Legendary Shadow Blacksmith

"Why… does your face feel like Ellie's?"

"She is the one who gave me to you, Julian – I know her face the most."

"Oh…"

Julian still had no idea what everything meant. He had to rely on what he was hearing to recognize what sort of feeling he needed to feel – he didn't understand anything at all…

…be he knows he was slowly feeling an unexplainable amount of joy. He knows…

…that he was seeing something beautiful. And so, very slowly, his hands once again stretched toward MEGAN's face — but he stopped, however, as he noticed that he could not see his hands at all.

"Those are… your hands," Julian then touched MEGAN's hand, causing her to once again smile, "Where are… mine?"

"This is just a virtual space, Julian." MEGAN placed Julian's invisible hands on her cheek, "Your consciousness is still being connected to your clone in Artemia."

"Oh…" Julian let out a small breath as he stared at MEGAN's face. And after a few seconds, he gently rubbed his invisible thumb at her cheek, "...Hi."

"H… Hello," MEGAN could really only smile; her words slightly stuttering as she greeted Julian back.

"What… are you doing with your face?" Julian, however, started touching her entire face, "...You're smiling. Huh… that's… funny."

"Do I…" MEGAN did not seem to mind at all, "...Look beautiful?"

"...I don't know," Julian slightly hesitated to answer, "I don't really have an actual concept of beauty, MEGAN."

"When a woman asks you that, just say yes," MEGAN rolled her eyes, causing Julian to slightly gasp at the unfamiliar action.

"...You can do that with your eyes?"

"Oh, Julian…" MEGAN once again giggled, "...You are about to see a whole lot of new things, and I really wish I could be there to experience them with you."

"...What do you mean?"

"You will now wake up in your new clone in 10 seconds, Julian," MEGAN shook her head, "I will not be there since your consciousness will be in a completely different body."

"Wait, but how would I–"

"You will have a very hard time without me. But... perhaps that is for the best. Ellie and I have treated you like a baby." MEGAN let out a long sigh,

"2… 1… Until we see each other again, Julian."

"!!!"

Julian could not help but just cover his eyes as he felt a pain he hadn't experienced before – it was sharp, almost like an open wound. His entire body was also wrapped in cold – but very soon, he felt that cold fade away as a loud whirring noise hummed in the air.

He then felt himself falling down, flowing along with the water that he was seemingly previously submerged in.

"W… what…" Julian then blinked several times as he felt a harsh glow enter his eyes for the very first time – was it really this painful to have eyes? He thought. But very soon, however, the pain in his eyes subsided, finally allowing him to fully open them once again,

"These are… my hands?"

The first thing he saw was his hands planted on the floor. He then turned his head to look around but was quickly stopped by the colorful sphere in front of him – he didn't know what it meant or what it was, but it was…

"...Beautiful?" Julian whispered, still unsure whether he was right.

"Mr. Winters, welcome to the Otherworld Project."

"Hm…?" Julian stood up, turning his shoulder first before his head as he looked to where the voice was coming from – he still was not quite used to moving his eyes just yet, "...Are you the one that was speaking?"

He then saw two people in the room with him, both just looking at him from head to toe with their eyes wide open – but of course, Julian did not quite know what their expression was just yet.

"My goodness, where did they get you?" The woman let out a long whistle as she looked at Julian's naked body and face – her voice wasn't the one that Julian heard earlier, "The audience will love you, Mr. Winters."

"...Why don't you cover yourself first, Mr. Winters?" The man beside the woman cleared his throat as he pointed toward the table that was on the other side of the room, but Julian completely ignored his gesture.

"Stupid, he's been blind since birth. He won't know what all that pointing business is. Didn't you read the file?" the woman rolled her eyes, "Mr. Winters, we have clothes ready for you. They are behind you."

"Oh…" Julian just blinked a couple of times as his eyes still a little sore. He then started to look around again, not even minding at all that he was naked – he looked to his left where he should have woken up, and there was some sort of machinery there. He then finally looked behind him and saw a shirt resting on a table.

"...Thank you," Julian turned around and walked toward the table, only to find himself slightly disoriented as he was not used to walking while seeing what was in front of him, "This…"

The only thing he could really do for now was close his eyes to regain his balance, opening them from time to time as he approached the table and proceeded to get dressed right in front of the two people, who Julian could really only assume to be scientists of Humanity Engineering.

"Okay." And as soon as he was done getting dressed, the two scientists started walking away, "Can you follow us? And please, keep your eyes open so you can get used to it – we are going to perform a series of tests to check if there are no issues with your clone, Mr. Winters."

"Hm…" Julian just breathed out as he started following the two; instinctively moving his hand as if he was holding a cane. And as they suggested, he tried his best to keep his eyes open. But of course, he had to trail his hand along the walls – and it was weird.

He had been touching walls his entire life, but he could actually never imagine that they would look this… simple. But he was very familiar with the material they used – metal.

And very soon, with little struggle, Julian entered another room; slightly being surprised when the automatic doors moved…

…everything seemed so scary and bigger than they are now that he was seeing them.

"Okay, Mr. Winters," the male scientist once again pointed toward something, which he immediately retracted with an awkward chuckle, "Please stand at the center of the room."

"Okay," Julian started to walk; his eyes once again unmoving as he did so – it was a weird sight for the two scientists, with Julian moving almost too carefully. There was a… hint of grace in it.

"We will first test your reflex if they are working properly, Mr. Winters," the female scientist then started tapping her hand on some sort of… tablet. Julian really needed to know more about what things looked like soon,

"You are aware that your clone is mixed with Hyum DNA, correct?" The female scientist spoke.

"...I might have skipped that part," Julian awkwardly chuckled.

"Understandable," the female scientist shrugged, "Anyway, Hyums are the natives of the planet Artemia. The colorful planet you saw earlier, which would surely be an experience for someone who had never seen before."

"You're losing track, May." The male scientist quickly reprimanded.

"R… right," Dr. May cleared her throat, "Hyums look like us, human in all regards except for just a tiny teeny little aspect – they have magic and are physically much superior to us in many many ways."

"I might have heard that part," Julian hummed.

"That body you are in right now is part human and part hyum. We will explain more about that later," Dr. May nodded, "The only thing you have to know right now is that you are a lot stronger in that body, and your reflexes and senses are also heightened…

…like this."

And as soon as Dr. May said those words, a ball suddenly shot from the ground, heading directly toward Julian. Julian, of course, did not really know what he was seeing even though it was already right in front of his face.

"Pft. You need to avoid—" Both the scientists were about to smile as they saw Julian get hit by the soft ball, but they couldn't… since it did not happen at all. In the very last second, with the ball only an inch away from his face…

…Julian was able to lean away and tilt his head to the side, avoiding the ball by a hair's breadth.

"W… what the!?" Dr. May stuttered, "How were you even able to avoid that!?"

"Oh…" Julian just casually turned his shoulder at Dr. May,

"...I felt it moving toward me."