Chapter 3

Zhao Yao patted Matcha's head, expressionless as he pulled away the phone, causing Matcha to meow in protest.

"Alright, go to sleep now. You can play again tomorrow."

"No way." Matcha let out a wail, suddenly standing up and hugging Zhao Yao's leg, crying out, "Let me finish this round, please, Zhao Yao! I'm about to win this round."

Zhao Yao's lips twitched as he slowly pulled the cat off his leg: "No, you play during the day and at night. If you keep this up, your eyes will go blind."

"Just this one round! Please, Zhao Yao!" Matcha opened his bright eyes, looking pitifully at Zhao Yao and pleading, "If I AFK in this round, I'll be banned from the game!"

Zhao Yao, looking at Matcha who was hugging his leg and rubbing his head against him, said helplessly, "Just this one round."

"Yay!"

Watching Matcha, who was once again fully focused on playing Honor of Kings, Zhao Yao rolled his eyes and lay down on the bed.

Perhaps due to exhaustion, he soon fell into a daze and drifted off to sleep.

In a daze, Zhao Yao felt the world around him start to shake, and a furry thing kept brushing against his face.

In the next moment, his eyes snapped open, and he could feel the entire house shaking violently. The crystal chandelier on the ceiling was swaying, and things on the tables and chairs were falling to the ground.

Matcha was using his front paws to press against Zhao Yao's face: "Earthquake! Get up! Zhao Yao!"

Still groggy from sleep, Zhao Yao sat up abruptly, grabbing Matcha and trying to run out.

But at that moment, there was a sharp crack, and the crystal chandelier suddenly broke.

This bedroom chandelier, installed by the female owner of the house, weighed dozens of pounds and was now plummeting toward Zhao Yao, likely to cause serious injury if not death.

In this critical moment, Matcha's pupils suddenly constricted, the black pupils shrinking to a pinpoint.

Then, to Zhao Yao's astonishment, the crystal chandelier stopped right in front of his eyes, just a centimeter from his nose.

If Zhao Yao had looked closely, he would have noticed that not only the chandelier but also the swaying tables and chairs, the falling cups, and the shaking building—all things in the world—had come to a standstill, leaving only him and Matcha with the ability to move.

At the same time, Zhao Yao's pupils also contracted sharply, and his brain felt as if it were being kneaded and squeezed by an invisible hand, then continuously stirred.

Instinctively stepping back, when Zhao Yao regained his senses, the crystal chandelier had already fallen to the ground with a loud crash, shattering into countless pieces.

'Just now...'

'What happened?'

At some point, the building had stopped shaking, and Zhao Yao and Matcha, one human and one cat, stared dumbfounded at the shattered chandelier on the ground.

After a moment, Matcha's cat face broke into a smug smile: "Zhao Yao, I've awakened my superpower."

"I've awakened my superpower!!"

"Ha-ha-ha-ha." Matcha let out a series of meows: "Am I a god?"

Zhao Yao's lips twitched, and he exhaled, feeling his mind in a state of confusion. Looking at the excited Matcha, he was still trying to recall what had just happened. In his mind, various desires, information, and mysterious forces converged, slowly unfolding into the shape of a book.

Not having time to think too much, for safety, Zhao Yao took Matcha out of the building to see if the earthquake had ended.

Standing with a crowd of residents on the open ground of the residential area, the surroundings were filled with the sounds of chattering and exclamations...

'An earthquake in Jianghai? What a joke, the last time there was a tremor here was probably decades ago. How unlucky can I be?' Zhao Yao placed Matcha on his shoulder and opened his phone to check the news.

In the brief moment just now, the entire Jianghai city had felt a strong tremor, though no casualties were reported, it had caused widespread panic.

However, what Zhao Yao was most interested in now was the moment when the crystal chandelier had suspended in mid-air and the strange book in his mind.

'Could it really be a superpower?'

'Of course it's a superpower.' Matcha squeezed Zhao Yao's shoulder with his pink paws, excitedly saying, 'I'm a god!'

Zhao Yao gave Matcha a disdainful look and continued to communicate with him mentally: 'First, we need to determine if this is your power, my power, or what kind of power it is.'

Afraid of another earthquake, Zhao Yao and Matcha stayed in the residential square until the next morning. During these few hours, they kept trying to figure out what their superpower was.

After several hours of experimentation and summarization, Zhao Hao's eyes were filled with excitement.

Matcha stood on Zhao Yao's shoulder, his tail wagging excitedly: "Ha-ha, I'm invincible, I'm invincible."

"Time stop! It's really time stop." Zhao Yao's hands trembled, feeling his legs go weak. In the next moment, he activated his power, repeatedly thinking about time stopping and all matter coming to a standstill.

With his will, in an instant, the entire world, except for him and Matcha, came to a standstill. The clouds in the sky, the grass and trees on the ground, the pedestrians on the road, the insects in the garden—everything was frozen, only Zhao Yao and Matcha remained unaffected.

Three seconds later, everything returned to normal. Matcha covered his face with his paws, his body twisting as he shouted, "Ha-ha-ha, ha-ha-ha, Zhao Yao, we're invincible."

Three seconds—that was the duration Zhao Hao and Matcha could stop time, and after each three seconds, they needed to rest for three seconds before they could stop time again.

"Three seconds of duration, three seconds of cooldown, both of us can use it, so we share this power. After he uses three seconds, I need to rest for three seconds before I can use it, sharing his duration and cooldown time?" Zhao Yao stroked his chin and said, "I tried being a kilometer apart from Matcha, but it had no effect; both of us can still stop time."

It's just not clear if we can improve this ability through training, and what exactly is being consumed when we use it.

Although there were still many things to figure out, Zhao Yao was now filled with excitement.

"And this book." Zhao Yao focused his mind on the book in his head.

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