"Where am I? How did I get here?"
"And why am I half naked!"
Zen Lee found himself seated in a cramped, coffin-sized pit carved crudely into the earth of a narrow, dark alleyway. The ground beneath him—a cold, damp soil—was sticky with a sinister, rusty moisture. The metallic tang of blood filled his nostrils, sickeningly close. He dragged a shaky hand across the soil, then recoiled, staring at the dark, viscous stain coating his fingers.
A chill wind snaked through the alley, raising goosebumps on his exposed skin. He wore nothing but tattered scraps of what felt like linen around his waist. He was utterly vulnerable, every inch of his surroundings terrifyingly unfamiliar. His bedroom—the last place he clearly remembered—was a distant, impossible warmth.
"I slept in my room, how did I end up here." he thought.
In his shock and confusion, he noticed the light shining from above covered the pit and the dark alleyway in a layer of whitish hue.
Subconsciously, he lifted his head, and his gaze slowly moved towards the source of the light.
High above, hanging in the empty space above the alley's mouth, was the moon. But it was wrong. It was a perfect, silent sphere of blinding white, punctuated by a single, unnerving black circular dot at its center—like a silent, watchful eye shining down on his bloody, desperate awakening.
"Wh-" Zen Lee felt inexplicably terrified and stood up abruptly.
But before he could straighten his legs, his abdomen throbbed with burning pain, causing him to lose strength and fall back heavily into the coffin-sized pit.
"Thud!"
The pain did little. Zen Lee propped himself up with his hands on the ground above the coffin-sized pit, stood up again, and turned around in a panic, examining his surroundings in a frantic panic.
It was a narrow alleyway, with crumbling brick walls, rusted metal pipes, and old graffiti scrawled on the brick walls. Puddles of rainwater reflected the moonlight, and heaps of excavated soil sat next to rusted metal pipes and splintered plywood. The pit was a muddy, oblong grave; its stench was both earthy and metallic, a grim smell that clung to the air and the back of one's throat.
With a quick glance, Zen Lee caught a glimpse of himself in a puddle of rainwater—the current him: raven-black hair, black eyes with dark circles, linen pants, a thin build, and above-average features, but with a rather deep outline...
"Wha-" Zen Lee gasped, his mind flooded with helpless and confused thoughts.
The white moon with a black dot, different from Earth's moon, and this new body all indicated one thing!
"C-could I have transmigrated?" Zen Lee's mouth slowly opened.
He had grown up reading web novels and often fantasized about such scenarios, but despite everything, acceptance proved challenging when it became reality.
Almost a minute later, Zen Lee muttered to himself, trying to find some humor in his situation, "This is probably what it means to get hit by truck-kun??"
If it weren't for the throbbing pain in his abdomen keeping his thoughts sharp, he would have definitely thought he was still dreaming.
Zen Lee struggled to regain composure, repeating "Calm down" in his head while taking deep, measured breaths. He tried hard to stop panicking.
At that moment, as his mind and body calmed down, memories began flooding him, slowly appearing in his mind!
Raven Scott, a citizen of the Central Continent's Saru Country, Ghrmen County, City of Amar. He is an orphan, an 18-year-old high school dropout...
His father worked in an underground factory that produced air filtration systems. He passed away from everyday exposure to air pollution; the compensation money allowed Raven to attend a private school.
His mother was a teacher at the local school of science and commerce. She passed away when Raven turned fifteen. He also had two younger sisters who were six at that time, and they were placed in an adoption center where a new family adopted them.
Unfortunately, no family adopted him. He was separated from his younger sisters. He started living in an abandoned house on the outskirts, doing odd jobs for the outskirts gang, "Chamber."
As a high school dropout, he only knew the Casmic language. a common tongue used in the Central Continent.
"Casmic language?" Zen Lee's mind stirred. He reached out to rub his forehead and looked at the graffiti on the brick wall.
He took a step out of the pit, got closer to the graffiti on the cracked brick wall. The graffiti went from strange to alien, then from alien to familiar, until it became readable.
It was a written in Casmic language!
The brightly colored graffiti said: "Chamber's territory."
Looking at the familiar name, he thought deeply about the odd jobs Raven had received from the Chamber gang, as he contemplated how he had ended up in a coffin-sized pit.
While deep in thought, his gaze was drawn by an unexpected crimson mark—a footprint, just visible to the side. Its color was deeper than the moonlight.
It was a bloody footprint!
A bloody footprint! Zen Lee subconsciously crouched down, lifted his right foot, and looking down, he saw his bare foot was covered in blood.
At the same time, the throbbing pain in his abdomen continued. Although it had weakened a little, it was still persistent.
"Did I commit seppuku?" Zen Lee mused as he turned around and walked towards a puddle of rainwater.
A few steps later, a frail-looking young man with pale skin and dark circles under his eyes came into view. The person had a lean build.
"Is this me now? Raven Scott?" The name felt alien, but the reflection made it true.
He paused for a moment; because of the dim hue of the moonlight, he couldn't see clearly, so he moved forward until he was just a step away from the puddle.
Using the moonlight, he turned his abdomen towards the puddle.
The murky reflection was a crude, horrifying mirror. Across his abdomen was a gaping, grotesque wound., with burn marks around it. Blood stained the area, and within it, Darkish-red, slick flesh was slowly, unnaturally wriggling.