Ordinary Chapter 58: Underworld Trade Union

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

When Shen Si was discharged, it was snowing heavily outside, overnight traffic was all paralyzed, and the snow was so deep, it was almost above the knees of people. It wasn’t supposed to snow this much here, although they were in the north, this was a coastal area. In past years, the temperature was never colder than 15 degrees, such a heavy snow was the first time ever.

It was very cold, so cold that their exposed clothes would freeze when the wind blew, traffic problems and the world changing at a rapid pace made people even more reluctant to go out, buses and coaches had been completely stopped, the news of temporary road closures were everywhere.

“The weather is terrible.” Xia Leyu looked out the window at the snow, “Shen Si, are you getting out of the hospital today? Do you want to wait for a few more days? It’s not a good time to go home, is it?”

“No.” Shen Si fastened the buttons of his jacket, “Since I have already recovered, there is no need to stay in the hospital, and Xi Luo is not at home, so there is no one to take care of the flowers, I want to go back to see. The situation was too critical, I don’t know how many plants are still alive now.”

Xia Leyu smiled a little, “Mn, I wish you a good trip then.”

After saying goodbye to Xia Leyu, Shen Si walked out of the hospital. He felt the bitter cold when he walked out of the hospital door, and hastily tugged his clothes. Shen Si stuffed his hands into his pockets and ran out. The entrance of the hospital was patrolled, because of the Special Unit, he needed a certificate to enter and leave. Shen Si finally walked out of the headquarters of the Special Unit after handing over the certificate to the man at the door.

He exhaled a breath of white air, Shen Si put his hat on, and then continued to walk outside. The snow was not swept away, and there were no extra footprints, so it looked like no one was out.

After buying a ticket and waiting for the subway to depart, Shen Si sat on a seat and looked at the time. It was 9:30 a.m., so it shouldn’t be too late to get home, and maybe he would even be in time for lunch.

“Have you read the forum? I heard that Survivors are starting to organize now, and ordinary people can join.” The person in the front seat whispered and talked to his companion, “It is said that there are S-Rank Survivors, and a lot of people have joined.”

“Why would you join the Survivor’s organization?” The companion was unusually puzzled, “We ordinary people and Survivors are not the same, right?”

“According to the organization statement, they will give everyone a badge, and if they meet in the playfield, they will protect the person with the badge.” He clicked on the forum to show his companion the post, “Look, you only need to pay the fee to join, and the badge will be sent within three days after joining.”

The companion thought about it, “Doesn’t that sound like buying insurance?”

“Yes, yes, yes! That’s what it means.” He kept nodding, “But nowadays, in this society, a playfield will open from time to time. If you can really be saved by Survivors as a result, this insurance is really worth the money, and the money is not much. I guess everyone is thinking this way, that’s why many ordinary people have joined.”

“It does sound great, but will the Survivors really protect us?”

“I don’t know, but it’s really attractive.” The man leaned back in his chair, “I’m not afraid of anything.”

Shen Si opened his phone and looked at one of the posts on the forum, then he opened two at random to see them discussing the organization.

It seemed to be with the intention to investigate something, so the forum control by the Special Unit relaxed, especially for those organizations whose posts were completely open, and as the only one unlimited flow world news centralized point, soon there were some organizations in here who started propaganda.

As long as they paid money, they could find a strong Survivor to take them into the playfield by an organization like Night, and a variety of small organizations that existed in the unlimited flow world appeared, as well as new ones.

With a special badge that promised to protect the new organization of ordinary people if you entered the playfield, the organization’s Survivors present would advertise in the forum in the form of selling insurance and claiming that they had an S-Rank Survivor in the organization.

S-Rank Survivor: Xi Luo.

Why would Xi Luo run to join an organization? Shen Si was not very clear, but the Special Unit and Bai JunYi were aware of this matter, and they also told him in advance, so Shen Si thought it was probably a task. 

Of course, Shen Si would never be curious about these things, for him, Xi Luo was no longer a child, he could decide his own choice and the path to take in the future. Shen Si didn’t intend to interfere with his life, college entrance exams or organization, Shen Si would at most give him some advice, listening to him or not was Xi Luo’s own thing.

There was nothing to say.

“What is the name of that organization? If it’s just insurance, maybe we can try it.” The person in the front seat asked in a whisper, “I’ll go search the post.”

“It seems to be called the Underworld Trade Union?”

“…Wow, so mediocre.”

“It is said that this is a long-continued Survivor organization, and that it existed in the world of unlimited flow. The person who created it was a high school student when he entered the world of unlimited flow, later he sacrificed himself to save others, the organization was inherited by someone else, but the name never had time to change.”

Shen Si clicked on the science post in the forum, turned to the organization section, and finally found this organization.

It was said that the founder of this organization were two people, one was a high school student, the other was a reliable adult. In the unlimited flow world, the high school student died on a playfield, and left the organization to the reliable adult who developed it more and more. Of course, not many people feel that this was a warm hearted legacy.

In the world of unlimited flow, such stories were generally interpreted as ‘betrayal – kill – usurpation’.

As for how the creator died, there were no clues even now.

Locking the phone screen, Shen Si stood up. It was already time for the bus, and rather than researching the history of other organizations, it was better to go home and take care of his plants.

Because of the heavy snowfall, Shen Si even had to walk after getting off the subway to get home, and when he got home, he felt his whole body had been frozen to numbness, and his feet were even more painful and itchy. As he hurried upstairs, Shen Si took out the key given to him by Xia Leyu and opened the door, and the next moment, the heating in the room blew out directly.

Because it was too cold outside, he shivered when he was touched by the warm air. Shen Si hurriedly went in and closed the door behind him, then he kept moving his body in the doorway, and only after his body warmed up did he take off his jacket and hang it on the coat rack.

“Finally home.” Shen Si sighed, he looked into the living room, the things that were broken before had been cleaned up. Some things had been replaced with new ones, even the flowers on the balcony had been rearranged; it looked clean and tidy.

Pushing open the balcony window, Shen Si looked at the flowers. Although they hadn’t been watered for several days, the plants just looked  a little shriveled because of lack of water, but not dead. Shen Si rushed to the bathroom to take out the watering can to water them, and then began to check them little by little.

Only after the inspection did Shen Si take out a pot from the pile of green plants, only this pot was wilted.

It was the sunflower given to him by Bai JunYi.

“What a pity, I quite liked this sunflower. The flower was beautiful.” Shen Si walked into the room with the pot in his arms, just then there was a tick. Shen Si froze, he turned his head to look behind him, where the clock appeared in the air, and it was slowly rewinding time.

Shen Si hurriedly looked at the clock that he had hung in the living room, but was surprised to find that the clock in the living room was still spinning normally.

Then… Where was it rewinding time?

Shen Si blinked, he lowered his head to look at the flower pot he was holding, and sure enough, in Shen Si’s line of sight, the flowers in the pot were rapidly coming back to life.

First the fallen roots, then the fallen petals, in time the whole pot was growing backwards, but until the flowers recovered to the best bloom, time reversal didn’t stop. It was still going backwards, from flowers back into seedlings, then from seedlings back into seeds, and then at the last moment, beautiful red flowers bloomed in the soil.

It was the flower from the mental playfield.

Shen Si took a step back, the flower pot in his hand fell to the ground, cracked, the flower pot fell to pieces. A sudden headache made Shen Si a little unable to see in front of him.

Shen Si sat on the sofa, and held his temples. The pain was like a needle digging into his brain, just when Shen Si was about to scream, the pain instantly disappeared. Shen Si was bewildered enough to look up, but indeed, there was no pain at all.

Raising his head to look at the clock in the air, the clock’s time had been restored and was exactly the same as the clock hanging on the wall. He stood up to look at the flower pot that had fallen to the floor, still the same withered sunflower pot.

“Really.” Shen Si stood up and took out the cleaning tools, “…I’m not fully in control of the ability.”

He didn’t tell the Special Unit, and the Special Unit also didn’t ask about Shen Si’s ability. But Shen Si’s ability was growing at a rapid pace: at first he could control the time pause and a short time back, but soon this ability began to expand and enhance, even a small single-object time regression, like the sunflower just now.

Time was constantly stretching, crossing Shen Si’s thinking range. Unable to accurately control this ability, Shen Si could only try to suppress its rampage.

He was just an ordinary person, but he was trying to keep up with the evolution of his ability.

When would this end?

… 

Xi Luo leaned against the wall and flipped through the English book in his hand, headphones hanging from his ears, the phone in his pocket was on the call page.

“We’ve almost found out about the person who spread the news.” Xi Luo said while looking at the English book, “The one who spread the news is a male, and usually wears a hood. What is more striking is that he has some data cables and other things on him. His ability is likely to be related to electricity and network.”

Ning Yangze nodded, “So the Shen Si thing was leaked out by him too?”

“Mn, I questioned the higher-ups in the organization and they said it does look like his style, odds are it was him.” Xi Luo closed his English book, “How is my brother now? Has he come home yet?”

“It seems he was particularly worried about the flowers on the balcony and left after the doctor said he could be discharged.” Ning Yangze wrote down the information just now on the paper, “Don’t worry, the Special Unit is on standby around Shen Si’s residence, they can definitely keep him safe. There are some organizations that are foolishly trying to reach him after knowing Shen Si’s ability.”

“Let him also uncover those guys.”