Chapter 4

"Shit!"

Furen suddenly sat up in bed, shook his head, and became a bit more清醒. He scanned his surroundings and realized that he was in a guest room of a star-rated hotel.

"Shit, I really came back?!" Furen was instantly overjoyed, but then his head throbbed with intense pain, not just a regular headache but a deep, soul-piercing, mind-numbing pain. If it weren't for the severe pain he had endured in the cycle space, he might have fainted on the spot.

In an instant, a flood of information surged into Furen's brain. Despite having endured numerous hardships and having a rock-solid will, he still groaned and felt weak all over due to the exponentially increased pain.

What's going on?

Memories flashed through his mind like a movie: assassination training, his first kill at age eleven in Africa, achieving the "Hundred Kills," and being put on ice by the organization due to a mistake. Countless fragments raced through Furen's mind, and he finally realized that the body he now occupied belonged to an assassin, also named Furen.

Yes, an assassin, a profession that always remains in the shadows, not a common killer. Unfortunately, Furen had once been spotted by a tourist group, and a video featuring him was uploaded online. The organization, of course, could not allow such a thing to happen. After some internal advocates spoke up for him, he was not eliminated but merely put on ice.

Finally, Furen summarized the man with the same name and identity: a retired assassin at the age of twenty, with three-quarters Chinese, one-eighth German, and one-eighth Portuguese heritage.

A mixed-race... assassin?!

Furen shook his head hard, jumped out of bed, and walked to the full-length mirror. Fortunately, except for a slightly higher nose bridge and more pronounced eyebrows, his appearance was no different from that of a Chinese person. He still had the face of a Chinese handsome man, with a high nose, sharp eyebrows, and a chiseled face, which should have been radiant but now looked somewhat dejected.

"Damn, an assassin who can never show his face, what a waste of this face that could charm women. And to be dejected and depressed because he can't go on missions, what a lack of ambition." Furen muttered to himself, "Fuck, the God of the Cycle Space put me in this body. How can I go back to see my parents? By the way, what time is it now? My parents must not have... Also, where are the things I exchanged for?"

Thinking about these issues made Furen a bit frantic, but he soon noticed the ring on his left little finger, which looked exactly like the hidden ring before it was blood-bound.

With a try-it-out attitude, Furen took off the ring, bit his finger, and dripped some blood on it.

As expected, after the blood droplet merged into the ring, it gradually "disappeared," and only Furen's finger could still feel its presence.

Putting the hidden ring back on his little finger, Furen's mind immediately immersed in the ring. Sure enough, in the one-cubic-meter storage space, there were several light orbs—his exchanged abilities, experiences, and six attributes with 100 points each.

At the same time, the God of the Cycle Space's message echoed: "Captain of the Heavenly Evil Squad, although you are lucky to have escaped, you should know what to say and what not to say about the cycle space. In any case, you are responsible for all consequences. I won't say more. By the way, you can absorb these abilities, experiences, and attribute points with a thought. Good luck!"

Only after the God's voice completely faded did Furen regain his senses. He was about to absorb all the light orbs but suddenly felt something was wrong. He changed his mind and only absorbed the six attribute points.

As soon as he had the thought, six light orbs of different colors shot out of the hidden ring and quickly merged into Furen's forehead.

"Huh?!"

Furen's eyes widened in shock. Intense pain, countless and violent, surged towards him. His mind was filled with pain, and his body ached everywhere, even deep in his soul. It was even more unbearable than when he unlocked the fourth-stage gene lock years ago.

"God, I'll f*** your lungs!!"

At this moment, Furen realized that the God had set a trap for him. If he hadn't sensed the danger and absorbed fewer light orbs, he would have been torn apart and turned into a bloody mess.

In fact, in the real world, enhancement is completely different from that in the cycle space. The current Furen was in a state not much better than a bloody mess, with every muscle, bone, and organ in his body convulsing and twitching, becoming more and more severe. Blood spurted from his mouth and nose. Even with Furen's unparalleled willpower, he couldn't help but start to claw at his body, as if tearing himself apart would satisfy him.

Fortunately, Furen maintained a last thread of clear consciousness and did not scratch his face. Otherwise, he would have had to go to the police station after this.

After all, staying in a star-rated hotel and ending up disfigured would certainly raise suspicions.

Fortunately, Furen had more than a little experience with such matters. He quickly controlled his convulsing lungs, stopped choking, and began to breathe deeply.

After about half a minute, the convulsions in Furen's lungs finally subsided, and the convulsions in his other internal organs began to weaken, and the pain gradually lessened. His tense nerves relaxed a bit.

When the convulsions were almost gone and the pain was reduced to a tolerable level, Furen leaped up from the ground, waved his fists slightly, and the resulting wind cut through the blood-stained carpet. This scene surprised Furen; his current physical strength was probably four to five times that of an ordinary person, not just double as he had originally expected.

Previously, Furen thought the God would let him be reborn in an ordinary person's body and absorb the 100 points in each of the six attributes, which would at most double his physical strength. He didn't expect it to be several times higher than that of an ordinary person, which was a pleasant surprise.

What he didn't know was that a stronger body could better match the enhancements. To meet Furen's exchange requirements, the God had to choose this assassin's body as the dwelling place for his soul. This assassin, also named Furen, had five attributes, excluding intelligence, that were more than three times those of an ordinary person.

Furen practiced a set of boxing, and the intense pain and convulsions in his body finally disappeared. In just a short time, the wounds on his body began to close and scab over, though they were not fully healed, they were no longer as gruesome and bloody as before.

Looking at the mess in the room, Furen considered for a moment and then absorbed the light orb of "Special Operations Proficiency and Experience" from the hidden ring.

Countless special operations skills and experiences flooded into Furen's mind like movie clips, almost causing another disaster. Fortunately, Furen endured the pain.

After the second round of absorption was completely over, Furen, who had long fought in the cycle space, finally felt that he had some self-preservation capabilities. Furen believed that with the special operations proficiency and the assassination philosophy, techniques, and experience of the assassin "Furen," he should have some self-preservation abilities if he really returned to the real world, regardless of the time.

As for the "Special Operations Experience" in the light orb, although it was all crammed into Furen's memory, it still needed to be converted into true experience through practice. However, Furen was now thinking about a more pressing issue: what time had he been reborn into?

Walking out of the bedroom and turning two corners, Furen arrived in the living room.

On the way, based on the furnishings in the hallway, Furen deduced that this was a presidential suite. However, when he saw the large CRT TV in the living room, he instantly swore: "God, I'll f*** your mother!"

When Furen entered the cycle space, it was the year when flat-screen TVs were just starting to be sold in China. But now, even the presidential suite of a foreign star-rated hotel was still using an old CRT TV, which meant that large-screen, high-resolution LCD TVs had not yet become widespread, placing the current year before 1998 or 1999.

Realizing this, Furen's anxiety was evident, but his long experience on the edge of life and death kept him calm. His face didn't change as he calmly scanned the surroundings and quickly spotted the clock and newspaper.

The clock only showed the date, May 21st, but the newspaper clearly marked the year—1996. Furen flipped to the front page, which was a copy of The Times, and several news articles were promoting the upcoming European Football Championship.

Before entering the cycle space, Furen was a pseudo-fan of football, interested in buying lottery tickets. However, after so many years, he had long lost interest in football and didn't care much about the matches, so he flipped back to the previous page.

Looking at the small ads on the page, Furen frowned and began to search the memories of the assassin "Furen." Soon, he found a message in one of the ads: "Shadow, our organization is finished, come find you, detective!"

Shadow, the nickname of the assassin "Furen." When Furen saw this message, the remaining subjective consciousness of "Furen" felt a hint of sadness and regret.

Furen had already learned through the fragmented memories of the assassin "Furen" that the world's top two killer organizations had targeted the assassin organization "Furen" belonged to. Although "Furen's" organization was far superior in individual quality, assassins are not superhumans and cannot withstand a large number of enemies. The organization put him on ice not just as punishment but to keep him out of the conflict.

However, none of this mattered to the current Furen. His anger surged, and he instantly dispelled the remaining subjective consciousness of the assassin "Furen."

"Detective? I'll send you to hell..." A sinister smile appeared on Furen's lips. His immediate priority was to clean up the blood in the room and apply for immigration to Hong Kong.

In fact, immigration was a necessity. The damned assassin "Furen" had dual French and British citizenship and held passports from multiple countries, making him a foreigner. Joining Chinese citizenship was almost impossible, so he had to take advantage of Hong Kong not yet being returned to the mainland and immigrate there first. This would make it easier for Furen to visit the mainland to find his younger parents.

Of course, the first thing to confirm was whether this world was the same as the one Furen had entered the cycle space from. Otherwise, everything would be in vain.