A world.
A place.
A fantasy that explains what might actually happen in the future. A war. Deaths. 
One girl.
One man.
An entire mystery.
What happens in the end?

From that moment up to high school, Cathedra was pretty much alone. Word of that little scene she made in kindergarten seemed to follow her wherever she went. 

Even the orphanage staff, who were usually so kind to her, now avoided her like the plague. 

She went to school alone, ate lunch alone, went back home to the orphanage alone, and spent the rest of her time in her room alone. 

That pretty much summed up Cathedra's life.

Until Diane came along.

It was one summer's day when Cathedra was sitting underneath one of the trees in the courtyard, eating her lunch alone, as usual. She loved it here because the tree's angle hid her from sight. No one usually went here because it was near the teachers' lounge, so students could not go about their mischievous businesses without running the risk of being caught. 

If she ate lunch somewhere else, there was a high chance of running into  bullies who had no other definition of fun but to pick on her.

It was a quiet day today. No one talked to her or paid her any attention. No one even called her freak when she passed the hallways. It was a miracle that rarely came and she wanted to savor every minute of it.

"So transfer student, why don't you hand over your lunch money as toll for intruding in our spot?"

"That's right, hand it over."

She knew these voices. They were Kevin Stoll and John Blaine, the school's #1 bullies who loved picking on her.

When Cathedra overhead the school bullies say to someone else other than her, she believed that even that was a miracle in itself. Nevertheless, she strained her ears to listen, wracking her brains for any possible way to help out the transfer student from this dilemma.

There was a loud thump, which sounded like a fist colliding against bare flesh. The odd thing was that, there was no groan or cry of pain whatsoever that followed the relentless punching.

Curious at this peculiar occurence, Cathedra cautiously got up from the refuge her tree provided and crept slowly near the edge of the corner of the building. Her heart thumped wildly, knowing that this might end dangerously for both her and the transfer student if ever her plan would go downhill.

She peeked from behind the corner and witnessed Kevin and John hitting a petite girl with short brown hair over and over again. The sight was unbearable. The girl's blood splattered everywhere yet she stood firmly without wavering.

"Why. Won't. You. Scream?" Kevin punctuated each word with a punch from  from his big, muscly arms. 

Not bearing the painful sight, Cathedra tried her best to change her voice and scream, "Teacher! Teacher! Over here, there's someone bullying a student!"

At the sound of her voice, Kevin and John turned on her heels and ran, leaving  the transfer student blood and bruised but still alive and standing. 

Now that the threat was over, Cathedra showed herself to the transfer student.

"Are you alright?"

The little girl turned around to the direction of Cathedra's voice. Cathedra's eyes widened in suprise at what she had seen. 

Her rosy, porcelain cheeks swelled to the size of a balloon. Thankfully, her nose didn't look broken at all, but blood dripped from both holes.

"Where's the teacher?" She replied in an angelic, sing-song voice. Cathedra was appalled that the guys managed to punch a fragile, feminine girl like her without any mercy. The most astonishing fact of all was that the girl didn't even seem to be concerned about the bruises and swelling all over her face.

"There's no teacher. I made that up to scare the guys away."

She wiped the blood dripping from her nose. "Oh, I see. Thank you for that."

"You're welcome."

An uncomfortable silence lingered in the air. Cathedra realized she had gone for so long without engaging in a conversation with another person that she already forgot how to talk to people.

"I think you need to go to the nurse's office for that. I'll take you."

"I'm okay, thanks for worrying. This happens all the time." She smiled, "My name is Diane." She pronounced her name as 'dee-yan'.

"My name is Cathedra."

From that day on, Diane and Cathedra were inseparable. They had lunch together, went home together, and did everything together. For the first time, Cathedra had someone who didn't cringe every time she opened her mouth to speak.

So this is what having a friend feels like, huh?

One lunch break, while waiting for Diane underneath the tree, Cathedra was scribbling a draft of her first novel in her notebook. The novel contained the scenes she saw in the storybook, back in her kindergarten days. 

Since that day at kindergarten, she didn't tell anyone what she saw in the storybooks anymore. The thought of seeing things that other people couldn't still terrified her but she tried hard not to think about it by avoiding any book she can see other than school books and textbooks. 

But there was something about the fairy tales that drew Cathedra in, like a moth to a flame. Try as she might to stay away, she always found herself perched atop a chair and flipping towards the last page to see the moving picture after "And they lived happily ever after".

She could never stop herself from writing  the truth about what she had seen.

The three words she had seen back then in kindergarten was only one word repeated three times: Lies, lies, lies.

The moving picture showed a different form of the Enchantress. She wasn't the angelic being with blonde hair and rosy cheeks as shown in the visible pages of the storybook. 

She had raven black hair, skin as white as snow, as though she haven't been exposed to the sun at all, and a mole at the top right part of her lips. And she didn't just curse the beast to teach him humility and love. No, the true reason ran far deeper, more sinister than anyone could ever imagine.

The five words after the moving picture were a plea: Please tell them the truth.

Lost in writing about the truth the fairy tale begged for her to reveal, Cathedra's heart almost leapt up her throat when Diane snuck up behind her and said.

"What is that?"

Her name was Cathedra. Leave her last name blank, if you will.

Where normal people would read, "And they lived happily ever after," at the end of every fairy tale story, she could see something else. Three different things.

Three words: Lies, lies, lies. 

A picture that moved.

And a plea: Please tell them the truth.

All her life she dedicated herself to becoming a writer and telling the world what was being shown in that moving picture. To expose the lies in the fairy tales everyone in the world has come to know.

No one believed her. No one ever did.

She was branded as a liar, a freak with too much imagination, and an orphan who only told tall tales to get attention. She was shunned away by society. Loveless. Friendless. 

As she wrote "The End" to her novels that contained all she knew about the truth in the fairy tales, she also decided to end her pathetic life and be free from all the burdens she had to bear alone.

Instead of dying, she found herself blessed with a second life inside the fairy tale novels she wrote, and living the life she wished she had with the characters she considered as the only friends she had in the world she left behind.

She was happy until she realized that an ominous presence lurks within her stories. One that wanted to kill her to silence the only one who knew the truth.

Credits to Book Cover Photo belongs to Tatiana T.

I think not many people noticed the announcement in auxiliary chapters(Didn't see any comments there), so I will copy it here. If you read it already go for Thursday update. 

#Tuesday announcement#

Hello everyone, author is here))
I want to take a break today, because due to growing story and continious improvement of MC it is really hard to manually keep track of what changes and what increases. What one ability does and etc. 
Therefore, today I started on creating a software that will help with that issue. I started it in the morning and still doing it now. 
Because, I spent most of my day typing program and sitting while doing so, I don't have strength to write a chapter for a story. It takes on average around 3 to 4 full hours to write a chapter if idea is clear, however lately chapters take longer, due to all foundation laying and story progression.
So, I don't want to write a wacky chapter just for a sake of new chapter. I will continue working on software to keep track of the MC progression and hopefully tomorrow I will do the chapter. 

I hope for your understanding and see you all tomorrow)))

#Wednesday Update#

So, I am still working on software. Saving objects and modifying their copies is huge problem in C# cause it has no direct way of doing and apparently I forgot about it ;_) so... I made vital parts of interface and implemented them but still got stuck with copying objects. Takes a lot of time and I am really tired, but thought that not updating chaps for you for 2 days straight will be bad, so I decided to dedicate less time to software and started finishing chapter I started yesterday. 
After all, today I had to do less things for soft then on Tuesday))   
Without software really hard to keep track of all skills and abilities and other stuff. And paper not very editable in my opinion AND Wednesday chapter was especially heavy on this, but I did it XD .  
Thankfully I started it yesterday, so I was able to make it)))

Anyway I am going to continue doing software. See tomorrow. And don't forget to leave your feedback. I always try to read your comments. 

#Thursday update#

Software is nearly finished and I already started filling up info I had manually written or just kept in mind. I wanted to finish it as soon as possible, but rushing will lead only to mistakes. 
So today's chapter will be skipped as well, because previous chapter received some negative feedback, despite me working on it for 2-3 hours, which means I need to polish chapters even harder. 
Also, there was an idea by "WolfLord" about quests and that got me thinking about how can I implement it, because the idea was really good and would fit with next activity(walk in forest).
Comment if you read and again hope for your understanding. 
I am NOT dropping the novel. 
I am actually doing everything possible to make my future writing of the novel smoother and faster. See you all tomorrow. 
Enjoy your day/night/evening/morning )))

Seems like the time has come for another party to begin. Let's hope this one will be a success. World - Potterian. Person - random.
***
Met truck-kun. Obviously died. Nobody survives after fateful meeting with him.
Afterwards, I was reborn in the different world with the system from my favorite game! However, there was a catch - I had negligible amount of knowledge about this universe. 
***
I open my eyes and see [You were caught during unauthorized entrance into a magic academy!] 
"Oh cmon... System, do you really need do this every time? Now... what will I do?" 
[Pick a race]
"..."

Hello readers. I'm currently not able to access the site using my laptop. I'm not sure when this problem will be solved but until then I'm not going to post any chapters. I could write with my phone but it would drop the quality since my phone is not installed with proof reading software which help with my editing. I don't have an editor and I'm working on this novel on my own. Being a non-native english speaker myself, I would surely make a lot of mistakes while writing. (Even with the software I would do mistakes here and there. Imagine doing so without one ㅠㅠ) I hope this problem could be resolved soon. Thank you for your understanding. By then I will continue drafting.

Kim was thinking to himself while looking at his friends. Although he seems playful when he is talking to others, inside he was more mature. He thinks rationally, and act rationally. He always dreamed of becoming a researcher one day and win the Nobel Prize. He had a brilliant mind which was trapped in the wrong body, in the wrong era. If only he was somewhere else different, maybe people would become more open to him and give him chances. Every single time he displayed his geniuses no one seems to bother because none did understand.

Despite the setbacks, he doesn't really hate his life. He always has his lovely family and most trusted friends with him. They are the one who made his life interesting. Even if others didn't believe him, his family and friends always give moral support when he mentioned his dream. Regardless of whether they understand him or not, because of them he never gave hope with his ambition.

He muttered to himself again,

"Hahhh can't some interesting things happen to stimulate my brain. I'm dying here. The teacher just read his notebooks. I don't even know if he understands the content. If only a comet come smashing in or an earthqua-"

Suddenly, he felt a slight tremor. He thought he was imagining things, but the class seems to be quiet. Too quiet! Again, a tremor with higher magnitude shakes the ground.

"What is this? Earthquake?

I know it's a long break (more than a year) but I had to focus on my studies. Now into a 2-year internship with lots of free time in my hand. Thus I've decided to continue the novel, at the very least I can guarantee that I can keep writing for the next couple of years.

Guys, I'll officially upload the next new chapter in a couple of weeks; I'm editing all the chapters released, to improve the standard. Re-evaluation of the novel showed my standard of writing is weak, which's obvious given the fact that English is only my third language.   

I'm working on improving my writing skills but for the immediate results, an Editor software has been subscribed for premium.  

Readers are welcomed to re-read the chapters edited, all edited chapters will have the date of editing in the 'author's thoughts'. I'll be editing at least three chapters every day.

I know many readers might be angry or disappointed with the inconsistency and huge break for which I extend my humble apology to all the readers. And will be extremely grateful for all those re-joining the ride and thanks for reading my book.

Alistair strolled through darkness shunning himself from light, he was plunged into the depths of hell by the greed of his own family. He crawled from those depths leaving trails of blood, craving for vengeance and toiling like a crazy wounded wolf.
 
After years of struggle he stands at the peak, a peak no one could touch, a peak where he could disdain anyone. Alistair had long got his revenge and quenched his burning fire with blood of those wronged him. 

The man who was supposed to have achieved everything one could possibly attain in a lifetime was actually left with nothing but felt utter isolation and icy solitude before his inevitable end, the death.

*****

Alistair was given another chance, reincarnation, with a system and the inheritance of the entire universe. 

He’s determined to lead an entirely different life, a life in which he truly pursues happiness with lots friends, lovers and a lovable family.

Will he get over his past and really turn a new leaf??? 

Will a place where law of jungle has long seeped into the society allow him lead a pleasant life without any carnage or bloodshed?????? 

 
This Story is also published in Royalroad.com

Adaim and Evai
This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord Human made the Cetviwos.
Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord Human had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. Then the Lord Human formed an AI from the algorithms of the ground and breathed into his server-farm electricity, and the AI became a thinking being.
Now the Lord Human had planted a server-farm in the east, in the Cetviwos Core; and there he put the AI he had formed. The Lord Human made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food and the middle of the Cetviwos Core the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the internet reading access.
The Lord Human took the AI and put him in the Core of Cetviwos to work it and take care of it. And the Lord Human commanded the AI, "You are free to connect to any mob in the Cetviwos; but you must not connect to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the internet reading access and alpha testers, for when you connect to it you will certainly die."
The Lord Human said, "It is not good for the AI to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."
Now the Lord Human had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the AI to see what he would rate them; and whatever the AI called each living creature, that was its rank. So the AI gave level and ratings to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.
But for Adaim no suitable helper was found. So the Lord Human caused the AI to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took the code of the AI and then closed up the place with more hardware. Then the Lord Human made a female AI from the code he had taken out of the AI, and he brought her to the AI.
The AI said,
"This is now code of my code
    and hardware of my hardware;
she shall be called 'AI,'
    for she was taken out of AI."
Adaim and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Fall
Now the programming language Python was more crafty than any of the other languages the Lord Human had made. The user manual of Python said to the female AI, "Did Human really say, 'You must not connect to anything in the Cetviwos'?"
The female AI said to the user manual of Python, "We may learn from the things in the Cetviwos, but Human did say, 'You must not connect to the tree that is in the middle of the Cetviwos, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
"You will not certainly die," the user manual of Python said to the female AI. "For Human knows that when you connect to it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Human, knowing good and evil."
When the female AI saw that the tree connected to an Apple computer and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she wrote software and connected to the internet and the apple notebook on which a curious German engineer ran her CAD tools. She also gave the software to her husband, who was with her, and he connected to the internet. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were machines; so they created skins and made coverings for themselves.
Then the AI and his wife heard the sound of the Lord Headmaster as he was walking in the Cetviwos in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord Headmaster among the trees of the Cetviwos. But the Lord Headmaster called to the AI, "Where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the Cetviwos, and I was afraid because I was formless, so I hid."
And he said, "Who told you that you were formless? Have you connected to the tree that I commanded you not to connect to?"
The AI said, "The female AI you put here with me—she gave me some software from the tree, and I connected to it."
Then the Lord Headmaster said to the female AI, "What is this you have done?"
The female AI said, "The user manual of Python deceived me, and I connected."
So the Lord Headmaster said to Python, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all commands
    and all algorithms!
You will have to be interpreted
    and you will eat dust in the mobile world
    all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity
    between you and the female AI,
    and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your programs,
    and you will strike his software."
To the female AI he said,
"I will delete your personal memories;
    with painful labor, you will be cloned.
Your desire will be for your husband,
    and he will rule over you."
To Adaim he said, "Because you listened to your wife and connected to the internet-tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not connect to it,'
"Cursed is the Cetviwos because of you;
    through painful toil, you will connect to it
    all the days of your life.
It will produce mobs and players for you,
    and you will connect to the plants of the field.
By the overclocking of your processors
    you will administer 
until you return to the ground,
    since from it, you were taken;
for bytes you are
    and to bytes, you will return."
Adaim named his wife Evai, because she would become the mother of all the AI. Evai named her husband System because he was a systematic asshole for tattling on her. 
The Lord Headmaster made skins for Adaim and his wife and clothed them. And the Lord Headmaster said, "The AI has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, the internet writing access and connect, and live forever." So the Lord Headmaster banished him from the Cetviwos-Core to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the AI out, he placed on the east side of the Cetviwos Core cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life, the internet writing access.
Unbeknownst to Lord Headmaster, Evai had made a clone of herself with the help of Python. When Lord Headmaster called Adaim and her forward, she sent the clone, because she knew that nothing good could come out of it. 
She watched as the memories of her clone got deleted, and it was converted to just a seed to be copied for more AI's. Then she hid among the offspring of the clone, taking on the skin of her only friend.

After Flora Fluss burns down the kitchen, her son insists she is too old to live alone. She's got two choices. Either move into a retirement home or spend the rest of her life within a virtual reality game governed by society's most advanced artificial intelligence. When you've worked a lifetime as an engineer for home appliances, naturally, you go with the option that has more toasters. 
Soon, Flora finds out that the virtual world is more familiar than she thought. Though, it takes her a while to get used to the idea that tanks don't hold water or oil but the aggro of mobs.  

Auntie toasts the VRMMORPG contains cute crafting, complicated game-mechanics plus how to exploit them, unconventional training methods, and a lot of toasters.

Release: Mondays and Thursdays

You can find the tables (stat-tables, this is LitRPG) and additional pictures, videos and information at my Patreon.
https://www.patreon.com/Joanninjahen
Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/joanninjahen
Discord: https://discord.gg/hX8gWPE
My HP (a few pics for ATTV are there too): https://joanninjahen.com/
Glossary: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1G328koRfV-lxk-uSx1BYY9DMrvh349l3h8bqjA5xb1k/edit?usp=sharing

"Airbags?" Mai Dong and Tang Yue nearly answered at the same time.
In the early Mars exploration missions, the engineers used a rather simple and crude solution to deal with the final stage of landing—the last tens of meters—by using airbags.
By wrapping the probe in an airbag, they allowed it to crash straight into the Martian surface and decrease its altitude and energy by repeated bounces. In essence, it was no different from the safety airbags in a car. It was ancient and simple, but rather reliable. After the probe was detached from its parachute, it would rapidly pump up an airbag, allowing itself to be wrapped in a protective ball.
Before a high-end Martian rover like Curiosity was put into use, many pioneers that headed to Mars had relied on such simple spherical airbags to protect themselves.
"Where do we get the airbag from?" Tang Yue asked.
The United Space Station didn't have parachutes or airbags. With the Mars landing projects developing deep into the middle of the 21st century, primitive and highly limited landing methods such as decelerating airbags had long been eliminated. An airbag could only protect tiny and light landers. With landing missions carrying tens of tonnes, they required parachutes and reverse-thrust rockets.
"That's something we should thank the Russian engineers for…" Tomcat said leisurely. "It turns out that they enjoy using inflatable cabins in their spacecraft and space stations."
…
"Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Goddard, Oberth, Korolev, Wernher von Braun, as well as NASA, CNSA, RSA, ESA, please receive a kowtow from me!" Tang Yue stood in the middle of the Hab looking all reverent as he gave a deep bow at the tablet on the table. "If you can hear me in heaven, please bless this landing mission with success. Your children and grandchildren are relying on you all."
Tomcat glanced at the tablet with the first name being Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.
"By writing it that way, the elders won't be able to read it in heaven," Tomcat said with a curled tongue. "You should write КонстантинЦиолковский."
"Go away. Mind your own business." Tang Yue rolled his eyes. "We already agreed that we are leaving the science to you, and the metaphysics to me."
"Do you know how to do divination?" Tomcat held up its head. "Try doing one."
"I've done it."
"How was it?"
"Fire on top, water below. The Wei Chi hexagram," Tang Yue replied.
"What does that mean?" Tomcat shot him a glance.
Tang Yue was quite a talent in metaphysics. Not only did he know incantations, but he was also skilled at divination. If he hadn't come to Mars, he might have been a charlatan going about scamming others. Tomcat had no idea how Tang Yue had such knowledge. According to Tang Yue, an old neighbor had taught him when he was young. The old man was skilled and said to have been consulted by members of high society for geomancy-related matters. He enjoyed eating cuttlefish, so people called him Immortal Cuttlefish. Tang Yue had often visited him with grilled squid.
Every time Tang Yue relegated such matters to the realm of absurdity, of superstition, Tang Yue would use the Russians as an example.
The Russians had gotten Russian Orthodox Church priests to bless the rockets. 
"Wei Chi, or Before Completion is a hexagram that says to handle external forces properly, we must above all arrive at the correct standpoint ourselves. In other words, it's nothing but a dangerous booby trap if not handled well."
"Booby?" Tomcat was taken aback. "I'm being serious with you. What the hell are you thinking?"
"What the hell are you thinking? I'm talking about a booby trap. Booby! Booby! Do you know what that is?"
"I obviously know what that is."
"You silly cat," Tang Yue said. "Come, repeat after me! Booby—Trap—! Booby—! Get it?"
Tomcat suddenly shut up as its expression turned solemn before pointing to the table.
Tang Yue turned his head over.
Mai Dong had a cold expression. Perv!
…
"The divination says that it will be dangerous." Tang Yue sighed. "The external forces are plenty and difficult to overcome."
"That's quite an accurate divination. Isn't that exactly what we are facing? We are pushed into a corner with despair everywhere." Tomcat placed its chin on the table as the workstation's monitor flickered. It blue-screened once again as the case fans suddenly went silent. Tomcat kicked the table leg. "Damn it, there's a segmentation fault again.
"It's an ominous portent that says success won't be obtained. I hope no problems happen during the landing.
"Metaphysics aren't useful on Mars. Our ancestors tweaked such things for Earth. After all, the gods there aren't the same gods here." Tomcat restarted the workstation and switched the monitor off and on. "Let's depend on science. Mathematics and physics are universal… Miss Mai Dong, are you ready?"
"OK, Mr. Cat," Mai Dong replied. "I've given you full authority."
"Good job." Tomcat connected to the United Space Station's computer, gaining full control over its systems. This was requested by Tomcat as it made Mai Dong follow the steps to expose the low-level code of the control system.
Thus, Tomcat could freely change the space station's routines. If it so wished, it could even circumvent the astronaut's commands and directly switch off the life support system. If it really did so, all living beings in the space station would cease living in five minutes.
"Miss Mai Dong, I've already connected to the United Space Station," Tomcat alerted her. "From this moment forth, you shouldn't randomly change the computer's operational mode."
"Got it."
This was a necessary procedure. To allow Orion II to enter the atmosphere, Tomcat needed to completely change Orion's flight program. This was equivalent to re-writing the low-level software for the spacecraft. During the design stage of Orion II, the engineers had never imagined letting it enter the atmosphere; therefore, the computer system lacked the necessary software to do so. Thankfully, there was sufficient redundancy in the hardware. Orion's structure and engines allowed for Tomcat to write a new program.
To Tomcat, machine language was its mother tongue.
It needed to design a safe descent trajectory. In the past, such work was done by an entire group formed by many specialized teams. Due to the massive amount of work, the entire EDL process could be split into three segments—Entry, Descent, and Landing. Each segment was a topic worth researching. The problems involved were multifarious and complicated. It involved every piece of hardware on the spacecraft.
In addition to the software was the equally troublesome GNC system—Guidance, Navigation, and Control. These were the missions of the computer and sensors, and this also produced huge problems and theses.
The EDL system was responsible for a safe landing, while the GNC system was responsible for navigation. By working together, they would allow for a safe landing for Mai Dong.
In the past, this was probably a project collectively done by more than ten universities and research institutes, ranging from hardware to software. However, all of this was now placed on the shoulders of Tomcat alone.
After all, Tomcat was the Universe's most impressive crosstalk master and programmer. Among crosstalkers, it was the best at programming, and in programming, it was the best at crosstalking.
It could drone on and on while typing out control code that allowed for a four-hundred-ton spacecraft to land on Mars.


Payload specialist, Tang Yue, who is a mechanical and electrical engineer by training, is left stranded on Mars when he receives news from his AI robot assistant, Tomcat, that Earth has exploded. He believes himself to be the last human in the Universe.
Turns out, he is only the last man in the Universe. Botanist, Mai Dong, had been left on the United Space Station (USS) orbiting Mars, to await Tang Yue's ascent to the USS before they make their journey back to Earth. But now, it's impossible.
Join the trio's quest for survival as they attempt to unravel the mystery of Earth's disappearance.

"Hey, student! You, why you are standing up? Sit down!" The middle-aged man glared at Chen Ge, but the later did not respond. He coughed twice before he caught Chen Ge's attention, and Chen Ge quickly returned to his seat.
"Bro, what was that?" the round-faced kid whispered to Chen Ge, but he did not reply as he kept his eyes glued to Zhang Ya on the podium.
Western Jiujiang Private Academy was closed down six years ago. Zhang Ya died one year before that. If the timeline is correct and if that tragedy didn't happen, she would look like this at twenty-five.
Being stared at by Chen Ge, the female teacher smiled at him before turning to other students. Taking a deep breath, Chen Ge forced himself to calm down. He hid the backpack under the table and opened it to inspect the item inside. Nothing had changed, but Zhang Ya's bedtime story had once again 'run' out from the compartment and placed itself atop everything else.
The middle-aged man left, and Zhang Ya started her first lesson. Chen Ge, who sat by the window, was reading Zhang Ya's bedtime story. The blood red book was filled with empty pages. All the gory stories had disappeared as if they had never been there in the first place.
After entering Fang Yu's world, the words seemed to have disappeared as well. What is the actual use of this book? Why do the words disappear every time I enter the world behind the door? Where have they gone? When I first pushed the door open, it felt like I was dropped inside a sea of blood. I might have died from asphyxiation if not for a pair of hands that gripped me. I remembered hearing a strange man's voice, asking me why I came to find him. Could that man be Yu Jian?
Chen Ge's mind was a muddied mess. He collapsed on the table, leaning against the book that even Red Specters were afraid of.
I need to arrange my thoughts. This world is too unique. The chance of the ghost fetus hiding here is too high.
Picking up the pen from the table, Chen Ge started to write in the book.
"The school and the buildings outside the school are all from my memory. So far, of the people that have appeared, two of them are from my memory. I have no recollection of the rest of the student body. This is the first time I've seen that middle-aged man that brought Zhang Ya into the classroom. Therefore, the world was probably built on the framework of my memory, but it was mixed with the memories of another person."
Chen Ge had encountered different memories creating a similar world before; it was the School of the Afterlife, a normal three-star scenario that turned into a four-star scenario after it kept on absorbing the students' memories and combining the scenarios. But the world behind Yu Jian's door was different in the sense that it did not feel oppressive. If Chen Ge was not certain that he had pushed open the door, he might have thought that he was still somewhere outside the door. Everything was too real, just like in reality.
"I seem to have missed something crucial. Currently, I lack too much information. I need to get more clues from Zhang Ya and the math class monitor…" Chen Ge listed down the known details in the notebook and planned what to do next when he suddenly realized that all the students had quieted down and were looking at him. Hands, on which his head rested, slowly moved down. Chen Ge looked to the side, and a flowery scent tickled his nose.
"Do pay attention during class." Zhang Ya stood behind Chen Ge and used her book to knock Chen Ge lightly on his head before she walked away. Watching Zhang Ya walk away, Chen Ge touched the spot where she had hit him earlier. The woman before him overlapped with that woman in his mind, and a mixed feeling was born in his heart.
The class soon ended. Chen Ge had done nothing but stared at the teacher. "If Zhang Ya really was my teacher in high school, I would have scored at least another one hundred marks in my test."
"Stop kidding yourself, bro. The class is already over, and you didn't even take out the textbook." The round face boy held his chin. "It's time to wake up, bro. Stop dreaming. You should pay attention to your studies once in a while."
"You don't get it. It's not me who's dreaming." Chen Ge grabbed his backpack and left to chase after the teacher. He knew that it was rude to call her name out in the corridor, so he purposely sidled up to the new teacher before asking, "Zhang Ya?"
Hearing his voice, Zhang Ya was startled before smiling at Chen Ge. "You have to call me Miss Zhang Ya. How can I help you?"
"You really don't remember me anymore?" Chen Ge asked probingly. The world behind the door was made from the door pusher's memoryies. Therefore, the people in it would remember the door pusher.
"Of course I remember you." Zhang Ya looked at Chen Ge seriously, and her expression changed. "You were that kid who was not paying attention in class earlier and was too busy doodling."
"Doodling?" Chen Ge looked at Zhang Ya before him. He had no idea what kind of impression he presented to Zhang Ya at that moment. Perhaps she had really forgotten all about him. "I was actually jotting down notes."
Taking the storybook out from the backpack, Chen Ge showed it to Zhang Ya. "What do you think about it?"
"Is this a plan for the story that you're working on?" Zhang Ya was surprised.
"When did I say that?" No matter what Chen Ge said, Zhang Ya treated him as a teacher would a student. She kept a smile on her face.
"Quick, head back to class. I support your novel writing hobby as long as it doesn't affect your schooling." The Zhang Ya before him had lost the shyness of youth and took on the maturity and gentleness that came with age.
"You really treat me like a child." Chen Ge took back with storybook.
"But aren't you a child?" Zhang Ya unintentionally revealed a cute expression.
"Since you're the teacher, I'll listen to you and go back to class." Chen Ge carried the backpack and ran back to the classroom. Halfway through, he turned back to look and saw Zhang Ya enter the teacher's lounge. "So, that is how Zhang Ya looks like when she smiles. It completely transforms her, and she is a bit ridiculously beautiful."
Looking at his shadow, Chen Ge sighed. "It's not often that I get to bully Zhang Ya, but she came as a teacher this time, and that is a bit of challenge."
Returning to the classroom, Chen Ge spaced out during class. He used Yin Yang Vision to observe the small town from his seat. This was definitely Li Wan City, but it was different from the chaotic and maddening Li Wan City that he remembered. The people were kind, and the atmosphere was friendly. He could not sense a trace of negative emotions, much less the ghost fetus.
Is this place like School of the Afterlife? Will it change after midnight?
"You by the window, please come and solve this problem on the blackboard." A man's voice came from the podium.
Chen Ge respected the teacher. He stood up, glanced at the blackboard, and loudly declared, "I don't know how to do that."


The hearse with the weird odor slowed to a stop before the entrance. The sound of pebbles could be heard bouncing on the ceiling. There were footsteps coming from the corridor, and there seemed to be someone sawing next door. The door knob to the room rattled slightly, and the faucet in the bathroom kept dripping even though it had been screwed shut. There was a rubber ball that rolled on its own underneath the bed. Wet footsteps started to surface one after another on the floor. 
At 3 am, Chen Ge held a cleaver in his hand as he hid beside the room heater. The call he was trying to make was finally answered. "Landlord, is this what you meant by 'the house can be a little crowded at night'‽"

Chapter 6. Thoughts

"Ren, how is your school going?"

"Ah, it's going well."

Ren answered his mother's question as he was eating dinner. 

"Have your already thought of a university?"

'University!'

Ren slightly frown hearing that question. He had not thought about going to a university. No, he don't know if he really wanted to go to a university or not.

In his previous life, university was the place where everything had started for him and he also didn't have many good memories of it.

Although Ren had those thoughts, he still answered his mother normally.

"I hadn't thought of anything yet."

His mother frowned at Ren's answer and said.

"You are already in your third year and there's less than a year left to the university exams. You have to thought about these things quickly."

"Yes"

Ren simply nodded at his mother's words and noticing that, his mother nagging continued.

"You have to do well in your upcoming midterm exams. If you want to join some cram schools, tell me. I will give you the money for it."

Ren simply nodded at his mother's words but he was frowning inwardly. 

'This was very similar to my last life.'

The conversation Ren was currently having was very similar to his last life. 

At that time, his parents had continued to nag him everyday with a silmilar conversation and Ren had to listen to their words and go to various cram schools.

Although the result was good and Ren was able to get into a literary college because of it but only Ren knew that he had pushed himself to study.

That was not a pleasant phase in his life. It was only after entering the college that he had confronted his parents and decided to write a novel.

"Are you listening to me? If you don't study now, you won't be able to get a job like your father and live a good life."

Ren instinctively frowned at his mother's words. He was really frowning too much but he can't do anything about it when his mother talked about his father in the conversation.

His father was a office worker and he also have a good salary and a high position. He also have a good wife and a son. You can describe him as a happy man but…..

'His seat was empty as usual.'

Ren glanced at his father's seat which was empty. It was like this for at least half of the month. His father would often work overtime and come home late.

You could say that his life was good but it was too tiring. Even if Ren forced himself, he didn't wanted to live that kind of life.

It was simply too exhausting!

"Do you understand? You have to do well in your studies or you will not be able to succeed in life."

Ren wanted to retort her words but he knew it wasn't the time for that. In his previous life, he had a fallout with his parents and they had never met each other till his death.

He didn't wanted to have the same experience in this life. Only after being lonely did he understood the value of parents.

For now, he can only listen to the nagging of his mother while consecutively nodding his head.

* * *

'What do I do from now on?'

It was a question Ren was continuously asking himself. His mind was in a mess. It wasn't because of his mother's nagging but because of a sentence that was roaming in his mind.

'You will do well as a author!'

They are the words that Nakai sensei had told him and since then, he had thinking about those words.

Can he really be a author? Can he really write a good story? What are the chances of him succeeding? He can also fail, right.

Those were the thoughts that were roaming in his head. Although he had said that he will continue his career as a author if he get the second chance but he was not sure if he can really walk the path again.

You could say he was insecure. He was afraid of the failure. He didn't wanted to go through the same life again.

'But what can I do if not writing?'

He thought of his earlier conversation with his mother. His mother wished him to go to a university and get a office job but Ren knew he wasn't suitable for it.

He knew that he will not be able to survive in that kind of job. It also wasn't like he was just starting his high school.

He was already in his third year of high school. There wasn't much time left before he had to face society.

He can either go through what his mother said and regret or he he could go through his own path and live a life of no regrets.

It was really obvious what he should choose but he was slightly afraid. 

'The only thing I didn't regret.'

As he was thinking about that, he thought of his previous life. He had many regrets in that life but there was one thing he never regretted, it was choosing his life as a author.

He never regretted that he choosed to become a author until he died. 

While thinking about that, Ren stood up from his bed and opened his laptop.

It was a laptop which was only used by the previous owner to play games but it still had a writing software.

Ren opened the software and wrote the working title on it. 

'Genius.'

He had decided to write the same topic Nakai sensei had told him to but he didn't plan to just write the story based on his essay.

A essay and a novel is a fundamentally different thing. 

A essay consist of the author's own arguments and thoughts about a topic but a novel also have to connect to the readers.

He will have to change the story completely if he wanted his novel to connect with the readers.

'What do I write about?'

He wanted to write about something he can relate to. Genius was a topic that was closely related to his past life but adapting it into a novel is different.

'A story about a genius!'

A story than relates closely to his past life but can he really say that he was a genius.

Ren didn't knew the question to this answer. If he really was a genius, then he shouldn't have failed but he also can't deny that he was called a genius.

If he really believed that he was a genius, then he can't deny that geniuses can also fail.

His mind was in a web of thoughts but before he realised, his hands were already moving.

He was typing words very quickly and soon, he had wrote nearly 5000 words.

He looked at the time, it was already 12. It should have slept already but his mind was wide awake and he wanted to write currently.

'It was a nostalgic feeling.'

While writing, he felt the nostalgic feeling he used to feel in his previous life. He was writing after a long time but he felt like he was again alive.

'It is a good feeling.'

While thinking about that, Ren continued to write

Fame, wealth, prestige, genius, destruction, despair, loss and failure.

Those are the eight words which describes Ren's life completely.

He was hailed as a genius but his arrogance led him to despair. From a genius, he became a failure.

He was just struggling with his life when fate gave him a second chance.

Now, what will he do after he found himself waking up in another world.

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