"At least give me something to wear before acting cool, damn it. And aren't Chinese cultivation novels supposed to take place in China? Why do I get the feeling of an African cultivation novel here in the middle of the Sahara?"
Venting his frustrations a little, he left the murky water and after drying his hands with the sheet left behind by the old man, he took what may be his only chance of survival.
After reading the few lines of words on the piece of paper, he took a moment to think about their meaning then tied it in a corner of the sheet. Using the later to cover himself after shaking off the sand it was contaminated with, he mused aloud to feel alive and chase away loneliness:
"If this was 20 years ago, I could have gone to Hollywood to star as a mummy or a specter in some movies. What a pity, sigh..."
However, while looking like a war zone refugee or maybe a survivor of a famine, oddly enough, he didn't feel weak. He felt rather normal but considering his adverse reaction to water when he woke up, that should be far from the truth. What's more the old man said that only death awaits him unless he finds balance.
"That means I need to look for the answers to the hints and plan things from there. The first one is easy to understand, if I didn't get it wrong. So, now I will make a trip home first then I will start my journey."
He looked up at the sun to determine the direction to take and started going to the south south-west. Looking at the all-encompassing around him, he could not help but remember the circumstances that caused his situation.
His name is Lucas. He used to have a family name but after a trip around the gates of hell, he should have been declared dead by now. More importantly, he doesn't know where the coming journey will take him nor what it will bring him but, seeing an old man melt in the winds, it should not be something he would want his family to be involved with rashly. Consequently he could only abandon said name.
So, Lucas was a soldier. Ignoring his identification, regiment, platoon and so on, let's just say that he was from the ground force of a small west-african country.
He was not lacking in intelligence so he could have taken many other career paths but he was too lazy to. Or rather he lacked the motivation to determinedly pursue a certain path so, after a few years of being a NEET,he joined the army at 23.
For the next three years came training, different deployments within the country for territorial security and then, three months ago, he was assigned to a coalition force in the Sahara to fight against terrorists and suppress their activities and once he returned, he would integrate the special forces of the country he had been shortlisted after completing the already started training.
In the following "you beat me I beat you" situation, the worst loss of the coalition army was caused by a night ambush two weeks before his misfortune. Fortunately, with better back-end support, the assailants were repelled in the end.
Then, two weeks later, it was their turn to sniff an enemy supply convoy that was certainly trying to be stealthy by not being too heavily guarded. So, like a certain one-eye black baldy director(read spymaster) would say: "Surprise motherf*cher."
The beginning of the battle saw an absolute suppression of the terrorists with almost immediate destruction of the convoy causing its survivors to scatter and run thus starting a pursuit.
Lucas' unit followed the vehicles that were going deeper into the desert, toward the center. At that time, ten minutes into the pursuit, he clearly remembered having advised his captain of either abandoning or asking for support.
"But that piece of sh*t that was only a result of nepotism was arrogant and greedy for merit."
So his advice fell into deaf ears and it didn't even take another ten minutes for sh*t to hit the fan.
You see, the terrorists were not fleeing haphazardly, they were running toward their own reinforcements that were basically invisible in the night without headlights.
Of the coalition army three cars, the first took a rocket causing the others to go around it. When the fire suppression came, they couldn't regroup so Lucas tried to go through the blockade being established but unfortunately, he was graced with the most attention after the first vehicle.
After having his bullet proof vest block a few bullets for him, he welcomed a rocket that threw him out of the car while destroying it. He was then taken prisoner but they must have judged him too injured to be saved or not worth the effort hence he was thrown out of the moving car.
He remembered his senses going numb and the feeling of life escaping from his body. He then lost all tensions, making him relax as if he was embracing the desert, the cooling sand and the wind not so harsh anymore, just thinking fondly and regretfully about his family. Before everything went dark, he even had a far away illusory sensation of a warmth traveling through his body.
Was it not an attempt of his body to survive or let go then? Did he change or started changing at that moment?