"We once had a chance, but we lost, lost utterly and completely."
"It's all my fault! If it weren't for saving me back then..."
"Enough! Shut up! Everyone has made mistakes, this is the responsibility of all of us! Reality is not a fairy tale, there is no medicine for regret, I don't want to hear the words 'if' anymore!"
"The responsibility for human extinction is not something that any one person or group can bear..."
"In another three minutes, everyone will die, Earth has no future anymore!"
The despondent voices of his companions rang in Ma Ran's ears.
"No! There is still hope!"
An unyielding flame glimmered in Ma Ran's eyes, his tone carrying an incredibly convincing power: "My superpower is actually not some [Ultimate Cultivation Talent], but rather..."
"[Reboot World Line]!"
"This ability is exactly as the words suggest—reversing time and space, bringing everything back to the beginning!"
"Though triggering this ability requires the cost of life, but..."
"It's better for just me to die than for all of humanity to perish, right?"
After he spoke, a trace of sadness hid in Ma Ran's eyes, but the corners of his lips tried hard to rise, and he said loudly: "Sister Die, use [Unity] to get this message out, let as many people know as possible."
"I want the survivors to remember my name!"
"I want everyone to sing praises of my great achievements!"
"Even if, after the timeline restarts, my existence will be forgotten, and no one will make my experiences into movies or TV shows, I can only be a hero for these three minutes, but..."
"This is already enough!"
"Everyone knows, I'm just someone who loves the limelight."
Upon hearing this, a red-haired mature woman nearby paused momentarily, then nodded solemnly: "You can rest assured with me handling things!"
Three minutes later, Earth shattered into cosmic dust as expected.
At the moment Earth was destroyed...
Time flowed backward!
...
20XX, January 13.
In a bedroom of about fifteen square meters, a young man suddenly opened his eyes, leaping up from the bed like a carp flipping, a trace of ecstatic joy appeared in his dark eyes, and the smile on his face was almost uncontrollable.
"Hahahahaha!"
"The plan succeeded!"
The young man's name was Ma Ran, a regular senior in the third grade of Qingquan City's First High School.
Besides that, he had another identity—a Reincarnator.
His rebirth was not a stroke of luck, nor overwhelming fortune, but a planned and long-conceived layout!
Before reincarnation, Ma Ran told one last lie.
His superpower actually had nothing to do with [Reboot World Line], but was an outlier-level bizarre power he named [Roleplay]!
By crafting a persona for himself, such as "Swordsmanship Genius," as long as enough people believed in the authenticity of this persona, Ma Ran could become a genuine swordsmanship genius and obtain formidable Swordsmanship Talent!
When he first awakened this ability, Ma Ran was quite shy and had no acting talent, so the persona he created had significant limitations and hidden dangers.
Although he became a pillar of human combat power and joined the elite class thanks to this ability, compared to many outer star civilizations, it was one step behind, leading to step-by-step failure, and ultimately he could not avoid a deadly end.
With the nest overturned, no eggs remain intact, and with Earth exploding, he naturally would die too.
Fortunately, in the instant before death, enough people believed in Ma Ran having this absurd [Reboot World Line] ability—humans are prone to self-deception, often believing what they wish to believe.
In the critical juncture when Earth was about to be destroyed and humanity facing extinction, this non-existent ability declared by Ma Ran was acknowledged by many.
So...
He really did gain the ability to reboot time!
"Ah, now let's analyze the current situation a bit."
Ma Ran tapped his forehead, turned on an old-fashioned cellphone, quickly swiped the screen, and confirmed a few things through communication apps like WeChat.
He put down the phone, scrabbling his fingers, muttering to himself: "I've reincarnated, but this type of rebirth is somewhat different from what I envisioned."
"Firstly, only I retained memory and returned to a peaceful time, the other comrades do not know me now."
"Who knows what the survivors back then imagined, the originally set [Reboot World Line] mutated into [Rebirth]."
"Of course..."
"The greater possibility is, at that time, too few people were alive, you can't make something from nothing, no matter how well the act is put on, can't create such a ridiculous ability as [Reboot World Line]."
"Secondly, the multiplication abilities I accumulated before rebirth have been completely cleared."
"Currently, I am a thorough, genuine ordinary high school student."
"Lastly, and most crucially."
Ma Ran grinned broadly, laughed wildly: "I fucking really survived!"
"Satisfying!"
Compared to being alive, those post-rebirth side effects are nothing but a drop in the ocean!
Ma Ran could feel that his outlier-level ability [Roleplay] had perfectly retained.
In his mind, [Roleplay] was the core ability, all other special abilities obtained because of it were just "multiplication abilities," once lost, they could be re-acquired.
Now, it's a time of pure-hearted student years!
And Ma Ran was a Shadow Emperor Level boss who'd endured the trials and tribulations of future timelines for many years!
To become more successful than others, being humanity's strongest, is like playing a single-player game with cheats—'simple mode' can't even describe it, it would be called [Heaven Mode]!
However...
The smile on Ma Ran's face gradually faded.
Now there's a little problem.
According to experiences from before rebirth, even the strongest humans appeared ridiculous in front of the outer star invaders.
Seemingly powerful figures like Ace Mecha Masters or Martial Arts Masters appeared laughably weak in the face of true disaster!
"Like a silent drama, vision foggy. Testing evidence, thoroughly exposed..."
The alarm rang, and Ma Ran swiped it off with one finger, shouldered his backpack, and dashed downstairs.
As the captain of the "Shusi Squad," many classified files were open to Ma Ran.
He knew, at that time when the global populations were oblivious, various governments had already begun to come into contact with extraordinary abilities.
"Can't forget!"
The microglow shimmered in Ma Ran's eyes: "Three days later, the school will hold an emergency exam, the results of that exam will be graded that day."
"The first place in total scores of three grades will simultaneously disappear!"
"When they reappear six months later, they have already become China's first batch of superpower youths."
Ma Ran used Alipay to scan a shared bicycle, cycling towards the school while laying out the next plan in his mind.
Under normal circumstances, simply using foreknowledge and [Roleplay] ability to become the school's [Academic Ability] strongest, and thus be selected by an official institution disguised as "Grass Hut Academy," becoming the first batch of "Superpower Developers," would be enough to ride the era's wave and become a pride of the heavens.
Such a beginning is already much stronger than the last lifetime!
Before rebirth, Ma Ran awakened the outlier-level superpower [Roleplay] only after three years of extraordinary popularization.
However...
What Ma Ran now aims to do involves a bit more than just "achieving first place in his grade."