The attending doctor, fatigued under the bright surgical lights, removed his mask. A look of inevitable sorrow crossed his face as he shook his head.
"At 2:14:37 AM, time of death. I'm sorry, we did everything we could."
With his heavy words, the corridor echoed with the painful sobs and cries of the family.
The relatives were engulfed in unbearable grief.
But Michael's eyes, in that moment, gleamed with wild joy!
'It's real, it's really happening!' He had truly gained a Supernatural Ability!
At the very brink of death, instead of simply waiting for his end, he could do so much more! Perhaps, he could even continue to live...
Michael looked at his hand, his lips slowly curling into a wide, ecstatic smile!
The grieving family and the excited Michael were only a few meters apart, separated into two worlds—one of intense sorrow, and the other of pure exhilaration.
He immediately turned around. His previous despair gone in an instant. He walked out of the hospital with steady steps.
After Michael left, Bill glanced at his girlfriend, Louise, looking a little dazed. "Sweetheart, did you feel it? That dead guy, he looks a lot like... that mob boss William we saw in the news..."
…
Michael was nearly home. He lived in a well-known impoverished district, renting a place in this dilapidated neighborhood.
Around him were homeless people, a breeding ground for drugs and crime. In fact, right next door to Michael was a drug addict.
"The conditions are terrible, but it's cheap." Michael managed a bitter smile.
All his life, he had felt like a rat, living without any dignity.
Under the oppressive night sky, a flickering streetlight blinked on and off. Michael used his key to open the door to his place.
As he walked in, he casually threw his thin jacket over the back of a chair and turned on the only desk lamp, the dim light barely illuminating the surroundings. He sat down, his eyes sparkling with anticipation.
"I need to figure out this new Supernatural Ability immediately!"
Michael looked at his palm again, and the cold digits appeared once more.
[Michael]
[Remaining Lifespan: 29 days, 14 hours, 38 minutes, 55 seconds]
The glaring numbers made Michael, a cancer patient, feel a sense of urgency in his chest as he watched the countdown of his remaining life ticking away.
"The priority now is to save my life…" His expression turned serious.
Suddenly, a flash of light appeared in front of him, and a golden screen materialized.
Michael jumped in surprise. The screen was reminiscent of a game interface, and at the top was a tutorial-like introduction about the Supernatural Ability.
[How to Use Supernatural Ability]
[This power allows you to see the lifespan of every human being. As long as you know their name and appearance, you can disregard space and perceive their remaining time, no matter where they are.]
[Additionally, this Supernatural Ability has two major powers.]
[1. Transfer of Lifespan]
Michael's gaze suddenly jolted.
"Not only can I see lifespans, but there are other abilities too! Transfer of Lifespan, I like this..." He clenched his fists, excitement flashing across his face.
[Transfer of Lifespan]
[You can take away someone else's lifespan, or give someone else more time to live. Note: To take someone's lifespan, their consent is required! Also, the lifespan you collect will not add to your own!]
[Each time you take or add someone else's lifespan, you gain one year of your own life!]
Michael processed each word, slowly realizing that this ability had some limitations.
Not only did he need the other person's consent to take their lifespan, but the lifespan collected wouldn't even add to his own.
"Every time I transfer time, I gain one year... feels like I'm just a worker earning a wage." Michael muttered to himself.
But even with these limitations, it was enough to make him feel both excited and ecstatic.
For someone close to death, any chance of survival must be seized with all their might!
Moreover, with just these rules, Michael could change himself, his life, and even the world!
"According to the rules of this ability, I could become a Time Merchant!" Michael's mind raced, an idea forming almost immediately.
"I'll use money to buy others' time, and then sell that time at a high price! I can make huge profits from this!" Michael was certain this was viable. After all, to humans, time was the most precious thing in the world.
However, the price of everyone's time might not be the same.
"Now, what's the second ability?" Michael continued reading.
[2. Manipulation of Time]
[You can create a space centered around yourself, isolated from the outside world. Within this space, you can freely control the flow of time, speeding it up or slowing it down!]
[Controlling the flow of time can be done at will. But the cost is that you must consume your own lifespan!]
"Controlling the flow of time?" Michael turned his head and looked at the phone on the nearby desk.
He picked it up, opened the timer app, and took a deep breath.
"Time Acceleration, five times, activate!" Michael whispered. As he spoke, his finger gently tapped the screen of his phone, pressing the start button.
Remaining Lifespan: 29 days, 4 hours, 30 minutes, 10 seconds
The moment he activated Time Acceleration, his own lifespan began to accelerate as well!
Almost immediately, Michael felt a strange sensation throughout his body. He looked at the phone on the table in front of him and noticed that the movement of time had slowed down dramatically.
He mentally counted to five seconds, and only after a full second passed on the phone's timer did the sound of the ticking also slow down.
Michael took a deep breath, walked over to the window, and looked outside.
In the sky, a flock of crows appeared. They usually scavenge for food in the night, flying as fast as lightning. But now, it seemed as though they were moving in slow motion. Each flap of their wings felt like it lasted an eternity.
In the yard, a stray cat leaped from one tree to another. Normally quick and agile, now it seemed to be moving in slow motion, even freezing for a brief moment in mid-air.
The entire world had slowed down!
Except for him.
"Five times... My time has increased fivefold. So everything outside seems to have slowed down by five times for me!" Michael's eyes widened. "And, similarly, to others, I must appear to be moving five times faster?"
He returned to his phone and stopped the timer.
Five minutes had passed, but the timer on the phone only showed one minute!
"Time Acceleration, deactivate." Michael waved his hand and checked his remaining time.
Remaining Lifespan: 29 days, 14 hours, 25 minutes, 8 seconds
Michael saw that he had lost five minutes of his lifespan. The acceleration was actually stacking multiple versions of his time, just as he had just done.
"What if I stack it a hundred times, or even a thousand times?" A thought flashed in Michael's mind. "If a minute passes for others, but I experience a thousand minutes, wouldn't that make me like lightning? My movements would be impossible for anyone to catch! It's a powerful survival skill, no one in this world could harm me!"
However, Michael also realized a key fact: he was someone whose lifespan was down to just twenty days or so.
So, he couldn't use it recklessly.
Controlling time had its limits…
"It seems the urgent thing is to start my first transaction." Michael squinted. "There are plenty of addicts near my home. There's one living next door. I've got an idea…"
Half an hour later.
Michael stood outside his building, taking deep breaths as he looked at the items in his hand.
A mask, a voice recorder, and a paper bag.
He opened the paper bag and saw stacks of cash inside—20,000 US dollars in cash!
"This is all I have, including the money I've earned from working all these years, and the inheritance left by my parents." Michael took one last glance at the bag, then sealed it up and held it in his hand.
He was ready for his first purchase of lifespan!
The mask and the voice recorder would all come in handy. Michael placed the recorder into his coat pocket and then put on the mask.
This was a sinister mask. It was as black as ink, clinging to his face like a second skin. The eye sockets were surrounded by intricate carvings that spiraled outward like clawed hands reaching for something. A long, beak-like nose jutted down from the center, reminiscent of a medieval physician's mask.
After putting on the mask, Michael's deep gaze fixed on the void in front of him.
"It's better not to show my real face while doing something like this." he whispered to himself.
Then, he headed toward the addict's house, slipping quietly inside.