Chapter 45: Dreamer (Part ½)
His consciousness was like a pearl that had sunk down to a cold and desolate seabed. It was also like a solitary star suspending in the darkness of space.
Sometimes the darkness subsided. Sometimes great light was released.
In the end, pure light and darkness settled down into their respective domains. Then all sorts of outlines and contours began to appear in the border between light and darkness.
A pillow. A bedside cabinet. A table lamp. A desk…… Layers and layers began to expand to expand outwards, from near to far. Simple thoughts and familiar feelings over the layout were piecing together to become clearer in their meaning.
Luo Nan made a conclusion. This was his room, but not the room of his apartment in Blue Bay Community. It was his room in his Aunt’s house on the east face of the second story, the place he had lived in for five years.
Several more thoughts came pouring into his brain:
Gear. Human-Faced Arachnid. Explorers Society.
He Yueyin. Zhang Yingying. Xie Junping…...
Various images and clues intertwined to ultimately form a complete recognition of the series of events.
And Luo Nan was finally able to find the memory node of before he lost conscious: The operation at the Limestone Water Village Pub had ended and he sent Xue Lei home. Then. Then. It seemed that he had fallen asleep in his Aunt’s car.
So, what time was it?
His thoughts barely moved and his wristband, the lamp clock on his desk, and flexible e-ink screen in his notebook lit up with the relevant information seemingly simultaneously:
02:27 AM.
Huh…….huh?
Luo Nan suddenly opened his eyes and sat himself up, but then his lower back, his thigh, and his calf transmitted a feeling of tightness and pain at the same time. His calf was hard like iron and stone; it was cramping.
Luo Nan drew in a cold breath. He raised his foot and began to massage his leg. Although he was able to get over his cramp with quite the time, his fingers and toes still felt swollen and numb. His blood flow was stopped and blocked up. His stomach was twitching. And he felt some nausea in his throat.
These were certainly the symptoms of drug withdrawal.
This situation came as no surprise to Luo Nan. He composed himself and did the utmost to ignore the symptoms.
The AI system confirmed that the owner of the room had awakened from the series of movements it detected. It determined that the owner wouldn’t go back to sleep and it automatically turned on the lights.
Luo Nan turned his head to look around and various positions of furniture appeared in his vision. The sensation was the same as feeling around on the mental plane.
Of course, the most important thing was that it was currently 02:29. The time spent being tormented with drug withdrawal symptoms had clearly allowed him to recover the precision of his mental senses.
Luo Nan closed his eyes anew, clearing his mind of distracting thoughts. And sure enough, a distinct scene emerged within his mind.
The range wasn’t that far. When he touched passed the corridor through the room, the scene turned dusky and unclear. This was his limit.
After some analysis, he figured that his range was approximately five meters.
This was not even shit compared to the super-far perception ability of Cat Eyes. But previously Luo Nan had to commission the heavily chained crow or enter in his out-of-body soul state in order to achieve this. Today this was automatic.
It seemed that his fleshly body and mental mind were adapting endlessly to his abilities, integrating his abilities to the most natural level.
Alrighty then. He really wasn’t “an ordinary person” anymore.
Luo Nan was just about to test out his new ability, but then an oversized figure tiptoed over down the corridor, entering into the range of his senses at this time.
Luo Nan shook his head. He fought against the achy feeling of his body, got off the bed, and opened the door.
“Gasp!......”
The figure that just passed by Luo Nan’s door had her hair practically float up in fright. But soon she saw that the lights were on in Luo Nan’s room and she saw who it was. She then passed over the enormous luggage in her hand without a trace of politeness:
“Help out!”
Just looking at the size of the luggage made Luo Nan feel that he would be cramping again pretty soon. But he didn’t say anything, taking the luggage in silence. He then did his best to move softly and quietly down the stairs under this person’s commands.
Freed from her greatest burden and only carrying a guitar case, Mo Ya returned back to her free, easygoing, and handsome demeanor. She brushed aside the messy hair on her forehead, not forgetting to boss people around:
“Be more gentle! Don’t make the lights turn on when you make it downstairs!”
Transporting the luggage to the living room was extremely difficult, but they were able to prevent the AI housekeeper from turning on the lights. The older cousin sister and little cousin brother sat on the sofa panting for breath.
Mo Ya1, Luo Nan’s older female cousin, had a nice figure to the point of exploding. This characteristic beauty was usually dressed neutrally and had, very fortunately, inherited the handsome appearance of her father. She was unlike her mother, who had a very average appearance. And her height was nearly 180 centimeters due to a genetic mutation. She was currently the tallest person in the household.
She was dressed in denim right now and had her legs crossed, but those jeans were ripped in the knees to form flat and smooth triangles. The fine and powerful contours of her body were prominently displayed from beneath her jeans. It was enough to make over 70% of females shriek at how handsome she was and have them cry to the ground in envy.
Luo Nan really was paralyzed on the sofa. Even moving a finger would cause him to feel tired: “I’ve paid you back a favor…..”
Mo Ya looked at him with a frown: “Too weak. You didn’t just eat drugs to survive for this month right?”
“How is that possible. My calorie intake for a single day is about the same as your calorie intake for a month.”
“So how are you so weak even after sleeping for an entire day?”
“I slept around 10 PM last night……”
“You still think that was yesterday? You went to sleep the day before yesterday alright? You were sleeping on the car just like a dead dog. It was me and Mo Peng2 who painstakingly lifted you upstairs. And after not seeing you wake up at all, your ‘mother’ called the doctors…..”
Luo Nan raised his wrist to look at the date displayed on his wristband: September 30th!
He was left speechless for a time. He guessed that his drug withdrawal had some element in this, as well as his two days of working around the clock.
He switched topics, not wishing to be tangled up in this issue: “Why are you running away from home in the middle of the night?”
Mo Ya cried: “Running away!? I’m just going to do a road show at Man City. The time period is just a bit longer than usual is all.”
Man City was a satellite town to Xia City and was located 400 kilometers away from downtown. It was a city that borderlined the wilderness.
Luo Nan’s eyebrows furrowed hearing this: “For how many days?”
“For a month. There’s this music festival I need to take part in.”
“Aunty will kill you……”
“She’ll be too exhausted by the time I get back.”
Mo Ya turned up her nose when faced with this kind of threat. And, she didn’t let Luo Nan change topics that easily:
“Hey. Did you give up over there? Is that why you suddenly came home?”
Mo Ya was clearly talking about the matter of Luo Nan’s drug concoctions. Only she out of the entire family had a general idea of what Luo Nan had been up to for the past few years.
Luo Nan thought about it and laughed: “Nope. Now’s the resting stage.”
“It’s fine as long as you know what you’re doing.”
Mo Ya stood up, walked towards Luo Nan, and rubbed his head: “Excellent. This little fellow has calmed down quite a bit…… Anyway, that's enough pretending. My ride is here. Carry luggage for the future goddess!”
Luo Nan groaned, but in the end, he was unable to resist Mo Ya’s emphatic words. He lifted the luggage once again and made his way out sneakingly.
As soon as he exited the house, he saw the jet-black old-fashioned van parked right outside the front yard. There were even people waving. Though the skies were dark, Luo Nan had already confirmed that those were the members of Mo Ya’s band.
These people…...
The luggage was stuffed with great difficulty into the car that was already filled with people and instruments, leaving Mo Ya only able to sit on her own suitcase.
But Mo Ya cared not the slightest about this. She gave Luo Nan a hug quite refreshingly:
“Then do your best little bro. You’re doing good.”
“Do your best too….. Miss Goddess.”
The lights of the old-fashioned van lit up and the van slowly left the community. Luo Nan watched Mo Ya go, watched Mo Ya continuing to work hard for her dreams.
As for himself, he will have to work hard as well!
1. Mo Ya (莫雅, literally Elegant Mo). Mo is a surname; I had a brain fart in the beginning of the series and just believed that Moya was her first name.... I'll fix the rest of the chapters during the weekend.
2. Mo Peng (莫鹏, literally Roc Mo). I believe that this was the first time that this character was mentioned.