New Identity

Lu Zhiyu walked out of the police station, though this was merely a station in a small county under Nanchong, Sichuan Province. Lu Zhiyu had pulled some strings to buy a list of unregistered deaths from within the system through a contact who dealt in forged documents. He selected a few men whose ages were similar to his own, then returned to their respective hometowns to apply for identification cards.

Lu Zhiyu's method was simple: he used his mental power to slightly hypnotize the clerks, guiding their consciousness to ensure his application passed the audit. They would then take new photos for him and issue him a new ID card and household registration booklet.

Lu Zhiyu used his mental power to influence their optic nerves, then used his Sub-Brain to generate the images he wanted them to see, feeding them directly into their visual systems. Consequently, every image transmitted to their brains through their vision was exactly what Lu Zhiyu wanted them to see. To an outsider, this technique of Lu Zhiyu's was no different from legendary illusions. The surveillance footage here would only be kept for six months; even if something were to happen later, anyone trying to investigate would face insurmountable obstacles.

However, on Earth, Lu Zhiyu did not possess the ability to traverse space at will as he did within the Universe Scroll. Unless he left a mark of the Dimensional Gate in a certain location, he had to honestly travel from place to place. He obtained four identities in total, all of which were real—though they wouldn't stand up to deep scrutiny, they were sufficient for his needs.

Lu Zhiyu immediately went to the bank, canceled all his previous bank cards, and opened new ones for each of his four identities. Now, Lu Zhiyu possessed four distinct identities, each with its own set of bank cards.

Next, Lu Zhiyu drove to a gold recycling company's branch in the provincial capital, carrying a wooden box inside. In reality, there were many such gold recycling companies, as well as jewelry stores that offered this service, and some banks even had precious metal buyback centers. However, these places had strict requirements for gold purity, demanding "thousand-fine gold." This particular company was quite powerful, well-known, and very legitimate.

The gold Lu Zhiyu possessed had been retrieved from Maria World; it was part of the original inventory of the Golden City. However, two weeks had passed in reality, while hundreds of years had gone by in Maria World. The Golden City had long since fallen, and the Golden Dynasty had collapsed. The former Golden Dynasty, along with its palaces and the Temple of Light, had long ago turned to dust. Lu Zhiyu had located the ancient treasury of the Golden City and extracted a portion, all of which were gold bars.

These gold bars had been refined using ancient methods, so their purity did not reach the level of thousand-fine gold. But as long as Lu Zhiyu possessed Maria World, generating such gold was incredibly easy for him.

A middle-aged man observed the color, listened to the sound, and tested the density with instruments. After carefully checking and verifying each piece, he whispered something to the manager beside him. The manager nodded, turned to Lu Zhiyu, and said, "The gold purity isn't thousand-fine; the gold content is only ninety percent. May I ask the origin of this batch? I apologize, but because the quantity is quite large—you have over fifty kilograms here!"

Lu Zhiyu immediately replied, "It was left behind by my ancestors and has been hidden in the cellar of our old family home for many years!"

The manager nodded. "Oh! Then there is no problem. However, since it isn't thousand-fine gold, the price cannot be calculated according to the standard..."

These days, many families had quite a few antiques, gold, or silver dollars left behind by their ancestors. Generally, few people asked about the origin or required certificates. Who didn't have some small family heirlooms? It wasn't as if things couldn't be sold or weren't allowed to be traded just because they lacked certificates.

After arguing back and forth with the manager, Lu Zhiyu used his mind-reading ability to gauge the manager's psychological bottom line. He negotiated the price to a level he was satisfied with and finally reached a deal. Lu Zhiyu immediately said, "I have some more in my car. Since I'm already here, I might as well sell it all to you."

The manager's jaw dropped. "How much more?"

Lu Zhiyu replied instantly, "Not much, a little over a hundred kilograms!"

"Ah!"

Following this, Lu Zhiyu traveled between several provinces and cities, selling nearly a ton of gold in multiple batches. Each time, he used a different identity and dispersed the money into different accounts, totaling approximately 230 million yuan flowing into his accounts.

It was the first time Lu Zhiyu had seen so much money, and he felt it had come without the slightest difficulty. If he weren't afraid of attracting too much attention, Lu Zhiyu could have sold several more tons. With Maria World, things like gold, silver, and diamonds were as easily obtained as roadside weeds. By selling a ton of gold this time and splitting it across different identities, he would at most cause a few rumors within the gold recycling industry. Each deposit was in the tens of millions; while that might be a huge sum for an ordinary person, on a national scale, no one would pay attention to such things.

From his four identities, Lu Zhiyu chose the one named Mu Tao to serve as his primary persona. According to the information, this person was from Sichuan, a graduate of Modu University, had studied abroad, and had gone missing during a disaster, with no body ever recovered.

He had majored in fine arts, was somewhat reclusive by nature, and had few friends. He had studied oil painting abroad. It was normal for an artist to have a personality different from the average person. Lu Zhiyu decided to use this identity as his primary one, keeping the others as backups for emergencies.

Using Mu Tao's identity, he bought a plane ticket to return home, intending to tie up the final loose ends of the "Lu Zhiyu" identity. This way, even if he ran into trouble later, it wouldn't implicate the Lu Zhiyu identity, nor would it drag his friends and family into it.

With 200 million RMB in his pocket, how should he put it? He felt his heart thumping in his chest. Lu Zhiyu told himself that he was a "god" capable of creating a world at will, manipulating the fate of all living things, and creating intelligent life. To have his composure shaken by a mere 200 million felt truly low-class!

Yet, he couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart. This was the first time Lu Zhiyu had possessed so much money, and he had even created four identities for himself to cover his past. It felt like something out of an American blockbuster movie.

Within the Universe Scroll, Lu Zhiyu could treat it as a game he played behind closed doors. But this was Earth, the real world; Lu Zhiyu's sense of identification and emotional connection were completely different.

Sitting on the plane, Lu Zhiyu felt nervous, but also had a sense of high spirits, as if his journey had only truly taken its first step here, finally setting sail.

Back home, Lu Zhiyu received another call from Xiao Le. Lu Zhiyu had been away for some time, and Xiao Le seemed to have been worked to the bone. After Lu Zhiyu answered, Xiao Le's angry voice came through the phone: "Boss, where on earth did you go?"

Lu Zhiyu thought for a moment. "Xiao Le, I have some matters to attend to, and I won't be able to come back for a while."

Xiao Le said in surprise, "Ah? Then what about the pet shop?"

Lu Zhiyu smiled and said, "I probably won't have the time to manage it anymore. If you're interested in this field, the pet shop is yours. You've managed it quite well on your own lately. To be honest, I was just bored and looking for something to do. You've basically been handling everything in the shop anyway. You've worked hard during this time!"

Xiao Le said in astonishment, "No way, Boss, I didn't..."

"No money needed, I said it's yours. Besides, I didn't spend much on the transfer fee back then, and I've already earned it back during this time. The things inside are useless to me, and I don't have the time to come back and deal with them. That's it, Peng Xiaole, from now on you are the owner of the Cats and Dogs Pet Shop. I believe in you. I'll courier the transfer agreement to you later. Yeah, that's it, I have things to do here, hanging up!"

Peng Xiaole hung up the phone, her face a blank mask of confusion, completely unaware of what had just happened. Looking at the entire pet shop, the customers chatting on the sofa, the noisy cats and dogs, and that chatterbox parrot, she thought, This shop belongs to me now?