Chapter 1

After a devastating meteor shower, the apocalypse beckoned as foreign elements sparked deadly mutations in animals, and micro-organisms invisible to the naked eye unleashed countless epidemics .

On top of their own diseases, mankind had to deal with mutated beasts . Threats loomed everywhere and a torrent of microbiological mutations lurked as illness and disaster halted progress and curbed productivity .

Bustling cities were reduced to ruins and vast plots of fertile land turned to hellish wastelands .

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Fang Zhao couldn’t remember how long he lingered in that apocalyptic world, how long he fought .

Ninety-odd years? Or perhaps 100 years?

He could no longer remember .

Before the apocalypse, he was a somewhat well-known composer whose career was on the rise . Just as he was about to release what he considered his best work, the mother of all wars arrived . He fled for survival and led troops into battle .

When conquered lands were recovered one after another, people thought the war would end soon and prosperous times would emerge . Yet this was when he collapsed, in the darkness before the dawn .

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“If you don’t have the determination to fight to the death, then this war will certainly be lost . “

“That’s why earth’s population has dwindled from 8 billion to 80 million . “

“Old Zhao, say, do you think we will win?”

“We will . “

“I’m not afraid of death, but I am afraid of a Pyrrhic victory . “

“We will win . “

“That’s good . When we win, I’m going to find a place and start herding again . Boy, how I loved the ranch where we lived when I was a kid—the blue skies and the green pastures . What about you, Old Zhao? Are you going to relaunch your career as a composer?”

“Relaunch? I never stopped in the first place . “

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In Fang Zhao’s head, a conversation he once had with his comrade Su Mu suddenly popped up .

The cries of his men facing imminent death and the howls of the mutated animals began to fade . The extreme pain from decades of illnesses and deadly wounds had been wiped from his memory as his body began to recover its senses .

The vitality of a withered tree that meets the spring was confusing to Fang Zhao . After all, he was more than 100 years old, an emaciated old man with damaged fingers . Even though his body had mutated and strengthened as a function of his immune system, he was still bogged down by injury and illness . He was also an old man . He felt like an overheated engine all the time and could no longer relax at will .

Just when Fang Zhao was about to carefully feel out his body, his brain was assaulted by a pain resembling pricking needles and barraged with images he couldn’t recognize, crowding his head to its breaking point .

As he gradually gained control of his body, Fang Zhao’s eyelids spasmed and he sat up to take deep breaths . The overloading of his brain blurred his vision, but as his headache faded, his vision resumed too, and Fang Zhao took in his unusual surroundings acutely .

With instincts and sensitivity honed from countless battles, Fang Zhao could tell without looking that he was in a foreign location .

No .

It wasn’t an unknown location .

A scene appeared in his mind, a seemingly very familiar scene .

This is where he used to live .

He was Fang Zhao and not Fang Zhao at the same time .

He died in that end-of-days war, but now he was reborn into the body of another person also called Fang Zhao . He survived .

Fang Zhao raised his hands and examined his 10 young, intact fingers . He dangled his legs, which were weak but felt no pain .

This was a young and healthy body .

Fang Zhao’s brain contained his own memories—the battles that led to his death were crystal clear, as were his nearly 100 years of fighting and being on the run . But at the same time, he was also equipped with the memories of his new host body .

This young man also named Fang Zhao was merely 23 years old and was about to complete his tertiary studies .

He was a young composer .

Unfortunately…

He was dumped after graduation and cheated just when he started his new job . A friend he considered a blood brother betrayed him and stole three months’ worth of his work . Succumbing to the blows, this man chose the final resolution—suicide .

Fang Zhao was puzzled . Apocalypse had been avoided . Why would anyone give up on life in such a beautiful world?

After all, it was merely a case of heartbreak, piracy, and betrayal .

So what?

Did the world fall apart?

People who lived during the end of days tried so hard to survive, and this boy took his life over such petty matters . People from the end of days wouldn’t get it .

But after all, these were peaceful times after what was thought to be the end of days . People thought differently in times of peace . Fang Zhao also lived during peacetime, but it was too long ago and such good memories had already blurred by a giant sea of bloodshed .

How did people from peacetime think?

Never mind . What has happened has happened .

As Fang Zhao canvassed the memories of his host body, exasperation mixed with pity . Someone who chose to resolve things like this was too cowardly . It was a form of avoidance . The host was dead, and yet the person who poached his work was living happily and enjoying greater status . Was his death worth it?

In any case, Fang Zhao felt it wasn’t . Current grievances were best avenged in the present—who knew if there was an afterlife .

The original owner of his body was afraid to confront his circumstances, but Fang Zhao was different .

Someone who had endured the end of days naturally had a different temperament than people from peacetime .

The more memories he uncovered, the more amazed Fang Zhao was .

There really was a new world .

All those years of battle and all those of years of hellish living were worth it . While searching the memories of his new body, Fang Zhao remained vigilant toward his surroundings as well . Even when he was in a safe environment, Fang Zhao couldn’t relax . It was an old habit cultivated during the end of days, which was also why he was able to survive for so many years .

As a whining sound from nearby grew, Fang Zhao stopped searching his new memory and looked over .

He had already sensed another life form in this narrow room, but it posed no threat and didn’t signal the intent to attack . Drawing from his experience from the end of days, beasts like this weren’t of the violent, mutated variety, so he didn’t pay much attention . Fang Zhao only shifted his focus as the noise grew .

It was only a small dog with tangled, finger-long fur . Its coat was stained with an unknown substance . It was very skinny . Remove its fur and all that was left was a veiled skeleton .

The stray dog the original owner of his body had adopted before committing suicide .

After adopting the dog last night, he fed it a spiked dinner . He ate half and fed the remaining half to the dog – both portions were mixed with poison he bought from a drug store .

An empty bowl lay on a table nearby . Its drugged contents were gone, but the plate next to the dog was left untouched .

Fang Zhao knew from his new memories that the dog was in poor health last night . He could barely stand . A day later it seemed in better shape, but it still had trouble getting up . It lay there with its head titled slightly, his neck twisted in Fang Zhao’s direction . Tail wagging, its black eyes started at Fang Zhao .

Fang Zhao dangled his legs . Even though they were weak, he could walk .

He planted his feet on the ground . The wholesome feeling that traveled from the soles of his feet to his brain made his heart race .

Fang Zhao walked carefully and deliberately, as if verifying the reality before him .

One step, two steps . . .

Soon the probing steps became confident moves, as every cell in his body came alive with his heightened mood .

How lucky he was to return from the dead .

Fang Zhao walked toward the dog, knelt, picked up the plate of unknown material carrying the muck that was the poisoned food and tossed it into the garbage can .

As he bore witness to Fang Zhao’s actions, the dog’s spirits appeared to be lifted and his eyes became more expressive .

There was no more food in the apartment . Drawing from his new memory, Fang Zhao took a bowl from the cupboard . He felt the surface of the bowl and determined it wasn’t a material he knew . It looked ceramic, but it felt like some sort of plastic composite . It was very light .

His brain contained vague memories about the new material, but Fang Zhao could only gather from these fragments that it was a material that dissolves quickly in certain conditions without releasing any pollutants .

Fang Zhao dropped the matter and fetched half a bowl from the pool, which he knew about his new memory, and placed it in front of the dog .

The dog got up with a swagger, looking like it would collapse at any moment . But it stood stiffly and lapped up the bowl of water, its tail wagging slightly .

Even though it was a stray dog, it was still doing its best to survive .

Fang Zhao looked at that dog, then focused his attention on the small apartment .

It was about 20 square meters, crowded and messy . One corner was a total disaster . But his new memory told Fang Zhao that the same corner was the tidiest part of the room before yesterday .

That small corner taking up about four square meters was where the previous owner of his body worked . All the songs he composed in the past two months were completed in that cramped corner .

Many of the tools and appliances in the apartment were alien to Fang Zhou . He had never seen home appliances before . But he could decipher everything with his new memory . As long as his new memory was fully integrated, he could navigate his new world easily .

Fang Zhou walked toward a spot and pressed a small button on the wall . A waist-high cabinet thrust forward . A mirror was placed on top of the cabinet .

Ignoring the mirror itself and the material of the cabinet, Fang Zhao carefully examined the man in the mirror .

The original owner of his new body looked somewhat like Fang Zhao, even though Fang Zhao couldn’t remember what he looked like when he was a young man . Still, the face in the mirror looked a bit familiar, based on Fang Zhao’s own memories instead of his new ones .

The two Fang Zhao were cosmically linked after all .

Even though he didn’t know how he obtained a healthy new body, Fang Zhao disagreed with what its original owner did . But now that he inherited his body and memories, Fang Zhao had to take stock .

Staring at the eyes in the mirror, he said in a serious tone,

“I’m taking over the life you abandoned . “

“I will exact revenge for you . “

“I will repay your debts . “

“So your dream is to become a world-famous composer? It just so happens I used to be one . “

Fang Zhao was actually quite ambitious, but he had landed in a new world that he didn’t know, after all . As grand as his ambitions were, they had to be grounded in reality and competence . Maybe he could fulfill the dreams that he couldn’t during the end of days .

Anyone can talk big, but before adapting to his new surroundings and figuring out his skillset, talk was just talk .

Fang Zhao shoved the cabinet back into the wall, walked toward the window and opened it .

It was nearly noon and the weather was great . The curtains had been drawn already, but the apartment was still dim, because this was a “black” street, a slum-like neighborhood .