Inside Fubaiyo City Hospital, 6th floor, room 66, a young man was lying with his eyes closed. His handsome face was smooth, softened further by the pale light of the hospital room.
If not for the dark bruise stretching across his forehead like an ugly scar he would have looked like a serene sleeping princess. Instead, the discoloration marred his otherwise angelic appearance, starkly contrasting the turmoil brewing underneath his eyelids.
A cluster of people loomed over him, their eyes red-rimmed and weary. Two young girls clutched their skirts, biting their lips to stifle their sobs. A middle-aged man, his shoulders stiff, kept his arms crossed like he was trying to keep himself together. Acting as a pillar of support for a middle-aged woman who leaned on him for support. Even the young woman in her twenties, who gave off sharp, professional air, had tear stains marking her cheeks.
Regardless of their ages, they all had tears in their eyes as they watched him remain unconscious without any signs of recovery.
Just as they were about to give up hope that he would wake up today, they noticed his eyes flutter. His eyes opened to reveal black eyes that they were familiar with.
"Ugh, my head is killing me." Nava groaned instinctively.
As his vision cleared up, the first thing he noticed was that he was in a hospital. The ceilings were pure white, and the hospital bed was unmistakable signs that he was hospitalized.
The next thing he noticed was the people standing above him. Although they had sad looks in their eyes and looked at him with familiarity, he couldn't remember who they were.
His eyebrows scrunched up as his brain began pounding. He felt as if he had just gone through brain surgery.
"What is going on? I was just at work when…my vision went dark. Did I pass out? No, I'm perfectly healthy." Nava thought to himself as he tried to recall what had happened even though his brain was protesting.
The young woman from earlier, who had an air of professionalism to her, composure cracked when she noticed that he was awake. She wiped her tears with her sleeve, her movements precise despite the emotions in her voice. Her usually keen and unreadable blue eyes softened with worry as she scolded him.
"Yabo, I warned you. Pushing yourself to the limit isn't heroic. It's reckless."
"Your passion to help the City is admirable, but if you don't take care of yourself, you're no use to anyone."
"Only when you are healthy and living a good life can you start thinking about the City, okay?"
"If you disagree, then…then I will be forced to revoke your Heroic Volunteer License."
Nava blinked.
Heroic Volunteer License? When did he apply for that? He wasn't crazy about risking his life for free.
After what happened to his mom, his interest in getting involved in anything related to superhumans plummeted for years. So, the idea of risking his life volunteering to help heroes with whatever they needed was simply not there.
So he had no idea why this young woman would say that to him. Also, did she call him Yabo? She must be mistaking him for someone else?
Nava couldn't take it anymore. He didn't recognize this woman, and the confusion was unbearable. He had to ask the obvious question.
"Who are you?"
Suddenly, a violent surge overwhelmed Nava's mind as if triggered by his question. A flood of foreign memories rushed into his brain. Each fragment connected, telling the story of another life.
Sensing a threat to his sense of self, Nava's brain instinctively took protective action against the foreign memories. Sucking up all its energy and focus to protect itself. As a result, Nava's vision blurred, and the world faded to darkness.
Nava's brain regained its upper hand and began processing foreign memories only after an unknown amount of time. Neatly organized everything into a neat new package of memories, storing it in Nava's subconscious for later review.
When Nava regained consciousness, the throbbing pain coming from his brain vanished. But in its place was the memory package that left him speechless and panicked.
"I was teleported to a low-rank City. Send me back!" Nava screamed in his head.
He wanted to cry.
He was born in a Tier 1 city and lived a great, blessed life. Enjoying the benefits of a powerful city, high education, and advanced technology and science.
As a regular citizen, his life was a blessing for lower-ranked cities.
Now, he was sent into the body of a Tier 3 city.
He could feel that his body was weaker, sluggish, and more…normal, just like before he had taken his first biological drug.
Another downside of being a citizen in a Tier 3 city is that they didn't even have any biological drugs to bring out their citizens' potential.
They were so behind!
That was already bad enough, but from the memories, this City was doomed!
It was about to be taken over by the nearby sects. Once that happened…
Nava shivered at the thought.
"I need to escape this hell hole before it's too late. I'm a citizen of Central City; this can't happen to me!" Nava felt his blood boil, and his heart was pounding with anxiety.
In his panic, he almost couldn't believe this was real and tried to wake up from this dream. Unfortunately, each time he failed, his stomach sank further, and his brain raced faster and faster.
Until he was forced to accept that this was all real. He needed to figure out how to escape this City before it was too late. For that, he needed to think, he needed to make a plan.
His biologically enhanced brain went into overdrive, causing him to think twice as fast. He repeatedly examined the memory package before coming up with a starting plan.
Nava sighed as he looked at Yabo's life.
"This guy is blessed in his own right. His parents are superhumans, and he has two siblings who are superhumans, too. This is a high ratio for a low-tier city." Nava analyzed.
His circumstances weren't too bad. This identity gave him a lot of leeway, and as long as he played his cards right, he might be able to move to a different city before the City collapsed.
But getting to Central City was still too far away. He had no idea where Fubaiyo City was in comparison to Central City.
Back in Central City, he didn't pay any attention to the location of low-level cities. And the Yabo's memories didn't know any nearby Tier 1 Cities.
It would be bad news if he lived in a rural region far from Tier 1 cities. That would make it nearly impossible to make it back home.
But he could only take things one step at a time.
Coming up with a rough plan, Nava let his brain relax and felt a wave of exhaustion hit him like a brick. Knowing he had overexerted his brain, Nava let himself drift off to sleep to recover.
After hours passed by, Nava slowly woke up from his slumber. He felt as if a rock was sleeping on him. Looking down, he noticed that someone was sleeping on him.
A young man with freshly cut brown hair and a round face sat beside Nava on a chair. However, half of his body was sprawled over Nava's chest, his breaths slow and steady. The dark circles under his eyes spoke of exhaustion, but even in sleep, his eyebrows twitched as if in a dream. A faint line of drool traced down his cheek, pooling onto Nava's hospital gown. Unapologetic evidence of his deep slumber.
Nava sifted through Yabo's memories to figure out this guy's identity. It didn't take long before he figured it out.
This sleeping fella was Yabo's childhood best friend, Bren Alyo. A regular human, just like Yabo.
"Bren seems like a nice guy," Nava noted and saw that Bren was a pretty reliable friend for Yabo, although he liked to crack jokes when stressed.
Nava smiled slightly, seeing that he had someone he could trust.
"Zzzz,"
Nava's eyes darkened as he began noticing how cold and wet his chest felt. As the pool of drools grew larger and larger by the second.
"Get the hell off of me,"