In a narrow, crowded alley, a worn wooden square table stood askew.
On the table, a vigorous charcoal fire heated a stone pot, sending up a mist of steam.
Behind the mist, a face in the dim light was indistinguishable, but a voice could be heard, savoring the food in the pot, and saying,
"Gentlemen, this is for warding off the cold, most nourishing in winter. Do you want a bite? Just hand over my master!"
Plates of fresh, tempting raw meat, all cut into pieces, surrounded the stone pot.
"Dog meat hotpot? Although I really want a bite, unfortunately..."
In front of the square table, a tall white man with a bleeding chest was forced to his knees. Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by his handsome white companion, who was suffering the same treatment.
"It's all a misunderstanding, sir. How about this: you first send my female companion to the hospital. She was injured by your subordinates just now and needs immediate treatment. And my partner, he won't last much longer either. Please send them to the hospital. I can't run away anyway, and you'll have enough time to confirm whether there's been a mistake."
"Cough, cough---"
Suddenly, the person eating hotpot behind the table coughed violently, then spat out a diamond from his mouth.
"They didn't even clean it properly before serving; I almost choked to death. Luckily, I'm blessed. Handsome, you just said you wanted to send your female companion to the hospital? She doesn't need it anymore."
"You!" The handsome young man looked at the familiar diamond on the table, already knowing his female companion's fate. His face was extremely grim, yet strangely devoid of hatred. He turned to his weak, tall companion and asked, "How much longer can you live?"
The tall white man suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.
The ground happened to shake violently, as if there was an earthquake.
"I'm not a doctor. Maybe ten minutes, maybe a few minutes. Alright…"
The tall man saw the determined look in the handsome man's eyes and, based on their unspoken understanding, knew his partner's decision.
He suddenly looked at the charcoal fire under the stone pot.
The originally vigorous charcoal fire suddenly exploded upwards like a fountain, and the stone pot instantly shattered.
Ah!
The person sitting by the table was enveloped by the oncoming flames and boiling liquid, letting out a painful roar.
His subordinates immediately rushed to help.
The handsome young man quickly helped the tall man and turned to flee the alley.
As soon as they exited the alley, a one-eyed black man pulled them into a dark room.
"Cobb, didn't you say you were gods here?"
The one-eyed black man asked sharply. Judging by the situation in the room, he seemed to be interrogating an Asian teenager.
Cobb, the handsome young man, did not rush to answer. He walked over and knocked the Asian teenager unconscious, then slowly said,
"If we knew his background and were prepared, then we would be gods. But this guy, you didn't even tell me his name." Cobb retorted, not backing down.
The one-eyed black man also did not back down, grabbing Cobb by the collar.
"Don't make excuses for your incompetence. You need to know, you are thieves! I can throw you in jail anytime! Remember, in the real world, you killed your wife, and you're still wanted for murder!"
"But you need us!" Cobb pushed the one-eyed black man away. "I didn't kill her!"
The tall white man, spitting blood, separated the two and mediated,
"The thugs who caught us are this person's subconscious defenses! The more vigilant a person is, the stronger their defenses. I didn't expect this guy to be so vigilant! Agent, this isn't our responsibility. No one knows this guy's background, right?"
"Subconscious defenses?" The black man said, half-believing, half-doubting.
"This is my dream, and all the scenes here are built by me. But everyone here, except us, is a projection of his subconscious, a product of his brain. When a highly vigilant person's subconscious feels danger, they will resist. The thugs he projects are these, thugs who even eat human flesh."
The tall man, still spitting blood, continued,
"As the dream architect, I have the ability to change the environment here, but I can't change it arbitrarily. The more I change, the more likely I am to suffer a backlash. Arthur on the previous level, and I on this level, have both paid the price to let you take people and leave first. Agent, don't waste time. Have you found out anything yet? I'm dying, and this dream is collapsing."
After he finished speaking, the entire building shook violently, and so did the world outside the window.
"A stubborn guy, no matter how much we torture him, he won't speak." The black agent turned to Cobb, softening his tone, "In the real world, this guy has been in a coma, and now we're out of time in the previous two dream levels. Can we go down to the next level and try again? Didn't you say that the time in each dream level is 12 times that of the level above? The deeper you go, the greater the multiplier. Quickly take us to the next level. There, I'll have enough time to get what I want."
"Agent, theoretically, the deeper the dream, the weaker the resistance. On the previous level, we encountered an army. On this level, we encountered a squad. On the next level, perhaps he'll have no protective forces around him, giving us enough time to extract everything from him."
Cobb's tone shifted,
"However, what happens next is not up to you! The third dream level is different from the previous ones. First, you need to take powerful drugs to enter the third dream level, and you cannot die in the dream. If you die in the first two levels, you can return to the level above. If you die in the third level, you will enter… the fourth dream level – Limbo. People there will be forever lost in it, unable to distinguish between dream and reality. Time in Limbo is infinite, and those who enter it will gain, hehe, the most boring eternal life."
Cobb suddenly pulled out a gun and aimed it at the black man, "Agent, please leave the dream and have the pharmacist inject me with the powerful drug!"
Without waiting for a reply, he said,
Bang!
"I'll leave this to you." Cobb prepared to enter the next dream level.
"Be careful!" the tall man said worriedly… In a conference room,
The black agent nervously looked at the four sleeping individuals connected by a set of machines.
"Pharmacist, how much longer until they wake up?"
"The time in each dream level is slowed by a factor of 12. One hour in reality equals 12 hours in the first dream level, 144 hours in the second dream level, 1728 hours in the third dream level, and the fourth dream level… Cobb is working in the third level, so he might wake up at any moment."
As soon as the pharmacist finished speaking,
Three of the four people opened their eyes simultaneously.
"Did it work?"
The black agent asked nervously, as he noticed that the target teenager had stopped breathing.
Cobb's eyes were first dazed, then slowly cleared.
He slowly nodded, pulled out the wires from his wrist, stood up, and walked to the teenager's side.
The teenager's body changed eerily, revealing green skin, pointed ears, and a wrinkled chin.
"I extracted his secret in the third dream level. He's an alien, a Skrull! He can transform into anyone, including their fingerprints, DNA, and short-term memories! The first two dream levels were the subconscious of the Asian teenager he copied; the third level was his own subconscious. That box contains their planet's technology."
"Did you get the code?"
Cobb recited a string of codes.
The black agent walked to the table and pressed on a box of unknown material. After a soft click, it successfully unlocked, but he did not open it directly.
Instead, he turned around and said with a smile,
"Congratulations, Cobb, your warrant has been lifted. You are free."
Cobb's eyes instantly welled up with tears.
"Agent Fury, may I go to the restroom?"
Everyone cast sympathetic glances. Since Cobb was accused of murdering his wife last week, he had been on the run. Now that he was acquitted, his emotional outburst was perfectly normal.
Cobb ran into the restroom.
He locked the door.
After confirming no one was in each stall,
Cobb walked to the sink.
He pulled a small top from his pocket.
It was his totem for entering dreams.
Once the top spun, if it kept spinning, he was in a dream. If it stopped, he was in reality.
He solemnly spun the top.
The top spun quietly for a few turns and then stopped.
As the top toppled onto the sink, Cobb breathed a sigh of relief.
He looked at himself in the mirror, touching his ears, then his mouth.
"Inception? Cobb? Little Leo? This body is too weak, but it's much better than that Marvel 'knock-off alien' body. At least he's a local."