Chapter 1 A New Life

"Drip, drip, drip, drip, drip~ drip, drip, drip, drip, drip~"

The alarm clock, like a harbinger of death, forcibly tore Li Ang from his dreamland.

With his eyes closed, he fumbled for his cellphone by the pillow.

"Snap!"

The sound of the cellphone crashing to the floor completely woke him up.

"Damn it! Are screens so easily broken these days?"

Li Ang squinted at the 6:50 on the screen and the web of cracks, lamenting the loss of another 9.99.

Today is Monday, a date even dogs would shake their heads at.

Li Ang felt an urge to throw his phone aside, flop back onto the bed, and continue sleeping his ass off.

But that's just wishful thinking. Everyone talks about lying flat, but how many truly do?

Li Ang brushed his teeth mechanically, with his eyes still closed.

Dragging himself through this living death, facing tedious work and a monotonous life was one thing.

But he wasn't sure from when—maybe since university, or perhaps since he started working—he felt his body weakening day by day.

He had just turned 26 this year, and Li Ang couldn't understand why, in the early morning, he managed to get up with great effort, yet his little soldier remained asleep.

He would joke, "It can't be true that someone in their twenties needs to take kidney supplements, right? Surely not?"

Yet when it comes to instant noodles, he always chose the ones with goji berries in the seasoning packet.

He tried doing planks to strengthen his core.

But before even a commercial could play through, his back felt like it had supported him through an entire drama series. To say it was ruined might be an exaggeration, but to say it was wasted was absolutely spot on.

Li Ang once certainly had dreams.

With a picked-up straight stick in hand, he was a swordsman who could make the frost chill nineteen provinces.

After gulping down a bottle of soda worth fifty cents, he felt like the happiest person in the world.

When he lured ants with grains of rice, Li Ang believed he would definitely become a biologist someday.

But in the end, the straight stick was used to spank him, and in the bright, shiny office buildings, there was no trace of any ants. He still drank cheap soda, but it somehow no longer brought him the same joy.

The tempered glass shattered at 21:44.

Li Ang took a deep breath, feeling not so bad. Today, he had only worked half an hour more than usual. As for the time from 18:00 to 21:00, sorry, that's considered voluntary overtime, and as compensation, the company provided a free dinner.

At this hour heading home, including the walk to the subway station, the subway ride, and then biking from the subway station to the rented apartment, it would be almost 23:00.

By the time he got home and lay down for a bit, tidied up, and finished his nightly routine, it was basically the start of a new day.

It was only after midnight that Li Ang truly felt it was his own time, when he could do whatever he wanted.

Li Ang stood up and looked around his workstation, still able to hear the sporadic sounds of keyboard clacking.

"I'm going to head out first."

As his words fell, the keyboard sounds paused briefly, as if to respond.

Li Ang stepped into the elevator with a spring in his step, feeling as light as a feather, both mentally and physically.

"Play a few less rounds tonight and get to bed early," he silently told himself.

The sensation of weightlessness from the descending elevator made him stop thinking, but the next second, he couldn't help but wonder, "Why is this feeling of weightlessness so strong?"

Before Li Ang could find an answer, he felt the lights dim before him and then plunged into complete darkness.

"Bang!"

The sound of his body hitting the elevator floor was the last he made.

...

When he regained consciousness, Li Ang's head was pounding unbearably.

"How long did I faint? There goes my attendance bonus for the month."

Contemplating in his mind and after a moment of concern, Li Ang felt a wave of relief. For many working people, falling ill was just another form of vacation.

But when he opened his eyes, what he saw was not the ward of a hospital but a cramped, tiny bedroom.

The room was somewhat cluttered, with a number of English books laid out on the desk.

The environment before his eyes seemed to trigger a switch, as a surge of memories, like cream puffs, were forcibly stuffed into his brain.

"Did I just travel through time?"

Li Ang, while sorting through the memories in his head, walked to the mirror to examine his appearance.

The person in the mirror was quite thin, with black hair and eyes, wearing a pair of thick black-framed glasses, looking at least ninety percent similar to his original self.

"What's this, another me from a parallel universe?"

The original inhabitant of the body was also named Li Ang, a student at a high school in a small city in Florida, USA.

Even in terms of family background, they were exactly the same — he became an orphan at a very young age.

Originally he had been in foster care at his uncle's home but, three months ago, Uncle Jim passed away in an incident involving a zero-dollar purchase.

The only inheritance he left behind was this small house and a small amount of cash.

From then on, Li Ang's days became quite miserable, which was evident from the dark purple bump on his forehead.

Li Ang recalled carefully that this injury was from yesterday, the last day before summer vacation began.

After school, as he passed the sports field alone with his backpack, he was hit in the head by a flying football.

In his memory, this wasn't the first time.

In fact, just by looking at the sardonic expression of the person who apologized, it was clear to anyone that it was done on purpose.

This was not a rare occurrence; in American high schools, for someone like Li Ang, who had outstanding academic achievements but lacked an imposing physique and was not good at sports, being unpopular among most classmates was quite normal.

The original owner of the body had actually grown accustomed to this way of life, his only goal being to graduate from high school smoothly. Everything else was to be endured if possible.

However, the original could put up with it, but Li Ang couldn't — setting aside the physical pain for a moment, the fact that he, a man in his twenties, was bullied by a bunch of sixteen- or seventeen-year-olds was something he couldn't get over mentally.

Luckily, summer vacation had already begun, so he didn't have to face them for the time being.

Putting these depressing matters aside, Li Ang was actually quite satisfied with his current body.

Being weak or nearsighted was not a problem; he had just turned 17, and being young was the biggest capital.

In any case, it was much better than his overdrawn body riddled with a thousand bullet holes.

Moreover, this was America, a land many people yearn for, to the point of abandoning their families and fortunes just to breathe its sweet air; it certainly has its advantages.

The only drawback was that this was a parallel universe, and there were no extraordinary powers. The timeline was also similar to the original; he couldn't gain any advantages from informational disparities.

Li Ang twisted his neck and stretched lazily, muttering to himself:

"Forget it, why think so much about it? I'm already at rock bottom, there's only one way to go, and that's up."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a sea of stars appeared before Li Ang's eyes, and his vision grew darker and darker.

"Am I dying now?"

After calming himself for several seconds, Li Ang realized with excitement that it was just low blood sugar caused by his own hunger.

Perhaps processing the memories had consumed too much energy, and coupled with the body's inherent weakness, even a little activity was too much to handle.

Li Ang went to the kitchen, following his memories, and found it was pathetically devoid of food. The kitchenware was complete, but there were no ingredients.

Clinging to a last hope, he opened the refrigerator to find half a hamburger and two-thirds of a pizza left over from yesterday.

He stuffed the only two items of food into the microwave, set the temperature and time, and stood by the microwave.

As Li Ang watched the food regain its luster inside, he marveled inwardly:

Americans really have it good in this regard — these junk foods are dirt-cheap!

Take this Burger King beef burger for instance, it's only $1.99. In Burger King back home, even at double the price, you couldn't buy one.

"Ding!"

It was the microwave timer.

He picked up the slightly hot burger, and the aroma of the beef patty revived by the high heat entered his nostrils, a truly top-notch treat.

Li Ang had never thought that a leftover burger could taste so good.

In less than two minutes, he had polished off the food.

After a satisfying belch, Li Ang suddenly noticed something seemed to flash before his eyes.

It was really happening this time.