The walk home was bathed in the warm hues of dusk. Streetlamps mimicking natural light flickered on one after another along the sidewalks.

While Jie Ming continued the snail-slow mobilization of spiritual power inside his body, he habitually observed this world that felt both “familiar” and utterly alien.

At a crosswalk, while waiting for the light, his gaze inadvertently swept across a figure buying a drink from a vending machine on the opposite corner. His entire body froze.

That person… he knew him!

Strictly speaking, he didn’t really know him.

They had only crossed paths once, during the muster for this planar expedition.

He remembered that slightly arrogant young face: a Tier-4 wizard. Beyond that, Jie Ming knew nothing about him; he had merely glimpsed the man while passing through the teleportation gate.

Jie Ming was extremely sensitive to energy fluctuations. Even a fleeting glance was enough for the other’s soul aura and appearance to leave an impression.

“What’s wrong?” Victor immediately noticed Jie Ming’s sudden pause and followed his line of sight. Understanding dawned on his face. “Oh, it’s him. Didn’t expect to run into that guy after high school.”

Jie Ming blinked, quickly searching the false memories.

Sure enough, a relevant fragment surfaced: the young man across the street was named “Kevin,” a former high school classmate with whom he had a rather hostile relationship. The reason was simple; during their final year of high school, Jie Ming had defeated him in an “academic duel” and taken ownership of Kevin’s iron pipe, becoming the previous school bully.

“Yeah, quite the coincidence,” Jie Ming answered vaguely, suppressing the storm in his heart.

After parting ways with Victor at the fork, he walked alone toward “home,” his mood growing even more complicated.

He pushed open the door with practiced ease, greeted the “parents” watching the news in the living room, then immediately retreated to his bedroom and locked the door behind him.

Falling backward onto the bed, he closed his eyes, banished all stray thoughts, and once again sank his entire mind into the deathly still dantian sea of qi.

His will transformed into an invisible hand, continuing the monotonous, arduous task of pushing the stagnant spiritual power toward that faint thread of attraction.

Time passed in silence. Only when the sky outside had gone completely dark and his mother knocked to call him for dinner did Jie Ming open his tired eyes.

Checking his progress, a barely perceptible gleam flashed deep within his pupils.

His luck had held. The results were better than expected!

Though it remained difficult, he could clearly feel that with every attempt, the efficiency of mobilizing spiritual power was slowly but steadily improving.

It seemed the “adaptive evolution” property of his Body Forging Art was still active, gradually acclimating to this environment of suppressed power and instinctively seeking breakthroughs and optimization paths.

“At this rate, even without round-the-clock mobilization, I’ll reconnect with my inner world in five days at most!” A firm resolve settled in Jie Ming’s heart, bringing a concrete sense of anticipation that eased much of his anxiety.

At the dinner table, noticing his unconcealed weariness, his “parents” gently urged him not to overwork himself and to balance study with rest.

Jie Ming nodded in agreement, but his thoughts had already drifted back to the “Kevin” he had seen earlier.

The situation was too strange.

If he and that wizard had been close acquaintances, it would make sense for this plane to construct a corresponding false identity based on his memories.

But they had only met once and never even spoken.

Even a novice illusionist knew one of the basic principles of constructing illusions or mind worlds: minimize elements that could trigger déjà vu or logical conflicts in the target.

Typically, only two types of characters were used: those extremely familiar to the target, or complete strangers.

Using someone the target had only seen once; someone neither familiar nor entirely unknown; carried enormous risk. A sudden sense of recognition could easily alert the target’s subconscious.

Combined with the genuine, advanced knowledge he had learned in this world that far exceeded his own knowledge base…

A bold, almost shocking hypothesis flashed through Jie Ming’s mind like lightning in the darkness.

“Could it be… that this place isn’t entirely a ‘false’ world?”

He shook his head and stopped pursuing the thought.

It was too early to draw conclusions; he still lacked sufficient information and clues.

“Still, if this hypothesis holds, I’ll need to find other people to verify it…”

He would need a large enough sample size: observe their states, perhaps even make contact.

After dinner, Jie Ming returned to his room.

Instead of immediately resuming spiritual power mobilization; the intense mental strain was real, and this body reduced to mortal limits needed rest; he decided to switch gears and work on filling the gaps in his common sense.

He activated the holographic computer in his room, connected to this world’s network, and began searching for the advanced topics that had piqued his interest in class, especially physics, spacetime theory, and foundational energy models.

“Oh? This energy circuit concept… interesting. A line of thinking I’ve never considered…”

“This formula… brilliant! It actually simplifies multidimensional calculations this way?”

Soon enough, the nature of a wizard took over. Jie Ming plunged completely into an ocean of knowledge, devouring these unfamiliar yet rigorously logical concepts with ravenous hunger, momentarily forgetting that he was trapped in a cage.

The next morning, on the way to school, Jie Ming walked with Amy and Victor as usual. Only today, Amy seemed preoccupied.

“What’s up?” Jie Ming didn’t particularly want to get involved, but to maintain his persona, he asked anyway.

“Well… my aunt’s birthday is coming up soon. I want to get her a present, but I don’t know what would be good. Any suggestions?”

Jie Ming countered, “Is there anything she particularly likes?”

Amy thought carefully, her expression turning a little odd. “She… really loves movies.”

Victor glanced at her face and asked doubtfully, “From the look on your face, that doesn’t seem to be the whole story?”

Amy hesitated for a moment, then lowered her voice sheepishly. “She really does love watching movies… but once I asked her why she’s so obsessed, and she said… she just finds it really satisfying and cathartic to watch the villains in movies have their convictions shattered and get completely crushed by the forces of justice.”

Jie Ming’s eyelid twitched hard.

That statement… something felt deeply off.

No, more precisely, it felt deeply familiar.

Victor didn’t seem to think much of it and offered directly, “Then it’s simple. Buy her tickets to a popular movie, or a limited-edition disc, poster, something like that.”

Amy looked hesitant about the suggestion, as if it wasn’t thoughtful enough.

A thought struck Jie Ming, and he suddenly proposed, “The day after tomorrow is a rest day. How about the three of us go to the commercial district together? We can look around in person; maybe we’ll find something that really catches the eye.”

“Yes, yes!” Amy immediately agreed enthusiastically.

Victor nodded indifferently.

Seeing them both on board, Jie Ming inwardly nodded as well.

In truth, his real motive was to explore more of this false world on a larger scale; his current range of movement was far too restricted.

Helping pick out a birthday gift just happened to be a convenient excuse.