The Streets of London

In the summer of 1989, on the vacant lot opposite Wool's Orphanage in the suburbs of London, a group of children were chasing a tattered leather ball.

A dozen or so children around ten years old were running wildly across this open space, which was the orphans' favorite activity.

At the edge of the lot, a green figure sat on an old bench, watching the children play with boredom.

So boring. I might as well go to that abandoned factory later to scavenge some things. I only need a few more parts to finish fixing the watch I found last week.

The ball was kicked hard and rolled over this way. A dirty child ran over to pick up the ball, saw Roy doing nothing on the sideline, and issued an invitation to Roy while holding the ball.

"Bee Bro, come play football with us."

"Forget it, you guys go. I'm going treasure hunting."

Roy had no interest in playing football with a bunch of brats. With his skills, playing with them was simply bullying children.

Roy waved his hand, stood up, declined the invitation, and prepared to leave.

Upon hearing that Roy was going on an adventure, Kyle dropped the ball, threw it down, and said excitedly to Roy.

"Bee Bro, I'm going too."

At that moment, the children who had been playing football all gathered around. Hearing Roy's words, they all wanted to join in.

Everyone knew that whenever Roy went out to scavenge, he could always bring back lots of good things, and he even used the scavenged materials to build quite a few gadgets. In Bee Doctor's own words, it was called recycling waste.

Roy was undoubtedly the boss among this group of children. Asking around, who wouldn't want to follow Bee Bro? So they all spoke up.

"I want to go too, I want to go too."

Looking at these excited children, Roy suppressed their excitement.

"Alright, this job isn't as easy as you guys think. How about this, Kyle, and Jack, just the two of you. The rest of you, keep doing whatever you were doing."

Roy called over the two older children, as they might still be able to help carry some things.

Roy led the two children across three blocks and came to the back of an abandoned cement factory.

Many discarded crates were piled up like stairs, and one could climb over the wall from here to enter the factory.

Roy pulled a tattered factory floor plan out of nowhere and assigned tasks to the two of them.

"I've marked the route to get rich for you guys. Kyle, go to the warehouse. Jack, you go check what's in the crates behind the workshop, and grab anything valuable."

Roy's annoying yet serious expression appeared on his face as he pointed at the map and instructed carefully.

"Watch out for the patrols, and finally we'll retreat from here. If you get discovered, remember to give the secret signal, and I'll come save you."

"Bee Bro, does this count as stealing?"

"Alright, stop the nonsense."

Roy took the lead in climbing up the crates and leaped over the wall.

Jack and Kyle also followed behind Roy and climbed over the wall.

Ignoring Kyle and Jack, Roy sprinted directly toward the central workshop. The best things were all in there. After this factory was abandoned, the originally valuable machinery was piled haphazardly in the workshop, and Roy's target was these items.

Cough cough, so much dust.

Roy vaulted into the workshop, kicking up a huge cloud of dust, and then began rummaging through the messy piles of machinery.

Damn, I hit the jackpot.

After rolling around in the dust pile for half an hour, Roy finally pulled a mechanical processing arm out of the scrap heap. Although a bit dirty, its condition was not bad.

Dismantling this can yield a lot of good parts.

Just as he shoved this mechanical arm into his bag, shouting came from outside.

"Bee Bro, help!"

"Sigh, looks like it ends here for today."

Bee Doctor sighed helplessly and vaulted back out through the window.

Following the direction of the sound, Roy found four or five security guards cornering Kyle and Jack. The two trapped in the corner were shouting loudly for help.

"Let them go, I'm coming to copper mud ball."

Bee Doctor descended from the sky and spoke domineeringly to the group of security guards.

The lead security guard turned his head, saw Roy's handsome yet wretched-looking face, and shouted through gritted teeth.

"Finally caught you, you little brat, where are you running?"

This kid Roy had been coming to the cement factory to scavenge for a long time, and every time, these security guards couldn't catch Roy. The lead security guard looked as if he had seen a mortal enemy and charged straight at Roy.

Facing the aggressive security guard and seeing the two trapped individuals, Roy didn't panic. He struck a pose, stretched out his hand, and a spray of smoke burst forth, enveloping the entire open space. His cheeky voice rang out.

"Drawing the curtains."

The massive amount of smoke made everyone lose their bearings. Amidst the chaos, Roy grabbed both of them and fled directly taking advantage of the confusion.

After a long while, the smoke cleared, and the security guards realized that all three of them had escaped. Roy had gotten away once again, and the lead security guard let out a roar of impotent rage.

The streets of London were dyed yellow by the setting sun, and the massive sun from the afternoon now had only half its body floating above the horizon.

It is getting late, time to head back.

Roy led his two lackeys strolling casually through the filthy streets of London, checking his watch to find it was already half past five.

"Are you hurt? Let me help you."

Noticing that Kyle was limping as he followed behind, Roy stopped, squatted down, and lifted Kyle's trouser leg to find that a large patch of skin on the side of his slender calf was grazed and oozing blood.

Such a wound was a piece of cake for a doctor like Roy, but unfortunately there were no medicines available on hand at the moment.

"Too bad I can't bandage you, but thankfully I still have this trick."

A faint green fluorescence emerged on Roy's hand, and then he gently pressed his hand onto Kyle's wound.

Kyle only felt the pain from the wound ease, and when he looked at his injured area again, the bloody wound was already beginning to heal.

"Damn, Bee Bro, how did you do that!"

Roy stood up, waved his hand, and casually boasted.

"This is my special ointment, consider yourself lucky to have me."

Looking at the carefree Roy, Kyle and Jack both cast admiring gazes.

"Gosh Bee Bro, where on earth did you learn this ointment and that ink-spitting trick of yours."

Looking at the two silly boys who were completely in awe, a familiar-feeling situation made the Bee Doctor's thoughts drift back to the past. When he was this age in his past life, he was still an idle punk on the street; if it weren't for the old military doctor whom he deeply admired teaching him many skills, he would have been unable to extricate himself from the chaotic streets and finally get scouted by GTI.

Now that he was living again, with so many skills under his belt, should he enlist in the army again?

Besides, there was another matter that left Roy somewhat losing his direction: in this world, there was no country called Azshara, no Havoc, and certainly no GTI.

Thinking of this, Roy felt somewhat lost, feeling only emptiness regarding his life. Could it be that he had not suffered enough from war after dying once on the battlefield? Furthermore, was GTI really the righteous side?

There were some questions he hadn't figured out even after dying, or perhaps he didn't dare to figure them out.

Looking at his own hands, in this lifetime he had acquired some special powers, capable of releasing smoke and healing diseases without equipment. Roy didn't know where this power came from, but perhaps he could use this power to better change the world.

"I'll teach you a few tricks later, let's go home for now."

Patting the two on the back, Roy led them to continue walking toward the orphanage.

"Why not start by changing the destinies of these kids in the orphanage."

Roy silently made up his mind in his heart.

"By the way, what good stuff did you two pick up."

"Done for, I went and dropped it during the commotion just now."

"Oh Chovy, you guys better hold onto things properly for me!"

The moon had already climbed up the branches, and the three of them finally returned to Wool's Orphanage.

The three of them walked straight into the dining hall along the way; the children were all eating here at the moment. Dinner was not very sumptuous, but fortunately it was enough to fill so many children up.

Although he had lived in Britain for a long time, looking at the mushy stewed beans on his plate, Roy still couldn't help but show a troubled expression.

"I give up, this British food is not even as good as fragrant fried noodles."

Casually stirring the mushy beans with a spoon, Roy pushed his plate aside toward Jack, who was eating with relish.

"I'm not hungry, you eat this portion of mine, I'm heading up first."

Roy walked upstairs and came to the innermost room. Most of the children shared a room between two people, but because this room was relatively small, Roy lived here alone.

Before he even pushed the door open, Roy heard the sound of conversation coming from inside.

"I assure you, Ms. Rose, we are a very formal institution. Presumably you have noticed that Mr. Smee is exceptionally talented. Rest assured, Roy will receive a good education at our school."

A resonant, aged voice came over, followed by the sighing voice of the orphanage director, Sister Rose.

"Mr. Dumbledore, you really don't know. Roy has been smart since he was a kid; a child as smart as him should study properly, it's just that our orphanage probably cannot afford--"

"No need to worry, madam, Hogwarts will provide Roy with the necessary living and study resources."

Roy outside the door eavesdropped on the conversation inside, his "handsome" face filled with confusion.

What the heck, his superpower couldn't have been discovered, could it?

Roy pushed the door open, and the two people who were conversing stopped, turning their heads to look at Roy entering the door.

Roy finally saw the newcomer: an old man with a white beard wearing robes, quite tall, with sky-blue eyes revealing an air of wisdom through thick lenses.

"We finally meet, Mr. Smee."