The sounds of computer keys being tapped echo throughout the empty and dark office building, reverberating off the walls and bouncing back to my ears. My face was lit up by the screen of my work computer, however my tiredness prevented me from seeing anything but a blur. I was writing an email for my boss, the third this week. I had gotten used to doing this but it was still difficult.
Every day for the past four years I've spent 10+ hours at this computer. Not a single sick day, or holiday, or anything. No matter what, my boss forced me to come in early and forced me to stay late.
My life has been about work exclusively these past four years, sometimes it even gets so bad I consider just giving up. But there is one thing that keeps me going, one thing that reminds me I have to stay alive no matter what. Cultivation web novels.
I know it's dumb and weird but reading about those cool mc's and their awesome journeys to becoming gods combined with their never ending determination just makes me so unexplainably giddy. I mean, in the past six months alone I've probably read about 20 of them, each with over 200 chapters.
I wake up early, read some web novels, go to work, work, then come back, read some more web novels, and go to sleep exhausted. That's been my day to day life, every day, for the past four years. Just yesterday I finished reading my 150th cultivation web novel. It's a weird flex but I'm still impressed with myself.
Through reading all of these web novels I've learnt basically everything a person could ever learn about cultivation, transmigration, spirituality, mysticism and anything else like that. I've even attempted to do these things in real life but I'm never able to actually do them. I think if I could wish for anything then I'd probably wish for all of these things to be real.
OW!
A sharp, excruciating pain begins to pulse up from my chest. I gasp for breath then fall backwards out of my office chair, landing on my back. I begin to writhe in pain on the floor, clutching my chest.
I get it now, I'm having a heart attack. I've had so much pressure from my boss on me that I've increased my blood pressure to dangerous amounts. I guess my mother was right about being overworked.
"No…! I-I can't die here! I'm only 26…I've g-got my whole life a-ahead of me!" A darkness starts to spread from the outer ring of my vision, slowly getting closer and closer to the centre.
God if you're real, if any of yous are real, then please save me! I'll do whatever it takes! I just don't want to die! Please…help me.
My breathing stops completely, not enough blood in my lungs for them to function anymore. I knew heart attacks were painful but this is extreme!
The darkness has almost entirely filled up my vision now and I've lost the ability to move any of my limbs.
"Please…help…me…God…"
The darkness completely fills up my vision and I suddenly feel…nothing. I'm not heavy or light, warm or cold, uncomfortable or comfortable, I'm nothing.
"Let's see how this one does."
What is that strange voice? It sounded like it came from above me and it was deep and powerful. Wait a second, why am I thinking about voices when I'm dead?!
Am I in the afterlife?! No! This can't be it! Don't tell me the afterlife is nothingness for the rest of eternity! I'll go insane after only a few hours!
A bright golden light suddenly blinds my eyes, which I didn't even know I had in this realm, completely overwhelming my senses. I then feel a sudden and strange warmth from all over my seemingly nonexistent body. I then feel a calming breeze along my invisible skin.
I suddenly feel an intense whiplash like pain throughout my neck. My nonexistent body is whipped backwards as it's shoved forward at inconceivable speeds. I use my somehow existing eyes to look towards the side of the darkness, which is slowly becoming less and less dark.
Memories begin to flood my skull, making it feel heavy and vast. I attempt to make sense of the memories but i can't grasp them as they are not my memories.
Now there is no more darkness surrounding me, it's quite the opposite actually. A vast spectrum of bright colours fly past my nonexistent head and my nonexistent body. Green. Red. Yellow. Pink. Blue. Them and dozens more all mix and warp around me, creating a painfully overwhelming experience for my somehow existing eyes.
I close my eyes in order to lessen the overwhelming experience. I then feel weight. Not a crushing weight but rather a normal weight. Like the weight of a human body. Does that mean I've gained a body again?
Then my ears begin to manifest sound, a lot of sound. Men shouting out that their food is the highest quality, horses neighing as their owners tell them to calm down, footsteps all around me. It's a surprisingly pleasant form of overwhelming sound. Then I feel the sun on my face and a man in a hurry bump into my shoulder, making me stumble. I'm alive again.
That is the only thought circulating in my head currently, but I don't have a way to prove it. Well I can prove it however I'm too scared to try. If I open my eyes then I'll see if I'm alive or not, but if I open them and don't see that I'm alive then I'll be filled with an endless depression.
No, I can't think like that! My entire life I've been holding back my words and true feelings because of how the world would treat me if I revealed them, but not anymore! The only thing I can do right now is hope that I am alive!
I then open my eyes. And what I see causes an indescribable joy to spark within me. I am alive.
I stand in the middle of a bustling merchant street, wooden stalls with signs and food stored inside them lining the sides. I look down towards my feet. I'm barefoot. Not just that but I'm barefoot in dirt. I then look at my hands which are now dirty, rough, and callous. There's also dirt stuck underneath my fingernails.
My arms are incredibly skinny and overall my body feels weaker than it should. I'm malnourished. I begin to walk forward, each step painful from the lack of foot protection. That's when it hits me.
I suddenly remember why I'm in this busy street, I'm trying to get food for me and my little sister who's name I can't quite place. I have no idea how I'm alive or how I ended up here or how I have a little sister but I suppose I should go and do the one thing I've told myself I need to do.
I continue walking, forcing myself to block out the pain radiating off my feet. I pass by multiple stalls with signs written in a language that's foreign to me but still readable.
From what I can read from the signs their foods are being priced at an average of §5-20 Doán, which I'm assuming is the currency in whatever place I'm at.
I stick my skinny hands into both of my pockets and search thoroughly through them, but find nothing. I'm completely broke. Well I don't know why I'm surprised, after all I am barefoot and malnourished in a pretty filthy area, of course I was gonna be broke. It still does suck though.
My stomach rumbles, I'm starving. Well obviously I'm starving but it's more obvious now. I need to get food immediately before I die a second time. I guess I'll have to steal if I want to survive.
I begin to survey the surrounding stalls, determining which are the most and least secure based off a few factors. I end up deciding to try and steal from a bread merchant.
I hide in the crowd of people, keeping myself hidden before slowly inching closer to the stall. When I become close enough I wait until the merchant running the stall turns his head in a different direction in order to talk to a customer, and when that happens I lunge forward, grab a piece of bread then begin sprinting as fast as I can in the opposite direction.
"Thief!" The merchant I stole from shouts out from behind me. I know what I'm doing is morally and legally wrong but I prefer being alive over being a criminal.
I hear heavy footsteps behind me slowly get closer. I turn my head around to look behind me and see two armoured guards wielding swords chasing after me. I speed up as much as I can however that doesn't last long as my stamina starts to run low.
I slow down more each second allowing the two guards to close the distance between us. "I need to think fast!" I think of how I could escape them.
Just as the guards reach out to try and grab me I do an extremely sharp right turn, completely throwing them off. I begin sprinting down the alleyway I turned into as the guards get their footing back and continue chasing me.
I do a few more turns in the alleyway until there's just enough distance between us for me to act. I find a pile of garbage and I-against my better judgement-dive into them, completely submerging my body.
The guards run into the part of the alleyway I'm at and look for two and a half minutes before leaving, mumbling to themselves about filthy peasants who are always stealing stuff.
After they leave I jump out of the garbage, gasping desperately for air. I was forced to hold my breath to prevent them from hearing my breathing.
"Disgusting…" I wipe the few pieces of garbage that stuck to my clothes off then begin to walk out the alleyway.
After 20 minutes of walking I finally arrive at where I believe my little sister is located. I arrive outside a small tent made out of multiple layers of damaged and stained paper, the only material we were able to get our hands on.
I lift up the piece of paper that acts as the door them crawl inside. The inside tent somehow seems smaller than it does on the outside.
"You're back!" A young girl's voice rings out at the left of my head. I turn my head to the left and see a girl, 8 years old, with lavender coloured hair and bright ruby red eyes that sparkle with excitement like gemstones.
"Hey Aurora." The words came out my mouth like muscle reflex, which was caused by the new memories flowing through my head.
Speaking of which, I've just now started to form a coherent understand of my current situation. My name is Xavier Kalki, I am 18 years old and born to parents who I don't remember. When I was born I was abandoned in an alleyway by my parents. When I was twelve I found a two year old girl on her own in an alleyway so I decided to "adopt" her, making her my non biological younger 8 year old sister Aurora Kalki.
Hold on, how am I recalling this? Okay let me trace my steps. After suffering from a heart attack and seemingly dying I go through a dream like moment which ends up making me arrive in the body of a random 18 year old poor boy in a place with a foreign language and currency. How does that make sense?
Have I been…no! That's impossible! This is real life and not a web novel! …But it would explain everything. Have I…been transmigrated to another world?
But all that does is raise countless more questions! How did I transmigrate? Is there a way to go back? What is this new world like? And so many more!
What will I do now?