Nethersky - Chapter 8

One would think that after the young man came to the realization that he needed to assess the situation of the world he was in now that he would do just that, but Yuning honestly didn’t know where to start.

There were just too many memories that weren’t his own floating around in his head. He felt completely overwhelmed by them all. Yes, overwhelmed was the right word to describe exactly the way Yuning felt at this moment.

Although he was delighted to be alive, he still felt as though he were thrown into the middle of a turbulent ocean amid a storm with only a raft and a paddle to make due.

Yes, these tools would be crucial to his survival, but they could only do so much in the wrong hands. In this scenario, his new set of memories was that raft and paddle.

The memories may have given him vital information about the previous owner of this body’s life, but he had no clue how to use that knowledge.

With a drawn-out sigh, Yuning fell backward onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling in deep contemplation, wondering what he should do first.

It took thirty minutes of staring at the tiny white tiles above his head before he came to the conclusion that what he needed to do was slowly sort through his new set of memories.

From what he remembered from his time spent in the white room, he had been shown only memories that pertained to key moments of the previous owner’s life.

Critical moments like learning about the other’s illness, how his other self’s parents died, the plan the other soul came up with to give his sister a better life, and the aftermath of knowing that he couldn’t.

These memories were extremely bitter, and even though they told him things he needed to know about the body he had invaded, they were kind of useless as well. Because they only showed him the big picture, but there was still the little picture to consider.

Inwardly sighing, Yuning closed his eyes and tried to remember the meditation techniques Hu Bing had taught him.

While focusing on his breathing and nothing else, Yuning attempted to gain access to his headspace. Because he was terribly anxious, it was challenging to do so, but he could enter recesses of his mind after a while using the skills he learned.

He wanted to gain access to his mind to see if he gained any knowledge from those memories that could help him right now.

As he looked through his mind, he could see that some of his original memories were replaced by the new ones. However, none of the truly important memories were removed, like his parent’s faces or the time spent with Hu Bing.

It was only some practical ones that would help him adapt better in this time.

Practical meaning things he would need to know in everyday life like birthdates, SSN, doctor information, phone numbers, etc. Although he still had the memories of the original ones, they were sort of faded and no longer as clear as they were in the past.

But as Yuning continued to look through the memories, he realized something strange. Memories that would give him a basic understanding of the futuristic technology around him and how it worked haven’t been absorbed into his brain like the other practical ones.

When wondering why that would be so, he could only assume that these strange inventions would have overloaded his brain. After all, as everyone always says, ‘seeing is believing.’

Or, in this case, instead of seeing, ‘fidgeting with’ would be the better words. Yuning didn’t need to see them; he already had the memories of the items.

The only problem was that at the moment, these items, to him, felt like they were something he had just read in a fantasy novel. He knew they were real because of the memories, but a part of him felt like they couldn’t be.

Yuning decided that he would fix that first since he needed to assimilate into this new world. He had no time to be a fish out of water.

So as to not be one, Yuning decided that he would try to connect his new memories to the futuristic devices that were inside the house and go from there. And he would start with the first thing he saw that morning, the magical moving photo.

A resolved smile graced Yuning’s face as he reopened his eyes, moving to sit back up. As he stood up, a feeling of relief swept through him; he finally knew the direction he needed to point his raft in.

With determined steps, he walked over to the bedside table and picked up the picture frame. Unlike before, when he held it, the knowledge of what was making the picture move came to mind.

It was developed in 2137 by the Epson company and was named Myriadd. Although the memories didn’t know how it worked, the general consciousness was that it was due to special plastic and bite-sized computer chips embedded within the photo paper that was making it move like that.

It felt a little surreal to Yuning; in his time of 2025, this innovation would be something that was incredibly expensive, but in this time period, this item was actually relatively cheap.

From what his memories were telling him, even the poorest of individuals were able to afford it. Seeing how something that felt as though it should be expensive as hell was actually just an everyday item took Yuning aback a bit.

Shaking his head in mild disbelief, Yuning put the frame back down on the bedside table before turning his attention to the rest of the room.

As he looked around the small dingy room, he really didn’t expect to find a lot of electronics or anything for that matter. The previous owner’s situation was very poor, both physically and financially, so if this room was anything other than sparse he would have been surprised.

Besides having some family pictures on the walls, there were only the bare essentials that cluttered the room.

But Yuning still felt the need to look around the room and familiarize himself with all the objects. Especially the medical equipment, although they might not work as well as they did before, they still worked.

And unlike the previous owner, he will fight to stay alive for as long as he can.

~~~<>~~~

Yuning didn’t know how long he had wandered around the small apartment fiddling with the strange but wondrous things that the future had to offer, but when he had somehow wound up in the bathroom, staring at a hi-tech toilet he knew that it was time to stop.

‘Mother didn’t raise any country bumpkin after all.’

Although he had to admit that as he explored the apartment, touching the different items of the previous owner, it was as though pieces of a puzzle were clicking into place. This made him feel relaxed, knowing that the picture was coming together.

And as it did, he was no longer overwhelmed, since the cluttered mess of excess memories in his head was becoming organized.

Finally, he felt as though he was mentally adjusted enough to figure out what he should do now.

This body’s time was running out, and if he wanted to keep it alive, he needed to come up with a plan sooner rather than later.