Declaration

"Hao Tian, Wake up! It's time for school!"

*GASP*

It felt like he was breathing for the first time. The warm air pricked his lungs as he still took in mouthfuls, gasping for each precious breath.

"What...."

His blurry vision focused on a familiar setting. An old ceiling fan slowly rotated above his head, creaking as it went.

His heavy breathing echoed in the sparsely decorated bedroom.

"What is this...am I...dreaming?"

He tried to sit up but upon feeling a horrible pain shoot through his legs and up his back Hao Tian fell back lifelessly.

"This is my....old room...from earth..." he tried to gather his thoughts, "But how...? That place was destroyed...over a century ago..."

Hao Tian raised his hand to feel the warmth in the air. The rough texture of the bedsheet and a moist clamminess? He looked down, "Did I piss myself?"

With a loud bang the door opened from the side. Hao Tian turned towards it and saw a huffing figure standing at the entrance holding a frying pan.

"You little brat, how long are you going to sleep? The bus arrives in 15 minutes, get up!" she shouted but upon noticing his pale complexion all her anger washed away.

"What happened? You were fine a couple of hours ago..." she said while placing the back of her hand on his forehead.

Hao Tian was staring at her with wide eyes.

"Old wench, you're alive-OUCH!"

A quick slap landed on his forehead, "Who the hell are you calling old?!" she huffed.

"Oh...right..." Hao Tian finally noticed. The woman in front of her was in her early thirties.

She was his mother so he obviously recognized her at once but the wrinkles and white hair that he associated with her in his memories were nowhere to be found.

Hao Tian brought his hands in front of his face, inspecting the smooth hairless skin of his arms. He pinched himself, feeling every little bit of pain.

"Is this not a dream then? Hmm?"

He saw an old dirty bracelet hanging from his right wrist. Dirt and blood marks still visible on its strap but the dark blue crystal in the middle was now cracked.

It was the same bracelet that he had gotten from Prince Salahuddin.

"Was it you?" he mumbled.

On the side his mother was silently watching him talk to himself with furrowed brows.

"Is it the fever?" she felt his forehead again which was burning up.

*Sigh*

"Alright, stay home today. I'll go make some porridge," she quickly said before running out.

Hao Tian didn't even notice her leave, he was far too busy trying to wrap his mind around what was going on.

"Transmigration? Did my consciousness go back in time when- Right, the demon!" he shot up to his feet in one ago, completely ignoring all the pain that was coursing through his body.

"As soon as I went out the demon started following me. It completely ignored everyone else as if they weren't even there. It had come for me in the first place. And when we reached the hanger it- I can't remember...what happened after that? Did it have something to do with this?"

While he was still thinking out loud his mother returned. A small, slightly chubby woman that despite her relatively young age looked much older.

"Don't stand on the bed!" she yelled, waking him from his stupor.

Hao Tian sat down where he was and went back to thinking.

'Salahuddin was pretty adamant about it. He wanted me to personally take the bracelet to that guy named Baracus, without anyone else by my side. He even lent me his private cruiser so I could return quickly. This has to be it right? It's the only explanation...'

He was force-fed half a bowl of some dreaded concoction that swiftly woke him up. His mother's name was Cui Lei, and just like in his memories, she was still a terrible cook. He always joked that she could turn anything flavorless, but only he knew how true it was.

Even sugar would taste like limes in her hands, it was a curse he had to accept while growing up.

'If this was a dream or some kind of hallucination, at least the food wouldn't be this terrible right?'

Hao Tian spent most of the morning in bed recovering. Sometime around noon when he had fallen asleep Cui Lei went out to do some shopping, at which point Hao Tian abruptly opened his eyes.

"Finally alone!"

He ran straight for the old TV in the living room and turned it on. It was already on the news channel, showing today's date and time at the bottom.

"20th November 2002!"

He had gone 118 years in the past! And a full 28 years before the discovery of the deposit on the moon!

He switched between the handful of other channels just to be sure but found nothing out of ordinary.

Hao Tian went back to his room and climbed out of the window, going up to the roof from the hidden shortcut he would discover in 4 years.

But he had greatly overestimated his current nine-year-old body. What should have taken a few seconds took close to five minutes with no small amount of willpower to boot.

Hao Tian fell on his back as soon he made it up, watching the cloudy sky with a wide grin.

"Hahaha, I can smell the clean air, the trees, the cars!" even pollution was welcomed with open arms.

He had spent almost an entire century either in enclosed spaceships or new colonies. Both of which smelled like hospitals because of the synthesized oxygen.

"I'm really back! Hahaha!"

But the cheerful mood did not last very long.

Dozens of natural disasters, the betrayal of the world governments, the slaughter of the human race and their subsequent destitution to the stars would all happen within the next three decades, not to mention the numerous other anomalous events.

"Not this time!" Hao Tian growled recalling everything he and many others like him had gone through, "This time we won't be taken by surprise. We will not give up our home! Earth is ours, OURS! YOU HEAR ME?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

"THIS TIME! This time I will not sit idly by. I will unify the world, take control of it before the promised time. I will create an army the likes of which the stars have not yet seen! MARK MY WORDS!"

"HEY, SHUT UP! Is that Cui Lei's kid? What the hell are you doing home?! Does your mother know you're skipping school?"

Unfortunately, his declaration of war was heard by more than a few of the neighbors.

"Sorry Mrs. Hu!" Hao Tian shouted apologetically, "P-Please don't tell mom!"

"GET DOWN!"

"YES!"

And swiftly returned to his abode for a well-deserved rest.