90: Chapter 90 Time Mirror

United Nations. Chen Mu leaned back into the sofa in the lounge on the top floor of the United Nations Headquarters, one leg crossed over the other, his posture so relaxed it was as if he were watching TV in his own living room.

A blue light screen, visible only to him, floated in front of him. The System Store interface was glowing quietly, and the number for his fear value in the top left corner was 310 million.

He glanced at this number, his lips curling up slightly.

The President's tweet today and the arc A-Zu traced across the sky over Manhattan had brought him another tens of millions.

His fingers swiped across the light screen, pausing at a section of the System Store. The reason he hadn't bought any abilities immediately before was that he wanted to see their effects.

After a day of observation, the abilities of the Planet Wuhu people didn't seem to have any obvious side effects.

He extended his index finger and tapped open his attribute panel.

Now, in terms of offensive means, he had the Peeper drones and the Penguin Soldier harvester units; he was not lacking in firepower at all, enough to strike any target on the Blue Star he wished to hit.

But he was currently lacking in defensive means; it was time to shore up this weakness.

His fingers slid rapidly through the list of abilities, precisely locating the option he had been eyeing for a long time.

[S-Class: Time Stop]

[Theme: Chronicle]

[Basic Function: Can stop time within a planet for one minute.]

[Price: 100 million fear value.]

Chen Mu stared at this option for a moment; stopping time for one minute sounded very tempting.

Within one minute, time on the entire planet would stop, and everyone, including the quasi-A-Class Esper A-Zu, would be frozen in place.

During this minute, he could do whatever he wanted.

But after thinking for a moment, he expressionlessly swiped it away.

After all, the cost-effectiveness was too low—100 million fear value just to buy one minute of time stop.

Given his current status on the Blue Star, the President could only squeeze out a smile and fight for the front passenger seat in his presence; absolutely no one dared to make a move against him.

Even taking a step back, if someone really went crazy and wanted to try, Danzo and that group of Penguin Soldiers beside him were not to be trifled with.

Spending 100 million on an ultimate insurance policy he didn't currently need was not as good as splitting that 100 million into several parts and buying a few more practical A-Class abilities.

He quickly selected three more A-Class abilities.

[A-Class: Intangibility]

[Theme: Chronicle]

[Basic Function: Can hide one's body in an alternate space, immune to any physical attacks.]

[Price: 10 million fear value.]

This skill was a bit like the one used by a character named Uchiha Obito back when he watched Naruto, only it didn't have the spatial displacement effect.

Also, there was a limitation: when others were attacking you, you couldn't attack them either, but that didn't matter; what he wanted was absolute defense.

[A-Class: Absolute Barrier]

[Theme: Chronicle]

[Basic Function: Can generate a massive defensive barrier capable of blocking all attacks below S-Class.]

[Price: 10 million fear value.]

Unlike the single-target Intangibility, this was an area-of-effect skill; when necessary, it could envelop an entire building.

This could effectively prevent situations where someone hurt others right in front of Chen Mu, as that would be quite a slap in the face.

[A-Class: Time Mirror]

[Theme: Chronicle]

[Basic Function: Can bring up footage of events that occurred at any time within the past ten years, replaying them in the form of a holographic image.]

[Price: 20 million fear value.]

This ability was the only one among all abilities involving time-related principles that did not reach S-Class.

Because it couldn't change the past, only replay it, it offered no direct help in combat, but Chen Mu valued its other use.

After all, Chen Mu couldn't watch everyone every second of the day, and it would be a pity to miss any exciting moments later on.

When that time came, he could use this ability to turn the footage into videos and post them on Twitter, which would surely boost his fear value again, creating a virtuous cycle.

Chen Mu confirmed the three abilities one by one, then raised his hand and tapped "Confirm Purchase" on the light screen.

Three light golden patterns emerged from the light screen and slowly seeped into his chest.

He tested Intangibility, pressing his fingertips against the sofa armrest; his fingers passed directly through the leather surface, through the foam padding, and through the solid wood frame.

When he pulled them out, they returned to normal; it was indeed useful.

He leaned back in the sofa, brought up Time Mirror, and watched everything that had happened in New York over the past few days.

He saw Thompson walking out of the police station in a daze, saw him eating with Maya, and saw Thompson being invited by Black Panther.

Until he saw Black Panther's "photographer theory."

At this moment, Chen Mu couldn't help but applaud. Although his theory wasn't particularly accurate, the result was more or less the same as the principle by which he acquired fear value.

"Human Renaissance Alliance, huh? Interesting. Let me see if you can defeat the first lion!"

The next day, 7:00 AM.

The morning on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan was torn apart by a scream.

"It's opening!"

The doors to the Interstellar Mall hadn't fully risen yet, the rolling shutter door only pulled halfway up, but the crowd was already starting to squeeze in through the widening gap at the bottom.

Someone was tripped, someone was stepping on others' ankles to push forward, and someone was holding up a phone, filming while shouting "Don't push, don't push," while their own shoulders were desperately shoving forward.

The rolling shutter rose at a steady speed. Before that metal grate completely disappeared above the door frame, a young man from South Korea wearing a hoodie rolled in through the gap first.

Behind him, the crowd surged into the mall lobby like a flood, everyone's face filled with a fanaticism that burned to the bone.

The first wave to rush into the Planet Wuhu store was a group of Wall Street interns, each holding a company credit card.

One young man with golden hair held up three black cards, shouting as he ran: "A hundred bottles! I represent Goldman Sachs! A hundred bottles!"

Closely following them were a few burly men wearing construction site reflective vests, holding a wad of cash, wanting to buy ten bottles.

There were even quite a few gang members; although they were dressed in plain clothes, the tattoos on their necks extended all the way to their earlobes.

The bald man leading them clutched a briefcase in his arms, which contained the protection money they had collected overnight.

The shop door finally opened.

Kara stood at the entrance, wearing a clean casual outfit today, her antennae curving into two elegant arcs on her forehead.

She looked at the sea of heads before her, a mysterious smile appearing on her lips.

"Everyone, please line up. Come one by one. Everyone will get some!"

But no one lined up; everyone wanted to be the first to buy.

Seeing this, Kara just tilted her head slightly and glanced behind her.

Carl stood up from behind the counter, gently rubbed the fingers of his right hand, and a fireball appeared in his palm, hovering in mid-air and rotating slowly.

The crowd instantly went quiet, and a line formed rapidly within three seconds.

Kara nodded with satisfaction and retreated behind the counter.

Behind her, a row of shelves was filled with small, transparent bottles.

Every bottle contained a pool of slowly rotating blue liquid, refracting a mother-of-pearl iridescence under the morning fluorescent lights.

In front of the counter, the person at the front of the line was a young Black man wearing a Lakers jersey; he picked up a bottle and shook it against the light tube.

As the first Blue Star inhabitant to taste an alien product, he was slightly nervous.

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva. His Adam's apple bobbed up and then down.

"Brother, are you going to drink it or not?"

The people behind him started to urge him on; the person urging him was a chubby white man wearing a Yankees baseball cap.

"I'm taking a picture first." The young Black man took out his phone with his other hand, held the bottle up to the level of his face, made a peace sign, and pressed the shutter.

"Brother, please hurry up!"

"Alright, alright, I'm drinking it, I'm drinking it."

Only when the urging from behind grew louder and louder did he close his eyes, take a deep breath, uncork the bottle, and tilt his head back to down it.

"Ah!" The young Black man suddenly started screaming.