Chen Daolin

"Caw~~"

A giant eagle with a wingspan of over twenty meters, jet-black feathers, and fiery red plumage on its head streaked across the horizon. It soared over this land, lowering its golden eyes to coldly survey the endless expanse of city buildings below.

It beat its wings again. Its speed instantly broke the sound barrier, and it turned into a black bolt of lightning, vanishing into the dark clouds overhead.

As the rose-red sun slowly sank in the west, it took the light from the world with it. Points of light spread through the city like water lilies blooming across a pond.

The sky darkened, heavy with clouds.

The first summer downpour soon came pouring down, shrouding the whole city in misty rain. The only sound was the patter of raindrops rustling through the trees in the greenbelts.

This was a colossal city of over two hundred million people, a miracle created by humanity. Tower after tower of concrete and steel rose from the ground, reaching for the sky, while traffic streamed along the roads and people hurried to and fro.

At the street corners were weary men heading home from work, martial arts students striding along in their training uniforms, and groups of energetic students.

Chen Daolin was one of the inconspicuous ones among them.

He had just left the martial arts hall and changed into his school uniform. His white shirt hung over his lean frame, and he wore black trousers and a pair of faded gray cloth shoes.

Clean and neat, as he had always seemed—but that could not hide the weariness that lingered on his face.

He slipped the intermediate student certificate he had finally earned after nearly three years back into his pocket, then looked up at the gloomy sky and its steady rain. His black hair was soaked, his fringe clinging to his brow. It felt awful.

He pursed his lips, wiped the rain from his face, and revealed an unremarkable face, still a little boyish but with a stubborn edge.

His tongue probed the base of his teeth. A faint salty, metallic taste spread across his tongue, along with the numb ache from several spots on his body, as if his muscles and nerves were groaning... Chen Daolin felt even worse. Those advanced students had really gone too far.

He touched the muscles in his face, still twitching, but kept his expression blank. As for the matter of "provoking" those advanced students at the martial arts hall, he quickly put it out of his mind.

He knew that if he had just put up with what happened today, it would have passed. With his current strength and situation, continuing the conflict would only end with him getting the worse of it.

Compared with the money-driven world of his previous life, this world placed even greater faith in the principle that might made right. People had made training at martial arts halls a habit, and the standing of a true martial artist in society was so high that ordinary people could only look up to them.

There were only about a hundred advanced students at the Extreme Martial Arts Hall in Yi'an District, while there were several thousand intermediate students like him, with nothing to distinguish them. In status and strength alike, they were on completely different levels.

The idea of asking someone to stand up for him had only just crossed his mind when he discarded it without hesitation. Asking a woman to stand up for him—no matter how spineless Chen Daolin was, he could never bring himself to do that. It was a matter of a man's dignity.

Even though Chen Daolin knew that the reason those advanced students had taken the excuse to torment him today had a lot to do with that woman.

"Oh, my dear auntie, if you want to hit someone, then hit them. Taking on three at once is no problem—but please don't tell them you know me!"

Chen Daolin let out a long sigh.

As you can see, his name was Chen Daolin. He was an ordinary transmigrator, eighteen years old, and currently a student at Yi'an District No. 3 High School in Yangzhou City, Jiangnan Base City.

His biological parents were unknown. When he was still a baby, an ordinary couple had adopted him. Three years ago, they died when monsters attacked the city. The original owner of this body had died as well, and Chen Daolin had transmigrated into it, taking his place and carrying on with his life.

It was now 2056, more than thirty years after humanity's large-scale war with the monsters had ended. Humanity had established 52 massive Base Cities around the world to defend against monster attacks, and Chen Daolin's Jiangnan Base City lay within Huaxia Country, one of the only five countries left.

Jiangnan Base City was divided into the main urban district and the Eight Satellite Cities. Yangzhou was one of the Eight Satellite Cities, with a population of over two hundred million. It was simply unimaginable to Chen Daolin, given the world he had lived in during his previous life.

To fight the powerful, seemingly endless monster hordes, humanity had vigorously promoted martial arts and trained martial artists. Aside from national armies, there were also numerous martial arts halls throughout the world.

The most famous were the Extreme Martial Arts Hall, founded by "Hong," the world's strongest fighter, and the Thunder Martial Arts Hall, founded by "Thunder God," the second-strongest. Chen Daolin had been training at the Extreme Martial Arts Hall, where he had become an intermediate student.

Nowadays, almost all high school students joined martial arts halls to develop their physical potential alongside their academic studies. Anyone who had turned sixteen could sign up at a local hall and train until the age of thirty. If they still had not advanced from student to martial artist by then, they would lose the right to train at a martial arts hall.

Countless people dreamed of becoming martial artists, but the road was rugged and difficult. Take Yi'an District No. 3 High School, where Chen Daolin studied, with its four or five thousand students.

Most of the students across its three grades were beginners, and only a tiny fraction were intermediate students. There were only four advanced students!

This was no longer a gap that could be made up through hard work alone. Resources and talent mattered far more.

Clearly, Chen Daolin had neither money nor much talent.

Even though he had been so excited when he first arrived in this world and learned that powers beyond ordinary understanding existed, after more than two years of hellish, desperate training, he had only just crossed the threshold to become an intermediate student.

Without some major opportunity or change, he would not become an advanced student until after graduating from university—and that was assuming he kept up his current level of hard work.

Once the excitement had cooled, Chen Daolin had been left alone to face this strange, cold world. He had no idea what the future held, and could not help feeling lost, with a touch of fear.

The sky gradually darkened. A light drizzle fell, and ripples spread in circles through the puddles beneath the feet of passersby, like the many cycles of life.

An umbrella suddenly appeared above Chen Daolin's head, accompanied by a cool voice tinged with reproach.

"Do you like getting rained on that much?"

The voice was so familiar that Chen Daolin knew who it was without turning around. He smiled bitterly to himself.

This was probably the person he least wanted to run into right now. Fortunately, those advanced students who had hit him had shown some "restraint." At least, unless someone looked closely, it was hard to tell he was injured.

Otherwise, there was no telling whether this young lady, who seemed so mild-tempered in front of others but was fiercely protective at heart, would stage a full-blown brawl at the martial arts hall tomorrow.

Short black hair, delicate features, and skin with a slight yellowish cast that did nothing to dull her lively appearance. Her bright eyes seemed able to see right through people. She stood about 1.75 meters tall, with a tall, slender figure. Her school uniform stretched tight over a distinctly curving silhouette, and her legs were long and straight. Holding a black umbrella, she stood opposite Chen Daolin, her dark eyes making him feel a little guilty.

"You... didn't you say you were going to tutor someone? You're back so soon?" Chen Daolin turned his face away awkwardly and changed the subject, hoping to cover up the embarrassing fact that he had been standing by the road like an idiot, lost in thought for quite a while.

"I finished teaching for the day, so I came back early. I was going to check whether you were still at the martial arts hall, but I didn't expect to find you here." The black-haired girl gave the grinning Chen Daolin a cool glance.

They had known each other for over a decade, and she could tell at a glance that her childhood friend was hiding something from her. But she was straightforward by nature, not the kind to pry without reason. Seeing that Chen Daolin wanted to change the subject, she did not bother pressing him. She took him by the arm and led him forward beneath the umbrella.

A young man and woman, sharing an umbrella in the rain at night, would normally have made for a romantic scene. But neither Chen Daolin nor the girl felt the slightest hint of romance.

Chen Daolin certainly had no such thoughts. After all, even though she looked like a refined, gentle girl, just a few months ago she had fought three people in a row and beaten three advanced students from the martial arts hall until they were sprawled on the ground, unable to get up.

A girl like that... Chen Daolin looked at his own skinny arms and legs and decided she was someone he really could not afford to provoke.

Compared with Chen Daolin, who had always been mediocre among his peers, this girl excelled in her studies and had become an advanced student at an early age. She was plainly a far better student than this transmigrator.

Oh, he had forgotten to mention: this was Ji Xuan, Chen Daolin's childhood friend, who had grown up playing with him. They were the same age, and her family lived next door. Her family was about as poor as his. Besides her ordinary parents, she had a younger sister who had lost the use of her legs in a car accident years ago and had been confined to a wheelchair ever since.

Rustle, rustle.

The rain grew heavier. Beneath the umbrella, their figures gradually blurred and faded into the distance, soon disappearing among the traffic and crowds on the busy street.

Nan'an Residential District was a low-rent housing complex. Each apartment building looked like a huge block of concrete, and the people living there were all ordinary folks at the very bottom of society.

On the thirty-second floor of one of its thirty-six-story apartment buildings were eight households. Chen Daolin's family lived among them, and Ji Xuan's family lived right next door.

"Remember to come over for dinner," Ji Xuan said casually as they parted.

Chen Daolin paused, then smiled and agreed. But his heart felt heavy. Before they had died, his parents had been close friends with Ji Xuan's parents. After his parents died in the accident, Ji Xuan's parents had helped take care of everything and had looked after him ever since. He was deeply grateful to them for it, especially after arriving in this world.

Because he had just lost his parents, no one had ever noticed that Chen Daolin's soul had been replaced by someone else's. The original owner of this body had looked just like Chen Daolin in his previous life and even shared his name, which had shocked him at first. In the end, he could only understand it as meeting another version of himself from a different world.

After quickly showering and changing into clean clothes at home, Chen Daolin headed out to the Ji family's place. The door opened as soon as he knocked, revealing a small, pale face, sweet and delicate.

"Xiao Han." Chen Daolin smiled and patted the girl's head.

"Xiao Han, don't block the doorway. Let A-Lin come in," Ji Father called from inside in a steady voice.

Ji Han pushed her wheelchair, and Chen Daolin closed the door behind them as he followed her into the cramped apartment.

One glance took in the whole place: one bedroom and one living room, only 36 square meters, yet home to all four members of the Ji family. With Ji Han disabled and unable to get around easily, it was easy to imagine how hard their circumstances were.

Chen Daolin had wanted to help them more than once, but he had realized there was nothing he could do. In fact, he had received a great deal of help from the Ji family.

That was part of why he was so eager to find a chance to change his circumstances.

"Come on, A-Lin. What are you standing there for? Come eat." Ji Mother, wearing an apron, and Ji Xuan carried the dishes to the table in the living room. Ji Han tugged at Chen Daolin's sleeve. The four members of the family and Chen Daolin, an outsider, sat down to eat together, the warmth between them making it seem as if they were one family.

I have to change all of this... Chen Daolin ate in silence, but a certain thought in his heart had grown firm.