Beginner (Bronze)

There had been no unexpected gains, but that was within expectations. Director Zhang had never thought Little Gu would know anything, and the surveillance footage showed everything clearly—

At the time, Old Ding had been in the guardroom while Little Gu walked past outside. The two had merely exchanged a few words and greeted each other from a distance, without any contact whatsoever. Moreover, after Little Gu left, nothing happened to Old Ding. The supposed haunting had occurred over an hour later.

To put it bluntly, it would have been hard even if they wanted to extort someone, especially over something like a "haunting."

So the middle-aged woman spoke vaguely, saying that public security had not been very good lately and telling him to be careful, muddling through the reason for her questioning. Gu Mo naturally knew that was not the real reason, though he did not guess the specifics. He merely assumed Old Man Ding had once again put his loose tongue to work and started spreading rumors about him.

It made him wonder whether Old Man Ding's imagination really could leap so far in this regard—seeing short sleeves and immediately thinking of bare arms—so that the slightest strange behavior from him could make the old man instantly suspect there was something wrong with him...

—or whether he really had been that obvious, full of flaws in other people's eyes, and had long since become suspicious.

Still, it was never too late to mend the fence after the sheep were lost. He had already decided that from now on, he would play the part of a normal person properly and make sure no one saw anything wrong.

After returning home, he took a shower, tossed his washed clothes into the washing machine, put everything in order, dried his hair, and lay down on the bed. After that whole sequence of actions, he checked his phone and found that he still had nearly half an hour left.

Letting out a soft breath, Gu Mo did not know whether he should be happy about it. It seemed he was gradually getting used to this rhythm... Were people really forced to adapt?

But there was nothing he could do about it. This was simply his situation. Other than adapting, what other choice did he have?

"Maybe I should consider moving."

Remembering how Director Zhang had stopped him for questioning earlier, the thought rose uncontrollably in Gu Mo's mind. He began searching for nearby rental listings on his phone. It might have been a little paranoid, but he felt it was better to be safe.

This residential complex had the highest concentration of elderly uncles and aunties. Old Man Ding was merely one of the more talkative ones, but he was definitely not the only one, much less the most formidable. Worse still, perhaps these old folks were all mecha fans, because they deeply understood the principle that "combining increases combat power." They often gathered together to speculate wildly and invent things out of thin air, causing the power of gossip to rise geometrically...

He had really been an idiot to think the conditions here were good enough to move in.

He should move somewhere else. In a new place, no one would know him... Well, he did not even need to move too far. These days, city dwellers' social circles were fragmented beyond recognition. Often, people living in the same complex did not even know everyone else there.

It was not like the countryside. Leave your own village, and someone from the neighboring village—or even the village next to that one—might still know of you, or somehow be related to one of your countless aunts and uncles...

So as long as he moved two streets away, the people in this complex probably would never find him again. After a while, they should forget there had ever been someone like him.

"Mm, it would be best if I could move next to that restaurant. If I lived close enough, then even if they do not offer delivery, they should still be able to save a reserved portion for me..."

Thinking of that made Gu Mo even more determined to move.

Perhaps it really was because of his delusions and hallucinations. Last night, he had searched everywhere for food, lingering around late-night food stalls throughout the city, only to discover that everything was difficult to swallow.

"Mm, what was the name of that street again?"

After raising his head to think for a while, Gu Mo realized he had not paid attention to that detail. He had no way to use it as an address to search for nearby rentals... After some thought, he lowered his head, opened the food delivery app, and entered "Yukihira Restaurant" as the keyword.

He tapped search, and in less than a second, a new page popped up.

"Xingping Restaurant," "Xingping Dining," "Happy Restaurant"...

A series of similar search results appeared. The nearest "Xingping Restaurant" was 8.7 kilometers away, and aside from that, he could not find the actual place.

Gu Mo raised an eyebrow, but he was not surprised. He had expected this. The restaurant did not even have mobile payment or QR code payment methods, so it was perfectly reasonable that it had not opened a delivery service or registered on the platform at all.

"Forget it. I'll go take another look tomorrow."

Looking at the time on his phone, he sighed deeply, put the phone away, clasped his hands behind his head, and adjusted his position to make himself as comfortable as possible... He knew what would happen next. When the time came, his vision would go black and he would lose consciousness immediately.

When he opened his eyes again, and his senses and ability to think came back online, it would already be midnight at the start of the next day, and he would be fully refreshed.

Heaven have mercy, he had never slept this well in his life!

But this definitely was not a good thing, and Gu Mo did not think he could accept it, especially now that he had decided to save himself and believed he still had a chance to correct things.

The fact that he still knew this was abnormal was his greatest advantage, and proof that his condition was still relatively mild. If he were like that psychiatric patient he had seen, completely accepting his new persona, adapting to a brand-new twisted worldview, and believing that holding a fruit knife made him the supreme martial arts master wielding the Dragon-Slaying Saber...

—then he would probably truly be beyond saving.

"Ten, nine, eight, seven..."

Counting down silently, Gu Mo pulled himself together, opened his eyes wide, and repeatedly warned himself—I'm wide awake. It's still early. I'm normal. I don't think there's anything wrong with me... Don't sleep, don't sleep, don't sleep. I don't even want to sleep...

Four, three, two, one. Time was up.

Along with a piercing auditory hallucination that seemed laced with electric current, his vision went black. His consciousness rapidly grew hazy, and the reality connected to his senses quickly receded.

Bzz...%￥#@&...bzz...$#%&@...

Scene: Yukihira Rest...bzz...$#%&...

Difficulty: Easy.

Current scene exploration...bzz...$#%&...

Bzz...sce...$#%&...mode: Peaceful.

Triggered missions: 0.

Completed missions...bzz...$#%&...

Overall rating: F- (lowest rating).

It was as though electric current were racing through his nerves. The chaotic noise was meaningless, yet amid the fragments were occasional scraps of clear or blurry information. They looped over and over, barely discernible.

But to the person who had already been "forcibly logged out," these things might as well not have existed.

Achievement unlocked...bzz...$#%&...obtained title "Beginner (Bronze)." The title badge's bonus effect has been activated by default...

Your...$#%&...level has increased. You are now Level 1. You have gained 1 free attribute point. Please choose the direction of allocation carefully...

%￥#@&...users under the age of 18 are subject to the anti-addiction sys...bzz...online time has reached 8 hours. You will be forcibly logged out...please complete...bzz...%￥#@&...Real-Name Verification...

Amid the piercing hiss and crackle, like the strange sound of static from a malfunctioning old television, everything stopped after the final fragment of information finished playing. There was no more movement, only the young man on the bed breathing long and quietly.

As though he were sleeping in a sweet dream.

Who knew how long had passed.

That familiar sensation, like electric current coursing through his nerves, returned. His hearing was the first thing to awaken, immediately suffering through the piercing torment, followed by the full return of his senses.

It was not the gradual restoration of bodily functions from sleep, the process of waking from a dream as one's will slowly gathered and consciousness gradually became clear. It was something far more abrupt... Well, how could he describe it?

One second, he had been sleeping like the dead. The next, he suddenly woke up—

And he was completely awake. Every trace of drowsiness had vanished, leaving him full of energy and in peak condition. The feeling was truly strange and difficult to describe.

"Looking on the bright side, at least I don't have a problem with sleeping in anymore..." Gu Mo sat up directly in bed and blinked. In the dim room, he saw the glowing display of the electronic clock on the bedside table. The time told him that today, too, he had woken up exactly at midnight.

He shook his head and put on his shoes before getting out of bed. In the past, he slept in because he could not wake up and had not gotten enough sleep. He would still be exhausted upon waking, so he always wanted to doze a little longer. For that, he had even been willing to activate Stand: Time Waster...

But now, every time he woke up, he was so alert that he could not be more awake, without the slightest hint of sleepiness. Naturally, he would not want to sleep a little longer, so there was neither the thought nor the need to sleep in.

This was probably the only benefit Gu Mo had discovered from his strange symptoms so far...

It seemed yesterday's efforts had failed. His mental preparation had not worked, and when the time came, he had still fallen asleep immediately. Thinking this, he walked over to the bedside table and picked up the electronic clock for a look. Today, too, he had awakened with precision down to the second. It seemed he had probably fallen asleep with equal precision yesterday morning.

As long as someone exercised normally and kept regular hours, their biological clock could be controlled with greater precision than humans imagined. It was said that racehorse jockeys could even possess biological clocks accurate to one-tenth of a second... But under normal circumstances, Gu Mo did not think he had that ability.

Why was it that, in the middle of a relapse, his biological clock could instead calculate time down to the second?

—Well, the world of psychiatric patients truly was impossible to understand.

He put down the electronic clock, turned around, and took the clothes hanging from the chair by the computer desk. He had prepared them in advance yesterday morning before falling asleep because he would need them the next day.

Entering the bathroom, Gu Mo brushed his teeth, washed his face, took care of his personal needs, and then took a proper shower at top speed.

When he came out, his hair was still dripping wet. He did not even glance at the hair dryer, instead decisively grabbing his keys, phone, and wallet before rushing downstairs.

After all, he did not know what time that restaurant closed. Last night had supposedly already been fairly late, and now that he was only heading there today, he did not know whether he would make it in time... The thought gave him a sense of urgency. If he could have, he would not even have washed up. He would have charged over there the moment he got out of bed.

"Little Gu, heading out this late?"

At the entrance of the residential complex, the middle-aged man in the guardroom heard movement and nervously looked up toward the outside. Only after realizing it was Gu Mo did he let out a breath of relief.

"Yeah, I found a night-shift job recently..." Although Gu Mo was a little anxious, he still stopped and patiently explained in order to maintain his normal-person persona. Then he looked at the middle-aged man curiously. "But Uncle Zhang, why are you on duty tonight? Wasn't Old Man Ding supposed to be working this week?"

"...Old Ding? He has something to deal with these next few days, so I'm covering for him." The middle-aged man's expression immediately became somewhat strange. He forced out a smile and answered in a slightly stiff tone.

"I see. Then take care of yourself. The wind is strong at night, so don't catch a chill..."

Gu Mo nodded. He had merely asked casually, so he did not think much of it. Waving his hand, he quickly walked out.

Watching the young man's figure disappear beyond the window, the middle-aged man nervously glanced outside several more times. Even after sitting back down, he still looked somewhat jumpy. He did not believe Old Man Ding's nonsense, but he could not deny that it had made his skin crawl.

Two minutes later.

"How can that be? I clearly remember it being here..."

Gu Mo walked back and forth several times along the stretch near the end of the snack street, ignoring the enthusiastic solicitations from the shop owners and servers on both sides as he widened his eyes and looked around again and again.

Impossible! How could this happen?

In his memory, the small alley leading to the commercial street on the other side had been right here. But what stood before him now was only a dead end, piled with all sorts of miscellaneous junk. At the end was a tightly locked iron gate, rusty and mottled with age.

Had he remembered wrong? With mixed feelings, he looked back once, then turned and headed in that direction.

Reaching the other side of the street, he looked around. Then his eyes lit up.

A dim little alley...

There were lights at the far end across from him...

So he really had remembered wrong. It was not on that side, but this side. He immediately felt relieved, then decisively stepped inside. As the piercing hum and static sounded again, he frowned, eventually passing through the dim, flickering alley and arriving on the other side.