Chapter 59: Time Reversal vs. Error Code

Everyone stared dumbfounded at the meteorite falling from the sky.

The meteorite slowly enlarged in everyone's vision, its mottled textures becoming clearer and clearer.

It resembled a colossal entity that humanity could not possibly resist, leaving them incapable of even generating the thought of fighting back.

The elite ghost hunters of all major organizations were utterly stunned.

If this thing slammed down, forget about humans, even ghosts would probably crash and freeze for several months, right?!

Inside a towering building, a man dressed in blue broke out in a cold sweat as a stopwatch materialized above him.

"Captain, we're running out of time!" said one of the women, panicking as she looked at the meteorite in the sky.

"Almost there, almost there, dammit, that idiot of a doctor! I kept telling them that kid from Lancheng is untouchable, yet they still called the headquarters—idiots, idiots, idiots!" the man cursed furiously.

A few seconds later, the stopwatch finally solidified above his head.

The man brought his hands together and whispered softly, "Time Flow!"

Clang—

The sound of a bell ringing echoed in everyone's ears.

Creak, creak...

The stopwatch began to spin counter-clockwise.

Boom!

Then, an astonishing sight unfolded.

Everything across the entire Longbei district began to slowly reverse.

Some collapsed skyscrapers started to slowly return to their original positions.

That terrifyingly huge meteorite also slowly retreated from the city, inch by inch returning to the sky.

All the ghost hunters couldn't help but exhale a breath of relief.

"Captain Li has made his move!"

"We survived! Thank goodness for Captain Li!"

...

At the newly renovated headquarters, in the open-air plaza, Luo Yimeng stood completely numb, watching the gradually collapsing city, holding a pen motionless... until the pen finally dropped to the ground.

Clatter.

Wh-Why did it turn out like this...

She just wanted to run a test; she didn't want to destroy Longbei, let alone the world.

This was supposed to be a simple potential test that everyone had taken before!!

Bai Wan also wore a look of utter innocence and grievance.

It has nothing to do with me, okay?! You guys were the ones who wanted to test it!!

He hesitated for a moment and tentatively asked, "This was an accidental mishap, I don't need to pay for the damages, right? Did headquarters buy insurance for all of this?"

Luo Yimeng was on the verge of tears.

My goodness!

The entire city is about to be wiped out, what are you going to pay for?! You're still worrying about whether insurance was bought!!

At that exact moment, a ringing bell echoed in their ears, followed by the ticking of a stopwatch.

Tick, tick, tick, tick

Then, they noticed the roof of the headquarters starting to piece itself back together bit by bit.

A flash of pleasant surprise crossed Luo Yimeng's eyes as she said, "It's Lord Li Shouxi who has made his move!"

"Li Shouxi? The one hailed as the God of Time, Li Shouxi?" Bai Wan couldn't help asking.

Bai Wan often saw this name mentioned on the forums.

It was said that from childhood to adulthood, from attending classes to clocking in at work, and in everything related to time, Li Shouxi had never been late once.

Over time, he mastered time and awakened time-related abilities within the ghost game.

Meanwhile, some chuunibyou youngsters on the forums called him the God of Time or the Magic Emperor.

Luo Yimeng nodded and said excitedly, "Yes, one of the four main captains of headquarters. This power to reverse time is something only he can pull off!"

Bai Wan also wore an excited expression.

So powerful! It seems the city is saved this time!

Luo Yimeng and Bai Wan exchanged excited glances, and for a moment, all the unpleasantness vanished.

"As expected of the God of T—"

Boom!

Before the words could finish, just as time rewound to the exact moment the protagonist released the bug, the time stopwatch suddenly jammed, and then began spinning forward again.

"—ime?"

Boom!

The headquarters building that had just been restored began transforming back into an open-air plaza!

Bai Wan: "???"

Luo Yimeng: "???"

...

In a certain building, Li Shouxi wore a look of utter shock.

He stared at his stopwatch, which had previously been glowing with golden light and ticking away as it reversed time in mid-air.

Now it had dropped into his hand, turning just like any ordinary watch, spinning clockwise. He couldn't help letting out a curse.

Damn it, did the time stopwatch bug out???

Can it even do that?!

Li Shouxi found it hard to believe. The awakening crystal only possessed enough energy to unleash three seconds of his ability before shattering.

The headquarters building also housed equipment designed to suppress ghosts and awakening skills, making it arguably the safest place in the world.

Yet, even so, it was still broken by that kid's awakening skill?

Merely three seconds and it's this absurd???

"Wang Ye!! I can't hold it off anymore!!! Hurry up and come!!" Li Shouxi shouted loudly.

"Don't panic, I'm coming, I'm coming." A man in a suit walked over with a smile, draining the red wine in his glass in one gulp.

"Dammit, stop trying to look cool at a time like this!!" Seeing Wang Ye's leisurely pace, three black lines instantly appeared on Li Shouxi's forehead.

"Don't rush, activating skills takes time too, you know. I was already buffering beforehand..." Wang Ye smiled, then walked up to Li Shouxi and pressed one hand against his body.

Immediately, Li Shouxi's watch flew back into the air, shining brilliantly once more!

Wang Ye smiled and said, "Let me see, by how many folds should I amplify your ability? Today's lucky number is 3, so let's go with 3 times!"

Boom!!!

The stopwatch, which had been spinning clockwise, finally returned to normal and began rotating counter-clockwise once again.

Swish, swish!!

With the joint efforts of the two captains, the city finally recovered to its original state bit by bit.

After finishing everything, Li Shouxi collapsed onto the ground, utterly exhausted, and said, "Wang Ye, tell that idiot doctor that this is the last time I'm helping him out!! I am a time stopwatch, not a game save file, not a save file!!"

Upon seeing this, Wang Ye couldn't help laughing. "Got it, got it, I'll remember. Thanks for the hard work, dear. Though I wonder what the doctor is trying to pull this time. Going through all this massive effort, what is he actually trying to accomplish?"

...

Inside the headquarters, Luo Yimeng and Zhao Jie were drenched from head to toe, sweat literally streaming down their clothes.

"W-We survived?"

At that time, even Captain Li's time stopwatch couldn't reverse everything, and they truly thought Longbei was done for. They never expected to make it out alive after all...

Bai Wan also breathed a sigh of relief.

His goal was to bug the ghost game... not to bug the real world out of existence... otherwise, wouldn't that mean deviating from the main storyline?

He certainly didn't want to become the first protagonist to accidentally bug the entire world out of existence.

Phew...

"还好, 还好, 虽然过程曲折了点, 但是总体还算挺稳的, 没出什么大问题." Bai Wan smiled with a sense of gratification.

Upon hearing this, Luo Yimeng and Zhao Jie fell silent.

Th-This was still considered pretty stable?

Right now, they were extremely curious about what an unstable situation looked like in Bai Wan's eyes...

Or rather, just what kind of absurd world had this family member been living in before...

Luo Yimeng suddenly thought of those wanted criminals from the "I Am A Royal Sister" faction.

She used to sympathize with Bai Wan, but now she felt a hint of sympathy for the villain faction instead.

Hopefully, Bai Wan would at least leave them with a complete corpse...

Would they be blasted into ashes by Bai Wan's massive meteors and giant rocks.... Or rather, would they engage in a "tata-kai" (battle) with characters like Ultraman?

This family member in front of her was simply too absurd!

Zhao Jie also wore a shocked expression. He used to be a newcomer with pretty good talent, which was why he was directly transferred to headquarters. Previously, he had even thought of competing with the currently blazing-hot family member, but looking at it now, he realized how naive he was.

This family member was simply not on the same dimensional plane as him.

Recalling the gigantic meteorite that had plummeted from the sky earlier...

He felt a deep sense of powerlessness in his heart.

No, even without counting the awakening skill, the sheer unsolvable abilities he had directly displayed were already leaving him far, far behind.

If nothing unexpected happened in the future, this family member was guaranteed to be at least an S-class captain, and might even reach an even higher level, touching the realm of the mysterious chief captain.

"Sis, how are we supposed to grade him?" Zhao Jie was completely clueless.

Luo Yimeng also fell into hesitation.

Yeah, how were they supposed to grade him?

Write it down honestly? For example: Student Bai Wan performed exceptionally well. Upon preliminary judgment, he possesses excellent potential to destroy the world. Parentheses, it is recommended to lock him in a prison for further cultivation. Parentheses, end!

Writing it like that obviously didn't seem right.

Then how should they write it?

It was truly giving her a headache. In the end, Luo Yimeng couldn't help saying, "How about this, you go back and wait for the results first. I'll ask the leadership for instructions and let them make the final decision."

Her seniority clearly wasn't enough to make a judgment; it was better to leave this to the doctor to handle.

"Alright." Bai Wan nodded.

"Mm-hmm, then if there's nothing else, I'll let... um, I'll let the train take you back." Luo Yimeng corrected herself midway.

Bai Wan: "Ah... the train will take me back?"

"Yeah..."

She originally wanted to say that they would send Bai Wan back, but recalling all the previous anomalies, she suddenly lost her nerve.

Better let him take the train back by himself.

Thinking back to before, they were truly lucky that nothing went wrong.

At this moment, she finally understood why the family member in front of her hadn't dared to take a plane when he first arrived...

It was because his abilities were simply too abstract.

Bai Wan felt a little aggrieved.

For some reason, he always seemed to be ostracized. It was the same back when he was in school. He walked toward the train with a helpless sigh.

Perhaps it was because he was too handsome and aroused jealousy. He really envied Liu Tong.

Afterward, he took public transport back to Lancheng City.

Although Longbei was larger, he ultimately preferred his own home.

When Bai Wan arrived home, it was already close to eight o'clock in the evening, and the sky had turned dark.

His younger sister briskly stepped out from the painting and proudly flaunted her loot from this trip to Bai Wan.

"Brother, look!" Younger sister Bai Xi handed a shoe to Bai Wan.

Catching a whiff of that pungent stench, Bai Wan hurriedly backed away with a look of utter disgust, but upon seeing the description on the interface, he was dumbfounded.

[Shoe tainted by eerie power]
[Affiliation: Eerie Prop]
[Quality: Common]
[Ability: Release. Consuming 20 ghost coins per second, it can unleash a shoe curse.]

Bai Wan stared at it for a long time.

Good grief, unleashing a shoe curse...

Was he supposed to suffocate ghosts to death with the stench?

Absurd! Even this kind of thing counted as an eerie prop?

His little sister really managed to pick up a loophole.

Thinking about it carefully, no wonder the old man refused to move out of the town—this was his trump card after all.

Relying on this terrifying foul odor, even the painter would probably have to yield and avoid its edge.

Seeing his sister dancing around with joy, Bai Wan couldn't help smiling.

His sister's ability was genuinely useful; as her level increased, it would undoubtedly become more and more practical.

Bai Wan planned to spend the remaining time browsing novels online, but he received a message from Liu Tong inviting him to go camping together.

[So late?]
[It has more atmosphere at night. We've prepared lots of food these past few days just waiting for you to come back and celebrate together. Hurry up and come, I'll send you the coordinates.]

Seeing the message, Bai Wan realized he was indeed a bit hungry.

[Coming right now.]

After replying, he hailed a cab and headed into the forest. There was a river flowing nearby, making it look like a truly wonderful spot for camping.

When Bai Wan arrived, Captain Zhou Lu was busy grilling skewers, Su Yuning was washing vegetables on the side, and Liu Tong was reading a book, circling and underlining passages as if studying some knowledge—how hardworking.

Meanwhile, Wang Meng was doing push-ups nearby.

His already muscular physique seemed to be getting even more buffed up; was he trying to transform into a Super Saiyan?

Li Yingtian was inside the tent scrolling through his phone, letting out a series ofhehehe mischievous chuckles. Judging by that, he must have been looking at something strange.

As Bai Wan walked over, Captain Zhou Lu enthusiastically greeted him, "You're here! The skewers will be ready in a moment, let you witness the captain's grilling skills!"

"Do you need me to help with anything?" Bai Wan couldn't help asking.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Lu suddenly gave a start and blurted out, "No, no, you go do your thing, I..."

Before he could even finish his sentence, the flames under the grill suddenly flared up.

Poof!

Not only did it burn the skewers to a crisp, but it also caught Zhou Lu's hair on fire directly.

"Ahhh!! Water!!" Zhou Lu frantically poured water over his head. Fortunately, his hair wasn't completely singed off.

Looking at the skewers that had now turned into charcoal briquettes, Zhou Lu was on the verge of tears. He turned to Su Yuning and said, "The scenery here is so nice, why don't you take Xiao Wan for a walk around?"

Su Yuning looked at Bai Wan with a speechless expression.

"Um... let's wait until the captain finishes grilling before coming back... let's go take a stroll in the forest first."

Su Yuning grabbed Bai Wan and rushed toward the forest.

Quick, get away quickly! Hopefully, the remaining skewers can still be saved.

Bai Wan, on the other hand, said with a somewhat embarrassed expression, "The captain is busy all by himself, is it really okay for us to just go strolling like this? Should we go give him a hand?"

"That's hardly necessary. You strolling around in the forest is already the greatest help you can give. Thank you," Su Yuning said, the corners of her mouth twitching uncontrollably as she hurried him along.

Bai Wan shrugged helplessly with a regretful look.

Fine then, he had actually wanted to try what grilling skewers felt like.

Afterward, the two of them walked casually through the forest.

I must admit, the forest scenery was indeed quite pleasant, with crisp air and a gentle breeze blowing past that put one in a great mood.

This wasn't an eerie game, nor did they have to worry about ghosts suddenly appearing.

Accompanied by the chirping of crickets and the sound of flowing river water, Bai Wan felt a sense of tranquility wash over him.

Su Yuning also stretched out her arms to enjoy the moment as the gentle breeze brushed against her.

It had to be said that Su Yuning's looks were truly top-tier. Her long white hair looked soft and sacred under the moonlight, and her naturally fair skin appeared even whiter in the night. Today, she wore a blue short skirt adorned with moonlight droplets, making her look exceptionally delicate, much like a little princess walking straight out of a storybook.

Bai Wan gazed at Su Yuning and fell into a daze for a while, staring blankly at her for quite some time before shifting his gaze to her uniquely beautiful white hair.

He hadn't noticed it before, but Su Yuning's hair was both gorgeous and exceptionally long.

Following that, he sank into deep thought, pondering a certain question.

If Su Yuning were to accidentally fall into the river, would a golden axe and a silver axe appear too?

Su Yuning's white hair was pretty long, after all; wouldn't that mean he'd net even more profits?

Bai Wan felt as though he had just discovered a lucrative business opportunity.

Why hadn't he noticed this earlier?!

He couldn't help starting to weigh the feasibility of pushing Su Yuning into the river in exchange for gold coins to make a fortune.

Suddenly, Su Yuning turned her head, looked at Bai Wan, and asked, "Hey, Bai Wan... can I ask you a question?"

Bai Wan paused, suddenly feeling a bit nervous.

He had zero experience with this sort of thing.

Could it be... she wanted to ask...