"Your lifespan is now 1 hour 32 minutes 19 seconds..."
Even with his eyes closed, Chen Ke could see this line of text at the top right of his field of vision.
Anything could happen in a dream.
Chen Ke didn't take it to heart and turned over to continue sleeping.
"Ouch! Hiss hiss hiss!"
Suddenly, a sharp pain jolted him awake, feeling as if his heart had been viciously stabbed with a dagger, causing unbearable pain.
It couldn't be a sudden heart attack, could it?
At the same time, in the lower left corner of Chen Ke's field of vision, a line of faint golden text emerged from the bottom up:
"Transcendent Skill: Lost"
"Mortal Skill: Checking..."
"C.A.R.S: Mastered" (Central Axis Relocking Shooting Skill)
"Krav Maga: Mastered" (Israeli Maga Fighting Skill)
"Kali: Mastered" (Filipino Calisthenics)
He abruptly opened his eyes and found himself not lying on a bed, but on a cold floor.
The surroundings became clear as he looked around, office desks laden with computers came into view, and nearby, a glass door cracked open with a sign reading "Staff Only."
A sense of decay rose from within his heart as if something was being drawn out of his body, and he knew he had traveled to another dimension.
Chen Ke tried to get up from the floor, but his body felt hollow and weak, unable to move his limbs for a long time.
His eyes rolled around, and he noticed he was wearing a dark blue woolen coat, his left arm hanging cold and sticky on the ground. Lowering his gaze, he found himself lying in a pool of crimson blood.
This didn't bode well... that couldn't be his own blood, could it...
Chen Ke looked down and nearly scattered his soul, seeing a dagger stuck in his chest, only the hilt sticking out, his white shirt stained dark red.
Chen Ke's features twisted together in fear.
Calm down! Calm down!
He stared fixedly at the dagger in his chest, his body trembling inexplicably.
His heart must have been pierced... with so much blood lost, he should be dead, right?
But he was still alive, and oddly, he felt no pain, which clearly defied all logic!
He suddenly noticed again the line of text in the upper right corner of his vision.
"Your lifespan is now 1 hour 29 minutes 12 seconds..."
The time had decreased.
The seconds were still ticking down, 11, 10, 9, 8...
"Your lifespan is now 1 hour 28 minutes 59 seconds..."
This was real!
Chen Ke was startled, looking down at the dagger embedded in his chest, thoughts racing through his mind.
According to medical common sense, a sharp object lodged in the body can actually help to compress the wound and prevent major blood loss. Even if taken to a hospital, doctors wouldn't rush to remove the blade before appropriately dealing with it, or else be prepared for a human fountain show.
But given Chen Ke's current situation and circumstances, seeking medical help was hardly realistic, not to mention he only had a little more than an hour left—hardly enough time to receive emergency care...
To pull it out or not?
Extracting it might cause him to bleed to death, right?
He was still alive, able to think, able to move; the injury seemed manageable...
He could make it...
While constantly reassurring himself and battling internally, another minute ticked off the countdown.
Chen Ke clenched his teeth, and pulled!
"30 minutes of lifespan consumed to treat fatal injury."
A line of text scrolled in the upper right corner of his vision then, miraculously, something happened.
The dagger lodged in his chest began to tremble slightly, then slid out of the wound with a pleasant "ding" as it landed on the floor.
The dagger bounced a few times on the smooth floor, then emitted an orange glow; with a flash, the dagger shrank into a small, dim orange transparent diamond, about the size of a thumbnail.
Chen Ke was taken aback. He instinctively looked at the life countdown and inhaled sharply.
"Your lifespan is now 57 minutes 42 seconds..."
He instinctively touched his chest, looked down, and saw that apart from the hole punctured by the dagger, there was not a single scar on his body, and he couldn't even feel his heartbeat...
This countdown was truly indiscriminate, curing him just like that, but now without a heart, he had only about fifty minutes left to live. Chen Ke didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
A few seconds later, Chen Ke felt he could control his body again and, with a burst of energy, he shouted "Hiya" as he got up from the floor.
Maybe it was the rush to get up, but his vision went dark for a second and he staggered, collapsing onto a nearby office chair.
He surveyed his surroundings—this was an office space of several dozen square meters, with three manager offices, twenty-eight workstations, sixteen computers, and one copier.
The lights were off; it appeared to be after work hours.
There were no windows in the room, the office must have been in the central part of the building, with ventilation relying on the central air conditioning duct, and the ceiling was roughly four meters high. Hmm... a composite office building, this must be an internal office of the building management.
Chen Ke was surprised by his observational skills; just from a quick glance, he had gathered so much information.
He bent down to pick up the orange diamond that had transformed from the dagger and examined it in his palm. The little diamond was very beautiful, hard to imagine it had transformed from a dagger—how could it change back?
"30 minutes of lifespan consumed to summon the Holy Relic, 26 minutes 58 seconds remaining."
A line of text scrolled past, and the orange diamond in Chen Ke's hand flickered and turned back into a dagger.
Chen Ke inhaled sharply—what the hell? This was deadly! He looked at the dagger, and a transparent frame appeared before his eyes, displaying the information about the dagger:
[Blasphemous Dagger]
```
[--Withdrawn]
[--Withdrawn]
[--Used]
Chen Ke blinked, unable to comprehend. The transparent frame vanished.
The dagger transformed back into an orange diamond, and Chen Ke swore never to entertaining any thoughts about it again to avoid wasting the scarce lifespan he already had.
"Achoo!"
A chill rose from his feet, and Chen Ke suddenly felt very cold, heavy drowsiness surging non-stop, his eyelids growing heavy.
He rubbed his hands continuously to warm up, but it was useless, Chen Ke knew this was due to hypothermia caused by declining vital signs.
Having crossed over just half an hour ago, and not even having crossed the threshold, was he going to die here like a dog?
Chen Ke wouldn't accept it. Although he had no clue what to do, he didn't want to just sit quietly and wait to die.
"Miles, is that you?"
A hip-hop-inflected voice came from the corridor outside the door along with thudding footsteps.
Chen Ke's muscles tensed, and he promptly stood up, not knowing why he was so nervous as if something bad would happen next.
The office door was pushed open, and a bald Black man wearing a dark green jacket walked in, holding a gun. Chen Ke estimated he was around 180 centimeters tall, bigger built than himself.
The Black man's gaze locked onto Chen Ke immediately, pointing his gun at him. His eyes widened, his left hand holding the gun trembled, fear and curiosity mingling into a strange emotion that crept over his face.
But Chen Ke not only knew he was both fearful and curious, he could also feel the killing intent continuously emanating from him!
"Absorb killing intent to convert into lifespan"
"+30 minutes"
"+30 minutes"
"+30 minutes"
"+30 minutes"
...
The countdown timer for his life soared from 20 minutes to 2 hours and 30 minutes, and it was still increasing at a rate of half an hour per second!
Is that even possible?!
Watching the countdown timer continually adding time, Chen Ke was first stunned, then a surge of delight filled his heart.
"You? What good deed have you done, Lin? This damn thing isn't going as agreed upon, hey! You'd better raise your hands and slowly kneel down, explain clearly, where the hell is Miles?" The Black man, as if knowing Chen Ke, spoke in a rapid-fire manner typical of Black people's hip-hop emphasis.
For some unknown reason, Chen Ke could now instantly understand the English spoken by the Black man.
"Who are you?" Chen Ke slowly raised his hands, clutching the orange diamond in his right fist.
"You want to play games with me, Lin? You Asians shouldn't think you're smart, the problem now is that several of us are following the plan, and you, goddammit, didn't die as planned, which confuses me, ow! Man! Where's Miles? Tell me fast or I swear I'll fill your ass with lead!" The Black man said, shaking his head vigorously.
"What plan?" Chen Ke asked while watching the countdown in the upper right corner of his field of vision.
He delayed as long as possible, his lifespan was still rising rapidly, soon breaking past 4 hours.
"Don't play tricks on me, what are you holding in your right hand?" The Black man noticed Chen Ke's clenched right hand.
"Want it?" Chen Ke continued to taunt the Black man.
"What are you holding? Don't play tricks! Bloody Asian!" The Black man turned off the safety of his gun and threatened.
Chen Ke appropriately stepped back, showing the orange diamond in his hand to the Black man.
"Where did you get this? What stops you from giving it to me? You can't use it anyway," The Black man eyed the diamond.
"Come get it," Chen Ke spread his palm, extending the diamond towards the Black man.
The Black man slowly approached Chen Ke, reaching out his right hand for the diamond in Chen Ke's palm.
When they were just a step apart.
"Consume 30 minutes of lifespan to summon the Holy Relics."
In that instant, the diamond morphed back into a dagger.
In less than a second, Chen Ke, grasping the dagger, stabbed upwards from below the Black man's neck, piercing into his brain, and even stirred the handle.
The Black man's eyes rolled back, he didn't even have time to scream before he collapsed, his face buried in the small Blood Pool where Chen Ke had lain, the dagger in his throat swiftly transforming back into an orange diamond.
Life Timer: 3 hours 59 minutes 52 seconds.
Chen Ke did not want to rummage through flesh for that small diamond, instead picking up the Glock 17 dropped by the Black man.
He released the magazine, worked the slide, and a coppery 9mm bullet popped out from the ejection port, the double-row magazine loaded with 17 bullets.
This gun was a civilian model, only capable of firing in single-shot mode, unlike the fully automatic mode available on police and military Glocks.
Although it was his first time handling a real gun, Chen Ke felt strangely familiar and comfortable, as if he were a shooter who had undergone long-term professional training. The speed and accuracy of his actions in killing the Black man earlier even made him doubt his own abilities.
What exactly was the former owner of this body doing?
When he crossed over, Chen Ke had felt a sense of withering, likely the sensation of the original owner's soul perishing, the current Chen Ke was himself, just in a different body.
He suddenly recalled the three mundane skills just before he had crossed over.
The C.A.R.S, also known as the Central Axis Relocking System, is a close-quarter rapid reaction shooting technique, combining shooting stances, grip techniques, reloading, and aiming among various tactical skills into a comprehensive advanced shooting system.
Krav Maga and Kali are two fighting skills, one being the famous Maga Skill and the other a blend of unarmed and weapon-based Calisthenics. These martial arts do not have fixed routines; every move is a killing technique.
Chen Ke wasn't a military enthusiast, but having watched countless Hollywood movies, he was familiar with these techniques.
All three skills were aimed at killing, and Chen Ke, or rather the previous owner of this body, had mastered all three skills completely.
But what most intrigued Chen Ke was the "Lost" status of the Transcendent ability.
The soul perished, the original owner's Transcendent experiences vanished entirely, and the skills were lost as well.
However, the mundane skills honed and used over a long period, preserved within muscle memory and neural pathways, were naturally inherited by Chen Ke.
Since "Transcendents" exist, Chen Ke believed that there must also be a way to break the "Life Countdown" on himself.
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