Book 1: Prologue
THE REAL AWAKENING(世界覺醒) is a supernatural crime thriller Taiwanese light novel series written by the author Si Zhi Jiao (四隻脚), complete at a total of seven volumes. The author’s other well-known series is Jin Xiao Yi Tan(今宵異譚), which was previously being translated at RBKTR Translations. You can find more details by clicking the Index page below. This is a dark, psychological-type series that is very fast-paced, full of gore, suspense, and angst (with the hilarious antics and great chemistry between the main characters slotted in between). Once I started reading, I just couldn’t stop. It poses a lot of questions on the integrity and morals of humans and current society from various aspects.
Warning: Beware of graphic and detailed depictions of murder, cannibalism, human experimentation, mental manipulation, suicidal thoughts, etc. (not all necessarily in this first volume).
It was a late autumn evening. The sky was quickly darkening. There was a drizzle sprinkling down intermittently in the grey misty twilight, mixed together with a cold wind that blew straight into one’s face to give a little chill.
He held a black umbrella and wore a black windbreaker with his collar pulled up. With his head lowered, he hurriedly walked through the crowd, making two turns before entering a Western-cuisine restaurant.
“Ah Shuo, over here, over here.” The girl sitting in the spot next to the window happily waved her hand at him.
He closed his umbrella and placed it inside the plastic bag the waiter handed over. He then smiled back [to the girl] as he walked over.
“Why so late? I’ve been waiting so long that I’m about to die of hunger!” The girl pouted cutely in complaint and hastily opened the menu on the table as she said, “What do you want to eat? I already decided earlier.”
He stared at his own menu in front of him and did not move as he replied, “It’s fine if you just order. I can eat anything.”
The girl abruptly paused from flipping through the menu and raised her head to stare at him with furrowed brows. “Ah Shuo, have you not been eating properly recently? You got a lot skinnier all of a sudden, and your complexion is poor too. What’s going on?”