Chapter 2: Dealing with the Aftermath for Yourself
Chapter 2: Cleaning Up His Own Mess
The line of text on the ceiling was the first thing Zhou Ming saw when he woke up.
And the text on the mirror in the bathroom was the second guide the original owner left for him.
Now, beneath his feet was a circular magic array drawn with a red liquid. The drawing style of the array was wild and eerie, its crimson strokes shocking to the eye, as if it were a sacrificial ritual drawn by a cultist.
Hours earlier, he had woken up lying on it.
Zhou Ming felt that the liquid used to draw the array should be real human blood.
He was very glad that when he woke up, he was lying on it, not face down. Otherwise, when he went to greet the guest at the door just now, the other person would have seen him in a white shirt covered in blood, standing in the entryway and saying hello to her. He would have been finished for sure.
Now Zhou Ming was very scared. It was impossible not to be scared at a time like this. He had just transmigrated into his parallel world self, and this world seemed unscientific.
His self in this world seemed to be a madman. The other party seemed to have summoned him through some cult ritual, left him a series of instructions, and then told him that he had already killed three people in this world.
And now, Zhou Ming, as the second owner of this body, had to take the blame!
"Calm down, I must calm down! The more adverse the situation, the clearer I need to see my circumstances," Zhou Ming muttered to himself.
These words were told to him by Ping Xingyue, the elder sister who lived next door to him before he transmigrated.
Sister Xingyue was an admirable and excellent woman, a smart person who could handle anything properly, and his idol.
Ever since Zhou Ming could remember, Sister Xingyue had been with them, like an older sister, disciplining him and his two other close friends. For Zhou Ming, Sister Xingyue was like family.
He still remembered that once when he was a child, he was almost hit by a car while playing, and it was Sister Xingyue who pushed him out of the way.
However, the result of that incident was that he was fine, but Sister Xingyue was hospitalized for half a year with fractured limbs.
Zhou Ming looked at the messy bedroom, recalling the words Ping Xingyue had once said to him.
In this unknown and strange environment, he must first gather enough information to confirm his situation and identify the immediate problems that needed to be solved.
He looked around, quickly walked to the window, and gently pulled back a crack in the tightly drawn curtains.
Outside, the street was bustling with traffic, dust and noise. Vendors chatted and shouted on both sides of the street. Judging from the appearance of the street shops, this should be a town near a rural area.
Immediately after, he began to continue the work he hadn't finished earlier. First, he mopped up the bloodstains on the floor, then meticulously cleaned the floor again with a rag, sprayed it with a special potion that his other self had prepared for him, and after all that, finally took down the banner hanging from the ceiling, thoroughly cleaning the entire bedroom.
After completing the whole process, he was drenched in sweat and sore all over.
After doing everything that needed to be done, he finally felt temporarily at ease and took a comfortable hot shower.
In the misty steam, his constantly tense nerves finally relaxed.
He planned to watch the video he had seen earlier again after his shower. The video was left specifically for him by the original Zhou Ming and contained important information.
...
After showering, he dried himself and returned to the bedroom.
Zhou Ming sat down at the computer desk and opened the video.
To be honest, he really didn't want to watch this video a second time, because this video... was a bit unsettling.
He clicked the mouse, the video started playing, and Zhou Ming himself appeared in the frame.
The video was filmed in this very bedroom. From the filming angle, the other party had used the computer in front of him at the time. His other self had sat in front of this computer to record this video.
"Hello, if you can see this video, it proves I succeeded.
I'm sorry to drag you into this, but now that it's happened, you must do as I say to survive.
I'm sorry... I want to apologize to you again, but I have no other choice... I can only do this."
Zhou Ming saw his other self in the video reading from a script. That was the original owner of this body.
In the video, the original owner's expression was very strange. Although he spoke sincerely, his expression seemed quite annoyed, as if reading this script was not his own will, but that someone was forcing him to read it.
"I don't know what your world is like, but if your world is normal, there shouldn't be any oddities, just like this world fifty years ago... I... Damn it! I need to calm down a bit."
The original owner started breathing heavily, his fists clenched, as if trying to suppress something.
Then, the video shook slightly, followed by subtle changes in the background and lighting. After a few seconds, the original owner re-entered the frame from outside the lens, still holding a script.
"My mental state seems pretty good today. I'll continue with what I was saying last time."
Sure enough, this video had been edited later.
"I don't know what your original world was like, but the world I'm in is not normal. This world is full of oddities, and anyone can go crazy at any time... I hope your world isn't like this.
I won't explain the specific content here. There are corresponding learning materials on the bookshelf next to me. I will also list a bibliography for you at the end of the video. Everything you want to know is in these books. Those are the essential knowledge for you to survive.
Now... now I have something even more important to say. You must... you must know how to impersonate me!"
When the original owner said the last sentence, his tone suddenly became heavier, and Zhou Ming also noticed that the other party's emotions seemed to have undergone some subtle changes.
After a few seconds, in the video, the other party's eyes suddenly turned cold, and his expression slowly became ferocious.
The next second, he suddenly let out a terrifying roar at the camera: "Damn it! Why am I saying all this! Mutation is the evolution of life, there's no madness involved at all!
This world is inherently like this! Those who don't adapt to the environment should die! Why should I save them? Why should I act according to that stupid diary!"
In the video, the original owner's expression was distorted and hideous due to excessive excitement. He furiously tore up the speech in his hand, then suddenly stretched out his hand and firmly gripped the computer's camera. Immediately, the lens shook, and a large face filled the entire screen. He stared at the camera, as if glaring at the person watching this video.
"What are you? Why should I give my body to you?!"