Soul gets stronger?

Lu Yuanming woke up.

Ever since he became a vegetative state, he hadn't had the function of sleeping.

In this vegetative state, he couldn't feel anything, only darkness. Fortunately, he could still hear sounds from the outside world, otherwise, he would have gone mad from the situation.

Lu Yuanming was very fortunate that he could transmigrate back. This was simply an incredible thing.

He knew that the addict's body he had transmigrated into had definitely died. He should now be a soul or something similar in the afterlife.

(However, I transmigrated by soul myself. My physical body is lying in the hospital, so even if the body died after transmigrating, it's not unacceptable for my soul to transmigrate back. What I need to consider now is, if I transmigrate to another world again, will I appear directly in the afterlife in soul form, or will I possess another living person's body?)

After waking up, Lu Yuanming gradually began to ponder the world he had transmigrated to.

The other world was the future of 2028, and that world seemed to be seriously ill.

In the afterlife, he had a brief exchange with the white police officer and the black homeless man. From their mouths, he learned that the supernatural events he encountered in the slum apartment were not isolated incidents. Similar situations seemed to have occurred everywhere. Monsters, ghosts, curses, and the like were rampant, to the point where the government and the public were aware of them.

And the afterlife... was it really the afterlife?

There were too many unsolved mysteries. At least Lu Yuanming couldn't understand what he had experienced.

Compared to terrifying things like ghosts, monsters, curses, and the afterlife, his original world was at least safe. Although he was currently in a vegetative state, what if he could control his body and wake up tomorrow?

It was better than being torn to shreds and devoured by monsters after transmigrating, right?

The excruciating pain of having his leg smashed, the agony of his thigh meat being torn off bite by bite, and the despair of being pushed to the brink by monsters – all of these were deeply etched in Lu Yuanming's memory. As an ordinary young man who grew up in a peaceful era and a peaceful world, he had never dreamed of such terrifying things.

This made him afraid to transmigrate again.

Even if it meant staying in the current darkness, only able to hear a few sounds from the outside.

So Lu Yuanming stayed in his original body for a long time. Although he couldn't perceive the specific time, judging from the sounds he heard, such as the sounds being louder and more chaotic during the day and mostly quiet at night, he estimated that he had been in his original body for about ten days, or a little more than ten days. Then he discovered something unusual.

He seemed to be able to faintly, very, very faintly feel his physical body.

It was a very faint needle-prick sensation on the back of his hand. It didn't hurt, just a tiny feeling. At this moment, he heard the sounds of a nurse giving him an injection, and he also heard his parents' voices.

"...Minmin is about to take the college entrance exam, but she still has to come..."

"Why don't we take Mingming back? Let's celebrate the reunion festival together..."

"There's still a lot of compensation, but..."

Lu Yuanming couldn't hear clearly. His only sensation of the outside world was sound, and even these sounds were often blurry. Since becoming a vegetative state, the sensation on the back of his hand, like a needle prick but only a tiny bit, was the only tactile feeling he had experienced.

Lu Yuanming was hit by a car and became a vegetative state in the summer after graduating. He vaguely felt that about half a year had passed, so if he calculated, it was around the Spring Festival.

His sister's name was Lu Yuanmin. Judging by her accent, especially the Chongqing accent, it was almost identical to his own, Lu Yuanming's. This was something he and his sister often complained about to their parents, attributing it to their parents' laziness at the time.

Lu Yuanmin was 18 years old this year, in her final year of high school, five years younger than him. Unlike him, his sister was a hardworking academic master. While not a genius, her grades were far better than his, and she had a good chance of getting into a top-tier university. If she performed exceptionally well on the exam, she might even have a shot at Peking University or Tsinghua University. Hearing his parents mention this, Lu Yuanming felt a pang of sadness.

And... it was Spring Festival, a time for family reunions, yet he had fallen into a vegetative state...

After his parents left, Lu Yuanming slowly calmed down from his longing.

He immediately began to carefully consider the needle-prick sensation he had felt on the back of his hand earlier.

This was clearly a sign of his recovery.

But it was only a sign.

Moreover, Lu Yuanming had a feeling that after this transmigration back, his consciousness felt more substantial.

This was actually very difficult to comprehend. Everything he had experienced after transmigrating – a broken leg, his lower body a bloody mess, covered in wounds, it was no exaggeration to say he was severely injured. Returning in such a state, he had immediately fallen into a coma. Yet, after more than ten days, he felt his consciousness becoming more substantial and stronger.

Then, Lu Yuanming thought of the light particles that had emerged from the monster's corpse when he killed it. A few of these light particles had fallen into his mouth. The situation had been urgent at the time, and he hadn't had time to think. After returning to his original body, he had replayed the entire scene in his mind, and the matter of the light particles was naturally not overlooked.

Could it be that my soul has become stronger?

Lu Yuanming was a young man. Besides gaming, his greatest pastime was reading online novels. Making a reasonable inference, he had begun to form his own hypotheses about his current situation.

Could it be that in that Afterlife, killing monsters grants spiritual power? Essence? Or something else? And after I absorbed these things, the essence of my soul also strengthened? Furthermore, Essence, Qi, and Spirit are all interconnected. My soul strengthening naturally had some effect on my physical body, such as the connection with my body, a deeper perception of my body? Then does that mean...

As long as my soul is strong enough, I can awaken from my vegetative state!?

This thought made Lu Yuanming incredibly excited.

During the six months he had spent in a vegetative state, he had overheard doctors and his parents' conversations many times. He generally understood that he might never wake up, although with good luck, he might awaken within a few months or a year. If he was unlucky, remaining a vegetative state for life was the most normal outcome.

He didn't want this!

To decay in this darkness, unable to see the world again, unable to fulfill his filial duties to his parents, his family, friends, classmates, nothing...

He refused!

And now, he saw a possibility of awakening. Even if this possibility was minuscule, even if the dangers he faced were immense, he wanted to try!

Every time I transmigrate to another world, I must stay for seventy-two hours before I can return. Based on my previous transmigration experiences, I will return to the location where I last returned. If nothing has changed, then when I transmigrate back, I should still be in that hollow. After more than ten days, those monsters should have all left.

Therefore, I should try my best to hide and evade within this abandoned building, and search for information about the Afterlife, to endure until the seventy-two-hour mark approaches. Then I can explore larger areas. If I encounter monsters or life-threatening danger, I might be able to transmigrate back to evade them.

Lu Yuanming considered many possibilities in his mind. For example, what if he encountered a monster the moment he transmigrated?

What if those monsters instantly killed him?

Or what if he encountered something even more terrifying, like a ghost similar to Ju On or Sadako?

And if he crossed over again, would he still be crippled? Both legs basically gone, one arm probably half-crippled!

All of this was possible!

But... but...

Parents, Sister, friends, classmates...

This imperfect, yet vivid world...

Spring Festival, reunions...

That was his home...

On the day Lu Yuanming heard his parents telling him to come home, hoping he would spend the Spring Festival with his family, he charged towards the only light in the darkness.

When Lu Yuanming came to his senses, he was lying on the cement floor, completely unharmed. And at his feet, a rotten monster corpse was still blocking the entrance to the Hollow.