Painfull
This is so painfull
Ahh fuck my head hurts so badly
Reality had fractured into a myriad of glittering glass shards around Gu Qien, each fragment refracting a disorienting tapestry of light and memory, while a relentless, pulsating agony echoed through the hollow corridors of his mind.
The agony was indescribable, like an unseen force had driven a jagged instrument through his brain, wrenched it free, and subjected it to unspeakable torment.
No, it was more focused, more surgical, like a blazing-hot needle lancing straight through his ocular nerves, burrowing into his skull, and detonating waves of pain that rippled mercilessly across his temples.
"Ugh…" A low, strained groan escaped Gu Qien's lips as he struggled to reclaim control over his unresponsive body.
With great effort, he turned his head, each movement sending fresh stabs of pain through his neck, as his blurred vision swept across the unknown surroundings in a desperate search for clarity.
'Nothing makes sense… The edges of reality feel blurred, as though I'm trapped in the lingering fog between sleep and wakefulness. It doesn't feel like I've fully awakened, no, it's more like I've stumbled into a dream that believes itself to be real. Or perhaps the cruelest part is yet to come… when I awaken again, only to find that this moment was just a fleeting delusion in a dream nested within another. What if I never truly wake up?'
Gu Qien, no stranger to such uncanny sensations, summoned every ounce of willpower to anchor his awareness.
Even though he slightly move his neck he still resisted the urge to panic, knowing that even the slightest flinch could unravel the tenuous clarity he had left, he dared not create any sudden movements, no chains of consequence, no misstep that could plunge him deeper into the Unknown.
Yet even within his strained reverie, whatever fragments of clarity he managed to summon felt ethereal, like mist slipping through his fingers. His thoughts scattered like dust in a storm, refusing to align.
The harder he tried to wrest control over his mind, the more it slipped from his grasp, overwhelmed by a relentless cascade of intrusive thoughts, each one eclipsing the last in an unending spiral of mental noise.
'I mean… why would I be experiencing such a maddeningly intricate headache in the dead of night?' he wondered, the question drifting through his mind like a whisper lost in the chaos.
'And it's reaaaally painfull.'
'Could it be something like a neurological disorder? Maybe early-onset temporal lobe epilepsy… or some kind of parasitic hallucination?' The thought was absurd, yet in his haze, it didn't feel entirely impossible.
'Oh Fucking shit. Don't tell me I really am going to die this young?!'
'I fuckin need to wake up now!'
Thud
'...'
"Tch…" he hissed under his breath, eyes narrowing as the intensity of the pain began to subside, just enough to breathe through.
'It's easing… slightly. Less of a storm, more of a dull blade now. But still, something sharp remains, buried in my skull like a rusted knife twisting every few seconds.'
He tried to shift his body again, only to be met with stiff resistance from his limbs. The ache had drained him more than he realized.
'Great… just great,' he thought bitterly.
'At this rate, there's no way in hell I'm getting any sleep. And tomorrow, no, in a few hours, I've got work. How the hell am I supposed to show up like this? Groggy, half-dead, and completely wrecked? They'll think I've lost it.'
He let out a dry laugh, more hollow than amused.
'Maybe I already have.'
Sigh
'Why the hell am I even thinking about work right now?' The thought struck him mid-groan, irritation blooming alongside the pain.
'Of course my mind's a mess, this headache isn't just annoying, it's debilitating. It's got to be some kind of neural dilemma… or maybe a stress-induced cognitive collapse. Something serious, no doubt.'
He paused, the idea forming more clearly in his mind, like a silver lining cutting through the haze.
'Well… if that's the case, I might as well take a day or two off. Rest. Recover.' His lips twitched into the faintest of smirks.
'Come to think of it, that doesn't sound half bad. Time away from that fluorescent-lit hellhole. A few quiet days to myself… heh, could even be nice.'
The throbbing pain coursed through Gu Qien's skull in relentless waves, yet amidst the agony, something intangible began to stir within him, a slow, imperceptible gathering of will. It was as though the torment itself was forging a strange resilience.
Inch by inch, he wrested control back from the paralysis, until at last, he managed to shift his neck and arch his back slightly. And in that moment, subtle yet profound, his eyes parted, dragging him free from the clutches of that surreal, dreamlike trance.
His vision was clouded at first, veiled by a shadowy blur that clung stubbornly to his eyes like a film of darkness. As his sight gradually adjusted, the shapes around him began to take form.
The first thing that met his gaze was a set of aged, wooden oak walls, rich in grain and darkened by time. Just to his left, embedded neatly into the wall, was a tall mirror with an antique frame, its surface catching the dim light in a way that felt strangely... watchful.
And to his right rested a lantern, roughly half the size of an adult's head, its design both practical and ornate. The inner layer was crafted from smooth, transparent glass that shimmered faintly in the low light, while the outer shell was encased in blackened metal, gilded with delicate, almost ceremonial engravings.
It looked old, yet meticulously maintained, as though it held more purpose than simply warding off the dark.
The lantern bore the hallmarks of classical Western design, elegant yet utilitarian, with a slightly arched handle and a chimney top that hinted at a bygone era. Its style evoked the quiet charm of oil-lit inns and cobbled streets lost to time.
It emitted a soft, crimson-red glow that pulsed gently from within, casting a warm yet eerie radiance across the room. The faint light shimmered against the wooden walls, giving the entire space an otherworldly sheen, like a forgotten chamber caught between dream and reality.
'What… is all this?' he murmured, his voice hoarse and laced with confusion.
'What kind of lamp even glows like that…?' His gaze lingered on the crimson hue for a moment longer before slowly sweeping across the unfamiliar room.
'And more importantly… where the hell am I?'
Amidst the confusion clouding his mind, a creeping realization began to settle in, the glow from the lantern wasn't the sole source of light illuminating the room.
A deeper, more pervasive crimson hue bled in from beyond the windowpane. Compelled by a silent urgency, he tilted his head upward, straining his neck, and slowly directed his gaze toward the source.
There, just beyond the warped glass, the red rays shimmered like something unnatural, something ominous, crawling in from the outside world.
There, he saw it. Suspended low in the sky like a silent omen, loomed a moon unlike any he had ever witnessed. No, not a moon, a colossal, crimson sphere that bathed the world in its eerie radiance.
Its surface swirled with faint, arcane patterns, as though it were alive, watching. It didn't just feel unnatural… it wasn't of this world. It belonged to somewhere, something, else.
"Uahhh!" A startled gasp tore from Gu Qien's throat as his eyes locked onto the surreal, monstrous moon. A wave of confusion, disbelief, and creeping dread surged through him.
Instinctively, he jolted upright from the seat he had occupied only moments before, his body reacting before his mind could even comprehend the impossibility before him.
He stood frozen, horror etching itself deep into his expression as the weight of what he'd just witnessed began to settle. The sheer impossibility of the scene before him gnawed at his sanity, a sky painted in crimson, ruled by a moon that didn't belong.
It wasn't just unsettling… it was wrong in every sense of the word.
But then, as if pulled by an invisible thread, his gaze snapped to the left, toward the mirror embedded in the wall. Something about it felt off, beckoning.
He took a cautious step forward, his breath shallow, and approached it with a mix of hesitation and instinct. And there it was, the reflection.
His reflection
A silver hair, a red crimson eyes, a linen shirt, thinly buit, average looking features and a deep outline.
"Am I Transmigrated?!"