To say the night was comfortable for Gu Erin would be a lie, he was stuck with two choices after learning from James that he had the only guest room. The only other free rooms in the bunker like residence was Lucy's room or the room currently occupied by a dead body, which was currently being turned into a freezer to keep it from decomposing. When Gu Erin decided to choose Lucy's room to sleep in he was met with a ghastly sight.
Beer cans, cigarette butts, clothing, and guns. Lots of guns, in fact Lucy's room resembled a small armory rather than a bedroom. In the end Gu Erin decided to go back to his allotted room after stepping on a grenade, he thought he might as well take his chances with the ticking time bomb rather than accidentally triggering a literal one in his sleep.
So, this explained Gu Erin's current predicament, that was, put simply on the verge of life and death. More precisely, it was Lucy who had a gun pointed at Gu Erin's forehead, muttering obscenities that would make Satan blush. All the while holding her head in pain from what was no doubt a massive hangover.
Gu Erin himself was rather conflicted, he wasn't sure if he was annoyed or amused at this moment. When he had first woken up on the ground since his bed was occupied he found that his limbs felt heavy. If he had known how restless of a sleeper Lucy was he would have probably taken his chances in the hall. Because, somehow, in the night Lucy had managed to fall off the bed and rolled the three feet to sleep on top of him. Either that or she did it in a drunken stupor, Gu Erin really couldn't tell at this moment.
"What the fuck is that smile for huh! You mother fucking son of a bitch I swear I'll cut your cock off and shove it so far up your ass that you'll be having sausage for breakfast!" Lucy continued swearing at Gu Erin, going on to include his father, mother, sister, brother, dog, and cat, three of which he didn't even have.
Gu Erin, finally having enough pushed the gun away and scoffed at Lucy. Gu Erin stood up, thankfully Lucy's gun didn't follow him. Instead, she continued to clutch at her head as if his scoff was blasted right to her brain. Gu Erin chose to ignore her, although she was still mumbling curses he chose to push it from his mind, he still wasn't sure about her. Honestly he would be attracted to her, but the fact of the matter was that she was a threat to his very manhood so he would keep his distance, for now.
Gu Erin left the room, leaving Lucy to herself, she seemed like the type of person who would rather shoot you than accept your help so Gu Erin elected against it. Nothing like getting a hungover drunk a glass of water and getting a bullet in return for your troubles. Deciding to put this morning behind him he made his way to the common room, only three other of the Blood Jackets being awake at this time.
One of them was on a laptop typing so fast that Gu Erin doubted his ears and eyes, the second was curling a dumbbell in the corner of the room, while the last was cleaning his pistol. Gu Erin was unsure what to do, but decided on meditating in the end. Although his Dao heart was stable he would still take this time to remember details about Heaven's Mercy to ensure that his plan did not go askew. He had the groups he deemed necessary that were available to him. Even if the dojos did not come to Haymire he had the Blood Jackets, which were arguably better.
Gu Erin sat down on the ground and started to meditate again, earning a strange look from the Blood Jacket who was working out in the corner. Gu Erin however, paid him no mind as he started to recall things about Haymire that only a regressor could.
First of all, this was not Gu Erin' s original town in which he started in within the past timeline. Heaven's Mercy would in a sense copy only a few basic aspects of the native's world. Although the landmasses were of similar size that's where most of the resemblance ends. Granted there was one other detail, that wasn't found out till a week in of Heaven's Mercy. The country in which you were in, was tied to a specific one in Heaven's Mercy. So, nearly everyone in Huaxia would find themselves within the Flood Dragon Kingdom.
This is the reason why Gu Erin knew more than half of the starting towns in the Flood Dragon Kingdom, however if he were asked anything about anywhere out of the Kingdom he would draw a blank. Put simply the number of resources in just the Flood Dragon Kingdom alone was staggering. Although you could travel outside of your kingdom with various means most didn't, and that was because they were afraid to leave what they already knew.
The reason why Gu Erin chose Haymire was for one reason. Although it was a town it was in a close proximity to the royal capital of the Flood Dragon Kingdom. Along with one fact that made this place a small battleground within a year of the start of Heaven's Mercy. There was a mountain near Haymire not already claimed by a sect. Most sects were built on spirit veins, ranging from Mortal to Heavenly spirit veins. This particular mountain had an Earth grade spirit vein. This allows those who cultivate nearby to absorb more ambient qi and their progression is far faster than others.
When this was found out multiple sects formed by the cultivators from Earth went to war against the sect that had secretly claimed this mountain. This war was closer to a massacre than anything else. Although the sect had progressed faster than others they did not have the prowess to keep it. Multiple sects fought over that mountain until the amount of negative energy accumulated there would cause cultivators a backlash if they cultivated. Thus, the mountain was deemed useless, until a sect native Daoist sect of Heaven's Mercy cleansed the mountain and claimed it for themselves.
Just like this hours past by, it wasn't until he was kicked by an angry and annoyed Lucy that Gu Erin was snapped out of his deep contemplation.
"Get up buttercup its nearly noon, I would start praying if I were you." Lucy said bluntly as she nudged Gu Erin again with her foot.
Gu Erin pushed the offending foot away as he stood up. Indeed, if this was someone else they would definitely want to pray. All the Blood Jackets were giving him unfriendly looks and more than one of them had their pistols out, as if they wanted to be the first one to shoot Gu Erin. Kei Jiahao, and Kei Sung were both sitting down on the couch observing Gu Erin.
However, seeing his lack of panic made most of the mercenary's frown, seeing this Gu Erin simply smiled at them. "If you want you might want to go to the roof. If you still don't trust me, just send one person. What's about to happen will make everything seem possible." Gu Erin said lightly.
"And what will we see?' Kei Jiahao asked impatiently, obviously fed up with Gu Erin's lack of answers.
Gu Erin did not mind this, in fact the only thing that could ruin his mood at this moment would be the threat of immanent death, and the slight chance that the Heaven's was fucking with him. It was today right? Gu Erin swept his memories, and yes it was going to be today that the Heaven's descended onto Earth. Causing mass panic and riots for all of one hour. After that Gu Erin wasn't really sure what happened to Earth.
Seeing the promising smile on Gu Erin's face made Kei Sung feel uneasy. "Father, let's just send James to take a look, lets just get this over with, we already have people on standby in case anything does happen."
Gu Erin's slight smile turned into a smirk, making Kei Jiahao feel an unpleasant yet short-lived shiver go down his back. "I'd listen to your son Kei Jiahao, otherwise you'll be lost in this new world. Otherwise, who knows what will happen to you then."
Gu Erin's words and smug behavior compared to the almost emotionless youth before rang warning bells in everyone's minds, as more than one of the Blood Jackets pulled out their guns and pointed the business ends of said pistols at Gu Erin.
Gu Erin held in his now writhing emotions, while some people might feel fear or anxiety, Gu Erin felt nothing but excitement. His plan was set, and all he had to do was bring it into motion.
A short silence fell in the room before Kei Jiahao spoke, his voice was calm but Gu Erin could tell that he was slightly spooked. "James, go to the roof."
James gave a wordless nod before going to the roof, he too was now a bit concerned, that was not the behavior of a desperate or hopeful man, but one of confidence. James could still feel the slight chill on his back from Gu Erin's almost excited tone.
***
James had a walkie in his hand, and he was about to check in for the second time after the second five-minute interval passed in silence. Just when he pushed the button to say 'Everything still seemed normal' it happened.
Everything seemed to pause and turn silent, every sound in the world was muted, James could not even feel his own heartbeat. All the colors in the world turned negative, and James felt the very ground under his feet tremble like thunder without a sound. Nothing moved, not even the wind, everything was perfectly still.
Then the sky broke.
In a world where all color was flipped and sound was nonexistent, every living thing capable of some base thought looked at the sky. Cracks appeared to cover the world as bright shimmering golden light seemed to seep out of them. Finally, a sound like glass shattering filled the world, it was not loud nor silent, but it was present in everyone's mind as an aurora borealis streamed out of the cracks.
These streams of colorful light descended to the Earth and split up into countless tendrils before completely splitting. These tendrils moved like ghostly snakes as they all moved their way towards the only sentient life on this planet.
Each and every tendril would find a human, young or old and enter their mind like giant petting a cute animal. James could not move nor speak, he just simply was, not even thoughts could explain what he was seeing.
Then an aurora like tendril entered his mind, flowing into him at the pace of a gentle stream.