Rebirth

Chapter 1: Rebirth

On the morning of December 23, 20412, Star Calendar, the Panshi Planet—half gray land and half blue ocean—changed colors as its atmosphere shifted under the illumination of the Gia Star.

Even from space, one could see the scars covering the land. Years of warfare had left too many marks here; the terrain was rarely covered in green, consisting mostly of dead, gray silence.

Only the sight of the blue ocean confirmed that this was a planet possessing water, the most basic resource for life.

Although the Panshi Planet looked dreamlike and surreal with its ever-changing colors from afar, in reality, it was merely an administrative planet with a low quality of life within the Interstellar Federation.

Administrative planets with a low quality of life were the lowest standard among all habitable human worlds, providing only the bare necessities for survival—oxygen, fresh water, and food—but the low quality of life meant the environment was harsh and difficult for humans to survive in the wild.

In a patch of sky above the Panshi Planet, the calm, sunny, and cloudless atmosphere was shattered by a sharp sonic boom.

Then, dazzling points of light appeared in the air. As the points drew closer, they revealed themselves to be several aircraft in pursuit of one another.

In the lead was a silver-white personal flight shuttle, followed closely by four Interceptor drones from the planetary defense SkyNet system.

Inside the personal flight shuttle, Abbott steered with a grim expression. The flight stick moved constantly in his hands; such extreme maneuvers were already pushing the limits of this personal shuttle.

He had a feeling that if he continued to maneuver this violently, the personal shuttle—designed for space flight—might fall apart even without the Interceptor drones attacking it. Yet, he dared not hesitate for a second, and the acceleration and evasive maneuvers continued unabated.

He wanted to shake off the Interceptor drones behind him through speed and direction changes, but the four drones clung to the shuttle like glue, impossible to shed.

"Damn it, I shouldn't have flown this piece of junk here!" Abbott cursed.

Abbott was an interstellar mercenary belonging to the notorious Sirius Mercenary Group. He was also a high-profile fugitive of the Interstellar Federation, wanted for multiple counts of murder, resisting arrest, assault, robbery, and other serious crimes.

No fewer than dozens of civilians had died at his hands. During their last mission, the Sirius Mercenary Group had successfully hijacked an interstellar cruise ship, and the mercenaries had received a generous payout, scattering to find their own fun.

Abbott had received his fair share of credits and used a forged identity to come to the Panshi Planet to relax.

He had assumed that nothing would go wrong on such a remote planet, so he hadn't brought any weapons or equipment, sneaking in by piloting his personal flight shuttle.

This kind of infiltration was common for interstellar fugitives; no matter how realistic an identity bracelet was, it couldn't withstand the scrutiny of official checkpoints. Forged identity bracelets could only support simple credit transactions.

What he hadn't expected was to be discovered by Interceptor drones the moment he entered the planet.

"Why aren't these pieces of trash dealing with the Zerg instead of chasing me!" Abbott continued to curse as he looked at the Interceptor drones on the central control screen.

These Interceptor drones were part of the planetary SkyNet defense, primarily designed to detect and attack flying Zerg, not to target infiltrators.

If they discovered powerful Zerg, the Interceptor drones would report to SkyNet and maintain surveillance; if they were merely weak Zerg, they would launch an immediate attack.

Abbott was just unlucky enough to run into a squad of Interceptor drones on patrol and get targeted.

If he had weapons and equipment, he wouldn't have cared about these four Interceptor drones, but piloting a personal flight shuttle, even escaping was difficult.

"Warning, cease flight immediately and submit to inspection! Warning, cease flight immediately and submit to inspection!" This was the warning issued by the personnel monitoring the Interceptor drones via SkyNet.

Although the Interceptor drones were unmanned, there were always relevant personnel at the remote end of SkyNet conducting real-time monitoring.

By now, Abbott's situation had been reported, and an attack could be initiated at any moment.

It was fortunate that the Interceptor drones were set to target Zerg; otherwise, they would have attacked without any warning at all.

Abbott ignored the warnings from the Interceptor drones. He had seen enough Interceptors to have a detailed understanding of their performance.

Even though he couldn't shake their pursuit, Interceptor drones usually only forced illegal aircraft to land rather than attacking them directly.

The order to attack humans could only be issued by humans with the corresponding authority. This was an ironclad rule, the final solution implemented after countless incidents where artificial intelligence had malfunctioned.

Abbott looked at the map next to the flight stick of his personal shuttle and felt a surge of joy upon realizing that Peilan City was not far ahead. Once he neared the city, the Interceptor drones would be unable to continue their pursuit, as their primary directive was to protect the lives of citizens.

The personal flight shuttle accelerated toward Peilan City, while the four Interceptor drones behind him continued to issue warnings and activated high-power scanners to scan the shuttle.

"David, did you skip breakfast? Walk faster!" Jessica, who had short brown hair, urged David, who was lagging behind.

Although Jessica wasn't exceptionally beautiful, her seventeen years gave her a youthful vitality.

David could tell from her attitude toward him that she wasn't exactly thrilled to have him along.

Jessica also understood that if it weren't for the fact that she couldn't find anyone else to accompany her on a winter break morning, she wouldn't have asked someone as antisocial as David to join her.

"Okay!" David said in a short, clipped voice.

When he said the word "okay," he felt an indescribable, strange sensation in his heart. He could use this language instinctively, yet he felt an extreme sense of unfamiliarity with it.

This situation occurred because he had only arrived in this world yesterday. He hadn't received the memories of this body, though, fortunately, he had inexplicably inherited the language and writing the body knew.

In his previous life, his name was Li David, a "successful" IT engineer. The reason he put "successful" in quotes was that he was merely an IT elite in a fourth-tier city; in a first or second-tier city, he would be considered trash.

The place where he was hit was a downhill road called Fangong Bridge. He hadn't been driving his low-displacement car, nor was he riding his low-battery electric scooter; he was walking.

When the heavy truck lost control and charged toward him, he was on the sidewalk with several other pedestrians.

The heavy truck hadn't chosen to hit the heavier cement mixer in the middle of the road, but instead veered toward the more vulnerable crowd.

David didn't want to attribute the worst malice to the truck driver's intentions, but looking back now, he was highly suspicious of it.

Facing the out-of-control heavy truck, David had pedestrians on both sides, especially several students who had just finished school.

He hadn't had time to think. With pedestrians on both sides, he couldn't dodge. He had performed an action he couldn't even imagine now: he had violently pushed the pedestrians beside him out of the way.

Then came the heavy impact. He didn't know how many people had died, but he clearly remembered that he had successfully pushed the students beside him to safety.

When David woke up, he was in the home of this body, in a bizarrely decorated basement, having taken over this body.

A damaged altar, charred unknown meat, an opened ancient book of strange characters, and him, completely naked – it was the scene of an evil ritual.

If not for the lighting panels covering the ceiling of the basement, the high-tech fitness equipment within, and the metal walls of the basement, he would have thought he had arrived in a world of ignorant barbarism.

It took David nearly an hour to slowly accept the fact that he had transformed from an East Asian man into the tall, white teenager he now was.

It took another hour to find a way out of the basement. Although it was just a simple palm scan, for someone who had received none of this body's memories, everything required trial and error.

However, after leaving the basement, he no longer had to worry about the unfamiliar environment.

This was because the smart butler of the residence, a humanoid domestic robot, was waiting outside the basement where David was.

Outside the basement, David was astonished to see a massive underground vegetable cultivation base. Then, under the guidance of the smart butler, he returned to the bedroom on the ground floor.