Nethersky - Chapter 9

With that understanding lodged in his head, Yuning strolled out of the bathroom and walked down the hall that would take him back to his bedroom.

Now that his curiosity was sated and his head felt more stable, Yuning was finally able to see what he missed when he was exploring around, and that was the inadequacy of the apartment that he would now be living in.

As he glanced about as he walked, he saw peeling wallpaper, cracks on the ceiling, and heard the creaking of the floorboards. Yuning knew that even though the previous owner tried hard to make this place livable, nothing could change how appalling this place really was.

Yuning didn’t want to act ostentatious, but he really wasn’t used to being in this sort of environment.

He had lived an opulent lifestyle all his life, with a luxurious house, car, and had all his wants and needs taken care of by staff hired by his parents.

Having to live in such a small dingy apartment while also being required to take care of himself and a little kid, being thrown into this situation felt a bit disconcerting. But he had to persevere; because if he didn’t, he won’t have a life to worry about.

Yuning knew that adapting to this kind of environment wouldn’t be easy, especially for a rich kid who had been smothered in luxury for so long, but he understood that he needed to do so.

‘I can do this. All the great ones started from the bottom; if they can do it, so can I,’ Yuning thought to himself as he tried to accept his new surroundings while making his way to the bedroom.

In what seemed like no time he had reached the room, and as he walked inside the room, he couldn’t help but make comparisons to where he used to live.

‘It used to take me 20 minutes to transverse through my family’s mansion to reach my room, now it takes less than a minute.’

With lips pressed firmly together, Yuning walked into the dreadfully small room. Wanting to brood, but knowing that there was no time to do, he took a deep breath and wondered where he should start.

After staring blankly for a few moments, he looked over towards the holographic clock. The clock projected a screen that displayed the current time in his city, the weather, and clothing that would be suitable to wear outside.

As he looked at it, he was shocked to realize that almost two hours had passed since his instant sister had left for school, and his wanderings had begun.

With the knowledge that he only had five hours left before the school day ended, he knew that he needed to get a move on it.

Walking over to the tiny metal desk he noticed previously when he was examining the room, Yuning pulled back the grey chair before sitting down and grabbing the blue Perfetti book that was placed off to the side neatly.

Yuning had seen it previously while searching the room; at first, when he saw it, he thought it was a journal of some kind, but he knew exactly what it was when he picked it up. It was one of those reusable notebooks that had been popular in his time.

It was sort of comforting to see technology, even an advanced version of it, that he knew about before he transmigrated, besides basic appliances. Although it was strange to know that back in the year 2025, they cost around $300-$400, but it was only $5 nowadays.

Shaking his head at the thought, Yuning seized a pen from a nearby pencil holder and opened the notebook up. Now that head felt clear, and his other set of memories weren’t cluttering up his mind, he was ready to figure out a game plan.

‘Alright, Yuning, it’s time to think. You need to make yourself a survival plan.’ he thought to himself as he wrote ‘Things I Need To Do’ in capital letters on the top of the notebook page.

While tapping the pen to his cheek, Yuning began to think about what he needed to do first. Suddenly the memory of his double’s shopping spree came to mind, and he knew what he needed to do.

He needed to check how much he had in the bank. What he understood from the memories he gained, the previous owner had gotten $10,000 from his work as a speechwriter.

However, the original soul of this body spent over $3000 yesterday on him and his sister. So Yuning didn’t know exactly how much was left.

Luckily the previous owner had already paid the rent and utility bills, so he wouldn’t have to worry about that for another month. But he would still need to buy food and other necessities.

‘It seems a month’s worth of food is usually $400- $500 when buying no-brand and damaged products,’ Yuning concluded to himself as he searched through his memories.

Besides worrying about money, the next thing he needed to do was make an appointment to go see the doctor. Because his other self was preparing to die, he didn’t bother going to the doctor’s to get a check-up so he could get a refill for his medicine.

He only had two weeks worth of medicine left from what he saw when he examined the room. So he needed to make that appointment soon.

‘I will also need a job since the previous owner quit his.’

This would be the hardest to accomplish out of all of the things he listed. Because unlike in 2025, the people in the year 2525 needed to be certified in the specific field they want a career in.

Even if it’s just an employee at a fast-food chain, they needed one.

Depending on the type of profession, it could take 3 months to 15 years to get certified, and the cost would be even higher. Yuning’s double had lucked out when his friend got him that job as a speechwriter.

Even though it was just a freelance job, there would have been no way he could have gotten on his own.

The previous owner was a great wordsmith, from what Yuning could tell, and really wished that the skill was transferred to him. Sadly it wasn’t, but he could tell that his vocabulary did improve immensely.

However, having a good vocabulary and being a wordsmith were two different things. If he had gotten that knowledge, he could have begged that friend to help him get that job back.

Although the pay wasn’t a lot, he could have done freelance while getting certified. The previous owner thought about doing it as well, but it took five months to get accredited, and it was $660 per class.

Even though his double didn’t think he could manage it, Yuning believed that the plan would have been feasible. He could have even asked his friend to find him a big job after he was certified.

Letting out a sigh at the stupidness of the other soul, Yuning thought about what he could do to make money fast. He didn’t have many choices since being able to talk would probably be the prominent feature to have in most jobs.

And although he had many skills, the one he could see as being a moneymaker would be his ability to draw. He didn’t know about nowadays, but drawing and designing was a great way to make money back in his time.

Yuning knew from the memories he had that manhua was still prevalent in this time, but it was way more interactive than they were before. The readers no longer just read the story; they could choose how the manhua ended.

It was similar to those ‘Choose Your Adventure’ books, but instead of one author writing multiple endings, numerous authors were writing them.

The most famous one of these manhua types were called ‘Ni h Gngni.’ It had over one hundred authors working on it to date.

With the popularity of this genre, the growing need for manhua artists was huge. But Yuning knew that he would first need to research what it would take for him to become one.

Yuning couldn’t help but feel relief now that he had some sort of plan. Although it may not turn out how he expected it to, it still felt good to have.

With a satisfied smile on his face, Yuning got up from the desk and went off to find his phone. He wanted to check off the first two itineraries before worrying about the last.