Ordinary Chapter 35: Special Case

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

At six o’clock, time passed by, the minute hand was getting farther and farther away from six o’clock, and although the clock didn’t say the second ‘Number 1 disappeared’, they didn’t forget Yang Yi either.

“Ah, did it work?” Ning Yangze looked around, “But we’re not out yet.”

Shen Si pulled open his cuffs, the number on his arm was still 2, it didn’t become 1 and it didn’t disappear.

“At the very least, Yang Yi is not dead, so we still remember him.” He Xin concluded, “It’s up to him to get us out of this playfield, we can’t do anything from here. We can only trust him to break that clock, or find another way out of here.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, there was a click and Shen Si heard the sound of glass shattering, and this time it wasn’t only him, everyone else heard the sound as well.

As if smashed with a fist, the clock’s face filled with blood, and the red blood continued to seep down the clock. First the glass dial, then the inside of the clock, the hands of the minute hand fell down, landing on the ground with a harsh clang.

Immediately after, the deterioration stopped, and the half-broken clock fell miserably to the ground.

“It’s not moving? But Yang Yi is 100% alive, he’s not dead, so that means he can only destroy it to this extent and not further?” He Xin slightly narrowed his eyes, as he murmured everything that happened up to now, mentally sorting everything out he experienced from beginning to end, and only after he was mentally prepared did he suddenly raise his voice, “Ning Yangze, continue to smash the clock!”

“What?” Ning Yangze froze for a moment.

“If I’m not mistaken, this is a cooperative game that requires not only Yang Yi, but also our efforts, Yang Yi can only destroy to this extent, the rest depends on us!”

Ning Yangze instantly reacted. In the unlimited flow world he and He Xin were partners, they trusted each other since the beginning, and always helped each other, that’s how they both became A-Rank Survivors and remain colleagues after returning to reality. Since he had said so, what else was there to doubt?

Ning Yangze opened his hand to form a sword in it, then raised the sword and viciously stabbed the half-broken clock on the floor. The sharp blade penetrated the clock, and the hour hand was directly cut off.

In the unlimited flow world, Ning Yangze had obtained the ability: Sword. He possessed a unique sword, which could cut through most things, and would usually fuse into his body and would enhance his physical quality by several times, higher than ordinary people’s. Once the sword was out, it was such a sharp weapon, that it could even cut ghosts and monsters.

Although it sounded nothing special, he was relying on this to survive until now.

Shen Si was watching Ning Yangze as he drew his sword, and used all his strength to raise the sword high, then cut down hard. The clock made an unbearable cracking sound, and finally broke in half. Shen Si turned his head to look out the window, then went up to it to stare at the towering wall outside, his dark eyes reflecting a slight smile.

Sure enough, he was right, there was no completely unsolvable playfield in this world.

The clock turned into light after splitting into two halves, and as the light slowly floated in the air it formed two words: Game Passed.

Ning Yangze looked at the two words, but nobody moved, because they didn’t know what to do. Should they be ecstatic? Or cry in pain? As Survivors, they rarely showed such extreme behavior anymore, even if they were excited inside.

The wall outside the window was crumbling, the field began to show subtle changes, but except for Shen Si, they had no time to care about them.

Because, their memories were being restored.

It was as if the game was rewinding the scenes, they began to remember everything they had forgotten, first Sun Zhi, then Xia Leyu, then Qiao Xingye, Xin Ping and Feng Jiancheng, who first disappeared from their memories, surrounded by a bright light. That was the past that was changed, and now, the traces of their existence returned.

But none of them truly felt elated, it was good that the memories of those people came back, but, they still died.

“Don’t be so pessimistic.” Shen Si leaned against the wall next to the window. The wall that imprisoned the place outside the window slowly fell, and light beckoned in through the window, and Shen Si just stood there, the brand new light shining behind him, like it was shining only on him.

“The fact that we recall them shows that the past is restored, so maybe the matter of their death is also erased all together.” Shen Si pointed it out. “After all, this was a game.”

Ning Yangze’s heart skipped slightly, and he didn’t know why, but at that moment he actually believed Shen Si immensely. Maybe because his heart hoped that all these people could survive, whether it was Xia Leyu or Sun Zhi or the other three, Ning Yangze deeply hoped that all these people were alive.

But was it really possible?

“Hey, Team Leader!” A familiar voice sounded behind him, and Ning Yangze’s eyes snapped open, then he turned his head sharply. Next to the wall where the clock once was, Xia Leyu was standing behind them, covering his arm, covered in blood, looking wretched, but… He was alive.

Everyone who disappeared, including Yang Yi, was standing beside Xia Leyu, where the barrier of time disappeared.

“It’s a pleasure.” Yang Yi smiled and spoke, “It worked.”

In the real world, Wu Qiu was looking at the corpses on the ground with her glasses on, but then, all the corpses suddenly emitted light, and Wu Qiu got so shocked, that she fell back on her buttocks, even her glasses dropped directly to the ground because of inertia.

“Wha-what? What’s happening?” Wu Qiu timidly groped for her glasses on the ground, “What’s going on? The corpses… The corpses are glowing?”

The middle-aged man, who had been standing close by, rushed over and stood behind Wu Qiu watching the corpses, and just as Wu Qiu said, the corpses were glowing, then disappeared in the next second.

The middle-aged man looked in wonder at the empty ground, his eyes full of amazement.

To prevent any accidents, the middle-aged man didn’t let the medical department handle the corpses, with a little inexplicable hope, he instructed the medical department not to move the bodies until everyone was identified, and he was even more grateful for his decision after hearing Jian Nian explain the characteristics of this playfield.

He was convinced that those people inside now would be able to come back.

Crack, the middle-aged man and Wu Qiu, who was fumbling for her glasses, jerked their heads up. They looked at the wall in front of them, as the clock hanging on the wall suddenly cracked, and fell straight to the ground. The moment it touched the ground, the clock’s face immediately cracked in half, its three hands scattering in all directions.

“Spl… Split apart?!”

The other people in the Special Unit on standby rushed over, in the midst of all the commotion, Jian Nian, who stood motionless in place, seemed to stand out. He didn’t go over first to confirm, nor did he ask questions.

The phenomenon now was completely telling everyone that those guys inside had already solved the playfield by playing their role in every key point, so pretty soon, everyone would come back.

“It hurts!”

“This place? There’s no clock on the floor? Are we back?”

“After this playfield, it looks like the Inspection Unit will have one more set of data to refer to, which is a very valuable thing.”

The Special Unit member who had not entered the office yet looked blankly into the corridor, and the first thing he saw was Xia Leyu who was crying out in pain, and Ning Yangze who was holding him tightly, and he pointed at them with wide eyes, “Team Leader! And Deputy Team Leader! You’re back!”

The middle-aged man snapped his head back and quickly pushed his way through the crowd, running ahead, followed by Wu Qiu lagging behind, who hurriedly grabbed her glasses from the floor.

Watching those people quickly run to the front, Jian Nian smiled faintly.

“I knew you would be in this place, because you really like balconies and windows, staring outside like you sense time.”

Shen Si turned his head to look at Jian Nian who was standing beside him, “Is that the reason you stayed here?”

“Wanted to be the first to see you, does that… count as a reason?” Jian Nian and him were staring at each other, “After all, since you are a game master, that game is a piece of cake for you. This kind of cheap game with an ordinary scenario; with good teammates, is average.”

In Jian Nian’s line of sight, Shen Si helplessly stared out the window again.

The winter was so cold, and no greenery could be seen anywhere, the trees and flower beds were bare. Only the sparrows who had no place to go were still standing on the branches shivering, occasionally fluttering their wings and flying in the air for a while, and the fleece that grew to ward off the cold made them look round and fluffy.

Wasn’t this a nice picture?

… 

After knowing the characteristics of this playfield, the Special Unit and the Inspection Unit also called a meeting about it. Yang Yi participated in the discussion as an exception, and they gradually understood one thing, which was, this playfield was indeed a story made up according to each of their traits.

If there was the slightest mistake, they would have had a bad ending.

In this game, Shen Si could detect the disappearance of a person, Xia Leyu’s death resulted in some kind of bug, causing the others to notice that something was wrong. Sun Zhi’s fear of death would make Yang Yi determined, and Yang Yi, who would come back from the dead, would end the playfield completely.

If they didn’t trust Shen Si, or Yang Yi didsn’t agree to use that risky method, or even if Xia Leyu’s death didn’t play a role, everything would have had very horrible consequences.

“So, we were sort of dragged into the playfield to perform a play?” Xia Leyu scratched his head in bewilderment, “This Death Trial playfield still has quite a character.”

“It’s not that it has no character, it means we will have no control over this playfield because it has no rules.” He Xin opened the notebook in his hand, “Each playfield will absorb different people, different people will generate different games, and different games will have different solving methods. In other words, this playfield can be summed up in two words: team cooperation.”

“So it remains a very frightening playfield, and essentially, there’s basically no good way to handle it.” No-glasses Wu Qiu’s voice was timid, “But, the Special Unit base doesn’t need to be on guard all the time. This playfield appears randomly without anyone knowing where it is and the fact that it suddenly landed here is also… also just coincidence.”

Ning Yangze frowned at Wu Qiu, “Was it really just a coincidence?”

“Yes… It was a coincidence.” Wu Qiu fumbled through the information, “The Death Trial playfield data is very little, it travels among Survivors by word of mouth. I searched for a long time to find anything about it, and finally confirmed that this playfield indeed opens in various locations from time to time. It appeared here, and can only be said that it was a coincidence.”

“Don’t be so nervous.” He Xin put the glasses on the table for Wu Qiu, “Come on, continue.”

“About your doubt whether Shen Si has the ability to attract playfields, the Inspection Unit has now made it clear that Shen Si really doesn’t have this ability. If he did, he would have gone to the unlimited flow world long ago.” Wu Qiu quickly turned into a confident big sister, “According to Team Leader’s testing of Shen Si within the playfield, we determined that Shen Si’s ability is only valid in the playfield.”

Ning Yangze looked at He Xin, perplexed, “You tested him in the playfield?”

“Not only on the playfield, I tested him once outside the playfield as well.” He Xin stood up and lifted out the device from under the table and put it on top of it.

Xia Leyu hurriedly stood up and went over, he looked at the test screen’s history on the testing device, and after a moment he opened his eyes wide, “Test light, it’s on?”

“Yes, within the playfield, the test light will be on, which means he was in the playfield when he had the ability, this ability I think we all already know, he can ignore the special attacks of the playfield, such as the memory tampering we experienced.” He Xin pressed his temples, “That’s an impressive ability.”

“But on the second test with the device, the light didn’t come on?”

“That’s right.” He Xin reached out and slapped his hand on the machine, “That’s the most interesting part, Shen Si’s ability appears when he’s inside the playfield, once he leaves the playfield and returns to reality, it’s disabled.”

“He is the one and only exception… no, I shouldn’t say that.” He Xin withdrew his hand from the machine, “I should say he is the special case of the current ordinary person after awakening the ability. The number of playfields open at present is not too many, and not many ordinary people who exit a playfield really awaken an ability. “

Wu Qiu nodded and agreed, “Which means that the amount of available data is too small now to be determined completely if Shen Si is the only one like this.”

Only in the playfield could his special ability work, but since he had never entered the unlimited flow world, Shen Si was just like an ordinary person.

Probably it really was a coincidence, after all, even among Survivors, no one possessed two completely different abilities either, and since he had been determined that he had the ability to ignore special attacks, it meant that he really didn’t have any ability to attract playfields, and it could only be blamed on him… having really bad luck.

“I do think he’s worth trusting.” Xia Leyu interjected, his arm was still bandaged, but his spirit in pretty good shape, “In that playfield, only he remembered the disappeared people, and although he spoke little, he never ignored us. He was the first to question everything and we didn’t trust him, so he went looking for evidence, and until he proved this suspicion, we didn’t believe his words. When you think of it this way, isn’t he just an ordinary good guy?”

Yang Yi stood up and he looked at the crowd, “Let me ask you a question.”

“What?”

“Shen Si has an ability that only works in a playfield. This ability allows him to ignore special attacks, moreover, he is now suffering because he lost his job. In that case, can I invite him to join my organization? After all, he is also considered my life-saver, and it is my duty to solve all the difficulties for him.”

“Hey! Don’t you mess around!” Ning Yangze jolted up, “No matter what, he is an ordinary person in the real world, don’t mess things up!”

Yang Yi smiled and put on the hat he had placed on the table, then turned around and left, “Shouldn’t he be the one to decide this matter? The meeting is almost over, right? I’ll come over tomorrow to sign the contract, bye.”

“Hey, did you not hear what I said?” Ning Yangze hurriedly chased him out, “I mean it, this is not allowed!”

So at the entrance of the hospital, Shen Si was inexplicably stopped by the two organization leaders.

Shen Si, who had just finished a medical checkup to make sure he was not injured and was ready to leave the place and go home, looked at them blankly, “Mr. Ning and Mr. Yang?”

Yang Yi took off his hat and bowed to Shen Si, being a magician, he made this gesture with special grace, like a gentleman in a drama, “I heard that Mr. Shen is struggling to find a job?”

“It’s true that I’m unemployed, but how do you know?”

“I can introduce you to a job, if I may. It’s a very interesting job with high pay and a bodyguard to keep you safe, what do you think?” Yang Yi smiled and looked at Shen Si, “Of course, if you don’t want to go out in the field you can also stay in the office, no problem at all.”

“Hey… You’re being a little too shameless.” Ning Yangze stared at Yang Yi in shock, “I told you that a recruitment contract that can’t be delivered is illegal.”

Yang Yi didn’t even look at Ning Yangze, his eyes still fixed on Shen Si, “How about it? Is Mr. Shen interested?”

“Sorry, I have no intention of going out to work nowadays.” Shen Si refused Yang Yi, “I would like to stay home and rest if I want to, I always feel mentally tired. I will contact you when I want to work.”

“Ah, right.” Yang Yi helplessly put his hat back on, “I understand, let’s do what you said then, but remember, we will always leave a place for you.”

Shen Si thanked them and walked away between them, not looking the least bit attached.

“Rejected, I guess.”

“It doesn’t matter, as long as I have his contact information, I have succeeded, and he won’t stay unemployed.” Yang Yi stated.

Ning Yangze chuckled, “But he didn’t seem to leave you his contact information or ask for yours, and I’ll tell you one thing, he received a lot of bonuses for his outstanding contributions, and it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t work for three or five years.”

“What?!”

From behind the wall of the hospital, green silk threads were being drawn out from the wall and slowly collected into a man’s hand, as he breathed heavily, his eyes filled with light.

Shen Si? He was actually recruited by the most famous organization Night, and the team leader of the Special Unit, Ning Yangze, gloated over the fact that Night didn’t succeed in recruiting him, what does this mean? This means that… Shen Si is special.

“Hey, who are you? Why are you here?”

At the edge of the corner, a Special Unit patrol officer looked at him suspiciously.

“Sorry, I came out for some air, I’m an accompanying family member of bed 5 in the special hospital area.” The man hurriedly walked over, lifted the basket of fruits he had just placed on the ground, then fished out a pass card from his pocket and handed it to the patrol officer, “My father suddenly wanted to eat fruits, so I asked the doctor and came out after getting permission.” The man scratched his hair helplessly, “I ran to several places until I could buy them, and I got too tired so I stopped here to take a break. I’ll go right in.”