Chapter Three: The Countdown of Life!

“Golden item?”

The moment Tan Ping saw the glowing orb, his heart filled with joy.

Anyone who has played games knows that anything emitting a golden light is definitely something valuable.

Sure enough, a message entered his mind: “Congratulations, host! You have successfully unlocked the golden legendary buff—Life Countdown!”

“Golden legendary buff? Life Countdown?” Tan Ping was momentarily stunned upon hearing this.

Soon, he understood the details of the Life Countdown buff.

With this buff, he could see the life countdown timers of all living beings. When the timer reaches zero, it means that the life of that being has ended.

It was an incredibly powerful ability. The only downside was that the buff lasted only one day.

“Would you like to merge the Life Countdown buff immediately?” the system prompted again.

“Merge it now!” Tan Ping ordered without hesitation.

Given this unique ability, it was truly an extraordinary power!

Instantly, the golden light surged into Tan Ping’s eyes, merging seamlessly with them.

Tan Ping withdrew his consciousness from the system and glanced at his colleague, Xu Qingze.

Above Xu Qingze’s head appeared a string of numbers: 912.

The unit for the life countdown was days, meaning this colleague had less than three years left to live.

More precisely, two and a half years!

“Ah Ping, why are you staring at my face? Is there something dirty on it?” Xu Qingze asked with a laugh, sensing Tan Ping’s gaze.

“Brother Xu, if you have time recently, you should get a medical checkup,” Tan Ping hesitated but said anyway.

Brother Xu was about ten years older than Tan Ping, around 34 years old.

Having only two and a half years left was considered an early death, likely due to illness.

“Hmm, I have been feeling a bit off lately, and I don’t have much appetite. Probably because of irregular meals, I’ve developed some stomach issues,” Xu Qingze replied with a smile and a nod.

Tan Ping then looked around at other colleagues. The numbers above their heads were much longer than Xu Qingze’s.

Generally, they had about thirty to forty years left.

The longest one showed 18,250, which converted meant fifty more years. Considering he was in his early forties, he could live into his nineties.

Seeing Tan Ping’s gaze, this future old-timer smiled and said, “Ah Ping, don’t worry. I had a checkup just last week. My health is excellent!”

“Master’s health is indeed very good!” Tan Ping nodded.

This old-timer was the one who had mentored him when he first joined the traffic police.

Just then, a woman wearing a sanitation worker’s uniform approached, carrying a dustpan and tongs.

When Tan Ping’s gaze rested on her, he froze for a moment—above her head was the number: 0.05!

With 24 hours in a day, this sanitation worker had just a little over one hour left to live!

She had the shortest life countdown Tan Ping had seen so far.

He stood up and, with a complicated heart, walked over to her and asked, “Auntie, are you feeling unwell today?”

“No!” the sanitation worker replied, smiling and shaking her head.

She lowered her head to continue working and said, “Young man, if you don’t have anything else, I need to keep working. If I don’t come by later, the workers will throw trash on the ground again, and if the foreman sees it, I'll get fined again!”

Her words sparked a sudden thought in Tan Ping’s mind. He asked, “Auntie, if you see drivers throwing cigarette butts or trash on the road, do you have to pick it up?”

“Of course! If we don’t, we get fined! Last month, I got fined over two hundred yuan just for cigarette butts!” she nodded.

Tan Ping continued, “Auntie, if you see a driver littering by throwing a cigarette butt out the window, do you stop them?”

“I don’t dare! It doesn’t help even if I do!” The sanitation worker’s honest face showed a helpless smile.

“Auntie, you go ahead and work. If you need help, just call me,” Tan Ping said, glancing at the countdown above her head—it was still 0.05.

Clearly, meeting him hadn’t changed anything.

“All right!” she nodded and kept busy.

Time passed little by little until it was time for the afternoon live broadcast.

Tan Ping tidied his attire and stepped in front of the camera: “Hello everyone! I’m Tan Ping. Welcome back to the Tan Ping Traffic Live Broadcast…”

“Good afternoon, Officer Tan!” fans greeted him with messages.

Tan Ping glanced at the screen. At this moment, there were 203 viewers online.

This was just the beginning of the broadcast; the number would soon rise to over a thousand.

For an official account new to live streaming, this was already very impressive.

The primary reason was Tan Ping’s striking appearance.

Of course, good wine is afraid of a deep alley; much credit also went to Officer Rabbit Li Yuwei, who spared no effort in producing short videos to promote the channel.

“Officer Tan, are we checking for drunk drivers again this afternoon?” a fan asked after greeting.

Other viewers flooded the chat with comments.

“I love watching drunk driving checks. People always make a fool of themselves after drinking—it’s so entertaining!”

“Haha! I still remember Mr. Cheng from this morning. When he sobers up and sees his ‘blowing’ video, he’ll probably laugh till his stomach hurts!”

“Yeah! One time I got drunk and babbled nonsense at home. My wife recorded it and held a ‘three-course trial’ on me!”

“Dude upstairs, they say people speak the truth when drunk. Did you confess to having a mistress?”

“Pretty much!”

“What do you mean by ‘pretty much’?”

“I actually mistook my wife for a hostess named Xiao Li at the club!”

“666! I’m not even impressed when I go to the bathroom, but you, big brother, you’re ruthless!”

Tan Ping scanned the comments, amazed at the creativity of his audience.

But he didn’t forget the matter at hand and said, “This afternoon, we won’t be checking drunk drivers. Instead, we’ll focus on road sanitation!”

“Road sanitation? Isn’t that the sanitation workers’ job? Do traffic police handle that too?” viewers expressed surprise.

Seeing this comment, Tan Ping immediately clarified, “Traffic police are also people’s police. Our duty is to serve the people. We’re not just enforcing; we’re assisting sanitation workers in maintaining road cleanliness!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the chat exploded with messages.

“Officer Tan, I love the way you speak—so knowledgeable!”

“In real life, I’ve met many officers who treat people like royalty, ignoring their duties!”

“If every officer was like Officer Tan, there would be no distance between the people and the police!”

At that moment, Tan Ping glanced at a sanitation worker nearby who was still cleaning the road. The life countdown above her head had dropped to only 0.0034.