From the moment Tang Qi and the others fell to when Ji Yushi reopened the door, only a matter of seconds had passed.

In such a short time, they couldn’t possibly have opened another door and left, nor would they have abandoned Ji Yushi. So, where did they go?

Ji Yushi thought about the mission mode—Rubik’s Cube.

He observed the room below and noticed that there was also a small ball suspended in mid-air, the same color as the one in his room—red. Additionally, a silver ladder had appeared below the opened hole, which could help someone descend smoothly into the lower room. Tang Qi and Li Chun had fallen straight down because they had no time to react.

Should he go down or not?

After thinking it over, Ji Yushi bit off the zipper pull from his clothing.

He had nothing on him, not even a pen, so this was the only way he could leave a mark. Holding the small zipper pull, he pressed it firmly against the floor and carved the character “7.”

If any other teammates arrived in this room after they left, at least they would know that someone had been here and had already left, so they wouldn’t waste time here.

After finishing, Ji Yushi put the zipper pull back into his pocket, then grabbed the ladder and climbed down step by step, entering the new room.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, a “beep” sounded.

Immediately, a circular hole and ladder appeared on the left wall, opening a door in this new room.

Someone was coming.

Could it be Tang Qi and Li Chun?!

Ji Yushi’s pupils contracted.

The first person to appear at the hole was a woman.

She was Caucasian, with short blonde hair and blue eyes, dressed in a black and gold tight-fitting suit. She climbed down the ladder and landed in just a few steps, standing slightly taller than Ji Yushi and looking exceptionally dashing—if she hadn’t been pointing a gun at him.

Ji Yushi took a step back and raised his hands.

Another person followed behind the woman.

This was a young man with black hair of East Asian descent, wearing a uniform similar to theirs but with a different design. The young man’s face was stained with blood, his hair sticking to his face, almost dry.

The black-haired young man looked startled upon seeing Ji Yushi, as if he hadn’t expected anyone to be there.

“Search him,” the woman ordered in English.

“Okay,” the black-haired young man replied.

These two did not seem to be teammates, as their uniforms were different. The black-haired young man was unarmed, so his compliance with the woman’s commands was evident.

The black-haired young man apologized politely before searching Ji Yushi from head to toe, only finding a medicine box and a game console, nothing else.

“Checked, he’s safe,” the young man said.

The woman holstered her gun and began moving around the room, seemingly searching for something.

Ji Yushi lowered his hands. “Can I have my things back?”

“Huh?” The black-haired young man looked up, meeting Ji Yushi’s eyes.

They were a pair of very beautiful, clear eyes, with long eyelashes half-concealing the emotions within. Paired with an exceptionally striking face, they should have been stunning, yet the young man felt a chill from Ji Yushi.

“My things,” Ji Yushi repeated, “Please return them.”

“Oh, oh, oh!” The black-haired young man hurriedly returned the items to Ji Yushi, apologizing again, “Sorry! Really sorry!”

Ji Yushi put away the medicine box and the black-and-white game console, compulsively returning them to their original places.

“No marks,” the woman said from not far away, “We haven’t been here before.”

After saying that, she pulled out a small, delicate dagger from her thigh holster and carved a mark on the floor.

From a distance, Ji Yushi saw that she carved the Roman numeral “8.”

Due to the identical structure, it was difficult to tell where one was inside the Rubik’s Cube, even Ji Yushi couldn’t distinguish the place through memory alone, let alone ordinary people. Human thinking has commonalities, so just as Ji Yushi quickly thought of leaving a mark to inform his teammates, others naturally thought of leaving marks to inform themselves.

The black-haired young man said, “I saw your game console earlier; I’ve seen one like it online, but it’s rare to see someone actually owning one. What era are you from? Has time travel been invented already?”

Having retrieved his belongings, Ji Yushi’s expression softened a bit, making him seem less cold.

He answered the young man’s question, “In interpersonal communication, it’s customary to introduce yourself first before asking where someone is from.”

The young man uttered an “ah,” realizing his mistake from the earlier search, and apologized repeatedly, “Sorry! That was my fault! My name is Yuu Morita, I’m from the year 2140 AD. I was recruited by the Sky Vault System this year, and I’ve been working as a guardian for just three months!”

As he spoke, he pulled out the necklace hanging around his neck to identify himself: “Please take care of me!”

The necklace pendant had a simple pattern engraved on it, the symbol of the Sky Vault System.

Yuu Morita?

Ji Yushi replied in Japanese, “My name is Ji Yushi, from the Star Calendar year 1456.”

Reciprocating the courtesy, Ji Yushi pointed to the emblem on his own chest.

The “7” emblem on his black combat uniform appeared as a dark pattern under certain special lighting, signifying their identity as guardians.

Both sides confirmed each other’s identity.

Yuu Morita repeated, “Star Calendar 1456?”

Then he realized something even more surprising, “Senpai, you speak Japanese?!”

“I do,” Ji Yushi, who had been working for the Sky Vault System for three years, was indeed qualified to be addressed as “senpai.”

But 2140 AD? This era was entirely different from their world. So, the Yuu Morita before him came from a completely different time and space.

However, Yuu Morita’s focus was on the game console, “Senpai, people still play those kinds of game consoles in your era?”

Despite having mastered time travel, they still played with such game consoles; Yuu Morita was quite concerned about this technological inconsistency.

Before Ji Yushi could respond, the woman interrupted them, “Speak in English.”

She scrutinized them, clearly bothered by their use of a language she didn’t understand, “Since you both speak English, it’s only fair to use it here.”

Evidently, she had forgotten about pointing a gun at Ji Yushi just moments ago, now boldly demanding fairness.

Yuu Morita quickly explained to her, “Zoe, this time traveler is from the Star Calendar year 1456. His era seems similar to yours; could you two be from the same time-space?”

“1456?” The woman looked at Ji Yushi, shocked, “A time traveler from 70 years ago?”

Astonished, she rolled up her sleeve.

On her wrist, the symbol of the Sky Vault System was glowing faintly under her skin.

Ji Yushi frowned.

He understood now that this tall female time traveler named Zoe came from the Star Calendar year 1526, the same time-space as him but 70 years in the future.

The so-called recruitment by “the Sky Vault System across all eras” was exactly as his team had suspected—an abduction.

It had gathered guardians from different time-spaces who were on missions and threw them all into this mission, regardless of their willingness. Here, they had to keep pushing toward the mission objective until someone completed it.

Cast a wide net, gather many fish, and select the best.

A very typical mechanical mindset—cold, emotionless, and utterly inhuman.

What Ji Yushi couldn’t yet understand was that he initially assumed the mission would start simultaneously since it involved competition. However, the three people in this room had arrived at different times.

“Since being abducted, I’ve been here for four or five hours and have passed through four rooms,” Yuu Morita said, finding it interesting to speak in English but addressing Ji Yushi in Japanese, “Senpai, how about you?”

Ji Yushi replied, “One hour and twenty-three minutes.”

Zoe, with her short, stylish hair, said, “About a day.”

Zoe had been there the longest.

According to her, since arriving, she had gone through twelve rooms, including this one. The Roman numeral “8” she had just carved into the floor was the eighth mark she made after meeting Yuu Morita.

One day and only twelve rooms?

It seemed Zoe had her own experiences here.

Ji Yushi asked Yuu Morita, “Why is there so much blood on your face? Are you injured?”

At the mention of this, Yuu Morita’s face paled, “There’s… a lot of blood?! Damn, I thought I’d cleaned it all off.”

Zoe’s already tense expression grew even more severe.

Wiping his face, Yuu Morita explained, “It’s not my blood; it’s someone else’s.”

He recounted what had happened earlier.

It turned out there was a reason they had pointed a gun at Ji Yushi the moment they entered. After getting separated from his team, Yuu Morita didn’t just meet Zoe; there was another teammate named Chuck with her. The three of them traveled together, and after passing through one room, they encountered another time traveler.

This traveler had been there for two days and looked extremely exhausted.

In that new room, facing six direction options, the traveler suggested they choose the one directly ahead, saying that his teammate had just gone in and he wanted to catch up.

Chuck climbed the ladder first, with Yuu Morita following behind, but as soon as Chuck leaned into the room, a tragedy occurred: his upper body was instantly shredded, blood and guts splattering all over Yuu Morita, who was so terrified he nearly cried.

Zoe jumped down the ladder and found that the traveler who made the suggestion had quickly gone through another door—he probably knew some kind of rule and was undecided between two doors until the others arrived, using them as guinea pigs. Chuck became the sacrifice.

Hearing this bloody and tragic scene, even Ji Yushi, who had seen plenty of horror, couldn’t help but be shaken.

He tried to push those images out of his mind and, sensing that Zoe’s mood had slightly improved, asked, “So, was there anything different about that room?”

“The ball in that room was yellow,” Yuu Morita said, “We followed the killer’s trail into another room and found that the ball in that room was red, just like the one in all the rooms we’ve passed through so far. I wonder if rooms with the same color ball are safer? But there were still four doors in the room where the tragedy happened, waiting to be tested. The problem is, even if I wanted to go back, I might not end up in the same room.”

That’s why they started marking the rooms.

“To draw that conclusion…” Ji Yushi thought for a moment, “Using the four sides of a Rubik’s Cube as an example, let’s assume there are four different colored balls in these rooms. To test each color’s room would take at least four tries, and to form a hypothesis that ‘rooms with the same color are safer’ would require experiencing the same color at least once more. So, before waiting for you to confirm, he must have already seen five rooms. Based on my observation of the six surrounding rooms and their different balls, four colors aren’t represented among the surrounding six rooms. This suggests that it’s likely three red and three yellow rooms are behind the six doors. So… he’s tested even more rooms.”

The two of them stared at Ji Yushi, seemingly amazed at his quick and meticulous logical thinking.

Ji Yushi realized this belatedly and fell silent for a moment.

These analyses weren’t enough to help his opponent complete the mission; in fact, he had no clue himself, so he wasn’t afraid of someone else beating him to it.

He was just surprised that, unintentionally, he had become someone who no longer shut himself off.

He continued, “How many teammates does your team have?”

Yuu Morita: “Four.”

Zoe wiped her face: “Including Chuck, six.”

“We have seven,” Ji Yushi said, “Taking a conservative average, let’s assume that traveler was part of a five-person team. Then there might be 14 other travelers currently active here. Combining the number of rooms the three of us and that traveler have passed through, we know there are at least 22 rooms. If the 22 rooms are arranged in parallel lines and calculated using six sides… excluding the connected sides, there would be 90. But I believe there are far more than that.”

What were the chances of reuniting with his teammates here?

Ji Yushi didn’t know.

Yuu Morita was already stunned by Ji Yushi.

Someone who could speak multiple languages, analyze situations, and be so intelligent and capable must be extraordinary.

“Um,” Yuu Morita asked, “Senpai, since you’re so strong, you must be the captain, right?”

Ji Yushi looked over, his eyes calm and serene, and said softly, “No, our captain… is someone even stronger than me.”