Rebirth

June 4, 640 Dawn Calendar

Gaia Main World, Fanor Continent, Can Guang City, Fes Kingdom Capital.

36 Fes Street, Kane Family Estate.

Every June was the hottest time of the year in the Fies Kingdom on the Eastern Plains of the Fanor Continent. The estate's stablehand secretly moved a lounge chair behind the stables to rest, preferring mosquito bites to sleeping in his cramped, stuffy little room.

The darkness-shrouded estate had yet to shed the stifling heat of the previous day, yet a sliver of white had already appeared in the eastern sky.

A young man lay on the bed in the master bedroom. Even his thin, breathable silk pajamas seemed unable to soothe the heat of the summer night. Their faint fragrance drove away the irritating mosquitoes but did nothing against the oppressive warmth. In his sleep, the man seemed unable to endure it any longer and muttered:

"Why is it so hot? Didn't anyone turn on the air conditioning?"

Li Si rolled over, intending to continue experiencing his teachers' full arsenal of tricks in his dreams, when he suddenly jolted upright.

Something was wrong. Wasn't it January? Why was it so hot? Was the house on fire?

Sitting upright, Li Si looked around in confusion. The immersive gaming pod he was familiar with was gone from beside the bed, as was the computer he had spent a fortune assembling, only for it to end up being used for watching shows and handling orders from his power-leveling studio. Apart from the soft bed beneath him, the spacious room contained only a luxurious carpet and a small table with several letters on it.

Had he been kidnapped? But this didn't look like it. What kidnapper would put a hostage somewhere this nice? The windows weren't even closed. Didn't kidnappings usually involve the classic three-piece set of a gag, tied hands, and lying on the floor, plus some vicious-looking brute watching from the side?

Besides, why kidnap him? He had made some money running a gaming studio, but most of it had been sent to Uncle Chen, who had raised him, to keep the Orphanage running. What kidnapper would go to all that trouble for his remaining scraps?

Li Si was fully awake now. He carefully examined his surroundings, trying to figure out where exactly he was.

When his gaze swept past the window, Li Si's eyes widened in astonishment.

Looking out through the floor-to-ceiling glass window on the right side of the room, past the courtyard in front of the building, he could see rows of uneven two- and three-story houses in the distance. Yet what drew even more attention were the white marble dome and tall, slender spires rising above the black rooftops. Something at the top of the spire seemed to shine like a lamp, radiating a faint white glow in all directions—warm and impossible to ignore.

"Isn't that the Dawn Cathedral in Can Guang City from Divine Revelation Game?"

Suddenly, his head began to hurt. A massive flood of chaotic information poured into his mind. Li Si kept rubbing his temples, baring his teeth as he absorbed the information that had appeared out of nowhere.

After quite a while, Li Si finally understood where he was.

"My name is Li Si Kane? A Court Viscount of the Fies Kingdom?"

"Did I transmigrate into Divine Revelation Game?"

Divine Revelation Game was an epoch-making immersive online game. Entering through a specialized gaming pod provided one hundred percent simulation, drawing countless players from across the globe. At its peak, it had over fifty million concurrent players, practically crushing every other online game at the time.

For such a groundbreaking game, the developers knew exactly what they were doing. While maintaining balance, they enhanced its controls and competitive elements, attracting countless guilds and professional players. They also launched a whole series of derivative modes, such as the Professional League and national wars. This created a virtuous cycle that pushed the game's influence to its peak.

Li Si's gaming studio had been established in Divine Revelation Game. He had gathered a group of people to farm resources and power-level accounts, and their earnings were quite good. As a veteran player and top-tier expert, Li Si was no weaker than professional players. His fire mage specialization could rank in the top thirty among Huaxia Region's mage experts. Still, he could not be bothered to join a professional team and be managed by others, so he simply started his own studio. Its income was no lower than going pro, and he had become one of the well-known big shots among clients and ordinary players.

He had never expected to transmigrate into the world of Divine Revelation Game. Gaia World was still peaceful now, but Li Si knew that it would soon face wave after wave of magnificent upheaval.

For example, the Total War that would sweep across the six continents of Gaia Main World had yet to begin. Sky City Azera still lay sunken in the eastern sea of the Fanor Continent. The Phillips Crystal, which opened pathways to countless Pocket Worlds in other planes, still floated in the void beyond the world. The seed of calamity that would pollute Gaia World Tree Yggdrasil during the Crimson Invasion was still being nurtured in the Abyss. The gods still sat high above in their God Kingdoms, unaware that the Space-Time Tide would soon knock them from their divine thrones.

When playing Divine Revelation Game, Li Si had a blast. He had often shouted that he wished he could replace his character and kill enemies with his own hands. But now, thinking of the dangers, disasters, and conflicts ahead, all he wanted was to return to the comfortable little home in his great motherland and just enjoy talking big.

Don't ask. The answer was simply that he was a coward.

"Damn grass!"

Li Si suddenly sprang off the bed, his face twisting as though he wanted to bash his head directly into the wall.

"I'm screwed!"

Li Si suddenly remembered that before transmigrating, the USB drive containing his carefully selected and treasured 5 TB collection of math study materials was still plugged into his work computer. It would be fine if Uncle Chen or the guys found it, but if the girls at the Orphanage discovered it, would the image of a bright, noble, perfect big brother he had always maintained in their hearts survive?

"I'm tired. Let the world end."

Li Si turned into a grayish-white statue. Remembering how he had laughed in his previous life at transmigration novel protagonists who failed to take precautions with their precious study materials, he collapsed lifelessly onto the carpet. Just thinking about it made him want to die of embarrassment and crawl into the cracks of the hardwood floor beneath him.

After wriggling around on the floor like a maggot for quite a while, he had vented much of the unease brought on by transmigrating. He lay sprawled on the ground, quietly staring at the dim crystal chandelier hanging above him.

Could he still go back?

Would anyone remember him?

Uncle Chen would. The younger brothers and sisters at the Orphanage probably would too. As for everyone else, aside from his studio employees, he did not seem to have many close friends.

Li Si slapped his face hard.

Since he had already come to the world of Divine Revelation Game, the most important thing was to survive.

If he could gain extraordinary powers he had never possessed in his previous life, like his game character, meet the influential figures of this world, and explore rare treasures buried beneath the mists of history, that seemed like a rather wonderful experience too.

He tried to summon the game interface as he had in his previous life. With a sweep of his right hand through the air, a pale white screen adorned with exquisite, mysterious patterns appeared before Li Si.

Sure enough, the Game System from his previous life had come to this world with him! Li Si eagerly began checking it.

The system interface was the same as in his previous life's game. From top to bottom, there were three options: Status, Forum, and Inventory. However, several options such as Friends and System Settings were gone, while Forum and Inventory were grayed out and unavailable.

"Sure enough, did they take away my logout button too?" Li Si thought bitterly, making light of the situation before opening the status panel.

--

Name: Li Si Kane

Race: Human

Level: 30

Health Points: 1050/1050

Mana Value: 110/2040

Status: Fatigued

Experience: 4396/170000 (Unallocated Experience Points: 0)

Main Class: Mage

Secondary Class: None

Talent: All-Rounder

Attributes:

Strength 35

Agility 36

Intelligence 68 (Attribute Modifier)

Charm 38

Mystery 33

Endurance 35

Luck 3

Free Attribute Points 0

Specialties: Magic Energy Thinking—Intelligence receives double numerical modifiers, Mana Value recovery speed +50%, spell power +10%

Advanced Fatigue Resistance—Reduces the degree of negative physical effects while fatigued, stamina recovery speed +50%

Skills: Cantrips (Mage Hand, Cleanse Spell, Flash Spell), First-circle Spells (Fireball Spell, Ice Arrow Spell, Human Charm), Second-circle Spells (Ice Blade Spell, Windwalk Spell, Earth Escape Spell), Third-circle Spell (Chain Fireball Spell)

Milestone: Novice Mage (Bronze-level)

Legendary Points: 10 (Kingdom-level—Court Viscount)

Equipment: Emerald Amulet, Emerald Staff, Concentration Ring

An ordinary, very ordinary little mage, but he seems to possess unusual potential.

--

Looking at the information panel floating before him, Li Si raised an eyebrow.

It was just like his previous life: the familiar interface, familiar data, familiar mage skills. The only difference was—

Li Si looked at the Talent section of the panel. The colorful words "All-Rounder" left him silent. Could this be the kind of talent he thought it was?

Li Si took a deep breath and opened the detailed information for the All-Rounder talent.

--

Talent: All-Rounder

Rank: Legendary-level

Effect: Your talent has broken through its limits, allowing you to learn and master specialties and skills from other classes. Furthermore, the more specialties and class skills you master (excluding main class skills), the faster your growth will become. (Current additional experience bonus: 0%)

--

Just as expected!

Li Si grinned. If he had not been worried about alerting the others in the estate, he would have loved to leap up and shout to vent his delight.

A Legendary-level talent!

In Divine Revelation Game, every game character's starting talent almost determined the class and development path the player would choose in the future. You could not possibly take a mage talent like Elemental Affinity and play a warrior, could you? That would be like playing Vayne with Aftershock or Maokai with Lethal Tempo in an ARAM match.

In Divine Revelation Game, talents were divided into Bronze-level, Silver-level, Gold-level, and Legendary-level. Since game accounts were tied to each person's real identity, players had three chances to rebuild their character and indirectly reroll their talents. Yet the highest talent level players could obtain was Gold-level. Legendary-level talents had only been seen on the panels of a tiny number of NPCs, and their effects were incredibly powerful. Every NPC with a Legendary-level talent was a core figure within some faction, a major figure in the eyes of players.

For example, Tiya, the Blood Rose Princess of the Fies Kingdom, possessed the Legendary-level talent King of Combat. It granted immunity to negative status effects, greatly increased her attributes, physical defense, magic resistance, toughness, and more while in combat, and restored Health Points and stamina equal to fifty percent of the damage she dealt.

Then there was the Legendary-level talent Heart of the Forest possessed by Sage Adela of the southern Elf Forest. It doubled the power of nature spells and greatly increased her attributes when she was in jungles, forests, and similar environments.

Of course, compared to the Legendary-level talents he knew of, All-Rounder was not inferior in the slightest. It might even be better.

Li Si could already imagine himself first casting a priest's Blessing Spell, then using a rogue's Stealth Invisibility to slip behind an enemy, launching a mage's Lightning Whip for a direct ambush, and if the enemy was still standing, using a ranger's Binding Vines to restrain them before finishing with a warrior's Whirlwind Slash.

What a beautiful sight!

Li Si happily imagined it, feeling that this suited his open and honorable combat style perfectly!

After being excited for a while, Li Si finally reined in his thoughts and began looking over the other information.

"Luck is only 3 points. Did all my luck go into pulling this talent?"

"Whoa, Advanced Fatigue Resistance. How hard did this guy grind? No wonder his Mana Value is almost empty. Did he die from overwork?"

"I'm even a Court Viscount. Isn't that far better than having my family destroyed and getting dumped by my fiancée?"

Suddenly, Li Si frowned and unconsciously rubbed his chin with his right hand.

"Wait, Li Si Kane sounds familiar. A Court Viscount of the Fies Kingdom..."

Since Li Si's novice area in his previous life had been in the Fies Kingdom, he was more familiar with the main storyline of the Fies Kingdom on the Fanor Continent. He quickly found what felt wrong.

"Damn!"

"Wasn't he the head of the Kane Family who got assassinated during the Sacred Festival in the main storyline on the third day after the game launched? The fuse that ultimately triggered the human kingdom war on the Fanor Continent in Version 2.0?"

Li Si stared blankly at the panel before him and muttered:

"So I'm about to die soon?"

The author got muted because there was too much information in the first chapter.

(*)

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