stonecrandall Page 75
Page 75
Lin Ye whirled around, only to find Krillin, who should have been standing in the Seventh Universe's ranks, tilting his head and looking at him. The Earth warrior's eyes had turned pure black, the pupils and whites of his eyes disappearing without a trace, and the wide grin on his lips was abnormally large, revealing teeth that gleamed with a cold, metallic light: "We are the cleaners of spacetime." His voice sounded like countless people speaking at once, each syllable echoing, "This competition is nothing more than collecting enough time energy—after all, to cook a 'main course' like you, you need enough fresh time seasoning."
The entire arena suddenly trembled violently. The black hole in Nott's chest expanded to a diameter of 100 meters, and transparent tentacles extending from it covered the entire arena like a spider web. The contestants touched by the tentacles instantly froze into crystal statues, their expressions forever frozen: some with terror, some with anger, and some with eerie smiles before freezing. When the crystal statues shattered into particles of light, Lin Ye clearly saw tiny golden threads mixed in with those particles—the materialized form of time energy.
“The stands of Universe 3…” Piccolo’s voice trembled with disbelief. Lin Ye looked sharply towards the stands, only to see the Universe 3 area “fading”: the cheering spectators moved slower and slower, their skin gradually losing its color, finally turning into static, gray-white silhouettes. Even the confetti thrown into the air hovered in mid-air, like a frozen river. Even more bizarrely, the contestants from other universes seemed completely oblivious to this scene; the Saiyan sisters from Universe 6 were even still shoving each other over the badges.
"System emergency plan activated." Alice's voice was unusually cold. "Based on energy signature comparison, the match rate is 97.3%—the target has been confirmed as the 'Time Devourer.' It has been detected that it is using 'Nott's' body as an anchor point to transform the Realm of Nothingness into a time funnel."
Vegeta suddenly roared and charged forward, his deep blue flames burning the surrounding tentacles to dust. His fist passed straight through Krillin's body, but was covered with a layer of fine ice crystals the instant it entered: "Damn it! What the hell is this thing?!" He swung his arm, the ice crystals shattering with the sound of breaking glass.
"We exist in the cracks of every timeline." "Klin's" body began to drip like melting wax, the black droplets gathering on the ground to form the shape of eyes. "From the first singularity at the birth of your universe, we have been observing... until we discovered you, Lin Ye." His voice suddenly changed to Lin Ye's own, with a chilling intimacy. "Your soul contains 'impurities' that do not belong to this spacetime, like a drop of ink thrown into pure water—this makes you incredibly 'delicious'."
Just then, twelve pillars of light suddenly lit up at the edge of the Boundless Realm. The bell that signaled the start of the first round of the competition resounded throughout the space. The bell was no longer the rousing horn of the original story, but rather the grinding sound of gears on an old clock, each chime causing Lin Ye's heart to clench. He saw Jiren leap up and grab the emblem of Universe 7, while Caulifla was pressing her knee against Kale's back, black flames condensing into a hideous demon face on her fist.
“Lin Ye!” Vegeta suddenly grabbed his shoulder, pointing to the black lines spreading across the energy floor. “Look at these cracks—they’re expanding in sync with your energy fluctuations!”
Lin Ye suddenly looked down and saw that the transparent floor beneath his feet was now covered with spiderweb-like black patterns. These patterns were spreading outwards from him, and wherever they passed, the energy floor peeled off like corroded metal. He suddenly remembered "Klin's" words—"the main course." It turned out that from the moment he stepped into the Realm of Nothingness, this so-called competition was not a test of combat power, but a hunt targeting him.
What the Time Devourer wanted was never the warriors of the twelve universes, but his own soul from the "outside".
As another tentacle brushed past his cheek, Lin Ye suddenly realized that the gray-white sky of the Boundless Realm was becoming even deeper, and the suspended energy clouds were beginning to arrange themselves into a giant clock gear. And in the gaps between the gears, he saw countless pairs of black eyes peering out—those were the "spacetime cleaners" that "Klin" had mentioned, and they had already filled every corner of this space.
“Alice,” Lin Ye clenched his fist, his nails digging deep into his palm, “Calculate the energy nodes of all the spacetime devourers, and mark the connection points between ‘Klin’ and Nott.” His voice was unusually calm, but it carried a resolute determination, “Regardless of whether this is the original plot or not, I cannot allow the twelve universes to become their ‘ingredients’.”
Vegeta stood beside him, his deep blue aura clashing with Lin Ye's golden aura, creating crackling sparks. "Hmph, trying to use us as side dishes? You'll have to get past my fists first." His tail lashed out in a sharp arc behind him, his eyes flashing with a long-lost battle frenzy. "But kid, you'd better explain to me clearly—why exactly are these monsters targeting you?"
Lin Ye didn't answer, only staring at the twelve badges floating on the edge of the black hole. On the badge of the seventh universe, a black vortex was spinning rapidly, like a gaping maw. He knew that from the moment the bell rang, he would not only face 127 contestants, but also fight against the entire distorted spacetime rules.
The true rules of this hunting game may only be beginning to be revealed.
Chapter 202 The Devourer's Whisper
The piercing alarm blared like a rusty blade scraping across the metal ceiling of the Capsule Corporation lab, sending shivers down Bulma's spine. The twelve holographic screens in front of her were flashing wildly, the images of Universe 3 fading by seconds like an old movie on fast-forward. The glow sticks waving in the audience turned grayish-white, then, as if swept away by an invisible vacuum cleaner, dissolved into a stream of particles before everyone's eyes.
"Spacetime curvature exceeded the critical value... Trunks, look at those red crosses!" Bulma gritted her teeth and slammed her fist on the keyboard, her fingernails sparking as they scratched the control panel, her blue eyes bloodshot. She had barely slept these past few days, preparing entirely for the Tournament of Power, never expecting to be met with such a bizarre situation.
Trunks' Time Sword suddenly unsheathed, its blade trembling as it pointed towards the center of the arena. The runes on its blade flickered, as if resisting some powerful force. "It's the time anchors of Universe 3!" His voice trembled with disbelief. "They're being forcibly stripped of their timelines!" Trunks whirled around, his silver hair sweeping across the control panel. "Mother, is the stabilizer's energy core still usable? Last time against Zamasu..."
“Don’t even mention that!” Bulma interrupted him rudely, veins bulging on her forehead. “Right now, it can barely cover the Universe 7 stands, but we need to use ‘that thing’ as a battery—” She suddenly pointed to the corner of the screen, where silver mist was seeping out. In the mist, Frieza’s grinning half-face first appeared, then split into Cell’s狰狞 face covered in compound eyes. “These are the remnants of time that were devoured! Yamcha’s ping-pong paddle is even popping out, damn it! This isn’t the enemy we know at all!”
On the field, Lin Ye's blond hair was dyed a flowing gold by Super Saiyan God energy, but his heart was filled with anxiety. As he twisted to avoid the tentacles, his shoulder armor grazed the floor, sparking blue flames. In this dangerous environment, every mistake could be fatal. "Vegeta! Don't use the energy wave!" His voice exploded through the tactical headset, but it was a fraction of a second too late.
Vegeta's Ultimate Flash struck the tentacle, instantly disintegrating the blue-white torrent into particles of light. Ironically, this caused the planetary fragments at the edge of the black hole to expand. "Huh?" The Saiyan prince slammed his tail to the ground, kicking up a cloud of energy dust. "These damn tentacles can even absorb energy?" He kicked aside a solidified time crystal, revealing the terrified face of the Fifth Universe Warrior frozen within. His wide-open eyes seemed to still convey his final fear. "Hey kid, your master Krillin just turned into the Black-Eyed Monster, and now this guy in white robes has appeared... what's going on?"
“He’s not Krillin.” Lin Ye’s fist slammed into the tentacle node, and fragmented memories flashed within the ripples of energy—the scene of his first encounter with the Omni-King, now distorted into a black-and-white silent film. “Alice’s analysis says this is the Time Devourer, it can alter history… Look at Jiren!”
The silver-haired warrior from Universe 11 was about to punch the white-robed man when he froze the instant his fist pierced his body. His right arm became transparent from the fingertips down, muscle fibers erased as if by an invisible eraser, revealing shimmering time particles. "Five years ago..." Jiren's voice, metallic and crackling, seemed to come from a distant time, "My arm should have been torn apart by a monster..."
"I changed it." The white-robed man's lips curled into a wide grin, revealing menacing teeth. The constellation pattern on his collar suddenly spun into a vortex. "As simple as erasing a wrong answer~" Before he finished speaking, Lin Ye suddenly felt a chill on his right shoulder—a tentacle pierced through his scapula. There was no blood, only the memories of his childhood and feeding pigeons with his mother in the park receding like the tide. In that moment, he seemed to see his mother's gentle smile again, and hear her soft admonitions, but these precious memories were being ruthlessly taken away.
"Stop!" Vegeta's roar shattered the three Time Crystals, and an abnormal golden flame ignited around him, a sign of burning his life essence. "Dare to touch my companions... I'll make you pay the price!" Deep blue flames, accompanied by the force of his fist, crashed into the Devourer, but were dyed a strange silver color the instant they made contact. Vegeta's expression instantly changed from anger to shock.
"Vegeta, don't be stupid!" Bulma's scream suddenly rang out from Lin Ye's communicator, her voice so shrill it almost pierced eardrums. "Number 18 is ready—in the stands!"
All eyes instantly turned to the stands of Universe 7. Android 18 knelt on one knee, a time stabilizer glowing pink attached to the energy cannon in his hand. The muzzle wasn't filled with air, but with countless distorted afterimages of human faces—Frieza's roar, Cell's hiss, and even Yamcha's silly grin as he swung his bat. These former enemies had now become weapons against the Devourer.
"This move is called 'Memory Kill'!" Before pulling the trigger, Number 18 smirked, his eyes full of provocation. "Try the mess you've made yourself!" A pink energy beam sliced through the air, carrying everyone's hopes as it shot toward the Devourer.
The moment the pink energy beam struck the Devourer's brow, the entire silver floor of the arena suddenly boiled. Thousands of pale arms erupted from the ground, their fingernails still embedded with fragments of clothing from different universes, grabbing the contestants' ankles. One hand even clutched the badge of the Third Universe, its gear-like patterns melting. The white-robed man's body flickered like a poorly tuned television screen, the constellation pattern on his collar cracking open to reveal swirling black star trails behind him.
"Interesting." His voice split into a chorus of men, women, young, and old, as if from different times and spaces. "He actually used my energy..." He suddenly turned to Lin Ye, the boy's reflection shimmering in his black, abyssal pupils. "But do you know? Your soul fragments have been steeping in the Omni-King's teacup for a long time~"
Lin Ye suddenly looked towards the viewing platform. The two Omni-Kings were still clapping and laughing, but tiny golden specks floated in the teacups in front of them, flickering in sync with the Devourer's words. The attendants standing behind the thrones suddenly raised their heads simultaneously, revealing completely black eyes beneath their hoods, identical to "Krillin's," eyes so cold they sent chills down one's spine.
"Emergency system update!" Alice's voice crackled with static. "The Devourer's core is..."
Her words were interrupted by a loud bang. The stands of Universe 3 suddenly collapsed into a singularity, and the silent explosion spread out transparent ripples—wherever they passed, the air became pure nothingness, unable to even reflect light. Lin Ye watched helplessly as the Saiyan sisters of Universe 6 turned into pixels in the ripples, Cauliflower's outstretched hand stopped in mid-air, her face still bearing the sinister grin she hadn't had time to retract, as if life had been frozen in that moment.
"The next one is Universe Seven~" The Devourer's voice surged from all directions, and the tentacles extending from under the white robe began to weave into a giant clock gear, "Little Master Lin Ye, are you ready to be cooked again?"
Vegeta suddenly grabbed Lin Ye's shoulders, his fingers almost digging into his flesh. "These cracks are growing along with your ki!" He pointed to the black lines spreading across the energy floor, his voice filled with unprecedented worry. The boy looked down and saw his footprints turning into black vortexes. With each step, the floor seemed to peel away as if corroded by strong acid. At the center of the vortex, a badge engraved with a black vortex was slowly rising—it was the advancement badge that should have belonged to Universe Seven, but now it resembled a gaping abyss, as if it would devour him and the entire universe.
Bulma's scream blared through the communicator again: "Look at the Omni-King! The scepters in their hands..."
Lin Ye suddenly looked up. The two Omni-Kings had stood up at some point, and black spheres were condensing at the tips of their golden scepters, their surfaces flowing with patterns identical to the tentacles of the Devourer. Beneath their feet, the emblems of the twelve universes were arranging themselves into a star map, with the seventh universe's position empty. Only the black hole beneath Lin Ye's feet was growing larger and larger, as if echoing the Omni-Kings' actions.
"The rules of the game have changed~" The short Omni-King's voice was no longer innocent; it had a metallic, grinding quality, as if it came from hell. "Now, as long as you eat the main course, you can gain time in all the universes~"
The tall Omni-King raised his scepter, and the black sphere slammed towards Lin Ye: "Let's begin, the second phase of the hunt!" The black sphere sliced through the air with an aura of annihilation. Lin Ye knew that the real crisis had only just begun, and whether he and his companions could survive this battle against the Time Devourer was still unknown.
Chapter 203 Silver Evolution
Vegeta's body burned in deep blue flames, every muscle trembling from overexertion. His fist was only half a meter away from the Devourer, yet it froze in mid-air like an insect trapped in amber.
"Vegeta!" Lin Ye roared, watching helplessly as the Saiyan prince's skin began to turn transparent, revealing a network of blood vessels shimmering with blue light beneath. The Devourer opened its mouth with pleasure; instead of a tongue, its oral cavity contained a writhing miniature galaxy.
Alice's alarm pierced eardrums: Warning! Vegeta's life signs are being converted into spacetime energy!
The divine aura in Lin Ye's right arm suddenly went berserk, and the red flames expanded uncontrollably. He felt a deeper power awakening in his bloodline—a seed planted when the system was first bound to him.
Forced unlocking protocol activated. Alice's voice became unfamiliar and ethereal, detecting the host's near-death state and activating the hidden evolutionary chain.
A searing pain swept through his body like a tsunami. Lin Ye's bones vibrated at a high frequency, and the red aura of the Super Saiyan God suddenly collapsed, then burst forth again in a fraction of a second—but this time the color was an unprecedented silver-white.
The Devourer showed surprise for the first time: This is...
A silvery-white pillar of light shot into the sky, piercing the firmament of the Boundless Realm. Lin Ye hovered in the center of the pillar, his hair turning a flowing, mercury-silver hue, his pupils contracting into two vertical lines. As he raised his hand, the process of Vegeta becoming transparent suddenly reversed.
Time... is being rewritten? Bulma's detector is displaying a string of gibberish—this is illogical!
Lin Ye felt countless memories from parallel universes flooding into his mind. He saw battles he had never experienced, choices he had never made, and—countless worldlines destroyed by the Devourers. Silver flames condensed behind him into twelve wings of light, each adorned with a different cosmic totem.
"I see." His voice echoed repeatedly, "You're the antivirus program the system uses to clean up bugs."
The Devourer's tentacles suddenly all turned towards Lin Ye, their tips splitting into countless tiny mouths: "Wrong. I am evolution itself."
A flash of silver light. Lin Ye appeared behind the Devourer, his palm gently pressing on the wound inflicted by Number 18. Silver flames, like living things, burrowed into the wound, and the Devourer let out a piercing scream—a sound like the simultaneous crashing of a million old computers.
You have stolen the laws of time! The Devourer's body has begun to expand irregularly, violating the underlying protocol!
Vegeta plummeted from mid-air, only to be caught by Trunks in time. The Saiyan prince's right arm had healed, but his skin was covered in silver markings: Kakarot... wait, what the hell is that guy...?
It wasn't theft. Lin Ye's silver wings fully unfurled; it was a return.
He clasped his hands together, and silver flames condensed in his palms into a strangely shaped key. Seven miniature dragon balls were inlaid in the key's handle, and the serrated edges constantly changed shape, as if adapting to some ever-changing keyhole.
The Devourer suddenly revealed a look of fear: The Key to Creation? Impossible! Lord Omni-King clearly already—
In the stands, the two Omni-Kings stood up simultaneously. For the first time, their empty eyes gained focus, and their small hands pointed at Lin Ye at the same time: "Found it! That sparkly thing!"
Lin Ye ignored the Omni-King's reaction. The key in his hand resonated, echoing Trunks' Time Sword and Bulma's stabilizer. The vibrations emitted by the three drew complex geometric patterns in the air, trapping the Devourer in the center.
Bulma! Now! Lin Ye shouted.
Bulma abruptly pressed the red button on the control panel. The giant machine in the laboratory overloaded itself, and the sprayed coolant instantly vaporized. A golden beam shot from the stands towards the arena, splitting into countless thin lines along the way—each line precisely connecting to a warrior who had been attacked by the Devourer.
Energy network complete! Bulma's glasses reflect golden light. Everyone, transfer your power to Lin Ye!
Jiren was the first to respond. Despite losing his right arm, the energy he gathered in his left hand was even stronger than before. The Saiyan sisters from Universe 6 simultaneously entered their Legendary Super Saiyan forms, silver specks appearing within their green flames. Even Frost from Universe 10 gritted his teeth and contributed his energy—though his energy was clearly mixed with purplish-black impurities.
The Devourer struggled frantically, its tentacles slapping the ground and creating silvery splashes. Each splash that landed on a contestant would take away a piece of their memory. Kale suddenly forgot how to maintain her transformation and fell from her Super Saiyan form; Frost stared blankly at his hands, as if seeing them for the first time.
It's no use. Lin Ye held the key above his head, and all the transmitted energy gathered at the tip of the key into a dazzling silver light. The system's original design purpose was not destruction, but redemption.
The key pierced the wound between the Devourer's brows. There was no explosion, no flash, only a silent ripple of silver spreading outwards. The Devourer's body began to disintegrate into basic code, revealing at its core a sleeping phantom of a boy—a boy who bore a striking resemblance to Lin Ye.
"First host..." Alice whispered, revealing that he was trapped inside the Devourer.
The boy suddenly opened his eyes. In that instant, the entire Realm of Nothingness flickered like an old-fashioned television. The expressions of the two Omni-Kings changed from joy to horror, while their attendants froze in place like robots that had lost power.
Finally... the boy's voice seemed to come from a distant time and space, "A qualified successor has been found..."
The Devourer's outer shell completely peeled away, revealing an intricate network of golden chains inside—each chain engraved with a number representing a different universe. Lin Ye saw that the chain representing the seventh universe had cracked, while the one representing the third universe was completely broken.
Choose. The boy's phantom begins to fade; use the key to restart the system... or release it completely.
Silver Wings folded, and Lin Ye felt countless gazes upon his back. Vegeta struggled to his feet, blood still trickling from his lips, yet he grinned arrogantly: "Don't tell me you're going to be a savior, you inferior warrior."
Trunks' Time Sword suddenly hummed, and an ancient Saiyan script appeared on its blade. Bulma gasped: It read... "The true meaning of power lies in protection?"
The last fragments of the Devourer began to evaporate. The arena gradually returned to normal, but the stands of Universe Three remained a void. Lin Ye gripped the key, feeling the weight of twelve universes.
Alice wondered to herself, "What would happen if I chose to liberate the system?"
According to the core protocol, Alice's voice was unusually calm: all history altered by the system will be reset, including the power you, the host, have gained.
This means Frieza might be resurrected, Namek will be destroyed, and Vegeta will never reach his Blue form... but the universes that were swallowed will also return.
In the stands, Bulma seemed to have guessed his hesitation and suddenly raised a strange device—it looked like a hybrid of the Dragon Ball radar and the time machine.
"Lin Ye!" she shouted, "Do you remember what I said when we first met?"
Memories flood back. In the Capsule Corporation's laboratory, young Bulma turns a screwdriver: true technology isn't about controlling power, but about giving people a second chance.
The silver flames suddenly surged. Lin Ye tossed the key high into the air and, to everyone's astonishment, shattered it with a single punch.
I choose the third path.
The fragments of the key transformed into a meteor shower, scattering across the twelve universes. The remaining code of the Devourer began to self-delete, but the devoured memories and spacetime returned like the receding tide. The stands of the Third Universe reappeared from nothingness, and Nott and his teammates stood there blankly, as if they had just woken from a dream.
The phantom of the young host smiled with satisfaction: As expected... you're different from them all...
Silver Wings flashed one last time before vanishing along with Lin Ye's transformation. Exhausted, he knelt on one knee and discovered that his hair had returned to black, but a key-shaped mark had appeared on his right palm.
On the stands, the two gods suddenly clapped their hands at the same time: Great! Let the game continue! It was as if the life-or-death crisis just now was just a halftime show.
Vegeta grabbed Lin Ye and demanded, "Explain yourself! What form was that just now?"
It's neither a Super Saiyan nor a god. Lin Ye looked at his palm; it was a safety mechanism left by the system's original designer.
Trunks' sword suddenly emitted a warning hum. Everyone looked in the direction of the sword's tip and saw Frost from Universe 10 secretly picking up a fragment of a key, his eyes gleaming with a greedy purple light.
It seems... the trouble isn't over yet, even though they've already started preparing for battle on the 18th.
Chapter 204 The Time Cage
I. Core Collapse: Number 18's Choice
The gears of time endlessly whirled in the void. When Trunks' blade shattered the crimson rift in spacetime for the third time, the splashed energy fragments condensed into a liquid hourglass in mid-air—this was the 73rd reset they had been trapped in the time loop. Krillin's Destructo Disc grazed Vegeta's silver hair, cleaving the distant, suspended mechanical debris in two, only to recombine perfectly three seconds later, even the direction of the cracks exactly the same.
“It’s useless!” Bulma’s voice came through the tactical headset, crackling with static. “The loop’s anchor point isn’t a physical structure; it’s some kind of energy field forcibly retracing the flow—like the cellular memory of a Saiyan’s near-death resurrection, but on a scale that covers the entire space!”
Vegeta kicked away a flying alloy plate, the veins on his brow throbbing: "Enough talk, woman! Find the source!" His battle suit had been burned with several holes by the energy impact. Each reset would repair the damage, but it couldn't erase the frustration of being gnawed by a sense of powerlessness.