This was the second time Jay lost his consciousness due to metaphysics-related matters.

However, this experience was bound to be different.

He was no longer an ordinary human, and he was now involved with a potentially dangerous psionic lifeform possessing strange qualities.

Unbeknownst to him, his ability had undergone a drastic change amid the torrent of intense information.

Perhaps it was because of the sheer volume of information, the unique circumstance of the target, or it might have been something else entirely.

During his bout of unconsciousness, the large volume of acquired information had somehow reorganized themselves into another format.

In the past, it was only directly embedded into his memory as if it was something he had read from somewhere and was just recalling it.

It resembled textbook knowledge more than memories accompanied by thoughts and emotions, with the latter being undoubtedly more impressionable.

Unlike the previous time, Jay wasn’t completely unconscious at the moment. His naked body lay sprawled on the bed, but his mind was elsewhere.

Although his perception was muddled, he still had a modicum of awareness in the mystical state he was in.

His consciousness appeared in a somewhat familiar place, albeit shrouded in fog that concealed many details of the environment.

Despite the minimal cognitive ability he could muster, he could still observe enough of the environment to assess the situation.

It was akin to living with perpetually heavy eyelids that threatened to close at any moment.

As he tried to make sense of his own situation, he observed that his consciousness seemed to have been superimposed on a young man.

That was the limit of his deductions at the moment, gleaned by observing the body parts that fell within the occupied body’s line of sight, as well as the apparent distance of the ground to the eye level.

The hazy environment and his inability to influence the body’s movements made observation quite difficult.

He couldn’t even determine the time of day nor the extent of the area he was in.

At the very least, he could tell that the fog was significantly denser outside the room, courtesy of the minor transparency of jalousie windows.

Jay saw the young man perform routinary tasks that suggested he was preparing to go out.

The features of the arm that often crossed his line of sight bore some similarities to his own, suggesting that their age and race might not be too far apart.

The environment seemed to be a small rented room. Despite the fog, he could observe an in-wall sink, a small bathroom, and a double-deck bed.

There was space for a small cabinet, a clothes rack, and small household devices, with plenty left over.

He also hadn’t seen another person, not even a hint, during this short time.

It seemed that the young man’s living conditions were quite similar to his own.

Despite taking the role of a mere passenger in the young man’s body, Jay could sense hints of anger and frustration in his every movement.

The body’s forceful yet concise movements gave him such a feeling.

He didn’t see it clearly, but there seemed to be a knife among the things that the young man prepared in his bag.

Perhaps this was where the similarities ended between their lives.

The implication so far was that this world wasn’t quite peaceful compared to his own.

The young man was almost finished preparing his things, and approached the mirror by the in-wall sink for one last look before heading out.

In the mirror was a bespectacled young man with a grave look on his face.

His thick, disheveled, black hair covered parts of his forehead, which gave him a hint of savageness in contrast to the orderliness of his stern face adorned by spectacles.

Upon closer look, Jay found the face quite familiar.

He struggled to focus his attention on the mirror despite his muddle-headedness.

It was only when the face in the mirror showed a cold smile that he realized a possibility that had been in the back of his mind all this time.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Despite the difference in temperament, the young man’s face was uncannily similar to his own.

Even the minor gestures and habits were quite similar, such as his penchant for playing with his hair out of nowhere sometimes when his hands were free.

Curiously, Jay wasn’t surprised by this realization somehow.

Perhaps it was because he had been surrounded by a familiar environment ever since his entry into this hazy world, or it might’ve been just because of his muddle-headed state at the moment.

He was now determined to figure out the essence of the situation, despite his severely impaired cognitive abilities.

He no longer viewed himself as an outsider to the circumstances, as he wasn’t seeing the life of a random stranger anymore, but someone closely related to him.

At least, that was what his instincts were telling him.

After checking himself on the mirror, the doppelganger finally decided to head out of the room.

The thicker fog outside suddenly rushed into the room through the gap in the door when the doppelganger opened it.

The doppelganger didn’t seem to have any reaction to this situation, but it was quite different for Jay.

The latter felt as though he was slowly being dissolved into nothingness, as if he was being expelled from this alternate reality by the fog.

Even at his peak, for what it’s worth, Jay didn’t have the capability to resist due to his lacking metaphysical repertoire, let alone in his current muddle-headed state.

He could only let the thick fog sweep his consciousness away from the doppelganger’s mind space, while the latter stepped out of his room unaware of the spectacle in another layer of reality.

-

It was around dawn when Jay woke up with another splitting headache, just like the first time he fell unconscious.

The difference was that he didn’t feel hungry and tired at the moment.

It didn’t take long for him to regain his bearings, likely because of his enhanced cognitive abilities and metaphysical attributes.

He finally had the ability to think properly, giving him the means to analyze his recent journey into another reality, which remained oddly vivid in his mind.

It should be noted that the intense feeling of melancholy from before hadn’t appeared again, but Jay’s mind was too preoccupied with the recent event to even think about the matter.

There were quite a few questions on his mind at the moment, like the reason why the thick fog outside the door rushed inside only when the doppelganger opened the door.

Surely, even if the windows were sealed shut, gas could still pass through the gap along the door hinges.

Also, it wasn’t practical, or even possible for that matter, for a living space to be air-tight.

The most likely explanation was that it wasn’t true fog, but a metaphysical phenomenon that manifested as such. He only had guesses as to what it might have been.

It was impossible for him to decipher many things at the moment, such as the identity of the young man that seemed to be a parallel version of himself in a world that was seemingly less peaceful than his own.

So, he decided to forgo an investigation at the moment. He would have to revisit this matter when he had accumulated a decent collection of metaphysical knowledge.

For now, he could only satisfy his curiosity with mere guesswork, as to provide a direction for his thoughts and future investigation.

Now that he thought about it, what happened to the psionic entity that supposedly caused this incident?

He hadn’t noticed it until now, but the feeling of melancholy earlier hadn’t appeared again.

Also, he knew that his usage of Identification on himself had undoubtedly included the psionic lifeform, courtesy of the ‘history’ function of his ability.

Was it in direct contact with him at that time? If so, then it was probably during the time he felt the pervasion of the intense negative emotions.

Looking back, he hadn’t felt any physical interaction from anything besides his clothes and the bed he laid on.

Perhaps the so-called ‘touch’ wasn’t limited to the physical definition he was familiar with.

Along this line of thinking, another problem could be traced about.

His usage of Identification through ‘touch’ could only acquire the basic information of secondary targets.

It wasn’t like the earlier incident where his consciousness had been transported to another place, superimposed on another entity.

Were the circumstances special? If so, how does the psionic lifeform and his doppelganger fit into it?

The more he thought about it, the more questions arose, which made him quite confused and frustrated.

He didn’t dare to take matters lightly, especially when it concerned his well-being.

He hoped Mr. Arthas would contact him soon, otherwise he might go crazy from curiosity and paranoia.

He decided to perform the only metaphysical action he could do at the moment, which was to use Identification.

Despite the unease, he used his ability on himself to verify some matters.

In this attempt, the information he expected to receive was about himself and everything in direct physical contact with him, such as his clothes and bed.

It had been about four hours since the psionic lifeform made ‘contact’ with him, so he wasn’t worried about this aspect.

What he truly felt uneasy about was the mutation that the incident could’ve induced in his ability.

Upon the thought of usage, a large torrent of information engulfed his mind.

To his surprise, he wasn’t overwhelmed by it this time, albeit it was weaker than the most recent one by a large margin.

Despite that, it was still a substantial volume that was significantly larger than the previous usage before the incident.

It took a few breaths for the information acquisition to finish, and immediately after, it coalesced into something more substantial than mere memory.

He had been used to the textbook-like format of the acquired information, but the new sensation felt like it was some sort of memory affixed with something else he couldn’t describe.

It felt as if he could recall the information as vividly as the memory of accidentally snorting seawater when he was three years old.

Of course, they weren’t quite the same, since the former did not technically ‘happen’ to him, unlike the latter, which was an unfortunate event that he remembered to this day.

A better interpretation of the matter was that he somehow ‘experienced’ the recently-acquired information.

This new enhancement was supposed to be a cause for celebration, but this wasn’t what Jay wanted to know at the moment.

How did this new enhancement relate to the experience he had while he was unconscious?

Although his Identification had been upgraded significantly, it was still a far cry from experiencing another reality.

There was a huge secret within the psionic lifeform.

Jay was quite certain of it, although he didn’t know if the elders knew about it, especially since it concerned his own uniqueness.

Perhaps it wasn’t only the psionic lifeform who was the source of the anomaly.

It could very well be himself.

With a deep sigh, he decided to set aside the matter for now, lest he pull out his hair out of frustration.

He decided to focus on Identification in the meantime, especially with the recent enhancement.

Perhaps all this confusion would be solved with enough personal power, enabling him to blow away the metaphorical fog of confusion with sheer force, regardless of external circumstances.

At the moment, there was nothing more he wanted than to reach the elders’ level, or even beyond.

This feeling of being kept in the dark while being unable to do anything felt extremely stifling to Jay.

He even felt anger towards the psionic lifeform for ruining his peaceful day, as well as himself for being powerless to do anything.

What he didn’t notice at the moment was that his weakness had also aggravated significantly, which could become quite dangerous if left unattended.

With these thoughts weighing on him, Jay resolved to delve deeper into the metaphysical world and seek the answers he so desperately needed.