novelsite Chapter 006 You Heard Wrong
Chapter 006 You Heard Wrong
"You dare to play me!!!"
The sudden, loud shout startled all the people hanging on the ropes awake!
Shrinking his neck, closing his eyes, he instinctively hugged the rope in front of him tightly!
After waiting for a while and not feeling the dull pain of being struck by the short stick, people cautiously opened their eyes and looked at the burly man who was burning with anger.
Standing before the burly man, Lu Chen's expression was tense, as if facing a formidable enemy.
I vaguely realized what had happened, but I had no idea how to make excuses.
In the end, she gave up struggling and pursed her lips with a grim expression.
"I...don't know how to pay for [time]."
Upon hearing this, the burly man's expression froze for a moment, but he quickly returned to his 'raging' state.
—Clearly, they don't believe Lu Chen.
He gripped the short stick tightly and stared at Lu Chen for a long while;
Lu Chen felt a chill run down his spine. Suddenly, the burly man stepped forward, grabbed Lu Chen's arm, and rolled up his sleeve.
【00:64:21:52:37】
"you……"
"Is he a survivor?"
Lu Chen had no choice but to nod.
In an instant, all the guests in the hotel craned their necks to look at Lu Chen.
To be precise, her eyes were filled with greed as she looked at the [Time] symbol on Lu Chen's left arm.
Upon learning that Lu Chen was a resurrected individual, the burly man's anger vanished, replaced by a hint of surprise.
"A rehabilitated person, would you like to spend the night at the Rope Hotel?"
Lu Chen nodded again, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that everyone in the hotel was giving him strange looks, and his heart sank once more.
In the end, he still revealed his wealth.
However, from the handshake just now, Lu Chen could roughly judge that giving or receiving time was not something that could be accomplished simply by touching arms together or timers together.
Just as Lu Chen had predicted.
The burly man took a step back, looking at Lu Chen from head to toe in disbelief.
Then, he extended his left arm again.
"From above, attach your [Timer] to my [Timer]."
"Mentally repeat: Pay [12 hours]..."
Swish!
Before the burly man could finish speaking, Lu Chen abruptly pulled his hand back.
Under the burly man's sinister gaze, he subconsciously swallowed again.
"Someone told me that at the Rope Hotel, it only takes [12 minutes] a night."
"I might have gone to the wrong place."
"I'll go look again..."
As he spoke, Lu Chen slowly walked backward, about to leave the hotel.
Upon hearing this, the burly man's expression underwent a dramatic change.
Finally, he asked in a muffled voice, "Who told you?"
"A scavenger?"
Lu Chen stopped and nodded slightly.
Then the burly man took a deep breath and stared at Lu Chen for a long time.
Then, suddenly his brows relaxed, and he even forced a smile.
You misheard me.
"I meant 12 minutes."
After saying that, the burly man raised his head slightly, glanced past Lu Chen, and looked at the street outside the hotel.
On the iron wall across the street, a huge fluorescent green projection appeared out of nowhere.
—22:58:43.
There was only a little over a minute left before curfew.
Feeling the burly man's gaze, Lu Chen instinctively turned his head to the side.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that there wasn't a single person in sight on the street.
Meanwhile, countless drones emitting red and blue lights whizzed by in the air, patrolling back and forth.
Gurgle.
Swallowing hard, Lu Chen finally gave up on his plan to "find another place" and solemnly extended his left hand.
"[12 minutes]"
"One night, [12 minutes]."
·
·
·
·
23 o'clock exactly.
After paying the 'room fee' for tonight, Lu Chen finally had a place of his own temporarily in the Rope Hotel.
Recalling everything that had just happened, Lu Chen still felt a lingering fear.
After calming down, I immediately put my mind to work and extracted the useful information I had collected.
First, even without the flat metal box—let's call it a "card reader" for now.
Even without a card reader as a medium, people can still directly transfer time between each other.
The specific transfer method involves attaching the timers on both parties' left arms together and silently reciting the time to pay/receive.
The person with their arm above and the timer pointing downwards pays for the time.
The person whose arm is positioned below and whose [Timer] is facing upwards gains [Time].
This means that tonight, Lu Chen doesn't have to worry about his "time" being stolen in his sleep.
Unless, of course, that person has a card reader.
However, if there were a card reader, the burly man wouldn't have let Lu Chen "shake hands" to pay the room fee.
Even the burly man didn't have a card reader, so the rest of the hotel certainly didn't either.
...
Secondly, in the City of Time, the resurrected seem to be the lambs of default.
Almost everyone covets the survivor's "time".
Given the chance, they will try to exploit information asymmetry to defraud survivors—just like the burly man who made Lu Chen pay for "12 hours" just now.
However, this only applies to fraud.
Whether it was just his imagination or not, Lu Chen felt that the people here seemed very afraid of the police drones that whizzed and patrolled the streets.
Lu Chen guessed: This might be related to the laws of the City of Time.
The laws of the City of Time may strictly prohibit acts of violence related to "time".
If you want to acquire someone else's time through improper means, you might only be able to deceive them into giving it to you willingly.
Otherwise, the burly man wouldn't have lied to Lu Chen about giving him 12 hours; instead, he would have brandished his short stick and forced Lu Chen to give him 64 days.
...
Third, and this is also the most important point for Lu Chen right now.
—That burly man seemed afraid of jade!
To be precise, it's the fear of being labeled a "scavenger".
Lu Chen had no idea where this fear came from.
But Lu Chen knew that if he encountered something he couldn't handle in the next two days, he would no longer be helpless.
At least there's one more way to intimidate others by using the jade as a weapon...
"Hey kid!"
"Do you need a map?"
"A complete map of the City of Time can be obtained in just [3 days]!"
...
"You haven't eaten anything yet, have you?"
"A delicious slice of dark bread, all you need is [6 hours]!"
"Fine, fine, I'll give you a discount. How about 5 hours?"
...
Do you know what a scavenger is?
"I have connections!"
"Give me [10 days], and I'll turn you into a scavenger!"
...
……
For the next hour or so, the shouts of the vendors continued, but Lu Chen blocked them all out.
At the same time, Lu Chen's suspicions were basically confirmed.
—The only permitted way to devour the resurrected’s time, like eating a plump lamb, is through fraud.
Even so, Lu Chen did not completely let his guard down.
Kneeling on the outermost side, like when I was a student, I would lie on my desk, on the rope in front of me;
While keeping a watchful eye on the "hanging guests" inside the hotel, he also observed the police drones on the street, lost in thought once again.
"Why...?"
"Why is there a curfew, and why are people not allowed to sleep on the streets?"
"Forced consumption?"
"Or there's another reason..."