Divination

Dinner was baked beans in tomato sauce and a large piece of rye bread.

This kind of hard bread did not taste very good, but it was a staple for their family.

After dinner, the whole family went to bed early. Mother Aisha coughed throughout the night.

Gallo could hear his younger sister's little fists patting their mother's back.

On his first night after transmigrating, he slept heavily and even had nightmares.

In his dreams, the memories of two people surfaced in chaotic disorder: those of his previous life and those of this body's original owner.

They were like two fired bullets colliding, instantly shattering into metallic dust.

The image of his mother from his previous life overlapped with Aisha, his mother in this world. He was originally on a university campus from his past life, yet he could see his little sister Lily bouncing toward him.

Then countless fragments flickered through the dream before finally sinking into chaotic nothingness.

The terrifying scenes within Subspace began to plague his dreams...

When Gallo woke in the morning, his bedsheets were soaked through with sweat.

"I really slept terribly..." He took a deep breath. The walls leaked drafts from every direction, and the air in the room was cold enough to sting his lungs.

He summoned the interface again and looked at the three attributes belonging to the Wisdom Path: [Learning Lv2], [Memory Lv2], and [Knowledge Lv1].

His gaze lingered on [Knowledge]. He then hoped to find an option on the interface to reallocate his points, but unfortunately, there was no such function.

If this system had a respec function, the first thing he would do would be to erase the point he had put into Knowledge.

To forget those Subspace contents he did not dare recall.

He got dressed, drank a large cup of cold water, and ate some leftover rye bread from last night.

Then, through the cloth curtain, he softly woke his younger sister and gave her a few instructions before leaving home. He wanted to try his luck outside and see whether he could find work as an apprentice.

At the very least, he could earn a little money to buy medicine for his mother, fill his own stomach, and reduce the household expenses.

As for the monthly rent of one Nalang and thirty Copper Nil, it was far too difficult to afford on an apprentice's wages.

Gallo could only find a way to use what little savings the family had to pay this month's rent first. As for next month, he would have to think of another solution.

He walked down the narrow wooden staircase and arrived on Valen Street.

He had come out too early. Even the landlord's family grocery store had not opened yet.

Mr. Jell's grocery store always opened punctually every morning. Gallo looked at the tightly shut shop door on the first floor and realized he must have left home before seven.

They did not even own a clock. He guessed it was probably just past six in the morning.

When he left, he had told his sister that he was heading out early to do two things. First, he would go to the school to arrange a leave of absence.

Second, he would look outside for apprentice work.

Once Mother woke up, Lily could pass those words on to her.

Gallo wandered aimlessly. As the sky grew brighter, more and more people appeared around him.

By then, Gallo had walked quite far from Valen Street and turned into several other streets. Many workers around him were gathering and hurrying toward the factories.

One after another, they looked bleary-eyed and yawned as they walked.

Some women carried baskets and sold warm, bread-like food, along with pickled sour and salty dried fruit.

Gallo also saw a group of factory child laborers in filthy clothes. Most were about his age, and a few were even younger than him.

Their eyes were numb and exhausted. The childish liveliness children should have possessed could not be seen at all on their suffering little faces.

Gallo took a deep breath. Factory child laborers earned a little more than apprentices, but he would never go!

In his previous life, he had read in textbooks about how miserable the fate of child laborers had been during the Industrial Revolution. This world was not much different.

He walked through several streets in a row, to the point where he almost forgot the way home.

It had rained last night. His boots squelched softly through mud mixed with coal ash and sewage.

His gaze swept over the buildings on both sides like a searchlight.

A small restaurant had a sign outside looking for a kitchen helper, but it required experience.

The clang of hammering came from a blacksmith's shop. The furnace glow reddened the sweat-soaked face of an apprentice. That work looked exhausting enough to kill someone, and they did not seem short on hands.

A blurry notice was pasted on a grocery store window. It read, "Help Wanted," but there was another line in smaller print beneath it: "Guarantor required."

He did not stop until his feet began to ache. Then he found a clean spot at random and sat down to rest.

"I feel like a headless fly buzzing around everywhere. In my previous life, I was a programmer, but that is completely useless in this world."

After sitting down, he felt hungry again. He searched his pockets and found a one-Fenso coin.

Clutching the coin in his hand, Gallo gave a bitter smile and joked, "Too bad I was not superstitious before. Otherwise, I should have gotten my fortune told long ago and asked why my situation is so miserable now."

In an instant, a flash of light appeared in Gallo's mind. It came from one piece of his Subspace knowledge.

"Divination?!"

Gallo quietly spoke the word. Among the chaotic Subspace knowledge filling his mind was a piece concerning divination.

Subspace was the other side of the Physical universe. There was no substance there, and time was disordered.

However, every life in each Physical universe, from birth to death, was recorded within Subspace, forming a thread of fate, or a record of fate.

"The Law of Causality!"

Gallo took a deep breath and spoke the term. He held his head, trying to suppress the active Subspace knowledge in his mind.

"Seriously... once I learn anything about Subspace, a huge amount of Subspace knowledge starts becoming active in my head. It feels like a group of tiny people dancing inside my brain!"

All records of the fates of living beings in the Physical universe ultimately synchronized within the Law of Causality.

It was a universal archive system that recorded everything occurring in the Physical universe at every moment, as well as every thought, word, and action produced by all living beings.

It was a collection of mysterious knowledge stored within Subspace.

Divination meant examining one's own fate and seeking answers from the Law of Causality.

Using the present moment in the Physical universe to foresee an answer at a future point in the Law of Causality belonging to one's own fate within Subspace.

Such answers were fixed. Once glimpsed, no matter how one tried to alter the process in between, the final result would inevitably occur according to the answer that had been seen.

"Those with Psionic talent can become professional diviners after undergoing certain training. Not only can they examine their own Law of Causality records.

"They can even examine other people's records and perform divinations for them!

"And I have more or less guessed what the so-called Psionic Path in the system represents.

"Wisdom, Psionic, and Physical—these three paths are all ultimately connected to Subspace."

Gallo stood up and looked at the one-Fenso coin in his hand.

"Before six this evening, will I be able to find an apprentice job that satisfies me?"

He tossed the one-Fenso coin into the air. If it landed heads-up, the answer would be yes.

But Gallo did not know whether he possessed Psionic talent, nor did he know whether this divination could obtain an answer from the records of the Law of Causality.

Just as the coin landed on the back of his hand and he covered it with his other hand, he suddenly felt the surrounding temperature plummet. For a brief instant, it seemed as though he had appeared somewhere else.

At the same time, unfamiliar gazes seemed to be watching him.

"Phew..." Gallo exhaled and looked around. There was nothing else unusual.

He moved his hand away and looked at the result on the back of his hand. It was heads!

Gallo smiled bitterly and shook his head, then put the coin away. He still did not know whether he possessed Psionic talent, so he could only treat the result of this divination as psychological comfort.