The million euros in the travel bag were likely still there, but the police had already arrived, making it impossible to retrieve the money.
Return to Europe?
Merritt faced a serious problem: he needed to get to a city first. Stuck in the middle of nowhere with no airport or vehicles, how could he get back?
He couldn't remember the exact route but had a general sense of direction.To avoid being spotted by the police, he took a long detour. By the time the eastern sky began to lighten, he finally saw the road.
Not long after, a car stopped in front of him.Lucky break!
Merritt thought to himself. Last time, he had tried to hitch a ride many times, but neither cars nor trucks had stopped for him.
He stood by the back door, but the passenger door opened instead. A voice from the driver's seat, sending chills down his spine, called out, "Hey handsome, sit up front."
The driver was a woman around forty. She wasn't exactly ugly, but she was far from beautiful. Her face bore the marks of time, mostly hidden underthick makeup. Merritt wondered if her makeup would fall off if she made any sudden facial expressions.
He didn't care about her looks. What caught his attention was...
Handsome?
No one had ever called him handsome before, and if they did, it was insincere. His appearance was far from handsome.
The woman was doing him a favor by offering a ride. Despite her overly sweet voice making him uncomfortable, Merritt forced himself to endure it.
Merritt Priya slid into the passenger seat. He glanced at the rearview mirror, and in the next moment, his face froze completely. He finally understood why the woman had called him handsome, why she had stopped the car, and why she had used that sweet, coquettish voice.
In Bien City, at a small motel where you didn't need an ID to check in, Merritt stood in front of the bathroom sink, staring dumbfounded at the person in the mirror.
Over the years, he had experienced things that ordinary people couldn't imagine. In that dark world, there were many shocking truths.
But...
Everything he had gone through before paled in comparison to this moment. The shock he felt now was beyond words.
"From now on, you are me, and I am you!"
The last words of the dying soul echoed in his mind. He hadn't thoughtmuch of it at the time, but now he finally understood what those words meant. In the mirror...
Merritt raised his hand to touch his cheek and muttered to himself, "How could this happen?"
His original height of 5'9" had inexplicably shot up to over 6 feet. The face that was neither handsome nor ugly had transformed into a completely unfamiliar one.
Thick eyebrows like swords. Eyes that sparkled like stars. Sharp, defined features
.The most absurd part was that although he hadn't been particularly good-looking before, there had been a certain heroic air about him. Now, his entire aura had changed.
That aura... how to put it, it had a sort of dangerous, almost sinister charm.
He was practically a different person now!
Being handsome wasn't necessarily a bad thing, right?
In fact, Merritt had been quite satisfied with his previous appearance.
After all, he had gotten used to it over the years.
In his world, no one cared if you were handsome or ugly; strength was what truly mattered. Deep down, Merritt believed that good-looking men were often just empty shells. But that wasn't the main issue. The real problem was... how was he supposed to go back to Europe and face the girl now?
Tell her he had plastic surgery?
Yeah, right, like she'd believe that!
Given her rational and decisive nature, she would definitely think he had been killed.
She'd assume the killer had tortured him to extract his memories and then concocted a massive lie to deceive her. So if he went to find her...
Knowing her as well as he did, she'd probably kill him on the spot!
What to do? What to do?
Looking at the handsome face in the mirror, the once-mighty king was now at a loss.
"I absolutely can't go back right now!"