When the nurse went to get the medicine, two figures burst into the ward.
Hu Jiu turned his head and was stunned.
His gaze was fixed intently on the two of them.
"Doctor, is our child really cured?" the two asked, their voices filled with surprise and joy.
The doctor mumbled, "There has indeed been some improvement."
The joy on their faces intensified, and they reached out to hug Hu Jiu.
Snap! Snap!
Hu Jiu slapped them both hard across the face, saying, "You two old bastards, how dare you show your face in front of me?"
Ignoring the astonished looks of everyone present, even though Hu Jiu had lost all his supernatural powers, he still had plenty of strength and means to deal with these two old men. Even if it was just an illusion, Hu Jiu would not show them the slightest mercy.
"Someone's dead! Call security!" the doctor shouted in terror.
After killing the two old men, Hu Jiu ripped off the doctor's glasses, broke off the temple, and stuck the broken eyeglasses into his temple.
In an instant, the entire world stood still.
The doctor, who had suffered a fatal wound, did not die. Instead, he calmly asked Hu Jiu, "How did you figure that out?"
Hu Jiu rolled her eyes. "Because I have a clear self-awareness. I'm a born bad person, born to yearn for darkness and evil. I'll kill and commit arson, I'll do any heinous thing. But when I'm weak, I can disguise myself very well, I'll never show anything abnormal, and I'll never be sent to a mental hospital!"
After he finished speaking, everything in front of him began to blur, crumble, and eventually turned into a bizarre and grotesque background.
"Wouldn't it be better to return to a normal life?" the doctor asked casually. "You'll have a happy family, loving parents, a successful career, and a lifetime of joy."
Hu Jiu gave him a look as if he were an idiot. "Having invincible power is what makes me happiest."
The doctor sighed, "You clearly already guessed it; you're just a fictional character, a two-dimensional figure. The plot and character design have all collapsed and ended poorly. Your future is a void, or rather, you have no future at all."
Hu Jiu countered, "Why can't I try to break the Fourth Wall?"
The doctor said, "Breaking the Fourth Wall doesn't necessarily make things better. Why not stay here and enjoy the good life of a rich and handsome man? It's good to be a little oblivious to worldly troubles."
Hu Jiu remained calm and composed. "Breaking the Fourth Wall, no matter the consequences, I will not stay here. This so-called family reunion is meaningless to me; it even feels like being forced into a dumpling-making session. I want greater power to destroy more worlds, and even kill that so-called 'creator.' That is my pursuit."
The doctor sneered, "Are your thoughts right now, your self-righteous dreams and pursuits, just a few simple lines of text written by an author? They're merely reflections of the real world."
Hu Jiu retorted, "Are the things you're saying to me now entirely from your own heart, and not from the author's arrangement? I have no desire to discuss sophistry like 'you are not a fish' with you. If the author can truly control the words, actions, and thoughts of every character, thinking about this is pointless and will only make you more and more insane."
The doctor sighed, "You're right. Perhaps I'm also an NPC. My advice to you here is merely a product of the author's schizophrenia."
"But on the bright side, the so-called creator, the author who created us, might just be a fictional character. We are fictional characters created by him, and he is fictional characters created by other authors in higher dimensions. The real world as seen by others might just be a two-dimensional novel as seen by someone else. We are all essentially NPCs."
Hu Jiu burst into laughter. "Whether I'm a fictional character or an NPC, I am who I am. As long as my core principle of 'born evil, capable of any evil' remains unchanged, Hu Jiu will always be Hu Jiu. If one day I suddenly have a change of heart and do good deeds, suddenly make selfless sacrifices for the benefit of others, or suddenly fall in love with someone, that will be the moment I truly die."
After saying that, the doctor in front of him vanished.
The cold, powerful force returned to Hu Jiu's body.
He randomly selected a direction in this void and flew towards it.
After an unknown amount of time, he saw the Milky Way, he saw the Earth, and he saw every world he had ever experienced.
With a crack, as if something had shattered, he did not stop flying.
So he flew out of the screen and saw a shut-in sitting in front of a computer typing on a keyboard.
"Who are you?" the otaku asked in a panic.
Hu Jiu slapped the man to death with a backhand, then changed direction and flew towards the vast sky.
Houses, streets, and human structures shrank in his field of vision. Hu Jiu flew out of space, out of the Milky Way, and then he heard the sound of something breaking.
This time, he flew out of a horror movie. The otaku from before was just a background character who flashed by in a scene of the movie and didn't even deserve a name.
Hu Jiu continued to ascend, passing through one world after another, killing countless people in the process.
After an unknown amount of time, Hu Jiu finally reached the end point—a point that was infinitely close to reality, yet could never reach it.
He seemed to be separated from that so-called real world by only a thin wall, but no matter how powerful he was, his power would vanish into thin air when he touched that thin wall.
In any case, he couldn't interfere with the other side of the wall, not even a single atom or molecule could be moved.
Turning my head to look behind me, countless layers of the world were clearly visible.
He cannot reach the reality ahead, but he can move left, right, up, down, and backward. Worlds derived from novels, movies, comics, and even dreams are being born and destroyed endlessly.
"I still need to keep exploring and getting stronger. The Fourth Wall is right in front of me; I should try to break it..."
The next second, Hu Jiu's gaze sharpened, locking onto a world.
"Old Hu, where did you go just now?" Du Zhong asked with concern as he looked at Hu Jiu, who had suddenly appeared before him.
Hu Jiu smiled and said, "I have good news for you. I finally understand everything."
"Huh?" Du Zhong was full of questions, suddenly feeling that his friend seemed to have completely gone mad.
Hu Jiu didn't offer any further explanation, but instead unexpectedly reached out and patted Du Zhong's head, rolling him into a ball in his utterly shocked gaze.
The sphere continued to resist, seemingly questioning Hu Jiu about why he had suddenly launched an attack.
"To me, you have no value left to exploit."
Hu Jiu kept shrinking the size of the ball, and before long, he had another item in his collection.
"The journey is not over yet. I will keep going and create more stories of my own."