Chapter 1

Opening his eyes in confusion, Lu Yang felt the damp, sticky sensation on his back. His clothes clung uncomfortably to his back, and his memory was frozen at the moment he fell off the cliff.

"Is this death? It’s not as terrifying as I thought. They always say that people who jump from heights end up like sponge cakes, I wonder if I look like one now." Lu Yang thought to himself with a bitter smile.

Death, after all, was just death. Lu Yang was quite calm about it. In his previous life, he had avenged all the wrongs he had suffered, leaving no regrets. But why did he still feel so much resentment in his heart?

Was it because he had trusted the wrong friends, or should he have just accepted his fate?

In 2040, Earth's industrial civilization experienced explosive growth. Machines replaced most manual labor, while the world's population, due to advancements in medical technology, reached an unprecedented 12 billion.

Unemployment, widening wealth gaps, public discontent, and protests became the hallmarks of all countries.

To address this issue, countries around the world joined forces and made various efforts. One of these efforts was the joint development by nine of the most advanced countries of a 3D holographic simulation online game called "Second World," fulfilling the long-held dreams of players worldwide.

The game had only one server, where all global players competed, and with over 3 billion people entering the game, it attracted significant capital. When the official currency exchange function between the game and real-world currencies was activated, it genuinely helped alleviate the pressure on some of the unemployed population.

Lu Yang, a child from an ordinary worker's family, entered the game during his spare time at university to help support his family, becoming a gold farmer for a gaming studio. However, he never imagined that this small figure would unexpectedly make a name for himself, not only founding a 5,000-member guild but also establishing a defensive fortress in the top-tier monster zone.

The top-tier monster zone was a half-day's journey from the nearest system city. After Lu Yang built the fortress, it was immediately welcomed by all players, who could buy potions, repair equipment, trade in the auction house, and rest offline within the fortress.

Thanks to this fortress, Lu Yang's earnings were substantial. At this point, he had reached the peak of his life, believing that the fortress would bring a better life to his family and brothers. However, he never expected that this was just an illusion.

On the third day of the fortress's creation, Liu Jie, the president of the top guild in the Chinese region and the son of a Chinese super-rich family, personally visited with 300 main guild members, intending to buy the fortress from Lu Yang.

Lu Yang naturally refused. Liu Jie's offer was only 10% higher than the construction cost, treating Lu Yang and his team like cheap labor. Moreover, the fortress was the result of the efforts of 5,000 brothers, who had chosen Lu Yang as their leader, symbolizing their trust. Selling it would make it impossible for Lu Yang to face his brothers.

After rejecting Liu Jie, Lu Yang feared retaliation. Although he had 60 level-three mages and possessed the Heart of the Demon God, making him unafraid of Liu Jie's numbers, he still took precautions. Lu Yang and the three vice-presidents of the guild decided to have each of them lead three main guild teams to take turns guarding the fortress 24/7.

For a month, everything was tense, but Liu Jie made no moves, gradually easing Lu Yang's vigilance.

Trust can make or break you. Lu Yang completely trusted his close friend. Three days after he lowered his guard, Huang Xiang, his college roommate and the main tank of the first team, told Lu Yang that a new boss had been discovered in the top-tier monster zone, requiring all three main guild teams to eliminate it.

Without any suspicion, Lu Yang immediately led the three main guild teams to a valley map under Huang Xiang's guidance. However, upon arrival, Lu Yang saw not a boss but Liu Jie's cold smile and his 12 main guild teams, consisting of 12,000 level-200 elite members.

Only then did Lu Yang realize that Liu Jie had not given up on acquiring the fortress. Instead, he had used a large sum of money to bribe his subordinates, luring Lu Yang into an inescapable valley map and casting a barrier that prevented the use of the return spell.

That night, Lu Yang and his three main guild teams were killed at least 40 times by the enemy using forced resurrection.

All 3,000 members of the main guild teams lost their equipment, suffering heavy losses. The fortress was breached by Liu Jie's other six main guild teams, and all of Lu Yang's hard work was destroyed.

To build the fortress, Lu Yang had taken out many loans from the bank. Initially, he could easily repay these loans with the help of the fortress and his guild brothers. However, with the fortress destroyed and the main guild teams' equipment lost, Lu Yang lost his ability to repay the loans. Faced with a massive debt and the desperate looks of his brothers, Lu Yang, in a panic, chose to escape, locking himself in his room and drowning his sorrows in alcohol.

Lu Yang thought his life would be spent in endless pain and struggle, but an event woke him up.

To prevent Lu Yang from spending the rest of his life in debt, his parents, who were still 10 years away from retirement, decided to retire early from their state-owned enterprise and work on construction sites to help him pay off the debt.

However, within half a year, his father was mysteriously crushed by heavy objects on the construction site and died before he could be saved. His father's death was a severe blow to his mother, who also passed away shortly after.

The sudden loss of both parents left Lu Yang devastated. Initially, he thought his father's death was an accident, but when he was beaten by Liu Jie's henchman, Wang Teng, who taunted him and revealed that everything was orchestrated by Liu Jie, Lu Yang realized that Liu Jie did not want to give him any chance to turn things around.

Just as Wang Teng was about to kill Lu Yang, his comrade Han Cheng, who had learned of his parents' deaths, rushed from out of town and saved him, taking him abroad.

For five years, Han Cheng taught Lu Yang to train his body and learn killing techniques. After five years, driven by his hatred, Lu Yang became a renowned international mercenary known as "Blood Fire." He returned to the country with a team of mercenaries, spent a large sum of money to find out when Liu Jie would return home, and then ambushed him at his doorstep. The moment Liu Jie entered his home, Lu Yang shot him in the head.

At that moment, Lu Yang felt a sense of relief. He wanted to continue hunting down those who had wronged him, but Liu Jie's family mobilized all their resources to hunt him down. Lu Yang had to retreat with his mercenary team, but they were discovered by the police and Liu Jie's assassins near the border.

During the chase, Lu Yang, to protect his injured comrades, led the police into the mountains and was eventually cornered at a cliff.

Faced with the police's offer to surrender, Lu Yang only sneered. With his revenge complete, he had no regrets and no reason to live, so he jumped off the cliff, choosing to end his life.

However, as he fell, the last image that flashed before his eyes was a smiling face with pure, unblemished eyes. If there was any regret, it was her.

She was Lu Yang's college classmate, Shen Mengyao. She was so beautiful and so pure. At the time, Lu Yang was just an ordinary student, and her every smile gave him great encouragement. They were close, but Shen Mengyao came from a prominent family.

Lu Yang had planned to confess his feelings once he had the means, but Liu Jie never gave him that chance. Five years later, when Lu Yang returned and inquired about Shen Mengyao, he learned that she had been arranged to marry someone else by her family, and she was not happy.

How could he not be resentful? If he hadn't trusted the wrong friends...

If he had more time to develop...

If he had become stronger...

If...

If...

...

The anger in his chest made Lu Yang punch the wall beside him, the intense pain instantly overwhelming his nervous system.

Lu Yang's eyes suddenly widened.

"Didn't I die? How can my arm still move? How can I still feel my nerves?"

Lu Yang quickly sat up and examined his body, finding that his body, which should have been smashed like a sponge cake, was unscathed. Feeling his back, he realized that the damp, sticky substance on his clothes was not blood but sweat from lying in bed due to the hot weather.

Lu Yang was stunned. What was happening? How could he be alive and unharmed? This was impossible. Even in 2050, there was no technology to revive someone who had been smashed to pieces, and even if there was, it wouldn't be used on him. Moreover, where was he?

Looking around, Lu Yang saw that he was sitting on an old single bed, covered by a mosquito net.

Pulling back the mosquito net, he saw an old wooden table that had been used for years.

On the wall above the table were four words: "Have you forgotten your shame?"

Seeing these words, Lu Yang shivered and felt a chill run down his spine. He couldn't believe it. Wasn't this the old house he lived in after high school? These words were carved there in the last semester of his high school to motivate him for the college entrance exam, but he clearly remembered that his mother had repainted the house and erased these words. How could they reappear?

There was a damaged plastic stool, a wooden dining table folded and placed in the corner, and an old 42-inch TV, all of which he had thrown away and replaced. How could they be back in this room? Could it be that he had been reborn?

Looking at the clock, it was one minute before noon. Lu Yang, unsure, turned on the TV and tuned to the national channel.

Hearing the female anchor say, "Hello, viewers. Today is June 16, 2040, the seventh day of the fifth lunar month..."

At that moment, Lu Yang's mind exploded. He rushed out of the house and saw the university main building, which had been relocated five years ago, still standing in its original place. Overwhelmed with emotion, he punched the wall by the door and shouted in his heart: I, really, have been reborn.