Ren surveyed the diminutive living space, its walls seemingly pressing in on him like curious spectators. A modest sofa set, its fabric worn from use, occupied the central stage. Yet, Ren noted with bemused curiosity that, with a single command, it seemed to possess a secret duality, transforming effortlessly into a makeshift bed or perhaps a snug chair, adapting to the whims of its inhabitants. Not of this caliber yet, Ren had seen something similar during his time on Earth.
But what truly caught Ren off guard, disrupting the predictable rhythm of his expectations, was the absence of a Robot. In a world where automatons were as commonplace as the air one breathed, this barren emptiness resonated with an eerie silence.
Each story Ren had read or listened to the whispered of robotic companions, tirelessly attending to the needs of their masters, providing comfort and ease to them.
Those, sometimes cute and sometimes, dead serious robots, help the protagonists with cooking and cleaning and dominating the food industries all over the world.
Yet, here in this humble abode, an open kitchen counter stood sentinel at the left edge of the living space, its pristine surface gleamed, as if untouched by anyone's hands since its installation.
Ren took it as a reminder not to consider himself a protagonist. He does not carry any similarities with them. The two books he read on transmigration went like this- a girl got reincarnated as a cannon fodder fiancé of rich CEO and won everyone's heart, including the male lead's, with her excellent cooking.
The second one went the same way. The only exception was the girl transmigrating from the apocalypse time, and she married the major general rather than CEO.
From this, one can conclude that to become a main character, one must have to have a fiancé who is rich beyond measure. The second requirement is a robotic helper, and the third is off-the-chart luck.
Ren had none of the above.
Maybe I should go and marry sister Xander.
Ren thought as he looked around.
There was no shoe rack at the doorstep, so Ren left his shoes in the living room beside the sofa. His measured footsteps carried him further, leading him to his newfound sanctuary, the bedroom. A mattress, modest in its dimensions but inviting in its simplicity, rested upon the floor like a silent invitation.
Surrounding it from the right corner, a single utility table stood, its surface adorned with the presence of various objects that spoke volumes of the life lived within these walls.
A few boxes of never-before-seen snacks and the nutritional solution lay beside the mattress on the naked floor. The entire room without carpet made Ren, who was used to walking on the warm surface, uncomfortable.
A chill lingered beneath his soles as he walked towards the table.
There were no windows, or maybe Ren needed to change the settings of the rectangular 'wall' behind the coffee-colored curtain from 'Concrete' to 'Open view mode'.
There was nothing else inside the room, not even a tiny chair. Perhaps because there was no space for anything else in the first place, the owner must have decided not to make the room too crowded.
Amongst the row of items, Ren's gaze lingered on the gleam of a sharp knife and a collection of equally formidable tools, their edges honed and ready for whatever purpose they intended to.
The moment Ren's slender fingers touched those sharp things, his mind flooded with dormant memories.
A view of park became visible to Ren, where the previous Dorion dug the beating heart out of a Limpanka. A dog-like creature with tiny wings on his back, small enough to easily fit on one's palm. The puppy was unable to flap its wings because of sickness. Dorion held the animal in his hands.
The struggle of feeble paws thrilled Dorion's heart with such pleasure, visible in the excited shaking of his hands and a creepy smile that never left his face.
That feeling of pleasure reverted to Ren's heart and became a tangled mess of guilt and pain. His disgust for his previous self intensified by a few more degrees.
The sour taste of bile clawed its way up Ren's throat, a visceral reaction to the unsettling memory that had seized him. With a hurried stride, he stumbled into the attached bathroom, desperation etched into every line of his face as he fought against the rising tide of nausea.
But even as he retched, emptying the contents of his stomach into the waiting toilet, the churning turmoil within him showed no signs of abating. His heart, a restless beast, continued its frenzied dance, oblivious to the futile attempts to empty his already empty stomach.
In his haste to escape the suffocating grip of his memories, Ren forced his mind to think about something else, but to no avail. When even the gastric juices left the vicinity of his stomach, Ren felt he could breathe now.
Instinctively, Ren's hand touched a particular smooth tile of the wall, and, with a gentle touch, the sink emerged from within the wall. As the cool water cascaded repeatedly over his clammy hands and face, a fleeting sense of calm washed over him, a momentary peace from the storm raging within.
The mirror adorning the bathroom wall had features to transform the walls into a tranquil beach, a star-strewn sky or any place the person wishes for, offering solace to a weary soul taking a relaxing bath in the bathtub placed near the opposite wall.
Ren might have marveled at the convenience of such technological wonders.
But for now, all he craved was the blissful embrace of oblivion, a refuge from the horrors lurking within his mind.
Is this why Ren kept avoiding going deep into these memories till now?
Yes, he was afraid of his unknown self.
Terrified by the mere thought of the crimes he committed.
With a heavy heart, Ren collapsed on the mattress. The thought of food, once a comforting notion, now held no appeal.
As his exhausted body succumbed to the embrace of sleep, his mind, battered and bruised, was finally granted relief, if only for a fleeting moment.
Tomorrow will bring its own challenges. But for now, in the silence of the night, Ren allowed himself the luxury of surrendering to sleep.
The system silently sent signals to Ren's brain to keep the memories of his present body separate from his previous ones and to numb his brain for the upcoming night.
A two-horned cub landed at the edge of the pillow and lay beside a sleeping beauty, offering silent comfort and a wish for a better future.
After setting up the room according to the needs of its host, the robotic cub closed its round slitted eyes and waited for the night to pass.
A few sunrays danced on the pale face, giving the sleeping person an ethereal glow. Those long silvery eyelashes fluttered open to reveal golden eyes dazed with confusion. A groan escaped from his throat as he turned to another side and hugged the warm fluffy pillow.
Ren blinked his eyes a couple of times, focusing on the cub peacefully sleeping in his embrace. Ren's heart melted into a puddle.
An untimely grumble of his stomach startled the Good Operating Web Domanian System. Ren simply held the now wide awake cub even tighter, "Good Morning Baby."
System "...." Okay, his host has a low baritone voice. It's pleasant to the ears. It will not hold a grudge for waking up at 5 in the morning.
"Host, you should get up and eat something. Your health is in a problematic range."
Ren felt like sleeping a bit more, but he couldn't. His stomach was touching his back, and he might really faint if he still refused to eat something. Yet, he simply rolled around on his bed, holding the cub in his arms. Even those high-pitched angry shouts had zero effect on Ren as he continued to 'molest' the fluffy system.
With a sharp pain in his stomach and under the reproachful slitted angry blue eyes, Ren reluctantly left his blanket.
As Ren dragged his body towards the bathroom, the finally free system leisurely surfed its social network.
It read the headlines, "What to do if my host is blackmailing me?"
"What do I do if my host wants to sleep with the female lead?"
"What to do if my host is a coward?"
"What to do if my host is a pervert?"
Thankfully, Ren Jiang doesn't fall into any of these categories.
The system mused. Sure, Ren was a sleepy head, a fluff lover, and always finds weird priorities amidst serious situations. Yet, with all the information stored in its database, the system knew that it was Ren's way of dealing with stress.
Due to living with his grandma, Ren always tried to put on a smile and cope with his problems through sarcasm and humor.
As it contemplated the future plan for the upcoming situations, its database showed the excited Ren messing with the mirror and converting the bathroom into a Jurassic Park.
The system, "..." ??????
Any sane person would have converted the bathroom into a peaceful place like a spa, a beach, or a place filled with beauties (a common incident reported by all the systems in charge of dealing with transmigrated souls).
The system silently filled in a request for an additional sub-system for emotional stability. The recipient was the system itself, not Ren.
Yeah, little Cub was already worried about the stress it would be to dealing with in the future.