Chapter 11 About Baoyu

"Doppelganger!"

The burly man, his entire body wrapped in bandages, suddenly sat up in bed, panting heavily. Everything he had witnessed before losing consciousness felt like a nightmare.

What exactly was that persistent "self"? Could there really be monsters in this world? Vodka grew increasingly frightened. And then what happened? What followed?

He's still alive? Vodka suddenly realized, and felt a sharp pain all over his body, as if he'd been run over by a car.

"You're awake? Lie down quickly, you can't get up yet."

Upon receiving abnormal data from the electrocardiogram monitor, the nurse rushed over to check on the important person. She found him sitting up with electrode patches all over his body, and several wires had come loose due to his excessive movement, which caused the monitor to sound an alarm.

Vodka was forcefully pressed onto the bed by the nurse, his memory still in a state of confusion. Was this a hospital? How did he get here? Brother, right, where's brother? Where did brother go?

He grabbed the nurse who was standing by the bed adjusting the machine settings and asked in a hoarse voice, "Where's the older brother?"

She wasn't a member of the Black Organization; she was just an employee working at a hospital invested in by the organization. The only requirement she was to keep her mouth shut was that this was her first time facing an organization member since joining the organization.

"Who is your older brother?" The nurse asked, her voice trembling with fear at his rough behavior.

The head nurse noticed the young nurse who hadn't returned yet. She frowned, intending to scold the slow-moving newcomer, but then saw her trembling with fear at the awakened vodka. She quickly stepped in to help her out. Unlike the newcomer, she knew Gin.

"We have already informed Lord Gin. Please wait here for a moment." She pulled the nurse from Vodka's hand and quickly gestured to the clueless newcomer, urging her to leave.

Just as the two from the brewery finally reunited, the manager of Lobotomy Corporation was finally able to go back to work.

Before going back, we need to go to the hotel to get our things. The most important thing is actually Baozi. We should take him with us. If he gets killed by a bomb one day, he will have nowhere to cry. After all, X himself doesn't know if he can still use Dante's resurrection technique.

As soon as X went upstairs, at the corner, he saw a long-haired young man crouching by the door, his eyes lowered, waiting alone. In the dim light of the corridor, the young man's pale face was shrouded in a gloomy filter, making him look preoccupied and unhappy.

Hearing footsteps, the young man looked up and gazed at the source of the sound. His heterochromatic eyes were fixed on the black-haired youth who had walked around the corner and was getting closer and closer to him. Finally, the youth stopped in front of him, and his light-colored golden eyes looked down at him.

Faced with such a completely unfamiliar face, Honglu hesitated for the first time ever. Was this really Manager Dante? Could that person also have such a ruthless gaze? Had she really not mistaken him for someone else?

Many questions filled his mind, and in the end he could only utter a dry, uninspired sentence.

"Mr. Hagiwara said you know me?"

The young man in front of him didn't speak, but simply extended his hand to him. Honglu readily handed him his hand and used it to stand up. Only then did he notice that the young man hadn't returned on his own; behind him was the taciturn blue-haired lady.

Behind the young man, a pair of golden eyes, identical to his own, were scrutinizing her like a scanner. Honglu could not sense a trace of kindness in his eyes; what they contained, only she herself probably knew.

What's wrong? Why is Baozi acting up again? I told you we couldn't let him see Binah, and now look what's happened. Where is he going to find Fuzi to beat him up again? X sighed inwardly as he looked at Honglu, who was staring straight at him after standing up.

"Honglu, are you alright?"

The voice was just as unfamiliar. For the first time, Honglu found the sound produced by the vocal cords to be so jarring, as if the unique connection between them had vanished with the disappearance of the clock's chime.

Moreover, the moment the black-haired youth spoke to her, the young woman closed her eyes, which had revealed too much emotion, secretly concealing her feelings to ensure that the man would not notice the slightest trace.

"I'm fine, sir. How may I ask your name?"

Just call me X.

Sure enough, even his name has changed? Moreover, he has clearly regained his subordinates, and even that woman, that tuner.

X keenly noticed the young man's unusual state and quickly interrupted him.

"Angela, wait a moment, I need to talk to him."

"you……"

Angela had barely uttered a single syllable when the short-haired black youth pulled the long-haired guy into the room. The door slammed shut with a bang due to inertia. Angela stared at the door, swallowing the rest of her words.

Inside the room, X called the young man in front of him by his real name for the first time.

"Baoyu"

Upon hearing this, the young man looked at the slightly shorter, black-haired youth with a mixture of surprise and understanding.

"Manager Dante"

This time, the voice was no longer confused. Although the voice had changed, he was now certain that the person in front of him was the familiar Manager Dante.

"Do you want to come with me?" X asked, looking into the young man's slightly gleaming eyes.

“I need to say goodbye to Mr. Hagiwara and Mr. Matsuda first,” he paused, then added, “Would Manager Dante like to come along?”

Honglu's face returned to its usual smile, and her previously pale face regained its color.

"Great! I also want to thank those two gentlemen for taking you in for over a month."

"Huh?" Honglu suddenly asked.

"What's wrong?"

"Dan Ding has only been here for a little over a month?" X nodded to Hong Lu.

"But I've been living here for six months already?"

"ah?"

The two began to reconcile their accounts. X was certain that he had only spent a little over a month of standard time here. TT2 was only effective in enclosed spaces, and even if activated, it would only rewind time within the Lobotomy Corporation, having no relation to the outside world.

But Honglu said she arrived here last November. Could it be that they traveled through different timelines?

X suddenly realized something and asked, "Do you remember how you got here?"

"Right after the hand in the mirror grabbed you, space, which is the central headquarters of Lobotomy Corporation, began to distort, and then I appeared near Mr. Hagiwara."

"A hand in the mirror?" What is that? Does it exist in the game?

"Don't you remember?" X shook his head and replied, "I have no recollection."

But isn't something wrong?

Did you get here by yourself? Where are the others?

“Hmm…” Honglu began to recall, and after a while, “I saw that everyone, like me, had fallen into a bottomless abyss.”

So, all twelve of them have traveled through time?!

Where have all my sinners gone? Did they secretly die in some corner?

In short, let's take this tangible Baozi back first. We'll find one more if we can, and then we can look for the rest later.

Angela watched as the tightly closed door opened again, but the atmosphere between the two people inside was completely different from before. What were they discussing behind her back? As the core of the AI, she couldn't disobey X's will; she couldn't even eavesdrop.

The long-haired young man followed X naturally, just like the scene she saw in the central headquarters on the surveillance camera, as if that was his original place.

"Angela, this is Honglu," he introduced his new companion to himself. The blue-haired AI maintained a polite smile as he faced X and the heterochromatic-eyed youth who seemed to be about to rejoin L Company.

“Honglu, this is my secretary, Angela,” he introduced his new subordinate to himself. The heterochromatic-eyed young man faced the smiling blue-haired woman, extended his hand to her, and the two hands clasped together.

"Thank you for taking care of me during this time, Mr. X," his blue eyes shone brightly in the light streaming through the window.

"So you're going with him?" the curly-haired officer asked, looking at the trio who had come together.

“Yes, Mr. Matsuda, I’ve been absent from work for too long. It’s time to go back to Mr. X’s side.”

"I never expected you to actually go to work. You look like a rich young master who doesn't have to worry about food or drink," Matsuda said, looking at Honglu who was clearly much more relaxed. He felt a strange sense of security, like a ship that had found its anchor. And what the hell is this X name anyway?

"I'll pass on your message to Hagi. Let's have dinner together sometime when we're free!" For some reason, as Matsuda watched the three figures gradually disappear into the distance, he felt as if he were separated from the world. He couldn't quite explain what this feeling was.

"Huh? Honglu has already left?" Kenji Hagiwara, who had just finished traveling between Tokyo and Hokkaido, exclaimed in disbelief. He had been called back from afar to carry out a mission, and after rushing back to the hotel, he found that one person was missing.

"Was he in such a hurry?" Kenji Hagiwara plopped down next to Jinpei Matsuda, who was also puzzled.

"Who knows? Besides, I always felt there was something strange about their atmosphere."

The curly-haired police officer rested his arm on the small table, propped his chin on his hand, and spoke to his childhood friend.

"What do you mean?" The purple-eyed police officer reached for a teacup, poured himself a sip of tea, and gulped it down.

"Ah, he's finally alive," he said, turning his head to look at his childhood friend who was still deep in thought. Matsuda didn't answer his question and remained silent.

"What? Aren't you worried?" Kenji Hagiwara gradually felt uneasy as his silence deepened.

"Honglu, did he go with them willingly?"

"Hagi, I feel like something's not right," Matsuda started scratching his hair. "But what exactly is it?"

A note from the author:

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