It was like changing clothes.
I raised my hands to my eyes, closed and opened my palms. Over time, I was able to control every nerve in my new body more easily.
At that moment, I saw myself lying on the ground out of the corner of my eye.
I reacted immediately, knelt down, and checked the pulse of my real body lying on the ground.
After a few checks, I learned the following. My heart was still beating, I was breathing, but my eyes or any part of my body were not responding to any stimuli.
Afterwards, I asked the system and learned the details of what was happening.
When my body was not inside my soul, the system was programmed to behave as if I were in a coma. This meant that whenever I left my body, I would need a hospital environment to keep my body safe.
This was both a good thing and a bad thing.
This way, if I wanted to kill someone, I would first leave my own body, take over another body, and leave my original body in the hospital. Then I could kill whoever I wanted and come back, and no one would suspect me. After all, during the murder, Eren had fallen into a coma in the hospital for unknown reasons.
Of course, I shouldn't do this more than once, but it's still a good opportunity.
Just as I was about to do some exercises to get used to the power of my new body, Lilith's voice reached my ear, filled with a hint of warning and seduction.
[Lilith: Use your soul to find the memory storage center in the body's brain and access the man's memories. I think someone is approaching.]
"How do you know someone is approaching?"
[Lilith: Because I am Lilith.]
Well, I've learned something new. The template character's perception of the environment is independent of mine.
Anyway, the important thing right now is to do what Lilith says.
"Hey! Futao! Where are you? What's this?"
Before I could react to the heavy footsteps behind me, the woman whose high-pitched voice I heard quickly came up behind me.
Unfortunately, I no longer had enough time for the memory takeover operation.
I had no choice but to start improvising without turning around.
"After setting the trap, when I turned around, I noticed someone climbing the tree where the trap was..." I needed to continue my sentence according to the scenario I had in my head, but the unfamiliarity of the voice coming out of my mouth shattered my concentration along with my script.
"And you decided to kill him?! Are you stupid? Do you even know who he is!"
The owner of the voice seemed annoyed that I was talking without looking at him, and as he yelled, he grabbed my shoulder and turned me toward him.
"Mizukage!"
The name Mizukage slipped out of my mouth in surprise. Fortunately, Mei Terumi misunderstood me and turned around to check if Mizukage was there.
Well, I thought it was a good thing that he misunderstood me. After all, even if I knew he would become the future Mizukage, saying that now would be a clear example of insubordination. But when Mei saw that no one was behind him, he turned back to me, smiling and clenching his fists.
That's not a good sign, is it?
"Oh! Ah! Calm down! You're going to kill me! Ow ow ow, I can feel my arm breaking. Please forgive me, Your Majesty!"
"Forgive you! All you had to do was secretly set a trap and retreat, but what did you do? You went and killed one of Konoha's richest people!"
"So you know him! I'm sorry!" Every second I spent getting beaten up while improvising, I was mastering it. Just a few minutes later, with a dislocated arm, multiple bleeding areas, and some signs of subcutaneous bleeding, I had unlocked my advanced improvisation skills.
"You should have known him, idiot! That man was the one Mizukage-sama wanted us to bring back. Everyone got that order, how could you be so stupid!"
Is there an arrest warrant out for me? Why is Obito after me?
The latest news calmed me down a bit, and I put everything that had happened before aside and looked at Mei.
When she saw me looking calmly at her, she returned to her usual self.
She coughed twice and spoke in a more mature tone of voice instead of the angry way she had before.
"I still can't believe you killed such a handsome man so ruthlessly. Do you know that because of jerks like you, women like me die without ever getting married?"
Yes, this is the Terumi Mei I know. Despite being so young, she fears she will become a spinster in the future.
To other people, Mei's behavior looks like she's preparing for an approaching storm while the ship's sails are still under construction, but they're just a bunch of idiots who have no idea how forward-thinking this woman is.
"Don't worry, I didn't kill him. I just hit him on the neck and he lost consciousness."
When Terumi Mei heard this news, her single uncovered eye widened.
With a quick movement, she crouched over my unconscious body on the floor and began removing my clothes without a moment's hesitation.
I reflexively tried to stop her, but then I remembered that I was currently in someone else's body.
Remembering that all our conversations were like those between two people on equal terms, I could guess that there was no rank difference between us.
While Mei continued to take care of my original body lying on the ground, I gathered my attention and directed my spirit to the point in the brain that stores memories, as Lilith had advised.
Within a second, my head began to fill with unknown memories. I began to lose my balance, as if I were drunk.