Operator #4 · Still Wind Point

At this moment, Jiang Xueming was still completely unaware of what was about to happen on the plane.

"Professor Wood, why do I keep feeling like I've already taken this flight?"

Approaching the boarding gate--

--Xue Ming pointed to the boarding pass and muttered to Wood Plark.

"Flight ICI77074, Airbus Boeing 737, second row window seat—these details, these events, seem to have happened many times before in my mind."

"Do you often watch documentaries? Or have you seen this plane in a movie?" Wood continued to change the subject, determined not to let Jiang Xueming realize the existence of the [Regret Pill].

"No! Professor Wood! We've been attacked by Soul Force!" Jiang Xueming approached his seat, and as he gripped the cold armrests, he immediately became wary and suspicious. "I'm going to cut off the armrests of the chair, carve them into parts for Browning M1900, and then..."

Following the laws of time travel, the moment Xue Ming summoned his spirit, he saw the laser-engraved characters remaining on the arms of the steel body.

[FE33031]

Jiang Xueming: "Who left this handwriting? Was it done by the enemy?"

Wood: "No, no, no, little one—don't think nonsense. A spirit is the manifestation of spiritual power. You are about to transform from a cocoon into a butterfly. Perhaps this is your birth certificate?"

Jiang Xueming: "Is that so?"

Wood: "That's it, think about it carefully. If that nasty cat Butch can write on your arm, why doesn't it just stab you in the throat twice?"

Jiang Xueming: "That's true."

Wood smiled and said, "Xue Ming, I have a favor to ask."

Jiang Xueming: "Go ahead and say it, teacher."

"Here's a drink." Wood pulled a chocolate milk from his pocket and handed it to Xue Ming: "I have some errands to run before takeoff. If you hear an explosion, drink this immediately."

Jiang Xueming didn't understand; his curiosity far exceeded that of ordinary people.

"Why?"

"Don't ask why." Wood grasped the key point and emphasized, "You must trust me wholeheartedly. Xue Ming — Bu Liuxing is the most precious treasure in your life. He treats his new partners with the same attitude, with unreserved trust. At this moment, I cannot tell you the detailed reasons."

Hearing this, Xue Ming felt even more uncertain, completely unable to understand the purpose of this ritual.

Wood continued, "Before you drink this bottle of chocolate milk, the only thing you can do is sit in your chair, wait for the explosion, stay focused, and don't let anything distract you."

Jiang Xueming kept scratching his head, but a strange sense of anticipation filled his heart.

"Although I don't know what Teacher Wood is planning, I agree to your request. It's really strange, why do I feel a strange sense of trust in you? Could it be that the enemy's soul power ability makes two men develop feelings for each other? If that's the case, it's an incredibly terrifying ability."

"Yes, yes, yes," Wood slowly retreated into the corridor, hunching over as he encouraged Jiang Xueming: "Keep it up, just keep it up, don't move around. If you feel like you can't concentrate and your thoughts are being affected by all sorts of déjà vu, go read the ingredient list on the chocolate milk."

"Ingredients list?" Jiang Xueming turned the bottle around and immediately began to study the text on the product packaging, no longer thinking about any other random things.

Wood Plark breathed a sigh of relief--

He then walked straight toward Billy the Kid in the sixth row, his brow furrowed, his anxiety almost written all over his face.

To defeat Sixty-Three, one must act beyond reason. In the previous seventeen attempts, this formidable foe has likely already witnessed [Sexy Bomb]'s superpowers.

No, not just seventeen times.

This guy sees me as a thorn in his side.

Before these seventeen minor cycles, there were countless major cycles spanning decades.

Sixty-Three should be very familiar with my Soul Might; this is definitely not the first time I've fought him.

He had asked these questions before.

What would you do? Detonate the water?

How powerful are they? How many tons of TNT are they?

[Show me all the time bombs you've hidden.]

"Billy the Kid, get that thing out of your belly." Wood squatted down beside the two little ones, looking sternly behind him and towards the direction of first class.

Upon hearing the command, Billy the Kid hardened his heart and immediately pulled out a pencil from the front seat's storage compartment, handing one of them to Fuyanni.

"Help me! Help me! Fuyanni!"

The two brothers poked at the stitches on Billy's abdomen with sharp pencils. A passenger sitting next to them glanced over, drawn by the strong smell of blood, and was immediately terrified, screaming in terror.

Jiang Xueming turned around in response to the shout, only to be immediately glared back by Wood Plark.

At this moment, Ms. Duran's eyes darted around, and as the Sixty-Three early warning aircraft, she began to roar hysterically.

"Sixty-Three! You will be killed by Wood Plark! Move! Move now!"

The slender White Snake suddenly bit into Sixty-Three's neck.

--Ms. Duran wholeheartedly sided with Team Sixty-Three to save Flavia's life.

"In one minute and forty-five seconds, the plane will begin taxiing, and before that, Wood Plark will have you defeated!"

Sixty-Three: "What will he do?"

"He's coming with seventeen bullets and the 3.8-inch Hi-Capa gun in Billy's belly. He's going to shoot you dead!" Ms. Duran screamed. "Impossible! This can't be!"

Sixty-Three also started to get nervous. "What nonsense are you spouting? Nine-millimeter bullets can't even penetrate the pressure plate, this toy can't possibly break my Soul Might!"

Ms. Duran found it difficult to describe this scene in simple words; it was far too complex, far too complex!

Through the spirit's gnawing at the [Timeline], scene after scene was transmitted into Sixty-Three's mind.

After getting the gun, Wood Plark walked straight towards the first-class cabin.

He shot and killed Flavia, the gatekeeper, but was then attacked in the death throes of the [Yin Yang Demon Realm] and poisoned.

--The hemolytic toxin spread throughout his body, and he only had thirty seconds left to live.

He was bleeding from all seven orifices and on the verge of death. With his last bit of sanity, he used the superpower of [Sexy Bomb] to unleash the hallucinogen in his hand as explosives, launching a deadly poison that damages the nerves into the first-class cabin.

Under the influence of this hallucinogen, the brain nerves of Sixty-Three would be damaged.

"--Jiang Xueming drinks chocolate milk whenever he hears an explosion."

Sixty-Three saw his own "Gate of Death" through the "Timeline," and foresaw the inevitable end of his life.

Xue Ming has always been a very insecure person. During this journey, he has made seventeen guns, all Browning M1900. The spirit has long memorized the gun-making process.

After drinking the chocolate milk, Jiang Xueming would not hesitate to make firearms. Like a compressed spring releasing all its energy, his movements were as swift as lightning. He entered the first-class cabin with the gun and, while Wood Plark was on the verge of death, used the gun and the [Sexy Bomb] to kill the delirious Sixty-Three and Ms. Duran.

"He's here! Sixty-Three! Get moving! Do something now!" Ms. Duran roared hysterically, "Or we'll both die! My Flavia will die too! He's much crazier than you. He's seen through your superpowers. He knows you have the magical power to reverse time, so he's going to defeat you in one fell swoop, even if it means mutual destruction!"

The Sixty-Three's brain was racing.

--Should we use the power of the [Regret Pill] to go back to a previous point in time?

--Can we avoid this madman, Wood Plark?

—After seventeen cycles, my mental strength is nearing its limit, and now, of all times?! Wood Plark has extended the most deadly duel challenge to me?! Is it a coincidence?

"No! What a coincidence!" Sixty-Three's eyes were bloodshot. "Let me rest for a while, escape to the past, catch my breath, and then deal with you, you madman."

Ms. Duran ran frantically towards the customer service room, so panicked she could hardly breathe.

--If Flavia dies, Sixty-Three doesn't intend to activate the [Regret Pill] ability, then his true love in this life will truly be gone forever, truly dead!

But when Claudia Arles Duran emerged from the isolation door of the first-class cabin and arrived at the customer service room, she found Mr. Wood sitting at the small table.

Flavia, looking rather silly, listened to Mr. Wood spouting nonsensical nonsense.

Wood picked up his gun and held his phone, as if he possessed magic, and began talking about completely unrelated things.

"Flavia, look at this—"

The phone screen showed a scene where the mischievous cat Butch tries to kiss a female kitten but accidentally kisses Tom on the face.

"--Hahahaha! Hahahahaha!"

Flavia was overjoyed and leaned against Mr. Wood, her eyes glued to her phone.

"Hey! Hey!" Ms. Duran was completely bewildered. This wasn't the future she had seen; her prediction was entirely wrong. A nameless panic gripped her. "Hey! Flavia! Why are you stuck to this guy?! Why?"

Wood Plark wasn't wearing a coat; instead, Flavia was wearing the blond hunk's coat.

"Why are you wearing his clothes, Flavia! Have you really changed your mind?!" Duran was nearly frantic. "Have you been bewitched by this devil? He has a gun! I clearly saw it!"

"Claudia Ars Duran, you must be very panicked—you must be wondering why your Soul Power suddenly stopped working?" Wood Plark still gripped his gun, his gun-wielding hand lightly patting Flavia's shoulder, as if displaying a hostage. "And why I didn't act according to your expected course of events, right?"

Actually, the superpower of [Timeline] in predicting the future isn't that powerful. It's more like a sophisticated computer that uses collected information to deduce the most likely future events.

Just now--

Wood Plark, almost like a monster, sent extremely intense signals to Ms. Duran's [Timeline] with the strongest killing intent, the most concentrated pheromones, and the most blatant self-destructive desires. The computer ultimately determined that Wood would defeat Sixty-Three by sacrificing himself.

"Flavia! Get away from him right now!" Duran growled at his companion like a lioness, "What are you doing?!"

"Don't worry, even though this guy has a gun," Flavia raised an eyebrow and smiled, "My Soul Might is always on his Gate of Death!"

A hairy, serpentine monster was seen crawling on the ground between Wood Plark's legs, already gripping the VIP's crotch.

Flavia then pulled the Red Mountain Stone from her coat pocket.

"We got the stuff! This guy's pretty obedient! He surrendered immediately upon seeing my soul power and wanted to give us all the treasures—he'd even listen if I told him to take off his clothes."

"What exactly are you trying to do!" Duran wasn't so naive; she was terrified—her [Timeline] would occasionally malfunction, but never like this, completely racing towards an unknown future. In other words, this conductor of the Abyssal Railway had reached a level of consummate skill in controlling his emotions and expressing pheromones, enabling him to deceive his opponents and transmit false information in this way.

Wood Plark continued, "Duran, Sixty-Three is about to go for a nap. He needs to recover his mental strength to continue this ritual. How long will his nap be? Forty minutes? Or an hour? As far as I know, people trained in the Da Vinci sleep method only need fifteen minutes of sleep to maintain brain activity for several hours."

Duran: "Why should I tell you these things?!"

Wood: "Haven't you noticed? I'm stronger than him. Surrender now, and I have a reduced sentence package with four different punishments and three labor camps for you to choose from."

Duran scoffed, "Huh? Your opponent can control time! Your soul power can only create explosions, where does your confidence come from?"

Wood: "Perhaps you think I'm waiting for Sixty-Three to slip up, like during this sleep period, to be the [Still Wind Point] to kill him and pull the trigger."

Duran: "Is this the only way you can win?"

Wood: "No, what if I really do what you predict and we all perish before the plane takes off? Do you have any way to stop a bomb that has already exploded?"

Duran: "Anyway, Sixty-Three will clean up the mess. He will."

Duran couldn't continue speaking halfway through his sentence.

If Wood did that, there would be no way for Sixty-Three to prevent the explosion.

Their Soul Power stats are quite similar; their destructive power, speed, and precision are all on the same level. Wood Plark's only disadvantage is his range. Duran has never seen the train conductor's Soul Power leave his physical body, while Sixty-Three's Soul Power range is sixteen meters.

The straight-line distance between Sixty-Three and Wood was a full 23 meters, and they also had to cross two firewalls.

If Sixty-Three wanted to kill Wood before he could even react, it would be completely impossible.

However, it was very simple for Wood to destroy this ritual. He only needed to follow the pre-prepared procedure, repeatedly removing the guns and hallucinogens from Billy the Kid's stomach, forcing Sixty-Three to repeatedly activate the [Regret Pill] ability until Sixty-Three's mental energy was exhausted and he arrived at the [Still Wind Point] that Mr. Wood had envisioned.

Flavia, however, was still unaware of what was happening. She simply held the Red Mountain Stone in her hands and put it in her mouth, rolling the gem with her smooth tongue, and began to recount the mysterious legends of the station.

"Hey! Lulululululu! Duran! Why are you looking so gloomy? This guy has clearly handed over all his treasures and is about to surrender. Is this stone really as magical as the Cult Leader said? If I swallow it, will my [Yin Yang Demon Realm] turn into a giant snake a hundred meters long? It will definitely poison a lot of people, right?"

"I have no intention of hurting you, or your companion," Wood Plark said. "Duran, if you wish."

Before he could finish speaking--

--Sixty-Three has already activated the Soul Power ability of [Regret Pill].

Before the plane even left the ground, its spinning wheels suddenly stopped, and then began to reverse.

It retreated back to the side of the terminal building, and the ground support vehicles returned to the refueling station. The large fuel lines began to draw aviation kerosene into the fuselage.

Wood's body involuntarily retreated the way it had come, and then he shoved the gun into Billy the Kid's stomach, the splattered blood flowing back into his abdominal cavity along with the black hallucinogen packet.

Benjamin in the third row, was jolted awake from his sleep. He kept glancing at the gold watch on his wrist, watching the hands spin wildly backward, wondering whether his next destination after landing should be Alaska or Hawaii.

Wood and Jiang Xueming exited the plane via the same route, exited the gate, returned to the terminal, and went back to the restaurant.

Jiang Xueming kept gushing out cola from his mouth, and then a cola bottle cap flew out of the trash can.

With a "pop," the alloy bottle cap returned to the Coke bottle and fell into the vending machine. A coin popped out of the coin slot and returned to Wood's hand. The two chatted and laughed as they left the terminal and walked backwards along the road in the countryside.

Back by the roadside, time finally began to flow in the right direction.

At this very moment--

--Sixty-Three gasped for breath several times, the metallic taste of blood emanating from his throat as capillaries burst.

He rudely snatched Ms. Duran's chocolate milk and drank it down in one gulp.

I need to sleep for half an hour.

Ms. Duran glanced at her phone. "We're taking off in forty minutes. Plenty of time."

"Hey," Sixty-Three asked in a low voice, "I heard everything he said to you just now."

Duran's heart tightened. "I won't betray you, big shot."

Sixty-Three: "You don't really think he's better than me, do you?"

Duran: "Of course not. Of course not."

Sixty-Three: "I can reverse time, I can attack at will, but I don't need to defend. Even if I'm injured, I can start over."

"I'll stay by your side while you sleep," Duran replied meekly. "Please don't worry."

Sixty-Three leaned against a massage chair in the airport terminal and fell asleep.

Duran, roused by the sudden surge of emotion, was suddenly overcome with murderous intent.

--To hell with Red Mountain Stone, to hell with Jiang Xueming!

If we can kill this guy in an instant, everything will be over!

Flavia won't die, and neither will I!

But how? A weapon capable of instantly rendering someone unconscious and causing death is inside Billy the Kid's stomach! Performing open surgery on him on the spot would surely alert this cunning devil.

If I can't destroy this guy's prefrontal cortex in an instant, or kill his central nervous system and destroy his thalamus, then Regret Pill, all my efforts will be in vain.

Duran then looked at Flavia —she was looking at her lover.

Flavia's soul power is a deadly poison; it would take a full thirty seconds to kill this guy, making an instantaneous death impossible.

She didn't have that ability. Even if the [Timeline] were to deduce this possibility, her Soul Power Little White Snake would shake its head and give a terrible answer, telling its master not to think about such extremely dangerous things. She simply couldn't find such a minuscule possibility, unless God opened his eyes and sent down a bolt of lightning from the sky to kill Sixty-Three in 0.1 seconds.

Ultimately, Duran gave up.

Those short forty minutes were an incredibly agonizing forty minutes.

Jiang Xueming wakes up precisely at Sixty-Three, just like a robot, possessing this amazing skill of being able to control her sleep time autonomously.

Just as Wood Plark described it, "[Still Wind Point]".

During this period, even in his dreams, Sixty-Three remained constantly vigilant. If he heard any discordant sounds, he would immediately wake up to fight.

But what unsettled him was that Wood did nothing during his most vulnerable and unguarded time.

--The entire trip proceeded as planned. There were no changes to tickets, no escape, no seat changes, and no direct challenge to a Sixty-Three with him.

It was as if Mr. Plark had truly lost his memory, returning to a state of confusion and ignorance as time reversed.

As is customary, Duran, Sixty-Three, Wood, and Billy the Kid finished their chocolate milk and boarded the plane.

The moment when Sixty-Three and Ms. Duran sat in the return-to-first class --

--Duran's spiritual power is sounding the alarm again.

"A big shot! He's coming!"

Sixty-Three: "What's going on?!"

Duran's White Snake bit down on Sixty-Three's neck, intending to replay the scenes from the previous reincarnation cycle for Sixty-Three like a videotape.

Sixty-Three laughed and said, "Knowing full well it's useless, why do all this futile effort?"

Ms. Duran would not take this lightly, after all, Mr. Wood was unpredictable, and if Flavia died, she might never be able to come back to life.

She sprinted toward the customer service room again, only to be shot in the head by a hot bullet.

Wood Plark kicked open the isolation room door, his fading spirit still hanging around his neck. Flavia, the master of the [Yin Yang Demon Realm], had already died, clinging to her last belief in a one-for-one exchange with the despicable VIP of the Abyssal Railway.

"Now it's my turn, FE204863." Mr. Wood tossed the hallucinogenic drugs into the first-class cabin.

Sixty-Three's expression was distorted and deformed--

"--You're actually serious! You idiot! Don't you know you'll die if you do this? Absolute death! There will be no second chance!"

Blood was gushing from Wood's ears and the corners of his eyes, making it difficult for him to maintain his senses. The hemolytic toxin from the [Yin Yang Demon Realm] caused his blood pressure to spike, and his mouth became a fountain, constantly spitting out blood.

"Should we continue using the [Regret Pill] ability?"

Mr. Wood, though his speech was slurred, pulled the detonator switch before the drugs hit the ground.

"I will repeat this action over and over again. With the added attraction of the chocolate milk, my movements will become faster and faster, and your reaction time will become less and less, until the next [Still Wind Point] – I want to talk to you, Sixty-Three. If you are not going to talk to me, I will use these fireworks bombs to blow your proud head to pieces."

When the neurotoxins released when the hallucinogen exploded began to damage Sixty-Three's brain.

Time turns back once again--

--At this point, the nature of the game changed.

An unspeakable sense of dread overwhelmed the great man who controlled time.

Based on his Sixty-Three of combat experience, most of the opponents he encountered on his long journey through life, only a very few elites could discern the divine power of the [Regret Pill] in a very short time.

These people are all dead; they've all become defeated enemies.

Even if these despicable fellows can contend with the [Regret Pill] on the level of soul power, the combat skills of the Sixty-Three Main Body have reached a state of perfection. Even without the help of soul power, killing these cunning fellows would be a piece of cake.

But Plark is different--

--This troublesome fellow has extensive combat experience, a versatile performative personality, and an extremely dangerous Soul Power.

He seized upon the key to Sixty-Three's Vital Point—

Like a suicide truck, it shielded Jiang Xueming tightly, preparing to repeatedly use self-sacrificing attacks, completely disregarding the consequences, forcibly turning this game from a back-and-forth turn-based contest into a one-man show for him.

"Go find Billy the Kid!"

The moment Sixty-Three returned to the terminal, he immediately got up and went to the seats in the northeast corner.

He's going to kill all the variables on the plane! And take the hallucinogenic drugs and gun out of Billy the Kid's stomach.

If you exclude these two crucial weapons, he could absolutely dominate Wood Plack in close combat.

Sixty-Three roared at Billy, "Hey! Kid! Take your clothes off!"

Billy hadn't drunk his milk yet; he looked drowsy.

"What do you want me to do, sir?"

Fuyanni, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy the spectacle even more. "Wow. He's really going all out. Here? With so many people around?"

Without uttering a single unnecessary word, the Sixty-Three spirit immediately grabbed Billy the Kid and slashed open Billy abdomen with its dark steel hand—he was disemboweling Billy to retrieve the guns and drugs.

"You all deserve to die. You traitorous bastards. The Little Brotherhood promised you things, asking you to do them for money, but you secretly brought this damn hallucinogen. You're useless trash who's good for nothing."

Wood Plark: "Have you forgotten something? Sixty-Three?"

Sixty-Three suddenly turned around.

Wood raised his left hand high as people in the airport terminal scattered in terror at the sight of blood.

--He explained to Sixty-Three.

"The moment you activated the [Regret Pill], my Soul Power just touched this pack of explosives. How dare you defuse it prematurely?"

He slammed his right Thumb down on the detonator switch.

--A dazzling light appeared before his Sixty-Three.

The dark, blood-stained cloth bag exploded, and the shockwave from the explosion knocked him over, shattering his right arm and half of his torso.

With bone fragments and internal organs exposed, Sixty-Three tumbled and rolled away, carving a bloody path through the air.

Billy and Fuyanni were killed instantly. Sixty-Three crashed into a trash can, staring incredulously at Wood Plark in the distance.

"You bastard... you..."

Wood Plark: "You didn't immediately summon your Soul Power to defend, which shows you're also afraid of the Gate of Death effect when your Soul Power is shattered. Sixty-Three —quickly activate the power of the [Regret Pill]! Piece together my friends and bring them back to life! Fuyanni and Billy the Kid are waiting for you to save them!"

"Aren't you afraid... I... I..." Sixty-Three coughed up mouthfuls of blood. He felt his lungs and cardiovascular system were about to stop, and he couldn't even speak.

Wood covered Jiang Xueming's eyes, making Xue Ming turn her head away, and then spoke to Sixty-Three.

"You're going to die! You're going to die! You're going to die completely! Your will to live is incredibly strong, you definitely won't accept defeat here! Why don't you reconsider? Forget about going to heaven, find a good place to retire and take a vacation? Spend the most precious, important, and beautiful years of your life in your middle and old age? We don't need to fight this to the death."

Sixty-Three displayed an unexpected tenacity; with his tattered remains, he reached for Jiang Xueming with his left arm—

"--I absolutely, positively will change your life. I absolutely cannot let Regret Pill appear in your life. I..."

Wood quickly explained, "I understand how you feel, but the best arrangement in life is to do nothing— Sixty-Three, if you stop caring about his life, ignore him, or stay away from him, and live as an ordinary person, forgetting your Soul Power, perhaps he really will be as you expect."

"Bullshit!" Sixty-Three coughed up a clump of congealed blood and fat, mixed with pieces of flesh from blood vessels. "I've been searching for this feeling of peace. Only seeing it with my own eyes can bring me peace of mind."

The sun and moon reverse their course, and the stars shift and the constellations move.

Time marches on once again.

Jiang Xueming returned to the bus.

--Just started writing, preparing to write some personal matters in my journal.

Teacher Wood immediately sat down next to Jiang Xueming.

"Kid, do you have OCD?"

Jiang Xueming was completely bewildered. "Who are you?"

Wood Plark continued, "You don't have obsessive-compulsive disorder, or any other mental illness like cognitive impairment, do you? For example, if you see an elderly woman who hasn't crossed the street, you feel obligated to help her across. Are you sick?"

Jiang Xueming: "No."

Wood breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good."