Lucian stirred awake, disoriented, the remnants of his previous unconscious state still clouding his mind. As he focused, the fear from his encounter with Natalie crashed over him like what it was, a heavy burden with anxiety flooding his veins, and he began to sweat profusely. He glanced at his hand, horrified to find it just as smeared with blood as he left it. In a surge of frustration, he spotted a large shard of glass on the floor.
He picked it up, hoping to catch a glimpse of himself in its reflection. But his anger boiled over as he threw the shard back onto the floor while shouting, "I can't even see my reflection with that thing; the cup's shards are too small!"
With a mix of dread and urgency, he dragged his legs to the bathroom, clutching his injured hand with the other. Each step sent jolts of pain through his tired and unfit body, but the throbbing pain in his hand remained his focus.
Upon entering the modest toilet of the medical chamber, Lucian's eyes fell upon a medium-sized mirror framed in intricately carved gold, radiating an exquisite beauty that contrasted sharply with the room's simplicity. However, he couldn't spare a moment to admire it; the pain coursing through his hand was overwhelming.
"I'm back in Dominic's body," he thought, grimacing as the agony of his injuries flooded back with double the intensity. "Do I really have to pull this shard out?!" Dominic asked himself as he looked at the large-looking glass shard stuck in his palm. Dominic closed one of his eyes, bracing himself for his next action, which would be a very painful one. But a sudden headache struck him, and he started getting recent memories of Natalie in the white void, memories that he didn't remember experiencing.
In the memories, she was wearing a darkish purple dress with a silver pattern and the black heels she was wearing earlier, showing that these memories occurred within the same time frame even though he couldn't remember it. In the memories, Natalie pointed to a dark pitch-black stone, and suddenly he also recalled the time when Natalie had made him fall unconscious. Somehow, she had shared a few of her memories with him when she had flicked her fingers at his forehead, and Lucian now knew that she had done that to awaken the dormant core in Dominic's body for him to start his cultivation in his magical journey. She kept on pointing to the magical stone, indicating that he should use it to learn more about his powers.
Immediately, as Dominic's gaze fell on that stone, he snapped back to reality—and his attention was drawn to his hands, which had begun to emit a bright glow. To his shock, the stone now lay in his hand, nestled in a palm that only moments ago had been bloodied and marred with glass shards. Now, however, his hand was fully healed, the cuts gone, with not even a trace of the shard remaining.
Staring down at his newly healed palm, Dominic was both amazed and unnerved. The bloody wound, vanished in an instant—and that shard? Nowhere to be found. All the answers, he knew, lay within the stone itself. As if reading his thoughts, the stone flashed again, transforming from a rough, charcoal-black lump into an opulent oval stone with a lighter swirl pattern weaving through its polished surface.
Before Dominic could fully comprehend what was happening, a translucent system window flickered to life before him, emblazoned with the title "TWNS." Alongside it hovered a small, holographic gold figure, reminiscent of a tiny robot, floating gently in the air.
He froze, his thoughts racing. "This… this is insane. I've only ever seen stuff like this in the media or on devices. Why is there a hologram, a robot, and even a system window in a place like this—a medieval, royal-fantasy world? What is going on? What game is Natalie playing with me this time?"
Confused and utterly overwhelmed, he slumped to the floor, his back resting against the cold, hard tiles. "I'm just so tired and confused," he muttered, feeling his energy drained.
But the world, as always, refused to let him rest. Without warning, the small gold robot emitted a series of beeps, a cheerful and somehow eerie rhythm, before announcing in a mechanical tone, "Operation TWNS booting." The screen on its chest displayed a single word: "Loading…"
Dominic, utterly bewildered, could only watch in silent anticipation as the loading bar inched forward.
Dominic's wait was cut short as the robot's mechanical voice announced, "Operation TWNS activation is successful." In an instant, the hologram sharpened, taking on the gleaming appearance of a miniature golden robot, its metallic shine catching the dim light of the chamber as though it were something solid.
Without thinking, Dominic lunged forward, his curiosity momentarily overtaking caution. But as his fingers passed through the figure, he realized it was still just a hologram. A warm blush crept over his cheeks as he withdrew his hand, glancing around instinctively to check if anyone had witnessed his impulsive act. *I can't believe I did something so stupid. Thank God no one saw it.*
But his hope was short-lived as the robot chimed in, "I saw that, and I recorded it all in memory."
Dominic's eyes widened, his heart racing, as he leaped backward in shock. The hologram seemed to register his reaction, emitting a cheerful yet automated giggle that sounded light, robotic, and unexpectedly teasing. And at that moment, I knew my life was going to take an even weirder and unexpected turn.
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*End of Chapter*