As Lin Mo mentally issued the activation command, the world around him shifted. Time itself slowed to a near standstill. Everything in his f
As Lin Mo mentally issued the activation command, the world around him shifted.
Time itself slowed to a near standstill. Everything in his field of vision appeared as though it were being played back in ultra-slow motion—except for him. He moved freely, untouched by the drag of time.
Sasha still held her "OK" gesture, her vivid eyes filled with anticipation. Her expression said it all—she was eager to witness what he could do.
The scavengers' shouts from inside the control room became elongated and distorted, dropping several octaves until they sounded almost comical, like a baby trying to mimic a talk show host.
To Lin Mo, the frozen beauty of the moment was breathtaking. It was as if he'd slipped between the folds of time. Time continued to command and shape the world—but had simply forgotten him.
Everything looked like a desaturated oil painting. Only he remained vibrant, empowered by absolute control.
What an incredible sensation.
He exhaled slowly, warm breath escaping his lips. His body felt like it had grown a few degrees warmer.
That was the price of entering Time-Slow. The power granted by the pinnacle of technology and the limitless mind demanded a toll. To move freely in a world slowed to a crawl, his body had to be pushed past its limits—again and again.
His metabolism surged, burning through bio-energy. Every cell strained, maximizing output so he could stay in motion while everything else slowed.
He wouldn't waste that power.
Lin Mo drew the Black Unicorn. In this realm, even the blade seemed humbled, its usual gleam subdued as if bowing to time's supremacy.
He surged forward.
Under normal conditions, Lin Mo could reach ten meters in just over a second.
With the Raw Meat and Blood perk, he could surpass that easily.
The control room was about ten meters away—normally a one-second sprint.
In Time-Slow, that became 0.25 seconds.
A gust of wind swept in. A silent threat descended.
To the scavengers, it felt like a shadow had suddenly materialized from the corner of their vision—a ghost riding on a killing wind.
Then the ghost's blade struck.
Several heads tumbled to the floor, their expressions frozen. Blood hadn't even begun to spray before the phantom was gone, leaving the room without a sound.
Time returned like a crashing wave. Its immense force slammed back into Lin Mo.
The frozen world snapped back to normal. Lin Mo, now beside the control room door, was drenched in sweat, panting as though he'd just run a marathon. He lifted his arm and flicked the blood off his katana.
The room behind him had become a slaughterhouse. Headless corpses slumped in chairs, cards still gripped in dead hands. Blood sprayed like fountains, soaking the room in crimson.
Sasha blinked. Her hand was still frozen in the "OK" gesture—but Lin Mo had already vanished.
She turned toward the control room, her pupils contracting sharply. What had been a lighthearted scene moments ago now looked like a ritual sacrifice. At its center stood Lin Mo, leaning against the wall, trying to catch his breath.
"Lin Mo, are you alright?"
She ran over, placing a hand on his back, worry on her face.
"Yeah, just didn't expect the aftershock to hit this hard," Lin Mo said with a strained smile.
When the Time-Slow effect ended, the toll of maintaining normal speed in a slowed world struck all at once. He felt like he'd just been yanked behind a car in a full-speed sprint.
Had he been prepared, it wouldn't have hit so hard. He'd underestimated the Sandevistan's backlash.
No wonder it had a reputation for harsh side effects.
He could feel a mild burning at the back of his head—the exact location where the implant was installed.
Fatigue and cellular damage rushed in the moment the effect ended. That was only part of it.
The other danger lay in the neural stress the Sandevistan inflicted.
People could theorize and explain all they wanted, but you didn't really understand it until you used it yourself.
Dinara Sandevistan Mk. III: maximum active time—16 seconds; minimum cooldown—15 seconds.
Only now did Lin Mo grasp the true meaning of those numbers.
If he stayed in the state for 16 seconds, the implant's internal temperature would rise beyond what the brain could handle. Keep going, and it'd cook his mind.
Afterward, the implant needed a 15-second cooldown to stabilize.
Of course, this wasn't a video game. You didn't have to use all 16 seconds, and the cooldown wasn't some rigid, enforced lockout.
He could deactivate early if needed. And if he didn't want to wait out the full cooldown, he could push it again as soon as it cooled enough.
Everything depended on the user's physical tolerance. If you were willing to take the risk, you could override safety and run it hot.
Even with all its flaws, the Sandevistan remained a top-tier cyberware.
It was, after all, the pinnacle of tech that twisted time.
"You don't have to push yourself so hard, you know. You're still young. You can rely on your big sis now and then," Sasha teased, ruffling his hair.
Lin Mo's face darkened. He hated being treated like a kid.
Yet he never had a comeback.
...
Inside the control room, Sasha ignored the mess of corpses and went straight to the terminal.
She pulled a data cable from her wrist and plugged it into the console, uploading a program called [Marionette] into the local network.
Lin Mo looked outside. Every camera around the factory had gone still, frozen in place.
"Shame, really," Sasha said. "You should've knocked one of them out. Could've used him."
Lin Mo shrugged. Not his fault.
With reflexes that exceeded human norms, his body often reacted before his mind caught up.
By the time he thought to hold back, the blade was already swinging.
"It's fine. First time's always rough. You'll get the hang of it," Sasha said, smiling as she unplugged the cable.
"I've just hijacked the entire camera network. No signs of a basement or hidden compartments. Looks like this isn't the place."
"Any leads for where to look next?" Lin Mo asked, frowning.
The factory zone had multiple buildings. Searching them one by one would be a massive time sink.
And the bodies here weren't going to clean themselves up. If they took too long, someone would notice.
"Luck wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible either. I found a chat log on their terminal," Sasha said, pointing to a large screen.
"Looks like they've got the target locked up in Factory 3."
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