The next day, Shen was breathing heavily as he opened the old wooden door to his room and sat on the bed.
A single trip to get some food from the kitchen had left him exhausted. Add in the mental fatigue from his current situation, and it only made things worse.
From what he gathered from his investigation with the voice in his mind, it was the AI chip the doctors had implanted to monitor his health, nerves, and so on.
As for how it came with him… he had no idea.
'It probably has something to do with my soul and sudden death, but I don't know much about that stuff.'
He even ran a few tests with the AI and confirmed it wasn't inside his physical body, which meant it had become part of his sea of consciousness.
At least, that's what he guessed.
Although it sounded unbelievable, Shen had to accept it. He'd already seen far stranger things in his past two lives, and read enough novels in his first one, so a golden finger didn't surprise him. Just shocked him a little.
Honestly, after two lives full of misery, he thought it was fair. Maybe heaven had finally noticed him and decided to cut him some slack.
Shen brushed the thoughts aside and focused on what mattered now.
"Synapse, scan my body and display its stats." His thought was instantly met with a mechanical voice.
[Beep! Scan complete. Shen. Strength: 0.2, Agility: 0.5, Vitality: 0.4. Status: Multiple minor injuries detected. Minor fractures present.]
A 3D hologram appeared in front of Shen's eyes, showing his full body slowly rotating with data listed along the left side.
'Except for a few minor injuries, nothing serious. So why the hell is my strength so damn low?!' Shen growled internally, unable to believe how weak this body was.
It should be known that the average body...
'No, wait. Maybe the average stats in this world are different. Maybe this isn't a world of magic like my last two lives?' Grabbing onto that tiny bit of hope, Shen immediately asked Synapse.
He had named the AI Synapse because… well, it just clicked. The way it replied directly through his mind made the name feel right.
[Data insufficient. Additional input required to generate average baseline for this world.]
'Data, huh?' Shen narrowed his eyes. This golden finger clearly didn't create knowledge out of nowhere; it processed what already existed. 'Well, at least it's not sentient and trying to devour me.'
He chuckled before standing and stretching his frail young body. Beads of sweat formed just from a few seconds of movement.
Crack!
"The fuck!" Shen cursed, immediately freezing mid-stretch. His right arm had nearly popped out of place trying to reach his waist. His face twitched.
'Guess I don't need data to tell me that my stats are garbage.'
"Hm, why don't I feel any pain from the back of my skull anymore?"
"Did the medicine they gave me work that well? It's only been one night!"
Just as he reached to check his head, a voice came from outside the room.
"You really lost your memories, didn't you?" A worried voice filled with hatred and rage came from outside before the door opened, and a girl the age of 15 or 16 stood before him.
Her blue eyes, accompanying her smooth white skin with a face that could topple cities, and her yellow hair dripping down her shoulders to her waist like a waterfall, made him feel dazed for a moment.
'This can be a top-ranked beauty in both my worlds, but still lacking in some areas,' Shen's eyes drifted towards her flat chest, and his eyes flashed with disappointment for a brief second before he put on an innocent, confused look.
"Shen, did you just?" The girl was shocked before shaking her head several times in denial.
"Did I just what?" Shen was confused as he looked at her, but inwardly, he was contemplating,' If a maid is this pretty, then what about the real princesses of this world?'
Looking at the confused expression her little brother was making, the girl's heart softened, and the knife she was about to take out from the back of her waist rested in its sheath.' It must have been my imagination.'
'Yes, it surely was,' She kept convincing herself that her eyes played tricks on her,' He truly seems to have lost his memories since he isn't already running to hug me already.'
'Why does that make me feel upset?' Reaching such thoughts, the girl's face instinctively turned red from embarrassment, and she immediately pushed such thoughts from her mind.' What are you thinking, Sara? Since when do you care about this useless brother of yours.'
She didn't know why, but the way her brother acted after losing his memory was better than his prior self.
Still lost in thought, she didn't notice Shen brushing past her.
"Don't take too long cleaning the room. Also, don't wash the clothes on my bed, I'll be using them later. I'll be back in a bit."
'I wonder if mana exists in this world.' Shen had already forgotten the girl as he strolled toward the large mansion in the distance, his mind thinking of the different possibilities.
His room sat near the outer gate, probably used for secluded training or backup housing for guards if the estate ever ran short.
He hadn't noticed much about the place yesterday due to mental exhaustion, but now?
The mansion looked nothing like the crumbling stone towers from his first life. Its towering walls gleamed under the light of two suns, casting long shadows across the courtyard.
There were faint carvings on the outer walls that Shen had no idea what they were, maybe runes? They greatly resemble them, but also didn't at the same time.' He didn't know their exact name or functions, but the way they shimmered was just enough to make him pause and admire their beauty.