Reborn

Su's Father's old-fashioned nagging irritated Su Ti.

"Alright, I get it."

Su Ti waved a hand, looking impatient.

His family thought the matter was over and relaxed, but only Su Ti knew that it was far from over.

So he had no patience to discuss trivial nonsense with Su's Father about backbone and how the poor could not lose their ambition.

Before this was resolved, he could be taken away by the organizers of the Death Fighting Competition and forced to compete at any time. If he wanted to survive—or even take revenge—he first needed the means to protect himself!

Su's Father opened his mouth, momentarily at a loss for words.

But considering what his son had been through, he still showed understanding.

"Go get some sleep first. Oh, your sister came back from school. Say hello to her before bed."

"Mm."

The Su family had three rooms: one for their parents, one for Su Ti, and one for his younger sister, Su Ling.

Hers was also the largest room.

And just to mention it, Su Ti's room was the smallest.

Unlike Su Ti, who had practically been driven and strictly disciplined by Su's Father, Su Ling was the family's treasure, spoiled beyond measure.

Unlike Su Ti, whose looks, physique, and grades were all utterly ordinary, Su Ling was only a year younger than him. She was currently a senior at City First High School, an invincible youthful beauty who excelled at both sports and academics, smart and adorable.

Knock, knock.

Su Ti knocked on the door. The next second, it opened, as though the person inside had been standing by it and eavesdropping all along.

The door revealed a lovely bare face brimming with youthful vitality.

That face was so beautiful it made people wonder whether she and Su Ti really had the same mother.

Yet in complete contrast to her appearance, her expression was utterly blank.

"What?"

"I'm back."

"Oh."

With that, the door slammed shut.

Su Ti did not react at all.

He had not had any siblings in his previous life and did not know how brothers and sisters were supposed to get along, but the memories of this life had left a deep impression on him.

There was no mutual concern or sibling affection—only mutual disdain, along with arguments and fights from childhood onward.

In his memories, his relationship with Su Ling was among the worst kind between siblings. Neither could stand the other, and they barely spoke in daily life.

But Su Ti did not care about that in the slightest. He turned and headed toward his room.

What he did not know was that on the other side of the door, Su Ling was leaning against it, tightly hugging a carrot pillow in her pink rabbit pajamas. Shock and delight filled her face.

"The future... really changed."

She went to her girlish desk, opened a drawer, and saw a snapped phone card alongside a brand-new Little Smart phone.

That anonymous call to the police today had actually been made by her.

It was now three in the morning. In that dark future, her brother Su Ti would have died yesterday in an underground boxing match, and detectives would discover his body several days later.

After learning the news, their mother would fall seriously ill. Even their father would develop a drinking habit because of it, and the family would never recover.

But that was not even the most despairing future. The most hopeless part was the apocalypse one year later.

Spiritual energy would awaken, the nation would fall, and demons would run rampant. She would awaken her abilities and struggle through the apocalypse for several months, only to be defeated by an irresistible enemy.

Her parents, companions, and master would be brutally killed one after another while protecting her. In the end, she too would die at the hands of that powerful enemy.

Thinking of this, Su Ling clenched her fists.

"Since I've returned to a year and a half ago, I absolutely won't let the tragedy happen again!"

Determination shone in Su Ling's eyes. In her previous life, her parents, master, and companions had all fought desperately to protect her.

This time, it was her turn to save them!

In his room, Su Ti rapidly tapped at the keyboard, browsing all kinds of information about this world.

It was now the year 223 of the Xiya calendar, one hundred years since the first nuclear bomb had been detonated.

The Cold War between Xiya and White Country, the two nuclear powers, had ended fifty years ago. The international situation had stabilized. Aside from warfare still raging in some small countries, both Xiya and White Country were developing steadily.

Xiya's culture and geography were very similar to those of Su Ti's homeland in his previous life, but it had seventy-two provinces, a total land area of 23.42 million square kilometers, and a population as high as 2.5 billion. Its four most prosperous provinces were East Sea, South Border, North Yang, and West Moon, while the capital was Zhongjing City.

Beyond that, however, this world's dark side seemed far greater than that of his previous world. For unknown reasons, underworld organizations such as underground boxing rings, gangs, and assassins were also far more common. Ordinary people knew nothing about them, but traces could still be found online.

After roughly reviewing the country's information and understanding his surroundings, Su Ti turned his attention to what interested him most: martial arts.

The Crimson Martial Arts Modifier was the cheat tool he had created to dominate the server. He knew its capabilities better than anyone.

As long as enough martial arts were accumulated, fused, and transformed, the increase in combat power would be exponential.

At the beginning, ordinary martial arts only provided a few points of combat power. But after enough had been piled up, they could reach tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions! As long as enough max-level martial arts were fused, fighting an entire guild—or even an entire server—would no longer be a dream.

Back then, Su Ti had fused nearly every martial arts skill in the game that could be fused after raising them to their maximum levels. Only after wiping out the server's strongest guild forces had he earned that title.

Although he did not know whether martial arts in reality could be improved to the same degree as in the game, he had defeated a professional underground boxer simply by raising a Comprehensive Fighting Techniques from his previous world to mastery.

Therefore, if Su Ti wanted to become physically stronger, he needed more martial arts.

And the internet was an excellent avenue for collecting them.

In an age of extremely advanced information networks, even divine techniques and secret manuals were no longer secrets. Just like in Su Ti's previous life, vast amounts of martial arts manuals had been uploaded online for free to prevent their legacies from being lost, yet nobody had wanted to learn them.

But after searching for a while, Su Ti suddenly froze.

"There aren't any?"

It was not that there were none at all. There were martial arts similar to calisthenics, but techniques with offensive or body-tempering properties, such as Golden Bell Cover, Iron Cloth, Eagle Claw Technique, and Twelve Road Tan Leg, were nowhere to be found.

Unwilling to believe it, Su Ti continued searching and found a large number of comprehensive fighting techniques.

Iza Jujutsu, Gero War Dance, Xizhai Piercing Fist—ring-fighting techniques like those.

This world also had combat events like boxing, kickboxing, and MMA. These ring-fighting techniques had emerged because of them and possessed a certain degree of lethality, but they were completely useless to Su Ti!

He already possessed a mastered Comprehensive Fighting Techniques. That meant he had mastered grappling, striking, and jujutsu techniques—the very pinnacle of ring fighting.

The other ring-fighting techniques overlapped heavily with the Comprehensive Fighting Techniques he already had, so learning them would be useless.

Besides, Su Ti did not want to learn ring-fighting techniques.

Ring-fighting techniques were skills constrained by rules: no eye gouging, no strikes to the back of the head or groin, winning while ensuring the opponent's safety.

Such techniques were formidable in regulated matches, but in a true no-rules fight to the death, they were of little use—or rather, basically useless.

Take Su Ti's Comprehensive Fighting Techniques, for instance. It had no one-hit killing moves, no techniques for facing armed enemies, and even less for dealing with complex environments or multiple opponents.

It could only be used in the ring. In an actual fight to the death, it was far inferior to military dagger combat.

The reason Su Ti had been able to defeat Black Bear with that technique was largely because Black Bear had underestimated and looked down on him, allowing Su Ti to land a sneak attack and seize the initiative. Otherwise, a professional underground boxer like Black Bear might not have had much weaker killing techniques than Su Ti—he might even have been stronger.

After all, Black Bear practiced killing fists, while Su Ti practiced ring techniques. No matter how poorly practiced a killing art was, it was meant to kill. No matter how refined a ring technique was, it was meant to subdue, knock down, and score points. The two were fundamentally different.

If he faced Black Bear again with both of them mentally prepared, Su Ti was certain that his chance of dying would exceed eighty percent! Even if he won, it would be a brutal victory, leaving him with crippling injuries.

Therefore, against a criminal force like the organizers of the Death Fighting Competition, what Su Ti wanted to learn were true killing techniques, as well as martial arts that could strengthen his body through both internal and external cultivation!

But Su Ti could not find them online.

Martial arts in this world seemed to be tightly controlled by Xiya, as though they were weapons or firearms.

When the open web failed him, Su Ti had other methods.

This world's technological level was not much different from that of his previous life, and computer programming algorithms were basically identical. His skills as a programmer quickly came into play.

After writing and downloading several programs, he soon entered the dark web.

The dark web was a hidden network distinct from the surface web, an encrypted network that standard search engines could not find.

Because of its secrecy and privacy, it had become a breeding ground for much of the world's darkness.

Illegal transactions, crime livestreams, firearms, smuggling, hacker services—many things unimaginable in the ordinary world were carried out on the dark web.

Su Ti carefully searched the dark web for traces of martial arts.

He quickly found something on a dark web forum called "Nameless."

Most posts on the Nameless forum had level requirements and were invisible to newcomers like Su Ti.

Only a pinned post titled "Ancient Martial Arts Trading Post" was visible to him.

Su Ti opened the post and discovered that three martial arts were available for trade. According to the post, they were all called "Ancient Martial Arts."

The three Ancient Martial Arts were:

"Body Tempering Art," "Black Tiger Fist," and "Fang Wolf Saber."

Martial arts that looked third-rate, or even fourth-rate, just from their names were being sold at astonishing prices.

The cheapest, Body Tempering Art, cost five hundred thousand Xiya yuan.

Black Tiger Fist and Fang Wolf Saber cost even more, both priced in the millions.

The purchasing power of Xiya yuan in this world was roughly equivalent to the renminbi in his previous world. Touching the bank card containing the fifty thousand yuan his uncle had given him today, Su Ti instantly felt poor as hell.

He was stunned.

"I knew martial arts had always been for the wealthy, but the barrier to entry in this world is way too high!"

The starting price was five hundred thousand. In some cities with low housing prices, that could buy an entire apartment!

Still unwilling to give up, Su Ti searched the dark web again and discovered that it was not just the Nameless forum. Every other site selling martial arts had—

The exact same prices?!

And the martial arts being circulated were always the same few: Body Tempering Art, Black Tiger Fist, Fang Wolf Saber, and the like.

With martial arts on the dark web so expensive and their circulation so tightly restricted, Su Ti finally understood what martial arts meant in this world.

"Learning martial arts online probably isn't realistic. Even with money, I could only learn a few common techniques. The truly powerful martial arts are likely controlled by organizations similar to sects, which forbid them from being spread."

With Ancient Martial Arts so heavily guarded, that was all Su Ti could guess. It also made him even more curious about how powerful this world's martial arts truly were.

For them to warrant such strict control.

With that anticipation, Su Ti shut down the computer and drifted into sleep.