Darkness consumed everything. Cold, eternal, and absolute.
Zhang Wei floated in the void, weightless and without time. His memories drifted around him like broken fragments-shouts, tears, betrayal, blood, regret. The last thing he remembered was the golden light. Then nothing...
Until now.
From the depths of the void, a crack of white light broke through, spreading slowly, swallowing the darkness. The warmth of it brushed his spirit like a mother's touch. He blinked... or at least he felt like he did. He was no longer in his body. Just a soul, naked and formless, floating in a sea of blinding white.
A voice echoed in the light.Not words-memories.
One by one, images played before him like scenes on a screen. His father, once a proud man with calloused hands from working long hours, breaking down in tears. "I raised a son who abandoned us…" the man said before tightening the rope around his neck. Zhang Wei's breath hitched.
Then came his sister, her frail body lying on a hospital bed, coughing violently. "It's alright… Brother is chasing his dreams. I believe in him." But the treatments never came. The money had been spent elsewhere.
Zhang Wei watched, unable to look away, as his mother knelt by her daughter's grave, her body trembling, yet her hands folded in prayer. Even as her own body wasted away in sickness, she still blessed him."I don't blame you, my son. If there's a next life, may you be happy."
And he.... he had left them all.
Afraid, ashamed, broken, he had fled and left his mother to die alone, her eyes never losing the warmth of love for her son.
Zhang Wei's soul shook violently, cracks of pain running through it. He clutched his formless chest as if he could stop the agony.
"I… I didn't know… I was blind. I was stupid…"
He fell to his knees, even in soul form, sobbing like a child, each wail echoing endlessly in the void.
"Please… forgive me… I was wrong. I sinned. I was selfish… Li Xue… she wasn't worth your lives…!"
The white light around him pulsed gently, as if watching silently.
Then, a voice—not a memory, not a ghost, but something mechanical, ancient, and cold... echoed from beyond the light.
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION DETECTED…]
"If I give you another chance, what will you do?"
Zhang Wei froze, his breath caught in his throat.
"Anything!" he shouted. "I'll do anything! Just give it to me! Let me right my wrongs!"
The voice returned, deeper this time, layered with static yet somehow divine.
[Emotional resonance... Confirmed.]
[Soul binding in progress… Matching host signature… Match complete.]
[ERROR: Host is biologically dead in primary timeline.]
[Searching for alternate possibility…]
[BROKEN TIMELINE LOCATED.]
[Overwriting native soul of Zhang Wei (Age 15)... Replacement successful.]
[Spendrift System Binding: 9%... 48%... 100%.]
[Rebirth complete. System integrity low. Entering sleep mode.]
[Host consciousness uploading… Good luck.]
Suddenly, everything vanished.
"GIVE ME THE CHANCE!" Zhang Wei shouted, bolting upright in his seat.
The classroom around him froze. Dozens of eyes turned toward him. The blackboard in front of him was filled with mathematical equations. A chalk-holding professor stood mid-lecture, stunned by the sudden outburst.
The air was thick with awkward silence.
"Zhang Wei?" the professor frowned. "You want a chance? Fine. Answer this question."
Zhang Wei blinked. He was seated in a familiar classroom.. his high school class, second row from the back. The creaky wooden desk, the smell of chalk, the soft buzz of the ancient ceiling fan.. all of it was exactly as he remembered.
He looked down at his hands.
Young.
He raised his fingers to his face and touched his skin. Smooth. Untouched by the roughness of time.
This.. this wasn't a dream.
He looked around. All the faces were young. Students in uniforms. The professor-Mr. Liang, his old math teacher.
"Zhang Wei," the teacher repeated, annoyed now, "I asked you to solve this."
But Zhang Wei could barely hear him. The world felt muffled, his head spinning. Was this real? Had the system really done it? Replaced him into his 15-year-old self in a broken timeline?
The professor was shouting again. "Zhang Wei! Do you need help waking up?!"
Without thinking, Zhang Wei glanced at the board, scanned the equation, and answered."It's x = 3.5," he said absently.
A few students chuckled. Mr. Liang blinked.
"…Correct," he muttered. "Lucky guess." Then he turned back to the board.
Zhang Wei sank into his seat, his heart thundering in his chest.
He was back. He really was back.
The soft creak of a chair caught his attention. He turned his head—and saw her.
Li Xue.
Sitting just two rows ahead. Her long black hair tied neatly behind her head, her face still innocent... too innocent. But Zhang Wei knew the truth hidden behind that pretty smile. A slow boil started in his chest. Rage. Betrayal. Bitterness.
She had killed his soul in another life.
And now?
Now it was his turn.
His eyes narrowed. "Enjoy this life while it lasts… Li Xue," he whispered under his breath. "I'll make sure you never forget me."