A powerful headache woke Bai AnLing up, making him clutch his head and whimper in pain."Arghhh! WTF?! My head?"
With pain clouding his mind and the room being in darkness, he blindly searched for his gla.s.ses on the drawer next to his bed. When he was unable find them, he tried reaching for his wheelchair, to no avail.
"Maybe I forgot to lock the wheels last night and it wheeled away..."
Bai AnLing thought to himself as he once again tried to blindly reach for his wheelchair. He needed to get to the wheelchair in order to open the light, since the switch was all across the room, on the other end of it. As he was reaching his hand, he reached too far away and lost his balance, falling off the bed.
"Argh!"
He once again groaned in pain as his knees. .h.i.t the ground, right before he quieted, realizing what had just happened.
"How-"
Ever since the accident he no longer had any control or feeling in the area below his waist, being able to feel pain in his knees was an impossible thing to happen.
"-How am I feeling this pain?"
As he reached with his hand to touch the pained area, a voice was suddenly heard in his mind, making him flinch in fear.
[Good morning host. How are you feeling?]
Although it sounded somewhat mechanic, the voice was cheerful and friendly, not feeling very threatening to Bai AnLing yet confusing him very much.
"Who is this?!"
Bai AnLing searched the room with his eyes that were still trying to adapt to the darkness to no avail, he couldn"t see anything at all.
[The process of transportation might sometimes come with temporary confusion or headaches, please try to think back and remember what is happening.]
The voice spoke again, trying to instruct Bai AnLing. Deciding to believe in his instincts that told him he can trust the voice and follow his instructions, Bai AnLing took slightly deeper breaths in order to relax. Memories started to flow in his mind as soon as he relaxed, gushing in until he was able to recall everything that had happened prior to him waking up in the dark room just now.
"I died?"
Bai AnLing mind couldn"t process such a reality. His body suddenly felt as if it was 50 degrees Celsius in the room and he started to hyperventilate, making him grow dizzy and hot.
[Host? Host! You are having a panic attack! Please calm down and take bigger breaths!]
Bai AnLing was too dizzy to comprehend the words that the voice was saying, feeling as if they were only some static voice. His dizziness was so bad that even though his eyes already got adapted to the darkness, his brain couldn"t make anything of the images it was receiving. The darkness surrounding him suddenly felt as if it was closing in on him, making his feel scared and powerless. He was about to pa.s.s-out from the lack of oxygen reaching his brain, when the voice suddenly commanded.
[CALM DOWN!]
The metallic voice was exchanged with a more feminine one that was full of authority, reminding Bai AnLing of his late mother and all those times she reprimanded him for making a mistake in his studies. His fear made him obey the order immediately, taking slightly deeper breaths and calming down gradually. After calming down enough, Bai AnLing still questioned his sanity.
"Am I losing my mind just like my dad did?"
He questioned himself out loud while thinking that he probably looks crazy anyway, so why should he keep appearances?
[You are not losing your mind.]
The voice turned back to it"s metallic version.
"Why are you using this voice again?"
Bai AnLing questioned out of curiosity alone, as he did prefer this voice over the voice that was used to calm him down.
[The other voice was just used in order to calm you down. I am a system, not a human.]
"Oh... I see...."
Bai AnLing decided to give up. Even if he is losing his mind, believing he died and is hearing voices, it"s still probably better than to face the reality of his current life. If dying was a dream after all, he was probably already raped by that stalker.
"Maybe this is like a coping mechanism created by my brain, trying to help me through the harsh and incomprehensible reality of being raped? If so, I rather play along then wake up to it."
Bai AnLing got to this decision as he thought about the options rationally.
"For now I"ll let this be my new reality and live my life in it to the fullest. That way, whether in the end I"ll find out that this situation is just in my mind or if I find out it is real after all, I"ll have no regrets. For now it will be "que sera sera" as they say."