Zombie Marvel? Luckily, I'm Superman!

Lin Yi thought to himself, "This looks promising."

Next, rub an energy ball in each hand.

The small ones are used to kill monsters, while the large ones are even more solid than the energy balls that just shattered the star!

Another sun shone brightly in the sky.

Lin Yi threw out two energy balls at the same time. The smaller one flew quickly into the monster horde and blasted dozens of monsters into dust.

The larger one crashed into the dial after the monster turned to dust.

Boom!

As before, the dial seemed to freeze; the hands, which had been moving backward, paused for a second before starting to move clockwise.

This time, the pointer moved for a full five seconds.

During this time, Lin Yi kept observing the area hit by the small energy ball.

As expected, the monster was not resurrected by time reversal this time.

But then, something unexpected happened.

The dial rotated clockwise for five seconds, then started rotating counterclockwise.

As the pointer begins to rotate counterclockwise, the scene of time rewinding and resurrecting the monster reappears.

The dozens of monsters that had been blasted to dust were now alive and groaning on the ground.

……

There's no chance at all! What's the point of even playing this game?

And why is the light of reversal directed back to the monster? Why not just give my energy back? Is this some kind of discrimination?

Lin Yi squatted on the ground, at a loss for what to do.

This dial absorbed so much energy, yet it only rotated clockwise for five seconds.

Okay, now we have a solution: connect the dial to a super-large power supply and let it continuously absorb large amounts of energy to keep rotating clockwise.

As long as it doesn't rotate counter-clockwise, the monster can't be resurrected, which in a way counts as killing the monster.

But where are we going to find so much energy?

Lin Yi himself doesn't have that. If it were the same level as the energy ball just now, Lin Yi could keep firing for a long time, but what would happen after that?

Once the dial is restored, all the monsters killed during this period will revive. Isn't that a thankless task?

If the Dimensional Gem or Orange Gem were still online, supplying this "bottomless pit" shouldn't be a problem.

Whether those three suns here are real or not, Lin Yi didn't sense them charging him during the day.

Indeed, we're at a loss...

"I didn't realize you had such a skill, young man." The old man walked over, squatted down next to Lin Yi with difficulty, and looked Lin Yi up and down again with a look of surprise.

"Speaking of these things is useless; isn't there any other way?"

"No!" the old man said firmly.

"Really not?" Lin Yi asked, somewhat skeptical.

"How about I get you some more food?"

"This..." The old man hesitated for a moment, but still shook his head.

"It's really gone. I wouldn't lie to you, would I? If it were, I would have said so already."

"However..." the old man changed the subject and pointed to the watch face.

"See that door down there?"

Beneath the dial, there is a door emitting a faint light.

The door was small, only wide enough for one person to pass through.

This must be the door the silver-haired boy mentioned earlier, the door that allows him to enter various other worlds to obtain food.

"I saw it, and then what? Is the answer I'm looking for inside?"

The old man nodded, then shook his head.

What do these mean?

"It's possible, it's possible," the old man said mysteriously, playing the role of a riddle teller.

"Old man, I hate riddle tellers the most." Lin Yi pinched his nose and moved to the side.

That expression and tone inexplicably reminded Lin Yi of the Ancient One.

"Tsk, how dare you talk like that? Don't you have any ideas at all?!"

"Okay, okay, go ahead and tell me."

The old man glared at Lin Yi unhappily, then began patching the holes.

"Just a guess, I mean just a guess."

"Going through that door, you'll arrive at a different world each time."

"Perhaps in those worlds, there might be a way to completely shut down Time City."

"Oh, that's a good guess," Lin Yi replied listlessly.

I have a feeling that I already knew he was going to say that.

"You young man."

"Over the years, we've tried every method available in Time City. The only breakthrough we've found is that door. Do you understand what I mean?" The old man started spitting out his beard and glaring at him again.

Even if the old man hadn't said anything, Lin Yi was already considering whether or not to go in and take a look.

Just as the old man said, Lin Yi had used his senses to explore almost everything here.

What he could be certain of now was that his senses could only detect monsters, while living beings, like the silver-haired boy and the old man, could not be sensed. This was very strange, and even made Lin Yi suspect that the old man and the silver-haired boy were the monsters, while the monsters below were the real living beings.

Apart from that, all that remains of Time City is ruins and dust.

The word "desolate" is enough to describe it.

As the old man spoke, Lin Yi saw more than one group of furtive figures... well, not really, they were all wearing black trench coats, completely concealed, and walking through the door while keeping a close watch on the monster.

This aligns with what the old man and the silver-haired boy said: that someone would go looking for food.

Dengdengdeng.

The old man was about to continue speaking when he heard hurried footsteps behind him.

"Oh no, oh no... Grandpa...!"

The silver-haired boy who had just left ran back, still clutching the biscuit and a piece of paper the old man had given him.

"Grandpa Juli, my sister is missing!" The silver-haired boy gasped anxiously, his words incoherent, and he didn't even notice the two piles of food beside him.

The old man's face immediately darkened.

"Speak slowly, speak slowly, where did it go?"

The silver-haired boy wiped his eyes and handed the piece of paper in his hand to Grandpa Juli.

"She...she left this behind!"

The old man took a look and his expression changed again.

Lin Yi glanced at it subconsciously.

There were only two crooked lines of writing on the paper, and Lin Yi didn't recognize the script.

Wait a minute, I don't recognize these words, but I don't seem to have any trouble talking to them.

That's really strange.

"What does this say? What language are you using?" Lin Yi couldn't help but ask.

The old man looked over with a gloomy expression.

"This is our writing system. The people of Time City come from different worlds. Within Time City, language is common, but writing is not."

The old man lowered his head, his fingers gripping the paper with slight force.

"That girl came in. Alone..."

"This is troublesome..."

Entering the door? Lin Yi subconsciously looked at the door under the watch face again.

This should be the door, right?

"What's the trouble? There are still people coming in one after another. That girl can just come back with them, right?"

The old man shook his head with a grim expression.

"Each door connects to a world, but the place you enter through that door changes over time."

"This change happens every five seconds."

"In other words, if you step in, you might arrive in a city in that world. Those who step in five seconds later will appear elsewhere!"