BXBX NOVEL Chapter 202: 142 Time Started to Flow_1
Repairing two mechas at the same time greatly saved time.
A total of seven hours were spent, and the two mechas were repaired in succession.
When the steam mecha repair was completed, the body quickly shrank, and Yun changed back into a girl in armor with twin ponytails, shouting loudly.
“I am ready to return to the battlefield!”
“My lord, who is the next enemy? I am ready!”
Jiang Chen saw Yun’s spirited appearance and smiled.
Not bad, very energetic.
“As for battle, I have already found the enemy, so there’s no need to rush at the moment,”
“Let Bai Ying teach us first how to apply the power of time.”
“Then, get familiar with it in battle.”
Attributes like time and space, even at high ranks, cannot be as prevalent as weeds.
They cannot be mixed and matched at will like lower-rank modules.
At most, there are only a few genuine time modules.
Even if one could accumulate effects continuously, they could not cover every aspect.
Therefore, Jiang Chen’s learning ability and attribute training techniques allowed him to develop abilities on his own.
Even with just one time stop module, he could attempt to extend it to effects like time acceleration, time deceleration, and time reversal.
“Learn from master? I understand!”
Yun nodded vigorously.
Zero looked on enviously from the side.
She didn’t have any time modules and couldn’t study abilities with the adults.
Seeing that…
She raised her hand and said.
“My lord, let me look after Yuu for Sister Bai Ying!”
Upon hearing this, Jiang Chen subconsciously looked toward the villa in the forest area.
Through the gap in the curtains, he saw a girl hiding in the shadows, quietly looking this way.
She had gentle hair colored blue like water, and her gaze was filled with hope and desire, yet tinged with a touch of shyness.
She was like an introverted child, not daring to initiate conversation, only shrinking into a corner, watching from a distance.
As soon as Jiang Chen looked over, she began to hide further into the darkness.
Yet under Jiang Chen’s high agility, she seemed extremely slow.
In the end, she nearly completely hid in the darkness, only half her blue head and eyes visible.
Jiang Chen: “…”
This was the third mecha he’d placed in the mecha nurturing zone for mecha soul training, that Super Armed Mantle mecha.
The training process was very smooth.
The reserved, introverted, gentleness on the outside but toughness within personality traits he required were fully displayed.
While Jiang Chen was checking the training records.
He saw that the third mecha, after being equipped with the intelligence module, was far less arrogant than Zero and less passionate than Yun.
In the virtual mecha survival melee scene, it maintained a low-profile and cautious demeanor throughout, very prudent, never initiating combat with others and only fighting battles where it was assured of victory, trying to kill in one strike whenever possible.
In the arena-like direct melee scene, it could explode with a spirit of tenacity, confronting several enemies in succession and emerging from a mound of carcasses.
Like a predator in the night, calm and restrained.
Jiang Chen was very satisfied.
A mecha soul with this kind of personality perfectly matched the traits of Enigmatism and ferocious beast.
It could act weak and stand in the back row to support during normal times.
When necessary, it could directly activate Return to Primal State, unleashing the power of ancient creatures to complete the harvest.
Simply perfect!
Therefore, Jiang Chen named the mecha soul “Yuu” and gave her a Simulacra Module, pulling her into the family to wait for enhancement.
But…
Jiang Chen hadn’t expected that Yuu wouldn’t have any problems with combat and growth.
It was her attitude towards mecha pilots that became an issue—
Originally, she was soft on the outside but tough within, showing two facets: introverted and restrained normally, but capable of cold-blooded ruthlessness when it was time to fight.
However, after undergoing growth implantation and boosting her affection and trust towards mecha pilots, coupled with a natural contractual bond and her recent innocent birth…
Forget it, not an ounce of cold-blooded ruthlessness remained, and from being tough within a soft exterior, only softness persisted.
She instantly changed from a dark vicious beast to an introverted, reclusive mecha soul.
The moment she saw Jiang Chen, she would blush.
Holding a mere chat with Jiang Chen, she could get so shy that she nearly passed out.
Not daring to contact Jiang Chen directly, she could only hide from a distance, secretly watching, both longing and timid.
However…
After pondering for a moment, Jiang Chen felt that this personality was actually not bad.
After all, Yuu wasn’t truly introverted and timid, she was only like this with him.
When facing others, such as Zero, Yun, and Bai Ying, there was no such shyness or timidity.
This situation naturally wouldn’t affect the mecha evolution and ascension path.
As for being too shy to endure Mecha Soul Fusion and easily collapsing under the infusion of one’s Life Force Energy…
That seemed to be no problem either.
At worst, just let her settle down!
That’s how Zero had done it.
Therefore, Jiang Chen didn’t intervene much in Yuu’s growth, to prevent backfiring by changing things too often.
He simply had Bai Ying take Yuu out of the mecha nurturing lab and back to his side, just like Yun at the beginning, continuing to grow through learning information.
By doing this, he let Yuu get accustomed to it.
With enough time spent together, she would naturally lose such emotions as shyness.
It’s just that there hadn’t been much time yet.
Yuu still quietly hid behind the curtains, secretly observing Jiang Chen’s interactions with Zero and Yun.
Clearly, she needed more time to gradually adapt.
Jiang Chen thought for a bit and refused Zero’s suggestion.
“No need, bring Yuu with us when we go practice abilities,” he said.
Although Zero and Yuu didn’t have the power of time and couldn’t possibly learn anything.
It might as well serve to nurture affinity and adapt to the mecha soul.
Zero jumped up joyfully.
“Yay!”
…
Learning the power of time didn’t require any special location.
Jiang Chen brought all the mechas to a large open area near the forest villa and had Zero take Yuu for a picnic to the side as spectators.
Then, he stood in front of Bai Ying with Yun.
“My Lord, the time module I possess is called ‘Stasis Barrier.’”
“It can consume a certain amount of energy to halt the flow of time within a circular radius of up to one million kilometers for three seconds,” Bai Ying explained.
“During this process, only a few select objects that I allow can be exempt from the stasis effect.”
“All other objects, even if they are not within the reach of the Stasis Barrier.”
“As long as they enter the barrier while it’s active, will also be affected and fall into stasis.”
“Once the stasis effect ends, the module will enter an ‘Absolute Cooldown’ period of thirty seconds.”
“Only after the cooldown can the effect be triggered again.”
In fact, even without Bai Ying’s explanation, Jiang Chen already knew the effects of her module.
How could he not have researched the relevant information for creating a Time Mecha?
That research included the content on “Absolute Cooldown”—
This was a pattern summarized by the alliance after the appearance of the first time-category mecha, based on the performance of Time Mechas.
Some modules, after using their abilities, require a period of cooldown before they can be used again.
However, once time abilities are involved, the calculation method for cooldown changes.
The cooldown duration of many modules can be influenced by time abilities.
There will be pauses, accelerations, decelerations, or even a complete reset of the cooldown calculation within a certain period.
This type of cooldown is called “Relative Cooldown.”
Other modules’ cooldowns, however, ignore the flow of time and proceed at a specific rate.
This type is called “Absolute Cooldown.”
Cooldowns related to time modules are generally Absolute Cooldowns.
That is to say, no matter what, even if she had unlimited energy,
within every thirty-three-second period, Bai Ying could at most pause time for three seconds.
That was already incredibly powerful!
Three seconds of unconditional output time were enough for a high-rank mecha pilot to pulverize an enemy into mush!
By this time, Bai Ying had finished explaining her abilities.
To let Jiang Chen and Yun have a direct experience of the activation of her abilities,
she spoke up to remind them.
“Now, I will use the module’s ability for you to experience the operation of the power of time.”
“Time stops flowing—”
As her voice fell, an invisible force instantly filled every area within a one-kilometer radius—Bai Ying had deliberately controlled the range of the stasis to avoid affecting stellar activities.
At this moment, the flow of the river, the dispersal of dust, the beating of creatures’ hearts.
Everything had stopped moving.
Bai Ying surveyed her surroundings.
In the distance, Zero was still stuffing food into its mouth, Yuu was hiding behind a tree, stealthily peeking over here.
Jiang Chen and Yun had serious expressions, trying hard to observe something.
Until three seconds passed.
“Time resumes flowing.”
Upon hearing Bai Ying’s words,
Jiang Chen’s expression flickered subtly.
“…Did time just stop?”
“It has already ended.”
“…”
Alright, the power of time was indeed hard to penetrate.
Jiang Chen couldn’t help but shake his head.
He had not felt the change in time at all just now.
It was as if Bai Ying had said the previous sentence and then immediately followed with the next, with no pause in between.
Of course, this wouldn’t discourage Jiang Chen.
He had only a minuscule fraction of the power of time; expecting to master time abilities all at once was too ambitious.
He had long been prepared for sustained training.
“Let’s continue, Bai Ying.”
“This time, during the three-second pause, wake me up.”
“Understood, Master,” Bai Ying replied with a nod, waiting for thirty seconds to pass before speaking again.
“Time stops flowing—”
…
Even the well-trained body of Jiang Chen had not yet reached the stage of infinite stamina.
Bai Ying, as an ordinary mecha, had limited energy resources and slow recovery.
Add to that the massive consumption of the time module, she could at most continuously release the “Stasis Barrier” ability fifteen times before her energy was completely depleted—
As a mecha bodyguard, she at least had to reserve energy for two more releases of her abilities.
Therefore, the real number of releases she could perform was only thirteen.
Jiang Chen did not let her release them all at once.
Instead, after each release, he took a few minutes to seriously contemplate and feel the change in time, to experience the flow of time.
He also used Bai Ying’s ability to truly experience time after it was paused.
During this process, his comprehension of the power of time grew rapidly.
Soon, twelve releases of the Stasis Barrier were completed.
After once again experiencing the shift in time, Jiang Chen finally spoke again.
“Let’s continue.”
“This time after you use the module, you don’t need to wake me up.”
“Yes, Master,” Bai Ying replied with a nod, pausing for a moment before slowly speaking.
“Time stops flowing—”
Breath, heartbeat, light breeze, dust, sound.
Everything within the range of the Stasis Barrier once again fell into stillness.
This was a world of absolute silence.
Bai Ying sat in front of Jiang Chen and Yun, waiting quietly.
One second passed…
Two seconds passed…
Just as the third second was about to arrive—in the moment Bai Ying thought the training was about to end—
Jiang Chen’s eyeballs twitched slightly.
There was a barely noticeable shift in his gaze.
To an ordinary person, such a trivial change might be overlooked.
But Bai Ying was a 7th Rank mecha; even without the time-stopping module, her speed was countless times that of an ordinary person, and she keenly noticed this detail.
Stasis ended, and time began to flow again.
With a smile, Bai Ying spoke.
“Congratulations, Master.”
“Haha, it’s still a long way off,” laughed Jiang Chen.
He had merely sensed something vaguely, and Bai Ying’s words confirmed it.
He laughed and stood up.
“That’s about it for now. Take a rest, Bai Ying.”
“Yun, let’s go. We’ll take on the Endless Abyss together!”
The preliminary learning was over.
Now it was time for real accumulation!
What better way is there to learn than to directly accumulate the power of time?
Yun stood up excited, its figure rapidly expanding.
“Your subordinate obeys the command!”