The male supporting character was actually myself.

There was a hole the size of a bowl in his chest, but not much blood had flowed out; only a few drops had dripped onto the floor, which were conveniently covered by his sneakers.

"Let's take him to the forensic department for an autopsy later." Jiang Chen carefully examined his body and noticed some faint traces of blood on his hair.

Li Chengze also noticed what appeared to be a wound on his temple, so he tried moving his right hand, which was wearing a rubber glove.

"His skull has been opened?!" He grabbed Qin Rufeng's hair and pulled him up, only to be shocked to find that Qin Rufeng's skull had been completely cut open from the temples to the back, and the brain inside had already been completely gone!

Even Jiang Chen, who was well-traveled and knowledgeable, was shocked by what he saw.

What kind of unknown entity could possibly gouge out a heart and brain?

"It's all because the system next door was destroyed..."

"When we first met, the system next door was so proud of me, saying that its host was named 'Qin Rufeng,' which sounded like someone extraordinary and that it would definitely be able to take it to new heights."

As a result, it even took off, taking it straight to its burial!

"The system next door complains to me every day, saying that its host refuses to do tasks, and it's driving me crazy..."

…………

The soft, sweet voice echoed in his mind, and the tearing pain made it hard for him to breathe.

"Are you alright?" Li Chengze patted his shoulder and reminded him, "The rest is up to the forensic team; it's no longer our business."

"Let's find a quiet place. I want to talk to you." Jiang Chen took a deep breath and handed him the car keys.

He was in a bad state when he woke up this morning and needs more time to rest, so it's better to let the other person drive.

The bar was still open early in the morning, with only two chandeliers lit.

"This place is run by my friend, so don't worry, it's very safe and quiet, and no one will bother you." Li Chengze casually poured himself a glass of wine, then pushed it aside, remembering what the other person had just said.

Jiang Chen leaned back in his chair and remained silent for a moment before suddenly asking, "How long have we known each other?"

“It’s been eight years since you recruited me into the security team when I was seventeen and went to university.” Li Chengze shook his head and laughed, recalling the fear of being dominated by various unknown entities that year. “Eight years have passed in the blink of an eye. Time really flies.”

“I’ve never had any friends growing up,” Jiang Chen said heavily, rubbing his temples. “But I need a reliable friend who can remember what I’m about to say. Otherwise, I don’t know when I’ll end up like Qin Rufeng, dying quietly.”

Li Chengze felt a sudden sinking feeling in his heart. "In my opinion, we've been old friends for eight years. No matter what happens to you, you can tell me. Maybe I can help."

The bar was very quiet; if you spoke a little louder, your voice would echo.

Jiang Chen ran his fingers over the solid wood bar counter, feeling its unique texture, and then said, "You only started training at the age of seventeen, and then you gained the ability to see unknown entities."

From that moment on, joining the security team set you apart from the busy, ordinary people.

You have seen the gray areas of this ordinary world.

Unlike everyone else, I have been able to see them since I can remember and feel familiar with them. I can intuitively distinguish the types, abilities, and even weaknesses of unknown entities.

You must be very curious about the top-secret information I have, right?

He smiled and shook his head, "Actually, there's only a blank sheet of paper inside, nothing else."

I have no parents, no memories of before the age of eight, and no identity.

The orphanage director found me at the gate; I was like a blank sheet of paper, remembering nothing except my name. They said I might have suffered some kind of psychological trauma leading to amnesia, so they gave me identity information and even posted various missing person notices.

But subconsciously I felt it wasn't what they said.

There was no such thing as amnesia; it's as if I was created out of thin air.

“You were only seven or eight years old then, your intuition might not be accurate.” Li Chengze couldn’t understand it, and pushed up his glasses to try to find a reasonable explanation. “Perhaps you had a serious illness or some other experience. Many people don’t have memories before they were seven or eight years old, which is quite normal.”

Jiang Chen did not refute, and continued, "I have never been to school. The things in books are like memories sleeping deep in the brain. Seeing the books awakens them, so there is no need to study them."

At that time, I had no interest in studying. Although I have no memory of it, I know that I have a mission—to stop the Soul Eaters from invading.

During that period of my immature, adolescent phase, I felt like I was some kind of savior who had fallen from the sky, leading the people of this world to expand the security team and secretly maintain the order of human survival.

I track, observe, and hunt unknown entities, adding their information to the database one by one.

Were you all shocked by the hunt for that unknown entity number 7 just now?

"I knew from the beginning that you were strong, but I never knew you were this strong!"

"No, yesterday I couldn't kill the No. 7 unknown entity that was about to evolve to its highest level with a single strike, but after last night, my ability has evolved."

Jiang Chen raised her right hand, her slender, pale, and slightly bony fingers looking like they were drawn in a comic book under the light. "Can you see what's on my hand?"

Li Chengze pushed up his glasses, observed carefully for a moment, and then shook his head.

"Try touching it with your hand, be gentle."

He obediently reached out to touch Jiang Chen's right hand, but he didn't even touch the other's palm. About three centimeters away, he suddenly felt a pain in his finger. Li Chengze quickly pulled back and then discovered that there was a thin cut on his left index finger.

"What is this?"

“This strange thing I was born with, I call it a Soul Weapon.” Jiang Chen played with the thin silver thread that only he could see, and patiently explained, “Actually, all my combat power in hunting unknown entities comes from the Soul Weapon. It can transform into any shape, but its initial form is a very thin silver thread.”

Until last night, it was about one meter long.

They cannot stray more than a meter from me, or I will attach myself to the blade of my scimitar and cut through those thick-skinned, impenetrable unknown entities.

But after last night, my Horcrux has evolved.

Jiang Chen stretched out his right hand and commanded the Soul Artifact to completely envelop it.

Then Li Chengze witnessed an astonishing and unbelievable scene—his arm gradually disappeared!

Given the previous cut, he didn't dare touch it with his hands again. He just tried to open his eyes wide to see if there was any reflection or anything that could reveal the true nature of the Horcrux.

However, nothing could be seen; everything seemed magical.

"It can now fight independently without me, and its destructive power is still very strong." Jiang Chen controlled the soul weapon to attach to the glass. With just a thought in his mind, the solid glass wall instantly shattered into countless fragments that crashed to the ground.

"This... this powerful?!" Li Chengze gasped.

This glass wall was actually a security team's blast-proof glass that I got for a friend. It was supposed to be able to withstand powerful attacks from unknown entities. However, the glass, which was bulletproof, suddenly shattered into pieces all over the ground!

“Now you know my secret.” Jiang Chen put away the Horcrux. “What I’m about to tell you is even more unbelievable.”

Li Chengze let out a long breath, pointed at the shards scattered on the ground, and laughed, "What could be more exciting than this?"

"I died last night."

"Pfft!" The moment the other person opened their mouth, he spat out all the water he had just poured into his mouth.

Li Chengze hurriedly wiped the water off his glasses with a tissue and put them on, staring at Jiang Chen and asking, word by word, "What did you just say?"

“At 2:05 a.m. last night, I stopped breathing. Ten minutes later, I suddenly resumed mechanical breathing, just like those patients on ventilators in the hospital, mechanical, passive, unconscious forced breathing.”

"Stopped breathing...could it be sleep apnea?"

"Can you stop breathing for ten minutes while you're asleep without making any noise?"

“That’s certainly unlikely.” Li Chengze suddenly countered, “How do you know you’ve had a ten-minute breathing pause? And was it some kind of mechanical pause after you resumed breathing?”

“I installed ultra-high-definition surveillance cameras throughout the room; you know they can capture images of unknown objects.”

Li Chengze's handsome peach blossom eyes widened instantly. "You didn't put your own bed under surveillance, did you?"

"I don't have a girlfriend and I don't have any bad habits, so why can't I?"

"It's possible, but... it feels a little strange. Can you sleep with a camera watching you?"

“Those aren’t the point.” Jiang Chen took out the photos he had taken from his phone and handed them over. “The point is that at 4:30 a.m., two new types of unknown entities that I had never seen before appeared, and it seemed like they did something to my head.”

More importantly, before I woke up at six in the morning.

In my memory, I traveled through time.

Li Chengze almost spat out his water again, coughing several times with his face flushed red. "I think I'm dreaming and haven't woken up yet. Could we have entered some kind of dream created by some unknown entity? Like in some movies..."

“I am very clear-headed now, and I hope you can also remember what I’m saying clearly.” Jiang Chen took a sip of water and continued, “Perhaps my investigation has alerted some unknown entity, or perhaps I have inadvertently triggered something.”

In short, after I 'died' last night, I was bound to an auxiliary system, which told me that I could only be reborn by completing the main system's tasks and accumulating enough medals.

After that, I entered all sorts of strange worlds and became people with different identities in them.

First and foremost, it's certain that my memory has been folded by the so-called main system, meaning I don't remember most of the things I've experienced.

The reason I'm able to sit here and tell you this is partly because of the memories stored in the Horcrux, and partly because I don't know how I remembered them. In any case, those fragments are in my mind.

Qin Rufeng was the name I heard in that virtual world.

If I remember correctly, he was also bound to some kind of auxiliary system. But you know his temperament and personality—free-spirited, unruly, and unwilling to be disciplined, and he doesn't easily give in. I think his personality fits the descriptions I've heard in the virtual world.

He refused to cooperate, and not long afterward, he and the associated auxiliary system were destroyed.

"Destroy?!" Li Chengze exclaimed in shock. "Let's sort out the situation."

Last night, you two 'died' for some reason, and then in the virtual world you heard the news that he was 'destroyed'. When you woke up this morning, Qin Rufeng had been killed!

If that's true, have you completed all the tasks and collected enough medals?

Jiang Chen frowned and pondered for a moment before shaking his head and saying, "No, I think I participated in some kind of competition. I probably got a good ranking by using a soul weapon and then got a temporary chance to be reborn."

So, it's very possible that tonight, or some other night, I'll suddenly stop breathing again and be taken away to do some weird and wonderful tasks.

"Based on what you've said, I think you and Qin Rufeng are very likely being targeted by some unknown entity!"

Li Chengze's expression was solemn. He subconsciously rubbed his chin with his fingers and suggested, "Your bedroom shouldn't have been disturbed, right? Let's take the equipment and go check the footprints in a bit. If they match those in Qin Rufeng's room, it means my guess was correct."

"I don't need to look, I'm certain they're completely different."

Jiang Chen tried to sort out the useful parts from his chaotic thoughts. "I have met a few people in the virtual world. Some of them entered the virtual world on the same day as me, while others entered it earlier."

Emmm... Lu Xinnan lives in Tianxi Jincheng Community, Fuze District, Qinghong County. She is a Chinese language teacher at the No.1 Middle School across from the community and is the homeroom teacher of Class 1, Grade 2.

There's also Feng Yuan, who is twenty-four years old.

The incident occurred on April 21st; the physics graduate student at Huadu University.

Li Zixuan, eighteen years old, lives at 502, Unit 2, Building 3, Binhai Xingfu Nanyuan, Haiyang District, Beijing. She is a student at Beijing Medical Technology College. It seems she lied before; this is likely the detailed information after she changed her story. She also appeared in the virtual world on May 7th, the same day as me.

"Qin Rufeng's situation has been confirmed. Which one should we start investigating from?" Li Chengze had written down all the detailed information and was preparing to contact headquarters to request the dispatch of a helicopter.

After all, an attack from an unknown entity that even Jiang Chen couldn't resist was too terrifying. If they didn't find out the truth while he was still conscious, what if something really happened one day...

“Go to Qinghong County to find Lu Xinnan.” He quickly made up his mind, frowning as he tried to recall, “I think I teamed up with her to complete the mission. If I remember correctly, she should have accumulated enough medals to get a chance to be reborn.”

Go check if this person actually exists in real life, and while you're at it, ask her how much she remembers.

After contacting the dispatched helicopter as quickly as possible and setting off for Qinghong County, Li Chengze had already received detailed information about Lu Xinnan, the homeroom teacher of Class 1, Grade 2 at Qinghong County No. 1 Middle School.

"It looks completely different from what I remember." Jiang Chen took the information he handed over and opened it to look at it carefully.