Gate

From under the sink, Lin Qi pulled out a cleaning cloth and carefully wiped down the surface of the Exoskeleton.

A substitute for quenching his own desire to clean his body—a mirage to stave off thirst.

"Xiao Ai, reconnect to the network. Tomorrow morning, send a message to my dad—tell him I'm coming back on my day off. Have him prepare a Micro-nuclear Powered Heart at the Cybernetic Clinic. I'll pay him the Credit Points."

Lin Qi was ready to deepen his disguise. No one would suspect a heavily cybernetically modified individual of being a Wizard.

As for the Micro-nuclear Powered Heart? It would serve perfectly to upgrade the power supply for his limb Exoskeleton.

As an L-level Researcher at Liu Heavy Industries, Lin Qi had more than enough hands-on skill.

Pushing open the bathroom door, Lin Qi returned to the room, lay down on the bed, closed his eyes, and began to meditate.

Wizardry was an ancient profession—even older than professions like Knight or Martial Artist.

As for how Lin Qi came to acquire the profession of Wizard, that story went back to a rainy night in his childhood.

Rainy night, old Wizard, pursuit, near death, inheritance.

A very short story—summed up in less than a single sentence.

Lin Qi absorbed the "Analyzed Object" gifted by the old Wizard, becoming a First Rank Wizard and gaining an ability called "Psychic Vision."

Relying on his Wizard abilities and a disciplined nature since childhood, Lin Qi completed all the standard education available to ordinary citizens by the age of eighteen, entered the Weapon Research Institute of Liu Heavy Industries, and became a researcher.

At Liu Heavy Industries, Lin Qi worked while continuing deeper studies.

"Lately, my meditation efficiency seems to have improved a bit. Could this be related to the Witch Hunt?"

Within Psychic Vision, Lin Qi possessed absolute perception. He could "see" particle-like energy being absorbed by his own body—this was the essence of Wizard meditation. Lin Qi called them Spiritual Energy Particles.

Recently, the concentration of ambient Spiritual Energy Particles had increased slightly.

Just as Lin Qi was pondering this, a sudden sense of clarity struck deep within his consciousness. A [Gate] appeared within his Psychic Vision.

"Finally fully manifested? Could the increase in Spiritual Energy Particle concentration be related to this Gate?"

Seeing the [Gate] appear, Lin Qi wasn't surprised. This Gate had accompanied him since his transmigration, appearing in his mind.

It wasn't until he acquired the Wizard profession and began his first meditation that the [Gate] produced a pulling sensation, as if it were gradually descending into reality.

"Should I push it open?"

Within Psychic Vision, the [Gate] stood right before Lin Qi, floating less than twenty centimeters from his face.

Unless he moved this Gate aside, Lin Qi couldn't even sit up.

The moment the thought "push it open" arose, Lin Qi felt a suction force from the [Gate].

His body experienced weightlessness. The [Gate] opened.

As if passing through darkness, or perhaps only a momentary blur before his eyes, the scene around Lin Qi shifted.

He was still lying on a bed, but the ceiling and the room's environment had changed.

A yellowed circular ceiling lamp shade, a wooden desk, an old-fashioned laptop, and... beside the computer, a youth whose heart had stopped beating.

[Xiao Ai reminds: Network connection has been lost]

The Brain connected via the micro-electrode behind his ear was still there, but the lost network signal told Lin Qi he was no longer in Red Fruit City.

"The [Gate] in my mind is still there. It needs to recover its power. In twenty-four hours, I'll automatically return."

"Disappearing from Red Fruit City for twenty-four hours? A bit troublesome, but with my identity, I can handle it."

He could still sense the presence of the [Gate], and additional information about it had appeared in his mind. Only then did Lin Qi feel at ease and begin to carefully examine his surroundings.

The scene around him felt somewhat familiar—very similar to the era before he had transmigrated into the Cyber World.

Lin Qi got up from the bed and walked over to the desk. When his gaze fell on the youth, he was a bit startled.

The youth's face was nearly ninety percent identical to his own.

Lin Qi suspected he had returned to the world before his transmigration, but the environment in his memory was different from this place.

Moving the youth's body aside, Lin Qi sat down in front of the laptop and tried to gather information through it.

"An unfamiliar operating system, but the text is still Chinese characters."

"Network disconnected? Why is there no network?"

Unable to obtain any intelligence from the offline device, the only thing Lin Qi could confirm was that this place was definitely not the world he had transmigrated from.

Closing the laptop, there were still some books on the desk. He picked one up at random and flipped through it. A card fell out from between the pages.

An ID card?

"Name: Lin Qi. Place of origin: Dragon Nation..."

This youth really was named Lin Qi. It seemed he was a parallel-world version of himself.

Having already experienced transmigration, Lin Qi accepted this quickly. After all, the version of himself before and after transmigration looked almost the same, and even the name was identical.

"The network signal in this world isn't complicated. With a simple adjustment, I could use the Brain to access it."

"But it would leave traces in the Brain. I absolutely cannot use my own device to connect to the network here."

Lin Qi sat in the chair, deep in thought. When it came to the network, he was extremely wary of Guangleng, the head of the Mercenary Group who had called the meeting.

Guangleng's control over the network was nothing short of absurd.

Moreover, Guangleng was the one who initiated the meeting. Every member of the Mercenary Group had been invited by him, which meant he knew the true identities of them all.

The Wizard's identity couldn't be hidden, but the secret of the [Gate] must never be pried into by Guangleng.

Just as he was pondering this, the Exoskeleton Armor, disguised as a cybernetic limb, suddenly blared an alarm.

[Attack detected. Auto-defense mode activated.]

His arms and legs moved on their own—rising, blocking—all in one fluid motion.

The Exoskeleton Armor shielded Lin Qi from the corpse's attack.

Corpse?

Lin Qi glanced slightly at the boy's face. According to the device's scan, this was unmistakably a corpse.

A corpse reanimating?

A low, guttural growl came from the boy's throat as his body twisted and lunged at Lin Qi again.

"Zombie?"

A term from his past life surfaced in Lin Qi's mind.

The Zombie Boy attacked again, only to be blocked once more by the autonomous Exoskeleton Armor.

"Interesting. Let me see what you really are."

The instruments couldn't identify it, but that didn't mean Lin Qi couldn't.

He activated his Wizard abilities and entered the state of Psychic Vision.

In that state, Lin Qi could clearly see that the concentration of Spiritual Energy Particles in the surrounding air was more than ten times that of the Cyber World.

Beyond that, around the Zombie Boy's head, an extremely dense cluster of Spiritual Energy Particles swirled.

"An Extraordinary Item?"

An Extraordinary Item was an Analyzed Object.

Wizards gained abilities by analyzing Extraordinary Items.

Based on what he saw through Psychic Vision, the Extraordinary Item inside the Zombie Boy's head was precisely First Rank.

Advancing as a Wizard was different from other professions. It couldn't be achieved through hard work alone, or even by splurging on cybernetic modifications.

To advance, a Wizard had to analyze a sufficient number of Extraordinary Items.

Each stage required analyzing at least four items of the corresponding rank before one could ascend to the next.

In the Cyber World, analyzable Extraordinary Items were scarce, and most Wizards were stuck at First Rank.

"Blow his head off. Take the Analyzed Object."

Lin Qi felt no pity for the face that was ninety percent similar to his own.

One punch was all it took to shatter it.