I yanked the cord tight with my teeth, cutting off all the blood flowing to my arm. The needle in my hand quivered as I resolved to break this final barrier to complete degeneracy.
A voice came from behind me, "A futile exercise."
I spun off my chair to see an old man standing beside my bed. Brandishing a plate, I bellowed, "Who are you? Get outta my house, old man!"
The old man's robes swished as he raised a ringed finger to his lips. "Silent."
He only whispered it, but that single word howled in my ears. I tried to speak, but my lips were glued together. With a throttled scream, I chucked the plate, but it froze in mid-air, shimmering unnaturally. The old man waved his hand, leaving fleeting afterimages in its wake, and the plate floated onto a filthy pile.
His powers weren't of this world. He was dangerous. I jumped up to run, but the old man flicked his wrist, and a strange force slammed me to the floor. I strained my muscles but could not move an inch.
"My, my," he said. "I thought you would be excited. I even dressed the part."
What the hell did he mean? Long flowing robes… mysterious powers… Then it clicked. Was he a Cultivator, like the ones from all the novels I read?
He joined his hands behind his back and walked towards me, cigarette butts crumpling underfoot. "My name is Sirius, and I have a proposition for you. Earth is fascinated with cultivation, despite never witnessing such powers, and I believe I know why. To prove this, I wish for you to participate in my experiment. You will transmigrate to a world of cultivation and pursue utmost power."
He sounded insane, but he had the mystical powers to back his words. More than anything, transmigrating to a world of cultivation was my dream. In those fantasy worlds, one Cultivator could change history and make their name resonate through the heavens. Reading those stories had been my only respite: an escape from this meaningless world. Here on Earth I was destined to become nothing more than a fleeting memory. Even if I made something great, I wouldn't be there to see its effect.
Realising this, I had languished in apathy. Each day, I woke up, smoked, made coffee, then waited until the hunger pains forced me to eat. I didn't shower, I didn't do my university work, and I didn't talk to people. I just read. But if I could cultivate, I could escape this endless monotony.
Sirius snapped his fingers, lifting the pressure crushing my body and unsealing my lips. "What do you say?" he asked.
"What's the catch?"
"The catch?" Sirius laughed. "It seems that you do not appreciate this opportunity, child. Very well, I will make you forget—"
"No!" I interrupted. "I'll do it. Just… this can't be for free, right?"
"Of course, your continued existence will depend on your success. And should you reveal your identity… well, you must wish for a swift death before that woman gets to you."
His words struck fear in my heart, but before I could speak, Sirius touched my forehead, and the world stretched out before me. Darkness swallowed my vision and I found myself standing in a space with no start, and no end. I looked down and nearly jumped. Tendrils of golden aura flickered along the surface of my hands, as if reaching for something.
Sirius appeared far away from me with a brilliant and beautifully smooth aura encasing him like a mandorla. "Excellent," he said, "I was right about your innate Qi."
The golden aura around me was my Qi? Qi was the essence of life in Chinese Martial Arts. In some cultivation novels, it was the fuel for mystical Techniques. If I had innate Qi, why couldn't I use it on Earth? I tried to ask Sirius, but there was an unsettling disconnect, as if I didn't have a mouth.
He warped in front of me and reached out, emitting a pulse that sent my skull ringing and unleashed skittering bugs inside my head. After the feeling faded, he withdrew his hand and turned it upwards, revealing an intricate, brain-shaped network of golden fibres.
"This is a duplicate of your mind," he plucked a strand from the network, "and I have removed the memory of this encounter. This copy will replace you on Earth."
He grasped the network and pushed it through a rift in space. Stunned by what I had seen, I barely noticed him place a hand on my chest.
"I will now guide you through the Mind Integration Technique."
My eyes snapped shut of their own accord, and I became aware of my beating heart and twitching muscles.
"Here."
With a rushing sensation, he brought me to my solar plexus. Deep within my body, I found a flickering kernel of warmth that I had never sensed before.
"Dive into it."
Strangely, I knew what he meant, and I imagined a whirlpool sucking every ounce of my being into its core.
"Well done." His voice sounded different this time, like I was underwater. "You have brought your mind into your soul. For now, I have provided you with the Qi to do this, but it is unstable, so we must act fast."
I plummeted through space, occasionally slowing down as I passed through what felt like sticky membranes.
"We are here. You can surely feel my soul, but you must find the other, smaller soul, and consume it."
I tried to sense this other soul, but a deep sickness seized my senses.
"You… fight… sickness," he said, his voice muffled and distorted.
After honing my focus, I felt a pinprick of gentle warmth and rushed to envelop it. As it soaked into my body, stability returned.
"Good. You have grounded yourself in a physical body. When you wake, you must practice this Technique."
A spark of light flashed into me, creating the memory of a book.
"Good luck, Oscar."