Manhattan 2008

America, New York City, Manhattan, Clinton District.

"Ah, my eyes!" A scream suddenly rang out from the alley.

Bai Jing clutched his eyes, rubbing them for a long time before suddenly realizing that nothing seemed wrong.

"That's not right!" Bai Jing opened his eyes again, and the world before him was hundreds or even thousands of times brighter than before.

It was as if the world he saw before was in night mode, and now it was in daylight super-bright mode!

With this level of brightness, his eyes would definitely not have been able to handle it before, but now he found that facing brightness comparable to staring directly at the sun, his eyes felt nothing!

His head also felt nothing, and instead, it processed information that was ten thousand times clearer than before with exceptional smoothness.

"Why did this change happen so suddenly?" Bai Jing took off his glasses completely. The world blurred for a moment before immediately returning to clarity.

"My myopia is cured too?" Bai Jing blinked. "I'm not dreaming, am I!"

He looked around. It was a dark alley, flanked by five or six-story apartment buildings made of a rare dark red brick. Trash was piled up carelessly, and sewage flowed freely. A fat, black stray cat emerged from a pile of garbage, glanced at him, and ran off with something in its mouth.

Various pipes and external staircases were exposed. The sound of dripping water, distant human voices, police sirens, and gunshots mingled together, making the entire world seem exceptionally real and vibrant.

"Wait, who am I, and where am I?" Bai Jing was bewildered. "Wasn't I just cursing out some netizens' families?"

September 15th, perhaps a day to be remembered in history.

At this time, Apple Inc. was holding a press conference, and many people in Bai Jing's livestream chat were advertising it.

As a hot-headed youth, Bai Jing couldn't stand it. He stopped playing his game and argued with them, spewing insults from 1 AM until 7 AM.

Then he went downstairs to buy breakfast, feeling groggy and disoriented. In a blink of an eye, he found himself in this alley for some reason.

His eyes were almost blinded by the light.

He scratched his head, suspecting he might have fallen asleep while walking and sleepwalked to an unfamiliar place.

He should go out and ask!

Just as Bai Jing was about to move, he saw three large Negro men with cigarettes in their mouths turn into the alley from the street.

Yes, this is not a discriminatory term. The human races are classified into Negro races, which can be abbreviated as Negro, right?

Then, they saw each other!

"Yo, Chink!" The tall, thin Black man at the forefront's eyes lit up. "Hand over your money!"

"Huh?" Bai Jing was first curious. Do they have Black people in my small county town now?

Then he was curious again. Are these guys filming a video? Why are they all moving in slow motion? They're walking slowly too, talking slowly, like they're in 0.5x speed.

As for what they were saying...

Bai Jing's spirit jolted. "You want to rob me?"

"Money, give it to me!" Hearing Chinese, the Black man switched languages smoothly, and quite fluently at that!

"Holy crap!" Bai Jing was speechless. "Dude, it's 2020, who carries cash anymore!"

The Black man didn't understand and repeated, "Money, give it to me!"

"Let's be reasonable, how about I transfer it to you?" He started to reach into his pocket for his phone. Head can break, blood can flow, but you can't leave home without your phone!

"Stop!" Seeing Bai Jing's hand move towards his waist, the Black man immediately shouted, "Stop right there! (English)"

"Huh?" Bai Jing frowned, removed his hand, and looked around again.

His vision and hearing were inexplicably sharp now, but he really didn't see any cameras or selfie sticks.

Are these three guys really filming?

Besides, they wouldn't film like this, would they? They just need to shout "I love China" into the camera, right?

Why would it be so complicated?

But what normal person moves in slow motion in every word, action, and movement?

Bai Jing frowned. Another Black man, however, directly pulled a silver revolver from his clothes!

"Why so much nonsense? Kill him, and we can search him!" the Black man said, aiming the gun at Bai Jing!

"Huh?" Bai Jing suddenly felt a deathly aura envelop him!

Under his enhanced vision, the metallic gleam of the silver revolver made Bai Jing utterly certain: this was a real gun!

"Bang!" The Black man pulled the trigger!

Bai Jing suddenly dodged to the side, the bullet grazing past him!

He wasn't some martial arts master or grandmaster, but facing someone moving at half speed, he could make this prediction!

After all, Bai Jing was a thousand-point king in the canyon; his reaction speed was top-notch!

Bang!

The bullet hit a trash can behind him. Bai Jing glanced back and was sure that the 0.5mm thick metal trash can had been pierced!

The gun was real, the bullets were real!

These guys really intended to kill me!

Hanging by a thread, Bai Jing's mood suddenly calmed.

How to deal with a three-on-one situation?

First, check teammates' positions, second, check your own skills, third, check enemies' skills.

Dodge what you can, use your skills when you should.

Panicking is useless; your mind must be clear, and your actions precise to escape or counter-kill!

Three Black men, stout and strong, perhaps just fat.

But Bai Jing, who had played games for years without much exercise, was even weaker.

Fighting them physically was impossible; his only chance was that silver revolver!

Bai Jing lunged forward!

Though it took time to describe, it happened in the blink of an eye. The Black men were still shocked that their bullets had been dodged, and Bai Jing had already closed the distance!

They were about 6 meters apart. A normal adult could sprint 6 meters in about 1 second, but from the Black men's perspective, the scrawny Asian youth in front of them had appeared right before them in the blink of an eye!

He quickly raised his gun and fired twice, but the youth in front of him moved like a slippery loach, dodging both shots with a tilt of his head and a duck!

The next second, he felt a sharp pain in his hand. He instinctively let go, and by the time he came to his senses, the gun was already in the young man's hand!

"So it wasn't that you guys got slower, it was that I got faster?" Bai Jing felt incredibly excited at this moment.

With super-enhanced vision and hearing, he could tell from his reaction just now that his brain's processing speed and thinking ability had also greatly improved.

Plus, people appeared to be moving in slow motion.

Did I become a superhero?

Then I could easily reach number one on the canyon leaderboard and go pro, right?

Forgive Bai Jing; he came from a poor background and had played games for years. Besides gaming, he truly didn't know what else he was suited for with superpowers.

With the gun in hand, Bai Jing's mindset stabilized considerably, and the Black man in front of him instantly froze in fear.

"Chi-Chinese, Chinese kung fu?" one of the Black men mumbled.

"What Chinese crap!" Bai Jing cursed, then shouted, "Hands up, put your hands on your head, and squat against the wall!"

The Black men didn't understand his words, but they understood the gestures Bai Jing made with the gun, and they obediently squatted in the corner.

"What should I do now!" Having controlled the three men, Bai Jing didn't know what to do next!

If he were acting like the keyboard warrior he used to be online, he would have decisively shot them.

But with a real gun in his hand, he lacked the courage.

"Call the police!" Bai Jing finally remembered that this kind of situation definitely required calling the police.

Illegal possession of a firearm, robbery, attempted murder – multiple charges would be combined, and it wouldn't just end with a letter of repentance!

He took out his Huawei Mate 40 and, with his sharp eyes, immediately noticed that the phone had no signal!

110 is an emergency number; you can call it even without phone credit or if the phone is locked.

But no signal definitely wouldn't work!

How could this be!

Bai Jing looked at the three Black men in front of him and listened to the noisy sounds from outside.

He actually had a guess in his heart: where in China would there be a city filled with gunshots and police sirens?

How could someone walk around the streets with a gun?

Not to mention the pedestrians outside, who were all speaking English...

Bai Jing stood up and walked step by step towards the street entrance.

As he neared the street, he closed his eyes, then suddenly opened them!

What greeted his eyes were shops with English signs lining the streets, and people on the street with hair of all colors – blonde, red, brown, black – and skin of all colors – white, black, yellow, brown...

A newspaper floated past him. Bai Jing caught it casually and saw the name of the paper.

The Manhattan Daily, January 14, 2008.