Finally, he saw the scene of Matilda Grant sitting on the stone steps, contemplating life. What happened next was just as expected: Matilda Grant left a note for Leonard Clark, preparing to go seek revenge alone.

Ethan Brooks had already arrived on the rooftop across from the Federal Building, lying in wait.

Through the scope, he could see the little girl Matilda Grant disguised as a food delivery person, sneaking around suspiciously at the newspaper stand in front of the Federal Building.

A black police car stopped at the entrance of the Federal Building, and the little girl quickly turned her head, looking a bit nervous.

Stanley Reed got out of the car and walked briskly toward the main entrance. Just as he reached the door, he turned back and said something to the people inside the police car. At this moment, there was no one at the entrance of the Federal Building—an absolutely perfect opportunity for a sniper.

The plot was becoming more and more familiar. Ethan Brooks had already anticipated everything. He placed the crosshairs at the entrance of the Federal Building, waiting for Stanley Reed to appear, his index finger on the trigger, and suddenly pulled it.

“Pew!”

Ethan Brooks's heart trembled. This was his first time firing a gun, and he was aiming at a living person.

The bullet, still supersonic even two kilometers away, fired from the M200 sniper rifle—renowned for having an error margin of less than 1 MOA at this distance—would have almost no deviation at a few hundred meters.

A burst of blood exploded from Stanley Reed's chest, and he immediately collapsed, his entire chest nearly shattered.

The little girl was stunned, frozen in place. Instinctively, she looked toward the rooftop across the street, wanting to know who had fired the shot—who dared to snipe a police officer in broad daylight right in front of the justice department!

Ethan Brooks was still a bit anxious, his heart pounding wildly. He endured it, aimed once more at Stanley Reed's back on the ground, and pulled the trigger again.

“Pew!”

A faint flame spurted from the suppressor. This shot missed Stanley Reed's back but hit Stanley Reed's head.

“Bang.”

Stanley Reed's entire head exploded like a watermelon struck by a heavy hammer, white and red matter splattering everywhere. Ethan Brooks immediately closed his eyes, pulled his head away from the scope, and fought the urge to vomit.

The shrill sound of police sirens rang out below. His assassination skills were truly lacking; sniping from this position, if discovered, he would have almost no chance of escape!

But he had never planned to run.

The sirens grew closer and closer. Ethan Brooks forced himself to suppress his churning stomach, disassembled the sniper rifle piece by piece and packed it into the case, then picked up his phone to check it. A line of text flashed quickly across the screen, accompanied by a cold voice:

Mission successful. Rewards obtained: Item Ability *1, Skill Points *3, Physical Attribute Points *3. The chosen one may return to the real world at any time.

“Physical attribute points and skill points I more or less understand, but what does item ability mean?”

“Item ability is one of the abilities left behind by the system. It has various uses. The chosen one will randomly acquire an item ability, which can be duplicated and accumulated.”

“Oh... so it's basically like an item card?”

“Yes.”

Ethan Brooks grinned and thought for a moment, then said, “So skill points can only be used to improve existing skills?”

“No, you can spend one skill point to randomly draw a new skill, or spend three skill points to choose a specific skill.”

“That’s good. Let’s draw an item ability first, then use one skill point to try drawing a new skill.”

“Drawing... Drawing complete. Item ability obtained: Portable Space, can be used at any time. Skill obtained: Instrument Mastery (Beginner). Establishing transfer...”

Countless pieces of knowledge flooded into Ethan Brooks's mind, making his head feel like it was splitting open. Fortunately, it was only instrument mastery, so he didn’t pass out. The pain lasted for half a minute, and even after recovering, his head still felt swollen.

“Instrument mastery—what am I supposed to do with this?”

Ethan Brooks gave a bitter laugh. He didn’t dare to draw any more skills for now; after all, points were limited and he couldn’t afford to waste them.

“Use portable space.”

As soon as he spoke, he immediately sensed a dimensional space around him, shaped like a cube, one meter in length, width, and height—a total of one cubic meter. He could manipulate it at any time.

With a thought, the heavy sniper rifle case in his hand disappeared. Looking again, the nearly one-meter-long case was now sitting steadily inside the space.

“This ability is actually pretty convenient—way better than instrument mastery.”

He threw everything on him into the portable space, including his green card, US dollars, and so on, leaving only a handgun in his hand. Only then did Ethan Brooks realize that he had just killed someone, and his heart was filled with conflicting emotions.

“Woo~”

The shrill sound of police sirens was now right downstairs. Ethan Brooks looked down and saw the little girl Matilda Grant peeking out from behind a tree, and she happened to see him too.

Ethan Brooks grinned, though his face was a bit pale, and picked up his phone.

“Go back.”

With a flash of light, he disappeared from the rooftop.

Chapter 3: This Is Real

In a silent, deserted alley in Jingguan City, a man wearing a white embroidered shirt appeared out of thin air, rolled a few times on the ground, and dropped a black handgun.

“Hiss~”

Ethan Brooks quickly steadied himself, got up, hurriedly picked up the handgun from the ground, glanced around, and put it into his portable space, patting the dust off his shirt.

He took out his phone, frowning.

“Where is this? Wasn’t I at home?”