Usable times: 5. People shouldn't underestimate those three to five seconds. As long as Wilbur could keep activating his ability, time for the enemy was completely frozen, while Wilbur could use that time to kill them. After the wood mouse died, Caroline saw its stomach getting bigger and bigger ... almost like a balloon being inflated, swelling at a speed you could see with the naked eye. Caroline quickly called for Raven and Jet to fall back. Two seconds after they retreated, the mutant wood mouse's belly ballooned to three times its size. All its scales were stretched open and fell to the ground. Then came a loud boom—the mutant wood mouse exploded. Flesh flew everywhere, blood spraying out. And then two people burst out of the explosion. Except ... the two of them looked a bit odd at that moment. Denton was squatting on the ground holding his head. Tyler, wearing a cold expression, had his arm transformed into what looked like an iron rod and seemed just about ready to whack Denton with it. "Tyler, I was wrong! I shouldn't have come down, I shouldn't have left Caroline out there alone facing danger. Tyler, don't hit me, I really don't know how I even ended up down here. I swear I didn't come down here without thinking and hand-deliver myself to the enemy." Before Denton could finish talking, he suddenly felt someone pat his shoulder. He jolted in fear, shaking his shoulders twice and shrinking his neck even deeper. He kept muttering, "Tyler, I know what you said about teamwork, okay? I'll use my brain next time. Don't hit me, don't hit me, if you have to hit me, just go easy, like super, super easy..." He felt someone pat his shoulder again. This time he finally realized something was off and lifted his head. "Tyler, why were those taps so damn gentle?" Then he saw Caroline—her face smeared with blood, her eyes and eyebrows curved with barely suppressed laughter, her shoulders shaking from holding it in. "Little Denton, got beat up again?" Caroline flicked a finger against his forehead. Denton froze, then stood up and looked around. "I—I actually made it out?" Caroline nodded. "Yeah. You already got out of that thing's stomach." "Stomach? I got eaten?" Denton looked stunned. "But I didn't see anything bite me." Caroline explained the whole situation with the mutant wood mouse. She had already obtained the mouse's ability, so she simply read directly from the Zero System's description. Special Ability: I Could Swallow Mountains and Rivers. Note: When the ability owner opens its mouth to its widest limit and tilts its head back toward the sky, it can catch anything falling from above—no matter how big—and store it in its stomach space. The ability owner always dreamed of being able to lie around and still eat its fill, and this ability finally let it do that. It just didn't realize that sometimes the things it swallowed were quite unbelievable. Also, even if the sun fell from the sky, it would only make it burp. Usable Times: 5. Of course, Caroline didn't read out the last sentence in the note. It was just Zero System's pointless commentary again. "Damn, are you kidding me? Tilting its head all the way back like that, wouldn't it snap its own neck?" Denton had already recovered from the trauma of "being smacked by Tyler" and started chatting with Caroline with a goofy grin. Caroline also told them that Nelson was fine and that she had already rescued him. Beside them, Tyler still hadn't said a word. His eyes never left Caroline. When Caroline finally finished explaining everything and looked at him... "Tyler, it looks like you and Denton are both fine. Let's hurry up and—" Before Caroline could finish, Tyler suddenly stepped forward and gently pulled her into a hug. It lasted only a moment, about a second, before he let go.But even so, Caroline's cheeks flushed slightly. "I'm just glad you're okay," Tyler said quietly. Then he was the first to shift his arm into a metal cable and hurled it upward. Once the line was secured, Tyler reached his hand down toward her. "Let me pull you up." Caroline parted her lips, wanting to refuse, but after seeing the state he was in, she accepted without hesitation. "Okay." In truth, Tyler's whole body had been trembling ever so slightly. The moment he saw Caroline and the blood all over her, he had been terrified. But when she started joking around with Denton, and when he looked more closely, he realized none of that blood belonged to her. At that moment, he suddenly remembered the instant he'd seen her fall, how he'd panicked and jumped after her without a second thought. Right now, Tyler was deeply frustrated with himself. In the end, he had let Caroline be the one to save him. It was ... humiliating. Whether back when he'd served in the military, or later as a mercenary, or throughout the apocalypse, through all those years, he had never felt this embarrassed.