Chapter 57: Picking Up Sister from School (1)

Gu Yi gradually calmed down and opened his phone to send a message to the anonymous user.

“Who are you?”

The person never replied.

Gu Yi exited the inbox and checked the countdown.

[6 days, 12 hours, 20 minutes.]

“What the heck?”

Gu Yi was surprised and looked up, only to find that the sun was already setting on the horizon, and his classmates were packing up their bags to get ready to leave school.

He had only looked down at his phone for a moment, so why was it suddenly time to go home?

“Is it an illusion? No, this might be the doing of the Unspeakable.”

Gu Yi closed his eyes and checked his mental power.

45/60.

He had used one deduction and two backtracking deductions at the beginning, consuming a total of 20 mental power points.

Now, his mental power has a recovery rate of 10 points per hour when he is awake.
In other words, from leaving home until now, only about half an hour had passed.

—He had been in school for at most 10 minutes.
How could his 11 hours suddenly disappear?

Gu Yi felt a sense of helplessness.

In the previous dungeon, he was always confined to a limited space.

But this time, Gu Yi was confined within an extremely bizarre flow of time.

If he couldn't unravel the secrets of this time flow, he would probably die without accomplishing anything or solving any mysteries.

Even if he has unlimited deduction talent, what's the use?

“Calm down, calm down…
Don't panic.”

Gu Yi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

At this moment, his phone rang, and it was his mother calling.

Gu Yi answered the call.

“Mom?”

“Your dad and I will be working late today.
Go pick up your sister from school.”

“Okay.”

Gu Yi hung up the phone and walked out of the school, only to find the road ahead strangely distorted.

Everyone had turned into pixelated jigsaw puzzles, randomly walking back and forth on the road.
Despite Gu Yi's strong mental power, he was almost scared unconscious.

Gu Yi took two steps back and stood inside the school gate.

“Start deduction!”

(Deduction begins!)

(You feel scared.)

(You're worried about encountering strange attacks on the road, so you use your talent to explore.)

(You walk on the street.)

(You notice that when you brush past pedestrians, they return to their normal appearance, but once they are more than ten meters away from you, they turn into pixelated puzzles.)

(You walk while keeping an eye on the time on your phone.)

(Time stops passing when you stop walking.)

(When you walk towards your sister's school, the countdown restarts.)

(Whether you walk fast or slow, the countdown continues at its own pace, but you have a vague feeling that the countdown is progressing much faster than your perception.)

(You choose to turn around and walk back.)

(The countdown is still progressing.)

(Countdown [6 days, 12 hours, 10 minutes] You look up.)

(You realize that you are standing at the entrance of your sister's school, even though you were clearly walking in the opposite direction.)

(You terminate the deduction!)

“Why is this happening?”

Gu Yi furrowed his brow and picked up his phone, carefully contemplating the situation.

At present, his mental power was at 35/60, and he decided to test the countdown using his mental power recovery rate.

Gu Yi stood in place, and the countdown remained stagnant.
However, his mental power had recovered by 5 points, indicating that he had been standing there for half an hour.

Gu Yi glanced at his phone, suddenly grasping the significance of the countdown.

It wasn't a conventional countdown; rather, it seemed more like a “consumable item” for taking actions.

Let's consider a couple of examples.

The action of “going to school” consumed 11 hours.

Regardless of what he did within the school, as long as he spent a minimum of 10 minutes there, the countdown would deduct 11 hours.
The dungeon's time would also progress by 11 hours, reaching the evening, but it wouldn't affect Gu Yi's personal time.

The action of “picking up his sister” required 10 minutes.

Regardless of the direction he walked, as long as he was on the road, he would eventually arrive at his sister's school gate, and the countdown would deduct 10 minutes.

Gu Yi also speculated that 'actions' cannot be determined casually, only 'actions' recognized by his parents would count.

During the day, it was his parents demand for him to attend school.

In the evening, it was his mother's phone call instructing him to pick up his sister.

This countdown wasn't merely a tool to restrict him; it was something he could utilize.
By arranging his actions wisely, Gu Yi realized he could effectively have unlimited time.

Just like the current situation.

As long as Gu Yi remained still and refrained from walking, the countdown would halt.

“Fascinating.
I understand now.”

Gu Yi murmured, his brow finally relaxing.
He had discovered the correct approach to explore the island town.
Stepping out of the school gate, he took a walk along the road.

Ten minutes later, Gu Yi found himself instantly transported to the entrance of Huan Dao Elementary School.

Checking his phone, he read the countdown [6 days, 12 hours, 10 minutes].

The countdown had paused.

Gu Yi speculated that as long as he didn't enter the elementary school, time wouldn't continue to elapse.

Just to be safe, Gu Yi decided to initiate another deduction.

(The deduction begins!)

(You don't rush into the elementary school.)

(You took a couple of random steps, but whenever you step outside the school gate, you will be back at the original point.)

(Although the countdown is frozen, your range of movement remains limited.)

(Regarding the rules of action, you still need more experimentation to confirm.)

(You enter the elementary school.)

(All the classrooms in the school were closed, except for the lights in Class 2 of the third grade.)

(You push open the door and enter the classroom, only to see a female teacher sitting at the podium.)

(Female teacher: Are you Gu Yao's brother?)

(You: Yes.)

(Female teacher: Your sister has been waiting for you for a while.
Yao Yao, quickly pack up your things.)

(You hear a series of footsteps again.)

(The female teacher holds an invisible hand and hands it to you.)

(You pretend to take it.)

(Female teacher: You two siblings really look alike.)

(You: Thank you.)

(You nod, holding the empty air, and leave the school.)

(Your phone rings again.)

(You open it and see that it was another message from the anonymous user.)

([Run quickly.])

(You are at a loss.)

(A gust of eerie wind blew.)

(Suddenly, you find yourself in the middle of the road.)

(A truck races by.)

(You can't move.)

(You are run over by the truck.)

(Everything turns blood red before your eyes.)

(You die.)

(The deduction ends!)

Gu Yi opened his eyes, and the images from just now kept flashing in his mind.

The street was very familiar, clearly the entrance of the school!

Gu Yi turned his head and looked around, only to see the truck that had run him over at the street corner.