Chapter 1637 - 523: Arrival at Balance City (Part 4)

Chapter 1637: Chapter 523: Arrival at Balance City (Part 4)

The three of them looked around.

They were terrified.

Because Lei Gang was suddenly eliminated. Although they knew it was Jiang Ming who eliminated him, they suddenly felt as if they were taking the blame for someone else.

In their fear of the unknown, they could only look around anxiously, yet dared not escape. After all, escaping the time stop zone would mean encountering horrifying insects.

At least here, even the insects were frozen.

Their actions of looking around and their terrified expressions seemed to bring the audience back to their senses.

"No way, could it be that none of these three moving people are the real Time Manipulation Ability Users?"

Wen Xishu did not dare underestimate the audience’s intelligence, even though quite a few were still shocked by Lei Gang’s death.

But he speculated that at this moment, the audience might realize all three were just a distraction and start using the process of elimination.

The second round of the Time Stop was coming to an end.

In just seven seconds, three seconds quickly passed, then four...

At this moment, a new round of misdirection emerged.

Gu Yu suddenly moved.

When the audience realized that none of the people who could move were the real Ability Users... perhaps they might shift their perspective and consider other possibilities.

Wen Xishu couldn’t let them escape his rhythm.

Even if they shifted their perspective, it had to be to another trap he had set.

So at this moment, Wen Xishu arranged for the previously immobile Gu Yu... to break the stillness.

"It’s her! She’s pretending!"

"I see, she disguised herself as one of the motionless ones! What a deceitful woman!"

"So it’s like this!"

"The prettier the woman, the better the liar, huh!"

"My God!"

At this moment, the audience suddenly woke up, feeling they had found the truth.

All the attention was focused on Gu Yu.

And Gu Yu? She deliberately revealed a sinister smile and turned to Wu Xiaorong and the others, saying:

"Keep acting as you are. This is all Wen Xishu’s plan, just follow it."

This sentence was inaudible to the audience, but from Gu Yu’s wicked expression, they could imagine she was making some kind of nefarious antagonist declaration.

Thus, the audience began to apply all their previous speculations solely to Gu Yu.

Of course, they couldn’t eliminate Gu Yu. Upon closer thought, Gu Yu’s most logical move at this time wasn’t to expose herself actively.

That would be too foolish. But it was enough to grab attention.

In these moments of racing against the clock approaching the final stage, this could instantly and forcibly shift audience focus.

Just like how the hands of a Magician could swiftly trigger instinctive judgment, making everyone think, "A person who couldn’t move did, this person is disguising," is reasonable.

The second round of the Time Stop ended.

During the cooldown, Wen Xishu said:

"Everyone keep still, don’t move. This is part of the plan, ignore Lei Gang, he brought it on himself, follow my instructions and you’ll all leave safely."

Despite everyone feeling uneasy, and even though they were frozen, Wen Xishu’s words had to be heeded.

After all, at this moment, with the unknown looming, when everyone was eager for protection, Wen Xishu’s position became only more solid.

Hence, everyone was doing their utmost to make themselves look completely immobile.

But the environment was no longer still.

The audience could see branches of the Dark Forest beginning to sway... yet, the people remained motionless.

This was Wen Xishu’s third step: inducement through ability transfer.

First, let the audience make wrong judgments about the people.

When the audience realized that the Time Manipulation Ability User might be someone else, then let Gu Yu take the stage, making them suddenly realize — indeed, someone else was involved.

At this moment, the audience would most likely temporarily judge Gu Yu to be the mastermind.

But it couldn’t stop there; the overly predictable Time Manipulation Ability had to be complicated.

It had to make the audience feel "Even though I guessed wrong, I didn’t guess the wrong person, I just temporarily chose the wrong ability."

Letting more false information interfere with the audience’s mind.

So at this moment, even though the audience received a "superpower activated" prompt, in fact, it wasn’t a Time Stop that was activated, but rather Gu Yu’s visual enhancement.

Only now everyone started cooperating, staying still. Even Wu Xiaorong and others behind, the rest of the group, were cooperating, staying still.

The audience began to speculate, the environment was moving, but the people were still, could it be not a Time Stop?

Was it an ability that could separately freeze living and non-living things? Or could it simultaneously freeze both living and non-living things?

Wen Xishu’s strategy was effective.

Seven seconds was short; as the environment shifted from moving to stillness, then from stillness to movement —

Liu Jianxin’s task was completed.

And at this instant, Wen Xishu suddenly started sprinting. He once again attracted everyone’s attention.

Probably only those with the most guilty conscience, only those who had just activated their ability and feared being discovered, would be the first to want to escape to the end. Because such people would worry about being guessed by the audience if they lingered too long.

Thus, Wen Xishu at this moment found himself under a barrage of speculation.

But he was intended to absorb animosity, intended as the final insurance.

With his and Liu Jianxin’s abilities, this distance could be crossed almost like teleportation.

However, out of caution, he attracted attention once more for Liu Jianxin.

"Old Liu, get ready to sprint at your fastest speed!"

Liu Jianxin did not hesitate, instantly appearing at the endpoint like a flash.

Like a sword light cutting through space.

[Congratulations, Outsider No. 33, has survived. His superpower is Human Pause.]

Liu Jianxin was the first to break through to the endpoint.

Until this moment, the audience realized they had been continuously played.

Lured away from the correct answer time and again by one decoy after another.

[Congratulations, Outsider No. 32, has survived. His superpower is Hypnosis.]

Thus, Wen Xishu and Liu Jianxin successfully cleared the Dark Forest.

What awaits the two now is their next adventure, the adventure in Balance City is about to begin.

Wen Xishu will also face the challenge of one of the strongest enemies in history —

Libra.