WEF - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Ning Dali Was Killed on the Spot by Ning Dali...

Everything around Ning Dali was flowing backward, but this time, only one minute of time was rewound.

Zhong Wentao took out her pistol once more and shattered the camera, which time had restored to its original condition.

"This time, your memories were preserved. You should know what just happened," Zhong Wentao said.

"Now, tell me. Will what I say carry any weight in the World Bureau?"

The person with the time ability was Zhong Wentao after all.

Ning Dali could not help but be surprised.

She had merely put on a crude performance for the surveillance cameras, yet she had drawn in so many people that even Zhong Wentao, a wielder of a time ability, had come to meet her in person.

Was the Federation paying too much attention to her, so much that it seemed almost unreasonable?

Ning Dali pressed her lips together.

What secret was her Countdown hiding?

Ning Dali remained silent for some time. Anxiously raking a hand through her hair, Zhong Wentao muttered to herself, "Did I say something wrong? Was my explanation unconvincing? Did the AI not spin it well enough for me...? That can't be right."

Ning Dali thought, You just blurt your inner thoughts out like that? Am I meant to hear that?

How does a News Department spokesperson have no filter between her teeth? On the news, you were never this unreliable.

Ning Dali and Zhong Wentao looked at each other.

Zhong Wentao understood the suspicion in Ning Dali's eyes and said firmly, "No. Let's start over from the beginning."

As soon as she finished speaking, everything in Ning Dali's eyes began flowing backward again.

Soon, three gunshots came from outside the operating room.

"Bang, bang, bang!"

This time, Zhong Wentao could hardly wait. She pushed open the operating room door herself and stood alone before Ning Dali.

"Hello, I'm Zhong Wentao."

Zhong Wentao left out the rest of her introduction. She had no desire to explain the name of the World Management Bureau all over again.

Ning Dali said slowly, "Hello."

Although she did not know why her memories had not vanished along with the rewind, Ning Dali still slipped into character and played along.

"I am very sorry to meet you like this," Zhong Wentao said. "Are you interested in making a deal? Perhaps you are unclear about your current situation. I can give you a friendly reminder. In half an hour, you will lose your freedom for good and spend the rest of your life in a prison cell."

Ning Dali's expression changed. "What do you mean?"

Zhong Wentao spread her hands and adopted a conversational tactic completely different from her previous one.

"You thought that by stating your position to the surveillance cameras, someone would recruit you and bring you into an organization. Your thinking is far too simple. I can tell you plainly that, aside from me, no one can actually help you."

Like a broken record, Ning Dali asked, "What do you mean? Why?"

By continuing to ask questions, she could get many answers. This was especially true because Zhong Wentao possessed a time ability. People with time abilities were always less vigilant. They believed they had endless room to correct their mistakes.

Zhong Wentao said, "Because the fact that you are imprisoned cannot be changed. Whatever happens, you will be imprisoned."

"You think the people outside came to recruit you? You are entirely wrong. They came to deceive you. Any deal you made with them would be invalid, liable to shatter at the slightest blow, steeped in deceit, and hiding a conspiracy behind it."

"I am different. I possess a time ability. I am the only person who can help you, and the only person with whom you can make a deal." After saying this, Zhong Wentao felt that she had done rather well this time.

Ning Dali tilted her head and repeated, "Then how am I supposed to know that your deal with me is not invalid, liable to shatter at the slightest blow, steeped in deceit, and hiding a conspiracy behind it?"

Zhong Wentao fell silent.

She froze, then seemed to realize that she had once again blurted out what was in her mind. She shot Ning Dali a sharp glare, as if making some kind of decision.

"You aren't about to activate your time ability, are you?" Ning Dali quickly added, "Let's talk a little longer."

The ability Zhong Wentao had been about to activate hung there, unfinished.

Ning Dali said slowly, "Actually, I am very interested in the deal you are offering. I also believe my current situation is not looking good. But I do not understand what I have that I could trade with you."

If she was going to lose her freedom forever in half an hour, what value could she possibly have to Zhong Wentao?

Zhong Wentao surely would not pull out a handful of ashes now and tell her to hurry up and resurrect someone. Ning Dali could just as easily arrange that once she was in prison. There was no need to rush.

Zhong Wentao pulled something snow-white from her clothes.

It was not ashes, as Ning Dali had imagined, but a contract. A contract stained with a little blood.

"Sign this contract, and in two weeks you can stay out of prison and return to the construction site as a cement porter."

The barrier surrounding the operating room targeted only Ning Dali. Zhong Wentao reached straight through and passed the contract into the barrier without the slightest obstruction.

Ning Dali took the contract.

She could not tell what material it was made from. It felt very strange in her hand.

The text on the contract was brief. Everything written on it could be understood at a glance.

[Transfer Contract]

By mutual agreement, Party A voluntarily and unconditionally transfers the first skill of Ability [Rewind] to Party B permanently.

Upon signing this agreement, it shall remain in force forever in the past, present, and future.

Party A:

Party B:

Zhong Wentao tapped the Party A line and said, "Add a little of your own blood, then sign your name there."

Ning Dali stared at the contents of the contract, her gaze fixed. She could guess that the agreement was the product of some ability, but she had never imagined that its contents would be like this. She was Party A? She was voluntarily transferring the first skill of Ability [Rewind] to Party B? Party B was presumably Zhong Wentao, but didn't she already possess a time ability? Why was she signing this agreement as well? Most importantly, when had she, this Party A, gained Ability [Rewind]? She had not even known!

Holding the contract, Ning Dali asked, "Don't you have anything to explain?"

Zhong Wentao did not answer. She had already regretted taking out the agreement.

She should have found a blank sheet of paper to cover the contract's contents and simply let Ning Dali sign on the Party A line, instead of boldly showing her the whole agreement.

Never mind. Without panic, Zhong Wentao rewound time, returning it to the second before she had extended the contract.

Zhong Wentao walked around the operating room, found a sheet of paper, and covered the contents of the contract.

Once it was covered, she decided that the maneuver was too foolish. She could simply have folded the contract in half.

She folded the contract in half at the Party A line. After it was folded, only two lines remained visible, one reading Party A and the other reading Party B.

"Here." Zhong Wentao held out the contract again and said, "Use your blood to sign your name on the Party A line."

Ning Dali extended two fingers and pinched the contract between them.

The two fingers curled once.

The transparent barrier could stop a person, but it could not stop an ability.

The shadows cast by the equipment in the operating room instantly flared, coalescing into a sharp arrow of shadow that pierced Zhong Wentao's heart from back to front.

"You..." Zhong Wentao's eyes widened, and she fell forward.

"You don't need to be so nervous," Ning Dali said to Zhong Wentao's corpse. "You can still be resurrected."

Although Ning Dali's Resurrection skill had been used on a zombie, when time rewound, the skill had rewound with it and was once again ready to be activated.

Zhong Wentao's constant time rewinding was too troublesome. Ning Dali needed her to die for a while to put a stop to it.

Ning Dali opened the folded contract and bit her finger.

She wondered whether signing her name on both the Party A and Party B lines would allow her to gain a time ability. If she gained one, her current predicament would no longer be a predicament.

She would have a chance to start over.

Ning Dali's name was simple to write. She wrote it on the Party B line, then prepared to write the same name after Party A.

At that moment, Zhong Wentao on the floor completely lost all signs of life.

A string of text flashed before Ning Dali's eyes.

Ability [Rewind] (Partial)

Rewind the lost time!

Skill One: Master of Time. You can manipulate time, making the time of the entire world repeatedly flow backward according to your will. You can also grant certain targets the boon of retaining their previous memories. The only drawback is that you can rewind no more than one hour. Every twenty-four hours, you may use this skill ten times.

Ning Dali's bleeding finger stopped on the contract.

She had gained the ability before she had even finished signing the contract. Why?

Since making contact with the Federation, Ning Dali had become a walking hundred thousand whys.

But this time, she did not have to puzzle it out by herself. She could resurrect Zhong Wentao and ask for a clear answer.

Time was pressing. Ning Dali found a scalpel in the operating room and stabbed herself to death with a single thrust.

Soon afterward, she opened her eyes in the operating room, the place where she had been born and the same place where she had died.

There were now two dead people in the operating room.

One was Zhong Wentao. The other was Ning Dali.

Ning Dali had been killed on the spot by Ning Dali, satisfying the activation condition for the second skill of [Nirvana]. By killing a person on the spot, she could resurrect another designated target.

Ning Dali immediately activated the skill and resurrected Zhong Wentao.

If she could not activate the skill by exploiting this bug, she would rewind time and find a way to make the kill happen again.

Fortunately, the ability's light flickered, and Zhong Wentao opened her eyes on the floor as Ning Dali had hoped.

Ning Dali kept her gaze fixed on Zhong Wentao's every movement. She feared that Zhong Wentao would activate her time ability and rewind time, that Ning Dali's own time ability might disappear, and that she might have no way to kill Zhong Wentao again.

Ning Dali had greatly overestimated Zhong Wentao's abilities.

Zhong Wentao lay completely still for five full seconds before accepting that she had died and come back to life.

Once she had taken that in, she was horrified to discover that her ability was gone. Her incomplete Single-Character Ability, [Rewind], was gone!

"What?!"

Zhong Wentao let out a piercing shriek. Her voice cut through the operating room door and immediately drew the attention of the guards in the corridor.

"What happened?" the guards called from a distance as they hurried toward the operating room.

A faint smile curved Ning Dali's lips.

"If you scream again, I'll kill you again. Calm down and shut your mouth. I'm counting to five."

"Five, four, three..."

The guards outside were already on the verge of pushing open the operating room door.

Zhong Wentao lay on the floor, the pain of being pierced still lingering in her chest. She saw the smile on Ning Dali's lips and, unwilling to risk her life, closed her mouth.

The operating room fell silent.

The guards threw open the door.

"Good girl," Ning Dali said.

She rewound time, preserved Zhong Wentao's memories, and returned the moment to just before Zhong Wentao had screamed.

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