My silver hair flows down my shoulders, and the scales on my skin are white and kind of iridescent, like opals.

  A huge painting depicting a massive golden sphere floating in the dark, made of what looks like tangled strings, appears before me.

  Millions of tiny golden lights glimmer inside the sphere, and more strings reach down into the vast darkness below, while others come in from all directions, wrapping and tangling themselves into it.

  It's a pretty mesmerizing sight, both beautiful and a little unsettling. How did I miss it before?

  Those strings… they look familiar… wait a minute… the visions I had before seeing Dr. Keyser’s memories!

  Looking through the rooms once more, I get some cloth from the bedroom closet. It just feels weird being naked, even if nobody's around and I am covered in scales.

  There's also a gun-like weapon and a small dagger.

  Naturally, the first thing I do is point the gun at my head and pull the trigger. A flash of light shoots out, but my head's perfectly fine. I try slicing my neck with the dagger—again, not even a scratch.

  Under the bed, there's a decorated, ancient-looking box. Inside, I find a car key-looking device, a black metallic card engraved with the name "Keyser," and two large, gold-colored bars with a strange, orangey sheen.

  Is this gold? Well, you know what they say: finders keepers, losers… well, he is dead… So, finders keepers.

  Next, I head into the kitchen. A storage area holds what looks like food and cooking stuff, but I don’t recognize anything. The food, especially, looks so disturbing I don’t even know where to begin.

  This world is probably not Earth anymore, at least not the one I’m used to. But, Dr. Keyser seemed totally human, and in that memory, he spoke in English.

  Pondering the possibilities, I take another look around the kitchen. There’s some disturbing cooked food and half-eaten stuff on the side of the counter.

  I wonder if they’re edible… maybe it’ll kill me?

  Eyeing a particularly lumpy, greenish blob with suspicion, I decide to take the plunge. I pinch off a tiny piece and pop it into my mouth. I chew cautiously.

  Huh. I can still taste it! It doesn’t taste good, mind you. Or smell great, for that matter. But taste is there. That’s a win. I loved cooking and eating back on Earth.

  After swallowing the questionable morsel, I silently pray it’s going to give me a swift death.

  It doesn’t happen, but right after I swallow, I feel a little burst of energy in my abdomen. Then…the food just…vanishes. I let out a long breath. My abdomen returns to its emptiness.

  How does this body even work? Does it need water and food? This body, which clearly has a serious disregard for basic biology and physics, raises so many questions.

  Okay, questioning reality won't help. At least I'm still me, with free will, able to move around. I should quickly check out this world and find a way back to my afterlife.

  Getting a closer look at my face in the bathroom mirror, I confirm it's the same one I saw in the vision. My eyes are open now—shiny golden eyes. And thankfully, it's still a pretty human face. Actually, it’s very attractive by Earth standards.

  "Not bad, not bad at all," I mutter to my reflection. I run my hands over my face. "At least I'm not in the body of an infant or a big titty cat girl."

  So this is Val. If I'd had this face and voice back on Earth, I could have totally been a pop star.

  Returning to the lab, with all the lights on this time, everything is much clearer. The table I was on is in the middle of the room, surrounded by machines wrecked in the explosion.

  There’s a pile of dust in the corner, where Dr. Keyser used to be. I poke through it again, but there’s nothing else.

  After some careful searching, a notebook pops out from under the rubble. The one with all the writing from Dr. Keyser that I saw in his memories. Luckily, it’s not damaged.

  The scribbles inside are really hard, if not impossible, to read, but the first half is definitely in English. Talk about messy handwriting…

  I spend a good chunk of time trying to decipher the notebook. About half of it is crammed with experimental data and results.

  Apparently, Dr. Keyser is obsessed with this idea of a hidden plane, a higher dimension where the essence goes after death.

  He theorizes it's folded up in a way we can't physically perceive or interact with, which, honestly, sounds like someone's been reading too much sci-fi, until you realize he wasn't wrong.

  Clearly, he found a way to unfold it, at the worst possible moment. Probably with a ton of energy and some extremely complicated machines—most of which are now scrap metal, courtesy of the explosion. This body’s a big part of it, too.

  This body, designated Vitruvian Artificial Life, or VAL for short, is a homunculus he made. But frustratingly, there aren’t any legible details on how he made it, though there seem to be lots of different things that went into its creation.

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  My essence transferring into this body wasn’t part of the plan; he probably wanted this body for himself.

  The rest of the notebook is way more interesting. It's written in a logographic language, pretty similar to Chinese. Since I could read Chinese in my past life, I can make a decent guess at what it all means.

  Looks like Chinese school paid off!

  It seems to describe a way to boost physical abilities and lifespan using a mysterious energy—"Qi".

  If I weren't in this crazy situation, I'd totally write this stuff off as fantasy. But, Dr. Keyser was right about the other dimension, and I did feel that weird energy when I was in his memories.

  So, I figure, why not give these instructions a shot? Especially since I remember the word "ascension" flashing through his mind right before he went to dust.

  "ASCENSION" is written in bold English near the end of the book—the word that gives me a sliver of hope. The description is vague, but it talks about projecting your essence out of your body…

  The text says I need to sense my organs first. Problem? I don't have any. Skip! Who needs organs anyway? Maybe it means "Chakra" points?

  Everything hinges on this reality-bending body. The next bit describes how to sense the "Qi" around me. It says to move slowly and feel the tiny resistance in the air.

  So, I start moving my body in slow, deliberate Tai Chi motions, trying to feel this "Qi.” Slowing my movements down, slower and slower, I almost freeze.

  Trying to feel something that shouldn't exist is tough.

  Just when I'm about to give up, a strange tingle runs through me. It's the same energy I felt with Dr. Keyser's memories! I grab onto the sensation with everything I have.

  The next instruction says to take a deep breath to pull the Qi into oneself. This breath feels endless! I keep inhaling without needing to exhale.

  I quickly shift into a meditative pose and just keep breathing in. And in. And in. The tiny stream of Qi flowing into me becomes a little vortex. All that Qi gathers in my abdomen, concentrating into a single point.

  Then, whoosh, energy surges through me, wave after wave. The Qi flows freely through my body and washes over me.

  Once the vortex stops, I can't sense a single drop of Qi anywhere around me. No matter what I tried afterwards, I didn't bring in any more Qi.

  Checking Dr. Keyser's notebook again, cross-referencing it with all those cultivation novels I devoured in my past life. I'm guessing I've either hit a bottleneck, or there's just no more Qi left here.

  Feeling my abdomen once more. This time, instead of complete emptiness, there seems to be a small pebble floating around in there.

  Reading through the different phases in Dr. Keyser's notebook: Phase one, Qi Sense, able to sense and absorb Qi. Phase two, Base, able to store and channel Qi to enhance all senses. Phase three, Gold Core, vastly increases offensive and defensive capabilities. Phase four…

  It appears I've reached the Gold Core phase. Completely skipping the previous two phases… This body is really something else.

  Wait a minute… vastly increased defensive capabilities?! $&@$&$! I don't need to be more indestructible!

  In the heat of the moment, I almost chuck the notebook across the room.

  Okay, okay, my bad. I should have read the manual first. What exactly does "enhance all senses" mean? And "vastly increased offensive capabilities?" I tuck the notebook away for safekeeping.

  Over the next few days, or what feels like days anyway, I test and get used to this body. It's like getting used to the controls of a new video game, except the game is real life.

  Focusing and channeling my Qi to cycle around my sensorial organs—ears, eyes, nose, and skin—I can hear, see, smell, and even feel everything within a spherical area around me. I can even see without facing that direction, even vaguely through walls!

  The spherical area covers the entire lab right now. If I focus on just one sense, I can increase the coverage even more.

  While channeling Qi, a punch or kick results in the complete annihilation of a massive wall. I can easily lift way bigger and heavier things than I should be able to.

  My movements and reaction time are also enhanced. It's as if time slows down when I move fast enough.

  All this testing is done in a very controlled manner, of course. Don't want to accidentally wreck the already half-wrecked lab and bury myself alive.

  That would put a very anticlimactic pause to my reincarnation adventure.

  It appears I need to empty my entire Qi reserve before I can sense and absorb more Qi. Cycling the Qi through my body expands the Qi, and absorbing more increases my reserve slightly.

  The more I use Qi, the better I am at using it. So this is my cultivation system, I guess. Which totally makes me an isekai protagonist after all! I wonder if I’ll run into a cute elf girl soon.

  But remembering my wife and child, that thought is quickly swept under the rug.

  Continuing my tests, I jump into the lake. Swimming’s a breeze since I don’t need to breathe. My vision underwater is still crystal clear. I take in a gulp of water; the lake water tastes super salty—I’m guessing it’s seawater.

  My tongue can feel the coolness of the water, but my body doesn’t register the temperature or pressure. It’s a strange sensation.

  There's an opening at the bottom of the lake. That’s my way out, but I don’t rush to go just yet. I’m not ready.

  Besides not needing to eat, drink, or breathe, I also don’t need sleep. But I do rest sometimes to get my thoughts organized. It’s kind of like defragging a hard drive, I suppose.

  This super-powered, yet cursed armor I can’t take off. I’m starting to think this “isekai adventure” might be a tad more complicated than I initially thought.

  The key device I found in the bedroom fits the submarine perfectly. After a quick check, I practice driving it a bit. The gas tank seems full, which is a definite plus.

  Since I need to take some stuff with me, the submarine beats swimming any day. Efficiency is key here.

  After collecting everything that might be of use—the metal Keyser card, the two gold bars, the laser gun, some clothes, and a little food, just in case—I place everything in a leather bag I found in the room.

  With the scrap metal in the lab, I fashion a small waterproof metal box for the notebook. After a quick leak test, I pack it inside the bag as well. The dagger’s tied securely to my leg. Safety first!

  Standing at the edge of the lake, I glance back at the place that was my… temporary housing, shall we say?

  Time to move on! Finding a way to break free from this shell is now my top priority.

  Thoughts buzz through my head as I hop into the sub and sink to the bottom. I spot the cave opening and follow it, driving for what feels like ages.

  There are even more weird sea creatures down here, but I don’t recognize any of them. This is an underwater alien zoo.

  Finally, I emerge from the cave, in the middle of a huge ocean. Slowly, I float to the surface, as the submarine breaks the surface. I look up at the sky and am stunned by what I see.

  One thing is certain: I’m definitely not on Earth anymore.