Volume One, Chapter Two: Eyes Opened, Eyes Empty

A few minutes earlier.

On the stone slab bridge.

An uncle wearing a red vest and red hat was struggling to maintain order.

He had just received sudden notice that a new storm surge was sweeping toward the sea temple.

Such an unexpected event had never occurred before. The temple was not equipped to safely accommodate a large number of visitors. To prevent visitors from being stranded and endangered inside, the temple had to urgently evacuate everyone before the tide arrived.

“Attention all visitors! The attraction is about to close! Please queue up and leave in an orderly fashion! Attention! Attention! The attraction is about to close…”

Before he could finish speaking, the uncle felt someone repeatedly tugging at his red armband. Just as he turned to see what was going on, a scream came from the bridge not far away.

He quickly raised his megaphone and shouted, “Hey! What’s going on over there?”

Suddenly, someone shouted in his ear, “Someone fell off the bridge into the water!”

“What?”

Startled, the uncle pushed through the crowd toward the source of the screams without hesitation.

Meanwhile, the tourists who had been jostling on the bridge stopped, shouting loudly.

“Someone fell into the sea!”

“Rescue! Rescue!”

“Is there anyone who can swim? Someone just fell!”

“Swimmers, hurry and save them!”

“Make way! Make way!”

The scene immediately descended into chaos.

However, this was no longer within the perception of Lin Yuyu, who had already sunk beneath the waves.

As a person with thalassophobia and a non-swimmer, after flailing briefly upon falling into the water and tasting the salty sea, her limbs stiffened.

She could only watch helplessly as the surface of the sea drifted farther away, the water gradually deepening from pale blue to dark navy.

Strange.

She remembered checking the guidebook: although called the Sea Temple, it was actually built on coastal reefs.

The stone slab bridge connecting the temple to the shore was built in the intertidal zone.

So even if she fell from the bridge into the water, she shouldn’t be unable to touch the seabed for so long.

Moreover, fearing the water, she had deliberately chosen to come at low tide.

The interval between low and high tide here was a full six hours.

She had only lit incense in the temple and wouldn’t have stayed longer than six hours.

There was no way it would feel like she had fallen into the Mariana Trench, endlessly sinking without reaching the bottom.

Really strange.

Before Lin Yuyu could puzzle out the cause, after a wave of chest tightness, she completely lost consciousness.

Meanwhile, on Azure Star—

Several kilometers from Island 9-22, on the sea surface.

Two people bundled up so tightly they couldn’t be identified as male or female were desperately rowing a dilapidated small boat toward the shore.

A few hundred meters from land, their rotten oars suddenly snapped with a crack.

Water began seeping into the hull.

“Damn it! What bad luck! I told you to just dump the person wherever; you insisted on making this trip. Now look what’s happened!”

Before the other could respond, the island’s siren sounded again—one long blast followed by one short—a storm surge warning alerting residents to leave the coast immediately and seek shelter.

The two exchanged glances. The one who had been scolded spoke first, “Let’s go. Let’s get to shore first.”

With no other choice, they abandoned the boat and risked their wounds getting infected by seawater as they swam toward the shore.

After more than ten minutes, the alarm ceased, and the shoreline of Island 9-22 returned to its usual calm.

Meanwhile, the abandoned wreck bobbed farther from shore, pushed by wave after wave.

Long after the storm passed, a gaunt, bony hand suddenly appeared, clutching the side of the small boat.

With a sudden “crack,” the boat tilted unevenly and capsized, throwing the hand’s owner back into the sea.

Lin Yuyu, having struggled for some time to surface, cursed her bad luck in her heart.

Finally righting the boat and climbing inside, utterly exhausted, she flipped over and lay back on the deck, limbs sprawled, panting heavily.

“Huff… huff… I’m exhausted…”

Just moments ago, Lin Yuyu had died twice and come back to life twice.

She had inexplicably gone from the continental shelf to the ocean trench, missing the chance to be rescued from the seabed.

Then she transmigrated into a newborn jellyfish in this world.

Yet, as a jellyfish, she somehow drowned in seawater?

Was that scientifically possible? Reasonable?

She, who couldn’t even learn to swim as a human, was now supposed to learn to swim like a jellyfish? That was impossible!

She, a human with specialized respiratory organs, was supposed to learn jellyfish breathing? That made no sense!

…

Perhaps it was the heavy burden of dying twice in less than a day, or pity for her misfortune, that fate granted Lin Yuyu another chance to live.

When she finally revived, she found herself still deep at sea!

Fortunately, the original owner’s soul had not yet dissipated.

The little girl looked sullen but kind-hearted, patiently teaching her how to swim and helping her overcome fear, even offering her body.

Alas, she could not understand why someone so young wouldn’t want to live.

However… since she left her body behind, couldn’t she have left her memories, too?

After Lin Yuyu took over the body, she realized the original owner was nowhere to be found, leaving her alone with an empty mind and hollow eyes.

Lying on the deck for a long time, Lin Yuyu gradually regained some strength.

She lifted her hand to rub her aching temple.

Her gaze fell from the dim sky to her withered hand.

No longer fair, no longer tender.

She had truly transmigrated.

From a delicate young white-collar worker to a scraggly, dark-skinned, emaciated teenage girl.

(The few minutes she was a jellyfish were simply ignored by Lin Yuyu.)

No memories, no food, aching all over, hungry and thirsty,漂浮在 the vast ocean.

This beginning—truly unparalleled…