission. Think of Yu Hua, why don’t you.” 

You Zhengping pulled off Cen Xiao’s hand. “I know that even though I can use natural law power now, my power is still just a drop in the ocean in front of them. But what if I’m the last straw that decides the battle? The black-cloaked man…has saved us so many times. I can’t let him fight alone.” 

He firmly put on his helmet and opened the throttle as far as it would go, galloping as though flying towards Zhen Li’s studio. 

You Zhengping knew that Yu Hua was powerful, but he also trusted his instincts. The System had planned its move for over a month and then abruptly launched such a large-scale attack. They couldn’t leave empty-handed. 

The black-cloaked man had passed 3,841 levels and had fought hundreds of thousands of battles with the System. There was too much time in the past that You Zhengping hadn’t taken part in. Did the black-cloaked man truly have no weak points? Was there really nothing the System could do to him? 

That was impossible. 

You Zhengping remembered Yu Hua’s diary, remembered the lonely look that sometimes appeared in Yu Hua’s eyes, and the morbid desire for control that he struggled to suppress. All of it showed that Yu Hua wasn’t all-conquering. 

Before he had perhaps been unable to help, even had only been able to cause Yu Hua trouble, but…at the very least, he could cheer Yu Hua on. 

He had just used natural law power to protect all the ordinary people in the Xuyang District. He shouldn’t be allowed to fight alone! 

You Zhengping poured his power into the throttle. The motor scooter had long ago exceeded its top speed. The little police issue scooter sped along the road like a high grade engine. It nimbly drove through roads blocked with traffic, ran red lights, traveled along pedestrian paths, went against the flow of traffic, broke the speed limit… In a very few short minutes, You Zhengping violated all the traffic regulations. Right now, he didn’t care about disciplinary actions. He only wanted to reach Yu Hua as soon as possible. 

In less than five minutes, You Zhengping arrived outside the estate. The scooter’s front tire was smoking, and the back tire had burst. 

Just as You Zhengping reached the estate, it was as though he was confined by some power. It was a kind of rule, a rule that was hard for him to resist with his current powers. 

He tossed aside the motor scooter, which had turned into a heap of scrap metal, and went into the estate, letting his instinct lead the way. He came to a patch of greenery in the estate. On one of the estate’s pedestrian streets, a man in black clothes was standing in the rain with an open umbrella lying at his feet. 

The man in black was clearly standing in the rain, but not a drop touched him. The rain couldn’t reach him.

You Zhengping went up to the man in black and said firmly, “So you’re the fifth Destroyer sent by the System!” 

The man in black clothes swept You Zhengping with his gaze and spread his hand. There was an energy probe labeled 5-5 in it. He glanced at the energy probe and said in some astonishment, “So a world with intact law has a holder of natural law power like you. The world law would even weaken its own defenses to entrust you with spatial law power. Who are you?” 

“Where’s Yu Hua?” You Zhengping looked around the deserted greenery. He had a feeling that Yu Hua was here, was in front of him, but he couldn’t see Yu Hua. 

“He’s here, but he’s also not here,” the man in black said. “I’m also here but not here.” 

Another person might not have understood this, but You Zhengping went up to the man in black and waved his hand at the man’s head. His hand passed through the man in black’s body. 

You Zhengping picked the umbrella up off the ground. The umbrella really did exist, but the man in black wasn’t in this space…

No, it wasn’t that the man in black wasn’t in this space, it was that the man in black didn’t belong to this dimension of time. 

“Are you a projection from the past or the future?” You Zhengping asked firmly. 

Now that he understood something of natural law power, he could work out what was happening. 

There was nothing wrong with the estate. It truly existed. And there was no other space here. The real illusion was the man in black. He didn’t exist in this time. 

“My time is half an hour slower than yours.” The man in black tapped the watch on his wrist. The time it showed was 17:08.

You Zhengping’s wristwatch showed 17:39. The man in black was from thirty-one minutes in the past. 

He didn’t exist in this minute, so the rain wouldn’t wet him, just as rain that fell at 17:39 couldn’t pass through time to fall on the ground at 17:08. 

You Zhengping’s ability was dimensions in space, while this person’s was dimensions in time. 

At its root, time composed a portion of spatial dimensions, but with You Zhengping’s current grasp of natural law power, he couldn’t touch time, which exceeded the three dimensional world. 

“You’ve trapped Yu Hua in some natural law?” You Zhengping asked. 

“I didn’t trap him. He went in voluntarily for the sake of saving a dog and child,” the man in black said, smiling. “I was shocked. If he was outside the law, he could have rolled right over my little world with his power and destroyed it. But when he found out that I was holding a person and a dog, he gave up on destroying my little world altogether and went in to save them.” 

A child and a dog… You Zhengping had heard Lian Yufan say that studio’s dog was in a higher position than he was, and the dog was a traitor, only wagging its tail towards a little boy. 

It was the missing Junjun and the studio’s Director Ha. For the sake of saving them, Yu Hua had willingly gone into a trap. 

You Zhengping wasn’t surprised. He said, “What is there to be shocked about? He’s always been very gentle.” 

“Really?” The man in black was slightly surprised. “We seem to have different information. Let me introduce myself. My name is Guan Shaoguang. I wield a bit of time natural law power. I’m…a dead man.” 

Hearing this last sentence, You Zhengping wasn’t surprised. Outside the natural law of time, anything could happen. He calmly introduced himself. “You Zhengping. I’m Yu Hua’s husband, the kind recognized by law. We’re married.” 

“Married? That ‘Tyrant’ got married? You can bear his despotism?” Guan Shaoguang’s expression became more and more astonished. 

“Cut the crap. If I want to rescue Yu Hua, do I need to kill you?” You Zhengping wasn’t going to listen to this person trying to sow discord in their relationship. “Don’t think that just because you’re a projection from the past I won’t be able to take you on!” 

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Author's Note

You Zhengping: Violating traffic regulations is improper behavior. Kids, don’t imitate me. Obey traffic regulations!