A heavy, dizzy feeling was the only sensation left as Bai Yu lingered in a dream. Unable to wake up for a moment, he tried to struggle against it.
In just that single instant, Bai Yu finally seemed to break free from some kind of binding and abruptly opened his eyes.
Before him lay a completely unfamiliar scene, alongside several pairs of eyes staring at him with confusion and astonishment.
Bai Yu was dazed for a second, his gaze avoiding the crowd of people who clearly looked nothing like medical personnel as he looked around. This was definitely not the special isolation ward where he had spent a long time rooted.
With just a single glance, Bai Yu suddenly realized that he seemingly had not successfully returned to his actual reality.
Was this still a dream?
“Where did this guy just pop out from? A spatial-type Esper?” someone suddenly spoke, shattering the stagnant, frozen atmosphere.
Bai Yu only felt a thud in his heart, an indescribable sensation instantly seizing his chest, slowly generating a few question marks in his still sluggish consciousness.
Huh?
Spatial-type?
Bai Yu was even more dazed than before. Not only had he failed to wake up from the dream and return to reality, but he had also dreamed of some messy fantasy world with espers?
While thinking this, Bai Yu quickly scanned his surroundings in a circle, taking a few seconds to look closely before realizing that everything in sight was terrifyingly real.
This was a dilapidated city. How dilapidated was it? Perhaps it was slightly better than the primordial cyberpunk city, possessing an even stronger modern technological flair.
To be honest, the dilapidation of this city was actually reflected in the many traces of destruction, as if battles occurred frequently, yet these battles did not look like conventional brawls between humans.
The reinforced concrete buildings were not tall, with a maximum of seven floors. Residential buildings not far away were draped with colorful clothes, and the air was orderly yet chaotically strung with power lines, black lines lying straight across the horizon. Just as Bai Yu was surveying the nearby scenery, a silver optical-energy levitating vehicle flew overhead, full of a sci-fi atmosphere.
In a very short time, Bai Yu seemed to form a concept of this unfamiliar world: this was also a high-tech place.
At the same time, Bai Yu saw that this world seemed just as un-ok as its dilapidated city. The entire sky was obscured by a layer of clouds mixed with gray and red, and sunlight desperately tried to drill out from within, casting a barely passable halo that gave off an unhealthy color at a glance.
Bai Yu blinked in utter bewilderment. Maintaining it for two seconds, his cold expression broke down for a single moment.
Was he really still dreaming right now? Surely he could not have woken up from sleep only to be transported to a place even weirder and more magical than his apocalyptic reality.
How could there possibly be such a dilapidated city in reality? In a uniformly planned town, public facilities were wantonly destroyed, and the executive officials would end up rotting in prison!
Though the cities under those officials were pretty much like that anyway, always making people feel like, during moments of hysteria, they wanted to give up and smash a garbage-like annual city report right into the official’s face, watching the other person’s stunned, self-doubtful expression for two seconds with their last breath.
Bai Yu took a deep breath, sighed, closed his eyes quickly, and hypnotized himself to wake up fast.
Lately, Bai Yu had been having all sorts of chaotic, bizarre dreams, adding insult to injury for his already unhealthy body.
And now he had to enter a hyper-realistic dream to experience the thrill of an outsider breaking in? Was he trying to kill himself?!
Yet at that moment, Bai Yu—who was trying to relax himself so he could leave this place quickly—felt a sharp pain in his scalp. He hurriedly opened his eyes again to find a middle-aged man grabbing his hair, staring at him with a fierce and menacing look.
Bai Yu’s heart instantly tightened, filled with a complex mix of emotions.
There was no need for this; truly no need. If he had committed a crime, they could punish him in reality. In a place like a dream, this was just too ridiculous for words.
“This guy has white hair and a white lab coat, and he just popped out of thin air. No matter how you look at it, he is suspicious. When has our slum town ever seen someone like this? What if he is a monster in disguise? Hurry up and take him for a gene test!”
Instead, the fierce man who grabbed his hair directly judged and categorized him, making Bai Yu’s already complicated mood even more complicated.
Yet as soon as those words fell, the surrounding area erupted into a flurry of urgent echoing agreements.
Bai Yu could not help but feel a bit nervous after all: Monster?
Damn it! He was no monster!
Before Bai Yu could open his mouth to explain, a woman directly stuffed a handkerchief into his mouth, and someone else tied his hands with a rope.
The next moment, Bai Yu was mercilessly dragged away.
Bai Yu stared wide-eyed!
Damn it! What on earth was going on right now?! This progression was way too bizarre!
Soon, Bai Yu was brought to a place resembling a laboratory.
Escorted by them, Bai Yu secretly sized up the new environment. Standing in this laboratory-like place was a huge testing machine with a precise structure and a flashing silver cold light, resembling a CT scanner in a hospital.
Bai Yu let out an internal “huh.” Sure enough, it was very high-tech, but right now did not seem like the time for internal complaints; he was facing completely unknown dangers.
Before long, Bai Yu saw someone come out to inquire.
The fierce-looking man who escorted Bai Yu spoke to the other person first: “This man appeared out of nowhere; he is way too suspicious. Please give him a gene test. Recently, Tai Feng have been haunting the area, disguising themselves as humans to attack villagers, and quite a few people have been infected by ling. What if he is a Tai Feng in disguise!”
Bai Yu was startled once more, slightly shocked by the newly acquired information.
Tai Feng?!
That sounded so familiar. Wasn’t that a creature only found in the Classic of Mountains and Seas?
It looked like a human, had a tiger’s tail, tiger fur, crawled on all fours, was sharp and alert, and could even change the weather.
And what was this ling infection about?!
Bai Yu watched the surrounding people vigilantly, an absurd thought suddenly hovering in his mind: this really might not be a dream.
Could it be that he had actually time-traveled?
At that moment, the person from the lab quickly said, “Quickly put him up and restrain him. Just in case he uses his esper powers to resist, that would not be good.”
Those people nodded quickly, then pushed Bai Yu forward, laid him flat, and hoisted him onto the testing machine.
Bai Yu drew in a cold breath internally, quickly reeling in the thought that had just popped up and forcing himself to calm down.
The information these people had just blurted out seemed like another bombshell; they mentioned esper powers too. Could it be that he had transmigrated to some fantasy world?!
At that moment, the machine started up, and Bai Yu was sent inside.
Immediately afterward, a warm beam of light shone down, and Bai Yu’s pupils instantly constricted.
However, after just a few seconds, the machine’s emotional, anthropomorphic voice sounded out:
[Human, no esper powers]
Hearing this, Bai Yu let out a sudden breath of relief. As long as they did not think he was some kind of monster!
It was just that he was actually an ordinary human without esper powers?
Before Bai Yu could think deeply, several suspicious hissing sounds came from around him.
“That’s not right. He appeared out of thin air. Even if he’s not a monster, he could be a spatial-type esper.”
“Yeah, yeah, how could someone like that have no powers? We saw him with our own eyes suddenly appear out of thin air from two meters high and slowly land on the ground!”
“Could someone be manipulating him with esper powers?”
“Who knows, but he’s really suspicious!”
A flurry of voices rose up, all filled with panic and fear. They were still quite terrified of Bai Yu, this sudden apparition.
At this point, the lab personnel spoke up: “Take him to check his identity information using the iris-matching machine. Isn’t that it?”
Hearing this, the crowd suddenly had a breakthrough realization.
While Bai Yu was still pondering, he was pulled back out of the gene testing machine and dragged to another location.
Yet a bad intuition welled up in Bai Yu’s heart.
If he had truly transmigrated to another world, and if he had transmigrated with his physical body, might he actually be an undocumented person?
Watching himself get closer and closer to a new machine, Bai Yu’s mood grew increasingly tense, and he could not help swallowing hard.
Why did it feel like he was about to die?!
However, at that moment, the iris-detection machine was already aimed at his pupils.
A flash of light passed.
A few seconds later, another emotional voice echoed from the machine:
[Iris information cannot be matched. Please check the subject’s actual status. My suggestions: One, the subject’s iris may be damaged, making it impossible to match information; Two, the subject’s identity information has not yet been registered.]
Hearing these words, Bai Yu’s heart instantly leaped into his throat.
He really was an unregistered person!
And the alternate world he transmigrated to after falling asleep not only had esper powers, but also genuinely possessed high technology just like reality!
If that was the case, wouldn’t he, this undocumented person, be in even greater danger?!
How would these people deal with him?!
When the villagers who had brought Bai Yu for testing heard the machine’s declaration, they all drew sharp breaths.
This man who appeared out of nowhere really had issues!
“He hasn’t registered his identity information. Could he be some dangerous fugitive who popped up from somewhere?”
“Could he be an escapee who went through untold hardships to break out?!”
“Personal identity information is bound from birth. He looks really suspicious. This has to be reported! We’re just a slum town, how can we shoulder such heavy responsibility?”
“Right, right, report it quickly!”
The crowd broke out in panicked chatter once more, full of apprehension.
“So what do we do with him now?” someone asked.
The fierce-looking middle-aged man thought for a moment and said, “Lock him up first! Reporting to higher-ups will also take a bit of time. Isn’t there a vacant lounge at the testing station? Just lock him in there.”
The crowd nodded in agreement, and the testing station staff did not object.
Slum residents already lived a hard life, worlds apart from the wealthy districts. How could they let potential danger make their slum town even worse off?
Hearing that he was going to be locked up, Bai Yu’s mood grew even heavier.
He was just an ordinary researcher; why did he have to face a desperate escape right after transmigrating?!
Bai Yu was quickly dragged away and brought to that lounge.
However, the so-called lounge was actually a narrow, deep space without even a table or chair, with only an old, faded window letting in light from outside.
The surrounding walls inside were mottled, bearing even claw marks from fits of rage, and residual odors of blood mixed with dust lingered.
As soon as he was pushed inside, Bai Yu’s thoughts sank further.
This was no lounge; it was practically a solitary confinement cell!
It seemed the number of people who had suffered the same fate as him was by no means small!
The fierce-looking middle-aged man even kindly pulled the handkerchief out of his mouth.
Regaining a shred of breath, Bai Yu wanted to open his mouth to argue for himself, but the words stopped abruptly at his lips.
No.
At a time like this, no one would believe him; speaking more would only lead to mistakes. He needed to be even more cautious, and perhaps even fake a look of terror and fear to lower their guard.
“Who on earth are you?” Unexpectedly, the fierce-looking middle-aged man spoke up first to ask.
Hearing this, Bai Yu’s mind tightened, his thoughts spinning rapidly a few times before he looked at the other person and shook his head: “I don’t remember.”
These words caused the middle-aged man to frown. He let out a hiss and looked Bai Yu up and down.
Bai Yu faked a terrified look, instinctively taking two steps back while staring vigilantly at the middle-aged man.
Seeing him like this, the middle-aged man’s expression relaxed slightly. He snorted and said, “Don’t play any tricks. Once we report to the higher-ups, they’ll know how to deal with you.”
Bai Yu’s expression grew even more panicked.
However, at that moment, the middle-aged man’s holographic bracelet suddenly popped up an alert:
[A Level-2 water-type esper Tai Feng has appeared on the west side of the town. Front-line mercenaries, please take your positions!]
As the voice dropped, the middle-aged man’s expression instantly turned stern.
He frowned, glanced up at Bai Yu, said nothing, and directly slammed the lounge door shut as he hurried away.
The lounge instantly fell into absolute silence.
Bai Yu stared at the closed metal door, his expression instantly returning to deep solemnity, though he felt somewhat dazed.
He had really transmigrated.
He had transmigrated to a world with both esper powers and high technology.
Yet the situation here did not seem much better than being trapped in the apocalyptic reality.
Bai Yu quietly digested this fact.
However, soon enough, he perked up again.
He had been a morbid entity in reality, unable to undergo gene repair due to biological genetic technology contamination. After transmigrating, he at least had a healthy body.
Thinking of this, Bai Yu couldn’t help lowering his gaze to examine himself. At this moment, he was indeed in a healthy state: his legs could stand for a long time, there was no pain anywhere in his body, and even his grayish-white nails were ruddy and plump at the moment.
Back then, Bai Yu had been diligently doing scientific research, never expecting that one day he would suddenly be infected with biological genetic technology contamination and become a patient who could be executed and culled at any moment.
Biological genetic technology contamination was not just a simple specific disease with obvious symptoms; it was a broad definition.
Any disease caused by gene-related problems could be classified as biological genetic technology contamination.
And such contamination could only ever treat the symptoms, never the root cause.
Even if someone spent a fortune to repair their own genes or even fused with special genes for enhancement, there was still the possibility of a sudden relapse.
Furthermore, biological genetic technology contamination had another terrifying aspect: it was contagious.
Generally, those severely contaminated would be judged as having no salvage value and would be executed.
Therefore, after being contaminated, he had inevitably been isolated and given special care, locked up in a special ward.
The reason why official arrangements put him there, rather than executing Bai Yu immediately or capturing him as a lab rat, was because he was a top-tier biological genetic researcher. He had accomplished multiple milestone scientific researches, such as short-term cell division and development promotion, human gene-beastification targeted fusion, and skin cell reverse-aging.
At that moment, Bai Yu was working on the project of human cloning and consciousness replication and projection, and had achieved preliminary results.
Under the operation of consciousness replication and projection technology, a vegetative patient had communicated with the outside world through special electronic instruments, clearly expressing their needs.
This technology was primarily used to solve the fundamental problem of biological genetic technology contamination.
Cloning a human body using genetically healthy cells, and then replicating and projecting the original consciousness.
Thus, Bai Yu could not die yet; he was even forcibly kept alive by the authorities using various treatments because his current body could no longer undergo full-body gene repair.
Looking back, this wave of transmigration did not seem to be a loss: he got a brand-new body and no longer had to immerse himself in the backstabbing politics of the research center.
Besides, living in an apocalypse meant that sometimes even a clean, swift death was a luxury.
After a moment of silence, Bai Yu completely accepted the reality of his transmigration, though he did not quite know why he had suddenly crossed over. Had he actually died of illness in reality?
Right now, however, the most important thing was to escape from this lounge.
Who knew what the higher-ups would do to him, a sudden undocumented person, once reported? If he fell to becoming a lab subject, that would be even more miserable.
It was rare to get a good body after a life-or-death transmigration!
Stabilizing his emotions, Bai Yu stared with a serious gaze at that somewhat dilapidated window.
However, only then did he notice that dark clouds were rolling in not far away, drifting with an eerie gray mist, as if rain was about to fall.
Bai Yu was very surprised. Could this be the ability of the water-type esper Tai Feng?
Quickly refocusing, Bai Yu realized that with a Tai Feng appearing to draw away those people’s attention, his chances of escaping were somewhat higher.
However, how should he break this window?
Yet, after staring at it for just a few moments, certain matters suddenly popped into Bai Yu’s mind—matters concerning his dreams.
Bai Yu paused for a moment.
Lately, he always seemed to find himself suddenly slipping into deep sleep, falling into dreams, sometimes just for an hour, sometimes for a whole day.
Moreover, during this process, Bai Yu vaguely recalled something: he had been searching for someone based purely on instinct.
That was a powerful black figure with black hair, red pupils, and a handsome face, and the other person seemed to be waiting for his salvation.
Remembering this abruptly now, Bai Yu felt extremely strange. Was he actually still in a dream right now?
As he thought this, another matter abruptly surged into his brain, making Bai Yu feel even more unbelievable.
Before he fell ill, he had suddenly discovered an old, brick-thick book placed in his home, its cover exquisite and magnificent, with no indication of who put it there.
Opening the book, the frontispiece had only one sentence: Dedicated to the Dragon Lord—The Taboo Cult.
As for the contents of the book, they were entirely blank pages. What this content dedicated to the Dragon Lord actually was, no one knew; he had never seen such a book before.
Yet, on the very last page of this book, a paragraph was written:
In dreams, I always search for the memory of a past
In dreams, there is a powerful black figure
I was sacrificed to him
Completely fusing into one with him
And my drifting, homeless soul finally stops its cycle of reincarnation
Endlessly surviving with him
Guarding the entire world together
Bai Yu recognized that handwriting: it was his own.
This shocked him.
However, Bai Yu had no way of knowing when he had written this passage of text, nor what meaning this text was supposed to convey.
As for the Taboo Cult mentioned on the frontispiece, Bai Yu did know a few details.
This religion was mysterious and bizarre, and it had been listed on the official warning blacklist, though it was not defined as an evil cult and seemed to be deeply feared by the authorities.
Because of this, it was no longer possible to unearth more information about this religion nowadays.
However, concerning this religion, Bai Yu still had a bit of related memory. According to the director of the orphanage, he and a batch of children at the time had been rescued from the hands of the Taboo Cult. As for why they had been captured by the Taboo Cult, it had already become an officially sealed secret.
And regarding this, he seemed to have no further memories either.
With things in their current state, it truly gave Bai Yu a headache.
After all, he still had not figured out when this book appeared in his home, or when he had written such a rather mysterious string of text.
Could it have been during sleepwalking?
Or was he actually suffering from amnesia?
And according to what the text wrote, to whom had he been sacrificed?
Could it be related to the Taboo Cult?
Yet everything lacked a way to find an answer.
However, Bai Yu had another doubt that was even harder to find an answer for.
On his back grew an entire stretch of silver-dark patterns resembling dragon scales. Those who had seen it assumed it was a tattoo, but the reality was far from that.
Bai Yu had gone to the hospital for checks; these were marks rooted in the skin, belonging to a part of his body. Strangely enough, he had never fused with any beast genes, and this issue had ultimately been left unresolved.
Now that he had suddenly transmigrated, and these matters had abruptly popped into his head again, did these various events have any internal connection?
For instance, would the figure in the dream and the figure in the text be the same person? Were they simultaneously the catalyst for his transmigration?
Bai Yu paused for a split second, then quickly shook his head. Right now was definitely not the time to ponder this!