New Wizard Abilities

He reached out and nudged the zombie's skull, getting a vivid sense of stirring his own brains.

A crimson crystal revealed itself amid the gore.

"An Extraordinary Item, sure enough." Touching it firsthand, Lin Qi confirmed his guess.

Clutching the crystal in his hand, Lin Qi re-entered Psychic Vision to survey the environment beyond this room.

The parallel-world Lin Qi had turned into a zombie—this likely wasn't an isolated case.

The range of Psychic Vision was tied to Lin Qi's Mental Power; for now, it only covered about 80 meters around him.

Within the Mercenary Group, Lin Qi handled intelligence gathering and architectural mapping.

Even though he never met the group's members face-to-face, he always collected most of the intel on mission locations.

No device could evade Lin Qi's Psychic Vision.

"Sure enough, this is a Doomsday World—and the apocalypse just hit." Psychic Vision was enough to cover the building Lin Qi was in.

It was a residential tower. The room he occupied seemed to be a converted ordinary apartment, split into five single rental units.

The building had twenty-two floors, and Lin Qi was on the top one.

Inside those twenty-two floors, nearly eighty percent of the humans were dead.

Spiritual Energy Particles converged on the corpses' heads, transforming these humans into beings like Zombies.

With so many Zombies born, how many Extraordinary Items would this world spawn?

Even if the same type of Extraordinary Item could only be analyzed once, with an entire world as the base, the variety of items wouldn't be small.

"Mourn for this world's apocalypse."

Lin Qi stood upright while in Psychic Vision.

There was no pity in his heart, even though through Psychic Vision he saw several people in this very building facing Zombies in terror.

"Before I return, I've got enough time to finish analyzing this Extraordinary Item."

Growing up in the Cyber World, Lin Qi knew well to stay cautious at all times.

Collecting more of the same type of Extraordinary Item was pointless—it might even expose his presence. The remnants of government power in the early apocalypse weren't something one person could take on.

He activated the Laser Emitter installed in his arm's Exoskeleton and aimed it at the zombie corpse on the floor.

In just two minutes, only scorched black marks remained.

Holding the crimson crystal, Lin Qi sat in the chair at the computer desk. His Mental Power spread out, enveloping the crystal, and he began analyzing the Extraordinary Item.

Analysis was an innate talent of the Wizard profession—rumored to be the origin of all Extraordinary Professions.

Lin Qi didn't know if the rumor was true, but at this moment, he felt the wild, violent power within the crimson crystal.

The power in the crystal was peeled back layer by layer, revealing its essence under the Wizard's talent.

When the sky grew dark and then bright again, Lin Qi finally reopened his eyes after a long while.

The crimson crystal in his hand had turned to dust, becoming a brand-new ability he now mastered.

Extraordinary Items were destroyed after a Wizard analyzed them—one reason such items were scarce in the Cyber World.

"Blood Manipulation... seems I've picked up a strange ability." The Wizard's powers were hard to explain with science, which clashed badly with Lin Qi's surface identity as a researcher.

Blood's composition wasn't complex, but different creatures had different blood compositions.

Why was this ability simply about controlling blood?

His thoughts wandered until a fluctuation from the [Gate] echoed in his mind, snapping his attention back.

Almost time to go back. He'd been gone for 24 hours—there might be some trouble waiting.

The Red Fruit City Security Department wasn't easy to fool. He might need to pull strings at the research institute to smooth things over.

If it got too messy, he'd have to ask Miss Liu for help.

In Red Fruit City, no problem was beyond the reach of the Liu Group.

Two minutes remained before the [Gate] opened, when Lin Qi suddenly heard footsteps outside the room.

The steps were very light—if not for his sharp senses, he might have missed them.

He activated Psychic Vision and saw the scene outside.

It was a woman with a delicate face, around twenty years old. Her face looked vaguely familiar—probably a parallel-world version of someone he'd known in his past life—but he couldn't recall the name.

She held a hammer, still stained with blood, and her own body was splattered with crimson.

She stepped softly, creeping closer to Lin Qi's room, with a key pinched in her other hand.

A key?

Lin Qi's Psychic Vision locked onto the key.

Comparing it to the keyhole on his door, it was a perfect match.

She was about to enter this room?

Lin Qi made no move, simply watching the woman in silence.

If nothing unexpected happened, Lin Qi and the woman would never meet again.

The woman moved slowly, keeping her footsteps as quiet as possible.

It took her a long time to reach Lin Qi's door. With the utmost care, she inserted the key.

She turned it slowly, her other hand resting on the door handle.

The Gate opened. Lin Qi returned to the Cyber World, back in his own bed.

Everything seemed unchanged.

Only the slight increase in Mental Power and the new ability he had mastered told Lin Qi that everything inside the Gate had been real.

[Xiao Ai reminds you: Network reconnected]

Text appeared on his retinal projection.

Lin Qi called up the networked clock through his Brain.

[2089.2.32 0:55]

The time... hadn't changed?

He had spent a full twenty-four hours in the Doomsday World, yet not a single second had passed in the Cyber World?

"Saves me the trouble."

No need to pull strings to smooth things over with the Red Fruit City Security Department. That was a good thing.

More importantly, he didn't owe Miss Liu any favors.

Lin Qi stopped lying in bed. After his actions in the Doomsday World, he wasn't in the mood to meditate.

The concentration of Spiritual Energy Particles in the Doomsday World was ten times that of the Cyber World. A single day of meditation there was nearly as effective as half a month here.

He walked to his workstation and used his Brain to control the screen.

Lin Qi opened the news panel.

[Liu Heavy Industries Launches New Military-Grade Prosthetic]

[Mercenary Murder Spree Continues: Si Clan Declares Bounty After Four Consecutive Deaths in Greenland City]

["Highest Level" Mercenary Group? Arrogant Name or Genuine Power? 100% Mission Completion Rate]

[Rumors: All Victims of the Murders Were Mysterious Professionals; Si Clan Refuses to Disclose Details]

[Urgent! Mercenary Murder Incident in Hongguo City]

Lin Qi's eyes swept quickly. He didn't focus on any single report.

Paying too much attention would trigger smart algorithms and might draw someone's notice.

He prided himself on his excellent disguise—he couldn't afford to slip up now.

"The Witch Hunt has already reached Hongguo City. I wonder which unlucky Wizard got caught."

"A million Credit Points is a terrifying temptation. If it weren't for this Witch Hunt, I wouldn't have known there were other Wizard practitioners in Hongguo City either."