Chapter 114 — The Shadow of Typhon

"That is the difference in physical law," Gao Yang said with feeling, largely in agreement. "In fact you should count yourself lucky. A 'transmigrant' like you, from another world with different laws—to fall into this world and actually survive intact, rather than undergoing self-disintegration because the laws differ—that is a tremendous stroke of fortune."

"Transmigrant? A good word for it," Nikolai Egg buzzed. "You really are a kindred spirit. Not only do you understand me and accept my experience, you always happen to think the same things I do. To be honest, when I first realized the laws here were different from back home, that was exactly what scared me most. At the time I was terrified my body would just go 'bang' and come apart—after all, even the material structure is different on the two sides. But later I reasoned it out: if I really were going to disintegrate, I would have disintegrated the instant I landed in this world. Since nothing happened then, it means I'm just lucky to be alive. What's there to fret about..."

"And have you figured out the reason you survived intact?" Gao Yang asked.

"Who knows," the metal sphere wobbled left and right. "I've forgotten even my own name—do you think I've had time to work that out?"

"Honestly, how bad is your 'amnesia,' really?" Gao Yang asked, frowning, voicing a question he had long been curious about. "You still remember some common knowledge from back home—environment, physical laws, history—but is everything else gone?"

The metal sphere thought for a long while before speaking: "Tch. That's the truth of it—what am I supposed to do about it? That's the most terrifying thing about amnesia: you don't even know what you've forgotten. All I can remember now is some everyday common sense, and that common sense belongs to another world. I still remember a language, but it's equally useless here..."

As he spoke he seemed to sink into immense dejection and gradually fell silent, until half a minute later he heaved a sigh with striking humanity: "Ah... I'm trying, you know. Trying to work out who I am, what I did, what I can do, what I'm good at—but you can't imagine how hard it is. In a familiar world it would be all right; the things around you would give you some hints. But here, everything, absolutely everything, is completely strange to me. I can't find the slightest thing to help me recall my past. These days I've been drifting around the camp just to watch how you produce and live, hoping to find the things I know how to do—and the result? Nothing. It seems I can't do anything. There isn't a single job I can lend a hand with... and I don't even have hands!"

Gao Yang stroked his chin. "Then guess—what did you do in your last life?"

"Where am I supposed to start guessing?" The metal sphere seemed very much to want to spread both hands, but having none, it could only wobble to and fro. "I don't have the faintest impression of doing any kind of work or being good at any kind of thing. Could it be that in my last life I didn't have to work, didn't have to study, didn't even have to leave the house?"

Gao Yang could not help looking the metal sphere up and down twice, and a chill went through his heart: from the way this ball described himself, could he have been some shut-in slob before he transmigrated? (Fog)

As for why a slob? Just look at his build!