A Glitch?

Ren Yi was certain he had just used the newly acquired Anomaly Artifact.

The marble in his palm felt slightly cool, its texture hard.

A subtle yet clear sense of being drained emanated from his entire body, as if a piece of him had suddenly gone missing.

His physical strength, along with his Anomaly energy, was being forcibly sucked through his fingertips and funneled entirely into this unremarkable marble.

He could clearly distinguish that this was merely energy loss, not damage to his True Form.

The missing portion was replenishing itself at an agonizingly slow pace—slow enough to make him feel anxious.

Yet the strange part was that from his own perspective, in that moment, "nothing had happened."

The surrounding air hadn't moved, and the water cup on the desk hadn't even wobbled.

Ms. Zhang and Zhang Qiuqiu exchanged a look, then turned to him with puzzled expressions.

Time was flowing normally, without the slightest ripple.

Ren Yi furrowed his brows, his heart filled with doubt.

He had been looking forward to a Time Stop ability.

According to his expectations, even if he couldn't control time as freely as Battle-Damaged Guy, he should at least see everything around him come to a complete standstill after using it.

Even if it only lasted for a fleeting moment, there should have been some sign of it.

But now, let alone a standstill, there wasn't even a hint of anything unusual.

Could it be that the power he funneled in just now was too little, making the Time Stop so infinitesimal that even he hadn't noticed it?

"Monitor, Ms. Zhang... did you notice anything unusual just now?"

"Did it feel like things hitched for a second, or was there anything that felt off?"

Ren Yi suppressed his confusion and looked up at them, his eyes full of questions.

Upon hearing this, Ms. Zhang frowned slightly, her fingertips lightly adjusting the glasses on the bridge of her nose as she fell into thought, not speaking for a moment.

Zhang Qiuqiu, however, blinked hesitantly and spoke with a measured tone.

"I think... I felt something. Did you just glitch for a second?"

Glitched?

Ren Yi's eyes lit up instantly, and his spirits soared.

He was all too familiar with that description!

Back at the casino, a major reason he had been able to guess that Battle-Damaged Guy's ability was Time Stop was that when the man activated it, to an outsider, it looked like he had "glitched" without warning.

Furthermore, because Battle-Damaged Guy couldn't affect Ren Man, Ren Man had also "glitched," which was what caught Ren Yi's attention.

It looked like a sudden teleportation, or like a frame skip in a video.

Normally, a person who activates Time Stop moves within that frozen time; from the perspective of a bystander who is being stopped, it looks like flickering or teleportation.

But the problem was, he had clearly been standing still just now, without moving even an inch.

So how could there be a "glitch" effect?

"What do you mean by glitch? Did my posture change, did my limbs move, or did my position shift?"

Ren Yi pressed Zhang Qiuqiu for answers, afraid of missing a single detail.

"No, no, your posture didn't change at all!"

Zhang Qiuqiu waved her hands and shook her head, completely dismissing his theory. She scrunched up her face, trying to organize her words to explain that eerie sensation.

"It was like the image just skipped a frame, you know?"

"There was a sudden flicker for a split second, like... you glitched out of existence and then instantly popped back in."

Glitched out of existence?

This abstract explanation made Ren Yi cast a suspicious glance her way.

"Ugh, I can't explain it clearly to you!"

Seeing his disbelief, Zhang Qiuqiu immediately pulled out her phone, quickly opened the camera, and pointed the lens at Ren Yi.

"Here, use the Anomaly Artifact one more time. I'll record it for you. Once we watch the video, you'll understand."

"By the way, you can still use it, right? Is there a cooldown, or do you have to wait to recover?"

Ren Yi looked down and sensed the marble in his palm. There was no feeling of sluggishness or hitching; instead, it clearly signaled that it "could be used again."

He nodded immediately, agreeing to the plan.

"Wait a moment."

Just as Ren Yi was about to act, Ms. Zhang, who had been silently pondering, suddenly spoke up and stopped him.

She pushed her glasses up, her gaze gentle but serious as she looked at Ren Yi.

"Ren Yi, don't be in such a hurry to try again. Tell me first, what exactly did it feel like when you used that Anomaly Artifact? The more detail, the better."

"It just felt like a piece of my body was missing. A portion of my energy was sucked away, and after that, I didn't feel anything."

"There were no changes in my surroundings either. Only the monitor said I glitched."

Ren Yi didn't hide anything, describing his experience truthfully.

Ms. Zhang listened very intently, nodding occasionally.

Once he finished, she turned to look at Zhang Qiuqiu, a faint trace of reproach in her eyes.

When Zhang Qiuqiu saw her mother's look, her face flushed slightly with embarrassment, and she immediately apologized.

"Sorry, sorry. Wait. Ren Yi, I was too impatient and didn't think things through."

"What's wrong? Why the sudden apology?"

Ren Yi looked from Zhang Qiuqiu to Ms. Zhang, completely baffled and at a loss.

"It's like this—I didn't explain it clearly to you beforehand."

"It's a long story, but let me give you some basic knowledge on the classification of Anomaly Artifacts first. You'll understand as soon as you hear it."

Zhang Qiuqiu cleared her throat, putting on a serious, educational expression as she began to explain patiently.

"There are several ways to classify Anomaly Artifacts. Based on energy output, there are two types: per-use types and continuous-output types. You can understand that, right?"

Fearing Ren Yi wouldn't follow, she used a common analogy.

"Take a water fight, for example. A per-use type is like a water bomb. You only have to perform the action of 'throwing' it, and once it's out of your hands, you don't need to worry about it."

"The water bomb will take effect on its own. The downside is that there's a limit to how many times you can use it—you either need more ammo, there's a cooldown, or you have to pay a price after using it."

"A continuous-output type is like a water gun. You have to keep holding it and pressing the trigger. It only keeps spraying water as long as you're continuously consuming energy; it stops working the moment you let go."

"Simply put, the per-use type takes less effort but has more restrictions, while the continuous-output type doesn't have many restrictions but purely consumes your own energy."

Ren Yi listened thoughtfully and immediately grasped the key point.

"So you're saying that because this marble artifact consumed my energy, it belongs to the continuous-output type, right?"

"Yes, yes, exactly!"

Zhang Qiuqiu nodded repeatedly and quickly cautioned him.

"So you must be careful to control your energy output when you use it. Whatever you do, don't accidentally drain yourself dry."

"If you run out of energy, your humanoid form will collapse on the spot."

Ren Yi nodded solemnly, committing it to memory.

He definitely didn't want to collapse again for the umpteenth time.