Chapter 80: Nine Thousand Nine Hundred Ninety-Nine Years
"I want to meet Mr. Philippe Weis, and then rob him of some time."
Sylvia began to say something, but Jake flicked his left wrist, a pistol appearing in his grasp, and then fired three shots.
Three guards hidden among the fleeing crowd were accurately eliminated!
Seeing the ruthlessness of her captor, Sylvia swallowed the words she was about to say.
It was just a matter of stealing some time—Sylvia didn't want to risk her life over this commodity her father had in abundance. She knew her father had numerous business ventures, and even more time reserves.
Led by Jake's firm grip, Sylvia guided the way to find her father. He should be in his executive office on the fortieth floor.
The two chose the stairwell. Taking the elevator would have been incredibly foolish—they could be trapped indefinitely by a power shutdown. Putting himself in a vulnerable position was never Jake's style.
Sylvia didn't give up resisting, but what use was a kitten's resistance against a lion?
Along the way, every guard they encountered was instantly shot in the head by Jake. He wasn't blinded by bloodlust—he simply had a natural aversion to these so-called protectors of temporal order.
Jake didn't know if this world possessed any real military power, but based on what he'd learned from the plot, he could probably take down their entire security apparatus with just two handguns!
Even the Timekeepers were weaker than those in The Host universe, where aliens had firearms and could even deploy helicopters.
In this world, the Timekeepers' weaponry was pathetically outdated!
In the original plot, the male and female protagonists robbed bank after bank with just a single pistol.
As more and more guards arrived, corpses littered both sides of Jake and Sylvia's path, a scene of carnage that the wealthy had never witnessed before. Several people vomited from sheer terror.
The spacious bank lobby reeked of blood and gunpowder.
Perhaps due to the massive casualties, the bank contacted higher-level tactical support, so Jake and Sylvia encountered no resistance as they methodically climbed the stairs.
"Are you sure he's on the fortieth floor?" Jake asked, looking at Sylvia, who was doubled over on the stairs, completely exhausted.
They'd only reached the fourth floor—the rich were indeed soft, regardless of how much money or time they had.
Sylvia seemed to have no strength left to speak. She caught her breath and managed to nod with her last ounce of energy.
Suddenly, she felt herself being lifted into the air, startled. Looking up, she realized it was Jake carrying her.
"Hold on tight!"
At first, Sylvia didn't understand what he meant, but in the next moment, she fully comprehended why she needed to grip tightly.
Jake suddenly started sprinting up the stairs at a rate of one floor per second!
He was literally running vertically up the walls!
Because of the constant momentum shifts, Sylvia was almost thrown off balance. In her panic, she wrapped her arms around Jake's neck, pressing herself against him.
Smelling the perfume emanating from this beautiful woman, Jake couldn't help but feel a surge of attraction.
Sylvia was probably one of the most stunning women Jake had ever met. Matilda might surpass her when she grew up, but for now, she still couldn't quite compare to Mia or Katniss. Though it wasn't their outward beauty alone—their inner strength made up for any perceived shortcomings.
Thankfully, they reached the fortieth floor quickly. Jake set Sylvia down and had her lead the way, following behind her with dual pistols in his hands.
Five minutes passed without incident—impossible to tell if there was an ambush waiting.
Upon arriving at the executive office, all that greeted them was Sylvia's youthful-looking father and a massive vault door.
"How did you get here so fast!" Philippe shot up from his desk in shock.
He'd just received notification that his daughter had been kidnapped, and the kidnapper was an incredibly skilled marksman who had killed over a dozen security personnel single-handedly!
The kidnapper's target was the fortieth floor. When he realized the kidnapper was being cautious and hadn't chosen to take the elevator, Philippe abandoned his escape attempt and instead contacted the Timekeepers, hoping they would arrive immediately.
How could anyone possibly handle climbing forty flights of stairs that quickly?
Philippe intended to trap the intruder and teach him a lesson—not everyone could be messed with so easily.
But his call had barely ended when the man appeared before him!
The elevator had been shut down, and the intruder had indeed chosen the stairs.
However, Jake didn't give Philippe time to process this. He approached the vault door, carefully examining it—it seemed identical to the one from the movie.
And, conveniently, he even knew the password!
"Even if you kill me, you won't get anything!" Seeing Jake reach the vault door, Philippe immediately ran to grab his daughter, preparing to head toward the door and escape.
"I absolutely won't tell you the combination!"
Jake chuckled. "Who said I'd need you to?"
Without hesitation, he entered the password from the movie, and the door opened...
The vault door was incredibly thick, over four inches of mixed alloy—it could probably withstand rocket-propelled grenades, but it couldn't protect against someone who already knew the combination.
Under Philippe's horrified gaze, Jake retrieved the only item in the entire vault: a capsule containing one million years of time!
"You can't do this! If you leave this building, you'll be hunted by every Timekeeper in the zone!" Even someone with a million years of reserves would feel their heart break if suddenly robbed of such wealth.
Jake didn't want to waste any more time arguing with him.
He had originally planned to find Philippe through Sylvia, then kidnap Philippe to locate this vault. However, Philippe had stayed with the vault, saving Jake considerable effort.
He raised his gun, ready to silence this incessantly babbling man, but Sylvia suddenly ran in front of her father, spreading her arms defensively toward Jake and saying, "Since you've gotten what you wanted, spare his life."
Jake casually nodded. "Fine by me. Killing him or not makes no difference anyway."
Holstering his weapon, Jake didn't hesitate any longer and pressed the capsule onto his forearm.
The numbers on the capsule began decreasing rapidly, while the numbers on Jake's arm kept increasing.
However, the numbers on his arm could only display a maximum of four digits, meaning they couldn't reach ten thousand. Finally, his remaining time stopped at 9,999.
"As expected, the maximum lifespan display is only 9,999 years," which confirmed his theory.
He slipped the small time-capsule into his pocket. Since he couldn't load his body with so much time all at once, he'd transfer it in batches, once every thousand years or so. There was plenty of time to spare.
He glanced one last time at Sylvia. Although there had been some tension with the beautiful heiress, Jake believed that with a little more effort, turning that tension into chemistry was entirely possible.
In her eyes, Jake also detected some conflicted emotions. These intense ten minutes were perhaps the most thrilling experience Sylvia had ever had in her privileged life—the lives of the wealthy were usually devastatingly dull.
In those ten minutes, her feelings toward Jake had evolved from unfamiliarity to fear, then to curiosity, and finally to a hint of attraction—perhaps she herself wasn't even aware of it yet.
But none of that mattered anymore. With a turn, Jake vanished from Philippe and his daughter's sight.
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