Ordinary Chapter 28: An Awakened One?

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

The random dream playfield dream disappeared. The playfield had opened and went on for more than three hours, the dream master chosen was S-Rank Survivor Jian Nian, and the one who brought the playfield back and escaped from the Special Unit files was B-Rank Survivor Zeng Ren, determined to be dead. They recovered his trigram that has rotted to the point of not being able to tell what it looked like before.

After the playfield opened, the number of people caught in the playfield: 38, survivors: 8, including one seriously injured who died.

Out of the eight survivors, five people were seriously injured and three people were slightly injured.

This was the most shocking incident since the world of unlimited flow collapsed and the Survivors returned.

Shen Si was sitting on the hospital seat, his forehead wrapped in gauze, his dyed white hair had grown out a knuckle length and now was so long that it looked particularly funny. He leaned back in the chair, dark eyes without much expression, and behind him was the intensive care unit. Yi Mingzi was still inside and didn’t come out, as for Jian Nian, he hadn’t woken up yet.

For safety reasons, the Special Unit sent a doctor to observe Jian Nian at all times, fearing that he would have problems.

There were only three S-Rank Survivors, and particularly in this case, they survived because of Jian Nian’s subconscious resistance playfield, that’s why there were no more mass casualties, so they must see that Jian Nian gets better.

“Yo!”

Shen Si turned his head to look at the corner of the building, and Yun Lai was standing there waving at Shen Si. His exposed skin was wrapped in bandages, even his eye was wrapped. He was draped in a clean suit jacket and limped over before he glanced towards the glass inside and could only see a silhouette lying on a hospital bed.

Although being resuscitated back, Yi Mingzi was still in a very dangerous condition, the extremely serious heart attack was a looming threat on his life.

“Neither one of them is awake?” Yun Lai endured the pain and sat down, “How long have you been here?”

“I’ve been waiting here since my wounds were treated.” Shen Si looked at him, “How are you doing?”

“Better than the others.” Yun Lai tried to stretch his hand, but halfway through he pulled it back because of the pain, “It hurts, but most of it is superficial, it will be fine in a few days. What is the situation with your colleague and Jian Nian? Is it bad?”

Shen Si lowered his head, “Yi Mingzi’s situation is very dangerous, if there is no miracle then he will certainly die. As for Jian Nian, he has been sleeping, and the doctor can’t find the cause of his slumber, so he can only observe.”

“…Is that so?” Yun Lai leaned back on the chair, his eyes carried a complex look.

After Yi Mingzi had the heart attack, Shen Si saved him with first aid, and Yun Lai realized later that it was a miracle that with such a massive heart attack he could be saved and is still alive right now. Shen Si and he had been inside to protect this person who could not easily survive, did he still want to watch him die?

The bandaged hand clenched unconsciously, Yun Lai didn’t know what he was feeling now.

There was only one thing he could be sure of, which was: he didn’t want this man to die.

“If he can awaken his ability, he might be able to survive.” Shen Si raised his head as he looked up at the ceiling of the corridor, “That 1% probability is a miracle.”

“Can that happen?”

“Take Jian Nian for example, he had congenital heart disease, entered the unlimited flow world with the ability and never had another attack.” Shen Si looked to Yun Lai, “After all, at a time like this, one can only hope that this will work. Don’t be discouraged, until things are set in stone, anything is possible.”

What a great mindset, so great that one would envy it.

“Awakening an ability? I think you have a promising future, Shen Si, you must be in that 1%.” Yun Lai sighed, “I’ll forget it, I took the initiative to go to that horrible place and almost lost my life. I feel so stupid, I guess I won’t have a special ability.”

“But I can’t possibly awaken any abilities.” Shen Si somewhat helplessly, “In fact, I have been in more than one playfield, so if I could awaken special abilities, I would have awakened long ago.”

“Uh? I’ve never heard of that!” Yun Lai looked at Shen Si in surprise, “But I always felt that you must have awakened your ability.”

Shen Si shook his head, “No way.”

It was obvious that Shen Si did not want to continue this topic, and Yun Lai was not going to make fun of him, he was a successful person, and knew exactly what to say on what occasion. After sitting in the same place for a minute, Yun Lai reached out and fished out a card from his pocket, then handed the card to Shen Si, “Take it. “

“What is this?”

“Jian Nian’s payment.” Yun Lai smiled a little, “I hired S-Rank Survivor Jian Nian to take me safely out of the playfield. Although somewhat tragically, I did get out alive. Whether I have awakened ability or not doesn’t affect this transaction. Since he is still asleep, you first hold on to it for him. “

Shen Si took the card, “Actually, I think it’s better if you give it to him personally.”

“There’s no time for that.” Yun Lai sighed helplessly, “Of course I would like to give it to him personally if I can, this playfield incident was so big, my hiring of Jian Nian is not a secret. I guess those guys at home who hate me to death are going to use this matter to turn on me.”

“The life of a rich man is unimaginable.” Shen Si stuffed the card into his pocket, “I know, good luck.”

The purpose of this visit had been achieved, so there was no need to stay. Yun Lai stood up from the lounge chair, he limped out holding the wall, and looked back when he reached the corner. Shen Si was still sitting in the same place, staring up at the ceiling, looking quiet and lonely.

Although sighing at the life of the rich and not feeling anything about the card, Yun Lai could clearly feel that Shen Si didn’t care about the money and the card was just stuffed into his pocket.

He still couldn’t understand.

But it seemed he was fine.

Walking around the corner, Yun Lai continued to walk outside, after which he had to face the snide comments of those people.

“Wait a minute? Is that Mr. Yun?”

Yun Lai’s footsteps stopped, he held the wall and turned his head to look behind him, wearing black-framed glasses and a suit uniform, Xia Leyu stood there with a pile of documents, “Are you leaving? Don’t rush off yet, I have something I want to talk to you about.”

“What is it?” Yun Lai looked at Xia Leyu a little surprised, “If it’s the playfield incident, we’ve talked about it before.”

“It’s not the playfield,” Xia Leyu walked over with the files in his arms, “It’s about your ability.”

“Ability?” Yun Lai subconsciously repeated Xia Leyu’s words, immediately after he reacted, his eyes snapping open, “What did you just say? Ability? I’ve awakened my ability?!”

Xia Leyu smiled and nodded, “Yes, you have awakened your ability.”

In a trance, he followed Xia Leyu away, until he made it to the office of the Special Unit, where he only reacted when he smelled the hot coffee on the table.

In fact, Yun Lai had no hope that he could get an ability. The experience in the playfield had become his psychological shadow, and to come out alive was his god-given luck, but everyone had a fluke mentality, he was the same, and also enjoyed fantasizing about what it would be like if he had an ability.

He never thought it would really be such a lucky day, did he use up all his luck in this life?

“The Inspection Unit just sent us a message, they did a thorough check and determined that you have awakened your abilities.” Xia Leyu handed the files in his hand to Yun Lai, “Congratulations, you’re not just a survivor of the playfield, you’re the 1%.”

Yun Lai hurriedly flipped through his information, he looked at the data word by word, afraid of missing anything important, and after ten minutes, he finally saw the entry on his ability.

In the ability column, there was only one word written: intuition.

“Intuition?” Yun Lai raised his head and looked at Xia Leyu in confusion.

“That’s right, it’s intuition, no abstraction, it’s just literal.” Xia Leyu will put his elbows against the table, resting his hands on his chin as he explained to Yun Lai, “If you don’t quite understand, I can give you an example, this ability will allow you to have a hunch in a certain situation, and this hunch will be absolutely correct. It is a very useful ability, whether in the real world or elsewhere, it just so happens that Mr. Yun is a businessman.”

Yun Lai put down the file, “That… does Shen Si have the ability?”

“No, we’ve tested Shen Si no less than five times, he really hasn’t awakened any abilities, he’s just a completely ordinary person,” Xia Leyu shook his head, “He’s the most unbelievable ordinary person I’ve ever seen.”

Xia Leyu handed Yun Lai a protocol with various notes written on it. “Please take a look at this agreement and sign your name if you have no objections.” Xia Leyu said.

After carefully reading the document and making sure it was beneficial to him, Yun Lai readily signed it. He said goodbye to Xia Leyu and continued to walk outside the hospital, where his driver was waiting for him at the entrance.

If his awakened ability was really intuition, did it mean that all the things he was thinking about now were reality?

Even now, he still felt that Shen Si would gain an ability and was not an ordinary person who had been lost to the world.

Yun Lai smiled and turned back as he walked out the door of the hospital and tucked himself into his car.

But even so, that was Shen Si’s business.

… 

The incident was so serious that the Special Unit, the Inspection Unit plus the top brass responsible for this incident got together for a meeting. They had already announced the events to the outside world and officially set that place as an extremely dangerous zone, but it was also this incident that made them understand how powerless the Special Unit really was when facing this kind of terrible playfield.

“If it wasn’t for the fact that the dream master chosen for this playfield was Jian Nian, and Shen Si happened to be in it as Jian Nian’s obsession, I guess all we would have seen this time would have been only corpses.” He Xin’s voice was cold and clear, and he smelled like a laboratory, “This is the fortune of misfortunes.”

“According to Yun Lai’s testimony and the survivors who have regained consciousness who testified, it’s really thanks to them this time.” Xia Leyu nodded his head.

The senior, the middle-aged man who appeared last time, looked at He Xin, “When will the Inspection Unit get the exact time and location of the playfield’s opening?”

“It’s very difficult and our Inspection Unit is severely understaffed.” He Xin frowned slightly, “These jobs need Survivors with special abilities to be done, but not to mention us, even though there are not many Survivors of this type in the world, it is difficult to improve the speed and certainty of detection.”

“There is no other way?”

“If we have to find a way, then let’s work with Night.” He Xin tapped his fingers on the table, “Now it has been determined that the organization Night has a Survivor in it who can detect playfields opening, and a girl who can communicate with people within the playfield to some extent, and the ability of the organization’s leader Yang Yi’s ability also has a use.”

Xia Leyu looked at the eloquent He Xin, and a moment later he opened his computer to pull up Yang Yi’s profile.

Yang Yi, A Rank Survivor, ability extreme death. Although it sounds abstract, this was a near death skill, there was a time limit when using, and could only be used once in a day. This ability allowed him to resurrect five minutes after death. In fact, he could adjust his state to five minutes prior, similar to archiving.

What a terrible ability.

“Wouldn’t that be an admission of the legitimacy of that organization?” The middle-aged man didn’t like this organization very much, they even thought of things like letting ordinary people into the playfield. Would this organization still dare not do things?

“This is the general trend, the playfields will gradually open and this world is very big. Even if we prohibit it, we can’t stop every person.” He Xin upheld a different view, he calmly theorized with the middle-aged man, “In fact, this actually ensures the safety of the ordinary people to a certain extent, at least once a playfield has opened, there will always be an informed Survivor who can take the lead in it.”

The middle-aged man was silent for a few seconds, then he looked to Ning Yangze, “Yangze, what do you think?”

“What He Xin said is not unreasonable, we are now understaffed both technically and on other levels, and the social problems of the Survivors are getting more and more serious. This might be able to mobilize the Survivors.” Ning Yangze spoke while thinking, so his speech was extremely slow, “Blocking is better than unblocking, I think we can try that, if it doesn’t work, we will continue to block.”

“Since even Yangze has said so.” The middle-aged man sighed, “I hope this decision we are making now is the right one.”

Seeing that the middle-aged man had already decided, He Xin withdrew his eyes with satisfaction, “Three of the eight people who survived this time gained abilities.”

“The probability of awakening abilities is so high?”

“Or rather, it’s actually because they gained abilities that they survived.” He Xin reported the data of the Inspection Unit, and only after he finished reporting did he make a summary, “We suspect that Yi Mingzi, who has been under critical care notice, has been supported by and was able to survive until now because of his awakened ability. But whether it is or not can only be determined after he actually wakes up.”

Xia Leyu raised his hand, “There’s another person who needs attention.”

“Shen Si, right?” He Xin glanced at Xia Leyu and Ning Yangze, “This person has been sent over for testing three times as a survivor, not only you guys, even I have become curious about him. He is estimated to be the most ordinary person in the country… no, I should say the whole world.”

“That’s it, he is not Kudo Shinichi’s ¹ reincarnation, how can he enter a playfield so often?” Xia Leyu stood up, “So I suspect that he has actually awakened his ability, we just didn’t detect it.”

He Xin looked at Xia Leyu with wonder, “You’re doubting the ability of our Inspection Unit to do their job?”

“No! I didn’t say that! I just think it’s strange, maybe there really is an ability that we can’t detect.” Xia Leyu hastily retorted, “So far, Shen Si has entered the playfields three times, once at the site he was a guide at, once in the neighborhood where he lives, and this time at the company where he works, it’s really a coincidence and the timing was just exactly right.”

The middle-aged man noticed something in Xia Leyu’s words, so he looked at Xia Leyu subtly, “Go on.”

“All three times, it was at places he frequently was at. The playfields opened just as he arrived, just like where he lived. In Zhongjie Mountain, it’s not like he was randomly passing by and this time was the same. Shen Si could go most of the year without a trip to the company, and suddenly came to the company to sign an exit contract when the playfield opened. “

“Why do you think that is?” He Xin looked at him.

“Could it be that Shen Si’s ability is actually related to the playfields, like he can make a playfield open early?” Xia Leyu said, “Before, Yun Lai asked me if Shen Si had awakened his ability, he looked very sure that Shen Si can awaken his ability, and he has the special ability of intuition.”

He Xin pondered, “You mean to say that the three playfields opened was because Shen Si was there?”

“I’m just guessing. There’s no evidence, so I’m just blindly speculating.” Xia Leyu hurriedly put away the tone of certainty in his words, “I actually suddenly remembered after this incident, that last time when the mental playfield opened, Shen Si once said that he didn’t have an obsession. We asked the others to determine that this was true. …Maybe it’s not just that he can make the playfield open early, it might also ignore the special ability of some special playfields.”

“You mean to say that being immune to acid rain in the dream playfield is not because he is special to Jian Nian, but because he is immune to the playfield itself?” He Xin’s eyes lit up, “This proposition, this idea, indeed, this is too much of a coincidence, if we think in this direction then everything makes sense.”

Ning Yangze coughed, “He Xin, calm down a little, it’s just speculation for now, there’s not the slightest evidence that what Xia Leyu said is true.”

“This speculation is very likely.”

“His data is indeed just that of an ordinary person. Didn’t your Inspection Unit also not find anything?” Ning Yangze frowned slightly, “Even if it is more logical, we still have to produce evidence.”

“But if this is true, then Shen Si will play a major role, and he will be the only one awake in the special playfields.” The middle-aged man concluded, “I will put him on the list of key targets to watch, whether it’s the Inspection Unit or the Special Unit, you must figure this out as soon as possible.”

“Yes!” Ning Yangze hurriedly responded.

He Xin stood up and gathered his things, “I’ll go back now and analyze his examination data again.”

Not three meters away from the headquarters of the Special Unit, a man clenched his hand. A little green thread burrowed back into his hand from the ground, the man looked up with a little subtlety in his eyes.

“Someone who is on the same key watch list as three S-Rank Survivors? Shen Si? What a weighty enough piece of news, that I risked being discovered to eavesdrop for.”