Unlike the previous times when Zain felt drowsiness, this time, the headache in the back of his head had come out much more intense, not giving him enough time to try to fight it, hurting him more in the process.
If only there was a way for him to control when these episodes happen. Although they had come at appropriate times so far, there was always the chance that in the middle of a fight if he didn't learn what was setting them off.
Either way, he had to deal with the current one right now.
'What will it be this time?' Zain thought. Will it be a memory with that faceless man? Although they feel like a dream, I'm still worried about what would happen if I were to die in one of those visions.
'However, I'm no fool. Each time I have had some type of lesson with that person, I've never learnt something I never knew how to do before.'
Thinking about it, not all of the blackouts had been like that. There was the one time he had entered the cave, and in doing so, he had earned a return key and sword mastery by completing the objective. Maybe it was time for the system to give him another reward.
When Zain finally was able to regain his composure, he found himself in a completely unfamiliar scene, and what surprised him more than anything was his body. No longer was he in a child-like form. He was his regular self, his zombie self, although it was quite different.
The scene in front of him was what could only be described as a scientific lab, or at least what Zain imagined one would look like. He was in a fairly large room with several tables, papers, test tubes, and all sorts of research-related instruments placed on the tables and cupboards.
However, he was not alone.
There were others, and all of them were wearing lab coats. As for where Zain was in all of this and what he had to do with the vision, that was something that he needed to find out for himself.
Zain was floating up in the air, almost touching the ceiling and looking down at everything. When looking at his own body, it was like a ghost.
'Does this mean I'm not playing a part, and these guys, they can't see me?'
In order to test this, Zain thought about moving, and his body did as it was told. There was no need to pretend to swim through the air. If he wanted to move to a certain position, his body would move to that said position.
Then getting in front of one of the workers, Zain waved a hand in front of his face to see if the latter noticed anything, but the person didn't even flinch. Next, he tried to interact with the equipment, but his hands would just go through everything.
'I guess I'm just a bystander, but then what do I do? How am I meant to wake up from this place?'
With nothing else to do, Zain decided to explore to see what the scientists were working on, but other than looking through microscopes and writing down words that just didn't make sense to him. There was nothing until Zain had spotted something, or more rightly so, someone.
A blonde female scientist who looked to be in her mid-thirties. Zain wasn't so sure yet until he flew directly behind her and had a look at the long slender legs.
'I'm sure of it. This has to be the scientist that works for the Reborn group, the same scientist who crashed into me and gave me the pendant. I mean the pendant I picked up.' Zain corrected himself.
Thinking this had to be linked somehow, Zain decided to stay close to the blonde female. Just like the others, she seemed to be whisking away, focused on her work. The only thing was several of the other scientists seemed to be coming up to her and asking her several questions.
As time passed and he observed the room, he found out that the scientist's name was Sarah Bain. Not a name that he recognised which was making him wonder how he was even receiving these images in the first place.
Regardless, it seemed that Sarah was the go-to person in the department that really knew her stuff. That was until a certain person entered the room from a different area.
'I'm such an idiot. Why didn't I think to try and explore outside of this lab? With this body, I should be able to get out, right?'
Before Zain could attempt to get out, he was interested in who this person was because immediately after he came in, all of those in the lab bowed down.
Seeing this, Zain took a closer look at the man. He looked a bit older than the woman, most likely in his forties, if Zain were to guess. His beard was a little grey in places, while his hair was mostly white already, but his skin was quite young, which was why it was hard for Zain to judge.
As for the man, he came straight over to where Zain was. It almost looked like he was looking directly at him. As he took steps closer and closer, Zain wondered if he would need to fight back, but how was he meant to in a body like this?
That was until the man gave Sarah a big hug.
"I think I did it, I think I finally managed to make a breakthrough!" The man said.
It was clear by the way he hugged the woman that the two knew each other quite well.
"You really did…does this mean we can save them? Can we save everyone?" Sarah's face lit up with a smile.
'Save everyone? These words and who she is… and her words, I am sure this blonde woman, Sarah, has to be involved in this whole thing. My instincts were right. If I find her, maybe I can find out what happened to me and what started this whole zombie mess in the first place.'
Suddenly, a bright white light started to fill the room, filling the whole place and making it harder for Zain to see. It was clear the vision was coming to an end, and at the last moment, Zain saw the man hugging Sarah move back and slightly turn his head.
The man was staring right into Zain's eyes.
*****
Thank you for all the support so far on LUZ. LUZ will be continuing on, and I hope I can do more chapters for all my series as time free's up in the future.