It's Already Afternoon as Soon as I Open My Eyes

Five o'clock...

Zhu Yan's heart skipped a beat; he pulled out his phone to check the time.

The instance had only started an hour and a half ago, yet the time announcement had skipped ahead by five whole hours.

Perhaps the alpha wolf's next time announcement would bring nightfall!

He looked up. The smog in the sky had cleared.

An exaggerated smiley face and glass-marble-like pupils gradually replaced the silhouette of the giant gray wolf, and colorful neon lights once again illuminated the streets and the crowd.

Beside him, a girl's body twitched slightly with every breath. Fear was spreading among the silent players—

Two seconds later, an angry question pierced the dead silence, stabbing into Zhu Yan's ears.

"You guys are trying to get everyone killed, aren't you?!"

A slight commotion stirred in the crowd. The person who spoke wasn't close to Zhu Yan; he seemed to be struggling to push through the crowd to get to their side.

"Give us an explanation!" he shouted. "Give everyone an explanation!"

Sure enough, this action drew everyone's attention.

Zhu Yan looked at the densely packed crowd around him, his heart sinking once again.

Even though the main hostility was focused on Yang Zhanbai, Zhu Yan had joined in the shouting and was thus implicated as well!

He still had things to do; he needed to think of a way to get out of this as soon as possible!

Zhu Yan looked down at the slip of paper in his hand. The countdown on it was frozen at 00:01:32, completely unmoving.

Damn it.

If the ink on the note continued to change, or if it displayed some other special trait, they could at least explain that the thing was genuinely bizarre.

But as it was, looking no different from an ordinary handwritten note...

Zhu Yan quickly scanned his surroundings.

Yang Zhanbai stood right beside him. The tip of his knife reflected a bit of neon light, trembling slightly as he pointed it at the surrounding crowd.

The expressions of the players closest to him were remarkably uniform.

Unlike their previous panicked looks, their eyebrows were pressed down in anger, their eyes glaring uniformly at Yang Zhanbai, and the corners of their mouths were pulled down forcefully, forming two deep creases.

Like corrupted dolls!

Would these players believe them if shown such an ordinary note?

They would probably rather deceive themselves.

In just a few short seconds, Zhu Yan's breathing tightened.

"Speak!"

The shrill yell was right in front of him, forcibly drawing Zhu Yan's attention.

A hand still covered in snack crumbs shoved the crowd aside. The boy who had shouted the question finally squeezed his way to the front.

His other hand was tightly gripping a torn-open bag of potato chips, as if the thing were his lifeblood.

Like the others, the boy's eyebrows were pressed down, his eyelids stretched wide open, and his eyeballs bulged outward.

"What the hell were you yelling?!" the boy sneered at Yang Zhanbai, showing no fear of the raised boning knife. "A traitor raising a blade against his own kind, huh?!"

"You're not the only one with abilities!"

The boy's gaze was like a knife, first scraping over Yang Zhanbai, then viciously pinning onto Zhu Yan's face.

"And you."

In the midst of threatening Zhu Yan, the boy's mouth was still chewing unconsciously, even licking away the chip crumbs from the corner of his mouth.

"If you can't explain yourselves, then go to hell!"

Many people started to join in the uproar, the angry clamor of the crowd swallowing them like a tidal wave.

Zhu Yan gently tightened his grip on his dagger.

He had the ability to kill, but it wouldn't be a wise move.

Was it possible...

Was it possible to recycle this discarded note?

If he could figure out a way to use this thing to trick information out of the horror creatures again...

Zhu Yan's eyes quickly darted to Yang Zhanbai.

Smart, gullible, and got guts.

This guy was useful; he'd use him one more time.

With this in mind, Zhu Yan decisively shoved the note into Yang Zhanbai's palm.

"Just make up some excuse to fool them," he instructed softly. "They're very agitated."

You can't tell the truth, brother.

You can't lose your mind and reveal the note's true origin!

Yang Zhanbai caught the note but didn't speak.

Zhu Yan felt the sweat on his palm.

He heard a bespectacled boy nearby speak up softly, his voice trembling slightly.

"Brother Bai, it seems we won't be able to get out of here if we don't explain."

"Everyone has abilities, but we're outnumbered..."

Yang Zhanbai's face was taut.

It was indeed a difficult situation. These players' reactions were far more abnormal than he had imagined.

Right now, he could only take it one step at a time.

Explain a part of it, then lie about where the note came from...

He'd deal with the rest later!

Yang Zhanbai didn't lower his knife. With his other hand, he held up the note and showed it to the boy who was leading the commotion.

"Look closely, this is a rule," he said coldly. "If I didn't shout, once it gets dark, you'd all die even faster!"

Zhu Yan stared at his movements, not daring to get distracted, ready to chime in and help at any moment.

"Nonsense!" the boy interrupted him, almost crazed.

Those slightly bulging eyes stared fixedly at the note, looking straight at the words on it.

Taking advantage of this moment, Zhu Yan glanced toward the outskirts of the crowd.

The "police officers" were no longer in the storefronts.

They had silently taken their positions at the edge of the crowd. They didn't come forward to maintain "discipline," nor did they stop Yang Zhanbai's actions.

Zhu Yan looked at one "officer." Its pitch-black eyes stiffly reflected two specks of white light, the corners of its mouth curled up as it watched in Yang Zhanbai's direction.

As if watching a farce!

"What do you mean we'd die even faster?!" the boy went manic. "With the police department here, how could we possibly die faster?!"

"Those officers went to so much trouble to kill monsters and clear the streets for us, and you have the nerve to bring up rules?!"

Ah, killing monsters, clearing the streets, and dispatching buses—these were the lies of Paradise.

Zhu Yan once again felt an untimely urge to mock the situation.

"Sorry." Yang Zhanbai's voice wasn't quiet, but his tone remained remarkably steady.

"I have no intention of offending the police department!" His mind raced, and he unhesitatingly expressed his fake stance. "I found this note. As you can see, there's a countdown on it."

Yang Zhanbai shook the note, signaling the boy to look closely.

At times like this, bluffing was a necessity.

"The buses haven't arrived yet. What if it gets dark when the countdown ends and monsters randomly spawn on the streets?!"

Yang Zhanbai took a step forward, the tip of his knife pointing straight at the boy's neck, shouting with righteous indignation.

"When everyone is in danger then, will you take responsibility?!"

The crowd let out a wave of shocked and angry questioning, yet no one blamed the boy.

The boy sneered, "You hold up a torn piece of paper and call it a rule. Are you out of your fucking mind?!"

"That countdown hasn't moved at all. It's fucking frozen!"

...Sure enough, he guessed right again.

Zhu Yan looked at the boy in amusement, then cast a glance at Yang Zhanbai.

Get a little more heated.

Just a little more heated, and he could start his act!

Yang Zhanbai's complexion didn't look too good; his dyed red eyebrows were furrowed so tightly they were almost knotted.

Aside from being nervous, he also had a headache.

These players' brains seemed broken; there was simply no way to communicate with them.

Was it those foods that caused this?

The boy opposite him was still ranting, his eyes glaring and his expression growing increasingly agitated.

"Found my ass, I bet you wrote it yourself! I—"

Now's the time!

"Classmate!" Zhu Yan cut the boy off very decisively.

"Oh, you want a piece of this too? I haven't even asked you yet, what the hell were you yelling along with him for—"

With a swift snatch, Zhu Yan pulled the note from Yang Zhanbai's hand.

The slip of paper snapped in the air with a muffled sound, cutting off the words the boy was about to say.

"Arguing won't get us anywhere," Zhu Yan said coldly. "You're just doubting its source and the authenticity of the rules."

"So what if I am?"

"I'll hand this over to the police." Zhu Yan waved the item in his hand. "Letting the police department judge is fair to everyone!"

He would hand it to the police, and then he could play the role of the "Captain" himself.

Not only would this resolve the current farce, but it would also allow him to coax out the information he needed.

For instance, whether they needed to "purchase" a new note after the old one was invalidated.

For instance, what the underlying rules were when it came to "buying things".

Searching store by store was an option, but it was far too time-consuming.

Or, for instance, what the next step would be after gathering all those golden fragments.

Zhu Yan looked at the boy's frozen expression and revealed a faint smile.

"No problem with that, right, classmate?"