Screech...

A faint scraping sound abruptly echoed in the room.

Bai Ye, whose train of thought was interrupted, narrowed his eyes slightly and looked toward the source of the sound—the window!

His window had opened by itself!

That's right, he wasn't mistaken. There was no one outside, no wind, yet the window slid open as if an invisible giant hand had gently pushed it.

Bai Ye's expression remained unchanged as he lay on the bed, calmly watching the window.

Faced with such a supernatural phenomenon, he didn't even reach for the "Breath of Bones" beside his pillow because he knew it wouldn't be of much use.

He waited quietly, ready to activate Time Stop at the slightest hint of danger.

After about thirty seconds, a yellowed piece of letter paper floated in without any wind, drifting straight through the window.

The letter hovered in front of Bai Ye, slowly coming to a stop.

On it was a line of blood-red text.

"Tonight at midnight, come to the North Woods alone to meet me. Do not alert anyone; this concerns your life."

"Fuck! What kind of bullshit is this?"

The floating letter, the blood-red words—such an eerie scene didn't frighten Bai Ye; instead, it stirred his ferocity.

With three minutes and fifty seconds of time at his disposal, he'd dare to slap a god, let alone deal with this.

Time Stop!

Buzz!

A massive golden clock face emerged beneath Bai Ye, halting the flow of time like a divine decree.

He sprang from the bed, clutching the "Breath of Bones," and dashed out through the window.

His dark eyes burned with a rebellious fire!

"Trying to scare me with a piece of paper in the middle of the night, huh? Whether you're human or ghost, if I don't squeeze the life out of you today, you must be hiding some congenital deformity!"

Outside, Bai Ye scanned the surroundings with his gun and immediately spotted a sneaky figure crouched in the corner, its bandaged right hand raised high, pinching the air as if holding an invisible letter.

Ah, it's you, isn't it?

He charged forward, and as he closed the distance, he recognized the figure in the moonlight—oh, a familiar face!

Magic Hand Li You!

Bai Ye had heard about Li You, how he was left to fend for himself after Wang She broke his right hand.

Yet here he was, appearing in the middle of the night.

An Extraordinary Being?

The thought crossed Bai Ye's mind. He hadn't seen an Extraordinary Being before, but he'd heard the legends. Compared to Gene-Modified Humans and Mechanically Modified Humans, Extraordinary Beings were more mysterious and rare.

Rumor had it that Extraordinary Beings possessed all sorts of miraculous abilities, and what Li You was displaying now seemed very much like that.

He guessed that Li You's ability was related to his right hand. After all, the way he crouched with his right hand raised was too bizarre. To test his theory, Bai Ye reached out to touch Li You's right hand and indeed found something unusual.

Li You's right hand extended into an invisible, intangible giant hand, as hard as steel, stretching a full three meters.

With this realization, Bai Ye understood everything. The window had been opened by Li You's invisible hand, and the letter was delivered by that hand, which was why it floated in mid-air.

Alright! So you're trying to play tricks on me, huh?

Time resumed!

Li You rubbed his aching right hand with his left, muttering, "He should have read it by now, right? Why is there no reaction at all? Shouldn't he at least be scared enough to jump out of bed? Or is he asleep?"

Suddenly, a cold voice sounded behind Li You.

Search "pawread dot com" for the original.

"I'm not asleep, but I know you'll be sleeping forever soon."

Click!

That was the sound of a bullet being chambered, the cold barrel of a gun pressed against Li You's head.

Li You's body stiffened instantly, his face changing dramatically. "Bai Ye!?"

"Don't move. If your right hand dares to lower even a bit, I guarantee you won't see tomorrow's sun."

Li You became even more rigid, his right hand, which was about to lower, froze in mid-air. He cursed inwardly, realizing that Bai Ye had discovered his ability.

He had intended to use his invisible right hand to subdue Bai Ye. He believed that even if Bai Ye had a Forbidden Item, he would be caught off guard by an unseen hand. But he hadn't expected his ability to be exposed so easily.

"You... weren't asleep?" Li You tried to buy time while frantically thinking of a way out.

"Heh." Bai Ye's cold laugh came from behind him. "Haven't you ever gone to the bathroom in the middle of the night?"

Li You didn't believe a word of it. Before opening the window, he had sneaked a peek and saw Bai Ye still in bed, so it couldn't have been a bathroom break that led to his discovery.

Instead, Bai Ye must have rushed out the moment the window opened, without a second's hesitation, and quietly approached him while he was placing the letter.

No wonder there was no reaction from the letter for so long; Bai Ye had already come out.

Damn, this was nothing like he had planned. Bai Ye's thought process was so different from a normal person's. Wouldn't a normal person freeze and ponder the source of the anomaly when they saw the window open?

Who charges out at the first sign of something strange, not fearing ghosts in the dead of night?

"Li You... oh, no, I should call you Li Zuo now." Bai Ye tapped Li You's head with the gun, unhurriedly.

The continuous contact of the cold barrel sent chills through Li You's body. He hurriedly said, "Bai Ye, actually I..."

"Call me Deputy Commander Bai." Bai Ye interrupted him with a kick to his backside.

Li You paused, a flash of anger crossing his face, but he quickly changed his tone. "Deputy Commander Bai, I mean no harm. I just have something important to discuss."

"Oh?" Bai Ye's lips curled into a dangerous smile. "Isn't that a coincidence? You mean no harm, but I do!

Do you know what I hate most? People wasting my time. Because of your nonsense, you wasted ten precious seconds of my life. Do you know how many ten seconds there are in a lifetime?"

Li You didn't realize Bai Ye was referring to the time during Time Stop and thought he meant the time it took to come out of the house.

He paused for a moment, then cautiously replied, "Assuming a person lives to sixty, there are approximately 189,216,000 ten-second intervals in a lifetime."

"You damn..."

Bang!

Bai Ye kicked Li You's backside again, nearly making him fall flat on his face.

"You think you're so good at math, huh? You think I can't calculate that myself? Do I need you to tell me?"

Bai Ye could calculate it, but not as quickly as Li You. He'd need a piece of paper and a pen.

"I'll give you three seconds to come up with a reason for me not to kill you, Li You... a reason!"

Li You hurriedly said, "I'm here to help you!"

"You think you're worthy?"

"I'm an Extraordinary Being!"

Bang!

Another kick.

Bai Ye shouted angrily, "You think you're so special, huh? Being an Extraordinary Being makes you great?"