Xie Mingzhe had a nightmare. In it, a massive beast was chasing him. He ran desperately, but just as the beast opened its jaws to swallow him whole, Xie Mingzhe woke up with a start. His eyes shot open, and he looked around—this wasn't the ceiling of his university dorm, and his roommate wasn't there. He was alone in a strange room.

He recalled that last night, he and his roommate had gone out to celebrate the latter's birthday. By the end of the night, his roommate had gotten so drunk that Xie Mingzhe had to carry him back to the dorm at 3 a.m.

"Why am I waking up in such a strange room?" Xie Mingzhe stiffened, glancing around cautiously.

It seemed like he was in a hospital ward, with white walls surrounding him. He was lying on a bed, and a machine, similar to a monitor, sat beside him. Electrodes were attached to his skin, connected to the apparatus, which displayed numerical values on an LCD panel that Xie Mingzhe couldn't make sense of.

— Did I get seriously ill in the middle of the night? Did my roommate bring me to the hospital's emergency room?

While he was still trying to piece everything together, the door opened, and a nurse in a white coat entered. Upon seeing him, her eyes widened in shock, as if she'd seen a ghost.

Xie Mingzhe tried to break the silence, saying, "H-hello, did I…"

Before he could finish his sentence, the nurse ran out in a panic, shouting, "Doctor Qin, the patient in a vegetative state in ward 7 just woke up!"

Xie Mingzhe: "????"

Vegetative state? He'd only been drinking with his roommate last night. How could he be in a vegetative state? Did the nurse mix him up with another patient?

Before he could fully process this, a middle-aged doctor in his forties hurried into the room, carrying a machine that resembled an ECG monitor.

Xie Mingzhe, trying to remain polite, smiled and asked, "Excuse me, what illness did I have?"

The doctor turned on the monitor and looked up at him. "You've been in a coma for a month. Please lie down, I need to check your condition."

A month?

The nightmare and unfamiliar surroundings left Xie Mingzhe feeling disoriented. He obediently lay flat as the doctor conducted his examination.

The doctor soon completed the exam, sighing in amazement. "You woke up after suffering severe brain damage. This is truly a medical miracle."

Xie Mingzhe was utterly confused. "Severe brain damage?"

He had never heard of anyone slipping into a vegetative state from drinking. Did he accidentally drink some fake alcohol or something?

The doctor looked at him with surprise. "Don't you remember? A month ago, you fell from the third floor, and your brain was severely injured. When you were brought to the hospital, you were in a deep coma. You underwent surgery and survived, but you've been in a vegetative state ever since, until now."

Xie Mingzhe: "..."

Fell from the third floor? His dorm was on the seventh floor.

Trying to suppress his shock, Xie Mingzhe forced a laugh and rubbed his nose. "Are you joking? Is this because of alcohol? I don't think I drank too much... Wait, where's my roommate?" He started looking around.

Hearing his words, the doctor frowned in concern and turned to the monitor. "No. 777, check his Inner Spirit. Has his Spirit Threshold recovered?"

The therapeutic apparatus next to him activated, transforming into a robot. The machine extended metal arms and placed two electrodes on Xie Mingzhe's temples.

Xie Mingzhe stared in disbelief. The robot's face was an LCD panel about 20 cm wide, displaying fluctuating values. After a moment, the machine's mechanical voice reported, "Inner Spirit peak: 300. EEG curve: normal."

The doctor looked back at Xie Mingzhe with a complicated expression. "How could this be?"

Xie Mingzhe, with the robot's arms still holding his head, was just as confused. How could this be? I want to know too!

Then, the doctor seemed to remember something and, with sudden excitement, said, "This is an incredibly rare case. I need to arrange for a thorough examination immediately!"

The doctor left hurriedly, taking the therapeutic robot with him.

Left alone in the hospital bed, Xie Mingzhe felt utterly lost.

At that moment, he wanted to scream three classic questions: Who am I? Where am I? What is going on?!

But before he could voice any of them, the doctor returned, this time carrying more machines that resembled robots. After pressing some buttons, the devices came to life, surrounding Xie Mingzhe as if he were a lab subject. With no strength to resist, he lay still on the bed while the machines went to work.

Then, Xie Mingzhe noticed something strange.

First of all, he was perfectly healthy—he'd been able to drink quite a bit the night before and had been sober when he returned to the dorm. It didn't make sense that his roommate would take him to the hospital in the middle of the night and yet leave him unconscious. Secondly, the hospital environment around him was unlike anything he remembered. The monitor and the robots the doctor had brought in were incredibly advanced, clearly not from his time...

A chill ran down Xie Mingzhe's spine—he had watched plenty of time-travel novels. Could it be that I've traveled through time?

The doctor soon finished his exam and, smiling, looked at him. "You're really lucky," he said. "There's less than a 1% chance that someone in a vegetative state like you could wake up."

Taking a few deep breaths to steady his racing heart, Xie Mingzhe gathered his courage and asked, "Doctor, what day is it today? What's my name? I'm a bit of a mess and can't remember anything."

The doctor answered kindly, "Your name is Xie Mingzhe. Today is August 1st, 3001. It's your 18th birthday." He showed Xie Mingzhe the data card attached to the bed, seemingly to prove he wasn't lying.

Xie Mingzhe: "...."