Chapter II

I had this sweet sensation of floating in an unknown substance, but it was so pleasant.

Is this what the afterlife is like? Sure, it's soft and all, but it's pretty damn empty too, as I noticed after carefully observing my surroundings.

Oh, there's someone! I shouted, but apart from my voice, which was lost in the immensity, nothing answered me.

Well, it's unfortunate, since I see neither flames nor lava, nor horned demons, and even less luminous clouds, and angels. I guess I landed in limbo or purgatory.

I was a little disappointed at this idea; although lonely, I was quite a good guy in my previous life.

My positive karma should have been enough, but I don't know!  Either, reincarnate in a princely family or, like Buddha, escape the cycle of reincarnation.

Coupled with my coolness, maybe I should have been more spiritual. If only I had known. Phew!

Well, let's stop procrastinating; it's not by sitting there like an imbecile that I'm going to get answers to my situation.

Resolute, I set off towards the unknown, but after just two steps, I felt that there was something strange.

Well, I'm already dead; nothing else worse could happen to me. Let's keep walking.

Whore ! How it hurts, I moaned. I felt my face pressed against something hard; I think I broke my nose.

Somehow, I managed to get up from the ground. My body felt heavy, stuck in a certain torpor.

Suddenly, something clicked. Why was I feeling pain? Why could I touch myself? There was a warm, viscous liquid between my fingers; was it my blood? My God, how is this possible?

For a time that I cannot define, I totally panicked at this realization. I felt my limbs stiffen, my breathing become labored, and my heart beat like a drum, feeling like it was rushing up my throat to choke me. It was absolutely disgusting. I was on the verge of a heart attack.

As time passed, I forced myself to calm down. If I were alive again, it would be ridiculous to kill myself with an anxiety attack.

Breathing deeply, I began to observe the place where I was.

Even though it was dark, I could see that it was a very ordinary room. Apparently I was in an apartment, as evidenced by the cacophony that seemed to be on the street below.

The place itself seemed quite small; from where I was, I could clearly see the kitchen, TV and a small sofa.

It seemed like it wasn't much of a luxury.

With great trepidation, I got up from the foot of the bed, where I had been a while ago. Soon enough, I found the switch and turned on the lights.

-Yeah ! It's really tiny, but clean and tidy, I said. Now the shower!

You know, given the crisis I had just thrown earlier, I quickly became jaded about the whole thing.

In my life before, (strange to say that, not, given the immediacy of this reincarnation), I had a rather average height, short black hair like a raven, black eyes and a round face.

Not that I am ugly now or full of prejudices. This body was more beautiful than my old one. But his hair was a little longer; it was red, almost blood-colored, and I had brown eyes. I had a long and refined face, and my height was around 1.90 m.

My new body definitely looked like that of a Xiangya character. Man, I hope I'm in a normal world; otherwise, it would be boring as hell.

While dabbing my nose in front of the mirror, I tried to remember, or rather, try to delve into the memory of the former owner. But there was nothing; it was completely reset.

It's my luck; I'm alive in a body that's not mine; I don't know where; and I'm absolutely lost on who I am. Let's hope he's not a criminal.

A few minutes after going through his meager belongings, I got my hands on his identity documents, and a few wads of bills, which, after counting, amounted to 17,520 dollars. Jackpot!

Irony of fate or bad joke of fate, my name was still Alex. I was twenty-three, five years younger than in my old life.

It seems that I was unemployed, since I had not found a work card. The guy didn't even have a cell phone.

I almost forgot; I also found a key in his things, as well as a piece of paper with an address and a code written on it.

Well, I'm too tired now to try to guess what it is.

All this can wait until tomorrow; let's go back to bed.

As soon as the light went out, my ears picked up a barely perceptible creak coming from the front door. It sounded like footsteps. Maybe it's a cat? I shrugged my shoulders; my mind was still tense. I'm probably making movies.

Suddenly, I stopped walking, my heart racing.  I was sure; I had just heard the door handle move.

Who the fuck were you? So that we show up at your house at 2 a.m. I swore silently, while getting myself a knife.

I thought about escaping through the window I spotted earlier, but I didn't know anything about the layout of the building. Also, it was closed, and I didn't want to warn my possible attackers that I knew they were there.

The time they took to force the lock seemed like an eternity. I swallowed so much during that time that my throat was dry.

When they finally entered, I forced myself to breathe as lightly as possible.

There were two of them, a man and a woman, given their gait and their silent way of communicating.  There was no doubt, they were professionals.

I would have liked to escape through the door left half open, but the woman's position was constantly watching her.  Fucking pro I cursed.

The killers' exploration of the apartment was quite brief, given the man's rapid approach to my position.  It was time to highlight my past life's self-defense lessons.  Be strong buddy!

Like a rocket, I leapt from behind the couch, hoping to skewer the man with one blow.  It was hard to admit it, but my stealth and assassin skills sucked.

The man dodged my blow quite quickly, however I managed to scratch his cheek.

By the time I attacked again, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the woman take aim at me and shoot.

Surprisingly, I managed to dodge, throwing myself behind the couch.  My goodness, I not only had a great physique, but incredible reflexes too.

In the meantime, the man had recovered from my attack, and the two placed themselves on opposite sides of the sofa, planning to surround me, leaving no escape.

If I wanted to survive and escape, I had to be smart.  Taking advantage of the fact that they hadn't fired yet.  I put the knife between my teeth and grabbed the lamp that had fallen to the ground during my jump.  With all my strength, I threw myself at the woman.

Bang !  Bang !  With two precise shots, the lamp shattered, taking advantage of their distractions, I rushed again at the man, knife in hand, while he readjusted to my charge.  I had already stabbed him in the neck.  He began to bellow in pain, blood spurting everywhere.

By the time I disengaged, the woman started shooting at me frantically.

I wasn't as lucky as last time, I felt a burning sensation tear through my shoulder.

-AHH! You bitch, I shouted in fury. I'm going to kill you, bitch.

Driven by pain and rage, I rushed towards her at dizzying speed.  From the horror on his face, I guess I looked like a berserker now.  Especially since the bullets that had hit barely seemed to slow me down.

With the magazine empty, she quickly pulled out a knife, attempting to engage me in hand-to-hand combat. With an arm lock, I stopped his strike, and with force, I broke his arm with a sickening crack.

She began to scream in pain, but did not give up the fight.

Which I must admit is entirely honorable.  But I didn't care, wanting her to shut up, and also to get out of this nameless shit.

I grabbed his neck with both hands and pressed with all my strength.  She gripped my arms furiously, trying to break free from the death grip.

The difference in strength was too great, less than a minute later she had stopped struggling.

Not wanting to take any risks, I returned to the man's body, he too was indeed dead.

As if by magic, the fury and rage inside me seemed to disappear.  My body hurt like hell, blood oozing from my bullet wounds.

Stubbornly, I tried to reach the door to escape from all the carnage.  But all that happened was the tiles kissing my cheek.  And I lost consciousness.