Chapter 1: Frequencies, Phantoms, and a Heavenly Lap Pillow
The last thing I remember was the blinding, unforgiving light of a pity-pull on the monitor.
I was on my fourth cup of coffee, sitting in the blue-lit gloom of my bedroom at 3:00 AM, rapidly clicking through the gacha screens of Wuthering Waves. My credit card was crying, my sleep schedule was in ruins, but the mission was clear: I needed the Magistrate. Jinhsi was the absolute pinnacle of elegance, and if I didn't get her, what was the point of playing? And let's not even talk about Yinlin, or Baizhi, or Yangyang. Kuro Games had practically weaponized character design, creating a roster of absolute top-tier, utterly breathtaking women. My entire existence revolved around logging in, grinding astrites, and unapologetically simping for every single mommy-type character that graced my screen.
I had just clicked the 10-pull button. The golden animation flared across the screen.
And then, my chest seized. A sudden, terrifying pressure. The golden light of the monitor didn't just illuminate the room; it swallowed it. It swallowed me.
The world dissolved into static.
> System error. Recalibrating frequencies. Anomalous entity detected in the Gorges of Spirits.
>
Consciousness didn't return all at once. It seeped in slowly, accompanied by an intense, throbbing ache at the base of my skull. My senses booted up one by one.
First was the smell. It wasn't the stale air of my apartment. It was crisp, wild, and heavy with petrichor—the scent of rain on ancient stone, mixed strangely with a soothing aroma of sandalwood that seemed to be radiating from my own skin.
Second was the feeling. I was lying on something impossibly soft. It yielded slightly beneath my head, radiating a gentle, comforting warmth. A cool, slender hand was resting against my forehead, pulsing with a faint, icy energy that chased away the throbbing pain in my brain.
Third was the sound.
"His frequency is stabilizing," a voice murmured. It was a woman's voice—cool, analytical, yet possessing a velvety undertone that sent a pleasant shiver straight down my spine. "The resonance pattern is highly unusual. It's... soothing."
I forced my heavy eyelids open. My vision was blurry, catching only the shifting light of a fractured, strange sky. As my eyes focused, the blur resolved into a face looking down at me.
And what a face it was.
Framed by sleek, dark hair and striking, intelligent eyes behind delicate frames, she was a vision of absolute, clinical perfection. A faint, glowing remnant floated just over her shoulder—You'tan.
Baizhi. My brain completely short-circuited. I wasn't looking at a monitor. I was feeling the actual body heat of Baizhi, the brilliant researcher of the Huaxu Academy, and I was currently using her lap as a pillow. The scent of her perfume—something clean, floral, and undeniably intoxicating—filled my lungs.
My inner gacha-degenerate screamed in absolute victory. I've won. I've actually won life. Transmigration is real, and the gacha gods have blessed me.
But I had to play this cool. If I went full fanboy right now, she'd either drop my head on the dirt or dissect me for science. I let out a low, raspy groan, shifting slightly to gaze up into her eyes. I didn't bolt upright. Instead, I let my hand rise, my fingers weakly grazing the air just an inch from her cheek, capturing the classic, tragic-hero aesthetic.
"Oh..." I whispered, my voice rough and laced with just the right amount of bewildered awe. "Have I died?"
Baizhi blinked, her expression remaining composed, though her eyes narrowed slightly in observation. "You are very much alive. Your vital signs were erratic, but they are settling."
"So the afterlife is a lie," I continued smoothly, offering a weak, lopsided smile that felt incredibly natural on this face. "Because looking up right now... I could have sworn an angel was literally looking down upon me. Tell me, Miss Angel, do I get to meet God, or did I skip straight to heaven?"
For a split second, the clinical mask slipped. Baizhi's breath hitched. A faint, completely uncharacteristic dusting of pink appeared on her pale cheeks. She quickly looked away, adjusting her glasses with a gloved finger, though the icy aura of her Glacio energy flickered warmly.
"Wandering swordsman, I am a researcher, not an angel," she replied, her tone aiming for strictness but landing somewhere near flustered.
Internally, she was reeling. What is this man's frequency? When he speaks, the ambient Tacet energy around us calms down. It's like... sandalwood and rain. It's incredibly comforting. His Tacet Mark isn't visible, yet his biological resonance is completely in sync with my own. I need to bring him back to the Academy. I must research every inch of him.
"You are currently in a highly dangerous zone near Jinzhou," Baizhi continued, recovering her professional poise. "You suffered a shock to your frequency. But it will be safe if you travel back to the city with us."
"If you're the one leading the way, I'd follow you into the heart of a Tacet Field," I replied, finally sitting up.
A sharp pain shot through my ribs, and I winced, stumbling forward. Without hesitation, Baizhi caught me. Her arm wrapped around my waist, and she draped my arm over her soft shoulder for support. The proximity was staggering. I could feel the gentle curve of her side, the sleek material of her outfit, and the undeniable warmth of a very real, very attractive woman. I made sure to keep my hands perfectly respectful—I was a gentleman scoundrel, not a creep.
"Easy now," Baizhi murmured, the pink tint returning to her cheeks as my dark hair brushed against her neck. "We need to meet up with the others. Your memories... do you recall anything? How you ended up here?"
I searched my mind. The memories of my past life were crystal clear, but the memories of this body were a blank void. Only one thing echoed in the quiet corners of my mind. A name, and a vague sense of a long sword and swirling winds.
"Shen Ye," I said softly. "That's my name. Beyond that... it's just fog."
"Amnesia," Baizhi noted, her scientific curiosity fully piqued. "Fascinating. You are not the only one today."
With her supporting my weight, we navigated through the jagged, breathtaking landscape of the Gorges of Spirits. The world was stunning—a masterpiece of eastern-inspired fantasy mixed with post-apocalyptic sci-fi. Massive, shattered monoliths floated in the sky, suspended by distorted gravity.
After a short, agonizingly pleasant walk, we broke through a thicket and entered a clearing. Two figures were waiting.
One was a woman with long, flowing dark hair and a gentle, empathetic aura that could soothe a raging storm. She wore the uniform of the Midnight Rangers. Yangyang.
Standing next to her was a guy who looked like he had just stepped off a high-fashion runway designed for anime protagonists. He wore a dark, sleek combat coat, his expression a mask of calm, quiet confidence. Rover. "Baizhi!" Yangyang called out, her eyes widening in relief as she rushed over. She immediately took my other side, her soft hands gently gripping my arm. The sudden double-buff of being supported by both Baizhi and Yangyang was almost enough to make my knees give out for real. Focus, Shen Ye. Don't pass out from the sheer magnitude of the waifu energy.
Rover stepped forward, his sharp, golden eyes scanning me up and down. "So, is this gentleman with you?" he asked, his voice casual but carrying a heavy, undeniable presence.
"No," Baizhi explained, her tone returning to its usual cool cadence. "I found him unconscious near a localized frequency distortion. Interestingly, he seems to be suffering from the exact same condition as you. Total retrograde amnesia. He only remembers his name."
I looked at Rover, giving him a weary but charming nod. "Shen Ye. Nice to meet you, Wanderer."
"Just Rover is fine," he said, crossing his arms.
"Rover it is," I said.
Yangyang looked at me, her blue eyes filled with such pure, unadulterated kindness I almost felt bad for my internal degeneracy. "Are you in much pain, Mr. Shen Ye? We need to get you to the clinic in Jinzhou immediately."
I stood up a little straighter, gently detaching myself from their support, though I made sure to give Yangyang a grateful, lingering look. "I have a sword at my hip, Miss Yangyang, though I can't quite remember how to swing it yet. But honestly? The pain is completely forgotten. I may not remember my past, but waking up to be saved by two women of such unparalleled grace... I am deeply indebted to you both." I offered a small, theatrical bow, winking playfully.
Yangyang's eyes widened, a brilliant blush spreading across her cheeks. "Oh! P-Please, Mr. Shen Ye, you are far too kind. We were merely doing our duty as Outriders." She quickly turned around, her hands hovering near her face as she began to walk ahead to hide her embarrassment.
Baizhi cleared her throat, adjusting her glasses again, though she didn't look displeased. "Try not to overexert your vocal cords with flattery, Shen Ye. Save your energy for walking."
As the two women took the lead, charting the path back to the city, I fell into step beside Rover.
Internally, I was losing my mind. Kuro Games really put the budget into this guy. He looks absolutely stunning as hell in person. And the girls? Top-tier. God-tier. I am never going back to my old world. You couldn't drag me back with a tractor.
"You're pretty good with talking to ladies, I suppose," Rover remarked quietly, his eyes fixed on the path ahead. There was a hint of dry amusement in his tone.
I chuckled, a low, smooth sound. "When you wake up with no memories and a splitting headache, you have to rely on instinct, my friend. My instinct just happens to be appreciating beauty. Besides, look at us. The Amnesia Brothers. We have to stick together in this crazy world."
Rover actually cracked a faint smile at that. "Amnesia Brothers. Right."
"Though I gotta say," I muttered, leaning in conspiratorially. "I feel like I'm severely underdressed compared to whatever legendary drip you've got going on."
Before Rover could respond to my bizarre terminology, the air around us dropped ten degrees.
The comforting scent of sandalwood and rain that had been following me suddenly vanished, replaced by the sterile, metallic stench of ozone and static. The ambient light in the gorge flickered, as if a loose wire in the sky had just sparked out.
Ahead of us, Yangyang stopped dead in her tracks, her hand instantly going to the hilt of her sword. Baizhi summoned You'tan, the Glacio entity manifesting with a sharp crackle of frost.
"Frequencies are distorting!" Baizhi yelled, her clinical detachment replaced by absolute combat readiness. "A massive concentration of negative energy overhead!"
The sky tore open.
It wasn't a metaphor. The air literally shattered like glass, revealing a vortex of dark, jagged Tacet energy. From the rift, a monstrous entity plummeted toward the earth, landing with a shockwave that sent dust and debris flying into our faces.
It was a humanoid nightmare constructed of broken frequencies, jagged armor, and a glowing, corrupted core. A Tacet Discord. And not just a small fry. The thing radiated a suffocating pressure.
Tutorial boss, my gamer brain supplied instantly. But this feels way too real.
Rover stepped forward, his hand glowing with a brilliant, blinding Spectro light. A sword materialized in his grasp, and the air around him hummed with legendary power.
But as the Tacet Discord roared, sweeping its massive, bladed arm toward the group, something inside my own chest snapped awake. The fog in my mind didn't clear, but my body remembered.
Time seemed to stutter. The monster's blindingly fast attack suddenly looked... sluggish. Laggy. I could see the exact trajectory of the blade, the precise moment it would connect with Yangyang's flank.
My hand moved on its own, gripping the black-steel longsword at my hip. The metal sang as it left the scabbard, violently wrapping my arm in a torrent of razor-sharp Aero energy.
I didn't just step forward; I practically glided, the wind itself pulling me into the fray.