《reborn as a system》Raas chapter 39
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Su Rui did not know why he had such an ability. It was as if he had gone to sleep one night, and when he woke up he found himself able to make time revert backwards.
As long as he wanted, he could go back to a specific point in time. Initially, he thought he was dreaming. However, after many tests, he was awakened to the reality that it was not a dream.
At first, he felt that thing was great and highly suitable for him.
From childhood to adulthood, his character was always somewhat odd. He had an out of the ordinary attachment to things around him. He strove for perfection. Everything was good. If there was a slight flaw, it was that his heart would always be grumbling with some level of unease. He always wished that he could redo something if he did not do it well.
That fault, on top of his natural disposition, actually served him quite well in various circumstances. When he was in school, he had always been in first place. Not only first in his class, or even the first in his grade, he wanted to be first in the whole city. If he could not be the first in his province, or ranked among the highest in the country, he would just pursue higher achievements.
Fortunately, he had a good brain. It was not troublesome for him to learn, otherwise he would have already forced himself to death. At work, he had to interact with all types of people and everything must be lovely. It was due to that and his meticulous character that Su father was able to hand over the family business to him early on and travel around the world together with Su mother.
Having such a son, except for occasionally making them feel vexed, he nevertheless caused very little trouble.
One could say that Su Rui's greatest imperfection in life was not that he wanted to change himself, but that he wanted to change his friends.
Shi Qing's character was basically his opposite. He did not strive to be first in everything, and nothing was really a problem. His lovely smile and vivacious personality tended to attract people's affection. He spent very little time on insignificant troubles, but he was generally able to figure matters out by himself. His optimism was worth admiring.
It was only natural that such a carefree personality would cause him to be careless and haphazard in his behaviour from time to time.
He did not commit large blunders, but rather small mistakes. For example, he forgot to bring his homework to school, forgot to bring a pencil, eraser, textbook...Su Rui felt like he was following a little child around, an animal that would forget its tail if it was not attached. However, while Su Rui was concerned to death, Shi Qing would just scratch his head, smile mischievously and laugh, then turn around and walk by.
That angered the daylights out of Su Rui.
Logically, it was almost impossible for two such individuals to become friends, but they even became close friends.
Su Rui was extremely strange, yet Shi Qing was able to tolerate him. If Shi Qing had ignored him, he would not have had a single friend. For a perfectionist, it was not tolerable if he did not have a single friend, so he held onto the one he had. Shi Qing truly treated him as a good friend, so even if he possessed some unbearable shortcomings, Su Rui had to endure in order for him to have a friend.
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Qin Mo would just tolerate his strange temperament, because Qin Mo was also a perfectionist at heart. For that reason, he was unlikely to be nitpicked by Su Rui. The main thing Su Rui observed about him was his innate high self-esteem.
Since they were both close friends with Shi Qing, they involuntarily spent their time together.
Su Rui was quite satisfied with that. All of a sudden, he had two friends, which was right in line with his self-determined requirement to make friends.
The three people journeyed along life's bumpy road, their affections growing deeper and deeper. Over time, they became close friends.
Now that Su Rui had that time-reverse thing, he held those feelings in even higher regard.
With that thing, he could perfectly cope with Shi Qing, with no need to be afraid of his carelessness. That type of friend, that no longer made him hopping mad, could not be more wonderful.
Only, he did not expect that Shi Qing could actually do so many troublesome things......within a single day, he had rewound twenty-one times...
When time was turned back, the people around him were not aware and stuck to their working routines, but Su Rui remembered everything. Although the actual time that had passed was only forty minutes, he had already experienced over 24 hours.
He was truly mentally exhausted, so the moment he got into the car, he finally felt relieved. He closed his eyes, thinking he could sleep for a while.
He did not think that while he slept, such a thing could actually happen.
He was awakened by Shi Qing shouting in alarm. When he opened his eyes, he saw a huge truck coming towards them. Just when he saw it, it broke through the window and rushed straight at them. At that speed, the force of the collision would definitely leave them with torn bodies and crushed bones!
Su Rui simply could not imagine how he had time, not just to witness things as they happened, but also to respond.
He quickly pushed on a small white spot on his fingernail—he wanted to use the life-saving drive, he wanted to make time flow backwards!
His two most important friends were sitting there, in any case he could not allow them to die!
He pushed down! At the last minute! He pushed down!
However, time did not flow backwards as he wanted. He was astonished when he looked around and saw that everything was completely still. The horrific impact scene had stopped at that moment. He could even look at glass fragments frozen in the air, as well as some fine powder that was often invisible to the naked eye.
The world...was frozen!
Su Rui recovered from his surprise, but he did not understand why there was no reverse in time?
Why, in the most critical moment, did time not flow backwards for him?
He tried to move his body, but he could not move at all. He could only watch.
Just then, an ice-cold, mechanical voice sounded, "With regards to the reversal of life, the host's spiritual power is insufficient. Time can only be reversed for two individuals. Please make a choice."
Su Rui was dumbfounded.
That sentence crossed over his mind several times, he knew what it all meant.
Insufficient spiritual power...Yes, he had gone back twenty-one times, meaning twenty-four hours without sleep. He was indeed utterly exhausted.
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Su Rui did not think that, due to his nitpicking, he would put all of their lives on the line.
Two people's lives......Even without taking outsiders into consideration, there were still three of them.
Shi Qing, Qin Mo...and him.
Only two people could live?
In the scene frozen before his eyes, it was like he was surrounded by a moat and only death waited on the other side. Horror and panic, like a poisonous snake, instantly coiled itself tightly around his heart. The crushing feeling left him unable to breathe.
He only had two friends in his life, two people who accepted him as he was. How could he abandon one of them?
Furthermore, they actually loved each other. Also...
If Qin Mo died, Shi Qing would surely fall into despair.
If Shi Qing died...impossible, he could not sacrifice the first person that reached out to him.
Perhaps...he could die...
At that point in time, Shi Qing was so tense he thought that he would die!
Time had frozen but he was still conscious, and he also heard the voice of the life-saving drive. He knew that Su Rui lacked the necessary amount of spiritual power, so he could not save all of them. He was required to choose.
Who would have thought that using the life-saving drive would require spiritual power. Su Rui had used it so many times that morning and consumed too much...Shi Qing could not help feeling some regret. He had consistently stimulated Su Rui, provoking him into rewinding time constantly.
At that moment, he was served with the consequences.
Although he could not act nor speak, Shi Qing was still a system. In the last mission they had succeeded well and earned a lot of points. He immediately sent a message to Qin Mo, "What should we do?
Since he sent the message, Qin Mo could choose to reply. Therefore, Shi Qing received a detailed plan in reply, "I can use my power to lift the force that has frozen time. I will stop the truck's impact, and at that moment you need to quickly seize the life-saving drive. Afterwards, reverse time again."
When he heard Qin Mo's words, Shi Qing immediately calmed down. It was great. When Qin Mo came into that world, there were some restrictions. He could not make use of the techniques he had learned through cultivation, but he still had the strengthened body he had redeemed his points for in the system store.
With his strength, he should be able to stop the truck. Although it would be universally shocking, as long as they could obtain the life-saving drive, quickly activate it, and return back to the last save point, then everyone would forget what had happened.
So now, they were waiting for Su Rui to make a choice about who he would ultimately save.
Although he knew that he would not die, and his time spent in contact with Su Rui was not too long, he was still faintly nervous. He did not know who Su Rui would choose.
In their suspended state, one second could just take one second, or it may take much longer.
Su Rui finally made a choice. He spoke to the life-saving drive, but because of their mission Shi Qing and Qin Mo heard his words.
"Shi Qing and Qin Mo, let them survive."
He said those words in a serene voice, but it was still a decision over life and death.
Many emotions burst out of Shi Qing's heart, but he had no time to pay them any mind. Whatever had kept time frozen had been cancelled!
There was no time to lose. They absolutely could not allow Su Rui to rewind time, so that very instant was the most crucial!
Qin Mo moved forward quickly and stopped the truck that was crashing into them. Meanwhile, Shi Qing rushed towards Su Rui at lightning speed, aiming for the nail of his index finger on his left hand.
Yes! Just when time was still, he finally saw clearly what he was searching for.
The life-saving drive turned out to be a small white spot on Su Rui's fingernail. It was very difficult to find.
Shi Qing quickly took that little spot, then he immediately pressed down. He could not manage to see the details properly, so he just randomly chose a save point.
Shi Qing's spiritual power was extremely strong. He instantly turned over Su Rui's decision with the life-saving drive, so although the save point had been altered slightly, there was no need for him to die. Then, the world flowed backwards for everyone!
After that familiar dizzy feeling, Shi Qing's heart finally calmed down. It seemed they were successful.
Then he felt the familiar hot, naked chest behind him.
Shi Qing's head went out-of-order for a moment, then he suddenly managed to react.
......He had once again returned to the beginning and was being embraced by Qin Mo......
However, at that moment, he could not worry too much. He was rejoicing from the bottom of his heart for the renewed life after calamity.
At the same time, he was also quite moved.
He was moved by Su Rui.
Not everyone had the courage to leave the opportunity to survive to others when they were faced with death.
Shi Qing examined his own heart—he may be unable to endure such a thing.
Just then, the door was pushed open.
The youth that entered was very delicate, with dark black hair and fair skin. He was dressed from head to toe in clothing that, while it was casual, was well worth a second look.
At that moment, he looked at the two people together in bed, his face quickly reddened, his mouth fell wide open with astonishment, and he stuttered, "You......you......you......"
He just kept repeating 'you' for a long time, so stunned that he did not say the rest of the sentence.
Then he slammed the door shut.
Shi Qing stared blankly, then smiled so widely his eyes were bent. It was exactly the same as the first time. Su Rui had forgotten it all.
From behind him Qin Mo lifted Shi Qing's finger and saw the small white dot. The life-saving drive was now in Shi Qing's possession.
Shi Qing sighed, "Su Rui was very good, but I took away his thing."
Qin Mo slowly assured him, "Take it away, that would be the most beneficial for him."
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