"Young Master, wake up."
HAA—
A faint, ethereal female voice echoed in his ears. Li Ang took a sharp breath and opened his eyes.
An unfamiliar ceiling. Where is this?
He quickly looked around and found himself lying in bed, in a rather peculiar room.
The ceiling was almost three ters high, too high to reach even if he jumped. It was embedded with square LED light strips, and a surveillance cara was installed in the corner. The room was about 20 square ters. The walls, floor, door, and even the headboard and footboard of the bed he lay on, were all padded with a layer of sponge covered in white fibrous fabric.
Most importantly, he wore a special restraint suit. His arms were crossed in front of him, and the gloves on his fingers were tightly sewn to the suit, making it difficult to break free. He also wore a plastic gag that pressed against his jaw, preventing his mouth from closing.
Is this... a psychiatric hospital?
Li Ang shook his head vigorously, trying to clear his muddled brain and force himself to recall what had happened.
The last image in his mory was of him aboard a spaceship made of Elental Material, heading toward the Moon.
How had he suddenly ended up here?
BZZZT— The surveillance cara in the corner of the ceiling sensed Li Ang’s movent, turned in his direction, and focused on him.
Vaguely, he could hear noisy voices from outside. "Professor, he’s awake!"
"The patient in Room 37 is awake!"
Then, a flurry of footsteps followed.
WHOOSH! The room door opened, and cold air from the hallway blew into the room.
Li Ang shifted his body, tilting his neck, and glanced out of the corner of his eye at the several people appearing at the doorway.
Two male and two female attendants, masked, stout, and stocky, entered, along with a middle-aged man in a brown suit who looked genteel and amiable.
"You’re awake."
The middle-aged man smiled gently. "You’re looking well."
You call this looking well?
Li Ang suppressed the urge to retort. He took a deep breath through the plastic gag and mumbled indistinctly, "Where is this? Who are you?"
"This is Giant Mountain Sanatorium. My surna is Jun; you can call Professor Jun."
Professor Jun said, "I know you have many questions right now, but please believe , we an you no harm. Nurse, lend a hand and take him to the psychological testing room."
The four attendants walked into the room, grabbed the ropes tied to the shoulders and legs of Li Ang’s clothes, and lifted him off the bed.
Li Ang remained silent. Holding his breath and focusing, he tried to summon the Elental Material within his body.
...
...
Ineffective.
The ntal call yielded no response; not a speck of Elental Material could be summoned.
How could this be?
Just as Li Ang was reeling from shock, the four attendants had already carried him out of the room. They placed him on a gurney that was tilted against the floor and skillfully tied the ropes on Li Ang’s clothes to it, preventing him from struggling or falling.
RUMBLE. The wheels of the gurney turned slowly. Two attendants pushed it down the hallway, while Professor Jun, following behind, took out his cell phone and made a call.
"Yes... Mr. Li, your son is awake... Okay... Mm-hmm... I’ll wait for you at the sanatorium..."
Li Ang had no ti to eavesdrop on Professor Jun’s phone call. He lay askew on the gurney, observing his surroundings.
The hallway floor was covered with marble tiles. Through the glass on the left, he could see a large lawn dotted with lightbulbs and a flowerbed. On the other side of the flowerbed was a Western Baroque-style building, shrouded in the night. A stele stood in front of its entrance, engraved with the words "Giant Mountain Sanatorium."
A sanatorium, really?
Li Ang felt utterly bewildered by the current situation. He was transported on the gurney through a narrow corridor and a spacious cafeteria, winding his way through more hallways until they finally arrived in a room that resembled a study.
In the middle of the room stood a desk, with a chair placed on each side of it. In the corner of the room were two tripods, each holding a cara.
The four attendants unfastened Li Ang from the gurney and guided him to the chair in front of the desk.
Professor Jun sat behind the desk. He reached out to turn on both caras and rummaged through a drawer for a file. After writing and sketching on it, he looked up and smiled, asking, "I am going to ask so simple questions now. Just answer them intuitively."
"What is the date today?"
"..."
Li Ang sank his consciousness, attempting to activate his Telekinesis, but to no avail. "November 24th," he said.
"Your na?"
"Li Ang."
"Your age?"
"24."
Li Ang furrowed his brow, his peripheral vision constantly scanning the room, gathering information, and planning an escape.
Professor Jun remained silent, rotating a small square mirror on the corner of the desk to face Li Ang.
"Hmm?"
Li Ang gasped in astonishnt. In the mirror, he appeared over ten years younger, clearly still a middle school student.
"Your na is indeed Li Ang, but you are only fourteen years old, not twenty-four. And today is not November; it’s October."
Professor Jun said, "One and a half years ago, you were diagnosed with an extrely rare type of glioma, presenting symptoms such as hypersomnia, headaches, and vomiting. The tumor was fast-growing and deeply situated. Hence, your parents—well-known entrepreneurs—followed the dical team’s advice and opted for a treatnt plan combining surgical removal with novel targeted drug therapy. The surgery went very smoothly, and you lived normally for ten months afterward. Then, abnormal conditions began to manifest..."
After saying this, he tapped a few tis on a tablet, turned the screen around, and played a video.
In the video, Li Ang, dressed in a black school uniform made of high-quality fabric, was in a private high school’s tiered classroom, playing Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto with several classmates. The video was shot from the back of the lecture hall. Besides the classmates, teachers, parents, and possibly so school officials were also present.
Midway through the piece, Li Ang suddenly collapsed onto the piano, emitting beastly sobs. His shoulders jerked violently, and his forehead repeatedly banged against the piano keys. The sudden incident shocked everyone. The music teacher instinctively stepped forward from behind his desk, trying to stabilize Li Ang’s forehead to prevent him from injuring himself. Then, Li Ang knocked him to the ground with a backward elbow strike.
Li Ang watched with a perplexed expression. His on-screen self had bloodshot eyes and unleashed imnse strength, smashing the piano with a fist while muttering sothing.
"This sovereign has achieved great power! HA HA HA! Now, no one in the world can stop !"
"Blood al! This sovereign needs Blood al!"
Li Ang clutched his forehead, not because his on-screen self was cringeworthy in its adolescent brashness, but because the mory actually surfaced in his mind.
The video stopped abruptly. Professor Jun continued, "Upon examination, there are no remaining cancer cells in your brain. However, the experintal targeted new drugs used in your combination therapy led to strange consequences. Your hippocampus, responsible for functions like short-term mory storage, conversion, and orientation, beca highly active. It operates rapidly even during sleep. Externally, this manifests as severe auditory and visual hallucinations, other illusions, and mory disorders. You claim you can see scenes from an Otherworld."
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