Chapter 49

Chapter 49 Time Reversal.

There was also a countdown following this introduction: 240 hours.

In other words, Ning Rong needed to complete this within 10 days.

However, since she had made a promise to the black shadows, she would naturally keep her word.

Ten seconds earlier.

Before the clearance notification had sounded, the livestreams of the other players had already been showing a variety of human reactions.

The first player completely broke down emotionally and gave up. She felt, “whatever, do as you like.” In any case, she had no ability to eliminate the workers’ resentment. Either she would get carried to victory, or it would be game over. So she simply lay on the ground to rest, adopting an attitude of letting the game’s chaos play out while she remained unmoved.

Moreover, she still had a seven-in-nine chance of surviving. She might not be that unlucky.

The second player begged the blurred shadow figures, hoping they would show mercy and let him pass directly. He said everything he could think of, until he was exhausted. The result, of course, was failure.

The third player made wild boasts, saying he would stand up for the shadows and beat up both the designer and the construction site manager from back then. This player even demonstrated his “unmatched combat ability” to the black shadows, tearing off his shirt on the spot and flexing his muscles dramatically. Unfortunately, this attempt at gaining favor also failed.

Black shadows: …

Viewers: …

The fourth player was praying for luck. He hoped that when he opened his eyes again, a big shot would already have carried him through the stage.

The fifth player…

The sixth player…

When it came to Zhou Yujing, the five shadows he had summoned were in a subtle standoff with the opposing black shadows. He did not speak, and the black shadows simply stared at him without any movement. Both sides maintained absolute silence, neither breaking the stillness.

Zhou Yujing looked at the five shadows standing in front of him, silent.

He wanted to help Ning Rong very much. He did not want to be useless.

But his skill… seemed to have too many limitations. In horror games, there were not many situations where raw combat power was useful.

If only there was a way to evolve skills…

If only there was…

While several players were either desperately trying or preparing to give up, the timed mission had already entered its final minute.

If no one completed the mission within the last minute, then two out of the nine players would be the unlucky ones.

The player who had given up lay on the ground muttering, “What can five minutes even do? And two of those minutes were spent watching ‘cinematic fragments.’ That leaves only three minutes to actually do the mission. Just saying a few sentences already takes one minute.”

The hardest part of this mission was undoubtedly the extremely tight time limit.

To complete it within three minutes, one either needed suitable items or a powerful skill. There was no other way.

But new players still within the three-month protection period did not have many usable items.

None at all.

Not to mention that the game had secretly changed the matching system—some players simply did not have the strength to be in a B-rank instance.

As for skills…

That could only be left to luck.

For many players, there was no hope at all for clearing this stage.

Except for a few.

As the countdown entered its final minute, the timer turned a vivid red.

The praying player muttered faster and faster, “Big shot save me, big shot save me, big shot save my dog life aaaah…”

When the countdown had only forty seconds left, all players suddenly heard the notification that the timed mission had been completed in their minds.

Players: !!!?

The praying player immediately opened his eyes and shouted, “There really is a big shot!”

【I told you there was a big shot, you just… oh right, you can’t see the bullet comments, hehe.】

【I’m really worried he’ll do the same thing next time, because next time he might not be so lucky to be matched with Big Sis Boss.】

【Big Sis Boss! Big Sis Boss!】

The player who had been giving up also stopped giving up. She flipped over and sat up from the ground, eyes shining brightly.

“Who is it? So strong? The whole mission was only five minutes, and this person actually finished it in four minutes and twenty seconds! That’s ridiculously strong!”

The other players, after reacting, either cried loudly, or were left in awkward embarrassment with torn clothing fragments.

Of course, when showing off, no one thinks too much. Now that they had to face the other players, the player who had tried to clear the stage with brute force inevitably felt a bit awkward.

Fortunately, no one else paid him any attention.

Show-off player: …

When the players gathered again, they appeared in the bumper car area. The foreman from before was nowhere to be seen, and only a faceless worker stood nearby.

The players looked at each other, waiting to be carried by the big shot.

Ning Rong and Zhou Yujing stood to one side, patiently waiting for the foreman to arrive.

Since they were testing amusement facilities, there had been a foreman guiding them earlier. Now there should also be one. If not, it was fine—they could observe the situation first. Judging from the game’s updated style, there should be a prompt soon.

While they were standing there, the player who had been praying frantically earlier quietly approached.

“Hey.”

Zhou Yujing recognized him as the player who had given him the hearing aid item and nodded in greeting. “Hello.”

Li Morui lowered his voice and said, “Bro, don’t be like that. I just came over to chat.”

Zhou Yujing frowned. “Chat about what?”

Li Morui scratched his head awkwardly. “Well… I’ve got a skill that’s pretty good at gathering information. I just wanted to tell you—if you want to know anything, you can tell me. I can gather most information for you.”

No one knew that Li Morui also had a hidden identity.

It was just that his hidden identity was a bit awkward—hard to even say out loud.

Because his hidden identity was 【Gossip Broker】.

Why did he unlock this hidden identity? He had deeply analyzed it and concluded it was related to his personality in real life.

In real life, he loved gossip and especially enjoyed digging into other people’s affairs. Now it was fine—he could indeed learn other people’s gossip through his skill—but the bad part was that this hidden identity had almost no self-defense ability. It was practically useless in a horror game.

Was he supposed to go around digging into NPC gossip?

And then what? Aside from enraging NPCs, what use would that even have?

Useless! Completely useless!

So, after racking his brains, he developed another use for this hidden identity, such as—

Selling information or proactively giving it to strong players in exchange for their goodwill.

Of course, whether it was goodwill or not didn’t really matter. As long as when he encountered danger, the other party would be willing to help him a bit, that was enough.

Ning Rong glanced at Li Morui a little more after hearing this, and he immediately smiled brightly and enthusiastically said, “Big shot, is there anything you want to know?”

Ning Rong did not ask how he determined that she was the one who had carried them through the mission. There were many capable people in the game, and players more or less had their own areas of expertise.

For example, some players were especially good at judging people…

She asked casually, “Do you know which hidden identities there are?”

There were already more than a dozen players with hidden identities who had spoken up on the forum before. If she said she wasn’t curious about other people’s hidden identities, that would obviously be impossible. Since Li Morui was proactively showing goodwill, she also planned to probe his skill and see what useful information he could actually gather.

Li Morui said confidently, “Big shot, you’ve really asked the right person this time.”

Ning Rong was slightly surprised. “Oh? You know?”

Li Morui nodded vigorously. “I know one. But it was also by coincidence—I just happened to be matched into the same game instance with that person.”

Ning Rong: …

This made her unconsciously think of Lu Wen.

Lu Wen had also been matched with Pool Silk, which was why he understood her so well.

Ning Rong gave a slight nod. “Go on.”

Li Morui did not keep people in suspense and said directly, “Isn’t there a very popular newcomer on the newcomer leaderboard named Juān Juān? Her skill is Rollback—have you heard of it?”

Ning Rong glanced at Zhou Yujing.

Rollback?

She knew that very well.

How could she not know?

Zhou Yujing hooked his pinky finger around Ning Rong’s pinky, gently rubbing against it affectionately.

Ning Rong: …

But clearly, what Li Morui wanted to say was not Pool Silk.

He lowered his voice and said softly, “In my last game, I matched with a player who had a hidden identity. One of her skills seems to be 【Time Reversal】. But her skill is a bit different from 【Rollback】. 【Rollback】 directly resets everything to the moment you entered the game, but that player can control the duration.”

【Oh my god! Juān Juān has a rival now!】

【Rival? Not really, honestly this person completely outclasses Pool Silk.】

【Who is this person? Their skill sounds kind of interesting.】

【Being able to control the length of time reversal sounds more flexible than Rollback, but can Time Reversal also reset everything back to the initial state?】

【Not sure. After all, the deeper details of a skill are only known by the player themselves.】

After speaking, Li Morui blinked and said playfully, “Clearly, that hidden identity player’s upper limit is higher than someone who only has a single skill.”

Translated bluntly, that meant: that player’s potential far exceeded Pool Silk.

After hearing this, countless thoughts flashed through Ning Rong’s mind.

In truth, she wasn’t too surprised that such a hidden identity existed.

After all, she had always understood that the world was vast and there were many outstanding people. She was indeed special within the game, but she was not the only special one. She could not stop moving forward…

If livestream viewers could hear this, they would definitely say: No, Big Sis Boss, you are already the most special one!

Ning Rong further realized that the game contained a wide variety of skills.

Li Morui’s appearance had, in a way, reminded her of something.

She also possessed a hidden identity. To avoid unnecessary trouble, it seemed she needed to find a way to completely conceal her identity for the time being.

On another note—

She asked, “What is that player’s personality like?”

Li Morui froze for a moment, not understanding why the big shot would ask this question.

He scratched his head and said honestly, “I’m not sure. I didn’t interact with her much, so I don’t really understand what kind of person she is.”

Li Morui continued, “She used 【Time Reversal】 to push time back by six seconds. If I hadn’t been alert enough, I wouldn’t have even noticed this.” In fact, he strongly suspected that in that game instance, only he realized that time had been adjusted by six seconds. The other players seemed completely unaware of it.

Back then, he had spent quite a bit of effort just to lock onto that female player.

Come to think of it, his ability to identify big shots seemed pretty strong. That female player probably still didn’t even realize her hidden identity had already been seen through by him.

Li Morui: hehehehehe.

After hearing Li Morui’s answer, Ning Rong said nothing.

She hoped that a player with such a hidden identity would be a firm member of the red faction—a player standing on humanity’s side, someone who desired to end the game and restore peace and tranquility to this world once and for all.

If that person’s worldview and morals were problematic, then leaving such a hidden identity in their hands would only do more harm than good.