White Eagle Union, St Georgeâs University.
The summer sun in the afternoon shone through the leaves and cast scattered spots of light on the lawn.
The soft grass gently cushioned Thulhuâs body. Lying on the lawn, Thulhu could smell the scent of grass and flowers. Everything was just so cozy, and Thulhu couldnât help squinting slightly.
He was wearing a white shirt, which was partially unbuttoned to reveal a healthy skin color and a toned chest. He had well-defined features and his eyes were blue. To top it off, he had short, blond hair, which made him look rather careless and lighthearted.
âŠWell, the entire description above was actually bullshit. In fact, Thulhu was just plain-looking. At most, he could be described as a young man full of energy. His university life was coming to an end, and he was still single, which was the best proof.
âItâs been four years⊠Iâm gonna graduate soonâŠâ
Thulhu opened his eyes wide. Looking up at the sky, he looked slightly concerned.
He wasnât a native here. To be more specific, he wasnât native to this world. He came from another time and space. In the time and space where he was originally from, he had been quite unproductive even several years after his graduation â a salted fish, as people in that world called men like him. One night, when he stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, he suddenly blacked out and banged his head on the keyboard â
Here came the transmigration!
âSo staying up late really is bad.â Thulhu sighed. âEven for the young.â
He regretted it very much.
It was in fact quite a shitty game. He kept wondering why he was so obsessed with it.
It started with him pushing his bedtime back by a few minutes, then he had to kill this monster in the game, and then he had to finish the mission before going to bed⊠Then, several hours had passed without him realizing it!
Things like games, novels, movies, and TV series were all pretty much the same: they were all great tools for developing the habit of staying up late, and then the habit was almost impossible to get rid of.
ââŠand most people who stay up late tend to die suddenly instead of transmigrate. Donât even tryâŠâ
However, unlike most transmigration stories, nothing big like turning into a hero and marrying a beautiful lady had happened to him yet, which proved the fact that a salted fish was still a salted fish even after transmigration.
So here we should give a brief introduction to the previous owner of this body.
Thulhu Botley, whose full name was Thulhu Dunsdan Andrich Harrod⊠Mon Botley. The long, middle part of his name was in fact of no big use, as it was only in memory of a few marriages between families and of several big events, which was a tradition in White Eagle Union. Many officials hated it to their bones. Nowadays, a movement advocating for simplified names was gaining great popularity. Therefore, Thulhu Botley was the name he used on documents. He was twenty-one years old and a student of St Georgeâs University who was going to graduate soon.
As said earlier, the keyword for Thulhu was, without doubt, âordinary.â Ordinary-looking, ordinary school performance. Heâd gotten enough credits to graduate, but the university wouldnât assign him a job after graduation. Thulhu was worried as he had no idea what to do next, or maybe he could just save the worry since he might go straight to being unemployed.
Thulhuâs heart was full of complaints at this time.
This transmigration had turned out to be very mediocre. He wasnât equipped with any cheat codes. The only thing he got that was a bit special was his name, and it was still a plain one as there was a âCâ missing at the very beginning.
He wondered if he could change his name to Thulhu C. That way, he might be able to start a brand new life and become some kind of boss in this world.
Or he could do with Potter as his surname. A world of magic wasnât bad.
Too bad. He was only Thulhu. A salted fishâs imagination didnât usually help much.
âWell⊠Iâve still got something!â
Thulhu sat up and picked up the notebook that was next to him. He started drafting something on the notebook, biting the tip of his pencil from time to time.
It had taken him four years to figure out what this place was after he came here. The country was called White Eagle Union, which had 278 years of history and a population of thirty million. The country was quite big, so it played quite an important role on the world stage.
The development of technology in this world had exceeded the level of the first industrial revolution and was headed for the next. Right now, steampunk was mainstream.
In his last life, Thulhu studied science and engineering, so he had more or less mastered some skills. Now that he was living in this world, he might not be able to call himself the top here, but he was confident that he could still make a living.
Thulhu started outlining some of the points, frowning slightly. âSome knowledge doesnât apply here in this world, but itâs okay⊠some of it is still usefulâŠâ
He believed that geniuses in this world would be able to work things out if he threw something relatively new at them.
In his last life, Thulhu wasnât extremely intelligent. Instead, he was just an ordinary young man with a bachelorâs degree. He studied science and engineering, but couldnât say he specialized in them.
Also, transmigration was his biggest secret. Thulhu had to try his very best to hide it. Therefore, he could never throw a big theoretical bomb at people, which would catch too much attention!
In the past several years, Thulhu spent most of his spare time in the library looking for commonalities between what he knew and what worked in this new world.
He wouldnât admit that it was because he didnât have a girlfriend, and thus he had quite a lot of spare time.
Thulhu almost felt like crying.
In this country, there were people of different colors, like white, yellow, black, and so on, and the culture was relatively open. However, Thulhu was still having a difficult time finding a girlfriend as he was too much of a shut-in.
Thank god. Since coming here, Thulhu had focused on his university life and basically never went back home in the last few years, using the excuse that he had taken on some part-time jobs. Thus, Thulhuâs family members hadnât been able to tell the difference.
Thulhu Botleyâs family was also kind of strange. It wasnât just because the family was quite poor, but also because of the bad relationship Thulhu had with his family. Basically, Thulhu had supported himself throughout the years. No one ever visited him, and he didnât even get letters, which was a good thing.
Thulhu gently rapped the pencil against his head.
It seemed that this body had experienced some trauma, so some of the memories had become very vague. What Thulhu could remember was where the family lived and who the family members were, which was also quite hazy.
Was it because of the transmigration?
Thulhu wasnât sure, but he would never go back home and ask.
âHey man, hereâs your sandwich, and a letter!â
A shadow approached Thulhu while he was deep in thought.
Thulhu turned around and saw a young man. It was Shawn, his roommate and buddy. Shawn was Caucasian.
Shawn was tall and thin. His eyes were triangular in shape and he had red hair. The silver necklace he was wearing looked pretty cool against his black T-shirt, but Shawnâs slightly silly and weird style didnât match the necklace. Shawn handed Thulhu a sandwich and a letter.
âFour coppers in total, tip included.â Shawn grinned.
Thulhu glared at Shawn and took out a couple of coins. He knew Shawn well. âThanks, but as a waiter and postman, you charge too much.â
âCome on, man. Donât you know how far it is from our dorm to the mailbox? Those dorm managers are just too lazyâŠâ Shawn shrugged and said curiously, âTake a look at the letter. Maybe you got an offer.â