Chapter One: Rebirth

He opened his eyes in confusion, feeling the clammy dampness on his back. His clothes clung tightly to his skin, making him uncomfortable. The last thing Lu Yang remembered was the moment he plunged off the cliff.

“So this is death? Turns out it isn’t as terrifying as people say. I always heard those who fall from heights end up like crushed pastry. I wonder if I look like that now,” Lu Yang thought wryly to himself.

Death seemed nothing to fear—Lu Yang accepted it calmly. All the vengeance he’d sought in his previous life had been satisfied; he had no regrets. Yet, why did his heart still brim with so much unwillingness?

Was it because he’d trusted the wrong friends? Or was it simply fate he should have accepted?

In 2040, Earth’s industrial civilization experienced explosive growth. Machines replaced nearly all human labor, while advances in medicine pushed the population to an unprecedented twelve billion. Unemployment, widening gaps between rich and poor, public grievances, protests—these became the hallmarks of every nation.

To address these issues, countries joined forces in various efforts. One such endeavor was a 3D holographic simulation online game called “Second World,” co-developed by the nine most advanced nations using cutting-edge technology, finally realizing the dream gamers had cherished for decades.

There was only a single server for this game, where players from all over the globe competed. Over three billion people entered the game, attracting immense capital. When the authorities enabled real-time exchange between in-game currency and real-world money, it genuinely relieved some pressure on the unemployed.

Lu Yang was an ordinary child from a working-class family. During his free time at university, he entered the game to help support his household, becoming a gold farmer for a studio. Unexpectedly, this minor figure made a name for himself: he founded a small guild with five thousand members and constructed a defensive fortress in the top-tier wild monster zone.

The nearest main city was half a day’s run from this wild area, so as soon as Lu Yang built his fortress, he was welcomed by all players. They could buy potions, repair equipment, trade at the auction house, or log out to rest inside the fortress.

Thanks to this fortress, Lu Yang’s fortunes soared—he wasn’t just earning gold by the day, but tens of thousands daily. At this pinnacle, he believed he could provide a better life for his family and brothers. But he hadn’t realized it was only a fleeting dream.

On the third day after the fortress was built, Liu Jie—the president of the first guild in the China region, and the eldest son of a real-life super-rich family—personally visited with three hundred core members, intending to buy the fortress from Lu Yang.

Lu Yang refused, naturally. Liu Jie’s offer was only ten percent above the cost, treating Lu Yang and his brothers as mere laborers. Besides, the fortress was the fruit of the collective efforts of five thousand brothers who had chosen Lu Yang as their leader—a symbol of their trust in him. If he sold it so easily, how could he face them again?

After rejecting Liu Jie, Lu Yang worried about retaliation. Though his guild had sixty third-turn grand mages, and he himself possessed the Heart of the Demon God, making him fearless of numbers, he still took precautions. He and his three vice presidents agreed that each would lead a core team to take turns guarding the fortress round the clock.

A month of tense vigilance passed, but Liu Jie made no move. Lu Yang gradually relaxed his guard.

Trust had been both his making and his undoing. It was Lu Yang’s complete faith in his friends that led to disaster. Three days after lifting the alert, Huang Xiang—his four-year university bunkmate and the main tank of the first team—told Lu Yang a new boss had appeared in the wild monster zone, requiring all three core teams to defeat it.

Lu Yang suspected nothing. He led the three teams, guided by Huang Xiang, into a valley map. But instead of the boss, he saw Liu Jie’s sneering face and his twelve core teams—a force of twelve thousand top-level, level-200 members.

Only then did Lu Yang realize Liu Jie hadn’t abandoned his desire for the fortress. He’d simply changed tactics, bribing Lu Yang’s men to betray him, leading him into a trap with a barrier preventing escape or teleportation.

That night, Lu Yang and his three core teams were repeatedly slaughtered at least forty times through forced combat resurrection.

All three thousand members lost their gear, suffering catastrophic losses. Meanwhile, Liu Jie’s other six core teams broke through the fortress, destroying everything Lu Yang had built.

Lu Yang had taken out substantial bank loans to build the fortress. With the fortress and his brothers, paying off the debt had been easy. Now, with everything destroyed and the core members stripped of their equipment, he had no means to repay. Facing overwhelming debt and the despair in his brothers’ eyes, Lu Yang panicked, choosing to retreat into isolation, drowning himself in drink.

He believed the rest of his life would be spent in endless pain and struggle. But one event jolted him awake.

His parents, still ten years from retirement, decided to retire early from their state-owned jobs to work as laborers on construction sites, helping Lu Yang repay his debt.

Within half a year, his father was inexplicably crushed by heavy machinery at a site and died before reaching the hospital. The blow devastated his mother, who soon passed away as well.

Losing both parents in such a short span left Lu Yang in agony. He’d thought his father’s death was an accident, but when Wang Teng—Liu Jie’s lackey—beat him up and taunted him, revealing it was all orchestrated by Liu Jie, Lu Yang realized Liu Jie intended to leave him no chance to rise again.

As Wang Teng prepared to kill him, Han Cheng, a comrade who’d heard of Lu Yang’s parents’ deaths, arrived from out of town and rescued him, taking him abroad.

For five years, Han Cheng trained Lu Yang in fitness and lethal skills. After five years, fueled by hatred, Lu Yang became the internationally renowned mercenary “Bloodfire.” With his squad, he returned to China, spending a fortune to learn Liu Jie’s schedule. Lu Yang ambushed him at his home, and the moment Liu Jie entered, Lu Yang blew his brains out.

At that moment, Lu Yang felt a trace of release. He intended to pursue all those who’d harmed him, but Liu Jie’s family unleashed every resource to hunt him down. Lu Yang had to lead his mercenary team away. Near the border, he was discovered by both police and Liu Jie’s assassins.

During the chase, Lu Yang covered for his wounded brothers by luring the police into the mountains alone, ultimately cornered atop a cliff.

Faced with the police urging him to surrender, Lu Yang only sneered. His greatest revenge had been achieved; he had no regrets left, nor any reason to live. He leapt from the cliff, choosing suicide.

Yet, in the instant he jumped, a smiling face and pure eyes flashed before him. If he had any regrets, it was her.

She was his university classmate, Shen Mengyao—so beautiful, untouched by worldly dust. Lu Yang had been an unremarkable student then, but her every smile brought him immense encouragement. They had grown close, but her family was prominent.

Lu Yang had planned to confess once he was successful, but Liu Jie never gave him the chance. Five years later, upon his return, he sought news of Shen Mengyao only to learn she’d married at her family’s behest, though she was not happy.

He was unwilling to accept this. If only he hadn’t trusted the wrong friends.

If only he’d had more time to develop.

If only he’d become stronger.

If only…

If only…

…

The rage in his chest drove Lu Yang to punch the wall beside him, pain flooding his nerves.

His eyes widened in shock.

“Am I not dead? How can I move my arm? How do I still feel pain?”

He scrambled upright, examining himself. The body that should have been shattered was perfectly intact, without a single injury. Touching his back, he found the dampness was not blood, but sweat from lying in bed on a hot night.

Lu Yang was baffled. How was he alive and whole? Even in 2050, there was no way to revive someone so completely destroyed—and if there was, it wouldn’t be used on him. Besides, where was he?

He looked around and saw he was sitting on a shabby single bed, covered by a mosquito net.

Pulling aside the net, he saw an old wooden desk, battered from years of use.

On the wall above the desk was a line of words: “Have you forgotten shame?”

The moment he saw those words, Lu Yang’s whole body shivered in disbelief. Wasn’t this the old house he lived in after graduating high school? He’d written those words himself at the start of his final semester to motivate himself for the college entrance exam. He distinctly remembered his mother had repainted the house and erased them. How could they be here again?

There were damaged plastic stools, a folding wooden dining table in the corner, an outdated forty-two-inch TV—all items he’d replaced years ago. How was he back in this room? Had he been reborn?

He glanced at the clock—one minute to noon. Lu Yang, uncertain, turned on the TV and tuned to Central Channel One.

Watching the midday news, he heard the female anchor say: “Good afternoon, viewers. Today is June 16th, 2040, the seventh day of the fifth lunar month…”

At that instant, Lu Yang’s mind exploded. He rushed out the door, gazing at the university’s main building that had been relocated five years ago—now standing intact in its original place. Unable to contain his excitement, Lu Yang punched the wall outside his house, roaring in his heart:

I really have been reborn.