Three "Me"
The dim and crowded cabin was thick with a stifling air mixed with the stench of sweat.
Densely packed people were crammed inside, while a black-haired boy curled up in the corner, not moving at all.
If one only looked at his facial features, the boy's appearance was very ordinary, neither good-looking nor bad-looking.
Yet right now, his face was probably going to be extremely conspicuous.
Even disregarding the fact that his clearly "foreign" appearance stood out amidst the crowd, the characteristics on his face were prominent enough.
That was because his face was densely covered with fluorescent glowing patterns, which looked from a distance like striking cracks growing across his skin.
This looked like some kind of disease, so the crowded cabin actually left a small empty space around him, with no one willing to get close to him for fear of being infected.
His name was Morien, which meant an auspicious sign for the family and a gift from the heavens.
His parents had even joked that he wouldn't even need to change this name abroad, as just reading it together sounded like an English name.
Well, that prophecy really did come true, and he had truly transmigrated to a Western world.
However, a fortune-teller had said this name was inauspicious.
Because the combined sound "reun" was a truncated "reunion", an incomplete togetherness.
He was even a Western-style Daoist priest.
He had heard the guy was a highly educated master's degree holder.
Still, he actually seemed to have some genuine skill, managing to guess this.
If he could ever go back, he would definitely call him "Master Dao" no matter what.
Listening to the various sounds of weeping and complaining all around, along with the arguments, screams, and roars coming from overhead, Morien remained motionless, completely unresponsive.
Bzzzzz...
He always felt a bit of a ringing in his ears, feeling as though bugs were buzzing beside him, making his whole person feel dazed and muddled right now.
Yet relatively speaking, he was actually quite optimistic himself.
Though he did not know the reason, his mood was unexpectedly not bad at all.
He had already been in this world for a week.
If the "me" from his past life had died, today should also mark the seven-day post-mortem ritual...
He thought aimlessly.
I wonder if the money mom and dad burned can reach me over here...
He felt in his pocket, finding only a water-logged earphone case and a dead phone.
There was no money.
It looked like that wouldn't be the case...
Then he hoped they wouldn't waste money.
Graves, joss paper, funerals, and all those things cost a lot of money, but if I can't enjoy any of it, there's really no need...
It would be better for them to keep that money for themselves...
He suddenly found that double vision seemed to appear before his eyes, so he closed them for a moment, inexplicably feeling somewhat unwell.
Seven days ago, he was originally just walking down the street with his earphones on, playing on his phone while walking home.
Suddenly, the ground beneath his feet vanished, and he inexplicably tumbled into the water.
It was seawater, extremely salty seawater.
He simply couldn't understand why he would suddenly fall into the sea while on land, but fortunately, he knew how to swim a little.
So he trod water, drifting in the ocean for nearly an entire day.
Luckily it was summer, otherwise he probably would have frozen to death in the water.
Just as he was cold, hungry, thirsty, and exhausted to the point of having almost no strength left, a passing ship happened to fish him up.
The kind captain took him in.
This was the unwritten rule of the sea: when encountering shipwreck survivors, one needed to provide aid.
Because only when everyone abided by this rule would other captains reach out to help when one suffered misfortune oneself.
Of course, this rule could only constrain good people.
Morien was very glad that the captain he encountered was a good person.
But not everyone on the ship seemed to be a good person.
This ship had just encountered pirates a dozen days or so ago, and most of its supplies had been looted clean.
Although that group of pirates strangely adhered to the principle of not killing captives, not killing a single person and even leaving behind enough supplies for everyone to return to the land alive, the evil of human nature still erupted at this moment.
The anger of being robbed and the depression brought by the unchanging scenery of the vast ocean combined, causing some crew members' emotions to become extremely sensitive.
A day or two could barely be managed, but after five days passed, ten days passed...
In the second week after the pirates left, which was the very day Morien boarded the ship, the suppressed emotions erupted.
Morien had just boarded the ship not long ago, and he had not even had time to change his clothes before a massive riot broke out on board, erupting into fierce infighting.
From arguments to brawls, and then to drawing revolvers, raising straight swords, and slaughtering one another...
Over the next few days, Morien, a frail college student who had never even killed a chicken, witnessed true hell.
He watched with his own eyes as the people around him fell one after another, with eyes that would never close. Limbs, hearts, and intestines were splattered all over the ground.
If it were not for his absolute hunger, he certainly would have vomited everywhere.
Meanwhile, the rest of the crew who were unwilling to become beasts had nowhere to hide and no way to escape.
Surrounded by the boundless ocean, they could go nowhere.
Some wept bitterly, some begged for mercy, and some sold their bodies, but their heads were still hung from the mast.
Fortunately, however, Morien discovered that as a transmigrator, he genuinely seemed to possess some sort of Beyonder Ability.
He seemed to be able to control the attention of others.
As long as he silently stayed still, everyone would ignore him.
Thus, over the next two days, he hid in a corner, saying nothing and doing nothing.
Soon, someone finally stood up.
The captain led them to hide in the sturdy lower deck of the cabin, intending to rely on the fresh water and food prepared in advance to hold out until those crazy fellows reached their limits.
Morien also blended in with them and hid at the bottom of the ship.
However, once everyone calmed down, his strange ability also seemed to become much less useful.
Someone still noticed him staying in the corner.
Yet, I do not know when, dense fluorescent patterns had already crept up Morien's face, making him look extremely terrifying.
Everyone subconsciously avoided him and was unwilling to get close.
He could understand and did not mind, but he just felt bad inside.
Only a gentleman who looked like a kind person was willing to approach Morien.
He had a round, amiable face and a shy personality, like a girl.
Morien could not understand what they were saying, but he could still catch simple transliterations.
Therefore, when that kind gentleman pointed at himself and stated his name, he still understood.
That gentleman said his name was "Tris".
Tris...
Only on that day did Morien finally react.
A chaotic ship, a crew member named "Tris", and the crimson moon he had vaguely seen a few days prior...
This was the world of Lord of Mysteries, and this was the Clover!
Upon first learning of this matter, Morien was still somewhat worried.
Because in this world, knowledge was poisonous.
And not only had he read the entire Lord of Mysteries, he had even read the Third Blasphemy Slate.
Namely, the Squid's official WeChat account.
Yet strangely, a full seven days had passed now, and he had almost finished passing his first-seven memorial, but still no contamination had descended, and no strange consciousness was awakening within his body.
Morien lowered his head and pondered silently.
Could it be...
Could it actually be that the me of the present is the newly born consciousness?
Ah! Little did I expect that I was actually an avatar of an Outer Deity!
"Morien... Morien..."
A shout interrupted Morien's thoughts.
At that moment, a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him up.
The round-faced Tris stood beside him, tugged at his arm, pointed at the patterns on his face, and spoke passionately to the surrounding crew members about something.
Although he could not understand, Morien could roughly guess that he was talking about the patterns on his face, perhaps saying that the people outside were demons, and that they were the ones who forced a pitiful person to contract a disease.
Under Tris's speech, the eyes of the people in the cabin gradually turned firm, no longer terrified.
Following Tris's speech, the atmosphere inside the cabin gradually grew more and more lively.
Indignant expressions appeared on everyone's faces, wishing they could tear the thugs outside to pieces.
Morien knew that Tris was digesting the Instigator Potion.
Yet Morien could not understand at all, so his thoughts wandered and he let his mind drift.
He fished the plot of Lord of Mysteries out from his memory.
In the plot, the entire Alfalfa Tragedy had been orchestrated single-handedly by Tris.
However, Morien clearly knew that this cruel Assassin would face the justice of the Loen royal family in the future, and would be fiercely spanked by a heroic prince amidst his desolate cries.
The prince thrust his long spear at this evil Demoness to protect the world.
How great Prince Edessak was.
Prince Edessak always stood on the front line of fighting the Demoness.
Good job, Edessak. You truly are the glory of the Augustus Family.
His scattered thoughts slowly pulled back, and Morien felt a bit dizzy.
Soon, Tris finished speaking about Morien, let go of his hand, and let Morien sit back in his original seat by himself, while he continued his speech.
Morien sat back in the corner and continued to let his thoughts wander.
The more his thoughts wandered, the more he felt out of place with the people around him.
"Sigh..."
He let out an imperceptible sigh and scanned the crowd around him.
Clearly there were so many people around, yet he inexplicably felt lonely, only able to make himself feel a bit better by constantly shifting his thoughts and letting his mind wander.
He completely failed to integrate into the atmosphere of the scene.
Everyone was excited, everyone was expectant, and everyone was passionate.
Yet he was not.
He could not understand Tris's speech, could not blend into the atmosphere, and could not even view the people around him as his own kind.
This made Morien involuntarily reflect.
Was he too arrogant?
Was it because he was a transmigrator that he didn't treat other people as living human beings at all?
But that shouldn't be the case; he had always felt that he was a very approachable person.
As a fragile 19-year-old college student, he had fantasized countless times about transmigrating to another world.
Yet when this day truly arrived, he discovered that he could not integrate into this world no matter what.
Strange... I clearly am not that pretentious... he muttered to himself, yet the melancholic feeling did not decrease at all.
On his face, the fluorescent-colored patterns became a bit more obvious.
Morien clenched his hands tightly.
Very strange... truly very strange...
No matter what, he used to be considered a social butterfly, but after coming here, he only felt a profound sense of disconnection from others.
So uncomfortable...
The tinnitus in his ears began to grow louder again.
Buzz, buzz, buzz...
Multiple overlapping images appeared before Morien's eyes.
Not knowing what he said, Tris began to lead the people inside the cabin in shouting slogans.
With firm tones, they followed Tris over and over again, shouting words that Morien could not understand.
Morien felt even more uncomfortable.
He felt like a bug drifting outside of events.
The sense of loneliness enveloped him like a tide.
Right, he seemed to understand, understanding why he had that kind of feeling.
He was an anomaly, an anomaly without a single of his own kind in the entire universe.
Transmigrators like Klein and Roselle at least had their own kind, and at least that unreturnable hometown of theirs existed in the mist of history.
As a true "transmigrator," however, he had nothing at all.
He couldn't even say something like "at least we are looking at the same moon," because he was well aware that he and his family were looking at two completely different moons.
The more he thought about it, the lonelier he felt.
For some reason, as he grew lonelier and lonelier, his memory began to slowly improve.
It improved to the point where he could easily recall his past life and think of other people at home.
As his memory grew better and better, past memories became more and more profound.
As past memories became more and more profound, his nostalgia for the past grew deeper and deeper.
As his nostalgia for the past grew deeper and deeper, his loneliness regarding his current plight grew more and more intense.
And as he grew lonelier and lonelier, his memory grew better and better...
"How am I..."
Morien spoke up instinctively, but even though the words came out, a sound similar to an insect beating its wings simultaneously issued from his throat.
He lowered his head and looked at his hands.
His hands were also full of those fluorescent-colored patterns.
"What on earth am I..."
At that moment, he suddenly felt the scene before his eyes go dark.
A profound blackness surged from behind, instantly swallowing him whole.
He instantly plunged into pitch darkness.
"Huh?" Morien looked around with some confusion.
The sudden change did not make him feel fearful.
On the contrary, for some reason, he began to relax.
In this darkness, Morien actually felt a long-lost sense of ease.
For these past seven days, he had been immersed in an indescribable sense of loneliness; now that he was left alone, it felt inexplicably comfortable, and he could not feel lonely at all.
This was very strange.
He stood in place, standing silently.
One second, two seconds...
Morien slowly closed his eyes, feeling the profound darkness wrap around him, feeling as though he had escaped loneliness.
The fluorescent-colored patterns on his body gradually faded a bit.
After an uncounted amount of time, he suddenly sensed someone approaching from behind.
Morien instinctively turned his head to look behind him.
Two people were standing behind him, though it was unclear when they had appeared.
Even though this space was pitch black, he could clearly see them and every single detail on their bodies.
One of them wore sloppy, blood-stained clothes, with a somewhat ferocious face covered in wounds, looking as though he was about to fall apart—completely a "tattered version."
The other looked much cleaner, but his expression was quite listless, and the fluorescent-colored patterns on his face and body were several times more numerous than Morien's own.
Morien instantly recognized those two faces.
Ignoring some minor flaws, they were almost identical to the face covered in patterns that he had previously accidentally seen himself with in the mirror.
It was just that each of them looked even more wretched than he did.
Although both of these faces looked somewhat bizarre and somewhat ferocious, Morien could not muster even a shred of fear.
Upon seeing these two identical faces, Morien immediately had an inspiration.
He thought of a genre he had seen before when reading web novels.
"Simultaneous transmigration."
Simply put, it was when a person was split and replicated, respectively transmigrating into several, a dozen, or even hundreds of different worlds.
The self in these different worlds would have different experiences and different fortuitous encounters, and would occasionally meet in the same fixed space to synchronize memories and powers with each other.
At this moment, the listless-looking "Morien" also seemed to have figured everything out.
He looked at Morien, an expression that was practically about to cry appearing on his face, which was covered in fluorescent-colored patterns.
He emitted a sound mixed with the buzzing of insect wings.
"Oh mom... I finally get to see my own kind..."
Calling them his own kind was an understatement; this was himself.
The next instant, this "self" lunged at Morien like a pouncing beast.
The movement was extremely fast; before Morien and the other self could react at all, he was grabbed.
This "self" had a lot of strength, carrying Morien as he lunged five or six meters forward.
As their bodies collided, just as Morien had guessed, the memories of the two individuals began to synchronize.
Meanwhile, the third, tattered version of "Morien" who had been left unoccupied stood dumbfounded off to the side, hesitating over whether he should step forward.