Chapter 3

After sitting up from a suspicious black metal box, Gao Wen was in a state of severe confusion. In fact, he had completed the action of "sitting up" unconsciously.

An unprecedented chaos and dizziness were overwhelming his brain. He felt a buzzing in his ears, and his entire body was experiencing a wild and indistinguishable array of sensations. Everything he saw had at least four shadows, and two of those shadows were in black and white. However, amidst all this chaos, his cognitive abilities hadn't completely failed.

Perhaps he should thank the person who had struck his hand with a stick. In the moment before he was about to be overwhelmed by the chaos, he gained a precious moment of clarity.

But that stick really hurt...

As his thoughts gradually returned to normal, Gao Wen finally recalled what had happened before—his vision had suddenly cut off, some escape program had been activated, and he had the sensation of falling continuously. Now, he had a tangible, sensory, and mobile body.

A body!

He had a body!

After crossing who knows how many tens of thousands of years, and just when he was about to think he was naturally a third-person perspective, Gao Wen had a body!

The confusion in his mind and the chaotic sensations from his body were understandable. He hadn't had any sensory abilities other than vision for far too long. Even though his consciousness had remained normal for some unknown reason, it was difficult for him to adapt to a state where he could feel cold, heat, pain, and itching.

However, Gao Wen could feel himself rapidly adapting to this body and the various sensations of returning to the material world. As the dizziness in his brain slightly subsided, the quadruple-shadow vision in front of him finally returned to normal, and the surroundings came into view.

The first thing he saw was four heavily armed, muscular men not far ahead. One of them was a middle-aged man with graying hair, wearing a sturdy steel armor that seemed to bulge with muscles, holding a silver-gray longsword. The other three had simpler armor and weapons, but they clearly showed signs of being standardized.

A petite girl was kneeling on the ground, half-pressed down by the swords of these four men. Her face was obscured by her hair and the angle, but a pointed ear could be seen peeking out from her hair.

A bit further away stood a woman in a red dress. Her beautiful face, exuding elegance and maturity, and her well-proportioned figure made Gao Wen glance at her a bit longer. He quickly noticed the unmistakable tension and fear in the eyes of this mature noblewoman.

But the movement beside him soon caught Gao Wen's attention. He turned his head and saw a girl, who looked no more than sixteen or seventeen, hurriedly jumping down from the stone platform he was on. The girl was holding a metal stick that looked painful to hit with...

Recalling the girl's previous position, Gao Wen's expression became a bit strange: "Just now... was it you who hit me?"

As soon as he said this, he was taken aback himself. He realized that what he had blurted out was not Chinese but an unfamiliar language, yet it felt as natural as if he had known it all his life.

Rebecca, however, had no idea what a mess of thoughts were swirling in the "ancestor's" mind. The young noblewoman, who had just inherited the viscount title and faced a huge upheaval, was on the verge of tears: "Ancestor... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

"I..." Gao Wen still had no idea what was happening. Despite observing this world for many years from above, this was his first time experiencing it from a first-person perspective. His confusion was no less than that of anyone else present. "You are..."

The beautiful noblewoman in the red dress seemed to be the calmest one there. After Gao Wen sat up and spoke, the fear and tension on her face visibly decreased. She took a step forward—though still wary, she spoke calmly: "Do you know who you are?"

"I?" Gao Wen was taken aback. Before he could blurt out his name, he shuddered, realizing he should assume another identity.

Looking at the box beneath him, though it was oddly styled, it was definitely a coffin. The environment around him, though spacious and larger than his previous home, looked like a tomb...

Considering the expressions on the faces around him, Gao Wen realized something: he had come back to life.

If he said any name that didn't match the body he was in, he would be immediately treated as a demon and eliminated. What did that girl say earlier? Ancestor, right? He could guess that he had possessed the body of one of their ancestors. Without considering how the old ancestor managed to remain uncorrupted for so many years, the crucial point was that as an external soul, he had not only taken over the ancestor's body but also kicked the coffin lid off... This was more than just awkward...

Thinking of this, Gao Wen lowered his head, pretending to think, but in reality, he was rapidly searching for an excuse, like the memory being a bit hazy after a long sleep. However, just as he focused, a strong dizziness hit him again.

He had just barely adapted to the new body and overcome the dizziness, but now a second wave hit him, nearly causing him to fall back into the coffin. The noblewoman in the red dress, seeing Gao Wen's unusual behavior, tensed up and raised her staff, ready to cast a fireball at her ancestor's face. But a low voice from Gao Wen interrupted her.

"Gao Wen·Seychell, I am Gao Wen·Seychell, the pioneer of the Ansu Kingdom... What year is it now?"

As he spoke, he slightly raised his head, his eyes calm and deep like the sea.

In his mind, however, a storm was raging.

The memories of Gao Wen·Seychell were flooding in, but they were being quickly organized and recorded like data on a hard drive. In that brief moment of dizziness, he had accessed the most superficial part of these memories and understood his current identity.

His biggest surprise was the name of this body—Gao Wen.

Only this "Gao Wen" didn't have the surname Gao; he had another surname, Seychell.

Was this a coincidence?

Gao Wen had no time to ponder the strangeness of this coincidence, as the memories of Gao Wen·Seychell continued to flood in. He had to use all his strength to prevent himself from fainting or showing a grimace. In this dazed state, he vaguely heard the girl who had hit him with the metal staff answer in a clear voice: "It's the year 735 of the Ansu calendar, Ancestor, you've been asleep for over seven hundred years..."

Hedda breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Gao Wen's response. As a highly knowledgeable spellcaster, she had some understanding of the resurrection of the dead. These desecrated beings had fatal flaws in their souls and were almost unable to speak or think when they first awoke. Even the more powerful ones who could quickly regain their cognitive abilities would completely forget their past lives.

Moreover, they absolutely could not say their names—whether they recovered their memories or were reminded, once a dead person said their name, it would cause a backlash of the soul's flame, leading to burning. Even if they weren't "killed" by the burning, the pain was unbearable for the undead.

The phenomenon of the soul's flame backlash was also impossible to hide.

So she relaxed, but remained deeply puzzled. If the ancestor wasn't resurrected as an undead, then this situation was even more inexplicable—

How did the ancestor suddenly wake up after being dead for so long?

But no matter how puzzled she was, basic courtesy was still necessary. Hedda stepped forward, bending down with a mix of tension and reverence: "Ancestor of the Seychell family, I am your descendant, Hedda·Seychell. The one beside me is also your descendant, Rebecca·Seychell. Please forgive her rash actions due to her youth and lack of understanding, and... please forgive us for disturbing your eternal rest."

Ah, the one in front of him was a great-great-great-granddaughter, and the one beside her seemed to be another.

The flood of memories seemed to finally end. Gao Wen didn't have time to carefully review the neatly organized information in his mind. Instead, he wanted to quickly understand the situation around him. He held onto his coffin, trying to stand up, and muttered: "It's fine, it's fine. I don't even know how I woke up. Can someone help me up?"

He realized he had overestimated his ability to adapt to the new body. Despite his efforts, he couldn't even sit up, which made him a bit embarrassed.

Rebecca, who had been nervously watching with her staff, saw her chance to help and quickly hopped onto the stone platform, supporting Gao Wen's arm and saying: "I'll help you out of the coffin, I'll help you out of the coffin..."

It sounded a bit awkward.

"Seven hundred years..." Gao Wen, stiffly helped out of the coffin by the girl, looked down at his clothes and said something that confused Rebecca: "What material is this fabric?"

"It seems to be elf-woven Moon Trace Cloth..." Rebecca said uncertainly.

"Truly advanced technology."

Rebecca: "Huh?"

The ancestor's words were so profound.

With Rebecca's help, Gao Wen finally stepped down from the stone platform and stood steadily on the ground. He felt his control over the body rapidly improving, as if his soul was quickly installing drivers. His consciousness and body were rapidly coordinating.

He let go of Rebecca's hand and tried to take a small step forward on his own.

The next moment, he was almost in tears. If there had been a microphone nearby, he felt he could thank everyone he knew and every TV station without repeating himself.

After so many years, while the protagonists in novels might have already achieved god-like feats, he had just completed his first human challenge: standing up and walking...

After achieving this, he remembered the girl who was almost forgotten, surrounded by the four muscular men.