Chapter 1: Now That's What I Call a "Senior"
Bai Zhi had always fancied himself a genius.
He had been a creative problem-solver from his boyhood, excelling at logical reasoning and making things happen.
When his peers, still in their diapers, were running around at play, he could be found solemnly sitting on the front steps with his head tilted heavenward, contemplating the mysteries of the universe and the future.
When the other kids were playing in the mud, molding clay dolls or making paper airplanes, he had constructed, out of some wood and various tools, a makeshift AK-47 of his own.
While other children waxed poetic about being whisked away to far-off lands, he simply up and left on a trip without a word of notice.
One time in chemistry lab class, completely unprompted, Bai Zhi concocted something that nearly blew up the whole class and sent the teacher to hospital for two whole weeks. Said teacher would go on to proclaim that once Bai Zhi graduated, the next piece of news they heard about him would be delivered, if not by the paper, then by television.
Everyone knew that the papers were wont to cover notorious scandals, while the television extolled the virtues of national heroes.
And in the summer holidays, after the college entrance exams, Bai Zhi was fiddling with dangerous chemicals all alone at home when he accidentally triggered an explosion and killed himself. The sensational story of how a top high-school graduate blew himself up at home would itself blow up nationwide, getting featured both on television and in the papers.
...Thus, the words of Bai Zhi's long-suffering chemistry teacher turned out to be a prophecy.
———
When Bai Zhi opened his eyes, he found himself transmigrated into the body of his namesake in another world, who, as it happened, had just died suddenly.
He found a nearby mirror and scrutinized his reflection for a good while, then nodded to himself. "Hmm... bit more handsome than I used to be."
This world and the world Bai Zhi had come from shared similar histories and environments, but differed slightly in some details. The fact that the entity he now possessed shared a name with him was taken by Bai Zhi in stride, but he could not help feeling a little annoyed at how, despite sharing a name, this one had been living an utterly pathetic life.
After scanning through the memories he had inherited to find out the reason for "his" sudden demise, Bai Zhi was left seething at the wasted potential that he found. He had always been happy to watch folly and melodrama unfold, but only as a detached observer. It was a distinctly unsettling experience to be watching such things happen to himself.
Bai Zhi, seventeen years of age, orphaned at birth. A firm believer that knowledge was the key to changing his fate, he had devoted himself to his studies from a young age. By continuously winning scholarships, he paid for each step of his education until finally, by virtue of being the top scorer in all major subjects, he achieved his goal of entering the top university in Marina City, the prestigious Marina City University.
By all accounts, this other Bai Zhi's upbringing was a textbook example of someone with humble beginnings pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. If he had carried on in the same way, luck notwithstanding, he should have had decent prospects, at the very least.
But alas, once in college, on top of being a straight-A student, he realized that he had also been blessed with perfect features, which made for a potent brew that went straight to his head, and he became not only complacent, but quite dissolute.
The gossip about him that spread around the halls of MCU was neither of his academics nor his aesthetics, but instead of his many dalliances. He had dated seven girls in his freshman year alone, what a king—correction, how disgusting.
Well, dating girls can't really be said to be a character flaw—after all, it's all done by mutual consent, but one thing about "Bai Zhi" made him exceptionally repugnant. He not only stole young girls' hearts, but also stole their money...
They say the appetites of man are like a rolling stone; once set into motion, there is no stopping them.
Like a stone, "Bai Zhi" plummeted from grace at alarming speed. Being two-faced seemed to come naturally to him, and enslaved to his desire, he committed acts that would scandalize gods and men alike.
For example, he once spent ages coaxing and cajoling his second girlfriend into agreeing to spend the night together at a hotel, then when she was in the shower, he took out all the cash from her purse and, claiming he had the runs, returned to the dorms before proceeding to spend the money lavishly.
Indeed, this other Bai Zhi's interest in women was far outweighed by his love of something else—video games. The main reason he even dated women was to swindle them, by hook or by crook, for the money to buy himself various in-game perks and pay the cost of upkeep.
Video games were way more fun than women!
Yet, as terrible as this other Bai Zhi was, he did have one line he did not cross—he was a swindler and a heartbreaker, but he would never molest a woman. From this, he might have been judged quite harmless, in the grand scheme of things. Unfortunately, he had become so unscrupulous that, after unceremoniously dumping his seventh girlfriend, who was even willing to work a job to pay for his daily expenses, he turned his attention to the school's most eligible bachelorette.
Not that "Bai Zhi" was lusting over her beauty; in truth, he was tired of his own philandering and wanted to settle down with a beautiful, rich and honest woman... Such was the true motivation that had driven this being, as far as Bai Zhi had discovered. This other Bai Zhi had turned mooching off others into his raison d'etre.
However, his target being the elite and well-informed campus belle, she had already caught wind of his unsavory dating history and had absolutely zero interest in him. This did not seem to faze the extremely thick-skinned "Bai Zhi", who single-mindedly pursued her at every opportunity, doing things like serenading her below her bedroom window and professing his love in public with a giant bouquet of roses. To someone like "Bai Zhi" who had long since abandoned any sense of decorum, doing such shameless things hardly posed a challenge...
...and in the end?
After yet another day of showering the campus belle with attention, "Bai Zhi" had slunk dejectedly into the nearest internet café to spend all night playing video games. When he could no longer keep going, he left the café in a flurry of yawns and returned to his room, where, owing to the fact that he had stayed up round the clock for the past few days, he fell asleep for the last time, a victim of sudden death. Thus, the life of a scumbag came to an ignoble end.
If Bai Zhi had not transmigrated into this world, perhaps there would have been a brief mention about the incident in the news a few days later, followed by a call for awareness on the need to improve the management of college students' health or some other BS.
After reviewing "Bai Zhi's" life, Bai Zhi shook his head mournfully. "This dude has no game at all, judging by the way he so desperately clung to this one girl to get her attention."
When it came to relationships, despite the fact that this Bai Zhi had had seven girlfriends while he had been single all his life, Bai Zhi concluded that he was more accomplished, and claimed a position of seniority to his namesake.
Because, in his life prior to his transmigration, there had been three girls who had been willing to give up their life for him.
A whole!! Three!! Girls!!
In grade school, a girl had said she would die for him—"If you keep bothering me, I'll take my life for real!" she said.
When he first awakened to feelings of romance, a girl had promised to wait for him even in the next life—"If you want to be my boyfriend, try the next life!" she offered.
Even when he was destitute, there had been a girl who had been willing to follow him to the bitter end—"If you don't pay up, I'm taking you down with me!" she swore.
Behold, was he not the "senior"? Was this not "experience"?
Now that's what I call a senior!
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Chapter 2 : Scuttle Fish
"Man... This dude is a total schmuck..."
After counting out the bills in his wallet and checking the balance in his bank account with his phone, Bai Zhi gripped his temples between his finger and thumb like he had a headache, and let out a giant sigh.
His current net assets, including the balance in his bank account, amounted to a grand total of three hundred, twenty-eight dollars and twenty-five cents. Incidentally, the rental for the apartment he was staying in off-campus was a thousand dollars a month, and it was due in three days.
In other words, Bai Zhi was broke.
Of course, the other Bai Zhi had been counting on borrowing money from his ex-girlfriends to make ends meet...
There was a time when he had kept his expenses minimal, and with the money from his scholarships and a job with the work-study program, had never lacked for money. However, ever since he became addicted to video games, he had lost his scholarships due to his worsening grades, even as he poured money by the fistful into his games.
In the end, the counselor came round to try and talk sense into him so regularly that "Bai Zhi" ran away from the dorms, deciding to rent an apartment off-campus instead. Since then, things like being late for class, leaving early or skipping altogether became regular occurrences with him.
What Bai Zhi could not fathom was how such a loser who had completely given up on life to play video games all day had been able to date no less than seven women... Could it really be the result of having a pretty face and pretty thick skin?
Was the world truly so superficial?
There was something deep to think about there, Bai Zhi thought.
A quick glance at his phone told him the time, by which he estimated that the first class of the day was already mostly over. At that, Bai Zhi made the snap decision to skip the class.
After all, he was fresh off the boat as far as this world was concerned. Even though he had inherited the memories of the good-for-nothing who suffered a sudden death after overindulging in video games without a break, there was still much that Bai Zhi did not know about this world.
To be fair, based on "Bai Zhi's" unremarkable seventeen years of life here, there was nothing to indicate that the world was that much different, save minor differences in some historical events. Technologically, at least, the world seemed to be just as advanced, having recently entered the 5G era...
As he stood before the window looking out on the street lined by snack vendors, Bai Zhi stretched, and his expression was one of gratitude. "Getting a second lease of life feels pretty good..."
The time was 9:20 a.m., on a Monday, no less. That meant both the freshmen and sophomores had class, and except for the internet addicts who shuffled along with leaden feet, people like "Bai Zhi" who were clearly just leaving the internet cafés after an all-nighter spent gaming, the usually busy street stood quiet and cold.
"Hmm... I suppose I don't have to deal with making money to pay the rent just yet, what's important now is... huh?"
As his gaze landed on an intersection along the street, Bai Zhi was stunned for a moment by what he saw.
He had spotted what looked unmistakably like a creature from a video game, the Scuttle Crab that normally lurked in the river within the game, now large as life on the street, balanced on its many legs.
"Some sort of sculpture? Or... Fuck, it moved?!"
After rubbing his eyes in disbelief, Bai Zhi looked back in the same direction. He confirmed that, unless he was hallucinating right now, the strange creature swaying slightly in the middle of the street was none other than a Scuttle Crab.
What was stranger still was how, despite being in the presence of something which could not possibly exist in real life, the people around it seemed to treat it like a perfectly normal sight.
"Well well, so this is no ordinary wor—hold up."
Bai Zhi caught himself in the middle of rushing down to get a close-up view of the creature as something occurred to him. With his phone in his hands, he aimed the camera at the now-moving crab and snapped a shot in secret.
As he had expected, the image of the Scuttle Crab that actually showed up in his photo album turned out to depict nothing but a common alley-cat instead.
"Does that mean that everyone else sees the Scuttle Crab as just a kitty cat? That begs the question..."
Bai Zhi looked pensive as he flicked his eyes down at the photo in his hands, then back at the scuttling crab.
"...are my eyes playing tricks on me, or is there something strange going on with this world?"
The Scuttle Crab, properly known as the Freshwater Rift Scuttler, was a neutral mob in the popular MOBA game "League of Legends", and was not considered a Mythical creature.
An elusive mob incapable of attacking, killing it would spawn a Speed Shrine that would grant passing friendly units a speed buff, as well as granting visibility of the area while it lasted.
That was all Bai Zhi remembered of the Scuttle Crab.
He watched the crab disappear into the distance, then returned to the desk next to his bed and, booting up his PC, began searching for any relevant information on the web.
Half an hour later, he leaned back in his chair with a smirk and rubbed his hands together, muttering, "It seems that there is much more than meets the eye in this world..."
The bulk of what he found online consisted of urban legends. After tabulating all the information he had uncovered, he could tell that in the past three months, the internet had been flooded with reports of urban legends.
One such story told of a family who, upon visiting the grave of their grandparent a week after the burial, heard noises coming from below. Upon plucking up the courage to unearth and reopen the casket, they found the occupant playing mahjong!
Then there was the one about the boy who leapt off the 18th floor of a building but miraculously survived—doctors found that the boy had become made of rubber!
Another story, about the homeless vagrant whose corpse was found impaled on a utility pole like a corndog, led experts to warn against what they believed was some new method of suicide.
These absurd, unfunny and even tasteless stories were often deleted by moderators once they began to circulate. Such that Bai Zhi had discovered, which had somehow evaded censure, were invariably absurd in the extreme and treated as pure entertainment by the netizens, thus were never looked into.
If he had not witnessed that strange creature firsthand, Bai Zhi would also have considered these stories no more than copypasta, but he could not deny that a mere half-hour ago, he had seen a Scuttle Crab in the flesh, and this left him open-minded to the credibility of those urban legends.
In fact, reports of sightings of unidentified life forms abounded on the internet, such as one netizen who claimed that one night, they had seen something in the distance with a long and skinny body like a utility pole, but had two protrusions like satellite dishes growing out of its head. Another report of a daytime sighting claimed that they had seen a gigantic, fish-like animal swimming among the clouds...
Bai Zhi was sure that there was something weird about this world.
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