Chapter 8: Seeing Blood

When he regained his senses, blue light flickered in Sun Cheng's two pairs of mechanical eyes.

"The time elapsed in my coma was only one second?"

After learning of the change in time from the Core within his body, Sun Cheng was clearly very surprised. In disbelief, he hurriedly reconnected to the computer in front of him, and after calibrating with the time of this world by hacking into the internet, he confirmed that he had not made a mistake.

The long night in the other world, along with all the experiences of the following morning, had actually not affected this place in the slightest.

It was as if a pair of mysterious, massive hands had used incredible divine power to freeze time in this world the very instant he traveled back to reality.

How truly magical!

"Incredible!"

He sighed softly to himself, though what came out was an electronic sound. Sun Cheng stood up and pulled his right arm back from the computer tower. Just as he had shut down the computer and was preparing to leave, he suddenly heard a 'snap' sound. He couldn't help but look toward the source, only to discover that a palm-sized object had fallen off the chair next to him.

On the floor not far away, a palm-sized mobile phone lay quietly—a phone that should not have existed here.

After his ultra-clear electronic eyes captured the shadow of the phone in the dim environment, Sun Cheng was visibly stunned.

"Could this be... my iPhone 5?"

Looking closely, was it not the iPhone 5 developed and manufactured by the United States Apple company?

Although this parallel world also had Apple, the world line had only reached the year 2007. Never mind this phone, which was known as 'Apple's final classic,' even the first-generation iPhone had only been released two months ago and hadn't even officially gone on sale yet.

Despite being full of confusion, he immediately jumped off the stool, bent down, and picked up the phone. After picking it up, he immediately looked at the back, and sure enough, he saw a nearly invisible burn mark—a mark left when he had been burned by a cigarette butt while eating with his roommate two years prior.

Instantly, Sun Cheng confirmed that this was indeed the phone his family had given him the year he entered university.

"It really is my phone. Strange, how did it travel with me?"

He quickly entered the unlock password, tapped to enter the phone's operating interface, and looked at the empty signal bars, his heart filled with heavy doubts.

Just as he was puzzled, his expression suddenly changed; he had keenly captured the sound of footsteps coming from the corridor outside the office, and a middle-aged male voice followed.

"Huh, why is there a light in the office ahead? Hey, Tom, is anyone working overtime today?"

"Oh no!"

Sun Cheng cursed silently. Although he had turned off the computer, the light emitted by the phone screen in the dark night was very eye-catching.

Subconsciously, he turned off the phone screen!

But no sooner had he turned it off than Sun Cheng regretted it the next second; didn't this clearly tell the other person that there was something fishy here?

Sure enough, almost the moment he turned off the phone screen, the unhurried footsteps in the corridor immediately quickened, and the middle-aged male voice became tense: "Unidentified light detected on the 2nd floor, repeat, unidentified light detected on the 2nd floor, suspected intruder..."

He was not a professional spy after all; Sun Cheng was nervous for a good while before he regained his composure. He first placed the phone on the computer desk, then immediately activated his transformation function, turning himself into a tape recorder and hiding carefully.

Although he had turned into a tape recorder, this did not affect his observation of the outside world in the slightest, though his field of vision was much smaller than in his human form.

Sun Cheng clearly saw that about twenty seconds after he transformed, the office door was opened, and a beam of light from a Flashlight shone into the office.

"Is anyone in here?"

It was the middle-aged male voice he had heard earlier. He was hiding cautiously outside the door, holding a Flashlight in one hand and a Colt Revolver in the other, shouting into the office with caution.

After shouting four or five times and failing to find any suspicious figure lurking in the room, the man, who appeared to be a security guard at the Yanjiu Zhongxin, finally couldn't help it. He temporarily held the Flashlight in his mouth, held his gun up to guard the office with one hand, and carefully felt along the wall with the other. Once he found the light switch, he pressed it without hesitation.

"Click!"

The dim office became bright instantly. Only then did Sun Cheng see clearly that the person hiding outside the office door and guarding cautiously was a black man who looked to be in his forties. He had a common shaved head, and although he had a potbelly, it was not hard to tell from his thick arms that the owner exercised often.

After the lights came on, everything in the office was clear at a glance; there was no sign of anyone.

However, the black security guard did not lower his guard. He still walked in step by step with his gun, carefully checking the only spaces under the desks where someone could hide, before finally letting out a long sigh and putting his gun back into the holster at his waist.

"Hey, Hachi, what's the situation? Do you want to call the police?"

A series of urgent questions came from the walkie-talkie at the black security guard's waist.

The black security guard wiped the sweat from his forehead and helplessly picked up the walkie-talkie, "Sorry, buddy. I guess I must have seen wrong. Maybe it was just a phone left behind by someone that suddenly rang..."

He walked to the desk where Sun Cheng was transformed, saw the iPhone 5 he had left on the table, and picked it up to fiddle with it for a while. Sun Cheng was so nervous he was ready to end his transformation at any moment, but he saw him put it back where it was.

"Oh, Hachi. I finally understand why they were in such a hurry to discharge you before the Iraq War was even over. Buddy, I suggest you go see a psychiatrist!"

"Shut up, Tom!"

Perhaps because he had been mocked by his companion, the black security guard roared unhappily through the walkie-talkie and then turned it off.

He shoved it back into his pocket heavily, and seemingly still feeling unsatisfied, he turned around and kicked the desk next to him violently.

"Bang!"

With a violent shake, the iPhone 5 that he had just casually placed on the edge of the table fell to the ground, also making a 'snap' sound.

"Damn it!"

As soon as he saw the phone kicked to the ground by the black security guard, Sun Cheng felt a surge of anger; this phone had an extraordinary meaning to him.

Watching the black security guard hear the phone fall, glance at it lightly, and then walk toward the office door—not only with no intention of picking it up, but even stepping on the phone with one foot, leaving a set of dirty tread marks—

Seeing this, Sun Cheng, feeling even more annoyed, activated his transformation function again. With a 'swish', he transformed back into his human form, leaped high into the air, and flew toward him.

Clearly, the sudden sound of movement behind him alerted the black security guard.

Unfortunately, just as he turned around, he only caught a glimpse of two silvery-white afterimages. The next moment, he felt pain in his throat and forehead simultaneously. His eyes immediately widened from the congestion, and his body twitched for only two or three seconds before falling heavily to the ground.

"Bang!"

Sun Cheng landed steadily beside the black man's corpse. Enduring the discomfort of having killed someone, his body trembling slightly, he gave him a cold look before immediately walking over to pick up the phone.

Seeing a clear crack on one corner of the phone, his heart ached with even greater hatred. The regret and lingering fear that had been boiling in his heart dissipated along with it, and he left the office without looking back.