Every punch and kick sent transparent drops of sweat flying off my body—the ground their inevitable destination.
Through sheer discipline, I managed to perform my morning routine while tuning out the teases and annoying commentary of Ten-Ten.
"You must think you're such a hot dude right now—showing off your toned muscles in front of a beauty like me, glowing under the sun with all that sweat."
She smirked, then added, "Well, you know what? I don't feel a single thing other than disgust. You reek of a devilishly foul odour, you know that?!"
Devilishly foul...? Who even says that anymore... sounds like something out of a medieval play.
Ten-Ten bit her lip, trying not to laugh. She was always the only one who found her jokes funny. Not a personal opinion—simply a fact.
Hmph... well, I haven't taken a bath today... and I did sleep on the floor... and after waking up I immediately ran here after greeting Master Un—oh God...!
No, don't let her get to you. From my—uh, Shen Mi's—memories, I know she's just teasing me. But why always me, though...? What does she even have against Shen Mi?
It only took a matter of time—filled with teasing and her one-sided laughter—for Ten-Ten to finally call it a day.
After training, I headed straight to the library. It seemed that my knowledge of this world's geography and history was patchy at best—mostly because my counterpart rarely left the dojo except for errands.
---
I sat down on a wooden chair—like everything else in this wooden empire of a dojo—in front of a desk stacked with books. Some looked promising. Others... existed.
The memory merge had ended a while ago... Maybe worth a paragraph—or two—but now came the worst part of any transmigration story... In a few words... Info Dump no Jutsu!
After going through only a couple of books out of the dozen, I gathered some basic knowledge.
Apparently, the mass population of this world—over nine billion—was spread across four major geographical zones: the North City, South City, East City, and West City.
For some reason, this world referred to what should've been continents as cities. Hence, the "Four Cities."
Each city contained multiple nations, each with its own system of government.
Oh—and this world was also called Earth. Same day-night cycle, same 24-hour rotation, same 60-seconds-a-minute deal... except the moon had a bright azure glow.
Even with four cities housing over nine billion people, that still only covered about 40% of the landmass. The oceans here were far more expansive—divided into three seas: the Red Sea, Dark Sea, and Berserk Sea—each named for their "unique and dangerous characteristics."
Unfortunately, the book I had only gave superficial descriptions, so I couldn't find out what made them special.
I could've looked for more detailed books... but laziness is a disease I've long since stopped fighting.
Still, I did learn one interesting thing—the dojo was an oddity here. This "archaic martial vibe" wasn't common. The rest of the world was apparently pretty advanced.
We're talking hovering cars, regular space travel, alien visitors, and all that sci-fi madness.
This dojo just preferred pretending it was in a wuxia fantasy.
Tragic.
Flipping through a few more pages, I found that this world's culture wasn't all that different from mine. Same kinds of food, similar traditions, and martial arts—though way more advanced and... as power-scaling nerds would say, "above street level."
Eventually, I stopped on a page that showed an illustration—seven orange glass spheres, each with a number of stars in its center, ranging from one to seven.
My body froze.
A long silence filled the room before I finally pursed my lips and muttered—
"Fuck... hehe... heh..."