Yu Hua could sense that this rainbow-haired leveler was a spatial ability user. A person like this would be welcomed no matter what team he joined. What need did he have to use these means to attach himself to Yu Hua? 

He slowly closed his eyes, his thoughts floating to hundreds of years earlier when he had been young and his thoughts very simple. In a desperate contest, he had met a person with an open and casual disposition who had agreed to team up with him to clear. When the eleventh level ended, Yu Hua had searched for him for a long time, but he hadn’t found him again. 

He didn’t even know this person’s name. Along with the confusion of the awakenings of first love, this had made Yu Hua ask many of his former friends about this person’s whereabouts, but he had come up empty. 

Later Yu Hua had stopped searching and had slowly turned into a person who struck fear into the hearts of levelers. Many people investigated him and had uncovered his hundred year search. 

Many people dyed their hair rainbow colored to get close to him, but what Yu Hua missed wasn’t the hair color. It was that leveler’s bright eyes. 

When he saw people with that hair color, Yu Hua would without exception take his frustration out on them. Their outcome was tragic. Gradually, no one dared to dye their hair like that again. 

But now, he hadn’t killed this rainbow-haired person on sight. Was he going soft, or did not want to give him up? 

It was probably because there was no obvious malice about this person. 

Yu Hua lay with his back turned. The rainbow haired person behind him stuck to him, head pressed against his back, occasionally touching him with his leg. 

The inside of the tent became quiet. Only their even breathing remained. 

Yu Hua’s cold voice broke the silence: “What’s your name?” 

“Me? My name is…” the person behind him answered. 

“What?” Yu Hua didn’t hear. His hearing had always been acute. It must have been that this person wasn’t willing to say his name. 

“You can call me Xiao You,” the person behind him said. 

Xiao You? “You” as in the preposition? “You” as in “drawn-out?” “You” as in “outstanding?” Was it a family name or a personal name? Slightly dissatisfied, Yu Hua said, “Only people with bad intentions won’t give their true names.” 

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Xiao You mumbled. “Let’s say I have a hidden difficulty.” 

“As you like.” Yu Hua used his fire power to warm the inside of the tent a little. “Rest. We’re going to complete a mission in two hours.” 

“What mission?” Xiao You pressed close to Yu Hua, gently blowing on his ear. 

“Hunting and killing the giant mutants in the gorge. What about you?” Yu Hua asked. He didn’t suspect Xiao You. Low level and and high level levelers who came to the same world would have different missions. 

“It’s different from yours.” Xiao You didn’t answer directly. 

Yu Hua said, “Even if you don’t say it, I can guess. I need to kill the strongest mutant beast, and the others need to kill the smaller ones. You must also have been assigned a certain number of the smaller mutant beasts.” 

Xiao You became bolder and bolder. He even kissed his ear and quietly said, “Mutant beasts. Aren’t they this world’s primary intelligent beings?”

“Enough.” At the end of his endurance, Yu Hua turned and pressed Xiao You down. He bundled him up in the black cloak he had given him and quietly said, “I can temporarily protect you during this world. You don’t need to do this sort of thing. Have some self-respect while you pass the level.” 

Xiao You said, “I didn’t come looking for you because I wanted to pass the level.” 

Yu Hua brought his fist down on his cheek. Propping himself up, he looked loftily down on Xiao You, full of murderous energy. “Do you think I wouldn’t dare to do anything to you?” 

“Go ahead, do it.” Xiao You threw back his head and exposed the graceful line of his neck, looking entirely yielding. Ignoring the hair, he was actually very good-looking. 

Yu Hua swallowed, his throat shaking. He stared at Xiao You for a while, then turned his back to him. It was two hours before the mutant beasts appeared. He needed to conserve his energy. 

Xiao You, bound up in the black cloak, didn’t disturb him. He only kept looking at him with a scorching gaze. Yu Hua felt as though it was burning a hole in his back. 

After some quiet, the two of them really did fall asleep. They were both alert. If any danger had approached the tent, they would instantly have been startled awake. This was their combat instinct. 

Guan Shaoguang, standing outside the tent, at last put away his weapon. This wasn’t a good opportunity to act. When they went to the gorge to hunt mutant beasts, Yu Hua’s attention would be the most distracted and subject to gaps. It would be most convenient to act. 

The only difficulty was You Zhengping, who was like a lingering spirit. He had to think of a way to get someone to kill him or control him. 

Guan Shaoguang looked all around and saw some people sitting around the bonfire, not resting. They were looking at the circle where the source crystal had exploded, their expressions either desolate or furious. 

Guan Shaoguang went over and casually picked a place not too far from them to sit down. He fed the bonfire a stick. A spark flew up, like the energy explosion earlier, exploding. 

“Ah!” The girl who had picked up the ashes of Geng-jiejie and the others was scared into a low scream. Her expression was somewhat absent. Clearly she still hadn’t recovered from Yu Hua’s wrath. 

“I’m sorry,” Guan Shaoguang said, his expression meek. He lowered his eyelids, screening the indifference in his eyes. 

“It wasn’t your fault. I’m just a little…” The girl squeezed her arms. “Scared.”  

“You can’t be so timid. We have to go hunt mutant beasts soon.” Guan Shaoguang gave the girl a bag of cotton candy. His tone was gentle.  “I got this on a fairly peaceful world before. If you’re still scared when we go out to hunt, eat some sweets. At least it’ll give you some energy.” 

“Thank you.” The girl clutched the bag. 

“Why are you all still gathered here? Go rest. If you’re all half-dead when it comes time to hunt, Yu Hua will be angry.” Guan Shaoguang seemingly unintentionally mentioned Yu Hua. 

Hearing the name “Yu Hua,” all the people around the bonfire trembled simultaneously. 

The girl was silent for a long time. She swallowed, and carefully said, “Guan-ge, those people…did I kill them? I just wanted to get justice for Geng-jiejie. They did something wrong,  but it was for the sake of getting the source crystal to increase our rate of succeeding at missions. They-they shouldn’t have been punished with death.” 

“It’s nothing to do with you. They died because they defied Yu Hua’s orders. That’s the kind of person Yu Hua is. He doesn’t permit other voices in the team, just like a ‘tyrant.’ As deputy captain, I’m very concerned for the stability of the team’s mood.” Guan Shaoguang was hinting to them that Yu Hua was a ruthless person. 

But a male team member suddenly said, “Guan Shaoguang, Yu Hua went too far this time, but how about not making yourself look good? What kind of deputy captain are you? In this team, it’s always been what Yu Hua says goes. Where is there room for a deputy captain? You’ve known Yu Hua longer than us and have a more unique ability, but that doesn’t make you deputy captain!” 

“What…” Guan Shaoguang wanted to say, “What are you talking about, I established this team with Yu Hua. When the first squad was set up, I was its deputy captain.” But when the words came to his mouth, his expression changed. He held down his head. 

Countless memories surged up in his mind. The memories he was familiar with merged with the memories of the Guan Shaoguang of this time node. He found to his shock that in this time node, he hadn’t become Yu Hua’s opponent in that contest. There really had been a rainbow-haired person who had taken his place. The rainbow-haired person had appeared miraculously and then disappeared just as miraculously. 

He had only met Yu Hua after over fifty levels. Yu Hua had already organized his squad then. In the early stages, Guan Shaoguang’s time power had been very weak. He had had a very hard time in his first fifty-some levels. He had been rather dejected and in search of shelter when he had joined the squad. 

But in the original timeline,  Yu Hua and Guan Shaoguang had met in the eleventh level and joined forces, complemented the shortcomings of each other’s abilities. Guan Shaoguang hadn’t been seriously inconvenienced and had naturally become the team’s deputy captain. 

This was only a little world that he had constructed. Why would the track of history truly change? 

The strangest thing was that the change to the track of history hadn’t created an entirely different parallel world. Instead, it had returned to its original track after fifty-some levels, revising the disordered plot. 

It was as if someone had knocked the track of history out of alignment in the eleventh level, and after a bit of deviation, the track had quickly restored itself after that person had vanished. 

No, this was obviously a fragment of memory. It was a fake little world. How could it be changed?  

The time power was the ability to section off a certain time node or to change the flow of time. The essence of time was movement. Relying solely on a time dimension power, it was impossible to cross space and time, unless…there was someone in this space who held the power of spatial law! 

You Zhengping! Guan Shaoguang quickly recalled everything that his past projection in the estate had experienced. You Zhengping had opened a small parallel space and trapped his projection inside it. 

You Zhengping’s spatial ability was to open paths to parallel spaces. In other words, it was opening “doors” between the real world and little fake worlds. 

From the moment You Zhengping had found the twisted crack in space-time and had arrived in this time in pursuit of Yu Hua, he had opened a door in space-time, bringing everyone back to true over-and-done-with history. 

“A person in an ordinary world with a smattering of natural law power—how could he connect to so distant a past? Even if he had wanted to, an intact world law wouldn’t permit it.” Guan Shaoguang squeezed his knuckles so they cracked continuously. He thought inwardly, “Unless this is something that the world law is in favor of, unless it was even promoting the distortion of space-time, helping You Zhengping do this.” 

Doing this would cause harm to the world law itself. It amounted to cutting apart its own natural law power, turning what had been whole into something incomplete. The world law had no feelings, it wouldn’t deliberately favor a certain person. Since it was willing to harm itself in order to help You Zhengping, then this must have been the outcome of countless calculations. 

Why? Guan Shaoguang didn’t understand. 

“Hey!” The man who had just called Guan Shaoguang’s identity as deputy captain into question saw him frowning and clenching his fist and couldn’t resist coming over to Guan Shaoguang. Brandishing a fist, he said, “If you want to be deputy captain, you first at least have to convince the masses.” 

“Shut up.” Guan Shaoguang flicked his fingers, speeding up the man’s time flow. 

The man stood there, not moving. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to make trouble for Guan Shaoguang. It was that for him, time was flying past. The two hours took a few seconds. What could a person do within a few seconds? Probably only blink his eyes. 

“Guan Shaoguang!” The others saw Guan Shaoguang attack one of their own and look at him suspiciously. 

“I was only avoiding a dispute among companions,” Guan Shaoguang said steadily. “Was I supposed to fight him? In two hours, the flow of time will return to normal for him.” 

Hearing him say this, everyone dropped the subject. After all, if they really did fight, Guan Shaoguang couldn’t be defeated. The time ability was too frightening when it had developed. They had no ability to resist. 

Guan Shaoguang said, “To get back to the main point, I’m concerned that that rainbow-haired person with Yu Hua has a dubious background. I’m concerned that he’ll cause mischief during our operation later. While we’re battling the mutant beasts, we should equip a special ability suppressor and find an opportunity to trap him.” 

Seeing everyone hesitate, Guan Shaoguang said, “What are you worried about? Yu Hua hasn’t said anything about how we’re supposed to treat him. We won’t be disobeying his orders.” 

Everyone relaxed, letting themselves be brainwashed by Guan Shaoguang’s brief words and planning on how to deal with You Zhengping. 

Not far off, in a small tent, Director Ha’s ears trembled. 

A dog’s hearing was excellent. It hadn’t been able to sleep because of the noise! 

---

Author's Note

Yu Hua: Do you think I wouldn’t dare to do anything to you? 

You Zhengping: Well, don’t just talk about it, do it already! 

Yu Hua: No, we aren’t married, I have to be reserved. 

Guan Shaoguang: Why would the world law help You Zhengping? 

The world law: Well…you may not know this, but this is my little prince, whom I’ve chosen from among hundreds of thousands to act as a marriage tribute.