I can rewind time to prevent death

"Okay," said the man, who seemed to be temporarily in charge of the task at Huadu Building, but Yan Junze did not recognize him.

In fact, he visited the Tianmeng Exorcist branch less often and was not very familiar with many people there, except for a few he regularly interacted with; he had at most a nodding acquaintance with the rest.

And this individual before him, he had no recollection of at all.

The man stopped them from using the stairwell and pointed to another side of the building, saying, "The backup power can't support the normal operation of the elevators. Taking the stairs consumes too much time and isn't safe, so we had the Safety Bureau construct two fire ladders on the side to directly reach the 20th floor of the building."

This method was indeed effective, saving time and reducing the risks associated with traveling by stairs.

Without a second word, Yan Junze and Lin Guo followed the man to the other side of the building, where indeed, two towering ladders had been erected. Below the ladders stood over a dozen security officers and a few lower-ranking Exorcists.

Yan Junze and Lin Guo stood together as one of the ladders lifted them straight to a level parallel to the 20th floor of Huadu Building. Standing on the ladder, they looked forward and saw that a large, oval-shaped hole had been cut into one of the external glass walls with a special tool; it was large enough to step through without needing to stoop.

The ladder slowly approached the cut-out gap, and when it was about a step away, Lin Guo went ahead, stepping into the building with Yan Junze following closely behind.

The ladder then began to retract.

At this moment, a voice came from the walkie-talkies at their waists: "If you want to get down, you can call me ahead of time through the walkie-talkie, or you can simply press the green button on the side of the walkie-talkie."

This was the voice of the man responsible for the task at Huadu Building.

Yan Junze had not previously owned a walkie-talkie; the man had given him one just earlier for better communication.

The two were now inside a conference room.

Because the glass wall had been opened to the outside and due to the cutting work that had taken place, the conference table was covered in dust. Chairs were overturned and scattered along the side of the wall.

Lin Guo walked to the door of the conference room, took hold of the doorknob, and looked back at Yan Junze.

Once Yan Junze stepped closer, Lin Guo pulled the door open and they walked out one after the other into the corridor outside.

The corridor was somewhat dim, but because the backup power hadn't been cut, some lights were still on.

However, some lights were flickering unsteadily, blinking on and off, and making popping sounds.

Lin Guo glanced both ways down the corridor, then turned and said, "This area belongs to the 'Open Your Eyes' office space. I just looked at the layout, and the room where the servers are located is down the hall to the left, at the very end after turning the corner. Let's head straight there."

Just as they were about to move, a sudden clatter came from the far right of the corridor, as if items within a pen holder had fallen to the ground, scattering all over. Then, faint gasping, thrashing, and struggling noises followed.

The sound was faint, and if it hadn't been for the noise of objects dropping, drawing their attention this way, Yan Junze and Lin Guo might not have heard it.

The two paused.

Lin Guo looked in the opposite direction of the corridor leading to the server room and hesitated, "Should we go together, or split up?"

Yan Junze shrugged, "Actually... it's all the same."

Lin Guo, not knowing that Yan Junze was referring to his Rewind ability that made either choice equivalent, stared at him somewhat dumbfounded, not understanding what he meant by that.

Yan Junze offered no explanation and continued, "Let's do this, I'll see what's happened. You go check out the server room. We'll contact each other through the walkie-talkie later."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Lin Guo asked, concerned.

The sounds of the scuffle were now diminishing, slowly fading until they were no longer audible, likely coming to an end.

Yan Junze waved his hand dismissively to signal that he was fine and quickly walked toward that direction.

After some thought, Lin Guo gripped his magnetic knife and hurried off toward the server room.

Following the sounds, Yan Junze felt they must be from an office diagonally across. After quickly covering some twenty meters, he pushed open the door opposite the corridor. This room seemed to be a reference room, but it was empty.

He stepped back into the corridor and advanced a few steps to the next office door.

Based on the prior distance, the source of the noise should be nearby here.

This office was larger and had a transparent glass door with the company logo and office name stickered on it. Due to the dim light, he couldn't see inside very clearly.

Upon opening the door, Yan Junze took out a flashlight, turned it on and walked a few steps inside. He then saw a brown pen holder lying there, its contents spilling across the floor in a variety of colors.

To the right of the pen holder, a pool of blood was slowly seeping out from under a black desk, saturating the nearby pens and spreading outward.

Yan Junze paused, then took another step forward, shining his flashlight towards it and seeing a familiar face—it was Zhang Xiaomo.

At that moment, Zhang Xiaomo was pallid, her eyes tightly shut, her body twitching unconsciously.

A bullet hole was visible in her temple, oozing fresh blood intermittently.

This scene caused Yan Junze to feel a chill spread through his body, as if falling into a dream; his entire body no longer felt his own.

Without much thought, he was about to Rewind when he looked up and saw a woman slowly standing up behind the black desk next to Zhang Xiaomo, holding a still-dripping pen.

The woman's hair was somewhat disheveled, her complexion as white as Zhang Xiaomo's. Her appearance shocked Yan Junze, prompting him to exclaim involuntarily.

"Ah, Xiaomo?!"