NOVPUBMartin stared hard at him, his brows furrowing deeply. "Come clean. What’s your endgame in all of this?"
Outside the door, Brooks rushed in, his face etched with anger and his eyes burning with a mixture of rage and a hint of murderous intent.
Amidst all the chaos, Daniel remained composed, "You’re saying I was wrong?"
"I’ve traversed between the present and the future, witnessing countless cycles of life. My predictions have never been erroneous unless someone’s tampered with events."
Julia glared, "Nonsense!"
"From the day we made our agreement, I stationed absolutely trustworthy personnel at the lottery center," Julia said assertively. "No one interfered, and the lottery numbers cannot be wrong."
With that, as if to prove a point, she hastily pulled out her phone, searched for a moment, and thrust the screen before Daniel’s eyes.
Daniel squinted, seeing the winning numbers, an exact match to what Julia had written down.
His gaze flitted over the sequences several times, committing all five sets of numbers to memory.
With a stern voice, Julia challenged, "What have you got to say now?"
Daniel replied with a faint smile, "I have nothing to say."
The five sequences of numbers were merely a concoction of his imagination.
Unfortunately, his luck was so poor that not a single number from the many he had chosen was correct.
It seemed luck had no allegiance to him after all.
However, he had gathered much valuable intel.
It was time to harness the rewind ability of the Echo Stone.
"Don’t forget your initial promise, Daniel," Julia said coldly.
Without hesitation, Daniel responded, "If the lottery numbers don’t match, I will stake my life."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than he drew the Desert Eagle from his belt.
"Stop him!" "Protect the Minister!"
Everyone snapped into action. Julia and Mike shielded Martin, while Brooks, with a speed that made lightning seem sluggish, burst into the office.
An enigmatic glint in his eyes, he declared, "The gun doesn’t contain bullets; it’s popcorn."
"The gun doesn’t contain bullets; it’s popcorn."
However, the power of an Oracle doesn’t manifest immediately.
At least, with Brooks’ current strength, he couldn’t achieve that.
And then, a deafening gunshot echoed.
Everyone wore expressions of shock, their eyes wide in disbelief.
Daniel hadn’t aimed at Martin or any of them.
Instead, he’d turned the gun on himself, pointing it at his temple.
The force of the bullet instantly shattered his head, painting the office walls with a mix of crimson and milky fluid.
Everyone looked at each other in shock, their mouths agape, struggling to find the words.
Could it be said that Daniel was the most true-to-his-word man in the world, bar none?
A man who, when staking his life, didn’t even blink while pulling the trigger...
...
The world fragmented and scattered, only to reassemble again.
Faintly, Daniel heard the system’s chime,
"[If something is remembered, it echoes back.]"
"[Remaining Echo Stone rewinds within 24 hours: 9.]"
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself aboard the private jet.
Glancing out the window, the plane had just landed.
Just like before, the moment Daniel disembarked, he saw Mike speeding toward him.
A confident smirk played on his lips.
This time, Daniel intended to make everyone believe that he was a true prophet.
The car came to a smooth stop.
Not waiting for Mike to get out and open the door, Daniel slid into his seat. 𝒏𝙤𝙫𝒑𝙪𝙗.𝙘𝒐𝙢
"Don’t take Route 3. Go straight through the village on the east side to enter the Gobi Desert," he instructed out of the blue, the moment he settled in.
Mike, upon hearing Daniel’s words, was puzzled and queried, "Daniel, what are you talking about?"
Patting the driver’s seat, Daniel replied nonchalantly, "There’s going to be a significant rear-end collision on Route 3. Fortunately, no one gets injured, but the traffic on Route 3 in Golden Shores will be jammed for up to three hours. If we encounter the traffic and then decide to reroute, we’d still waste an hour. We might as well take the country roads now. They might be slower, but in comparison, it’ll save us a lot more time."
Mike realized that Daniel was predicting the future, and he was somewhat skeptical.
After all, Route 3 was arguably the widest intercontinental highway in Libertopia.
To clog it up would require a pile-up of at least a hundred vehicles.
Starting the car and exiting the airport, Mike hesitated but eventually decided to heed Daniel’s advice and took the country roads, even bypassing the entrance to Route 3.
Just fifteen minutes later, an emergency traffic news bulletin broke into the car’s radio broadcast.
"On Route 3, about 30 kilometers east of Golden Shores International Airport, a pile-up involving hundreds of vehicles has occurred. As of now, there are no reported casualties..."
Mike jerked his head around, staring at Daniel in sheer disbelief.
Daniel had nailed it!
He even foresaw that there would be no injuries!
While a pile-up could potentially be orchestrated, having no injuries in an event of this scale was nothing short of miraculous and definitely beyond human manipulation.
Daniel really was a prophet!
He had foreseen this scenario!
As Mike drove on, he kept stealing glances at Daniel through the rearview mirror.
What previously took them an hour now took only forty minutes.
Upon reaching the Investigation Bureau located five hundred meters underground via the elevator, Daniel strode confidently ahead.
Mike, who was initially supposed to guide him, had to pick up his pace just to keep up.
Daniel moved as if he’d been to the Investigation Bureau many times before, effortlessly navigating his way to the prearranged conference room.
No sooner had he sat down than Daniel pointed towards the coffee brewing area outside the door.
"Would you mind making me a cup of coffee? There’s no sugar in the box. You’ll find some in the third drawer down. Two cubes."
Mike walked over to the coffee machine and opened the sugar container.
It was empty, with just a trace amount left, just as Daniel had mentioned.
Bending down, he opened the third drawer and caught his breath.
Inside were neatly packaged sugar cubes.
What left Mike incredulous was that even as a member of the Investigation Bureau, he hadn’t known about the sugar’s location.
The coffee station was a good ten meters away from the conference room.
Since exiting the elevator, Daniel had walked straight into the meeting room without diverting to the coffee area.
There was no way he could have observed or deduced this information earlier.
This was Daniel’s precognitive ability!
Any lingering doubts Mike had about Daniel’s abilities evaporated at that moment.
Daniel took a sip of his coffee, then set the cup down and leaned back on the sofa.
"You can leave now," he said calmly.
"Martin is waiting for you to report on my movements."
Stunned, Mike seemed to move in slow motion as he exited the conference room.
Only moments later did he snap back to reality, rushing towards the minister’s office.
Inside the conference room, Daniel pulled out his phone, skillfully dialing a number he knew by heart.
Meanwhile, at a roadside public restroom, Brooks, who was engrossed in watching a video of a glamorous woman, jumped as his phone blared with an unexpected ringtone.
Any arousal Brooks had was immediately quelled.
Angrily, he answered the call. "Hello! Who is this?!"
A calm, deep voice replied, "In less than twenty minutes, Alex will die."
Brooks’ blood ran cold. "Who are you? What are you going to do to Alex?!"
The voice continued, "I am Daniel, an Evolver. My power is precognition. I’m currently in the Investigation Bureau’s conference room and will be joining them shortly. I foresaw Alex’s impending demise and also foresaw that only you can save him. Using my abilities, I found your number and called you."
A murderous tone infiltrated Brooks’ voice. "Do you take me for a fool? Stop this ridiculous prank. Some jokes can get people killed."
Daniel sounded impatient. "A week ago, the Investigation Bureau was plagued by a foul stench. That wasn’t the decay of animal carcasses. It was the result of Alex soiling himself thrice after your Oracle ability affected him."
"If you want to save Alex, clean up and get off that damned toilet. Reach the Central Supermarket within ten minutes. There’s still time to save him."
Brooks was incredulous. "How did you know about Alex’s... accident? Only he and I knew about that!"
Daniel’s voice became more urgent. "Listen, once only: After entering the north door of the Central Supermarket, Alex will walk straight for a hundred meters and then take a left for fifty meters to the clothing section. There, he will be attacked by a horde of mannequins that have transformed into monsters. Use fire against them - the bigger, the better. If things get dicey, get Alex out fast. There are even more powerful monsters inside. If you don’t want to die, don’t stick around."
With that, the call disconnected.
Brooks stared at his phone, disbelief coursing through him.
Only when the incessant beep of the call’s end echoed in his ear did he snap out of his trance.
Without even taking the time to clean up, he yanked up his pants and bolted out of the restroom.
