A "normal" mortal, Wang Lei, had the urge to commit suicide after bottling up countless memories and events of struggles and misery. But someone, or something, had awaited for his presence after his attempt, which he did NOT expect at all. Will this...
Such an enigmatic yet breathtaking location it was. It appeared to be underwater.
The location was quite strange, and the fishes had cartoon-like appearances. They had no real bodies, just outlines. Still, the fishes had a peculiar appearance. They appeared devoid of life and depressing. Everything was really lively aside from that. Yuxuan and Wang Lei peered around in amazement. There were a lot of people.
Here, the term "people" denotes a substantial gathering of powerful beings with special abilities very different from human. There were ghosts, witches, demons, vampires, three eyed creatures who were most likely monsters, and so much more.
Wang Lei seemed to have a question in mind, though. Confused and excited, he screamed: "HOW ARE WE BREATHING UNDERWATER ANYWAY ?"
"We're not alive, remember ?" Yuxuan replied casually, trying to calm him down.
"OH YEEAAAHH !" He exclaimed, remembering he's dead.
At that time, he was unsure of what to say or do and was scratching the back of his head. He didn't have to consider long, though, for they soon heard a loud bang and felt something massive and distant fall to the ground. He flinched and spun around to see what had happened, but there was nothing there. Just as he turned to face Yuxuan again, a horde of people shoved him, sending him flying. Everyone in his immediate vicinity began to flee in the direction of the sound. He tilted his face, looking up to face the person he had gripped the arm of in an attempt to get up properly. He looked up to notice a pretty man with white hair staring at him.
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[Above art by s4i_emo (me)]
The man offered him a hand. After staring at the man's hand for a time, he eventually accepted it and stood up straight. "Thank you," he said, and then quickly asked, "Ah-- Do you know why people are running around ?"
The man smiled sadly, staying silent for a few seemingly long seconds, and spoke after a while. He said, "Another fish has died, maybe." Shocked and even more confused and curious than before, Lei asked the man, "Do the fishes die often ?"
The man stared at him strangely, and soon, he had an expression which seemed as if he knew everything suddenly. It seemed full of suspicion too. He replied with a question as well, asking, "A man from a different dimension ? You know you're currently not supposed to be here without any specific task, right ? People will call you immature and curse at you."
As soon as he heard that, he felt embarrassed. However, he instantly pointed at Yuxuan, who was standing erect and did not appear to have been pushed despite several individuals coming into contact with his body while they were running. It appeared as though individuals passed through him. Or perhaps, as he soon discovered, they really did. Either way, attempting to put his curiosity of that aside and concentrate on the essential point, he described how Yuxuan had brought him there and that he was still unaware of the afterlife's laws.
"Ah....Afterlife? Are you a ghost ? Or a demon, perhaps ? Or are you an angel ? Or is it something else ? I do not know your dimension and therefore cannot guess too accurately, but usually it is any of these coming from different dimensions. There have been other creatures unknown to us though, just not as common." the man had a look of interest now, one very much like Lei's past expression. Seeing his expression, Wang Lei felt flustered and tried to explain it was nothing too special, and that he was indeed a ghost. The man laughed a bit and questioned his name.
"I'm Wang Lei." was his reply.
"I'm Xiao Qinyan, if you care to know."
"Your name is nice."
"Thank you. Yours too."
As Yuxuan heard their chat, all he could do was roll his eyes. He was growing bored, so he made the decision to pose a question. "Let us move on to the main part, shall we?" he questioned sharply. "What is causing the fishes to die?"
Wang Lei remarked, "Well, everything dies one day right?" with a tone of irritation. However, considering that both of them were staring weirdly at him after he said that, it was probably a bad idea to say it. Xiao appeared awkward, and Yuxuan was obviously displeased. "Their passing indicates that something incredibly horrible or improbable is taking place." When Lei heard Yuxuan say that, he looked down, humiliated once more and wearing a regretful expression. "I apologize for speaking without knowing."
"It is fine. You are not aware of the things around here, like you said. Or around your own place either, as a matter of fact." Xiao replied, and Yuxuan only rolled his eyes again.
"So, is there any clue as to why this is happening ?" he asked Xiao, trying to get back on topic and ignoring Lei. As the man thought and thought, Yuxuan looked around at the huge glowing fish sillhouettes. They were all black and silver. The silver ones seemed slightly more lively than the black ones, while the black ones seemed to be.. Tired. After waiting a while for Xiao to reply, he finally heard his answer.
"Not much people have theories yet. It is unclear. Though, I assume that an unwanted entity may have entered our premises. Or, it could be that one of our own has been planning evil things, and is now taking actions. I do not think there is any way it could be anything else. It's definitely not happening simply. The fishes have even lost their colour. It's the first time we see them like this. Their outlines used to be orange. Now they're glowing black or white. It can't be happening because of any unexpected weather changes, I don't think."
"I assumed so too, but that's not really helping. We could suggest the people at higher positions to conduct a necessary survey. But there is so many people, it will take too long."
"As good as a survey sounds, we obviously can't survey the whole ENTIRE SEA, right ? Even if we have magic, that is hard still."
"Ofcourse, yes, that's what I said. If there were any suspects already, we could've surveyed them."
When Lei heard them talking, he felt excluded. He was also eager to assist, but in all honesty, he didn't know what he could do. He had no knowledge of anything there at all. Furthermore, based on the way Yuxuan was speaking, it appeared like he had visited the dimension many times previously. Sighing, he went deep into his own thoughts for a long while as the other two spoke.
