Kurusu Akira had been standing in front of the bathroom sink mirror for a while.
The familiar yet unfamiliar young face in the mirror made him feel horrified no matter how long he looked at it.
In the unspeakable sense of separation and unfamiliarity, he vaguely remembered that he had been confronting enemies that the public could not detect on the dark side of America just a few minutes ago.
However, the young hero with supernatural powers could not escape the three emergencies of human beings. He had drunk too many sports drinks and had to sneak into the toilet of an upscale restaurant on the roadside. After a brief release, he pressed the flush button. Before he could fasten his pants zipper, he suddenly appeared in another toilet that seemed familiar but was extremely dirty.
The cold and hard touch of the metal chain head still remained on his fingers.
The "fresh" smell of disinfectant and mothballs was gone from the air.
Instead, there was a deadly stench of alcohol mixed with a large amount of fish and all kinds of sauces after being mixed and digested in the stomach all night, like herring cans fermented in the open air.
The originally white floor tiles were covered with black shoe prints, crisscrossing like a sketch paper that a beginner had practiced lines on and scribbled over.
After a sluggish reaction, Kurusu Akira subconsciously reached into his pants pocket, but the Persona summoning device he expected did not appear.
There was only a somewhat old smartphone.
There was no lock screen password. He pressed his finger on the bottom of the screen and swiped up, and immediately entered the desktop.
The wallpaper on the desktop was a performance photo of an unrecognizable girl idol group.
But Kurusu Akira had no time to care about the stage names of these beautiful girls. He nervously opened the browser, and several news items ranked at the top of the search volume list immediately came into his view.
No. 1. "Popular Councilor Shido Masayoshi Shot Dead in the Street, Suspects Have Been Arrested."
No. 2. "Famous Detective Akechi Goro Has Been in a Coma for a Week."
No. 3. "The Return of the Detective Prince" May Never Recover.
No. 4. "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure": Jotaro Kujo Confirmed Dead.
'No...'
'What is today's date...'
He operated the phone to return to the main interface and opened the calendar software, which clearly stated:
[March 31, 2022, 22:17]
'Isn't Jotaro Kujo a star professor at New Capital Ocean University? How did he suddenly become a manga character?'
'And Shido Masayoshi and Akechi Goro... Shouldn't their roles have ended six years ago? Their current fate is too tragic.'
'Obviously, I have transmigrated, and this is not the world I was originally in.'
'And it has only been ten minutes since I transmigrated here, losing all the wealth, fame, love, and friendship I had accumulated in my original life.'
Kurusu Akira raised his head again, looking at the young and immature face in the mirror.
Messy black short hair, a face value no less than the protagonist of a campus romance drama, a pair of sharp and extremely deterrent dark gray eyes blurred under the large square glasses reflecting the light, showing a kind of harmless, quiet, timid...
He looks like he is very suitable to be bullied.
'This is myself in high school.'
Several drunken men's unrealistic laughter and scolding came from outside the toilet, as if being drunk gave them the courage to refute all injustice and filth.
But being drunk only temporarily numbs the mind. When they wake up, the completely unknown future will shroud their lives again, and then fear and confusion will penetrate their hearts, making people feel depressed and want to punch the table.
Bang.
The extremely depressed Kurusu Akira punched the sink.
The large and small mottled puddles reflecting the turbid light rippled countless times.
Then he turned on the faucet and immersed his red palm in the cold water to rinse it.
The anger and irritability in his heart were extinguished in an instant.
----------------
Let him reintroduce himself.
Kurusu Akira, originally twenty-three years old, dropped out of university, and is a "superpower user."
He has an ability similar to the Stand ability in "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure", being able to drive a materialized product of mind power called "Persona" to fight.
After graduating from high school, he joined the supernatural phenomenon countermeasure organization "Security Department, Shadow Response Unit (referred to as Shadow Operatives)" and launched secret activities around the world.
Through special means, he can sneak into the inner world of others, and steal the "treasure" formed by the sinful desires of the inner world, so that they suddenly wake up and sincerely atone for their sins.
With the help of Persona, he successfully completed one "mind theft" after another. He made the heinous gang take the initiative to surrender, wiped out the criminal gang in the dark corners of the city single-handedly, and even disintegrated the powerful chaebol...
Once upon a time, he used his own power to make "Phantom Thief" a world-famous urban legend.
----------------
Of course, he might also become the first urban legend to starve to death in a parallel world.
His empty stomach rumbled deafeningly at the opportune moment, his intestines complaining with a squirm, as this body hadn't consumed food for a long time.
Kurusu Akira tightened the faucet, feeling the weakness throughout his body, and couldn't help but yearn for his former omnipotent self.
He patted every pocket of his clothes and finally found a few coins and a thousand-yen bill. Piecing them together, it was barely enough for a cup of instant noodles, a bottle of cola, and an overnight stay at an internet cafe.
Mobile phones were too inefficient for gathering information. He had to understand this new world in the shortest possible time, and an internet cafe was the most suitable choice at the moment.
If only he had this body's memories...
Kurusu Akira, mentally twenty-three years old, was once a battle-hardened Persona user. Even when faced with unimaginable, life-altering disasters, he could quickly regain his composure.
Kurusu Akira walked out of the bathroom. The chilly early spring night wind swirled nearby, but it immediately made him feel an indescribable weakness—
'Damn it, this is a BBQ stall, I'm going to faint from hunger.'
The smell of fat and protein burning in the flames successfully awakened the body's craving for calories.
He clutched his meager two thousand one hundred yen. The BBQ stall, so close, seemed to have transformed into a boiling hell, where a group of scantily clad female ghosts danced on a sea of fire, twisting their graceful, lithe waists to tempt this lost soul.
Looking closely, they were actually just chicken wings, skewered on iron rods, sprinkled with cumin and pepper, being flipped back and forth over charcoal.
Orange-red grease dripped into the burning charcoal, letting the fiery snakes lick it up.
Kurusu Akira only regretted not bringing his wallet with him when he transmigrated.
Ultimately, willpower overcame physiological urges, and he turned with difficulty.
He pushed up the glasses on his nose, holding his phone and banknotes, and walked resolutely into the dark, deep street.
The enthusiastic shouts of the BBQ stall owner quickly faded behind him, and the dim glow of the streetlights blurred the boy's thin silhouette.
----------------
The shadows of the streetlights were tangled on the ground like thorns. In the dim night, wild cats occasionally yowled in heat, and the sound of cars driving by could be heard from afar.
A hungry Kurusu Akira sat against the wall, opened his phone, and blindly scrolled through his empty phonebook, fantasizing about seeing terms like "Mom and Dad" so he could return to a warm, worry-free haven with just a tap of his finger.
Next to him was an internet cafe that had been out of business for some time. Through the dust-covered glass door, he could see a messy aisle. Computer cases and monitors had already been sold, leaving a few dirty mouse pads lying on the desktops, integrated with the dust.
After an hour of stumbling through old alleys with navigation, depleting his phone's battery to 3%, and then seeing such a desolate scene, even a heart forged of steel would twitch violently a few times.
"Who the hell is so unethical as to upload a closed store to navigation..."
Kurusu Akira could only curse at the night sky helplessly to vent his inner rage.
The cold reality of the real world can always shatter all illusions and dreams in an instant.
He was only a few years away from being old enough for children to call him "uncle," successful in his career, with a house and a car, and healthy parents. But then, while using the restroom, fate, like a dog, kicked him into a life of wandering.
It's like spending seven years and countless amounts of money to painstakingly raise a super-monster character with full enhancements in DNF when it first launched, only to find that the official server decided to forcibly roll back to the launch day for unknown reasons before you even got to enjoy the arena for two days.
After the rollback, they didn't forget to conveniently wipe your character panel clean and add a few mysterious negative debuffs.
So, "Earth Online" is truly the most idiotic game.
Kurusu Akira thought listlessly. If he went back to the restroom next to the BBQ stall now, would he still have a chance to return to his original world?
"Kid, it's so late, aren't you going home yet?"
In the darkness, a flicker of orange-red light pulsed.
A middle-aged man with a goatee, wearing a pink work uniform, approached with a trash bag in his hand, looking somewhat strangely at Kurusu Akira, who was sitting under the streetlight talking to himself.
The boy's aura was excessively clean, making it impossible to associate him with any criminal activity.
"Probably homeless."
"I see... What's your name?"
"Kurusu Akira."
"My name is Sakura Sojiro."
Sakura Sojiro took out his phone, actually intending to call the Police Department for Kurusu Akira.
But his finger paused on the screen for a few seconds, ultimately not pressing down—
If a middle school student was sent to the Police Department at night, no matter the reason, surely various bad rumors would spread at school?
Thinking of his daughter, who had become withdrawn in her bedroom due to school bullying, Sakura Sojiro couldn't help but sigh.
"The attic in my coffee shop is quite large. Since you can't find a place to stay, would you like to stay here for the night temporarily?"
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