My name is Casio, and I'm dying...
Today is the 156th year, June 3rd of the Hong Li Federation calendar. It's the 25th year since I arrived in this parallel world. I had just graduated from Zexi University and was participating in an archaeological expedition for the first time. The site was in a steep mountain area about twenty kilometers north of Fengnan City.
This operation was led by the city government, in collaboration between the Archaeology Department of Zexi University and Fire Deer Antique Company. Both sides deployed a ten-member archaeological team that arrived at the Klamora Mountain area at noon.
The progress of the archaeological operation was exceptionally smooth. The team quickly began exploring inside the relic. There were buildings and decorations in the style of the Karenka period, dilapidated murals, and some ancient documents. Just when everyone was engrossed in their archaeology work, an accident occurred.
Three antique commissioners from Fire Deer Antique Company suddenly pulled out their guns and opened fire! Their tutor, a senior brother, and a senior sister were killed in succession. The remaining four fought back, and although they managed to kill one of the antique commissioners, in the end, only one of them survived.
And that person was currently facing a desperate situation.
As the memory flashed back, Casio shivered and took a deep breath.
Click, the black muzzle of the gun was pointed directly at his head.
"Run! Go on, run again!!!" The man wearing the red and black uniform of the Antique Commissioner showed a growing ferocious look.
Pressing the handgun against Casio's head, he strode forward several steps.
In the dark and narrow rectangular tunnel, Casio retreated step by step. The crunching sound echoed as his boots crunched on the rubble.
Boom! A severely weathered pillar behind him collapsed abruptly. Casio, leaning against the broken pillar, stumbled backward awkwardly and fell.
He grunted and glanced at his right hand. The ivory pendant left by his senior brother had pierced his skin, and there was blood in his palm.
Casio felt a dry, bitter taste in his mouth.
Probably, all seven members of Zexi University's Archaeology Department would die here. He, a traverser who had reincarnated for twenty-five years and done nothing significant, was about to reincarnate again.
Splat! A black boot stepped on his chest.
The firearm in the man's hand stayed pointing at Casio's head.
Footsteps echoed in the tunnel again. Another commissioner from the Fire Deer Antique Company had arrived, both of them armed with handguns.
"Might as well fight, to die with some dignity."
Just as this thought flashed through Casio's mind, he suddenly noticed a growing bitter taste in his mouth. A moment later, he realized that the bitter sensation was not coming from his mouth.
But from his right hand, from the bleeding wound.
The next second, Casio's entire arm went numb and bitter in an instant. An icy cold flow was gushing continuously from the ivory pendant, gliding in his hand like a fish.
The cold sensation spread throughout his body from his arm in an instant.
Casio's body involuntarily began to tremble.
"Ha ha, look at you! Weren't you very courageous when you and your brothers were together? Now you're scared like this?"
The man ground his boot, the pressure was heavy.
Casio did not speak, but clenched his right hand hard.
"How? Too scared to piss your pants?"
The man snickered mockingly.
"Stop talking bullshit with him, William, just finish him. We don't have time to waste here..." anothr commissioner walked over from the side.
"I know, I'll send him to meet the Grand Duke of Hong Li."
The man named William slightly adjusted the muzzle of his gun.
"Goodbye, elephant of the Ivory Tower..." His voice suddenly stopped, as if a pause button had been pressed on the entire world.
Casio looked around sharply. The dim tunnel, the broken murals, the two men with guns, everything became blurry all of a sudden. It felt like he was looking at the world through a layer of frosted glass; even the turbid and smelly air was filtered. He was inevitably engulfed in a void.
The whole world was spinning. The air was surging, the earth was shaking, the dome was rising, and Casio's brain was trembling madly.
Bang!!!
The boy's head hit the wall hard.
"Shit!", he couldn't help but curse in pain.
"Li Wei, are you having nightmares again?" A fatigued voice came from the side, "Go to sleep early, we have training tomorrow..."
"Li Wei? Training? What's that?"
Casio got up, dazed, looking at a narrow, gray stone house. There's a window on the side, allowing the thin moonlight to shine in. The room contained only a table and a chair, with the most space being taken up by two very wide beds.
Each bed was crammed with three teenagers.
His bed was near the window, with a little fat kid sleeping next to him, who was the one that just mumbled something. Casio blankly looked at his own young hands, falling instantly into a daze.
Amid the chaos of his thoughts, he suddenly noticed something.
Above his line of sight, a strange symbol floated mid-air, with something like a thermometer scale next to it.
A jolt went through Casio's heart and he reached out to grab at it.
"Only I can see it! Could it be a cheat code?"
Suddenly, a flood of information surged into his brain.
After ten minutes, Casio burst open his eyes.
He understood the workings and principles of the cheat code that arrived twenty-five years late. Collecting mysterious antiques, he could travel back to a legendary era.
Antiques with legendary stories attached, imbued with a strong obsession of their owners, could be referred as legendary antiques. Moreover, Casio could absorb some sort of obsession energy from these legendary antiques, replacing the owner to return to their time of deepest impression.
This deeply imprinted time could be full of joy, hatred, sadness, or regret, but it had to be intense.
In fact, obsessions were mostly filled with hatred and regret.
Or various negative emotions like sadness.
Casio's task was to dispel the original owner's obsessions, allowing him to exist in that time for a while. During this time, whatever he learned or practiced could be brought back to reality. If he fails, then he gets nothing.
Taking a deep breath, he looked ahead.
Upon closer inspection, one would notice that the strange symbol was actually a simplified sketch of the ivory pendant. It was only after Casio absorbed the obsession energy from the pendant that he activated his ability in a split second.
The scale next to the pendant symbol represented time.
Now, he was experiencing Li Wei's first deeply imprinted experience, and also his first obsession.
Casio moved with intent, and the pendant symbol unfolded instantly.
Lightning streaking across the sky, a damp rainy night, a girl's scream, a cowardly boy trembling in a corner.
It was a sad story of a boy and his sister getting selected into a martial arts school called Wind Elephant Gate's Youth Training Camp. The sister was almost stripped naked by three drunk students on her way to the toilet in the middle of the night.
As his sister screamed for help, the boy, watching from the window, was too cowardly to step in.
It was not until the other students were awakened that the ordeal ended.
News of the incident spread quickly throughout the entire training camp. The women in that era were relatively conservative. People gossiped about the boy's sister, but no one cared that she was the victim.
A few days later, news came from the boy's home that his mother had passed away unexpectedly. The double blow led to the psychologically pressured sister committing suicide. This became Li Wei's regret and obsession.
Why did he cower in the corner on that rainy night?
Why didn't he dare confront the ruffians?
Why didn't he ever consider comforting his sister afterward?
Was it weakness? Was it fear? Was it the strange disgusting pride of a teenage boy? Perhaps it was a combination of all?
He wanted to make up for it, but it was too late. As hard as Li Wei tried to comfort himself, he found that he could not forgive that cowardly boy. And that became his obsession.
"Is that so?"
Upon reopening his eyes, Casio murmured.
Boom… A rumbling thunder echoed from the clouded sky.
Casio looked sharply out the window, noticing that it had somehow started raining. The blurry rain curtains kept falling.
"Ah! Hel… uh…"
The faint yells of a girl could be heard amidst the rain.
"Damn, is it tonight?!"
Casio rolled out of bed and rushed out barefoot.