Jiang City.
At the gates of the First Psychiatric Hospital.
"I'm out of the hospital!"
Looking at the glow of the setting sun, Qin Ze felt more carefree than ever.
"I'm out of the hospital!"
"I'm free!"
"Yay! We're all out of the hospital!"
"I'm thirsty. Let's get something to drink first."
"Fruit juice, I love fresh fruit juice!"
"..."
Dozens of voices identical to Qin Ze's rang out in his head at once, as if all the aunties from the village entrance had crawled into his brain. The racket was deafening.
They were all his clones, currently overlapping with him.
Two months ago, Qin Ze had woken up to find that he had transmigrated to a parallel world where countless races coexisted and martial strength reigned supreme.
Not only that, he had also gained a cloning cheat.
One clone automatically split off every day. It was even easier than a hen laying eggs.
A clone's attributes were only half those of the original body at the time it was produced, and it lacked the ability to create further clones.
In every other respect, they were no different from the original. They had intelligence, flesh and blood, and souls.
Qin Ze shared his senses and memories with his clones, like a multicore processor.
When he had first gained this ability, Qin Ze had struggled to adapt.
To keep the clones hidden, he had no choice but to have them overlap with him.
Those idiots had chattered nonstop all day, driving Qin Ze almost schizophrenic.
And so, Qin Ze's parents had sent their muttering son to a psychiatric hospital.
He had stayed there for two months.
"Where's my sister?"
"Didn't she say she'd take me out for dinner to welcome me back tonight?"
Qin Ze stood alone by the roadside, at a loss.
"My phone's dead too."
"Damn!"
The sun was about to disappear entirely. If he didn't leave soon, it would be dark.
Qin Ze stopped waiting and headed home alone along the winding mountain road.
The psychiatric hospital stood atop a mountain on the outskirts.
There were few people around to begin with. At this hour, the only things he was likely to run into were ghosts.
At the foot of the mountain, Qin Ze was preparing to wait for a ride from a passing car when he suddenly spotted a girl squatting under a streetlamp in the distance, her back to him.
Her shoulders were shaking, as though she were crying.
A remote wilderness, the sky growing dark, a lone man and woman, crows cawing overhead...
Qin Ze turned and walked away.
But he hadn't gone far when he saw the girl again under a streetlamp ahead.
Qin Ze pretended not to see her and kept walking.
Less than a hundred meters later, the two met again under another streetlamp.
The girl's sobs were louder than before.
They were shrill, like a baby's cries.
"Excuse me."
His face dark, Qin Ze walked around her.
Whoosh-
The girl flashed in front of him in an instant, blocking his path with her back to him.
"Are you done yet?!"
Even a clay Buddha had a temper. Qin Ze's patience was completely exhausted.
Crack, crack, crack-
The girl's head turned a hundred and eighty degrees, her mouth stretching from ear to ear as she gave Qin Ze a charming smile.
Then her body began to swell, and more than a hundred arms and legs sprouted from it, packed together like a hedgehog's spines.
Her face kept changing between men and women, old and young, reminding Qin Ze of the kaleidoscope he had played with as a child.
Only the kaleidoscope changed colors, while the girl changed faces.
Bang!
The girl, now two stories tall, planted her right foot forward, making the ground tremble slightly.
"Sumimasen~"
"I admit I raised my voice a little just now."
Qin Ze backed away inch by inch.
He was outwardly as steady as an old dog, but inside, he was panicking like crazy.
Why the hell is there an exotic beast here?!
Although this was the near outskirts, it was still part of the city.
"Calling on hell won't help either."
"So this is our first boss fight after leaving the newbie village?"
"It's just an exotic beast. Show him the might of the Great Demon King Qin Ze!"
"It's only an exotic beast. Watch me take it down with a sliding tackle!"
A clone left Qin Ze and slid toward the exotic beast.
A bloody maw over a meter long suddenly opened in the beast's belly, and the clone slid straight into it.
"Buurp~"
The exotic beast burped and tilted its head, looking at Qin Ze in confusion.
This human is so strange.
I've already eaten him, so why is he still standing in front of me?
"Everyone, attack together!"
Qin Ze raised an arm and shouted, and more than a dozen clones charged at the exotic beast.
The exotic beast was stunned.
Is... this heaven?
Each of the exotic beast's outstretched arms grabbed a Qin Ze and fed him into its mouth, one after another. It was a full-on buffet.
"Now!"
While the exotic beast was distracted by its buffet, Qin Ze suddenly became a streak of black lightning, moving too fast for even his afterimage to be caught.
Duang~
Qin Ze leaped high and smashed his fist into the top of the exotic beast's head.
Caught off guard, the exotic beast's massive body crashed to the ground.
Qin Ze's punch contained the combined strength of all his clones.
He had figured it out while he had nothing to do in the psychiatric hospital.
With a single thought, he could combine all his clones' attributes for thirty seconds.
After those thirty seconds, his waist and knees would turn weak, and his whole body would be drained of strength.
Twenty seconds left!
Qin Ze hurried forward to finish it off.
The huge mouth on the exotic beast's belly opened, unleashing a terrifying suction force.
The clones left the original body one after another.
Those behind planted their feet on the backs of those in front and pushed with all their might, one kicking off another.
After sacrificing ten clones, Qin Ze finally broke free of the terrifying suction.
The moment he landed, his legs went weak, and he sprawled on the ground like a toad.
The sage moment had arrived.
The exotic beast staggered to its feet and patted its belly in satisfaction.
It had never imagined that one day it could eat a single human and become stuffed.
"Protect the emperor!"
All the remaining clones ran out.
One hoisted Qin Ze onto his back and ran for all he was worth.
The other clones threw themselves at the beast like moths to a flame, buying time.
The exotic beast continued swallowing one Qin Ze after another.
Though it was stuffed, chances to enjoy a buffet like this were rare.
It had to clean its plate.
Gurgle~
After it ate a few more clones, a strange noise came from the exotic beast's belly.
With a "wah," it vomited up a great pile of Qin Ze's mangled limbs.
Boom-
A few seconds later, its massive body fell to the ground and moved no more.
The twenty-odd remaining clones stared at one another, bewildered.
Qin Ze was carried back.
"Could it be playing dead?"
"We'd be more likely to be the ones playing dead."
"Could it have eaten itself to death?"
"Serves it right for eating so much."
"We're awesome. We stuffed such a huge exotic beast to death."
"Come to think of it, doesn't that seem like nothing to be proud of?"
"We stuffed him to death with our own abilities. Why can't we be proud?"
Qin Ze circled the exotic beast's massive corpse.
"Cut it open and see if it has an inner core."
That was how it went in novels, after all.
Qin Ze hadn't brought a knife.
So the clones sharpened the "Qin Ze" bones the exotic beast had just vomited up and used them as knives.
Before long, they found a black bead the size of a baby's fist.
"It really has an inner core!"
Qin Ze weighed it in his hand. It was cold to the touch.
"Carry me back to the palace."
The clones hoisted Qin Ze up and formed a line.
Calling out "one, two, one," they disappeared into the vast darkness.
Ten minutes later, a young man in a blue-and-white uniform appeared at the scene.
After examining the exotic beast's corpse, the young man's expression grew grave.
"Enforcer Number Three reporting."
"The escaped, severely wounded S-rank exotic beast is dead. Its soul bead is missing."
"Its cellular tissue is breaking down. Suspected cause of death is the α reagent taking effect."
A moment later, a woman's voice came through the communicator.
"Find the soul bead."
"Yes."
The young man looked around, then gave chase in the direction Qin Ze had gone.