Virus King - Chapter 57

Chapter 57: Time Reversal! The Terrifying Power of the Time Hourglass! Clearing the Villa District!

TL: Yang

[Time Hourglass has completed soul binding!]

This single line sent Chen Bai’s heart into a frenzied excitement.

In his previous life, the Time Hourglass had never been useful at all. Even under the manifestation of the Cosmic Will, the Time Hourglass only displayed a series of question marks in a large circle!

Aside from its name, it held no other information!

Back then, when Chen Bai had stumbled upon this item by accident, he had found it extremely strange.

That time, he had barely escaped death. Within a peculiar secret realm, he had acquired the Time Hourglass!

However, despite studying it for so long, he hadn’t discovered anything useful.

In the end, Chen Bai could only regard it as the one lucky find from his near-death experience, treating it as a good-luck charm and hanging it around his neck.

But unexpectedly, after his inexplicable rebirth and the reemergence of the apocalypse, this incredibly mysterious item finally seemed to be unveiling one layer of its hidden veil!

Chen Bai looked around.

Tiny, sparkling specks like diamond dust, accompanied by the shattering of the Time Hourglass, swirled around him, illuminating the space around him in the night sky with a beautiful, starlit glow.

He then turned his gaze toward everyone around him.

Song Ziqiong, Song Ge, Leng Shuang, Chu Xin, Lu Li—all the women were frozen in their previous poses and expressions, as if someone had cast a spell of immobilization on them!

‘Tick… tick… tick…’

The sound of a ticking second hand rang in his ears, suddenly slowed to an extreme degree!

This was…

Chen Bai stared in shock at everything around him. Time itself had been frozen in this moment!

Time… had stopped???

Chen Bai had never experienced anything like this before. Yet, in his ears, the sound of the ticking second hand and the flowing of the hourglass echoed around him.

Everything that could represent the passage of time appeared vividly clear before Chen Bai’s eyes in this moment.

In a trance, Chen Bai seemed to peer through countless dimensions and planes, catching a glimpse of a surging river!

This river shimmered with brilliant colors yet was dark and lightless.

This river was vibrant and full of hues, yet ultimately returned to void.

The river seemed to exist, and yet, it seemed not to.

In that instant, a concept surfaced in Chen Bai’s mind—that river was the River of Time!

Chen Bai snapped back to reality. He looked at the starlike motes dispersing around him, and in the next moment, these specks slowly converged onto his body.

Then they disappeared without a trace!

Realizing something, Chen Bai quickly opened his attribute panel.

Just as he expected, in his equipment section, he saw a new prompt—something he had never encountered in his previous life!

[Soul Bound: Time Hourglass]

[Time Hourglass]

[????]

[?????????]

[Return to the Past: Allows the user to return to any chosen point in the past. All gains obtained in the erased timeline will be completely nullified! (Cooldown: 72 years, 6 months, and 7 days)

(PS: The cooldown time of this effect cannot be affected by any skill or equipment to reduce cooldown! This skill possesses absolute priority!)

[Time Reversal: Marks the user’s perfect state, allowing the user to revert to this state during battle. All injuries, negative statuses will be completely removed, and all skill cooldowns reset to 0! This skill effect possesses the highest priority! Cooldown: 1 hour]

[???]

[???]

[???]

[Usage Requirement: Soul Bound]

A flood of question marks once again left Chen Bai in bewildered confusion.

But this was replaced by an unimaginable surge of joy!

He had previously guessed that the Time Hourglass might be the main reason for his rebirth.

However, Chen Bai had never imagined that the Time Hourglass was even stranger than he had initially thought!

A long string of question marks—no indication of level at all!

What tier could this item possibly be? There was no way to tell!

Yet, despite having no tier classification, it wielded such terrifying powers, proving that this was its most uncanny and fearsome feature!

Now, besides the “Return to the Past” option that Chen Bai took one look at and immediately dismissed, there was another power here that could only be described as heaven-defying!

Time Reversal!

All skill cooldowns, all injuries, all negative statuses—could be immediately reversed in this moment.

In other words, every hour, he effectively possessed an extra life!

What kind of concept was this?!

And the cooldown reduction was absolutely outrageous.

He had seen forbidden-level skills with cooldowns lasting up to half a month. Those terrifying abilities came with unimaginable power and effects, balanced by their long cooldown times.

But now, to Chen Bai, or rather, to the time-reversal ability of the Time Hourglass, it didn’t matter if a skill was forbidden-level, divine-level, or some other overpowered ability.

As long as it was a skill, the cooldown was fixed at one hour!

Without a single exception!

With the highest-priority time-reversal ability, Chen Bai didn’t need to worry about its effects.

Right now, Chen Bai was burning with curiosity about what grade this Time Hourglass truly was!

Could it be… a legendary SSS-Rank treasure?

A supreme treasure coveted, even fought over, by the gods themselves?!

Chen Bai didn’t know. He only knew that from now on, this item would be his greatest secret.

Fortunately, in his previous life, he had never told anyone else about this thing.

And now, he definitely wouldn’t!

Chen Bai clenched his fists, his eyes reopening with renewed determination.

With this heaven-defying item, he finally had boundless confidence. That profession he had only caught a fleeting glimpse of in his past life, the one he hadn’t even dared to pursue deeply—could he actually try for it this time?

Thinking about the opportunity he had missed in his previous life to change professions, Chen Bai refocused himself.

He needed to make more preparations!

The night remained long.

For many people, it was a night they would never forget.

For many others, it was the last night of their lives.

When dawn broke, the world before them would be utterly transformed.

Chen Bai’s night, however, passed in relative calm.

The howls and cries outside the villa had nothing to do with him.

He devoted all his attention to the Time Hourglass, continually testing its abilities.

The unique properties of time-reversal!

Meanwhile, it was clear that Song Ziqiong’s night had been anything but idle.

She had long ago issued instructions to keep a close watch on the family housing buildings.

If anyone showed signs of zombification, they were to be immediately dealt with.

Thankfully, she had been somewhat prepared in advance, distributing a supply of virus serums to everyone over there. Once midnight passed, they all took the serum.

In the end, out of more than a thousand—almost two thousand—relatives of her people, fewer than ten turned into zombies. And upon transforming, they hardly had a chance to harm anyone before being swiftly killed by her subordinates, who had already become Evolvers!

It went smoothly, allowing Song Ziqiong to let out a sigh of relief. Sure enough, after the apocalypse erupted, there was no more dissent or questioning from anyone.

The screams in the night, the scratching at walls—those sounds sent chills down everyone’s spine, and her authority reached an all-time high.

Originally, in the East Mountain Villa District, there had been several thousand people, including Chen Bai, Song Ziqiong, and her arrangements with the property management staff.

But now, let alone half, there were likely barely even a third of the people left alive!

At dawn, the morning light broke, seemingly no different from any other day, except for the increasingly silent villa district.

And in the distance, visible from where they stood, Jiangcheng lay in utter chaos.

Chen Bai glanced at the now-quiet Group Chat No. 001. After the incident with Han Xiao, no one had said a word.

The Evolver Forum, which had opened with the arrival of Blue Star’s Will, was equally empty.

It wasn’t that everyone who enjoyed online forums had turned into zombies; rather, the forum had strict posting fees—ten copper coins per post, and one copper coin per reply.

For a forum that had just entered the apocalypse, this price was simply too extravagant!

Very few people could afford it!

Chen Bai, looking at the distant, breaking dawn, slowly rose to his feet.

A squad of thirty had gathered in the courtyard.

Chen Bai slowly made his way into the courtyard. He didn’t rush to ask Song Ziqiong and Song Ge about their talents; compared to that, there was something he cared about even more!

His own talent ability!

So, after giving a quick instruction to Song Ziqiong and the others,

In the early hours of the first day of the apocalypse, with everyone prepared, Chen Bai stepped out of the villa courtyard and headed beyond the villa district. He was already impatient to test out his own talent!

Perfect—he needed to clean out the zombies in the villa complex anyway!

He would lead the team himself!

…

At the heart of the villa district, Villa 004 was located in one of the most scenic spots on East Mountain.

From here, one could see the entire East Mountain landscape, as well as the distant Yangtze River rushing toward the sea.

But now, it had become a paradise of death.

On the attic floor of the villa, toys lay scattered everywhere. A young woman clutched a girl of about seven or eight years old, her hair disheveled.

Dust and messy black hair couldn’t hide her pampered, fair skin, but those alluring eyes were now filled with nothing but terror and despair.

Her bloodshot eyes brimmed with tears, but she dared not make a sound.

Qin Lingyu didn’t know what had happened to the world overnight. The voice that had echoed in her mind, that so-called “personal panel” that appeared before her—she didn’t care to understand what any of it meant.

All she knew was that, in a single night, her husband—the richest man in Jiangcheng—the family’s maid, the bodyguards, even her father-in-law, who held a high position in the city, had all turned into bloodthirsty monsters!

Only because her daughter Qiuqiu had begged her last night to play with her in the toy room and sleep together in the attic, had they narrowly escaped this disaster.

But what about now?!

Early that morning, when she had instinctively opened the door, she had seen her zombified father-in-law crouched over her husband—Qin Lingyu’s own husband—feasting passionately on his flesh!

Fortunately, Qin Lingyu had heard rumors recently about a strange virus spreading in the world.

After her initial shock, she quickly ran back to the attic!

But their location was already exposed.

Despite using every piece of furniture she could find to barricade the door—

The relentless sound of nails scratching and bodies slamming against the door rang like a death knell, striking fear into Qin Lingyu’s heart with each beat.

Every slam made her shiver, her body trembling uncontrollably.

But even with a cabinet, TV, game console, and an old piano piled in front of the door, it wasn’t enough to stop her husband and other former loved ones, now zombified, from wanting to rip her apart and devour her flesh!

“Mama, I’m scared…”

Her daughter’s voice brought a flash of resolve to Qin Lingyu’s eyes.

She took a deep breath, stopped holding her daughter close, and quickly went over to the attic window.

The ten-meter drop made her purse her lips, but there was no other choice.

She gently held her daughter and opened the window.

“Qiuqiu, don’t be scared. Close your eyes, and it’ll be over soon. If Mama can’t stand up after the jump, you run by yourself, okay?”

The little girl looked up at her mother in confusion, not understanding why her father was knocking on the door and her mother wouldn’t open it.

And why didn’t they just use the stairs? Why jump down?

But the little girl could only nod.

Qin Lingyu kept her gaze locked on the door. Although she knew hope was slim, she still couldn’t help but pray for a miracle.

But hope, in the end, was just hope.

Finally, with a terrifying crash, the solid imported wood door split down the middle!

The cabinet blocking the door was shoved back a full thirty centimeters!

A huge gap appeared in the door.

Without a second thought, Qin Lingyu grabbed her daughter and moved toward the window. Her long, shapely legs, both toned and sensually rounded, had just crossed the windowsill when—

She froze.

The door had broken open, left wide ajar.

But the fierce, continuous pounding from moments ago had suddenly ceased.

Not only that—through the gap in the door, there wasn’t a single shadow in sight.

Qin Lingyu’s movements halted abruptly.

If there was a chance to live, who would want to die?

And now, had those flesh-eating monsters somehow changed their minds?

Qin Lingyu looked again at the drop outside the window, swallowing hard as her chest heaved with suppressed emotion.

Finally, she bit her lip.

“Qiuqiu, stay here. If Mama doesn’t come back, you jump down and run as fast as you can!”

Without waiting for her daughter’s response, she quietly approached the broken door.

Qin Lingyu’s heart pounded wildly.

She was terrified—terrified that at any moment, an ugly, rotting head would poke through that gap.

But there was no turning back now.

She carefully crept to the doorway, pressing her ear to listen. The horrific growling and scratching noises had completely vanished.

Finally, mustering her courage, Qin Lingyu peeked out.

There was no nauseating stench.

No terrifying howls.

The entire corridor was as calm as if nothing had happened.

Only the bloodstains on the floor and walls near the door remained glaringly vivid.

But as she looked down the corridor, her previously frantic, fearful eyes suddenly widened in shock, her expression filled with disbelief.

She saw a man, as if taking a leisurely stroll through his own garden.

Walking with calm, unhurried steps.

Her bloodthirsty, crazed husband and father-in-law hung limply in his hands like dead dogs, being dragged along.

Like pigs and sheep prepared for slaughter, they were being led indifferently toward the butcher’s block.

Resigned to their fate.