Sun Weiwei had been observing Li Jiayu, dozing in the back row, for quite some time!
This boy!
This utterly infuriating boy!
How dare he sleep through her class discussion on "Love and Peace"?
Everyone else at least pretended to pay attention, offering occasional contributions or sharing touching anecdotes to evoke some tears...
But he alone not only ignored everyone but slept like a log—and this was only the beginning of their sophomore year!
"Li Jiayu, how long do you plan to remain so detached? Is my presentation really that uninteresting? Do you have some issue with me? Is this how you treat your class monitor?"
Her face flushed, Sun Weiwei marched over to Li Jiayu, her brows furrowed in.
"Who...?"
Li Jiayu grunted lifelessly, lifting his head like a piece of rotten wood. His expression was vacant, devoid of spirit, as if his soul had departed.
Sun Weiwei felt an inexplicable tremor in her heart. She had never seen eyes so dead—hollow and filled with a chilling. One phrase came to mind: utter despair.
Like a parched soul dying of thirst in the desert, or a terminally ill patient with no hope left—completely devoid of vitality.
"This should be entertaining."
A stir rippled through the watching students, whispers exchanged—Sun Weiwei was fiercely competitive, while Li Jiayu was known for his gentle, polite demeanor. Rumors swirled about some undefined connection between these two polar opposites.
Regardless of the rumors' truth, the spectators eagerly anticipated another clash, hoping for some dramatic spectacle.
Hearing the murmurs, Sun Weiwei's embarrassment deepened. Her ears turned crimson, and she bit her lip, glaring at Li Jiayu for a full thirty seconds before exploding:
"I'm talking to you! Get up!"
"That voice... it sounds familiar. You're... Sun... Sun Weiwei?" The and confusion in Li Jiayu's eyes were gradually replaced by sheer terror, as if he'd been plunged into an ice cellar.
"Weren't you... your skull cracked open by a Soul Devourer, your brain sucked dry? No... My eyes, my eyes were blind—why can I see again...?"
He seemed to be witnessing something unbelievable. His face paled, and he shot up from his chair, his expression frantic as he stared at Sun Weiwei, his once-familiar classmates, the desks and chairs, the walls and posters. The colors and faded memories overwhelmed him.
"Oho, pretending to have amnesia now?"
"Jiayu, that amnesia act is so outdated. Girls don't fall for that these days..."
"Wait, maybe it's not amnesia—maybe he's been reborn?"
"Idiot! You've read too many rebirth stories. Things like that don't happen in real life!"
The onlookers were amused, convinced Li Jiayu was just using a new tactic to pick up girls.
Furious and humiliated, Sun Weiwei widened her eyes, stamped her foot, and snapped:
"Li Jiayu! Can't you be serious for once? Was bothering me just to get my attention? Let me tell you, you're pathetic!"
"..."
Li Jiayu opened his mouth but found no words. He tried to focus on his classmates' chatter, but it was all noise—as if hundreds of thunderclaps were exploding in his mind. Regrets, remorse, and endless pain surged through him, threatening to suffocate him.
(Class meeting? Which class meeting?)
(That ironic "Love and Peace" orientation session?)
(I died... so why am I...?)
(Resurrected? No, not resurrection—rebirth! Fate heard my soul's lament! I've been reborn! Returned to the moment before the apocalypse, to the starting line of all my regrets!)
(I can mend those heart-wrenching mistakes... protect what I once lost...)
(The whims of fate may lead me down a thornier path, or perhaps my life will be shorter than before... but at least... this time, I have a chance to change everything!)
(Even if I must stake my all...)
In his previous life, still naive and immature, he had suffered greatly. Too trusting, he befriended the wrong people. During the first campus-wide escape, a so-called friend shoved him toward a Bloodsuck Insect to save himself... Though Li Jiayu survived, he was severely weakened, nearly drained dry. Even after recovery, he lagged behind others in the race for strength.
His arrogance later drew the wrath of a colossal enemy upon his demon-hunting squad. In their rage, the entire team was slaughtered, rivers of blood flowing. The captain, who had treated him like a son, was skinned alive, dismembered, and fed to dogs.
He ignored his father's warnings, hunting giant insects alone, only to return critically injured. To barter for a healing potion, his father willingly let the organization transform him into a "Biochemical Blood Corpse"—a zombie puppet driven solely by bloodlust.
Blinded by hatred, he failed to see his sister's feelings until it was too late. He watched her taken away by men of immense power, believing she'd find safety, only to later learn she had slit her wrists...
The sister-in-law who silently supported him was dismembered because of him; most of his friends lived in misery, their fates unknown; the women who once shared his life vanished without a trace...
These regrets and profound sorrows haunted him, waking him from nightmares on countless cold, desolate nights.
Opportunities to become a powerful warrior were lost when his tendons were severed; chances to become a Flame Dancer were given away to repay debts; inheritances of great treasure were abandoned for various reasons...
As seas turned to fields and people changed, all those he cared about were gone. Only hatred remained—vendettas against mortal enemies...
In his previous life, Li Jiayu found no refuge. Hunted by insectoids, the undead, and other races, even human factions sought his death. Isolated and unaided, his old injuries finally overcame him, and he died alone in a dark, damp hollow tree.
No one knew that the wild summoner who troubled the nation's major factions, the despised rural bandit, the so-called arch-criminal branded as anti-human—yet who contributed significantly against the insectoid and undead invasions—the dark summoner Li Jiayu, rested in an unmarked grave at merely twenty-four...
Everything was about to be reshuffled!
A wave of bitterness and melancholy surged within him. His nose stung, tears welling, but he suppressed the tremor in his heart, took a deep breath, and regained his composure. A faint smile touched his lips:
"Sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood. You're so dedicated to the class meeting—I wanted to make you laugh. I didn't mean to upset you or cause a misunderstanding..."
His voice was still his characteristic gentle tone, yet somehow it now carried a deeper, more resonant quality, less placid, more clear—like the chime of stone striking metal.
His smile, too, seemed subtly different—restrained, understated, unlike the bright, sunny grins of other young men.
Sun Weiwei had always liked Li Jiayu's smile. She found it pleasing, even if he wasn't her boyfriend.
"Fine, since you apologized, I'll let it go. But you have to join the 'Young Volunteers Association.' Spend your weekends handing out health pamphlets, doing community service, cleaning streets—since you clearly have nothing better to do." Sun Weiwei laid out her terms, confident he wouldn't refuse a girl's request—especially hers.
"Young Volunteers Association? Heh... truly a pastime for those with full bellies and idle hands. My apologies, but I'm afraid I won't have the leisure..."
Li Jiayu's smile vanished, replaced by a faint, mocking curl of his lips—a sharpness that felt like a blade to Sun Weiwei.
"Full bellies and idle hands? How can you say that? Do you look down on young volunteers?"
An inexplicable panic rose in Sun Weiwei's chest. Her brows knitted together, her face pale as she pointed angrily at Li Jiayu.
The surrounding students joined in, condemning him—many were members of the association, and his words had insulted them all.
The mockery on Li Jiayu's lips deepened. He quickened his pace:
"Young volunteering is built on surplus labor—a way for well-fed, bored college students to burn off excess energy and satisfy their need for recognition... But when you're struggling to survive, when you could be devoured by insects or stabbed in the back by companions, living a life worse than death... I doubt you'll remember such concepts."
He pulled out his phone and checked the time—August 29, 2013, 4:32:39 PM.
"Time is short. Less than a minute left—no time to call family... Very well, for the sake of our shared class, I'll tell you more."
"You've all studied physics. You know one dimension is a line, two dimensions a plane, three dimensions space, and four dimensions add a time axis to three-dimensional space... By extension, the universe contains N-dimensional spaces. This explains the existence of different worlds, different planes!"
"Nonsense! We know all this! Stop beating around the bush..." Sun Weiwei cut in, unwilling to indulge him.
"Let me finish!"
Li Jiayu shook his head, ignoring her interruption, and dropped his first bombshell:
"In thirty seconds, Earth's spatial fabric will tremble, cracking open countless tiny spatial rifts. Simultaneously, a cosmic storm from another dimension will sweep across Earth, drastically altering its gravity, climate, geography, and more!"
He looked at his still-skeptical classmates, sighed softly, a cold, bitter smile playing on his lips as he murmured:
"You don't yet understand the terror of a cosmic storm. When it hits... over ninety-nine percent of Earth's electronic devices and precision instruments will fail! Humanity's technological civilization will suffer an unprecedented blow. Your phones, computers, air conditioners, even electric lights, the... personal massagers girls use—every essential electronic device will cease to function. What awaits is a... primitive, dark, savage, and bloody end for human society!"
His expression darkened, the bitter smile turning into self-mockery. His voice dropped even lower, each word deliberate:
"And this... is only the beginning. Far more terrifying, more lethal things will follow..."