The final countdown disappeared.
Then came a warm breeze carrying the light of dusk, burning away the darkness like wild grass, scattering rows of red and black text like embers.
[Tip: Successfully loaded the perspective of the first game character—"Gu Wenyu." (After a period of buffering, the character's background memory will be loaded into your brain. You may experience a massive influx of memories, so please prepare yourself mentally.)]
In the sunlight that hit his face, Ji Minghuan trembled slightly and lifted his eyelids.
In sight were the books piled on the desk.
The overly loud bell, the immature and frivolous laughter, and the scraping of desk legs against the floor came from all directions, like a noisy hand pulling him into this unfamiliar world.
After a slight daze, he raised his head and looked around—this seemed to be a classroom; students in blue and white uniforms brushed past the desks, their footsteps incessant.
Judging by the light, it should already be after school.
Only the students on duty stayed behind to clean, while the rest packed their bags and flowed out.
Looking outside, most of the figures in the corridor moved in pairs. Amid laughter, the sunset edged their silhouettes with gold.
At this moment, only Ji Minghuan was lying alone on the desk, his chin resting on his arms, with two textbooks under his arms.
He glanced down and saw he was wearing the same blue and white uniform as everyone else.
Having never entered a school, let alone attended one, the current environment felt unfamiliar to him. His gaze lingered on the bookshelf and bulletin board at the back of the classroom before slowly retracting.
Still in his position lying on the desk, he glanced sideways out the window.
Outside was sunset time; the sun was slowly sinking towards the horizon, spilling its last rays over the city.
The final ray of sunlight before evening felt like a mischievous child on a sled, sliding down a mountain named "Sky," made of blood-red and heading into a jungle of neon and cables, delicately weaving between skyscrapers and alleyways, unintentionally staining the glass curtain walls along its way a deep red.
Lastly, it shone through the classroom window onto Ji Minghuan, washing away the pallor from a month of confinement.
Bathed in the orange glow, the boy stared blankly at the city's edge and sunset. Although his eyes were still not quite accustomed to the sunlight, he couldn't help but want to stare at it—he hadn't seen the sun for a month.
Regaining his senses, the people inside had almost dispersed, the friction of desk legs against the floor gradually calming. Replacing it, a voice called out his name from behind:
"Gu Wenyu, wanna come over to my house later?"
Upon hearing this, Ji Minghuan turned halfway to look behind him.
The caller was a student in uniform. He was good-looking, slender, with medium-length black hair tied into a bun atop his head, likely having received many love notes in his drawer.
Ji Minghuan curiously sized him up, pondering his reaction while responding: "I..."
Just as he squeezed out a word, a deep neutral voice echoed in his ears again.
[Role memory has been successfully loaded.]
With that, fragmented and disordered memories surged into his mind like a tide.
His mind buzzed, as though someone had opened a crevice in his skull and poured boiling water into it.
Amidst a burning sensation, scenes of unfamiliar memories flashed past, like slides played at high speed, causing his pupils to quiver.
In two seconds, he completed the memory download, as if he experienced another life in his mind.
These memories indeed didn't belong to Ji Minghuan but emerged from the newly generated game character—"Gu Wenyu."
According to memory, this school was named "Li Jing Fifth Middle School."
And within Gu Wenyu's social circle, the seemingly carefree classmate before him was his sworn friend he had met at school, named "Li Qingping," a true son of the affluent.
Despite both being penniless high school students, Li Qingping received a monthly allowance of ten to twenty thousand and was generous with his spending, making him well-liked in the class.
Many found it odd that the two could hit it off.
"What's wrong? Why not be happy about the summer break?" When he saw Ji dazing, Li Qingping approached and nudged his shoulder, asking with a teasing smile.
"Just woke up, still a little dizzy." As Ji spoke, he pulled out his pre-packed school bag from the drawer and slung it over his shoulder.
"I've got things to do today, maybe visit your place later. It's summer vacation, there's plenty of time." Saying this, he stood up from his seat and walked out of the classroom without looking back.
After taking a few steps towards the staircase, he stopped in a quiet corner of the corridor, leaning against the railing to gaze at the city wrapped in dusk. Gazing at this city, it was undoubtedly the Li Jing he was familiar with—a place he had once gazed upon countless times from the attic of the Welfare Institute, fantasizing about the world beyond.
Yet he had never taken a single step outside.
Never had he imagined: his childhood wish would eventually come true through the paradoxical form of "controlling another body."
"So, I really returned to Li Jing using my own superpower?"
As he thought, Ji turned his head, looking from the top of the school building towards the Welfare Institute's direction once more.
In the dusk, he could faintly glimpse the tall library within the institute and the attic atop it. Like reuniting with an old friend, his eyes brightened.
He lowered his gaze to this body, saying to himself, "Come to think of it, did I take over someone else's body, or did I use my superpower to create a brand new person in the world, giving him a complete life trajectory? Why has nobody questioned me?"
As he thought this, he casually tossed his school bag aside, turned around, and spread his arms on the railing, fingers tapping lightly against the bars.
"Does this mean directly and forcibly inserting a person that originally didn't exist into history... even brainwashed the whole world to recognize it?"
"From another perspective, does this count as creating a parallel world directly?"
"According to the butterfly effect, doesn't it say that a butterfly flapping its wings across different worldlines can cause a storm? Let alone inserting a fictional character into history."
"In theory, no matter how insignificant, unimportant, or unnoticed this character may be—even if they die sick in bed on the second day of birth—they could drastically alter the future trajectory of this world."
Ji Minghuan took a deep breath, lowering his head, his eyes hidden beneath his bangs.
"I see..." He mumbled in relief, recalling being confined for a month in the laboratory, unable to help but chuckle softly with a hint of ridicule at the corners of his mouth, "No wonder those people in the lab looked up to me so much; this was merely the effect after I was dosed with Superpower Inhibitor. If the mentor found out, imagine how shocked he'd be. Perhaps my original body would never set foot outside the lab again."
His chaotic thoughts scattered as several high school students swept past him, viewing him with strange eyes. After today's final class, the summer holiday officially began, making this juncture several times happier than the New Year for most students, leaving no reason to linger at school.
With a sidelong glance, the corridor was already empty, so Ji Minghuan didn't stay long, soon descending the stairs and exiting the school building.
With hands in his uniform pockets, he walked towards the school gates while pondering: "Since my superpower is a game, are there any game quests available? Like snapping fingers to halve the world's population, or failing an arts exam to start a world war?"
At this moment, he suddenly noticed a "gear" icon in the lower right corner of his vision.
No matter how he shifted his gaze, the icon remained stationary, stuck there like a bone. Ji Minghuan rubbed his eyes deliberately while walking, soon realizing the icon's existence was unrelated to his retina.
Though helpless, he found a quiet corner behind the school building, attempting to poke at it with his finger.
The moment his fingertip touched the "gear," the icon suddenly moved to the center of his vision, enlarging more than tenfold into a square text panel with several options listed from top to bottom—a feature familiar to gamers as the system settings panel.
Ji Minghuan didn't examine it closely, merely skimming over it and seeing—[Attribute Panel], [Task Panel], [Character Exclusive Cultivation System], [Skill Tree System]...