"Wait, wasn't I sleeping?" For some reason, Manuel woke up to find his surroundings utterly unfamiliar. The environment flickered between light and dark, allowing him to barely make out that the room's decor resembled that of his previous life in the 21st century. But the constantly flashing lights prevented him from further exploring the area.
"What exactly is going on? Where am I now?" Manuel broke out in a cold sweat and instinctively checked his body. "And why does my body feel a bit strange… this unfamiliar yet familiar sensation. Even the panel and the clothes on my body, they seem to be constantly changing. What's happening to me…?"
As he pondered, the entire room suddenly became incredibly bright, even to the point of being blinding. By the time Manuel had somewhat recovered, he realized the light was coming from the room's ceiling, or more precisely, from the energy-saving hanging lamp on the ceiling. Once the light became extremely bright, he finally noticed there was a large floor-length mirror in front of him. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, Manuel finally saw what he looked like: his form constantly shifted, one moment he was Chen Bai in a white shirt from his previous life, the next he was Manuel before being crowned Caesar in this life.
"What is this situation?" Manuel, or rather Chen Bai, was completely bewildered, utterly confused. Not long after he began to ponder, the mirror in front of him suddenly moved away as if by magic. It was then that he realized the room's layout was that of a courtroom, and there was even a grotesque figure in a judge's robe, seated on the judge's bench, directly in front of him. As for himself, he seemed to be sitting in… the defendant's dock???
He quickly looked around and found that the "courtroom" not only had a judge but also a 12-person jury and the plaintiff's lawyer. But for some reason, there was no plaintiff or his own defense lawyer. As he pondered this with great confusion, a loud voice entered his ears,
"Defendant Manuel Gavras, formerly known as Chen Bai. For your role as the mastermind in the 'Re-Baptism of Tauris,' where you committed murder, genocide, torture, rape, political, racial, and religious persecution, and other inhumane acts against the populace, you are hereby found guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide, and are sentenced to immediate execution by firing squad!"
Upon finishing, the jury in the "courtroom" began to applaud, the applause lasting for a long time, even to the point of being ear-splitting.
Was he dreaming? Manuel, or perhaps Chen Bai, was a little confused. At the same time, the grotesque figure of the judge suddenly spoke, "Before you are shot, do you have anything to say?"
As the judge spoke, he suddenly realized that "he" and "they" seemed to have frozen. Seeing this, he looked around, and after roughly understanding the situation, he spoke up to make a defense that wasn't quite a defense for himself, "You called me here for such a trivial matter?
"For the Tatar nomads who have lived on the Tauris Peninsula for generations, I don't think they care about my apology. If so, what's the point of apologizing? Anyway, they haven't come forward to stand in the plaintiff's seat and accuse me." He eloquently argued his case, completely disregarding the extremely displeased expressions of the jury members.
"As for everything I've done, I might repent, but I won't regret it. Everything I did was calculated by myself and others; it was the optimal solution under the circumstances.
"But you wouldn't understand any of this, after all, you are not qualified to judge me!" When he spoke this last sentence, he deliberately raised his voice so that the entire "courtroom" could hear his wild words.
"What did you say?!" The grotesque figure of the judge finally couldn't help but question him, and the jury and lawyers also followed "him" in scolding him.
"What I mean is," he cackled maniacally, "what kind of pathetic things are you to judge me?!"
After he finished speaking, he felt a strange sense of relief in his heart, while the others in the "courtroom," contrary to him, started shouting and yelling. Some even loudly demanded that he be shot immediately.
Looking at the ridiculous scene before him, he vaguely realized that his form seemed to have solidified into his current Manuel appearance. At this moment, he finally completely understood his situation, "It really is a dream. Since that's the case, I won't hold back. I should be in a lucid dream state now, which means—"
Thinking of this, two Gatling guns suddenly appeared in his hands out of thin air. Manuel then chuckled, and to everyone's surprise, raised the Gatling guns and wildly sprayed bullets at everyone in the room except himself.
"How do you feel now, how do you feel, how do you feel?! Hahahahaha!!!" As he sprayed, he couldn't stop his demonic laughter, and with the Gatling guns unleashing their fury, everyone else in the "courtroom"—the judge, the jury, and the lawyers—were all riddled with bullets, flesh and blood flying, beyond recognition.
After an unknown amount of time, the long-venting Manuel looked at the now completely silent "courtroom" and felt a sense of emptiness well up inside him. After a while, he put down the Gatling guns in his hands, lowered his head, and laughed at himself, "What am I doing? I was the one who condoned and pushed for it, which led to so many innocent people dying on the Peninsula. And now, not only have I sent them to hell, but I've also mowed down the group judging me in a dream. What am I even doing?"
But thankfully, this was indeed just a dream, Manuel felt somewhat relieved. Thinking of this, he murmured, "Since it's a dream, let it end in this way." As soon as he finished speaking, the Gatling gun in his right hand transformed into a revolver out of thin air, and he immediately, without hesitation, aimed the muzzle at his temple and pulled the trigger.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
"Hoo, hoo, hoo…" Manuel was startled awake in the night, and Barbara, his wife sleeping beside him, was also roused by his big movement, asking him with concern, "My Little husband, what's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?"
"Not exactly a nightmare, just a bit strange," Manuel said, stroking her body and subtly changing the subject.
What he didn't know was that after he left, the strange dream he had just experienced didn't directly collapse—
In the "courtroom," the bullet-riddled corpses quickly turned into puddles of foul-smelling black mud. These clumps of black mud quickly converged on the judge's seat, first forming the grotesque figure of the judge, and then rapidly transforming into a pink-haired beautiful girl wearing a white toga.
The girl looked at the spot where Manuel had left and smiled thoughtfully, "Well, it seems I've thrown a very interesting person into reincarnation this time. Although his personality is quite stubborn, I really look forward to you successfully rewriting past history, young man." As she spoke, her figure became somewhat ethereal. After she finished speaking and left, the strange "courtroom" dream finally collapsed with a crash.