Chapter 1 Rebirth

Suffering from birth, suffering from death, suffering from separation from loved ones, suffering from being in the company of those one hates, suffering from unfulfilled desires; Buddha spoke of the Eight Sufferings, and Nie Yan had experienced five of them. His life was basically a history of suffering, thankfully a short one, because he only lived to twenty-eight.

His life probably should have ended there, but fate took a turn at that moment.

Nie Yan turned over, feeling a dampness on his back. His clothes stuck uncomfortably to his body. He vaguely remembered being hit in the back of the heart by a bullet, falling to the ground, and blood flowing everywhere.

So what if he died? Nie Yan was calm about it. To die quietly like this wasn't necessarily a bad way out.

Cao Xu's eyes were full of confusion, eventually becoming scattered and unfocused.

The process of the bullet bursting through his head replayed in Nie Yan's mind, filling him with immense satisfaction—the catharsis of hatred.

Cao Xu had enjoyed a lifetime of wealth and glory, yet he died at the hands of a nobody like Nie Yan. He probably wouldn't be happy even as a ghost. In the face of death, everyone was the same. Even his wealth that could rival a nation couldn't save his life.

Too much evil-doing would inevitably lead to karmic retribution.

At the moment Cao Xu's head exploded, Nie Yan realized that his worldview had undergone a complete transformation. In the end, it was all just a bullet. Tomorrow's newspaper would probably feature his photo on the front page. It would read, "Tycoon Cao Xu Assassinated," and then feature a large close-up of the bandit, for the world to admire and worship.

After Nie Yan shot Cao Xu, Cao Xu's bodyguard discovered him, chased after him, and a bullet hit him in the back of the heart.

Nie Yan felt a sharp pain in his back. So this was what it felt like to be pierced by a bullet. His heart gradually went numb, and he could feel life rapidly draining from his body.

Was he going to die? But he laughed, laughing at the shortness of life, laughing at his own muddled existence, only to wake up at the moment of death.

And then tears streamed down his face.

His parents' deep hatred had been avenged. Scenes from the past flashed through his mind like a movie. Nie Yan's only concern in this world was her smile, untouched by the slightest speck of dust.

She was Nie Yan's high school classmate, now a married woman, but her beautiful face, as before, was imprinted in Nie Yan's heart. As time passed, it became even more unforgettable. He wondered what her reaction would be when she saw the news of Nie Yan and Cao Xu dying together. Would she sigh, or would she grieve and shed tears?

Sealed memories flooded his mind like a breached dam. He regretted it. Some things, by the time you understood them, it was already too late. In this life, he had too many regrets, too many unfulfilled wishes.

Nie Yan reached out to grab something, but found everything gradually receding. Life had come to an end, and ahead lay eternal darkness.

Regret and frustration were like a sharp knife, constantly cutting into his heart, causing unbearable pain.

What exactly did I do wrong in my past life to be punished and tormented by heaven like this!

Nie Yan's resentment soared to the sky. He was unwilling. He screamed silently in his heart, and tears rolled down his cheeks.

Slowly, he didn't know how long it had passed, Nie Yan's mind gradually calmed down.

His thoughts were still active, and his brain could still think. Was this death? Perhaps this was his soul.

After a long time, Nie Yan's fingers had a touch of sensation, and it was so real. Why, after so long, was he still conscious? He suddenly sat up, looked around, and felt lost and helpless.

Could this be hell?

Nie Yan's listless eyes slowly regained focus. He looked around, and some old items came into view: a wooden bed, a chair, and a slightly damaged floor.

Where was this? Wasn't he dead?

It was like a dream, an unreal feeling. He touched the back of his heart, and his hand was covered in a sticky liquid. He brought it to the front and looked at it. There was no blood on his palm, only sweat. The clothes on his back were soaked with sweat, which gave him the wet feeling.

What was going on?

Didn't he bleed a lot? He vaguely remembered the blood, with its scarlet color like red wine, the color of life withering.

Nie Yan pinched himself and felt pain. This wasn't a dream. Could it be that the assassination of Cao Xu was just a dream?

Why did that place feel so real?

Like the ancient Zhuang Zhou's murmuring when he woke up from a dream, was he Zhuang Zhou dreaming of a butterfly, or was he a butterfly dreaming of Zhuang Zhou?

Which was real, and which was a dream?

He looked around in confusion. He had too many questions.

Dim light, a slightly dilapidated wooden bed, a desk, a chair, and his dad's so-called antique clock on the wall, ticking away. Nie Yan remembered that its time was never accurate.

Memories slowly opened like an old photo album.

The environment here was so familiar. Wasn't this the house he lived in when he was in high school?

Sunlight shone through the holes in the curtains. The pain from the intense expansion of his pupils gave him a dazzling sense of reality.

He was still alive. Nie Yan held out his right hand in front of him. These slightly childish hands were a morbid pale color.

"What's wrong with me? Am I the me from ten years ago, or the me from ten years later?" Nie Yan scratched his head, extremely distressed.

He sorted out his thoughts, and some fragments of memory gradually became clear.

This was when he was eighteen years old, during the summer vacation of his second year of high school. His parents weren't home, and he had a high fever of forty degrees, almost died, and barely managed to save his life.

During that time, his parents left him some money, then left without saying goodbye, and didn't come back for two or three months. He couldn't get through to their cell phones either. It was as if they had disappeared. At that time, he thought his parents didn't want him anymore. Fear, anxiety, and dread accompanied him, and coupled with the high fever, it left a deep shadow on his mind, making him timid and fearful. This personality didn't change until he was over twenty-five.

Later, when he grew up, he learned that his parents hadn't abandoned him. Instead, they had borrowed money from relatives and friends and engaged in some smuggling business on the border. At that time, the country urgently needed a metal called polonium, which was an important strategic material. After countries discovered the role of this substance, they quickly tightened exports and hoarded it. Nie Yan's parents found a way to collect this substance and smuggled it back to the country, where it was purchased by the state at hundreds of times the price, thus earning a fortune.

The situation was very tense at that time. Nie Yan's parents couldn't talk to Nie Yan on the phone, and the matter was a military secret. If it were leaked, it would lead to death. Nie Yan's misunderstanding with his parents was buried in this way. It wasn't until many years later, after the matter had passed, that his father told him the truth, and Nie Yan forgave them.

Starting that year, his father used the first pot of gold he earned to open a metal smelting company and made several large deals, his career advanced by leaps and bounds, solving the family's difficulties. Nie Yan also transferred to a noble school in the city.

Could it be that he had really returned to that time?

Could everything really start over?

Surprise and uneasiness intertwined, Nie Yan couldn't describe his feelings at this time. He felt anxious and fearful, worried that everything now was just a dream.

Nie Yan climbed out of bed and pulled open the curtains. The blazing sunlight released its heat like a flame. This burning sensation truly told him that he wasn't dreaming.

Looking down, his textbooks were still on the desk by the windowsill: mechanical theory, automation theory, Chinese, advanced mathematics, intelligent programming languages, and so on.

Nie Yan opened the books. These familiar words flowed like a clear spring, accompanied by past memories, refreshing his heart. These textbooks were his lost youth. He transferred to a noble school in the city before his third year of high school. His father's successful career and the greatly increased material conditions made him a wealthy second-generation, and he developed a lazy mentality. After his third year, his grades weren't very good. Later, his father spent money to get him into a famous university, but until he graduated, he didn't learn anything. He spent his days doing nothing.

When he was twenty-five, his father's business was besieged by Cao Xu's Century Consortium. Several relatives and friends his father trusted were bought by Cao Xu and betrayed him. The company suffered successive setbacks, and his family fell into hardship again. His father committed suicide by taking poison, and his mother fell ill from worry and died in depression. After losing both parents, Nie Yan learned to be motivated and taught himself many courses, but by then he had missed out on many things.

Nie Yan had once been full of hope to build a career, but how could Cao Xu allow the son of his enemy to make a comeback? Under Cao Xu's interference, no company dared to hire Nie Yan, forcing him into a dead end. If Nie Yan hadn't been playing the virtual reality game *Faith*, which gave him a meager income, he wouldn't have even been able to afford food.

There was no hope of defeating Cao Xu head-on. Even a cornered rabbit would bite. Nie Yan, driven to desperation, finally chose to die together with Cao Xu. The sound of the gunshot vented Nie Yan's resentment.

Heaven's justice was clear. Cao Xu probably didn't expect he would have such an ending.

Nie Yan thought he was dead, but he didn't expect that time had played a joke on Nie Yan, and he had returned to the summer vacation of his second year of high school.

Although he couldn't contact his parents, Nie Yan could be sure that they were still alive. Every time he thought of this, he was filled with tears.

In his previous life, he wanted to support his parents, but they were no longer there. The grief in Nie Yan's heart was something others couldn't understand.

Heaven had given him another chance, and he would never live a muddled life again.

His father and mother wouldn't be back for more than twenty days. It was the summer vacation, and he could only stay at home alone.

"The second half of my second year of high school, that year, I remember the virtual reality game *Faith* hadn't been out for long." Nie Yan clearly remembered the explosive scene when *Faith* was released, with countless consortia entering *Faith*. It was precisely because of the injection of these consortia's huge funds, and the large-scale development of *Faith*, that *Faith* truly became the second world of mankind.

He later went to a noble school, and more than a semester later, he entered *Faith* on the recommendation of a close friend, but by then many people were already at high levels, and he missed the best time to level up, and could only try to catch up later.

The pages in his memory were re-colored, colorful and dazzling. Those times in the game were the most unforgettable in his life. He met many friends. Because of them, his lonely days didn't seem too boring.

Before shooting Cao Xu, Nie Yan was a thief over level 180. Although he couldn't be considered top-notch, he could barely be considered among the experts.

Nie Yan suddenly remembered that he had a bank card in his drawer, which was all his savings.

"I have money to buy a helmet." Nie Yan thought, opened the drawer, and rummaged through it. Finally, he found the silver-white bank card in the corner. If his memory was correct, there were two thousand credit points stored in it. One credit point was one dollar. That was what he had saved over several years of frugality. At that time, he wanted to buy a state-of-the-art x3 computer, but in a few years, before he had saved enough money, the x3 computer became obsolete. Of course, after his father's business was successful, his pocket money was more than that. Because his father wanted to compensate Nie Yan, he was almost responsive to Nie Yan's requests. If he wanted something, he could basically buy it.

Eighteen-year-old Nie Yan had the soul of a twenty-eight-year-old. Everything started over, and life opened a new chapter from then on. Without enough capital, he couldn't do anything, so he would start from the game. With his previous gaming experience, it was easy to make money as a professional player.

He remembered that when *Faith* game helmets were first sold, the price was very cheap in order to popularize them. There were three models, A, B, and C. Each model had different configurations, and the degree of virtual reality ranged from 76% to 98%. The cheapest C model only cost 1,300 credit points. With Nie Yan's current savings, it was enough to buy the lowest model of helmet.

He clearly remembered many things in the game. If he started over, it wouldn't be difficult to make a name for himself.

He put the bank card in his pocket, and Nie Yan's eyes fell on the textbook for advanced mathematics next to him. As if divinely inspired, he picked up the textbook, shook it, and a brand-new hundred-dollar bill fell out. Some things in his memory resurfaced in his mind.

He suddenly remembered that his first encounter with Xie Yao was today, and it started because he took this hundred dollars to the pharmacy to buy medicine.

Xie Yao was his classmate in his third year of high school, and also the class beauty. The unbearable past was regrettable. Ten years later, Xie Yao and Liu Rui, the recognized genius in their class, were in love, and the two moved to the moon. Later, he talked to Xie Yao a few times, and Nie Yan learned that Xie Yao wasn't happy at all. When they talked about high school, they were both filled with emotion.

If he had been braver back then, and not so timid and inferior in front of Xie Yao, maybe he wouldn't have missed her.

Sometimes, one turn is a lifetime, and becomes an irreparable regret.

Xie Yao liked to wear white dresses at that time, beautiful and pure. Her appearance was always deeply imprinted in Nie Yan's heart, that kind of melancholic longing, like the sound of a flute at dusk, distant and peaceful.

Nie Yan looked at the dilapidated clock. The clock was at three o'clock, so he should still be in time. He picked up the bill and ran downstairs.

They lived in the suburbs, which were very desolate. The dilapidated road wasn't wide, and a lot of dust would be stirred up when the wind blew. A lot of trees were planted on both sides, and they were still lush under the hot sun, casting a green shade on the ground.

The weather was hot in the afternoon, and there weren't many pedestrians. There were also few cars, and only one or two floating cars occasionally passed by.

In his previous life, Nie Yan hated this city, but when he was reborn and saw this remote place again, Nie Yan didn't feel disgusted at all. On the contrary, it was so familiar. This was the place where he had lived for eighteen years.

Nie Yan's timid personality before he was twenty-five was also related to the living environment afterwards. A wild boy from a small city suddenly became rich and transferred to a noble school in the city. His grades, which were considered excellent in the first two years of high school, were only among the worst there. He was also often ridiculed for not having a sense of dressing. Coupled with what happened during the summer vacation, it made him feel insecure and left a psychological shadow. When he arrived in the new environment, he was even more timid and inferior, and seemed out of place everywhere. If he hadn't met a few close friends, he might have had a mental breakdown.

He didn't expect that after a lifetime, he would return to the starting point. Nie Yan would never be like he was in his previous life.

He ran all the way to the pharmacy.

The surrounding buildings were somewhat dilapidated and sparsely populated. With the acceleration of urbanization, the people in these small cities were squeezing into the big cities, and large areas of urban desertification appeared in the small cities. The population was getting smaller and smaller, and in another hundred years, this place would be demolished and turned back into fields.

"The school is over there, and the supermarket is over here." Nie Yan was an old hand at this. Seeing these familiar buildings, his mood gradually brightened. I'm back, I'm really back!

He used to resent fate for being unfair, but now, he wanted to thank God.

I want to start over! Have a good life! Nie Yan couldn't help but want to shout out to vent the excitement in his heart.