林凡猛地睁开眼，脑袋像是被一万根针扎过，疼得他龇牙咧嘴。他associated the weird pain with a splitting headache down to his toes, as if the ground were covered in itching cactus needles. Around him wasn't the familiar ceiling of his university dorm, but a huge, echoey room. Red-carpeted floors, gold railings, and pillars carved with dragons and phoenixes everywhere. It gave off a stifling, ancient vibe.

"Ugh, chinese medicine research project... why am I here?" he mumbled, sitting up and wincing. The movement made something heavy on his lap shift. He hesitantly looked down.

A thick, dark sash was around his waist, and nestled against his thigh wasn't a laptop or textbook, but a ridiculously ornate... sword? It was covered in intricate bronze patterns, humming faintly with a weird energy.

Wait. That energy. Like... like the weird artifact Professor Chen brought in for the museum exhibit last week? The one they said was 'possibly a source of psychic resonance'? Or something equally bullshit.