Chapter 1

The bullet came out of nowhere!

Spinning at high speed, it carried an irresistible penetrative force and drilled into the unguarded forehead.

Xiao Ling's eyes widened as he realized Death's approach...

In the next second, he felt a high bulge at the back of his head, as if a watermelon had been smashed and burst.

Red blood and white pulp, fragments of half a skull, followed the spinning bullet, gushing out of the head, staining the white walls and the clean bed sheets.

Fragments flew like fireworks, electric sparks darted like snakes and insects, and the red and white flesh splattered like ink painting.

Carrying a heart full of doubts and unwillingness... Xiao Ling struggled to lift his head before dying. The gunman standing at the ward door, grinning wickedly, was... was actually... himself?!

"Whoa~~~ Ha~~~" Xiao Ling suddenly sat up from the hospital bed.

It was just a dream! Xiao Ling let out a long sigh of relief, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

His hand swept over the cold forehead, faintly feeling the sensation of the bullet flying through, piercing through the front and back of the skull, and rolling around inside the brain.

Too real!

Tsk, what bad luck, even dreams are so bizarre and terrifying! Xiao Ling smacked his lips, these past two days have really been a run of bad luck!

The detective agency finally opened, took on a job, infiltrated a pyramid scheme group to find someone, listened for a while after getting to the location, and was then taken to the police station by the police who burst in.

After much explanation, with his mouth dry, he finally managed to clear things up and get out, only to rush to the building where the pyramid scheme was located—after all, he had to ride his electric scooter back, which was still parked there. He took out the key, inserted it into the keyhole, turned it, but the light didn't come on. He tried again, but it still didn't light up...

Damn, which thief is so wicked to steal the scooter's battery!

With no choice, he had to pedal the powerless scooter home... a full twenty miles! Not known for his physical strength, he was exhausted, drenched in sweat, and his eyes were filled with stars.

Upon entering the door, he found the office in a mess, a teenager thief with a laptop in one hand and a charger in the other was about to jump out of the window.

Damn, no one treats people like this! With a day of bad luck and anger, Xiao Ling immediately rushed over.

As a result, he was too tired from pedaling, his legs gave out, and he lost his footing. The thief was directly pushed out of the window and broke a bone, and Xiao Ling fell out of the window too, suffering a mild concussion. The laptop screen, keyboard, and charger were crushed together and completely ruined... fortunately, it was only the second floor.

When the police came, they asked, the thief stealing was definitely wrong, but he hadn't even had a chance to resist before being pushed out of the window and breaking a bone, which was considered excessive self-defense.

You'll have to take responsibility for the concussion and the loss of the laptop. Considering you've been to the station today, we won't pursue your responsibility, and the thief's medical expenses won't be charged to you, fortunately, it was only the second floor.

Sigh, what's going on! What a mess of bad things all at once! Xiao Ling sighed, turning his head to the window.

This ward has a good location.

The hospital ward area is a ring-shaped building, with a garden courtyard in the middle. From the bed by the window, one can see the colorful flowers and lush greenery in the courtyard, a beautiful view.

Moreover, although it is a three-bed ordinary ward, two of the beds are empty, one has always been unoccupied, and the other was discharged during the day.

Occupying a ward alone, with space and a view, it's almost like a VIP ward!

Thinking of making the best of a bad situation, Xiao Ling got up, holding his slightly aching head, and walked into the bathroom to wash his face. It was already midsummer, the weather was getting hot, and he had broken out in a sweat from the nightmare...

Just as he turned on the faucet, a sudden roar came, making him shudder, and water splashed onto his pants...

"Y-You, you're Xiao Ling, right? I remember you, from room 506, the one who got a concussion chasing a thief. Who told you to come out! And dressed like that, are you here to be hospitalized or to go on a date?..."

"Getting out of bed without your injuries fully healed, if something happens, will you be responsible, or will the hospital be responsible?"

"No, no, Nurse Manager, I didn't... I just came to wash my face..." The loud voice of the menopausal nurse manager was not new to Xiao Ling.

Instinctively, he covered his head and tried to explain, but after a few words, he suddenly realized something was wrong.

There was no one behind him, and... the nurse manager's loud voice wasn't as loud as before, it seemed to be coming from a distance.

What's going on? The one speaking was clearly himself! Even if there was another Xiao Ling in this ward, room 506 must be right, right?

Xiao Ling was suspicious, enduring the increasingly painful headache, he left the ward and headed towards the nurse's station, where the voice was coming from.

Shuffling to the corner, he peeked out and suddenly froze.

In front of the nurse's station, the menopausal nurse manager was indeed scolding... himself!

Another self!

Dressed in a neat suit, looking like a proper person!

Yes, Xiao Ling rubbed his eyes and confirmed it again and again, but no matter how he looked, it was himself, even though he had never dressed like that, and he saw himself in the mirror every day, could he be wrong?

Even though Xiao Ling loved detective games and wanted to be Conan when he was a child and Sherlock Holmes when he grew up, his brain was momentarily stunned...

Could it be... a long-lost twin brother? But he had never heard his parents mention it!

Or maybe, the legendary disguise technique! Damn, does that really exist?

Cold sweat trickled down Xiao Ling's forehead. Suddenly, he pulled back his head.

The other "Xiao Ling" seemed to notice the gaze and turned to look over.

Yes! That's me! Almost making eye contact, Xiao Ling confirmed his hypothesis even more!

What a nightmare! A chill ran from his spine to his hair, and he couldn't help but think of the bizarre dream he had just had...

Thinking about it, the murderer in the dream, who was dressed in the same clothes and had the same appearance, suddenly entered the room, pulled out a gun, and shot the Xiao Ling on the bed.

Could it be that it wasn't just a dream, but a premonition?...

How much more absurd can it get!?

No matter, I have to leave, I must leave... the blood vessels in his eardrums throbbed, transmitting the drum-like heartbeat to his ears. Xiao Ling turned around, but the corridor was empty, and his head was dizzy, where could he go?

At this moment, the nurse manager's scolding seemed to end...

He could hear the other self speaking humbly and walking in this direction.

Xiao Ling quickly adjusted his angle, using the reflection in the ward's glass door to check...

Sure enough, he came! And... he confirmed again that the other person intended to kill him.

The gun that killed him in the dream was already in the other person's hand, and he was attaching a silencer, just like in the movies.

What to do? What to do? I need to find something to defend myself, I can't just fight bare-handed! While retreating, Xiao Ling's eyes suddenly lit up, and he rushed back to his ward.

On the bedside table next to the bed was a glass bottle containing a red powder, left by the middle bed patient who had been discharged.

The patient was from Sichuan, a lover of spicy food, and had left this bottle of supposedly extremely spicy powder for Xiao Ling to experience the Sichuanese spirit.

Extremely spicy, I count on you! In three steps, he rushed back to the bed, stuffed a pillow into the bed, and propped up the blanket to make it look like he was still in bed. Xiao Ling grabbed the pepper bottle and hid in the toilet.

The drum-like heartbeat finally slowed down a bit. The pepper bottle was good, just right... it wouldn't hurt anyone.

If this was a hallucination caused by his concussion or some other misunderstanding... using this could be considered a prank.

If he hit someone with a chair or a table and got it wrong, he might be sent to the mental hospital, and there would be no place to appeal!

Although it felt like only a few seconds, Xiao Ling felt like an eternity in the toilet...

The footsteps stopped at the ward door, turned, and entered the room. A shadow passed over the toilet door... the next moment, "pew pew" was the sound of a gun with a silencer, just like in the movies.

Xiao Ling suddenly pushed open the toilet door, threw the pepper powder in the other's face, and in a flash, performed a standard roll to avoid the shots, dashing out of the ward like an action star.

"Pew! Pew! Bang!" The killer Xiao Ling reacted quickly, realizing something was wrong, and turned to shoot.

"Ah~~~" After three shots, the killer Xiao Ling's face changed drastically, and he clutched his head, screaming in agony as the extremely spicy powder took effect!

Tears streamed down his face, and the pepper entered his nose and lungs with each breath...

"Who... who is it? Achoo! This is impossible! Impossible! Achoo! Achoo!" He screamed hysterically, snot, saliva, and tears streaming down his face, choking and gasping for air!

The more he sneezed, the harder it was to breathe, the harder it was to breathe, the more he wanted to breathe, and the more he wanted to breathe, the more pepper powder he inhaled...

Like a fish out of water, at first, he could struggle and thrash, but soon he had no strength to struggle, gradually falling still... still with a look of disbelief on his face.

Hearing the sound of the gun hitting the ground, Xiao Ling turned back. Covering his mouth and nose, he tiptoed...

At first, he was relieved to have escaped death, but as the man gradually stopped moving?

Something was wrong. No matter how spicy the extremely spicy pepper was, it shouldn't be able to kill someone!

Pepper spray is made from this, completely non-toxic and side-effect-free, which is why it is used as a common self-defense tool.

Taking a closer look, Xiao Ling's head suddenly went blank. Blood, there was blood under the man's body, seeping out continuously?

How could this be, I didn't... right, there were three gunshots, one of which sounded different, maybe it ricocheted off something.

This, this can't be considered excessive self-defense again, can it? But, killing myself, how can I explain this? Saying I have nothing to do with this guy, will anyone believe me?

Just as he was panicking, a calm voice echoed in his mind: "Congratulations, you have eliminated an invader from a parallel universe. As a reward, you get a chance!"

[Heavenly Destiny Program installation preparation, initialization complete, connection to the Time Lord Network complete, basic data downloading...]

[Time Bubble loaded, parallel plane set, abnormal interference being cleared...]

Suddenly, some inexplicable information forcibly flooded Xiao Ling's mind. Closing his eyes, his brain seemed to turn into a screen, with code pouring down like a waterfall.

At the same time, the other Xiao Ling on the ground turned into a glowing body.

Like a sand sculpture slowly being eroded by the sea, his body gradually disintegrated into red, yellow, and blue light, like fireflies, overflowing from his body and slowly floating towards Xiao Ling.

The glass shards on the ground began to reassemble; the flying pepper powder, like a rewinding video, gathered back into the bottle.

The bullets embedded in the walls and floor flew out and disappeared, including the bullet marks.

In the air, faint ripples appeared, and with each ripple, some details were restored.

In just a few seconds, everything returned to its original state, as if no one had ever burst in with a gun.

However, Xiao Ling had no time to notice these things. His head was splitting, and he squatted on the ground, trying to digest the information in his mind and understand everything...