Trembling At A High Altitude

After rushing into the living room, Li Teng saw that the previously reset 30-day countdown had advanced by 23 minutes, changing to 29 days, 23 hours, and 37 minutes.

"If I'm not mistaken..." Li Teng went over to the electricity meter and spent 57 time index points to charge it with one kilowatt-hour of electricity.

Indeed, the 30-day countdown advanced by almost a minute.

"This 30-day countdown is related to the consumption of time indexes, with each point spent moving it forward one second, meaning that to end this 30-day countdown, a total of... about 2.6 million time index points would need to be spent."

"However, this 30-day countdown can also move backward; if one sleeps, it will reverse."

"So, the actual consumption will be far greater than 2.6 million time index points."

"If one is not diligent and always sleeps, advancing the 30-day countdown will be very difficult. Only with extreme effort, sleeping very little each day and continuously running, might escaping Time Prison be possible."

"The difficulty is not just huge; it's insanely difficult!"

"It's basically an impossible task!"

"Unless there is a way to accelerate the acquisition of time indexes other than running."

Li Teng muttered to himself there.

Liu Yin didn't quite understand, but after Li Teng's explanation, she more or less got it.

"The director's double reward, he said he'd take points out of his own pocket to reward us, but we can only get it if we successfully break out of prison. We can't possibly get it, not with this difficulty; no team can."

"Yeah, but we still must run, try to get as many time index points as possible. First, to exchange for food, and second, just to avoid being the last group eliminated," Li Teng nodded. For him, being trapped in Time Prison wasn't much of a problem; it was much more comfortable than living on a pillar.

...

Li Teng was happy too soon.

Based on the 60-day countdown display on the wall, it was around noon.

Suddenly, gunfire erupted outside the room.

Several bullets pierced through the window glass, creating terrifying explosive sounds.

The two people in the room were stunned.

After Li Teng snapped out of it, he quickly pressed Liu Yin to the floor, and they crawled to the part of the room farthest from the window.

Soon, gunfire could be heard from all around the house; all the windows were shattered by bullets, and bullet heads landed in the room, smashing the furniture and flooring, creating terrifying impact and shattering sounds.

The curtains were torn to shreds by the dense barrage.

More bullets hit the outer walls of the house, making pounding sounds, chipping away at the walls bit by bit.

For a moment, the two felt as though they were in a war-torn city, where stray bullets could hit them at any time.

After a while, the gunfire stopped.

A searchlight shone into the room, as if searching for their whereabouts.

Li Teng and Liu Yin were so frightened that they didn't dare breathe and stayed motionless on the floor.

Then, in their minds, they cursed the director, Liu Shiyuan, as a "pervert!"

Five minutes later, the searchlight did not come on again.

The two of them breathed a sigh of relief.

But just at that moment, a grenade was thrown into the house, 'thud, thud, thud!' bouncing off the floor and walls of the room.

Li Teng quickly pulled Liu Yin up, and they bent over as they rushed into the adjacent bedroom.

Just as they dashed into the bedroom, the outside living room emitted a 'bang!' The explosion smashed all the furniture to pieces.

Outside the blown-out windows, faint footsteps and soldiers' voices could be heard.

The two of them hurriedly hid under the bed to avoid being seen by the soldiers passing by the window.

Just then...

'Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!' The sound of the heavy machine gun fired.

The heavy machine gun's barrel fired high-strength alloy armor-piercing bullets, easily punching a large hole in the bedroom wall, and sweeping toward the bed, quickly turning the bed above them into shreds.

Then, the entire wall of the bedroom was shattered, and a piercingly bright searchlight shone through, illuminating the thoroughly stunned Li Teng and Liu Yin.

Several soldiers walked over against the light.

They stood in front of Li Teng and Liu Yin.

Against the blinding light of the searchlight, they could barely see anything.

Then, several soldiers lifted their assault rifles.

They pulled the triggers, spraying bullets onto Li Teng and Liu Yin's arms and thighs.

The close-range impact of the bullets quickly shattered their limbs, and amid their agonizing screams, the soldiers left the house reduced to rubble.

The searchlight also went out.

The sound of an armored vehicle driving away echoed from afar.

All returned to calm.

Except for the desperate screams of Li Teng and Liu Yin.

Both had completely lost their ability to move, lying on the dusty ground, unable to stir.

It was too dreadful.

Inhuman.

Li Teng once again understood the meaning of the word "perverted" as described by the chubby director.

He had thought they could rest for a while in the Time Bubble.

This pervert had no intention of letting them rest at all!

The soldiers designed in the plot did not kill them but merely incapacitated them and left, clearly torturing them.

Although sleep could heal wounds, this bone-breaking pain was simply unbearable.

Especially for newcomers like Liu Yin, the pain had far exceeded her limits.

She couldn't even sleep!

Such a director was indeed perverted!

At this moment, he was probably sitting in a café or somewhere else, smiling as he admired their miserable state, right?

Time Prison is not a place to just while away the days.

This isn't the Time Prison, this is the Time Purgatory!

And, this was just the first day.

The horrors to come would likely only intensify.

They must figure out a way to break out soon, otherwise, they would inevitably be tortured into mental collapse.

...

Gao Fei and Elsa had experienced the same thing.

Rubble everywhere, and the two of them screaming miserably.

...

Luo Bijiao and Huang Xun couldn't escape the ordeal either.

The same rubble everywhere, the same miserable screams.

...

As soon as Guo Haopeng and his wife heard the gunshots, they were alert.

Using his years of military experience, after being surrounded and having walls destroyed around him, Guo Haopeng tried to escape through another window to counterattack.

But he was quickly targeted by the searchlight, and then his arms and legs were disabled.

The outcome didn't differ much from the other three groups.

Machine guns, armored vehicles, soldiers encroaching from all directions.

Surrounding two unarmed civilians.

It was just a one-sided slaughter.

An entire film crew, eight actors, all lying motionless amid the ruins of the building.

Apart from screaming, they could do nothing.

Even falling asleep was impossible.

The first day in Time Prison crawled from noon to night amidst agonizing pain and screams.