That night, in a hospital room—
After the noise of the day had faded away, only the steady beeping of the monitoring equipment remained. Zhe lay alone in the hospital bed, fast asleep.
Creak—
The door to the room slowly opened.
Still half-asleep, Zhe gradually opened his eyes, thinking groggily, Is it a nurse doing rounds?
But what greeted him was a grotesque face twisted like the cylinder of a revolver. Six hollow chambers framed six dim yellow eyes, all fixed on him without blinking.
Zhe was scared out of his wits. He rolled off the bed in a panic and scrambled to hide by its foot, his voice shaking.
"W-What the hell are you?!"
The revolver-faced monster said nothing. It raised one arm—
and that arm was unmistakably the barrel cluster of a multi-barreled machine gun.
The next second, blazing muzzle fire erupted.
Ratatatatatat—!
Zhe scrambled out of the room on all fours and bolted into the deep, silent corridor.
"Is anybody there?! Help!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs, but the entire hallway was empty. Even the nurses' station was deserted. Only his own desperate echo answered him.
Forced onward, he fled all the way out into the street beyond the hospital. The city at midnight should have been glowing with distant lights and life, yet now it lay silent as a realm of ghosts. He screamed for help again and again, but got no response.
Thud!
In his panic, he tripped over something and crashed hard onto the ground.
The pain jolted his chaotic mind into momentary clarity.
Why is there no one anywhere? This isn't normal!
He struggled to his feet and looked up—
The revolver-faced monster was already standing silently in front of him like a phantom.
It seized him in one hand and flung him like a rag sack straight at the doors of a roadside shop. Zhe reflexively shut his eyes, bracing for the impact—
but it never came.
He staggered a few steps, then froze in astonishment.
He was standing inside a room in... his own video store?
That brief sense of relief vanished almost instantly. His first thought was of his sister.
"Rin!"
He yanked open the door, trying to get to her—
But the moment the door opened, what greeted him was a stream of machine-gun fire pouring up from the stairwell.
Ratatatat—!
He was forced to flee again.
And every time he opened a door, the scene changed wildly.
From familiar streets to unknown ruins.
From the tops of skyscrapers to dark subway stations.
Space itself seemed scrambled like scattered building blocks—but the gun-wielding monster remained glued to his trail, finding him with perfect accuracy every single time.
At last, he charged into a corridor that seemed to stretch on forever, gathered the last of his strength, and shoved open the heavy door at the very end.
The sight beyond it made his breath catch.
The national idol Yao Jiayin was there, just like in his dream—bound tightly to a pillar in the center of the room, tears shimmering in her eyes as she cried out to him:
"Save me!"
A sharp feeling of wrongness and déjà vu struck him at once.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Heavy footsteps and the metallic sound of a machine gun being readied echoed from ahead. The monster emerged slowly from the shadows on the other side of the room, raising its gun toward him once more.
But this time, Zhe did not run.
His head lowered, his shoulders trembling slightly, and then—
he laughed.
"Heh... hehehe..."
"Why aren't you running?" the monster asked, its voice grinding like rusty gears.
"Because all of this is too ridiculous," Zhe said, lifting his head. A gleam of understanding flashed in his eyes. "Even someone as slow as me should've figured it out by now... This is my dream, isn't it?"
The instant those words fell, the moon outside the window suddenly turned a sinister blood-red.
The hospital gown and bandages on Zhe's body vanished at once, replaced by sleek black pants and a white special-agent outfit. His confident grin returned to his face.
"If this is my dream, then what do I have to be afraid of?"
He spread his arms wide and declared:
"At this moment, I am the invincible agent—Code Name, ZZZ!"
With a flourish, he pulled out a handgun, aimed it, and prepared to deliver a stylish, last-second reversal.
Bang!
The monster merely flicked its hand.
An invisible force instantly knocked the gun flying from his grasp and sent him stumbling backward.
"Why?!" Zhe stared at his empty hand in disbelief. "If this is my dream, everything should go according to my will!"
"That is nothing more than your wishful thinking."
The monster closed the distance in an instant, seized him by the throat, and lifted him off the floor. Its icy voice poured directly into his mind.
"And now, I will turn this place into your ultimate nightmare."
In the real world, in the hospital room—
At almost the exact same moment he was lifted in the dream, Zhe's unconscious body rose eerily from the hospital bed as well, as though some invisible hand had clamped around his throat.
In the dream, the monster slammed Zhe violently to the ground.
In reality, the levitating Zhe crashed back onto the bed just as hard. The heart monitor instantly burst into a shrill alarm—
cardiac arrest.
Doctors and nurses rushed into the room and began emergency resuscitation.
"This isn't how it's supposed to be!"
In the dream, Zhe forced himself upright again and fled once more.
"Because deep in your subconscious," the Nightmare's voice flooded in from all directions, inescapable and everywhere at once, "you believe without realizing it... that since this is only a dream, it can never come true... You have no power to save anyone at all!"
"That's not true!"
Zhe slipped and plunged into an icy pool that had appeared out of nowhere, nearly choking.
"You can do nothing. You can save no one." The Nightmare's voice pressed in like a curse. "And now, the ultimate nightmare is about to unfold before your very eyes."
The monster appeared before him once again. The overwhelming pressure radiating from it robbed Zhe of all strength, leaving him collapsed on the ground.
"But even so... I'm still alive..." he said, making one last desperate resistance.
"Alive without value, is that it?" the Nightmare finished for him.
"...I can't even deny that."
Zhe's will was on the brink of collapse.
"But even so, at least inside my own dream... let me get what I want just once!"
"This is nothing but escapism. Because reality frightens you. Because reality leaves you powerless."
"Don't act like you know me!"
Zhe still did not give up. Summoning the last of his strength, he roared:
"I know my own heart better than anyone!"
At that very moment, as if answering the cry from the depths of his soul, the ground shook violently.
A massive door engraved with unknown runes and glowing with a faint light burst up from the earth, crashing into place between Zhe and the Nightmare monster.
"Come with me!"
A figure wrapped in warm golden radiance grabbed Zhe's hand without explanation and pulled him straight through the door of light.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the world changed.
Zhe found himself standing in a quiet circular chamber filled with a futuristic atmosphere. Countless glowing circuits pulsed along the walls like veins.
"This place is...?"
"You've finally arrived."
A voice came from above.
Zhe looked up to see, standing on the ring-shaped second-floor walkway, a figure in a commander's uniform, face hidden in shadow, gazing down at him.
"That voice... Commander Zero?"
Zhe recognized the same voice that had once issued orders to him in his dream.
"This is the world of your deeper consciousness—the space between 'reality' and 'dream.'"
Zero's voice was steady and full of strength.
"It is also the place where your true power lies dormant."
He reached out and activated something on the control console.
With a soft mechanical hum, a metal case in the center of the platform before Zhe slowly opened.
Inside lay a belt, black at its base and sharply designed, sleek and battle-ready. At its very center was a conspicuous circular socket, as though it were waiting for something to complete it.
Beside the belt rested a small red sphere that looked like a burning flame, with energy swirling visibly inside it.
Drawn in without even realizing it, Zhe stepped forward and brushed his fingers across the cold surface of the belt. An indescribable resonance welled up from deep inside him, as though it came from his very blood.
"Go fulfill your dream, Zhe," Zero said, his voice full of encouragement.
The instant my fingertips touched the red sphere, the method for using all of it surfaced clearly in my mind—as though the knowledge had long been engraved into my soul.
"Good luck."
With that blessing, Zero's figure dissolved into the air like mist.
Dong—! Dong—!
A bell seemed to ring out from the depths of my soul itself, declaring that the time for counterattack had finally come.
Without hesitation, Zhe picked up the belt, clenched the red sphere tightly in his hand, and turned back through the door of light, returning to the nightmare chamber where Yao Jiayin was imprisoned.
The monster still stood there, as if it had anticipated his return from the very beginning.
"You cannot stop the nightmare from spreading," it sneered, raising its machine gun and aiming it directly at the motionless Jiayin. "Right before your eyes, I will—"
Bang!
A sharp gunshot cut the monster off.
Though Zhe had done nothing more than form a finger-gun gesture with his hand, and though he held no actual weapon, an invisible bullet shot forth and struck the monster's barrel with perfect precision, knocking its aim aside.
The monster turned toward Zhe in shock.
Slowly lowering his hand, Zhe fixed it with eyes as sharp as blades.
"Rescuing the target is my mission."
"You're courting death!"
The monster roared in fury and fired a shot straight at him.
Zhe reacted instantly, thrusting the still-unactivated belt up in front of him—
Clang!
Sparks flew as the bullet was deflected by the belt.
Taking advantage of that opening, he swung the belt into place diagonally across his chest.
Click!
The moment it locked into place, it felt as though some seal had been broken. The metallic band extended on its own and fastened perfectly around his body.
A tremendous surge of power flooded through him in an instant.
In the real hospital room—
Beep—beep—!
On the monitor, which had previously flattened into a straight line, waveforms suddenly reappeared.
Zhe's heart began beating powerfully once more.
"I am the invincible agent—Code Name, ZZZ!"
Zhe declared it loudly as he pressed the blazing red sphere into the circular socket at the center of the belt.
[IMPACT!]
The belt's core flared with dazzling crimson light.
Strange electronic effects echoed through the air as overwhelming energy began gathering like a vortex.
I drew in a deep breath and locked my gaze onto the monster, now wavering in open uncertainty. A confident smile curved across my lips.
Then, after a final snap of my fingers, I decisively swept my right thumb across the red sphere set into the belt's core—
"Transform!"
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 172)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 116)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter69)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter119)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 66
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 50
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 52
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 55
The Way the Umamusume Look at 42
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 40
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 36
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 30
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 26
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