Sleepless One

It was ten in the morning.

The all-night bar and casino had just closed for cleanup. The gang members were sleeping now, replenishing their energy for the night's activities.

"This was former boss Bront's bedroom. We've replaced all the bedding with brand-new sets!" One floor above the building where Bai Jing watched Teletubbies was Bront's bedroom.

The decor was surprisingly scholarly, with bookshelves taking up a full third of the space.

Bai Jing was a boss now, after all, and he had begun to think like one.

Bront definitely had not read any of these books. Weren't they all brand-new?

But books could block sightlines and stop bullets!

The door was heavy and password-protected. Aside from Denny, nobody could open it!

The windows did not face the bed either, and they were one-way glass. No one outside could see what was happening within!

In this line of work, wasn't the greatest fear being assassinated or ambushed?

Denny Roberts, dressed in black stockings, plopped down on the bed, crossed her legs, and began absentmindedly stroking her smooth, rounded thigh. Then she looked up and winked at Bai Jing.

"What are you doing? If your leg itches, go back and scratch it. Don't bring lice onto my bed!" Bai Jing said with a frown.

"Uh..." Denny's face darkened. She angrily got up, deliberately bumped Bai Jing with her chest, then clicked away in her high heels.

"How weird!" Bai Jing scratched his head, took off his shoes, and sat on the bed, suddenly lost in thought.

He had stayed up all night too, so of course he was sleepy now.

But!

Could he sleep?

Did he dare sleep?

Could he even fall asleep at a time like this?

What if one of Bront's diehard loyalists put a bullet in him? Who knew whether his gravity would still be active while he slept!

"That's a problem." Bai Jing was speechless. The only possible diehard loyalist was Lumira, but she was still too young to take on any major role.

So he might as well use this time to test whether his abilities required him to keep his eyes open.

Whether he could only use them while awake.

And whether his newly clear mind was also a result of his abilities.

Gravity Scan could naturally scan himself as well, but after being busy all morning, he had not had the chance.

Universal Gravitation interacted mutually. That was the basis of Gravity Scan.

The gravity emitted by Bai Jing's eyes was affected by the gravity of other objects. Different objects, substances, cells, and even atoms and molecules had different gravitational fluctuations. Those fluctuations affected the gravity from Bai Jing's eyes, forming an altered gravitational image within his perception.

Because gravity could pass through all matter, this image was not a simple two-dimensional image, but an interference layer akin to a 2D expansion of three-dimensional matter.

Take a mosquito. Simply swatting it flat was not 2D expansion, because a great deal of information was lost in the process.

Only when the position of every atom and molecule had been recorded, and the complete three-dimensional object could be reconstructed after reading and converting the data, could it be called a perfect 2D expansion.

When Bai Jing had scanned people and objects before, he had instinctively ignored the scientific principles involved. Only now that he had calmed down did he realize how profound they were.

And terrifying!

People could not imagine something they had never seen. Humanity had never seen higher dimensions, so naturally it could not imagine what a higher-dimensional world looked like!

Yet under the scan of Black Hole Eye, he had come into contact with that level!

"Although my black hole currently seems only able to control gravitational attraction and repulsion, as well as absorb and annihilate all things, my ability is actually on an extremely high level!" A surge of ambition suddenly rose in Bai Jing's heart!

A High-dimensional Perspective, a perspective that transcended the world by one dimension!

This superpower was comparable to a physical ascension, a Dimensional Leap!

This was the ultimate pursuit of civilization's evolution and development!

And I actually possessed this ability!

Although he was not yet a higher-dimensional being, he had to be halfway there at least!

I'm no worse than anyone!

Bai Jing simply sat cross-legged and slowly began to study it in depth.

When he read novels or watched anime in his previous life, what he hated most were superpowered people who had no learning or skill, using a mountain of gold like a brick.

Magneto was an idiot, Thunder God Thor was an idiot, and even Thanos, who claimed to possess profound wisdom, was an idiot...

Now that he had superpowers too, he absolutely could not be an idiot!

The first thing he needed to solve was the problem of sleep!

If he feared being ambushed in his sleep, then he just would not sleep!

Sleep served three purposes: conserving energy, removing metabolic waste, and promoting protein synthesis, growth hormone release, immune repair, and so on.

Of those, promoting protein synthesis and repairing immune function were long-term processes.

The main reason people had to sleep every day was to clear away metabolic waste!

During the day, when people were awake, cells were active and enlarged, while the spaces between them shrank, making cerebrospinal fluid less able to flow. As metabolic waste accumulated, the spaces between cells expanded at night during sleep, the flow of cerebrospinal fluid sped up, and it naturally carried away that metabolic waste.

What was his ability?

Devouring!

Then couldn't he just devour the metabolic waste directly?

He did not know which things were metabolic waste and which were not, so he could only observe first, then get up and search the bookshelves for information.

New York had a famous university, Columbia University. Many people might not have heard of it, but it had a famous alumna whom everyone should know.

That alumna was Miyano Shiho, who changed her name to Haibara Ai after taking a pill.

Bai Jing discovered this mainly because the bookshelves held many Columbia University textbooks on biology and biomedical engineering, along with a thick biomedical dictionary.

English was a rather primitive language. Whenever something new was created, it had to create a new word to correspond to it. As science developed, enormous numbers of new words were created, resulting in every discipline having a vast amount of specialized vocabulary.

Outsiders, even those with the highest level of English proficiency or scientists from other fields, would be completely bewildered by these specialties.

American scientists knew this, people in China knew it, and all scientists knew it was bad, that it hindered scientific communication and development.

Everyone also knew Chinese was better.

But asking them to switch? Impossible!

His mind was in excellent condition now. Although he had not slept all night and felt groggy, as if he were cultivating immortality, it did not affect how quickly his brain worked.

He flipped through the materials while comparing them with the various descriptions in the books.

What brain cells looked like, what cerebrospinal fluid looked like—once the normal parts of the body were removed, wouldn't the rest be metabolic waste?

Bai Jing selected an area above his right brain and began carefully experimenting. He absorbed a little impurity, and it seemed to have no effect.

Then he absorbed a little more!

Then a little more!

Bai Jing felt his grogginess gradually fading, and he slowly became alert!

"It really works!" Bai Jing felt the excitement of having solved a major problem. He slowly expanded the scanning range, from his right brain to his left brain, then to his cerebellum!

Two hours later!

Bai Jing abruptly opened his eyes!

They were still tinged with darkness, yet they shone with vitality!

JOJO, I don't need to sleep anymore!

Mm, from now on, call me the Sleepless One!

Bai Jing was excited, then excited some more, before gradually calming down.

Then came the lingering fear!

Could he just mess with his own head like that? This was the result of all his efforts, after all. What if he failed and turned himself into an idiot?

Why had he not found someone else to experiment on?

Smack!

Bai Jing slapped himself across the face. From now on, he would absolutely never make decisions while drowsy!