Chapter 2 - 1: Your Good Brother Liu Siqi Is Online!

Chapter 2: Chapter 1: Your Good Brother Liu Siqi Is Online!

"Beat him! Beat him half to death!"

"A broke loser like you dares to lust after a woman I’ve got my eye on? You must have a death wish!"

"SPIT!"

BAM!

WHACK!

The sounds of punches and kicks echoed relentlessly. Liu Zimo curled into a ball, his hands shielding his head as he endured the storm of blows.

One minute, five minutes, ten minutes...

An unknown amount of time passed. When the assault finally ceased and the thugs left, Liu Zimo was covered in blood, lying motionless on the ground.

A long time passed.

By the time he woke up, he was already in a hospital’s intensive care unit.

Opening his eyes, he stared at the white bedsheets and covers right in front of him, the various needles and IV tubes hooked up to his body, and the incredibly quiet, brightly lit white room. A flicker of surprise and confusion crossed Liu Zimo’s eyes.

"Is this a dream, or an illusion?" Liu Zimo muttered to himself.

"Looks like I’m severely injured this time. I’m even starting to hallucinate!

"Right, right. At the start of the twelfth city defense battle, I think an Illusion Demon struck me in the head. I must be trapped in an Illusion Technique!

"To think that Illusion Demon’s Illusion Technique is so exquisite. This environment looks exactly like the real thing. Even the smell of disinfectant is so vivid...

"But in the current Great Xia, where would you find a hospital this well-equipped? Where could you find such a quiet and peaceful medical environment?

"All of this completely changed thirty years ago, the moment the Demon Calamity descended..."

Just as Liu Zimo pondered which method to use to shatter the illusion and return to reality, the door to the intensive care unit suddenly opened. An angel in white wearing a nurse’s uniform walked straight in.

Seeing Liu Zimo with his eyes open, the young nurse was visibly startled for a moment before a look of joy washed over her face. She quickly walked over to the bed.

"Liu Zimo, can you hear me?

"Liu Zimo... look at my hand. How many fingers am I holding up? Can you see clearly?

"Head Nurse! Head Nurse, go notify Dr. Liu quickly! Liu Zimo in bed three has woken up!"

While checking Liu Zimo’s conscious state, the young nurse didn’t forget to press the call button at the head of the bed to report the situation to the head nurse.

Liu Zimo, however, just stared blankly at the young nurse standing before him.

Liu Meimei? Wasn’t she the nurse he had met at the central city hospital thirty years ago? He never expected to see her in this illusion. Was it because he had a massive crush on her back then? His impression of her was so deep that he had even thought about confessing to her. Did the illusion exploit that?

Unfortunately, that Illusion Demon still miscalculated.

When the Demon Calamity first began, the city hospital was the first to bear the brunt of it. As a nurse there, Liu Meimei perished on the very first day of the Demon Calamity. Liu Zimo remembered being genuinely heartbroken for quite a while after hearing the news.

Now, that Illusion Demon was actually trying to confuse him using a dead person. The flaw was simply too obvious.

Liu Zimo silently gritted his teeth, wanting to rouse his Divine Soul and force himself to wake up from the illusion. He had experienced his fair share of similar illusions in the past and naturally knew how to break the illusion and restore reality.

However, this time, whether he bit down hard on the tip of his tongue to stimulate his Divine Soul, silently chanted the Soul Suppressing Spell, or circulated a Spirit Secret Technique, the surrounding environment didn’t change in the slightest.

Liu Meimei, the biggest "flaw" in this illusion, still stood vibrantly before him. She even leaned over, intending to touch his forehead.

Liu Zimo’s brows involuntarily furrowed tightly. He felt that he had still underestimated that Illusion Demon’s abilities.

Seeing Liu Meimei steadily drawing closer, Liu Zimo instinctively tried to dodge. But the intense pain and weakness wracking his body rendered him powerless to get up. He could only watch helplessly as Liu Meimei’s right hand reached for his forehead.

Right at that moment, Liu Zimo suddenly noticed a miniature lock floating above Liu Meimei’s head.

Half-real, half-illusion, it hovered above her like a virtual projection. Its shackle was open, and the lock’s surface glowed with a faint white light. As Liu Meimei drew nearer, the Shadow Lock grew increasingly solid.

"As expected, bizarre things always show up in illusions!" Liu Zimo said to himself, simultaneously biting his tongue again to shock his Divine Soul.

Right now, he only wanted to quickly break free from the illusion before him. After all, the battle was still ongoing. For every minute he wasted here, his physical body outside the illusion would fall into even greater danger. Those Demon Beasts outside the city would show him no mercy. He didn’t want to end up as their food, and he especially didn’t want those damn little demons to breach the city!

"Ah! Liu Zimo, what are you doing? Why is your mouth bleeding?!" At this moment, Liu Meimei clearly noticed Liu Zimo’s strange behavior. Seeing the blood seeping from the corners of his mouth made her incredibly anxious.

"You’re biting your own tongue, aren’t you?!

"Quick! Let go! You can’t do this..."

Just as Liu Meimei cried out in panic, the ward door was thrown open. Dr. Liu Siqi and Head Nurse Bai Jingjing rushed in at the sound of her voice. Seeing Liu Zimo’s current state, the two didn’t dare waste a single second. They bolted to the bedside and forcefully pried Liu Zimo’s mouth open.

"Liu Meimei, what are you standing there for? Give him a 10 mg sedative via IV push, quick!"

"Oh, oh! I’m on it!"

Hearing Dr. Liu’s order, Liu Meimei finally snapped out of her daze. She hurriedly opened the nearby medicine cabinet, pulled out a sedative, and injected it into Liu Zimo’s vein.

Soon, the medication took effect, and Liu Zimo’s consciousness grew sluggish.

Before falling asleep, he seemed to see that Dr. Liu and the head nurse right in front of him each had a glowing miniature lock hovering over their heads as well. The difference was that the lock above Dr. Liu’s head appeared green, while the lock above Head Nurse Bai Jingjing’s head, like Liu Meimei’s, was completely white.

Even more bizarrely, upon seeing the green-glowing lock above Dr. Liu’s head, an urge to lock it suddenly welled up in Liu Zimo’s heart.

And as this thought arose, Liu Zimo seemed to hear a sharp "CLICK!" by his ear.

It was the sound of a lock clicking shut!

The originally open shackle above Dr. Liu’s head had actually snapped shut. It was locked!

At the same time, a faint, subtle notification chimed in Liu Zimo’s ears:

[Binding successful! Your good brother Liu Siqi is now online! Current bindable targets: (1/3)]

With that, Liu Zimo’s vision went black, and he fell completely unconscious.

"Nurse Liu, what’s going on here? Why did the patient bite his own tongue? Did you say something to trigger him?" Seeing that Liu Zimo had fallen asleep, Liu Siqi finally breathed a sigh of relief. His expression a bit gloomy, he turned to question Liu Meimei.

Liu Meimei looked aggrieved. "Dr. Liu, I didn’t say anything! He became like this the moment he woke up. I don’t know why either!"

"Dr. Liu, Meimei is a senior member of our department. She has plenty of experience and wouldn’t make such an amateur mistake. Perhaps there’s an issue with the patient’s own mental state." The head nurse stepped up to speak for Liu Meimei, while also asking Liu Siqi for instructions, "Since the patient has woken up, should we notify his family to come visit?"

"There’s no rush," Liu Siqi shook his head. "Let’s observe him for the night first. If he wakes up again and shows this kind of self-harming behavior, notify me immediately!"

With that, Liu Siqi turned and left the ward. Returning to his on-call office and seeing no one around, Liu Siqi took out his phone and returned a call.

"Hello, is this President Jiang?

"Yes, yes, yes, Liu Zimo has woken up. As of right now, his vital signs have stabilized, and he is no longer in life-threatening danger...

"However, there seems to be an issue with his mental state. He must have suffered extreme trauma and is experiencing a stress response. Yes, just now he even took extreme measures to bite his own tongue...

"I know, I know. Don’t worry, President Jiang. With me here, absolutely nothing will happen to him. If there’s any further news, I’ll be sure to notify you immediately!"

Hanging up the phone, a satisfied smile appeared on Liu Siqi’s face. He softly sighed in amazement, "A hundred thousand yuan just for one phone call. This money is incredibly easy to make!"

DING!

A message notification sounded. Liu Siqi opened his phone, and upon seeing the prompt that a hundred thousand yuan had been deposited into his bank account, the smile at the corners of his eyes deepened.

A big client was indeed a big client. So loaded with money—he had actually transferred the funds this quickly.

Meanwhile.

Liu Zimo, who had fallen into a deep sleep, also heard a pleasant chime in his ears:

[Your good brother Liu Siqi has encountered a windfall by a stroke of luck, triggering the ’Heaven-Stealing’ Talent Attribute. The fortune is shared equally. You have received half of his windfall: +50,000 RMB.]

SWISH!

Liu Zimo’s eyes snapped open. Forcing his spirit to rally, he completely broke free from the medication’s control and influence, becoming entirely wide awake.

"The Awakening God Technique still works! Otherwise, it’d be impossible for me to wake up this quickly!

"But why am I still in the hospital?

"This shouldn’t be. The Awakening God Technique is a Profound Level Spirit Secret Technique. Once successfully circulated, it can shatter the vast majority of illusions and nightmares. Why haven’t I broken free from the illusion’s constraints yet?"

Liu Zimo looked at his surroundings in disbelief.

Now, he was beginning to suspect that he had actually traveled back thirty years—back to the point in time before any of the tragedies had occurred!