Chapter 52. The Unknown
"What's happening?!" I screamed in my mind as my "virtual" body was sucked into an incomprehensible vortex, and my consciousness slowly and inevitably faded.
Just moments ago, I was in the midst of a fierce battle with a powerful spirit that controlled gravity. Suddenly, the recreated world began to disintegrate into particles of light, and at that same moment, this whirlpool appeared beside me.
I regained consciousness with difficulty, feeling as if my body had been wrapped in a second skin. After about thirty minutes, my senses slowly returned. I lay on something hard, my limbs cold. It was time to open my eyes.
"A? Why won't my body obey me?!" I began to panic openly when I couldn't open my eyes or even move a finger.
"Calm down, it's probably some unforeseen issue, and Van Shi Tong will fix it soon," I tried to reassure myself to avoid another breakdown. Wait! Why do I feel like this body is alive? Could I have been thrown into the real world?
Before I could develop this thought, my body began to wake up! But I wasn't asleep! At that moment, I fully felt the duality of my state. My consciousness was flooded with feelings that weren't mine—sadness, fatigue, immense love, and an unyielding determination.
Along with these emotions, I began to feel the "body" itself: aching knees that hurt even when "I" lay still, stinging palms, and of course, the cold—the kind that seeps into your bones. Am I sleeping naked in the snow?!
Before my open eyes lay a bleak scene. Even the South Pole would be better. The wooden hut was no more than ten meters long, the boards looked old, and in the middle of the room stood a crudely made stove with embers barely glowing. There was almost no decoration, except for a faded red cloth bearing the emblem of the Fire Nation.
I noticed "my" hands—darker skin and calloused palms. When I looked down, I saw I was dressed in well-made but old red clothing, soon to have more patches than original fabric.
So, this body isn't mine. I'm somewhere in the Fire Nation or one of its colonies, and I still don't understand what's happening! As I pondered, the body skillfully added coal to the stove and heated something in a pot. The man—steel—slept in simple clothes on plain boards, his face unchanged as his stomach ate itself, and goosebumps ran over his skin from the cold.
Before I could decide what to do, it seemed the decision was made for me. The man's memories flooded my consciousness—his entire life, buried under his hopes, dreams, and feelings.