Ordinary Chapter 39: Devil’s Silk Thread

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

It’d been a long time since Shen Si had slept deeply, and didn’t dream at all, it was as if he just closed his eyes for a while before opening them again.

When Shen Si slowly opened his eyes, he saw a white ceiling, and an incandescent light was on, which was a little blinding. This was not his bedroom.

“Awake?” A familiar voice sounded in his ears, Shen Si turned his head to look to his side, Bai JunYi was sitting on the chair next to him, holding a book in his hands. It was a book on plant care, the book looked very new, and had just been opened to the title page. It had probably not been opened since it was bought.

“Where am I?” Shen Si sat up from the bed, he looked around a little strange, “I fell asleep?”

“This is the private hospital ward of the Special Unit. You slept so deeply that night, we didn’t wake you up, and brought you back.” Bai JunYi closed the book and put it on the bedside table, “Don’t worry, the Special Unit said they would help you pay for the repair of your room door.”

Shen Si hastily thanked, “I’m really bothering everyone.”

“Compared to this, do you have any feeling that something is different?” Bai JunYi went over and pressed the bedside pager, then gently placed his hand on Shen Si’s forehead to make sure he didn’t have a fever, before he softly but forcefully pushed Shen Si back into bed, “You’ve been asleep for a long time.”

“A long time?” Shen Si lay back down in confusion, “How long is long?”

“Two days and two nights.” Bai JunYi answered.

Shen Si was a little surprised, how could he have slept for so long? But he didn’t feel anything at all.

Whether asleep or awake, Shen Si felt that his whole body was in the same, ordinary sleep, and when he woke up, he did not feel dizzy because he had slept too much. Even when he moved his body, he could feel as healthy as usual, so how could he have slept for two days?

But then again… 

Shen Si remembered that night, after He Xin appeared to deal with Jing Lian, he sat down on the sofa, and the moment he sat down, he felt extremely tired.

This fatigue was difficult to describe, as if something had completely stirred up his consciousness. His eyes couldn’t hold up at all, none of the muscles on his body could move, even his brain wouldn’t work to think about what was going on now. The next moment he lost consciousness, and woke up again now.

Now that he was thinking about it, the tiredness at that time was indeed a bit strange.

“Oh, it looks like you’re in good spirits.” A familiar voice came from outside the ward, and He Xin appeared at the door wearing a white coat, “I told you a long time ago that there was nothing wrong with you, you were just too tired and fell asleep. These people just don’t believe me.”

Shen Si sat up from the bed, “Why am I so tired?”

“Shouldn’t that be our question for you?” He Xin glanced at Shen Si briefly, “What did you do that made you so tired that you slept like you were in a coma for two days and two nights as soon as you sat down?”

Looking at Shen Si’s face, which was completely detached from the situation, He Xin also realized that if he relied on him to understand what happened, he wouldn’t get answers.

He handed Shen Si the file in his hand, “I checked you after you fell asleep and found the factor of your ability being awakened was detected in your body, which means that the reason why you were extremely tired, even to the point of unconsciousness, was probably caused by your special ability. Think about whether anything strange happened that night.” He Xin didn’t forget to add, “Except for the humanoid beast.” 

He took the file from He Xin’s hand and just like before, it was full of unreadable tables and data, but since it said so, did he really awaken his powers?

Why did he not feel anything?

Shen Si put the file next to him, “Isn’t it possible for the Inspection Unit to determine the awakened ability?”

“It can, but it’s not absolute.” He Xin pulled a chair and sat beside Shen Si. Bai JunYi sat there without interrupting, at times like these, He Xin as a professional was more capable than him, “Before, I told you, you have a special ability in you, but this ability is only effective in a playfield, once you leave a playfield, the ability will disappear. But now, this ability awakened in reality. You really have no clue?” 

Shen Si turned his head to look at He Xin, his voice was a little hesitant, but both He Xin and Bai JunYi who were present heard the words clearly. It was also something they had thought about for a long time but hadn’t come to a conclusion.

“Time stopped, does it count?”

He Xin nodded as he stared intently at Shen Si, “You felt time stop, is that what you mean?”

“I saw it.” Shen Si leaned back on the bed and recalled the image, “It was only for a moment though, the shards of glass that should have fallen to the floor and the water were floating in the air, and Jing Lian stopped moving. There was something that looked like a clock hanging in the air, the second hand was rewinding, and the next instant the glass and water was back and Jing Lian was back at the door.”

“Did you have any premonition before this happened?”

“No, I couldn’t figure out what it was at all.” Shen Si shook his head, “Or rather, I still haven’t quite figured out how that happened.”

Shen Si wasn’t lying; he really didn’t have a clue.

Whether it was time pausing or going backwards, he had never thought about it or manipulated it in any substantial way. He had heard that Survivor’s abilities were innate, whereas he felt he could do nothing but watch.

Why was time suspended? He didn’t know.

Why had time gone backwards? He didn’t know either.

Telling Shen Si to get some rest, Bai JunYi and He Xin left the ward. Outside the ward, Bai JunYi looked to He Xin, “Time stopped, is this Shen Si’s ability?”

“It should be incomplete time control, not just time stopping, because he didn’t just mention time stopping, he also mentioned the second hand going backwards, but only for a second.” He Xin leaned against the wall and mulled it over, “Bai JunYi, did you feel anything about the time pause incident the other night?”

Bai JunYi shook his head, “As I said, it was just a moment, it could even be taken as an illusion.”

“That’s totally a bug level ability, right?” He Xin flipped through the files just now, “So that’s it, I wondered why he entered so many playfields and still didn’t awaken his ability, because it really is an evolutionary ability that didn’t evolve to be usable until after entering a time based playfield.”

“You said evolved?”

He Xin nodded, “That’s right, it’s evolution, Shen Si’s slumber is a sign that he’s evolving, the same thing that happened to Jian Nian.”

Even the God of Light felt something was wrong, but Shen Si was able to witness time pause or even rewind. Shen Si was indeed the manipulator of time.

Abilities that could be associated with time were very frightening. Technically speaking, Yang Yi’s extreme death also belonged to the time ability, but since the beginning, they had never met a Survivor who really had the time ability. Shen Si was the first and should be the last.

However, the ability Shen Si had was so unstable that he himself didn’t understand what had happened to him.

In other words… His ability still had room for improvement.

Bai JunYi nodded, “I see, Shen Si’s ability is awakening. Where is the guy who attacked him? Jian Nian said to investigate, how is his investigation going?”

“The man called Jing Lian is Shen Si’s high school classmate, an ordinary person. He has not been to the world of unlimited flow nor in a single playfield. He doesn’t remember his previous actions and doesn’t have any memories. He embezzled his company’s money for online gambling and after losing it all, he was about to commit suicide by jumping off a building, that was five days ago.”

“This is not a clue? Then why did he become that way? A normal person wouldn’t look like a wild animal.”

He Xin pulled out a photo from the file and handed it to Bai JunYi, “He was poisoned, a mixture of two toxins that could make him turn into a beast and abandon his sanity.”

Bai JunYi saw a man’s ankle with two very small bruises, as if bitten by some small animal. Bai JunYi looked at He Xin, not quite understanding the reason why He Xin showed him this photo.

“Do you know about Devil’s Silk Thread?”

Bai JunYi thought about it, “Are you talking about in literature or the actual plant?”

“Of course it’s the plant.” He Xin laughed, “Devil’s Silk Thread is a parasitic plant, it likes to live on other plants, drawing nutrients from them to grow, but the parasitized plants will often wither and die as a result.”

Fingers slightly hard, the photo in Bai JunYi’s hand was twisted and wrinkled a little by him, “…Parasite.”

Parasite was the name of an organization in the world of unlimited flow, led by an A-Rank Survivor who never showed his face. This organization was the most notorious existence in the entire world because they had a very insidious method, which was to use their ability to parasitize other people as a way to manipulate them.

Bai JunYi had a grudge against this organization, and it was the only one he’s ever come across that he definitely wouldn’t go soft on.

“That’s right, it’s that group.” He Xin handed another photo to Bai JunYi, “The person who did it should be him.”

The man in the photo stood at the elevator entrance, looking honest and without any conspicuous points; it was Qin Yu.

Bai JunYi looked at He Xin unexpectedly, “How do you know it’s him?”

“I should say he was unlucky to meet Ning Yangze,” He Xin tsked, “Ning Yangze, that guy, has a radar in his body. Once he meets a scary person it will go off, he got the Special Unit afterwards to get all of Qin Yu’s information and after working overnight to investigate, we finally found that something wasn’t right.”

He Xin reached out and pushed his glasses up, “Qin Yu, self-proclaimed C-Rank Survivor with a plant-based ability, but the Devil’s Silk Thread is not a plant.”

… 

Inside the ward, Shen Si picked up his cell phone from the pillow, and pressed the phone screen, the phone with full power showed the time.

4:41 PM

“Ability? Time?” Shen Si looked at the phone screen as he murmured, “There really is a way to control time with this strange ability? How would this be manipulated? By turning back the clock?”

The familiar tick sounded just as the words left his mouth, and Shen Si’s finger paused, the sense of time stopping was only for a moment.

Bai JunYi outside the ward pushed the door directly and barged in, his face showing amazement, still clutching a photo in his hand, “Shen Si?” Bai JunYi walked over with the photo, “Just now you…”

“What?” Shen Si looked at him blankly, a moment later he lowered his head. Shen Si’s phone screen was still lit.

The time:

4:40 PM.