Bang!

The gunshot was much louder than Gu Chi's.

Jiang Niao flew in response.

But he wasn't knocked away, he was propelled by the recoil.

He flew several meters in an instant, and the white bear missed him, crashing to the ground with a thud, twitching twice before going still.

The crimson blood spread outwards, quickly staining the snow red.

Mustard Soup, who also had a gun, was stunned. He didn't expect the battle to end so quickly. His stamina had recovered somewhat by now, and he had prepared for the fight, but it wasn't his turn yet. The gun he had was the same model as Jiang Niao's, given to them by Gu Chi. But when Gu Chi gave it to them, he didn't mention that it had such great power.

Jiang Niao's cries came from behind him, and Mustard Soup snapped back to his senses. He quickly put down his gun and went to help Jiang Niao, so he wouldn't be blown away by the blizzard.

Ling Mao opened her mouth, still a bit stunned. "This gun is so powerful..."

"It's an elephant hunting gun, of course it's powerful," Gu Chi said.

The muzzle energy of the king of rifles, the AK-47, is only 1800-2000 joules, but the elephant hunting gun can reach 17000 joules.

With a caliber of 33.7mm and a half-pound bullet, it couldn't be called a gun in modern times, it was a cannon.

He didn't use it himself because he didn't need to.

Jiang Niao came back with Mustard Soup's support, feeling like his shoulder was about to dislocate. He grimaced in pain, but when he saw the white bear's corpse, he became excited again. "Did I kill it?"

Gu Chi nodded.

Jiang Niao couldn't help but reexamine the gun in his hand, and suddenly he wasn't as afraid anymore.

Perhaps, this was the sense of security brought by firepower.

The white bear's attack was just a small episode. Gu Chi filled the water bags with Mustard Soup, rested for a while, and then led the group to continue on their way.

The blizzard showed no signs of stopping, but instead intensified. Several more white bears charged at them, either dying under Gu Chi and Jiang Niao's guns or being blown to pieces by Ling Mao and Mustard Soup's self-destructing robots.

When unarmed people faced white bears, they could only run for their lives. But when facing people with heavy weapons, the white bears were no match.

This was also something that puzzled Gu Chi.

Normally, even polar bears shouldn't choose to come out for food during such a heavy blizzard.

It couldn't be explained by common sense, so it was probably a mechanism of the instance - the game was hindering them from approaching the clock tower.

But the problem was, if this was really the instance's hindrance mechanism, was it too simple?

Even if it was a brain-based instance, it shouldn't be this easy, right?

In Gu Chi's opinion, these bears posed less of a threat to them than the zombies that would kill them if they were bitten.

Nightfall gradually arrived.

The increasingly heavy blizzard bent the group's waists, and their dwindling stamina forced them to stop and rest frequently. As a result, their travel speed greatly decreased. It wasn't until nine o'clock in the evening that they finally finished the winding and rugged snowy road and arrived at a vast and flat snowfield.

"Look, is that the clock tower?"

Jiang Niao pointed excitedly ahead and shouted.

"Yes, it's the clock tower!" Ling Mao also saw the outline of the clock tower and almost burst into tears.

After enduring thirty-five years of wind and frost, most of the clock tower was buried in ice and snow, but it still stood tall, higher than any other building.

The heavy snow blurred the group's vision, but the highly recognizable and vintage triangular top made it instantly recognizable.

And it seemed that the clock tower recognized them too.

"Dang!"

Without warning, a loud bell suddenly exploded in everyone's minds.

The four of them were blinded by a white light, and the intense dizziness made their bodies lose balance and fall to the ground uncontrollably.

Then, an irresistible drowsiness swept over them.

They hadn't slept for nearly thirty hours, and the wave of drowsiness was like a fuse, silently burning into their bodies and instantly igniting the exhaustion that had accumulated for a long time.

Gu Chi struggled to support his body and turned his head to look at the clock tower.

In the midst of the wind and snow, the yellow dial representing the days had already lit up, and the hands were spinning rapidly, from nine o'clock to ten o'clock, to eleven o'clock... and then to twelve o'clock!

"Dang!"

The bell rang again.

The blue dial also began to glow.

Their arrival had caused the clock tower to activate the time leap ahead of schedule!

No wonder there was no big movement ahead, it was waiting for this...

Gu Chi resisted the urge to close his eyes and get a good sleep, took a few gulps from the thermos bottle at his waist, and the spicy liquid rushed to his brain, instantly filling his eyes with bloodshot veins. He shook his head forcefully, swayed to his feet, and took out his gun -

"Bang bang bang!"

He fired three shots in a row, the bullets grazing Ling Mao and the others' arms and embedding themselves in the snow.

The searing pain temporarily dispelled their drowsiness, and the three of them suddenly woke up.

"Drink the invigorating soup, quickly!"

Ling Mao and Jiang Niao didn't dare to delay for even a second, hastily unscrewing the thermos bottle and drinking it in big gulps.

Only Mustard Soup didn't move, just looked at the clock tower with some reluctance.

By now, the blue dial's hand had already made twenty complete rotations.

"Boom!"

A loud noise came from behind.

The group instinctively turned to look.

They saw a distant iceberg suddenly slide down, rolling countless rocks, then cracking and collapsing, causing the entire mountain to tilt and fall.

And this was just the beginning.

"Boom rumble!"

The second iceberg began to tremble and collapse, followed by the third and fourth...

More and more icebergs disintegrated, causing the earth to tremble like a mournful cry. The cracks in the ice beneath their feet revealed a dense network, and the path they had taken was like a derailed train, with each section falling off and plunging into the abyss of the earthquake fissure.

"Drip."

The hand completed its twenty-first rotation.

This time, Gu Chi didn't need to remind them. Ling Mao and the others knew what to do.

"Run!"

But running alone wouldn't help.

The road behind them kept collapsing, and they saw a large group of zombies and more than a dozen white bears charging towards them from the front. At the same time, the clock tower, their target, rose up like mushrooms after rain, bringing up a large cloud of white dust.Jiang Niao felt his scalp go numb.

If they couldn't outrun the collapsing road, they would die. If they were attacked by zombies or bears, they would die. If they couldn't reach the clock tower, if they couldn't stop time from leaping forward, they would also die.

But despite these deadly limitations, they couldn't give up.

Death awaited them no matter what, so they would fight!

"Mustard Soup, get on!"

Jiang Niao draped the cart's rope over his shoulder. He wanted to run with Mustard Soup!

But this time, Mustard Soup refused.

He stood still, swaying, his eyelids drooping as if he could fall asleep at any moment.

Jiang Niao noticed something was wrong. "Did you not drink the soup? Drink it now!"

Mustard Soup remained silent.

Jiang Niao seemed to understand something and angrily said, "Don't tell me you didn't! Wasn't the wake-up grass enough? Did you lie to us?"

"No, I didn't lie. It was enough." Enough for the three of you.

Mustard Soup lowered his head. He actually wanted to follow behind Gu Chi and clear this instance with everyone else.

If they could solve the clock tower before 12 o'clock, then they wouldn't need the wake-up soup.

Everything had been going smoothly until the last moment, but unfortunately, luck was not on his side.

When Mustard Soup saw the clock tower's dial start to move ahead of time, he knew he couldn't pass this level, especially with the avalanche and zombies... Since that was the case, he didn't want to burden his teammates anymore.

"I don't care, get on!" Jiang Niao kicked Mustard Soup onto the cart and ran forward frantically.

But he forgot that Mustard Soup was a chef.

I have a knife, you idiot... Mustard Soup mustered the last bit of strength, took out a knife, and cut the rope.

Suddenly, there was no weight behind him, and Jiang Niao stumbled and fell to the ground.

The ice collapsed, and Mustard Soup, who was already too tired to keep his eyes open, waved goodbye to Gu Chi and the others' backs and closed his eyes, peacefully falling into darkness along with the cart.

The cold system message appeared.

[Player Mustard Soup has died, mission failed, remaining players: 6]

Jiang Niao didn't look back.

He clenched his fist, bit his lip, and got up to continue running.

Ahead, Ling Mao's eyes turned red, but she knew it wasn't the time to vent personal emotions. She had to stick close to Gu Chi and ensure that this man leading the way received treatment as soon as possible after getting injured.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

While running, Gu Chi pulled the trigger again and again, dodging the bears pouncing from the side. His expression only showed a slight change for a moment when the system announcement appeared, then he became even calmer.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

The collapse of the ice accelerated, as if an invisible giant mouth was devouring their retreat.

And with Gu Chi at the forefront, the three of them maneuvered between the zombies and bears, getting closer and closer to the ascending clock tower.

Until there were only five meters left.

Gu Chi calculated the distance and threw the handgun into his backpack. With a sudden burst of force, he leaped forward—

Thud!

His body collided with the clock tower, making a dull sound. With the Stone Skin Technique enhancing his left hand, Gu Chi directly crushed the wooden wall below the dial, slid down a distance, and hung securely outside the clock tower.

Ling Mao and Jiang Niao arrived one after another. They didn't have Gu Chi's iron grip, but fortunately, the clock tower had many places to hold onto. They quickly stabilized themselves.

"Ticking."

The blue clock's pointer completed its thirty-eighth revolution.

"Buzz!"

The speed of the clock tower's ascent suddenly increased, almost throwing Ling Mao off.

"Hold on tight!"

Gu Chi shouted from above.

Underneath them, the last piece of land on the ice collapsed, and countless zombies and bears roared as they fell into the abyss.

"Ticking."

The thirty-ninth revolution.

They had reached the final moment.

But Jiang Niao didn't know where to start.

Only when he was really close to the clock tower did he realize that the two dials were much larger than he had imagined. Even the second hand was thicker than his arm. How could he dismantle it?

Should he blow it up?

"Jiang Niao, come up and help me!"

Since it was difficult to dismantle, Gu Chi made a decisive decision and decided to directly reverse the blue dial.

He entrusted the yellow dial to Ling Mao.

"Ling Mao, find a way to fix its pointer and don't let it reach six o'clock!"

"Okay!"

A quick look at tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w will leave you more fulfilled.

The two received their orders and quickly took action.

At this moment, the clock tower had brought them halfway into the air. Jiang Niao, who was afraid of heights, didn't dare to look down and climbed up with all his might, letting the sweat drip down his face.

But when he was about to reach his destination, he suddenly stopped.

Gu Chi sensed that something was wrong and followed Jiang Niao's gaze.

On the top of the roof, a white bear was staring at them with a fierce gaze.

Gu Chi fell silent.

After playing the game until now, many confusing questions that had puzzled him had become somewhat clear in his mind. He had a basic grasp of the pace of the instance, but this white bear was the only thing that completely exceeded his expectations.

Jiang Niao didn't say a word and continued climbing up, quickly reaching the same height as Gu Chi.

He was on the right, Gu Chi was on the left, and the blue dial between them was approaching the end with the hour hand.

Gu Chi's Adam's apple moved as he calmly thought about a safe way to kill the white bear.

But Jiang Niao didn't give him any time and directly took out the elephant-hunting rifle.

He had never been a patient person and was even less refined when he got excited.

However, he also had his own strengths—at least Jiang Niao believed so.

In reality, he could compromise with life, bow his head, and be submissive. He wouldn't dare to help an elderly person who fell on the roadside, and he wouldn't dare to lend a hand to someone being bullied. Even if someone bullied him, he could only endure silently. But in the game...

Sorry, he, Jiang Niao, wouldn't tolerate this bullshit.

This team could do without him, but it couldn't do without Gu Chi.

If Gu Chi was gone, he and Ling Mao would be finished. Instead of dying together with the three of them, it was better for him to die alone.

Or perhaps, deep down, he had always longed to be a hero, to be handsome, right?So... a stinky polar bear thought it could block their path?

Impossible.

"I'm going to find that fat bastard, you guys keep going." Jiang Niao said to Gu Chi.

As he finished speaking, a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes. He raised his gun, aimed at the polar bear, and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"You damn beast, die for me!!"

Bang!

The deafening gunshot echoed through the night sky, lingering for a long time.

The powerful recoil instantly sent Jiang Niao flying, and the polar bear let out a mournful howl, falling from the roof, accompanying Jiang Niao in death.

【Player Jiang Niao has died, mission failed, remaining number of players: 5】

Below, Ling Mao had no idea what had just happened. In the few seconds when Jiang Niao fired his gun, the blue dial had already completed forty rotations, the pointer stopped at the eleven o'clock position, and the yellow dial began to speed up.

In order to stop it, Ling Mao clung to the pointer inside the dial with both hands, hanging her entire body on it.

The sharp needle cut through her palms, and her bright red blood flowed down her wrists, a shocking sight.

The excruciating pain left Ling Mao with no time to care about anything else. Her expression was pained, but she never let go. She didn't even urge Gu Chi, because she believed that this man would never let her down.

Gu Chi pushed away the complex emotions in his eyes and looked back at the blue dial.

He had called Jiang Niao up, intending to slowly move over and see if the weight of two people could move the pointer.

If not, they could still move back and try other methods.

But now that Jiang Niao was dead, he had no other choices.

He could only jump.

Gu Chi took a deep breath, used the protruding pattern of the clock tower as a springboard, leaped up, grabbed the pointer of the blue dial with both hands, and pulled it down hard with the force of his fall!

"Buzz!"

The entire clock tower suddenly burst into dazzling light, turning the abyss beneath their feet white. The pointer on the dial seemed to become ethereal, and Gu Chi and Ling Mao lost their grip, falling from the high altitude. At the same time, the pointer of the blue dial began to reverse, spinning faster and faster.

The two falling figures were quickly swallowed by the white light. The air flowing in the opposite direction slapped their faces painfully, but it smoothed out the wrinkles at the corners of their eyes. Their skin silently regained its smoothness, and their graying hair gradually turned black.

Within the white light, a series of blurry images and scenes rapidly rewound.

Jiang Niao and Mustard Soup were sleeping next to each other by the fireplace.

Ling Mao, who had slept on him all night, rolled onto the floor when he got up.

Neil, holding his golden retriever, stood outside the door, looking at the villa reluctantly.

William rushed into the hospital with a gun and never came out.

...

Until a certain moment, all these scenes disappeared, and the white light gradually dimmed.

Like fog being blown away by the wind, their blurry vision gradually became clear, and more colors flooded into their eyes, weaving into a street that was both strange and familiar.

"Newspapers for sale, newspapers for sale~"

"Fresh off the press, don't miss out on the latest news!"

The newsboy's shout reached their ears. Gu Chi was stunned for a moment, then immediately took out his phone and opened the calendar.

Today's date was—

November 13, 5776.

...