’He looked Chinese...’ Adrian recalled, thinking about the face he saw back then before the transformation. ’So he must be from Earth, or at least a very similar world? Maybe he is some sort of summoned hero too. He probably has a shit ton of luck and some sort of overpowered system or blessing.’
He thought back to that brief moment in the freezing rain where he saw the guy morph into a towering, hulking monster that basically looked exactly like a werewolf.
’Does this guy have some sort of werewolf system?’ Adrian wondered. ’Can he bite people and convert other humans into werewolves or something? Or maybe he just naturally evolves his own body as a werewolf over time.’
He didn’t really have any concrete answers. So he just stopped guessing and followed Draven down into the dark basement.
Soon, the two of them reached the damp, underground prison cells. They walked into the main holding room and Adrian looked through the heavy iron bars to see Wang Lei. The guy was chained tightly to a stone pillar and he looked pretty beaten up, sporting a black eye and a swollen lip from what Adrian guessed was Draven’s attempt at getting answers out of him.
Adrian walked right up to the iron bars.
"What is your name?" Adrian asked calmly.
Wang Lei slowly lifted his bruised head and looked up at Adrian with total panic in his eyes.
"I really don’t know anything!" Wang Lei yelled, and his voice completely cracked. "I don’t even know what the hell I was doing back then since everything is just super hazy. I can remember the things I did, but absolutely nothing makes sense in my head! I don’t think I would have actually done things like that usually. It felt almost like someone else was controlling me! Please, you have to believe me! Please don’t hit me, I’m telling the truth!"
Adrian just stared at the desperate man through the bars.
"Well." Adrian said calmly. "I do actually believe you. That is the exact reason why I am asking you a simple question. What is your name?"
Wang Lei immediately looked up. He looked genuinely surprised that someone actually believed the brainwashing stuff considering how out of the normal it was.
"My name is Wang Lei." he answered quickly.
Adrian nodded. He just glanced over at Draven standing right behind his shoulder.
"Can you leave us alone for a bit?" Adrian requested.
Draven frowned, but he nodded and walked back up the stone stairs without complaining. The heavy basement door clicked shut above them.
Adrian turned back to face Wang Lei.
"Okay." Adrian said flatly. "So I have a way to see if you are lying to me or not. So tell me the truth. How exactly did you come here? Because you do not look like a native to this continent."
Wang Lei swallowed hard.
"Well." Wang Lei started, his eyes darting around the room as Adrian walked in. "I don’t really remember my past at all. I just feel like I come from somewhere very far away."
It honestly sounded exactly like he had spent hours rehearsing that specific line in his head. And that just made Adrian chuckle out loud.
"Well." Adrian gave a slight smirk. "That is the exact same bullshit that every summoned hero says."
Adrian snapped his fingers. He pulled a wooden chair straight out of his dungeon link and dragged it closer to the iron bars. He sat down and casually rested his elbows on his knees.
"Are you someone from a totally different world?" Adrian asked casually. "Because I happen to know someone else from a different world. And I faced against him indirectly. So tell me, Mr. Wang Lei. Are you from Earth?"
Wang Lei just stared at Adrian.
Adrian could easily see the panic on the guy’s face but there was also this weird spark of excitement hiding right behind it. So Wang Lei just sat there in silence while he weighed his options for a few seconds.
"Am I... a hero?" Wang Lei asked hesitantly.
Adrian just shrugged.
"That is what the locals call you people." Adrian replied smoothly. "But you guys are not exactly heroes. You are just people pulled from a different world. You are definitely more unique and different from the people here. You get to ignore certain magical laws of this world, but that is about it."
Adrian leaned forward and looked at Wang Lei.
"You can’t do anything else." Adrian said calmly. "You are no different from others apart from your ability. Which means you can also bleed and die very easily. Especially considering your current situation here... So tell me the truth. Are you from a different world? I won’t ask you again."
As he finished saying that, Adrian reached into his spatial ring. A sharp, steel hunting dagger materialized right in his hand. He slowly reached forward and lightly rested the cold, broad side of the steel blade right against Wang Lei’s bruised chin.
Wang Lei swallowed hard.
He just stared at Adrian’s deadpan expression for a few agonizing seconds. He couldn’t really tell if this guy was being totally serious about slicing his throat open or if he was just bluffing to get answers out of him. But he definitely wasn’t going to take any chances with a crazy medieval noble. So he just took a deep breath and closed his eyes to pray.
’Oh God.’ Wang Lei thought desperately. ’Please, if you do exist, please help me out here. Please make this guy a good, reasonable person. I really don’t want to die in a dirty basement. I miss my mom.... I miss my dad too. I know I basically cursed both of them out right before I got sent to this shithole world but I already miss them, mainly since they were the only ones who actually cared about me. Even if they spent most of their time scolding me for being a useless failure. And they honestly weren’t wrong. I should have worked harder in life.’