This assassin is upright

Chapter 249: The sea changes in one step (two in one, monthly ticket requested!)
"time…"

Yu Zhu's heart trembled and he murmured softly.

Some details that were originally incomprehensible were now quietly connected together with Yu Zhun's speculation.

There simply aren't an infinite number of similar dune maps.

They were in the same sand dunes from beginning to end.

However, they traveled through different grid spaces and returned to different time points in this sand dune.

They are walking on an invisible chessboard of time that covers the entire dungeon map!

The reason why they met Croesus on the third day first and then met Croesus on the second day was because the squares where the two encounters occurred corresponded to two time nodes one day apart!

"Oh, poetry!" Yu Zhu quickly took out the poetry he had copied from Croesus.

That was the first poem about "The Tower of the Eclipse", and it was also the one that Yu Zhun previously thought Croesus was flattering.

Looking back now, one line is particularly eye-catching.

【You restore youth to the old. 】

Before, both of them thought that this should be some kind of exaggerated rhetoric derived from poetry, but now their thoughts have changed.

Rejuvenation, this is the power of time!
"I remember Croesus said that." Yu Zhun's eyes flickered slightly, he looked up at the bright moon in the sky, and slowly spoke, "The God of Lunar Eclipse is the incarnation of the moon, controlling the rising and setting of the moon."

"Until now, my focus has been on the moon."

"But is it possible that..."

"A more accurate description of His power would be that He controls the rising and setting of the moon."

The rising and setting of the moon refers to time!
Right!
Everything is right!
Sure enough, the two people’s previous guesses about countless maps and “towers” ​​were wrong, and their guesses at this moment were truly correct!
Yu Zhu's eyes flashed, and a thoughtful look appeared in his eyes.

"If each step is earlier than the previous one, and leads to the 'past' compared to the present, then if we keep going, it is indeed possible that we can go all the way to a thousand years ago and see the Tower of the Lunar Eclipse with our own eyes."

"But…"

"If we want to keep going to the square leading to the past, we must judge the time sequence of the previous square and the next square."

“How do we do this?”

"This is indeed a bit troublesome." Yu Zhun looked at the wind and sand in the sky and frowned slightly.

After finding the true pattern of this place, he realized another difficulty in setting up the Sighing Dunes.

Normally, if you understand the mechanism of the time chessboard, it is not difficult to find the order of time. You just need to leave a trace at the original place and see if there is the same trace after you take a step forward.

If so, it means that the time of the latter grid is after the previous grid, and the traces left now can still be seen in the future.

If not, it means that the time of the latter grid is before the previous grid, and the past cannot see the traces left in the present.

However, the sandstorms that blow all the time can easily cover up all traces left by humans in a short time, so it is impossible to judge the order of time by the above method.

Fortunately, Yu Zhun soon came up with a new idea.

That is to use the landmark that exists everywhere in this desert - the crescent-shaped sand dunes!

"Crescent-shaped sand dunes will only form in a desert if the wind direction remains constant for a long time." Yu Zhun looked at the sand dunes around him and spoke slowly, "As we walked along, the wind we felt had different strengths, but the wind direction hardly changed."

"I understand!" Yu Zhu quickly understood what Yu Zhun meant, and his eyes lit up. "Crescent-shaped sand dunes will move under the influence of the wind!"

"And the direction it's moving in is the same as the wind direction!"

"So the sand dunes moving toward one side of the crescent gap correspond to time in the past, and those moving toward the other side correspond to time in the future!"

"Yes." Yu Zhun nodded. "We only need to compare the position of a sand dune in two adjacent time squares to determine the time sequence of the two squares."

“Come to think of it…” Yu Zhu frowned slightly, “As we walked along, the same sand dune seemed to be moving back and forth.”

"This is normal." Yu Zhun said calmly, "If there is a straight line leading to the past, it would be too simple."

"The temporal relationship between adjacent squares here is necessarily chaotic, sometimes leading to the past, sometimes to the future."

“So every time you take a step, you have to re-evaluate where to go next, and every time you have to choose a time that is earlier than the current time.”

"Let's do a simple experiment first." Yu Zhun pointed to the left and right sides. "We take a step to the left and right respectively, determine the time sequence of these two squares, and then take a step forward and backward respectively, and determine the time sequence of the squares again."

"If there is only one square leading to the past, choose that square. If there are multiple squares leading to the past, choose the one that is furthest from the present."

"I understand." Yu Zhu nodded.

The two people each chose a sand dune as a reference, and then walked to the squares on the left and right, and then returned to the middle square.

"The future is on the left." Yu Zhun spoke quickly.

"Go ahead." Yu Zhu had a hint of joy on his face.

With the analysis just now, it became much easier for the two to judge the order of time.

Without hesitation, the brother and sister walked to two different grids one after the other, and then returned to their original positions.

"The future." Yu Zhu, who chose the back, gave his judgment.

"Past." Yu Zhun took a deep breath and walked to the square on the right where Yu Zhu had just been, which was also judged as "past".

After a moment, Yu Zhun returned to his original position and said, "Let's go ahead."

Both the front and the right are past time, but the front is "further past" time.

After taking a step, the next judgment only needs to consider the three directions that have not been explored.

In the same way, Yu Zhun and the other person kept adjusting their direction in the desert, step by step into the time leading to the past.

This method of action was destined not to be too fast. As time passed bit by bit, it took several times more time than before, but the distance they moved was less than half of the previous time.

But their eyes became brighter and brighter, and they became more and more excited.

"Did you find it?" Yu Zhun looked around. "Although we are walking along time and taking many detours in the desert, our spatial position is constantly moving closer to a certain direction."

"This direction is the direction where Croesus found the stone!"

"Yeah!" Yu Zhu nodded heavily, his eyes full of excitement.

This undoubtedly shows that they are heading in the right direction!
"It's a pity that we don't know how much time has passed since we first entered the copy." Yu Zhu spread his hands.

Through the changes in the position of the sand dunes, they can only determine which time is earlier, but they cannot determine how much earlier it is.

It is worth mentioning that no matter which time point they walked to, the bright moon in the sky never changed. This scene was particularly strange, but it was very consistent with the description of the God of Lunar Eclipse and the initial copy introduction.

[Under the eternal moonlight, the past is waiting to be reversed! ]

"It doesn't matter." Yu Zhun touched Yu Zhu's head, "As long as we can make sure that the route is correct, it's just the difference between walking a little more or walking a little less."

"But..." Yu Zhun paused for a moment, his eyes becoming more serious. "Have you noticed that there are fewer sand dunes?"

"Yes." Yu Zhu nodded.

The distribution of sand dunes has become more sparse, and their scale is far smaller than before. Even if you look closely, you can find that the sand dunes in different locations have subtle differences in orientation.

"The wind is changing!" Yu Zhun said in a deep voice, "We are moving towards the past step by step, and the terrain and wind direction of the desert tend to gradually become stable over time."

"So if you keep going forward, the sand dunes will become smaller and smaller, and their directions will become more and more chaotic. In the end, there will be no sand dunes, only disordered wind and sand!"

"What should we do then?" Yu Zhu looked worried.

At this moment, the only reference for them to choose the direction is the sand dunes around them. If there were no sand dunes, they would be lost!
"I have some ideas." Yu Zhun raised his eyebrows slightly, "But they can't be used for the time being."

“Wait until there are really no more sand dunes.”

"Okay." Yu Zhu nodded. After a short rest, the two continued to look for the way to the past in the same way as before.

Finally, the two stopped at a certain square.

After entering this place, they could no longer find any sand dunes to serve as a reference. There was only slightly undulating desert and sand and dust swirling in the strong wind.

As Yu Zhun judged, they returned to a certain time point in the past, where the wind no longer blew in a fixed direction, but blew freely from all directions, and sand dunes naturally could not form.

"Now you can try your new method." Yu Zhu looked at Yu Zhun standing aside.

"Yeah." Yu Zhun nodded, and like a magic trick, he took out something that looked like a grenade, pulled out the ring, and threw it far away.

"boom--"

Accompanied by a loud roar, countless dust was raised, and a pit with a range of tens of meters suddenly appeared on the flat sand.

"This is..." Yu Zhu's eyes became a little dull, "Is this a prop made by Xiao Sa?"

"That's not the case." Yu Zhun smiled and pointed to his right hand. He didn't know when a layer of glove had appeared on his right hand.

"The secret treasure [Gloves of Creation] can create a certain size of creation based on the memory of the treasure owner. If the owner has enough knowledge of the creation, the created secret treasure can have the functions of the real thing."

"Although it has some limitations, it's still possible to make a grenade that can blow away the dust." Yu Zhun looked at the crater created by the explosion. "The dust can cover everything, but a crater this big will eventually leave traces when it's covered."

"Now, do you know what to do?"

"I understand!" Yu Zhu's eyes lit up. "Use the sand pit as a reference. If you see a depression in the same position in the next square, it means it is in the future."

"If you don't see it, it means it's past time!"

"Yes." Yu Zhun nodded.

The accuracy of this method may be less than judging by the location of sand dunes, and it is possible that the pits will not be seen in the future, but with repeated use, it will definitely be able to take them to a more past time.

"boom--"

"boom--"

"boom--"

With grenades clearing the way, Yu Zhun and the other man kept walking, shuttling through the wind and sand.

If you look down at the two of them from above, you will find that although their routes of movement are constantly turning, and even going around in a circle, their positions are slowly and steadily approaching the direction pointed by Croesus.

"tread--"

At a certain moment, Yu Zhun’s steps forward came to an abrupt halt.

Yu Zhu, who was following closely behind, didn't pay attention and bumped her head directly into Yu Zhun's back. She let out a light cry, covered her head and looked up. She didn't have time to ask Yu Zhun why he suddenly stopped. When she saw the scene around her, an expression of disbelief appeared on her face.

"This is…"

She rubbed her eyes hard and looked around in disbelief.

In the previous second, the two were still in the sandy desert, and in this second, they had arrived in a lush jungle.

This is a jungle growing on ruins. Between the soil and vines, you can vaguely see traces of human cities.

A line of small words appeared in front of both of them at the same time.

【Quiet Ruins】

"Is this... a change of map?" Yu Zhu asked in surprise.

“No.” Yu Zhun shook his head slightly, took out the [Ancient City Relics] given to him by Croesus from his backpack, and slowly placed it next to a piece of gravel at his feet.

Compared with the relics of the ancient city, this new stone is a circle larger. After wiping off the dirt on the surface, the edges of the gravel are clearly angular.

But their general outlines are very similar, and the carving marks on the front of the new stone are surprisingly similar to the vague marks on the [Ancient City Relics].

“This is…” Yu Zhu’s pupils shrank slightly, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

These two stones are clearly a comparison of the same stone before and after erosion by wind and sand!
"Croesus is a native of the instance. His actions are not affected by the time chessboard and he can only exist at a specific point in time." Yu Zhun spoke slowly, "He found the location of the [Ancient City Relics], which is here, but what he found was gravel eroded by wind and sand in the future."

"We went back in time and saw what this stone looked like in the past." Yu Zhun looked around. "Although the environment here is completely different from the desert, this stone shows that we did not change the map."

“We’re still where we are.”

"Then why..." Yu Zhu couldn't help but speak.

"Why do you want to explain the sudden change in the surrounding scene?" Yu Zhun smiled. "There are two possibilities."

"The first one is that the desert was formed suddenly by an unknown force. The jungle and the remains of the city were destroyed in a very short time, and suddenly it became a desert with nothing."

"Of course, I don't really believe in this possibility." Yu Zhun paused, "So I am more inclined to the second possibility."

"The time between each step we took before was not long, but there is a very long time span between these two squares."

"It's like I was walking on a flat ground with ups and downs, but now I suddenly jumped off a cliff. I jumped over decades or even hundreds of years in one step, and the world has changed dramatically."

Upon hearing this, Yu Zhu silently took a step back, and when he came back, he showed a look of surprise, "It's true!"

"Take a step back, it's the desert again."

"Let's keep going." Yu Zhun nodded with a smile, "According to the hint just now, we should have exited the dungeon stage [Sighing Dunes] and entered the new dungeon stage [Quiet Ruins]."

“For the time being, this is a good thing.”

"It will be much easier for us to judge the 'past' and the 'future' next."

"You mean..." Yu Zhu's eyes lit up when he thought of what Yu Zhun had mentioned before.

"That's right." Yu Zhun took the [Ancient City Relic] and carved a deep number "0" on a tree trunk nearby. "Without the wind and sand, the mark carved now will not be buried in the future."

"We can use this method to directly distinguish the time sequence of different squares."

As he spoke, Yu Zhun took a step forward and then looked back at the place behind him where the number "0" was engraved.

Not seeing the number "0", he did not hesitate to leave the number "-1" anywhere nearby where he could leave a notch.

This means that the time here is earlier than the previous square.

Yu Zhun then walked to the third square, and the numbers "-1" and "0" appeared at the same time.

After casually carving the number "1", Yu Zhun walked to the next square.

This time, he only saw the number "-1".

Without any hesitation, Yu Zhun carved the number "-0.5" and continued to move forward.

Yu Zhu followed closely behind him, and his eyes became brighter and brighter when he saw Yu Zhun's actions.

She had completely understood the meaning of Yu Zhun's mark.

The initial position is the reference time "now".

Negative numbers represent the past, positive numbers represent the future, and the larger the number, the farther the current time point is from the "now".

Soon, there were more and more digital marks on the ground, and with every step Yu Zhun took, the digital marks flickered.

As he just said, in the [Quiet Ruins], the methods that could not be used in the desert before now found their place.

"It looks easy!" Yu Zhu smiled as he followed Yu Zhun all the way. "The first stage of the dungeon is actually more difficult."

"It's hard to say." Yu Zhun's expression was not as relaxed as Yu Zhu's. Looking at the numbers on the ground, his expression became solemn.

"We have almost gone through all the nearby squares. The square leading to the past is written with '-3', while the square leading to the future is already written with '14'."

Yu Zhu was stunned for a moment, and then his smile gradually disappeared.

Indeed, in the [Quiet Ruins], it became much easier for them to judge the order of time.

But the squares keep leading to the "future" rather than the "past".

According to this rule, it would be difficult for them to go back to the time thousands of years ago when the ruins were still prosperous cities!
"There are two options now." Yu Zhun paused for a moment, "The first option is that we continue to go to the 'past'."

"Although most of the squares around here lead to the 'future', there are always some that can lead to the 'past'. It's just that the difficulty of finding them has become much greater. I believe they can be found."

"But it may be too late." Yu Zhu's face became serious. "Right now, we don't know what stage the players on other servers have reached. What if someone is faster than us..."

"That's what I'm worried about." Yu Zhun nodded, then paused, "So the second option is..."

"Let's go to the 'future' and take a look."

"Go to the 'future'?" Yu Zhu was shocked. "Do the opposite?"

"Yes." Yu Zhun nodded. "Such an operation has certain risks. After all, our final destination is the Eclipse Tower from a thousand years ago. This is certain."

“Moving towards the ‘future’ will take us further and further away from our target time.”

“Unless there is a second ‘cliff’ in the ‘future’, we can leap forward hundreds of years and overtake others.”

"Otherwise our progress will be slower than other server players."

"But there are two reasons why I chose to do this." Yu Zhun smiled, "The first is the difficulty."

"Normally, the difficulty of the strategy stages will inevitably increase, so the difficulty of [Quiet Ruins] should be higher than [Sighing Dunes]."

“But now the situation is completely the opposite.”

"The order of time that was difficult to distinguish in the Sighing Dunes becomes much simpler in the Silent Ruins."

"Although there are fewer squares leading to the 'past', this change can only make the strategy take longer. In theory, it cannot prevent the strategy from being carried out."

“So, this stage may require taking an unconventional approach.”

Yu Zhu nodded thoughtfully and asked, "What about the second reason?"

"The second reason is the change in environment." Yu Zhun smiled even more. "First of all, there is one thing that needs to be made clear."

"The time point where the [Quiet Ruins] was located must be before the [Sighing Dunes]."

"The Eclipse Tower collapsed thousands of years ago, and after its followers disappeared, the seven cities were also abandoned and turned into ruins."

"After a long time, grass and trees grew on the ruins, turning them into a jungle, and everything was buried in the soil."

“That’s the phase we’re seeing now.”

"Now the question is." Yu Zhun squatted down and grabbed a handful of fertile soil under his feet. "If it evolves normally, such a lush jungle should not turn into a desert so easily."

“I think this process is worth exploring.”

"To explore this process, we must move towards the 'future'." Yu Zhun took a deep breath, "The two options run in opposite directions. Once a choice is made, it will be difficult to adjust."

"So...it's time to use the [Strategy Simulation Card]."

"Now?" Yu Zhu was a little surprised, but after thinking for a moment, he nodded in agreement, "That's right, this is indeed the best time to use the [Strategy Simulation Card]."

They have roughly figured out the rules of the [Tower of Eclipse] dungeon and the goals required to pass it, and many of the conditions are already known.

Ten simulations would allow them to determine their current choice. If they were luckier, Yu Zhun might even be able to achieve a perfect clearance during the simulation!

If you really achieve a perfect clearance in the simulation, the difficulty of completing it perfectly again in reality will be close to zero!

After reaching an agreement with Yu Zhu, Yu Zhun took out the [Strategy Simulation Card] from his backpack without any hesitation.

As the prop turned into a streak of light and disappeared, Yu Zhun closed his eyes tightly and opened them again after a moment.

His expression was somewhat complicated.

"How is it?" Yu Zhu asked nervously.

"One good news and one bad news." Yu Zhun took a deep breath, "The good news is that it is right to move towards the 'future'."

"Is that really the case..." Yu Zhu showed a look of understanding, and then asked, "Then...what about the bad news?"

"The bad news is..." Yu Zhun took a deep breath, "This road is very difficult to walk on!"

"I conducted ten simulations. Two of them tried to find the way to the 'past', but both ended in dead ends, with no way to reach a thousand years ago. The remaining eight times I chose the 'future' route."

"In these eight simulations, I failed at the [Quiet Ruins] stage seven times and failed to find the cliff."

"Failure?" Yu Zhu blinked. "What's the reason?"

"It's the monsters in this instance." Yu Zhun's face became serious. "If you choose the 'past' route, you won't encounter any monsters, but if you choose the 'future' route, you will definitely encounter monsters."

"That's an elite monster called [Time Monster]. They are average in strength and can be killed easily."

"But they have two very powerful abilities."

"First, they can cross time to hunt down their targets." Yu Zhun recalled the simulation process just now, his expression darkened, "Even if we enter other time nodes, we cannot escape their pursuit."

"The second, and most important point." Yu Zhun paused for a moment, "They can allow players to be assimilated by time!"

"Assimilated by time?" Yu Zhu blinked, unable to understand what Yu Zhun was describing.

"As we walk through the game, we keep walking in different times, but we don't get smaller or older as time passes," Yu Zhun explained. "Because we are players, outsiders, and don't belong to any time in this instance."

"But if we are hit by the ability of the [Time Monster] once, we will be assimilated by the time here."

"After assimilating with the copy time, if we continue to walk along the time chessboard, we will become younger or older synchronously."

Yu Zhu was horrified and moved, "So your previous failure..."

"That's right." Yu Zhun nodded, "After being assimilated by the [Time Monster], he continued to choose the 'Future' route and died due to exhaustion of his lifespan."

"If you want to avoid being assimilated, you must kill the [Time Beast] as soon as it appears, and not give it the chance to use its abilities."

[Strategy Simulation Card] Teammates will not be simulated when used. Yu Zhun is similar to a single-player strategy in ten simulations.

He has tried his best to kill the [Time Beast], but the frequency of its appearance has increased, and it has almost reached the level of a sea of ​​monsters. It is almost impossible to prevent it from using its abilities.

but…

Yu Zhun glanced at Yu Zhu.

With Yu Zhu and himself working together, the threat of the [Time Beast] can be reduced a lot.

When Yu Zhu puts all the bonus of the skill [Everything Goes to the Extreme] on the number of treatments, one healer can kill 125 targets instantly.

Yu Zhu's expression eased slightly, and he had obviously thought of this, "What about the last simulation?"

Yu Zhun sighed.

"The last time, I was assimilated later, so I was lucky enough to find the location of the 'cliff' and entered the third stage [Tower Ruins], but because of assimilation, I was killed instantly on the spot."

Yu Zhu: “…”

'Cliff' means crossing hundreds of years in a single step, which is indeed a dead end when one is in a state of assimilation.

"But I didn't gain nothing." Yu Zhun coughed lightly, his face brightened, "I took note of the next route."

"As long as we solve the assimilation problem, we can quickly pass this level and reach the Tower Ruins."

"Leave the [Time Beast] to me." Yu Zhu understood Yu Zhun's meaning and took a deep breath.

She wanted to see whether there were more monsters or her treatment was faster.

After the exchange, the two set off again under the leadership of Yu Zhun.

"Be careful." Yu Zhun quickly wrote the number "24" on the ground and said in a deep voice, "The [Time Monster] is about to appear."

"Okay." Yu Zhu nodded slightly and followed Yu Zhun into the next time grid.

"Roar--"

A roar suddenly sounded.

Yu Zhu looked suddenly in the direction where the sound came from, and soon saw a very strange creature standing in front of the two of them.

The other party had a human-like appearance, but without hands, feet, or joints. It only had root-like strip-like limbs. Its entire body had a translucent texture with tiny dots of silver light.

It has no facial features and its face is like a watch dial.

As this strange creature appeared, lines of text popped up in front of Yu Zhu's eyes.

【Time Monster (Lv60)】

【Attributes:
Life: 1000w
Mana: 50w
Physical attack: 30w
Magic attack: 0
Physical defense: 15w
Magic defense: 15w]

[Skill (Assimilation): Causes physical damage equal to 200% of physical attack to the designated target, and assimilates the target with the current time]

It was exactly as Yu Zhun said.

After seeing the skills of the [Time Beast] clearly, Yu Zhu's face tightened and he raised his hand without hesitation.

"treat!"

Red words appeared above the head of the Time Beast. The Time Beast, which was about to take action, exploded instantly and turned into points of silver light.

These silver lights quickly merged into the surrounding space, and it seemed vaguely that something was changing.

Yu Zhu's expression changed slightly.

"After the time monster is killed, the time node of the corresponding area will be changed to a certain extent." Yu Zhun saw Yu Zhu's confusion and explained, "This is also one of the reasons why it is difficult to deal with."

"I tried avoiding the battle in the simulation, but the 'cliff' won't appear if I avoid the battle."

"Only by killing every time monster on the 'future' route and constantly changing the time layout on the time chessboard can we finally make the 'cliff' appear and lead to the next stage."

"I see." Yu Zhu suddenly realized, and then became eager to try, "Where should we go next?"

"This way." Yu Zhun left the number "25" and walked towards the direction where the time beast died with familiarity.

Roars echoed one after another in the time chessboard. With the help of Yu Zhu's long-range output, the increasing number of time monsters still did not pose any threat to the two.

As time gets closer to the future, the original jungle becomes more and more lush. Countless vines and plants have almost completely wiped out and buried the traces left by the city. The jungle is gradually evolving into a forest.

Yu Zhu's expression became more and more confused.

After all, this place shouldn't turn into a desert no matter how you look at it.

Yu Zhun saw Yu Zhu's curiosity, but did not explain too much.

Frankly speaking, he was also shocked when he saw with his own eyes that the land had turned into a desert.

Accompanied by roars, dozens of [Time Beasts] that appeared quickly perished under Yu Zhu's treatment, and countless silver lights merged into the surrounding space.

Yu Zhun looked down at the number "216" under his feet.

"The next step is when the answer will be revealed."

(End of this chapter)