Pulling a cleaning cloth from under the sink, Lin Qi carefully wiped the surface of his Exoskeleton.
It was a case of quenching his thirst by looking at plums, a substitute for his desire to clean his own body.
"Classmate Xiaoai, reconnect to the network. Send a message to my dad tomorrow morning that I'm coming back on my day off. Have him prepare a micro-nuclear power heart at the Prosthetic Clinic. I'll pay him the Credit Points."
Lin Qi was prepared to maintain his deep cover. No one would suspect a man with heavy prosthetic modifications of being a Wizard.
As for the micro-nuclear power heart? It would be perfect for upgrading the power supply of his four-limbed Exoskeleton.
As an L-level Researcher at Liu's Heavy Industries, Lin Qi had more than enough practical skill.
Pushing open the bathroom door, Lin Qi returned to his room, lay down on the bed, closed his eyes, and began his Meditation.
The Wizard was an ancient profession, older even than Knights or Martial Artists.
As for how Lin Qi became a Wizard, that story went back to a rainy night in his youth.
A rainy night, an Elder Wizard, a pursuit, near death, an inheritance.
It was a short story, one that could be summed up in just a few words.
Lin Qi had absorbed the "Decomposition Object" gifted to him by the Elder Wizard, becoming a Tier One Wizard and mastering the Ability known as "Spiritual Vision."
Relying on his Wizard abilities and the self-discipline he'd had since childhood, Lin Qi had completed all the schooling available to an ordinary citizen by the age of 18, entering the Weapon Research Institute of Liu's Heavy Industries and becoming a researcher.
At Liu's Heavy Industries, Lin Qi worked while also pursuing deeper levels of study.
'The efficiency of my Meditation seems to have improved recently. Could this be related to the Witch Hunt?'
Within his Spiritual Vision, Lin Qi had absolute perception, able to "see" particle-like energy being absorbed by his body. This was the essence of a Wizard's Meditation, and Lin Qi called them Spiritual Particles.
Recently, the concentration of free-floating Spiritual Particles in the surrounding area had increased slightly.
Just as Lin Qi was pondering this, a feeling of piercing clarity suddenly emerged from the depths of his consciousness. A [Door] appeared within his Spiritual Vision.
'It's finally appeared in full? Could the increase in Spiritual Particle concentration be related to this Door?'
Lin Qi wasn't surprised to see the [Door] appear. It had been in his mind ever since he transmigrated.
It wasn't until he obtained the Wizard Profession and began his first Meditation that the [Door] had produced a pulling sensation, as if it were gradually descending into reality.
'Should I push it open?'
In his Spiritual Vision, the [Door] was right in front of Lin Qi, hovering less than 20 centimeters before him.
Without moving this Door, Lin Qi couldn't even get up.
The moment the thought of "pushing it open" formed, Lin Qi felt a suction force from the [Door].
His body felt a sense of weightlessness, and the [Door] opened.
...
As if passing through darkness, or perhaps just a momentary blur of his vision, the scene around Lin Qi changed.
He was still lying on a bed, but the ceiling and the room's environment had changed.
A yellowed, circular ceiling lamp shade, a wooden desk, an old-fashioned laptop, and... the boy next to the computer, his heart no longer beating.
[Classmate Xiaoai Reminder: Network connection lost.]
The Intelligent Brain connected via the micro-electrodes behind his ear was still there, and the lost network signal told Lin Qi he was no longer in Red Fruit City.
'The [Door] in my mind is still there. It needs to recover its power. I'll automatically return in 24 hours.'
'Disappearing from Red Fruit City for 24 hours? A bit troublesome, but I can handle it with my status.'
Feeling reassured now that he could still sense the [Door]'s presence and had new information about it in his mind, Lin Qi began to carefully survey his surroundings.
The surrounding scene was somewhat familiar, very similar to the era before Lin Qi had transmigrated to the Cyber World.
Lin Qi got up from the bed and walked over to the desk. He was a little surprised when his gaze fell upon the boy.
The boy's face was ninety percent similar to his own.
Lin Qi suspected he'd returned to his original world, but the place he remembered was different from this one.
Moving the boy's corpse aside, Lin Qi sat down in front of the laptop and tried to use it to gather information.
'An operating system I've never seen before, but the text is still Chinese characters.'
'Network disconnected? Why is there no internet?'
Lin Qi couldn't get any intelligence from the offline device. The only thing he could confirm was that this place was definitely not his original world.
Closing the laptop, he saw there were some books on the desk. He casually picked one up and flipped through it, and a card fell out.
'An ID card?'
'Name, Lin Qi. Place of origin, Dragon Country...'
The boy really was named Lin Qi. It seemed this was a parallel-world version of himself.
Having already experienced a transmigration, Lin Qi accepted this quickly. After all, his appearance and name had remained the same after his first transmigration.
'This world's network signals aren't complicated. With a few simple adjustments, I could use my Intelligent Brain to access it.'
'But it would leave a trace on my Intelligent Brain. I absolutely cannot use my own device to access the network here.'
Lin Qi sat in the chair and thought. When it came to networks, Lin Qi was extremely wary of Guang Ling, the Mercenary Corps leader who had convened the meeting.
Guang Ling's control over the network was beyond comprehension.
Moreover, Guang Ling was the one who initiated the meeting, and every member of the Mercenary Corps was invited by him. This meant Guang Ling knew all of their true identities.
His identity as a Wizard couldn't be hidden, but the secret of the [Door] must not be pried into by Guang Ling.
Just as he was thinking, the Exoskeleton Armor disguised as a Prosthetic Body suddenly sounded an alarm.
[Attack Warning. Automatic Defense Mode Activated.]
His arms and legs moved on their own—standing, blocking, all in one fluid motion.
The Exoskeleton Equipment blocked the corpse's attack.
'The corpse?'
Lin Qi glanced at the boy's face. According to his equipment's scan, it was indeed a corpse.
'It reanimated?'
A low roar gurgled in the boy's throat as his body twisted and lunged at Lin Qi again.
'A Zombie?'
The word from movies of his past life appeared in Lin Qi's mind.
The Zombie boy attacked again and was once again blocked autonomously by the Exoskeleton.
"Interesting. Let's see what you really are."
Just because his instruments couldn't identify it didn't mean Lin Qi couldn't.
Unleashing his Wizard Ability, Lin Qi entered a state of Spiritual Vision.
In his state of Spiritual Vision, Lin Qi could clearly see that the amount of Spiritual Particles in the surrounding air was shockingly more than ten times that of the Cyber World.
Besides the Spiritual Particles, there was a highly dense cluster of them swirling around the Zombie boy's head.
'An Extraordinary Item?'
An Extraordinary Item was a Decomposition Object.
Wizards gained Abilities by decomposing Extraordinary Items.
Judging by the image in his Spiritual Vision, the Extraordinary Item in the Zombie boy's head was precisely Tier One.
A Wizard's advancement was different from other professions. It couldn't be achieved through hard work, or even by "paying to win" with Prosthetic Body modifications.
For a Wizard to advance, they needed to decompose a sufficient amount of Extraordinary Items.
At each stage, one had to decompose at least four Extraordinary Items of the corresponding tier in order to advance to the next.
In the Cyber World, Extraordinary Items available for decomposition were scarce, so most Wizards were stuck at Tier One.
'Smash his head, get the Decomposition Object!'
Lin Qi felt no pity for the face that was a ninety-percent match to his own.
With a single punch, he blew it apart.