Chapter 138: Opening the Heart's Door |
"It doesn't work? How can it not work?!"
Carpenter's pupils contracted, cold sweat breaking out on his back.
"No... impossible! You must be playing tricks!"
Carpenter shook his head frantically, retreating in disbelief at Guan Shan's words. He shouted, "You can't deceive me! As long as you're human, you can't resist the power of time!"
"You must have obtained some Panspirit Object from the Special Security Group to extend your lifespan... but no matter how long, under the power of time, you'll eventually turn to dust!"
Yes, it must be that.
Even if he extended his lifespan, how much could he extend it? As long as he was human, he would have a limit, and there would be a day of aging and death! Thirty million times wasn't enough, then fifty million times! One hundred million times! Until it reached the limit!
Unconvinced, Carpenter continued to crazily accelerate the time flow in the room. In his fury and inexplicable panic, he no longer cared about his own stability, pushing his ability to the extreme.
The surging sea of blood became violent, roaring and raging in the room like a storm or tsunami. Even the space began to tremble, like a small boat tossed in the waves.
Carpenter stared at Guan Shan, veins bulging on his face and neck, his skin turning red as if his blood was boiling like the blood outside.
At this moment, the time flow in the overlapping space had surpassed fifty million times. The surreal scenes blurred, becoming like fleeting dreams.
Every second was now equivalent to two years.
At such a rate, a normal human would age and die within a minute.
However, Guan Shan shrugged, not even putting on the Mask of Agony, standing there calmly as if cooperating with Carpenter's performance.
Three minutes later.
Guan Shan and Carpenter stared at each other. Guan Shan asked, "Aren't you tired of glaring at me? With your effort, it must have been hundreds of years by now, right?"
Carpenter's eyes were bloodshot, and he gritted his teeth, "Impossible, impossible, impossible!"
He intensified his power again.
Five minutes later.
Carpenter himself began showing signs of aging. Looking at his noticeably older hands, he collapsed, covering his head and shouting, "What are you?! A thousand years... you can't be human! Humans age and die; how can you not?!"
"Alright, your performance should be over now. As I said, accelerating the time flow doesn't affect me. As for the reason..."
Guan Shan walked slowly towards Carpenter, stroking his chin, "Maybe it's because players don't age?"
Carpenter instinctively stepped back, then stopped, "What player..."
"Don't understand? Doesn't matter. You only need to know that I have to kill you."
Guan Shan said, taking out the 【Innocent Child's Drawing】 from his backpack.
Carpenter sneered nervously, "Kill me? Even if my power doesn't work on you, you can't kill me! Do you think I'm really in this room? No, I'm not that stupid. Like in the first room, you can't touch me, let alone kill me."
His time-controlling ability required a room to affect the people or objects in it.
So although Carpenter wasn't in this space, he was in another room.
But he wasn't trapped in a room; he could move freely among the rooms.
Guan Shan had a bold idea: Carpenter's "room" wasn't a physical room but a concept affecting him.
His experience with the crowbar and the existence of concept-based abilities like White Night made this plausible.
Judging by Carpenter's reactions, this seemed likely.
So, if the "room" was on Carpenter himself! Since the boss couldn't affect Guan Shan, but he could do as he pleased to the boss, he would try to kill him in every way possible!
Guan Shan didn't waste words, using the 【Innocent Child's Drawing】 in the room's center.
Instantly, the room transformed into a dynamic child's drawing of an "underwater world."
The blood turned into "≈"-shaped blue water, and the strange items became various simple fish drawings.
The fish, big and small, colorful, swam rapidly, appearing and disappearing.
"If you're in a three-dimensional space, I'll make it two-dimensional!"
Guan Shan had used this in the hospital and knew that when this item activated, the world became a simple drawing, losing its original form and, crucially, its depth.
People became stick figures, let alone other things.
Though Guan Shan didn't know the item's true nature, the simulator's changes always provided feedback, so becoming two-dimensional should be real.
In his eyes, Carpenter's eyes widened, retreating, "What the hell did you do?!"
It looked like Guan Shan was the villain.
Carpenter waved his hands as if driving away invisible things.
Curious, Guan Shan reached out, touching an oddly shaped circle around Carpenter.
In the drawing, Carpenter was surrounded by two red circles, one rounder, the inner one like a kidney bean.
Guan Shan thoughtfully raised his crowbar, realizing, "So, the 'room' on you is a placenta. Did you take your birth proof or kill your mother, taking something and making her your 'room'?"
Carpenter, horrified, "No, don't—"
"I need a 'door,' and as White Night said, every 'room' has a 'door.' It's on you, so I don't need to figure out what or where it is."
"In other words, your ability was countered by my crowbar from the start. Now your 'room' is in front of me, you're already dead!"
Guan Shan mumbled and swung the crowbar, breaking the red circle and hitting the stick figure's body.
The 【Innocent Child's Drawing】 effect ended.
Guan Shan saw his crowbar lodged in Carpenter's chest, the bent end piercing his heart, killing him instantly.
"Oh... it's a heart's door."
Carpenter died with eyes wide open, never understanding why Guan Shan didn't age and how he died.