Chapter : 18 Finally understood!

Kayden sat on the bed, lost in thought about his bewildering situation. "I should have known this couldn't have been all a dream," he muttered to himself, his mind racing as he grappled with the reality of being in an unknown body.

"Dammit, what's going on? This is the first time I've had no clue about what's happening," Kayden exclaimed in frustration as Li Wei entered the room with food and water.

"Sir Kayden, are you okay?" Li Wei asked, concern in his eyes.

Kayden turned his attention to Li Wei. "There's something I need to ask you," he said, realizing the importance of the question he had neglected to address earlier.

"Yes, sir, Kayden, you can ask me anything," Li Wei replied earnestly.

"Can you tell me what this place is? It doesn't look normal to me at all – those forest beasts and that desert centipede. Where are we?" Kayden asked as he took a sip of water.

" Currently we're in a small village in the Chen Clan territory," Li Wei explained.

"Huh! What clan? Is it like a group of Awakeners?" Kayden inquired, his confusion apparent.

"Awakeners? Oh, you must mean Cultivators. Yes, they are a major family in this kingdom," Li Wei clarified.

"Alright, just answer me this: do you have a cellphone somewhere here that I can use to make a call?" Kayden asked hopefully.

Li Wei looked puzzled. "What's that?" he asked, having never heard of such a thing.

"I see," Kayden sighed, his hopes diminishing. "Li Wei, can you please leave me alone for a while?" he requested hesitantly.

As Li Wei exited the room, Kayden grappled with his thoughts. "Seems like my suspicion was correct. This isn't Earth. No matter how backward a place is, they should have at least heard the word 'phone.' Plus, Li Wei doesn't seem like an idiot," Kayden mused.

"Dammit, how could I be this dumb? I should have asked these questions the first time I met people. But if this isn't Earth, where am I, and how will I get back?" he whispered in a low, anxious tone only he could hear.

"This dumbness must have been inherited from the original owner of this body," Kayden concluded, shaking his head in frustration at not realizing the truth for half a month.

Time had passed since Kayden stepped outside the house that resembled more of an abandoned shed on the outskirts of the main village, home to roughly a thousand people. It had been a day since he collapsed in the desert after defeating the gigantic centipede, with Li Wei carrying him here on a carriage borrowed from the bandits.

"Is it even possible to possess someone else's body in another world?" Kayden wondered aloud. "Well, if it's me, it might be possible, but it still feels unreal."

"The main question is how do I get back to my original body? Since I met that kid Jiwoo, it's not likely that it was just a dream," he mused.

Suddenly, a ruckus erupted from the main village. Kayden, standing just outside the shed-like house since Li Wei had gone to collect some wood and food, muttered, "Now what's going on?"

As he heard a ruckus from the main village, Kayden's curiosity got the better of him. He decided to investigate and left the shed-like house, walking towards the village. Passing small hut-like houses along the way, he reached a point where he could hide behind some trees and observe.

"Are they also bandits?" he mused with curiosity, his interest piqued as he closely watched the people on horses armed with swords and other kind of weapons.