Ryan tossed and turned on his hard iron bed.
A sharp, itchy ache constantly bored into every joint in his body, while his broken ribs sent a dull, tearing pain through his chest with every heartbeat. But what was truly driving him mad was the sheer exhaustion and high-pitched ringing deep inside his brain.
He needed sleep.
Ryan sat up, his forehead beaded with cold sweat.
He pulled open the bottom-most drawer of his nightstand and reached for the wooden medicine box.
It was the laudanum he had prepared before entering the academy. However, as his fingertips groped around the bottom of the box, he found nothing but a few empty glass vials.
He had drained the last few drops the night before.
Ryan cursed under his breath, a raspy gasp escaping his dry throat. The cold sweat of withdrawal combined with the overload of the 【Lantern】 in his mind, causing his hands to tremble slightly.
He threw on his puffer-like high-collared coat, pushed open the door, and stepped out into the midnight snowstorm.
...
The academy infirmary was located in the basement on the south side of the old teaching building.
At midnight, the whale-oil lamps at the end of the corridor cast a dim, amber glow, and the air was thick with the pungent, stinging odors of carbolic acid and quicklime.
"Knock, knock, knock."
Ryan knocked on the wooden door of the duty room.
After a long pause, the sound of dragging footsteps echoed from inside. The door creaked open a crack, revealing a withered face covered in age spots.
It was the old duty physician, Hughes, a veteran drunkard who had drifted around the academy for decades. His eyebags hung like two heavy leather pouches on his face.
Hughes squinted at Ryan, sniffing the scent of blood and cold sweat on him. His tone was extremely impatient. "Why aren't you sleeping in the middle of the night? What are you doing in the infirmary? We don't hand out recreational liquor here."
"I need laudanum," Ryan said in a low voice, getting straight to the point. "Just a small bottle."
Hughes sneered and prepared to slam the door. "Listen, kid, academy rules strictly forbid handing out strong sedatives to students at night. If you overdose in your dorm and die in your bed, those rabid dogs on the committee will skin me alive. Get lost."
Just as the door was about to slam shut, Ryan wedged his hand into the gap.
"Mr. Hughes, this is for medical purposes, and for your drink money."
Ryan extended his left hand, sliding three crumpled banknotes through the narrow gap. It was the remainder of his salary from last month that he had collected from the archive, carrying the faint scent of old paper and ink.
Hughes froze.
His cloudy old eyes stared at the three genuine pound notes, his Adam's apple bobbing.
At St. Blaise, secular banknotes were always far more effective than rigid school regulations for these low-level employees on fixed salaries.
"Take it. It's only a small bottle of concentrate." Hughes swiftly snatched the banknotes into his drawer, pulled an unlabeled small brown glass bottle from the cabinet, and shoved it through the gap. "If you're caught overdosing in your dorm, don't you dare say it came from me."
Ryan took the bottle, pulled the stopper, and sniffed. A highly authentic, thick, bitter aroma of opium oil with a hint of licorice wafted out.
"Thank you."
Ryan pocketed the bottle without another word, turning and disappearing into the cold shadows of the basement.
...
Back in Dormitory 304.
Ryan used a silver letter opener to pry open the stopper, poured the concentrated laudanum into a small cup of cold water, and downed it in one gulp.
An intense bitterness and sting exploded on his tongue, rushing down his esophagus into his stomach. A moment later, a powerful sensation of numbness and warmth began to spread from his abdomen, forcibly suppressing the agonizing pain of his broken ribs.
The high-pitched ringing deep in his mind gradually receded, replaced by a floating, euphoric state of chaotic descent.
He lay back down on the iron bed, crossing his hands over his chest.
His consciousness began to slip past the cold, physical reality, crossing the boundaries of mortal sanity, descending toward that ancient and profound domain.
...
When Ryan opened his eyes again, the howling wind and snow had vanished.
In their place was a thick, humid silence, smelling of ancient humus and fungal spores.
The ground beneath his feet was as soft as the flesh of a sleeping behemoth. Towering around him were impossibly thick, pitch-black giant trees whose canopies reached into the clouds, leaving only a few wisps of colorless, cold phosphorescent light drifting between the trunks.
Ryan looked down at his hands. In the dream, his physical injuries had vanished, but a faintly glowing, colorless mark rested over his chest.
He walked slowly along the dark path covered in humus.
Suddenly, behind a dark tree trunk ahead, a blurry figure stood waiting.
The figure wore the exact same black academy robe, possessing the identical build and posture, standing quietly under the pale light of the colorless phosphorescence with hands tucked in its pockets.
"I've finally found you."
The other Ryan turned around, revealing an identical face that was, however, filled with extreme exhaustion and coldness.
Before the real-world Ryan could raise his guard, the other Ryan suddenly took a step forward. His fingertips carried a massive, violent wave of blue mental energy, slamming it ruthlessly toward Ryan's temple!
"—Take this!"
Boom!
Without any chance to block, the mental wave instantly pierced through the real-world Ryan's mental defenses!
A suffocating torrent of information exploded violently inside his mind!
This was no ordinary attack, but an entire, vast set of memories and experiences!
Skyscrapers, flashing neon lights, computer screens in cubicles, working late into the night, the suffocating sensation right before sudden death... It was the entire life trajectory of his past life on Earth!
And not only that, but it was also accompanied by everything this replica's body had experienced since it was created—waking up in a blood pool, being hunted by the Suppression Bureau and black market cultists, fighting deformed monsters in abandoned parishes, being used as bait and an experimental subject by hidden entities...
"Argh—!"
The real-world Ryan's knees buckled, nearly bringing him to the ground. His fingernails dug deep into his palms as veins bulged on his forehead! Two massive, complex sets of memories collided violently in the depths of his consciousness, grinding against each other before finally locking together seamlessly!
He finally understood.
He was not a damaged soul, nor was the other a phantom created out of thin air!
The mastermind behind the scenes had split the "transmigrator" in half! They left all past-life cognition, scientific knowledge, and big-picture perspective with the body outside the academy, while treating the physical body inside the academy as bait and a tool to lure various factions!
After a long time, the real-world Ryan slowly straightened his back.
He raised his head. His eyes, which had previously held a trace of confusion, now flowed with unparalleled clarity, wisdom, and the absolute rationality and coldness of a transmigrator.
"What a brilliant way to split us and kill two birds with one stone," the real-world Ryan muttered, wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, his voice raspy and cold.
"Do you like it?" the Ryan from outside the academy sneered, his lips curling into a sarcastic, wild arc. "Being kept like a guinea pig in this academy greenhouse to draw all the fire, having to buy laudanum just to suppress two broken ribs? Meanwhile, I'm out there in the mud, trading blows with the Suppression Bureau's hounds and the polluted monsters of the black market every single day, all while enduring the dual torture of past-life memories and pollution!"
"I don't like it," the real-world Ryan said calmly, but the 【Lantern】 Principle burning in his eyes was as bright as day. "I don't like it at all."
"Neither do I!" The killing intent in the other Ryan's eyes practically materialized. "Those high and mighty bastards, the Suppression Bureau's hounds, and the sons of bitches who split us in the shadows... They thought that by separating us, keeping one in the light and one in the dark, they could keep us pinned to the board as mere chess pieces?!"
"They underestimated the adaptability of a transmigrator, and they underestimated our brains."
The two Ryans stood under the phosphorescent light of the dark, giant trees, staring at each other from a distance.
At this moment of memory alignment, there was no need for superfluous words.
They possessed the exact same soul, the exact same thinking logic, and even their core ruthlessness and ambition were identical. Both of them smirked with a cruel, cold composure.
"They thought splitting us was a way to control us, but this is precisely our greatest advantage." The real-world Ryan tapped the colorless mark on his chest, the deductive logic in his mind flashing like lightning. "They would never expect us to be able to connect completely in the Wood."
"Exactly." The outside Ryan cracked his knuckles, letting out a crisp series of pops. "You on the inside, me on the outside."
"You will penetrate the core of St. Blaise, master the cult ruins, and use your student identity to squeeze resources and knowledge out of the academy."
Speaking of this, the outside Ryan suddenly unbuttoned his coat. In the center of his illusory, slender torso, a ball of pure, intensely writhing light was actually imprisoned!
The light was pure and blazing, radiating a piercing, high-dimensional geometric wave, like a miniature sun forcibly dragged down to earth, illuminating the humus on the dark tree trunks all around them!
"This is..." The real-world Ryan's pupils shrank slightly.
"Glory," the outside Ryan grinned, revealing a row of stark white teeth. "Last night, I hunted a deacon of a secret cult in the Lower End and forcibly devoured him. I knew you would crave this, so I saved some for you."
The outside Ryan slammed his hand forward, his palm clamping onto the violently struggling, blazing Glory like an iron vise, and slammed it ruthlessly into the real-world Ryan's chest!
"Eat it!" the outside Ryan roared. "Absorb all of this Glory! Repair your mind and body!"
Boom!
The moment that incredibly pure Glory made contact with the real-world Ryan's chest, it dissolved into a wild, warm torrent of light, flooding violently into his mental sea and spiritual body through his limbs and bones!
His mental sea, which had been covered in web-like cracks from overload, was rapidly smoothed and nourished upon contact with the Glory. The high-pitched ringing instantly vanished without a trace.
Ryan opened his arms and threw back his head, letting the endless Glory surge and circulate through his body.
The 【Lantern】 wheel deep within his pupils spun frantically. From its original faint, colorless cold light, it suddenly erupted with a brilliant, noble golden halo!
"Huu... Huu..."
The real-world Ryan exhaled a long breath of glowing white vapor and slowly opened his eyes.
Feeling the unprecedented abundance of power and clear, rational mind within his body, his gaze became incredibly cold and deep.
"This feeling... is amazing." The real-world Ryan clenched his fist.
"Of course it is. I had to take two bullets from the Suppression Bureau to snatch this raw power," the outside Ryan sneered, looking at the blazing light rising from his counterpart. "While you're in the academy, clean up those small-fry testers one by one for me."
"Don't worry." The real-world Ryan took two steps forward and extended his right fist. "Since they want to play a battle royale, let's smash the chessboard and play together."
The outside Ryan also extended his right fist. Their identical hands clashed heavily together in the lingering halo of Glory filling the Wood!
"Don't die, my outside self. The waters out there are deep."
"Worry about yourself, my inside self. Don't let those noble ladies drain you dry."
Boom!
The outside Ryan dissolved into a wave of deep blue light, vanishing into the dark tree canopy as he returned to the reality outside.
...
On the iron bed of Dormitory 304, Ryan suddenly opened his eyes and sat up!
Outside the window, the snowstorm howled, and the darkest light of dawn before daybreak fell upon the cold floor.
Ryan slid out of bed, walked to the desk, pulled out his letter opener, and drew two overlapping geometric shapes in his pocket notebook.
Having drawn the two overlapping shapes, Ryan tossed the letter opener onto the table with a crisp clink.
Leaning back against the cold chair, he slowly closed his eyes and began to rapidly review and digest all the information that had just flooded into his mind.
First, his power and injuries.
The pure Glory he had forcibly refined was flowing slowly through his limbs and bones, a warm sensation constantly seeping into his chest. His broken ribs no longer sent tearing, dull pains; only a slight, itchy sensation remained. The exhaustion and tinnitus from the overload had been completely smoothed out by this high-dimensional energy. The structure of the 【Lantern】 Principle consolidated clearly in his mental sea, the golden wheel rotating with an unprecedentedly stable rhythm.
Second, the memory and the situation.
Decades of past-life thinking logic, the forbidden blood pool beneath the public school, the treacherous waters of the Lower End's black market, the Suppression Bureau's hidden defensive deployments... The two sets of memories fit together perfectly, instantly tearing away a corner of the fog before his eyes.
The mastermind believed they had split the "transmigrator" into two puppets: one acting as a target inside the academy, drawing the tests and hunts of the various noble factions, and the other fighting bloody battles with polluted monsters in the mud outside the academy, ready to be discarded as a consumable resource at any time.
"They want to use us as chess pieces..."
Ryan let out a low, cold laugh, opening his eyes. A mesmerizing, cold golden light flickered deep within his pupils.
One in the dark, unscrupulously killing, plundering, and gathering extraordinary resources and Glory; one in the light, grandly putting down roots in the academy, extracting secret history knowledge and the protection of order.
Interlocking between light and dark, covering each other's backs.
Rate on N.U.
