The Eternal Club 6: Lu Li, the Time Merchant
Lu Li bought a SIM card from a small shop that didn’t require him to show any ID and inserted it into his phone.
He walked through a small alley within the Huangpu district and headed towards the famous Jinling Street of Shanghai.
Unlike yesterday, the weather was excellent today. The skies were bright and clear similar to Lu Li’s mood.
He had spent the last four years of his working life rushing from place to place. It was rare for him to feel so relaxed and unhurried like he did now.
His gaze casually scanned the people around him.
The stats of each person appeared on top of their heads.
The feeling of being able to see another person’s remaining lifespan made him feel like a grim reaper or a deity of sorts, as if he held these people’s fates in his hand.
He stopped walking to think of a good word to describe the way he felt right now.
“I feel…blessed, emotional, and a sense of superiority along with my ambitiousness…”
The countdown timer above everyone’s head represented the time they had left until their deaths. That was such a cold and cruel truth of life to face.
Lu Li continued on his way. He had arrived at Jinling Street in hope of finding a client.
Even though the seller had to be willing and personally responsible for any transaction that he made, Lu Li still hoped that his first seller would be someone with a longer remaining lifespan.
A young man standing outside the entrance to Yong’an Department Store caught Lu Li’s eye. To be more specific, a person wearing a Kumamon mascot costume had attracted Lu Li’s attention.
Lu Li looked at the young man’s stats.
Lu Li felt that he was now facing his very first client.
Firstly, Zheng Bowen was young, and he was going to live until he turned 86.
Secondly, since he was only 21 years old, he was probably still a student.
If he was a college student on a part time job, it meant that his family’s financial situation was only average, and he would probably be responsible with paying for school fees and other living expenses for a while longer.
If he wasn’t a student but still took up such a part time gig, then it meant that either this boy had poor education qualifications, or that he came from a fairly poor family.
Either way, the young man definitely fell within Lu Li’s target group.
Lu Li stood in an inconspicuous corner and observed this large Kumamon in front of him.
Over the course of the entire morning, this young man in the Kumamon costume never stopped giving out flyers or making cutesy actions.
At 1.30 pm, the young man was finally done with work.
Zheng Bowen removed the top of the costume to reveal his young and clean-shaven face. His hair and cheeks were drenched in perspiration.
A middle-aged man who looked like a manager walked out from inside the department store and handed out $200 to Zheng Bowen. That was the young man’s salary for his work.
Zheng Bowen took the money from the manager with a bright smile on his face as he thanked the manager profusely.
After that, he removed the rest of his costume and walked away from the Yong’an Department Store. He was going to grab a quick lunch, and then head to another restaurant where he was also working part time.
Zheng Bowen eventually walked into a cheap noodle shop.
Immediately after he sat down, another young man sat down across from him.
Zheng Bowen looked up and smiled faintly.
The young man who had just taken a seat at his table was Lu Li.
“Hello there,” said Lu Li as he looked straight at Zheng Bowen.
At the same time, he activated his superpower with a thought.
“A hundred times,” Lu Li instructed silently.
He had asked to speed up time by 100X because he realized that this was his current limit. He wasn’t able go beyond this multiplier yet.
Besides, Lu Li wasn’t just speeding up his own time this time. He had extended his time boundaries to also include Zheng Bowen.
An aura of mystery instantly filled the air.
As the flow of time changed drastically for Lu Li and Zheng Bowen, their table instantly looked as though it had been separated from the rest of the world.
The sounds and actions of everything around them were now a hundred times slower to Lu Li and Zheng Bowen.
Everything seemed to have suddenly come to a standstill!
Zheng Bowen noticed this oddity almost immediately. His eyes widened as he looked around him.
He turned with a start and stared wide eyed at Lu Li, who was smiling faintly back at him.
“Hello there,” Lu Li repeated himself slowly.
“What’s going on?! Did you do this? WHO ARE YOU?!”
Lu Li was actually rather surprised by Zheng Bowen’s reaction. Even though Zheng Bowen was clearly startled by what just happened and his body was extremely tensed up right now, the young man had managed to stay fairly rational.
In fact, he had guessed very quickly that the cause of this supernatural occurrence was very likely to be the calm looking young man seated at his table.
Lu Li was rather pleased with Zheng Bowen’s reaction. After all, he had purposely sacrificed so much of his time and appeared in such a dramatic fashion precisely to create this effect.
Otherwise, he was pretty sure that if a random person came up to you and said that he was here to buy a year of your life, the other person would probably think you were a nutcase.
“Please allow me to introduce myself.”
Lu Li paused for a moment to give Zheng Bowen a warm smile before saying in a leisurely manner, “You can call me The Time Merchant!”