The Great Xia Empire.
Nanjiang Advanced Superpower Academy.
Class A, third year.
The bell signaling the end of class rang through the classroom.
Wisps of breeze brushed the peach treetops, stirring up a shower of pale pink petals.
A handsome young man with black hair and blue eyes propped his chin on one hand, gazing thoughtfully at the campus outside the window.
"So, I've been reborn?"
"I already transmigrated once, and now I get to be reborn, too?"
He murmured to himself.
"And I've gained a different ability from the one I had in my previous life."
The handsome young man flexed his hand, his expression incredulous.
His name was Qi Wu.
Qi Wu flexed his hand again, then pinched the smooth skin of his cheek.
Ouch!
Qi Wu bared his teeth.
The pain told him that the scene before him was no illusion.
"Since I've returned to the past, that means what that voice said was true..."
Qi Wu's gaze darkened as his mind slipped into memories of what had happened just moments earlier.
A few minutes earlier, he had been fighting humanity's enemies, known as [Demons], on a hellish battlefield.
Over a hundred Demons had surrounded him.
Seeing no way to break through, Qi Wu had resolved to die, preparing to detonate his spiritual power and take the Demons down with him.
Just then, a mysterious voice had sounded in his ear.
[Qi Wu, do you regret the choice you made back then?]
[Do you regret trusting that woman?]
Drenched in blood, Qi Wu's gaze had flickered.
"You mean Feng Yuyao..."
The inexplicable voice had continued repeating its question.
[Do you regret it?]
Qi Wu's pupils had contracted. With his golden spear in hand, he had swung backward and slain a tiger-shaped Demon attacking him from behind.
Blood had splashed across Qi Wu's fair face, but he had paid it no mind.
[Giving your life to cover Feng Yuyao's retreat isn't worth it.]
[You could have escaped unharmed.]
"You think I got surrounded for Feng Yuyao's sake?"
Qi Wu had swung his spear, repeatedly blocking the Demons' attacks.
"The main force she was with was routed. As the only one still able to fight, I had to hold off the enemy and give them a chance to retreat, preserving our strength for a counterattack."
[And then she ran off with her injured lover.]
[She should have called for reinforcements.]
[Shouldn't she?]
"I know."
Qi Wu had chuckled disdainfully, driving his spear through another beastman Demon's chest.
[Then why did you still...]
The mysterious voice had sounded somewhat astonished.
"Feng Yuyao? I've known what kind of person she is for a long time."
"I have no feelings for her."
"But a Psychic's duty has never been to fight for any one person."
Qi Wu's voice had echoed across the battlefield of blood and fire, the golden spear blazing brilliantly in his hand.
"It's to fight for everything behind us."
The mysterious voice had fallen silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed.
[Interesting. Qi Wu, you're even more interesting than I imagined.]
[Then I'll give you a chance to start over.]
[What will you do this time?]
A bolt of pitch-black lightning had suddenly descended from the sky, reducing Qi Wu and the Demons to ash.
On the desolate battlefield beneath the fading sunset, a crimson battle flag had arrived too late, hastily appearing at the far edge of the horizon.
"No!"
A beautiful woman with long red hair had abruptly dropped to her knees, tears falling as she watched the scene of destruction.
After that terrifying lightning had struck, Qi Wu had lost consciousness.
When he woke again, he was in a classroom from twenty years earlier.
Everything around him felt both familiar and strange.
At the same time, an information panel appeared before his eyes.
This was the sign of an awakened ability.
In his previous life, the ability he had awakened was called [Weapon Soul Battle Body].
It could enhance a Psychic's proficiency with every kind of weapon.
But in this life, the panel told him something different.
His current ability was called [Villain Card].
The panel was pale gold, something Qi Wu had never seen before.
In the world of Psychics, a panel's color reflected the strength of an ability.
Gray was the weakest, followed by green, blue, purple...
In his thirty years of experience as a Psychic, he had seen many panels.
But never a golden one.
The highest he had seen was red.
It signified an S-rank ability.
The appearance of a new ability piqued Qi Wu's curiosity.
Before he could examine it closely, however,
a small hand suddenly slapped Qi Wu hard on the shoulder.
Smack!
"Hey! Qi Wu!"
An utterly rude voice rang in his ear.
Qi Wu turned.
A girl in a school uniform with red twin tails stood beside his desk, hands on her hips and looking fierce.
Her red twin tails swayed with her indignant movements, and her amber eyes were wide, like a little kitten with its fur bristling.
Qi Wu froze for a moment.
It was Feng Yuyao as a teenager.
So much time had passed that he hadn't even recognized her at first glance.
Although she looked somewhat different from the peerless beauty who would later be known as the Flame Queen,
the young Feng Yuyao had a lovely, innocent face, and the beauty mark beside her eye lent her an extra touch of allure.
Anyone could tell at a glance that she would grow into a beauty.
At the moment, however, displeasure showed on Feng Yuyao's pretty face.
Seeing him stare blankly, Feng Yuyao frowned and waved a hand before his eyes.
"Hey! What are you spacing out for?"
Her voice was clear and pleasant, tinged with a young girl's petulance.
Qi Wu raised his brows slightly, then stood.
After being reborn, he was bound to encounter Feng Yuyao.
The feeling was...
pretty damn unpleasant.
Seeing Qi Wu act so coldly, Feng Yuyao assumed that her devoted simp was throwing some little tantrum.
Feng Yuyao curled her lip and folded her arms.
"I'm talking to you! What's with that attitude?"
"I'm asking you why you didn't buy me breakfast today!"
Her clear, loud voice carried to every corner of the classroom.
At once, more than a dozen pairs of eyes turned toward Qi Wu, eager to watch the show.
Qi Wu immediately felt that his past self really had been an idiot.
His classmates were looking at him exactly the way they would look at a simp.
And during this period of his school life, he truly had been one.
Feng Yuyao had been his deskmate, attending the same elementary and middle schools as him.
They could also be considered childhood friends.
Qi Wu had harbored innocent feelings for her since childhood.
Starting in middle school, he had begun bringing Feng Yuyao meals.
From then on, he had become Feng Yuyao's simp.
When they entered the superpower academy, their relationship had continued in the same fashion.
He brought Feng Yuyao meals.
Yet Feng Yuyao had only treated him as a meal ticket, enjoying his efforts while barely acknowledging him.
After graduation, Feng Yuyao had started dating the son of a prominent family in Nanjiang and stopped contacting him.
Not until the Demons' full-scale invasion, when the empire's eighteen defensive lines fell, had Qi Wu and Feng Yuyao joined the fighting as Psychics to resist the enemy.
By then, Qi Wu and Feng Yuyao had both become mature, middle-aged adults.
Looking back on his days as a simp, Qi Wu could only laugh them off. He would never do anything that foolish again.
Returning to his teenage years with a middle-aged mindset and facing these immature classmates was rather tricky for him.
Qi Wu looked into Feng Yuyao's eyes, his gaze indifferent.
"I have things to do."
"Have someone else bring you meals from now on."
Feng Yuyao visibly froze. She hadn't expected Qi Wu, whom she had always kept firmly under her thumb, to say something so heartless.
When she recovered, a surge of inexplicable anger quickly welled up inside her.
Feng Yuyao clenched her little canine teeth.
"Qi Wu, what's wrong with you?"
She reached out to grab the hem of Qi Wu's shirt.
Qi Wu moved faster, dodging Feng Yuyao's small hand. He slipped both hands into his pockets and resolutely left the classroom.
Everyone in the class was stunned by the sight.
A few people whispered among themselves.
"Holy crap, since when did that simp Qi Wu change his ways?"
"Maybe he suddenly came to his senses."
Most of them were somewhat shocked.
Only Feng Yuyao was trembling with rage.
She clenched her small hands tightly.
"All I did was ask you to bring me meals!"
"Why are you acting so cold?!"
"Just you wait, Qi Wu! I'll make you regret this!!"
Qi Wu had no time to play games with a child like Feng Yuyao.
After leaving the campus, he scanned the code on a shared bicycle and quickly rode back to his rented apartment.
During this final year of high school, a new wave of Spiritual Energy Revival would soon begin, and the world would become more dangerous.
In another three years, the Demons would officially launch their attacks on the empire's defensive lines.
Over the following decade or so, the empire's eighteen defensive lines would fall one after another.
If events followed the original timeline,
the empire's destruction would only be a matter of time...
Now that he had been reborn, he had to save his homeland from destruction.
With his golden ability that surpassed S-rank, combined with advance preparations,
wiping out every Demon was not impossible!
"Humanity will win!"
Qi Wu parked the shared bike and returned to Apartment 13 on the ninth floor of the Happiness Garden Residential Community, where he had lived in his previous life.
Pushing open the door, Qi Wu sat back down on the sofa, closed his eyes, and began examining the abilities of [Villain Card].
When Psychics gained their abilities, they instinctively understood how to use them.
Qi Wu quickly learned how to use Villain Card.
The ability worked through a lottery draw.
[First use of Villain Card: one free draw granted] [Use it?]
"Yes."
Qi Wu did not hesitate.
[Ding!] [Host has obtained the "Satoru Gojo" card] [Automatically loading for host]
A black card merged into his body.
Qi Wu's eyes snapped open.
Unprecedented astonishment filled his gaze.
"Wait."
"Isn't this a character from an anime I watched in the life before my previous one?!"
Before entering this world of superhumans, Qi Wu had been born in an ordinary modern world.
In that world, he had suffered from ALS and died before he turned fifteen.
Before his death, his only hobbies had been watching anime and movies.
And Satoru Gojo happened to be a character from Jujutsu Kaisen, which he had watched in his first life.
Qi Wu was stunned.
He got up and ran to the bathroom.
The figure reflected in the mirror shocked him even more.
"Holy shit, how am I this handsome?!"
Before you continue