In the dead of night, moonlight pierces through the grey fog.
A whisp of cold air parts the mist, revealing a three-edged structure, jutting out at the endless shallow waters—endless as the sea.
It lay within, breathing in the dark, trapped in an eternal slumber.
With its damp air, dewdrops form. It runs, seeping through its concrete seams, trickling down as it splashes at the dwelling husk.
Plop…
'Cold...'
It's cold—cold enough to shiver him awake, like a spark igniting dormant senses, as his blood gravitates to his feet.
He breaths.
Huff...
His throat was so dry that he felt pain with each breath he took, and as he exhaled, his warm breath bounced back at him like he was breathing through a straw.
The warm feeling, the pain, the sensation he felt, brought him to open his eyes.
With his own two eyes open, he saw nothing...
He blinks again... Again nothing...
It was only darkness there he could see, the same colors as when he closed his eyes. He alone realized that he couldn't move, couldn't breathe, couldn't see, and yet his sense of touch remained.
'Where am... I?'
Splish-Splash!
It rained.
The rain was dropping like thunder, drumming, sending loud sounds in where he dwells; Each drop reverberates through his entire being, ringing his skull.
A long-forgotten sensation.
Waves of water enter through the crevices, gradually filling the coffin-like room.
'Ahh, my ears!'
He clenches his teeth, and he teeters and shudders at the cold temperature of the water. Strangely, he stood still there... In bliss as water quickly filled the coffin-like room, but in an abrupt something moved.
A scaly and heavy, like limb, twisting, as if it were a part of him.
As the water level rises and reaches his neck, he suddenly breathes fitfully.
*Gasp!*
With one last breath, the water fills the room, submerging him completely.
But again, that something below him shifted, weighing him down.
With its movement, he flails around, scattering his last remaining breath, hollow sphere spreads, bursting. There, he opened his eyes, squinting in agony.
'I can't… Breath…'
He opened his mouth and gasped for air, but was greeted in blue's quenching his dry throat, filling his stomach full, forcing him into eternal slumber.
Thud!
"Don't die again."
In one motion, he hurled himself up, banging his head against a solid surface. He felt something move, a lid of some kind, and a beam of light briefly entered, shining across his face.
With such a sight, sudden strength washes over him, invigorating him, quickly making him restless.
Just a chance to survive, he again pushes, pumelling it open with all his might, repeating as it moves. With each moves he whirled the water up and down, his red blood spread like smoke.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Again and again—
Clunk!
It opens whilst he springs himself out, hanging at the edge of the structure, like a jack-in-the-box. A structure so thin yet so durable.
Head against the ground, he coughed and gasped for air, and raindrops fell as he blinked both of his eyes open.
Outside, it was dark, as above and below, nulling darkness stretched out forever. It was no different from the inside of the structure.
'The… light? Where is the light? Was I just imagining things...?'
Thunk!
Dropping down flat on the ground, his left cheek pressed to the damp ground. There, he lay on his back and let out a relieved sigh, gazing at the sky—total darkness.
The heavy rain stopped, a light slice through to reveal a crescent moon.
Awe struck his heart; it was brief, but that light gave him hope. In solemnity, he gazed at the moon as it hovered above him, moonlight piercing through, casting curtains of dim light.
'Up there were no dark clouds to explain the downpour, only the endless black skies and the crescent moon.'
He scratches his head and can't help but move on. He carried his back and sat upright, then stared at the horizon, like something stuck in his head. From there, he started pointlessly asking himself.
'It's as if the moon itself had brought the rain.'
'It changed, my voice changed.'
'Is this normal?'
'Normal—normal?'
Each word he spoke echoed like someone whispered his word again.
'My own thoughts are killing me.'
He felt a warm wind brush his neck, followed by a sultry liquid pouring over his shoulder, which drips down at his feet. Xin slowly turned and saw behind him a—
'A monster!'
Its bulging eyes stared at him, dilating its pupil like orbs. Its face resembled that of a wolf, neck long as a giraffe's, peacock-like feathered plumage, wings twice the size of its body…
Howl!
The cry reverberated through Xin's entire being. He frowned as he shivered; sweat poured from his palms. It stared at him warily. Sniffing him, as it then spread its wings with ferocity and malice.
He kicked the ground and splashed water on its feathers.
'A chance!'
He then ran away...
Sprinting, arms flailing—slender as twigs, with each step, waves of water rippled at the endless shallows spread. All the while, the fog covered the entire surroundings, and he was running aimlessly.
He doesn't know where he is going, he doesn't know what he is doing, and everything just feels wrong. 'Was this all for naught?' All he knows is what is right to do in this situation: to run anywhere that isn't close to it.
Huff... Huff...
Panting, as he ran, it was quiet all of a sudden. Eerie silence, so unlike the chaos.
'Its behind me... isn't it?'
A gust of wind alongside a screeching noise, he felt behind him. He stopped and, with his posture tense, he slowly glanced over his shoulder.
In anticipation, he quickly spun back with his left foot at the ground, hurling the water as he then kicked his feet to the air, splashing a wall of water in front of him. But it was all for naught as there was no one behind him.
He was confused by the situation as he expected it behind him. As the water fell down, he saw a large, peculiar shadow, floundering far in the distance, spinning awkwardly, as if struggling.
He quickly concluded it was the creature's shadow.
'Was it the water that affected it?' He couldn't explain what had happened, but that situation made him exhilarated. A run he felt fun.
He smirks.
But suddenly, intense fatigue set in, shaking him whole, like needles puncturing his head; he collapsed, face-first, into the shallow water.
'What is that?'
With no answers, he stood, looking down at his flimsy legs, and in the corner of his eye, he caught a fleeting glimpse of a woman alone in the endless shallow water.
It moves.
She looks at him from the corner of her eye, innocence blairs as she stares.
Strangely, he felt no desire; rather, he felt a certain uneasiness. Then, in an instant, he tried to run away, but his body felt heavy, and each step felt like walking on mud.
He feels an inexplicable weight tugging at him, like a heavy appendage; it feels like it was his, like a limb. In curiosity, He looked back and saw—
'A tail!'
As he said that, suddenly, waves gathered below, forming a pillar. Shaking the ground, in constant motion, he turned left.
The pillar drifted as he changed his gaze, blocking wherever his eyes looked.
The pillar was as tall as he was, with its crystal blue texture reflected like a mirror. In its reflection, he saw her.
'Her clothes were soaked in blood, her skin was as pale as canvas, a complexion of porcelain, her hair flowed down like rivers of ink, and whenever I looked at her eyes, our eyes always met.'
It was anything that resembled a woman, but below and behind her waist, there was a tail. He raised a gesture to her, and it copied every move he took.
'Don't tell me, this is... me?'
He stood closer to the pillar for a closer look. Whilst he looked at himself, he touched his face, and saw his eyes widen as he then pinched his cheeks until they turned red.
'It hurts.'
He looked down, then above, as above as below, it is him. He realized the ghostly woman he'd feared was actually a reflection of himself.
'This can't be true!'
'Why?'
Why can't he accept that he is a woman? Is he a man from the start? His very own memory was a mystery to him, like a puzzle scattered, in any which he can't seem picture it.
'What am I thinking hard about?'
Biding his time, the pillar suddenly rose into the sky, and it then fell.
Splat!
There, he deliberately stopped and stood, shielding his head with both of his arms as it exploded, thinking he was in pieces. He peeked through his arms. Before him it stood, a pillar of water as tall as he.
White letters are inscribed upon it.
'Welcome, Ye Xin,' He reads in doubt out loud in his instinct.
'Ye Xin?' It felt like it was referring to him, Ye Xin. Is this my name? Is it even a name?
Ye Xin, a man's name.
A name he has no such recollection. With everything he thought, it was pointless. It felt like his head wasn't his or that something was at the back of his head—Blocking him.
Before him, words within it then rippled.
Ye Xin /█/ Lvl. I
HP: 10/10 Stats: Normal
Mind: 22/30 Stamina: 03/15 RP: 10
STR: 10 AGI: 5 DEF: 3 INT: 12
Inventory: [][][][][][][][][][]
↓Maximize↓
Strangely, he felt the need to press the arrows below. With his finger, he pressed through it.
But nothing happened.
'Maximize?' Xin said, cheeks reddened.
At his word, the panel shrank into a ball of water. It grew, this time larger. As it surged, fatigue suddenly overwhelmed him; he felt something from him was suddenly taken.
Xin covers his head, bracing himself.
Splash!
As the water exploded, the transparent panel revealed more text.
Health points: 10/10, Mana points: 06/10
Ye Xin /█/ Level. I
Status: Wet, Cold
Mind: 21/30 Stamina: 03/15 Raising Points: 10
Strength: 10, Agility: 5, Defense: 3, Intelligence: 12
Skill: Aqua Ball |Mastery. Basic|
Inventory: [][][][][][][][][][]
↑Minimize↑
'Minimize.'
The panel then shrank and flowed down.
'Aqua ball!" Xin said...
Time passes after tinkering with the panel. He realizes that he has no idea what to do and is completely lost. He lay on the ground and let out a heavy sigh.
His stomach suddenly rumbled.
'I know now, I'm hungry, I need to eat.' Xin said, walking aimlessly.
He deliberately stopped as his eyelids felt heavy, and there he closed his eyes. lying down at the shallow waters, there he slumbers. Above him, a creature in the dark starts flapping its wings, parting the thick fog, and its wings shine like moonlight upon his eyes.
He kept hearing a voice, repeating like a broken record, "Not again, I won't die again..."
His fingers moved, rippling a wave in the endless shallow waters. The world turned white.
Someone said, in a monotonous voice, "You seemed upset?"
Xin opened his eyes and saw before him a sculpture of a half-head. Its lack of lips shows its bare teeth resembling a smile. Its shoulder wore a suit, clipping through an invisible wall.
'Who are you...?Where am I...?'
'Why can't I utter a single word?'
He touched his face and felt nothing; moreover, his left arm is missing.
'This can't be!?'
"Why won't you talk? I know you're there, don't just ignore me." The sculpture said, sniffing heavily.
'I can't.' Xin said, as his whole face suddenly materialized.
"What can't! Just now you spoke to me, " The sculpture shouted, dangling the blue necktie attached to its collar.
'I can speak.' Xin said, brushing his right hand at his own face.
'No, not again...'
By just a second mouth suddenly vanished as soon as he spoke.
A minute passed...
-His hand bled, fingers purple and useless, pain radiating from his limp arm joints. He felt his vision swim and was hungry.
Tears were slipping down his cheeks. Questions raced through his mind—who to blame, did he deserve this, was this really it?
The thought of dying again broke him. As he closed his eyes, someone whispered. +[1]
[1] You must be asking, "What is this?" Well, dear reader, this paragraph is from the future chapter. Think of it as what comes next.