2077: V really knows how awesome he is

Vera was a bit lost. She had a very limited understanding of Eastern history, only knowing a few specific terms that Xu Ling had repeatedly mentioned.

What was that word called again?

As Vera pondered this, she took out a cigarette from her pocket, gave one to the middle-aged man, and lit one for herself.

The middle-aged man examined the exquisite cigarette from 2171 closely, as if trying to discern the technology and innovation behind it, while Vera patted herself down repeatedly but couldn't find a lighter.

Only then did she realize that she had given the lighter to the student who failed the exam.

The middle-aged man noticed her predicament and kindly handed her a box of matches.

Vera examined the small cardboard box closely. Through translation software, she knew that the two Chinese characters on it were "丰足" (Fengzu), which should be a brand name, but she had no idea what this thing actually was.

The middle-aged man once again kindly offered to help, taking back the matches and striking one, much to Vera's delight.

"So that's how it's used! That's amazing."

Vera leaned closer, and the middle-aged man lit a cigarette for him: "If you like it, I'll give it to you as a return gift for the cigarettes you gave me."

"Is that alright? Wouldn't that be too expensive? I don't think your living conditions are very good."

"Isn't it a pleasure to have friends coming from afar?"

"What do you mean?"

"We run our own match workshop."

"Hehe, then I'll accept it."

Vera, a street urchin, didn't know the meaning of politeness and happily put the matches into her pocket. At the same time, she remembered a word Xu Ling often used and asked, "Was 1942 before or after the founding of the People's Republic of China?"

The middle-aged man paused for a second, then calmly replied, "Before."

"I see, I understand now. Goodbye, uncle, thank you for the matches."

In a flash of white light, V and Vera disappeared.

The middle-aged man looked at the light screen, then at the cigarette in his hand. He wanted to taste the future immediately, but after thinking about it, he carefully put the cigarette back into his cigarette case.

Let's save this special cigarette for the day the People's Republic of China is founded!

When V returned to 2171 and heard Vera's description, he felt numb, even more numb than when he saw the failed student earlier.

"You mean that person lit your cigarette and gave you a gift?"

"Yeah, why are you so excited?" Vera asked curiously. "He's just an ordinary middle-aged man."

V's expression was complicated as he patted Vera on the shoulder: "Intelligence 3 is really good, don't add any more points, listen to me."

Vera was completely confused: "Why do I feel like you're insulting me? Is that guy some kind of celebrity?"

"If I'm not mistaken, he should be..."

Before Astraea could finish her sentence, V muted her.

The fifth time travel begins, and all records from the previous four times are [erased from memory].

V and Vera are back on the battlefield.

Vera laid her cards on the table, asking a group of French-speaking soldiers, "I am a time traveler, I came from the future. Is it World War I or World War II?"

French soldier: "There's another World War II?!"

Vera coughed. "I think I've said too much. Where is this?"

Verdun.

"Oh, that's alright then, you don't need to participate in World War II."

"Great!"

The sixth time travel was initiated, and the result was even more outrageous: they were transported back to ancient times. Vera and V appeared on a huge wooden ship and were immediately surrounded by a group of heavily armored soldiers, led by a one-eyed man.

"You audacious assassin, surrender now!" the one-eyed man roared.

The middle-aged man, who was under heavy protection, waved his hand and said, "All of you step back. The two of them came from the white light. They are divine beings. If they want to kill me, none of you can stop them."

"With a major battle imminent, Prime Minister, you must not be careless!"

"I said, step back!"

The one-eyed man could only reluctantly order his guards to leave.

The middle-aged man greeted them, saying, "Please take a seat, ladies."

"We won't sit then," Vera continued, speaking frankly. "We're not gods, but time travelers from the future. What year is it now?"

The middle-aged man replied, "The thirteenth year of Jian'an."

Vera had made a big blunder last time, but she learned her lesson. Before setting off this time, she used a history chip to study the history and immediately realized: "In the thirteenth year of Jian'an, which is 208 AD, such a large fleet is still on the river. Oh, I get it. This is the classic Battle of Red Cliffs, the battle in which the Sun-Liu alliance defeated Cao Cao with fewer troops."

The middle-aged man's face darkened.

Vera asked curiously, "Who are you, sir?"

The middle-aged man said with difficulty, "I am Cao Cao."

Vera: "...Can you forget what I just said?"

"No." The middle-aged man stood up and said, "Order the entire army to retreat thirty li. This battle requires further consideration!"

The Canton Tower, once a symbol of history, was thus deflected by Vera and entered another phase.

The seventh time they traveled to a technologically advanced world. Although the land was extremely barren, the backdrop was filled with towering buildings and machinery, and several huge satellites hung in the sky—clearly not Earth. Several people were besieging a burly, purple-skinned man, mainly targeting someone who lacked any sense of martial ethics.

The sudden appearance of Vera and V stunned both sides in the battle. They both thought that the two intruders were reinforcements for the other side, so they launched an attack at the same time.

The Iron Man, flying in the air, launched several small missiles, and the purple-skinned giant unleashed a shockwave with his left hand. However, Vera disappeared and reappeared in an instant, easily dodging these attacks while carrying V.

Iron Man was about to attack again when a person wearing a red cloak stopped him: "Wait, she is using the power of time."

The burly man with purple skin seemed to be deep in thought: "Another Time Stone?"

Vera didn't know what they were talking about, and she didn't mind their rudeness at all. After all, Night City had the same warm hospitality when she was young, and she was used to it.

"We're just passing by, could you tell us what year it is and where we are?"

The burly man with purple skin replied, "This is Titan."

Iron Man replied, "It's 2018 now, at least 2018 on Earth. And you, who are you, and where did you come from?"

“We also come from Earth,” Vera replied, “but Earth in 2171.”

Upon hearing this, everyone was greatly surprised.

Vera had no intention of explaining, after all, explaining every time she traveled through time would prevent her from getting anything done. After learning about the current year and helping Astraea refine her time travel model, she wanted to leave, but a spatial fluctuation disrupted the formation of the time tunnel.

Vera frowned and looked at the instigator. The burly man with purple skin said coldly, "You can leave if you want, but leave the Time Stone behind."

Chapter 179 Night City?

“I don’t have the Time Stone, I don’t even know what it is,” Vera said truthfully.

The burly man with purple skin stepped forward slowly: "It's alright, I'll go find it myself."

"Watch out!" shouted the man with kidney deficiency in the cloak. "The future guardian of time is trying to destroy the entire universe. We must not let him steal the Time Stone!"

"The Time Guardian?" Vera was taken aback, pointing to herself. "Who, me?"

How come she didn't know she had this title?

Before she could figure it out, the big, purple-skinned man had already reached out to grab her.

Vera was afraid that the person opposite her was some historical figure, so she didn't know how to fight back and simply kept dodging. Just when the big purple-skinned man was about to lose his grip, a gem on his left glove suddenly lit up and he instantly appeared next to Vera, catching her off guard.

"Holy crap, a warp drive! Is technology this advanced in this world in 2018?!"

Vera, carrying V, was unable to move easily and realized it was too late to dodge. Just as she was about to block the attack, she heard a "thud" and the big purple-skinned man was suddenly sent flying backward like a small pebble, bouncing on the ground before crashing into the ruins of a building with a loud bang.

Iron Man and the group of the man with kidney deficiency in the cloak stared in astonishment. When they looked at Vera, they saw that the woman who had been carried on her shoulder without any reaction had "woke up."

V regained his memories, glanced around, and said to Vera with dissatisfaction, "Why are you fighting with the natives again?"

Vera's face clearly showed her grievance: "I didn't hit you, you hit me."

V was a little embarrassed: "I was only doing it to protect you!"

Vera pouted: "Thanks, but why don't you check if you've killed that guy yet?"

At this moment, Iron Man flew over and said in a glib tone, "Don't worry, ladies. He's a notorious villain in the universe. If this were a comic book, he would be the main antagonist. Killing him is doing a service to the people."

V glanced at the Iron Man, a hint of curiosity rising in her eyes about this heterogeneous single-soldier exoskeleton armor. Her eyes lit up with blue light, and just as the armor's AI co-pilot was about to sound the alarm, the system was hacked. It was instantly silenced, silenced, and stripped of all control permissions, forced to watch helplessly as V explored the armor inside and out, completely unable to resist.

Vera, however, was more interested in the burly man with purple skin: "He's the main villain? What did he do?"

Iron Man immediately replied, "He wants to kill half of all life in the universe."

"why?"

He believes that the universe's resources will eventually be exhausted, and in order to avoid that, it is necessary to reduce the number of intelligent beings that consume the universe's resources.

Vera was shocked: "So he's going to kill all the poor and civilians? That's awful!"

Iron Man shook his head: "No, he will kill indiscriminately. Whether it is the poor, the rich, the common people, or the powerful, they will be killed randomly, regardless of their status."

"Treat everyone the same?" Vera was taken aback. "Doesn't he accept bribes from the rich and give preferential treatment to the powerful?"

"Of course not, he's a psychopath..."

"A sage!"

Vera exclaimed, interrupting Iron Man.

"He's not a saint, he's a self-righteous murderer!" Iron Man insisted on his point of view.

But Vera didn't care at all: "There are plenty of murderers, but the ones who kill the most aren't the unfortunate ones locked up in jail, but the powerful and wealthy sitting in the national administrative offices. Murder is definitely wrong, but at least this big purple guy wasn't killing for personal gain. His most commendable quality is that he ensured absolute fairness in the process, neither suppressing ordinary people nor flattering the powerful, but firmly acting in accordance with the system and rules. Throughout human history, such people are extremely rare. Calling him a saint is not an exaggeration at all!"

Because of her learning through the history chip, Vera's understanding of history has reached a master level, and she has seen all the messy things that have happened in human history. She originally thought Night City was just a city, but after learning history, she realized that the entire world is a giant Night City, only that other places are well concealed, while Night City is poorly concealed.

"I thought no one could understand me, but I never expected to meet someone who shares my ideals today." The burly man with purple skin stood up from the ruins and shook off the dirt.

The Iron Man team immediately felt tense, fearing that Vera might join the enemy camp at any moment.

A drag queen dressed in a red bodysuit, looking like a spider, suddenly asked, "Do you really think everything he did was right? Killing half the population to maintain the balance of the universe?"

“Of course he’s wrong.” This time Vera didn’t speak, but answered with V. She had obtained all the design parameters of the Iron Man suit. To be honest, it was a bit rudimentary, but ingenious enough to greatly satisfy her curiosity.

Upon hearing V's words, Spider-Man immediately retorted, "So he's not a saint at all, and you shouldn't agree with him!"

The burly man with purple skin also looked at V, but V shook his head: "I don't agree with his ideas, but I agree with what my companion said. Putting everything else aside, just the principle of treating the rich and poor, noble and lowly equally, makes him a saint in every sense."

The spider shook its head: "I don't understand."

V smiled and said, "You sound very young. Are you still in high school?"

Spider feigned surprise, but did not deny it: "Yes."

"Your world is truly insane, letting a high school student get involved in the battle to save the world. Oh well, I respect local customs." V asked the spider-like figure, "Do you want to be a beggar after you graduate?"

"Of course not."

"So what have you done to avoid becoming a beggar?"

"I will study hard, complete my homework on time, get excellent grades, get into a good university, and then work for a good company to support myself through hard work. That way, I won't become a beggar."

“Very good.” V then looked at the purple-skinned hunk: “Now let’s hear how Mr. Villain will answer?”

The burly man with purple skin said in a deep voice, "I will study hard, complete my homework on time, get excellent grades, get into a good university, and then join an excellent company. I will use my hard work to change the social system, improve the social security of all citizens, strengthen the government's role, and ensure that people after me will never become beggars again."

V shrugged: "See, that's the difference between you guys."

The spider feigned silence.

The guy in the red cloak, who was suffering from kidney deficiency, spoke up again: "Not everyone has such great abilities. We will also help those poor people as much as we can, for example, by buying them a hot dog or treating them to a cup of coffee."

"That is indeed admirable, but precisely because of that, you are just good people, while he is the saint."

Now even the guy with kidney deficiency was speechless.

Iron Man sighed, spreading his arms to reveal his laser cannon: "It seems neither of us can convince the other, so we have no choice but to fight."

As soon as he finished speaking, his nanosuit suddenly contracted and returned entirely to the base on his chest.

A middle-aged bearded man stood awkwardly in place with his hands raised. When he saw V's bright eyes, he instantly realized that the other party had tampered with his armor. He shouted in embarrassment and anger, "What did you do to my armor!"

"It's just a temporary deprivation of your control over the system."