Chapter 20: Lay low and don't attract attention

'Well that was a rollercoaster ride I did not appreciate' Raven thought, trying to pull herself together from what looked like a public bathroom floor. She was shaking from the experience and felt sore everywhere. For a second it felt like she would be split in half. It wasn't very painful, but certainly not an easy ride.

She took a moment to collect herself and take in her surroundings.

She was in a relatively elegant looking bathroom, quite clean. She was relieved, it wasn't some subway station bathroom, it looked more like a corporate one.

Still unable to get up yet, she took in more of her environment. It was a small bathroom, with a few stalls and sinks, so maybe a private executive one then.

Since she couldn't hear any movement around her, she assumed she was safe from any prying eyes.

She needed to collect her thoughts and get a plan of action. First thing's first, she needed to figure out who she was and if this was the same world she originally came to when the book pulled her in.

This time she knew it wasn't a dream, and she was really eager to explore this world until she would try to break out again.

After a couple of minutes Raven started to feel better and regained her strength. She stood up and looked into the mirror above one of the sinks in this bathroom.

She was shocked! She slowly touched her face to feel for her features and she suddenly realised this was not her body. When she was touching her face, it felt like it was her, with the original Raven features, however the image in the mirror told a different story.

She still had long, raven black hair but her nose was slighty bigger, her chin a bit rounder and her cheeks looked different too. She had different eyes, of a rich chocolate brown colour with emerald flecks peppered around. She could tell from her appearance, her features resembled the Far East, she certainly didn't look European anymore.

Well this was interesting.

'Was this a different world?' she suddenly thought. 'Could it be that this book was a portal to different dimensions in the universe?'

It felt like she was living in someone else's body, but still had no memories of the previous occupant. It was very much still her, with her own memories and abilities but she looked different.

She tried to force herself to think about the first time she visited this world, was it the same person, or a different one. A thought occurred to her in this moment. Seeing as she felt the same as being in her own body, 'could this be a projected image that the inhabitants of this world would see?'

She looked around for any sign of a bag or a purse to figure out who she was. Luck was on her side this time too. She found on the side of the sink a laptop bag and what looked like a crossbody handbag. It was such an ugly puke green colour...

She sighed again ' I guess I'm bound to have no sense of colour coordination in this world too.'

Just like the first time she visited, she searched through the woman's belonging. She quickly found her badge and her phone.

It looked like this was the same woman Jisuanji Liehen, Lanhua Corporation, executive assistant to the president.

'Hmm… interesting' Raven thought digging through the woman's bag. So this was the same world after all. She didn't know how long she had been in the bathroom for, and she didn't want to arouse suspicion. It was time to go out and explore whatever this world had to offer. She was very conscious of the fact that she now looked different than before. This woman was beautiful by any standards, but for some reason Liehen was determined to hide her natural beauty behind a very unflattering sense of fashion.

Raven thought she would help with that, seeing as she was sort of forcefully taking over this woman's body for her own experiments and curiosity.

A thought suddenly popped into her mind 'Was this how the people she interacted with saw her the first time she visited?' She was very busy at the time trying to break out of what she thought was a dangerous dream state, so she didn't really take in the environment and her own appearance. Thinking about it now, with a clearer mind, she realised that it was indeed Liehen staring at her in the mirror. When she touched her face, she could still feel her own features and body, which is why she probably didn't register the changes during her first visit. 'What a silly noobie mistake to make' she sighed thinking of how oblivious she was the first time she visited.

Raven made some allowances for herself here, she was in a state of panic thinking she might die in real life. As it turns out, this was real life after all, just not on the same existence plane as she originally was.

With that thought, knowing that she looked different in this world she could maybe take some liberties. She didn't want to cause any more trouble for this woman as she did plan to return to her own life fairly soon, but she was curious.

Raven would take it slow, lay low and try to integrate whilst conducting her own investigations.

She knew from her previous experiences that she would be able to go back if she didn't follow a particular story line or if she forced the boundaries of this reality, so until she could figure out a stable, ideally less painful, way to go back she wouldn't rock the boat. If this was an alternate reality, she didn't want to cause any ripples in the fabric of the universe.

If this was the book world, she certainly didn't intend to stay trapped here or risk the dangers of something happening to the book in her world.

With all these thoughts in mind, she was ready to begin her experiment. From what she remembered previously, Liehen was perceived as a quiet personality, a hard worker and someone who would not really go against other people. She didn't seem to be weak, but somehow, from what she remembered from that woman Shengli, Liehen would not really challenge authority or speak up against her superiors.

Raven decided she would keep a low profile for the sake of this woman, but she knew it would be a struggle, their personalities would be very different.

She wouldn't want to interfere too much in this woman's life but maybe she could try to improve it a little bit. As long as she was a guest in this body, she would do the right thing.

It was also very hard for Raven to know when she might be pulled back. In case it was unintentional, she would try to leave a message for this woman to let her know what she has done.

The original Liehen was clearly able to keep her job even after the ruckus Raven caused, so at least there was that. Raven knew she was accustomed to a particular lifestyle. It wasn't necessarily luxurious or done for the sake of showing off, but mostly for the sake of efficiency and on some level personal comfort. She would do her best to give this woman a similar treatment. For as long as she was hosted in this body, she'd try to improve Liehen's condition, maybe even her social status if she could.