Chapter 322: Life and Death Crisis?

"How much longer until we reach the Mortal Realm?" Chen Ling opened his eyes and whispered to Chu Muyun.

Chu Muyun adjusted his glasses. "The Mortal Realm is located to the east, while the Aurora Realm is in the far north... At our current speed, it will take at least five days."

"Five days??"

Chen Ling's heart sank.

According to his calculations, if they continued in this extremely monotonous situation, the audience's expectation value would drop by one every four or five hours. Before they even reached the Mortal Realm, the expectation value would plummet into negative numbers!

And that was the most optimistic scenario; in reality, once the expectation value dropped by 20, the decline would accelerate, and he likely wouldn't survive even three days.

"Don't worry, there's enough food and water on the vehicle to last until we reach the Mortal Realm," Chu Muyun said, trying to comfort Chen Ling, whose expression was grim.

Chen Ling couldn't explain his current predicament. He had never imagined that after barely surviving the Aurora Realm, he would be stifled by "boredom." Chen Ling refused to accept such an absurd way to die; he had to find a way to change the situation.

Jump off the vehicle? But even if he did, the surroundings were an endless expanse of gray and calamity, with nowhere to create conflict or drama. Was he expected to stage a palace intrigue among the few members of the Twilight Society? No, he still hoped to get along with them in the future.

As Chen Ling painstakingly pondered, breaking out in a cold sweat, he suddenly seemed to remember something and reached into his pocket...

A USB drive appeared in his palm.

Since the Red King had given him this USB drive, Chen Ling had only used it once. After all, it could only be activated once a month for just one hour, and he had been too busy in the Aurora Realm to load a save file again. But now, it was his only lifeline.

If this era couldn't generate excitement, he could return to the modern era, but he wondered if the audience's expectation value would carry over.

"A timeline save..."

A voice came from beside him. Chen Ling turned to see that Spade K had opened her eyes at some point and was looking at the USB drive in his hand, seemingly surprised. "The third one, it's actually in your hands."

When Chen Ling received this USB drive, Chu Muyun had mentioned that there were three such drives in total: one held by the Red King, one by the Gray King, and the one in his possession was the only one that had fallen into external hands.

"Do you have any advice, Senior?" Chen Ling tried to glean more information about the USB drive.

Spade K shook her head. "I haven't experienced using this thing, so I don't have any advice... The only thing I can tell you is to guard it carefully. It's best not to let any outsider see it, and under no circumstances let it be taken from you."

When Spade K spoke the last two sentences, her tone was unprecedentedly serious, and Chen Ling immediately nodded.

"Also," Spade K added after a moment of hesitation, "every time we retrieve a 'Lord,' its usage duration increases. Currently, it should last for twelve hours per use."

Chen Ling was stunned, a look of surprise appearing in his eyes.

The last time he had the USB drive, it was once a month for one hour. Now it had extended so much... It seemed his guess was correct: the Red Star components retrieved from the Aurora Lord must have been used for the timeline save. The USB drive in his hand was the Twilight Society's key to restarting the world!

Chen Ling's gaze swept around. Aside from Spade K and Chu Muyun, everyone else seemed to be asleep.

He took a deep breath and inserted the USB drive into the surface of the metal carriage.

The next moment, familiar deep green code automatically appeared before his eyes:

Loading...Load complete.

Chen Ling's eyes closed, and his head immediately slumped forward.

"Ding-dong—"

"First floor."

A gentle female voice echoed from inside the elevator, and the car door, reflecting Chen Ling's silhouette, slowly opened.

Chen Ling gazed at the ground floor of the apartment building before him, filled with electric bikes and bicycles, and the modern access control door straight ahead. For a moment, he felt disoriented... The destroyed Aurora Realm and the bumpy tractor felt like a fleeting dream; he was back in the era he knew best.

Chen Ling remembered that the last time he disconnected, he was in an elevator. It seemed that this time, he reconnected to his original location, which was undoubtedly good news. Otherwise, if he reconnected in a mall bathroom stall every time, wouldn't he become like Zhang Wei? That would be too much trouble.

Chen Ling stepped out of the elevator before the doors closed, expertly opened the access control gate, and as soon as he exited, brilliant sunlight shone on him, warming him completely.

He hadn't felt such warmth in a long time.

Rumble—

Just as Chen Ling was lost in thought, a truck drove up from a distance and stopped in front of the building.

"Is this the building?"

"Yes, this is it. Let's get moving..."

Several figures jumped out of the truck, skillfully handing out wreaths and white cloth. They carried these items towards the access control gate, but Chen Ling blocked their path.

"Excuse me, brother, could you please move aside?"

"Oh, right..."

Chen Ling stepped aside, and the few men proceeded to place the wreaths one by one at the entrance of the building. In the center of the wreaths was a black-and-white photograph. As they worked, their eyes caught sight of the photo, and they couldn't help but sigh,

"Ah... so young?"

"Yeah, I heard he was an only child, just in his early twenties, hadn't even found a wife yet."

"How did he die?"

"Wasn't there an earthquake recently? He worked at a theater and was killed by a falling spotlight."

"What a pity, a real shame... He was quite fair-skinned too."

"Hmm... This face, why do I feel like I've seen it somewhere just now?"

A man suddenly furrowed his brows, as if deep in thought, then abruptly turned his head, a ghost-stricken expression on his face!

The path in front of the building entrance was now empty.

"Wha... the heck?!"

"What's wrong? Why are you making such a fuss?"

"The guy in the photo... isn't that the same person who was just at the entrance?!"

"Huh?!!"

As soon as he said this, everyone's faces turned pale. They remembered the young man from moments ago; although they had only glanced at him casually, he indeed looked exactly like the person in the photograph!

They were in the funeral business, but in all their years, this was the first time they had encountered something so bizarre. Even under the bright sun, their backs were instantly drenched in cold sweat...

"Don't, don't panic..." The leading man swallowed hard. "Maybe... he just missed home and came back to take a look."

"Right, right, right, we haven't done anything wrong... It's not that bad..."

"Amitabha, Amitabha..."

Audience Expectation Value: 3

The moment he saw this line of small text float into view, Chen Ling's eyes lit up slightly.

The fact that the expectation value carried over into the save file meant his urgent problem had a solution... It was always easier to gain expectation value in crowded places.

Meanwhile, from the first-floor balcony next door, the sound of a TV news report drifted over:

"...Currently, the Red Star has safely bypassed Earth and entered another near-sun orbit. Astrophysicist Lu Xun has calculated that there will be no risk of collision within the next three hundred years..."

"...The fragments of the shot-down Red Star have been confirmed to have fallen in China's Shennongjia region. Currently, a team of scientists, led by Dr. Lu Xun, an astrophysicist, is on their way to conduct exploration and investigation..."

Hearing this, Chen Ling abruptly stopped.

He suddenly realized a problem.

The start time of the timeline save was the moment the Red Star streaked across the sky. This meant that at this point, many events had not yet occurred... For example, the nine scientists had not yet approached the Red Star fragments, nor had they absorbed the energy within the fragments to become the Nine Lords.

What if... what if he could arrive at Shennongjia at the same time as the nine scientists? Would that mean he could witness the origin of everything firsthand?

He could see what happened after the nine scientists discovered the fragments, how the Nine Lords were born, and even get close to them... He could see the living Aurora Lord, Yang Xiao, again!

[End of Novel Content]