“What on earth…”
“This man…is only left with 3 minutes and 23 seconds to live?!”
“That can’t be true!”
The time on top of the man’s head continued to count down.
Lu Li felt his heart thumping wildly and his breathing begin to quicken. His adam’s apple quivered, as he swallowed a big gulp of saliva.
He kept his eyes wide open as he stared intensely at the man named Fan Changjiang and watched as the number in his ‘remaining lifespan’ field continued to countdown to zero.
Time was so cold! So cruel! So ruthless!
Lu Li felt his entire body go numb as he watched Fan Changjiang. But he still wasn’t sure if this new superpower of his truly reflected a person’s remaining lifespan accurately or not.
That was because he could see that the man looked like he was in the peak of his health. Apart from how he kept checking his watch anxiously again and again, he looked perfectly fine. Or at least, he didn’t look like someone who was going to die in just a little over two minutes.
Time slowly ticked by as Lu Li kept his gaze on Fan Changjiang.
The rain was still falling heavily. The pitter patter of the raindrops falling continuously from the night sky, hit the ground loudly, making them sound more like firecrackers going off.
Shortly before the countdown timer above Fan Changjiang’s head hit zero, he started moving.
He glanced at his watch, and then glanced at the rain, and then, he clenched his teeth, held his bag over his head, and dashed into the rain. He was clearly trying to cross the road to get to the bus stop on the opposite side.
The constant rain washed the asphalt road continuously and made the road seem especially clean.
Fan Changjiang was already wet all over by the time he ran to the edge of the road. He didn’t hesitate as he proceeded to step onto the road.
Lu Li’s eyes widened.
He could see that the remaining lifespan above Fan Changjiang’s head was left with only four seconds.
Time suddenly seemed to slow down.
BEEEEEEP!!
A red sports car appeared from around the corner, out of the blue like a flash of lightning. Its headlights instantly lit up the rain and the ear-piercing sound of its horn resounded loudly!
Everyone seeking shelter from the rain immediately turned to look in the direction of the loud sound.
So did Fan Changjiang.
But the red sports car was driving too quickly, and he couldn’t react in time.
There was a loud bang followed by a terrible screech.
Fan Changjiang flew into the air and his briefcase fell from his hands as his body crashed back down to the asphalt heavily.
A bright red liquid flowed from his body and dyed the surface of the road in its colour.
The red sports car left tyre marks on the road as it finally screeched to a halt.
Lu Li could see that the number above Fan Changjiang’s head had hit zero and the font colour had turned red as well.
Someone got out of the red sports car.
Several helpful pedestrians ran over to offer assistance.
Some others took their phones out to call for an ambulance.
But only Lu Li knew that there was no point in doing any of these things. The man had died the moment his body had landed back on the road.
After witnessing how someone had just died in front of him, he looked around at every helpful person who had gathered around the scene of the accident.
He looked at all the countdown timers above their heads…
He felt his throat go dry and started to feel rather cold as well.
Lu Li remained rooted to the spot where he was standing. He was still very disturbed by what had happened.
He saw that the police and ambulance had arrived, and also saw how the emergency doctors shook their heads helplessly after looking at the lifeless body of the man.
He glanced at the heavy downpour, and then walked out into the rain to hail a cab and spent more than a hundred dollars to return to his shared apartment.
Once he got back, he headed straight for his own room and sat down at his desk. He couldn’t help but shiver when he thought about what had happened earlier.
But he slowly began to calm down again.
A growing excitement and ambitious look slowly filled his eyes that once seemed dull and depressed.
The corners of his lips curled upwards, and his mouth opened slightly.
Then, he clenched his fists so tightly that his veins popped, and his breathing quickened.
“This is a chance to break out of this cage I’m stuck in and change my fate forever,” murmured Lu Li to himself.
He started to explore this new superpower of his.
From the mysterious pieces of information in his head, he derived that he could use this newfound ability in four ways: to buy time, to sell time, to speed up time and finally, to slow down time.
Buying time meant that Lu Li could purchase time from another person like a merchant.
Selling time meant that he could sell the time he had to another person like a merchant.
Speeding up time meant that he could apply a multiplier to any amount of time so as to make it go faster.
For example, if he chose to multiply time by two, an environment of his choosing would be separated from the rest of the world and would make it so that even though two minutes in his world had passed, only one minute would have passed in the world outside that specific environment.
Slowing down time meant that he could slow his own time down by double, triple or even more times.
For example, one minute to Lu Li in this mode would be equivalent to two minutes in the outside world.
And “time” here referred to the time every human being had in existence in this world.
In short, it was their life!