บท 3: Reboot
As the world around him darkened, Shi Feng felt weightless.
'Is this what death feels like?' He thought to himself.
Remembering everything that had happened, he was filled with regret. For messing up right at the end after ten years of hard work, for letting Fire Dance die... Also, his guildmates must have heard what happened and were rushing to help him, but they'll only end up with the same fate.
He felt even worse about it now. Not only had he failed Fire, he had also failed everyone else.
Di! Di! Di!
Shi Feng opened his eyes and stared at a familiar ceiling.
It only took him a moment to process what had happened and stare at that broken-down ceiling in disbelief. He couldn't believe it.
He had returned!
Di! Di! Di!
The continuous ringing of his phone shook Shi Feng out of his thoughts. He quickly grabbed the old and broken down iPhone 6, never would he have thought that he would hold one again, and answered.
"What's up?"
"Brother Feng, it's me, Blackie. You're still asking what's up? Didn't we agree to become professional gamers? Shadow Workshop is recruiting at our school today. Haven't you always wanted to become Shadow's core member?"
Shi Feng had never been so glad to hear Blackie's voice.
"Right... I'll be there soon."
"Alright, just come quickly."
After ending the call, Shi Feng took a moment to take in his surroundings, getting flashbacks of his time spent here in the previous two timelines. Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he looked very similar to how he looked like in his previous life.
Due to the advanced technology and resources like the Life Potion, Shi Feng had remained young in his previous life. The only difference now was that he was skinnier and his physique was nowhere near his previous one.
Shi Feng suddenly realized what that familiar sensation he felt was. He didn't notice it the first time he reincarnated, but this time, maybe because of his advanced mental strength, he felt something.
Although he wasn't quite sure what he felt, or how to describe it, it felt like something in his very soul had activated.
Speaking of souls, Shi Feng looked down at his hand and tried to spread his senses.
Suddenly, from Shi Feng's perspective, his hand looked transparent, and some blue energy running through it was visible. Looking at his chest, Shi Feng saw what looked like a blue fireball in the center of his chest. However, there were some black cracks running along the blue fireball.
This was his ability.
The ability that terrified those old monsters, without even knowing what it was. The ability that that person predicted will be a disaster... and he was right, it is going to bring disaster to them.
He originally didn't plan to use it in that way, but now, things were different.
He has changed his mind.
They predicted a disaster, so a disaster is what they'll get.
This was the ability to interfere with the very soul. With it, Shi Feng could decide the fate of any person he touched, and it wasn't limited to only destroying the soul, like how he did to that old assassin.
Thinking of the usage of his ability, an idea came to Shi Feng's mind. If he used it on someone's, soul he could change their memories. Normally this could be used to make someone loyal to you, or erase something they saw, or give misinformation to your enemies.
There were plenty of such uses people might call immoral, but what if...
What if you already knew what the soul of someone with different memories looked like? At most, it could be used to treat amnesia, or such situations where someone lost their memory.
But for Shi Feng's case... it could be used to do something else...
What if he changed the part of the souls' memories of his friends to what they were like in his previous life? Of course, this was under the condition that he remembered what their soul looked like with those memories. However, this wasn't a problem for Shi Feng.
He had unlocked this ability almost a year before he was sent back to this timeline, so Shi Feng had seen the soul of pretty much every important member of Zero Wing.
Though, he couldn't remember most of them right now, if he could boost his brain activity, he might be able to remember some of the ones he saw more often. If he reached the Mental Strength Master standard, he could tap into all of his memories.
But even now, he could still remember the souls of those he was close to. Like Blackie, Aqua Rose, Gentle Snow, Violet Cloud... and Fire Dance...
There was no way he could forget hers when one of the last things he saw was it breaking.
Another call from Blackie interrupted Shi Feng's thoughts, urging him to hurry over.
He tidied himself up before heading to Jin Hai University. Unlike in his previous life, he was somewhat in a rush, as he wanted to try to return Blackie's memories, unsure if it will work or not.
In theory, it should work, but you never know if something might go wrong. What if it doesn't work? What if he breaks Blackie's soul in the process? What if Blackie's current mind isn't able to cope with ten years worth of memories? What if...?
While thinking of all the possibilities, Shi Feng arrived at Teaching Block 1 and caught sight of a thin and tall figure in front of the building. The tanned youth was pacing around the hallway in a panic; it was none other than Blackie.
"Brother Feng, you've finally decided to show up. Fortunately, registration hasn't closed yet, so let's hurry in and sign up." Blackie said anxiously after seeing Shi Feng.
"Blackie, I'm not joining Shadow."
Blackie was stunned for a moment. Looking at Shi Feng, he felt something was different about him, but he still asked "Brother Feng, what do you mean? Why not?"
Shi Feng's face turned serious.
"Blackie, do you trust me?" Shi Feng looked at Blackie again, now seeing him transparent, with blue energy coursing through what his veins should be. In his chest, a small, blue fireball was glowing.
Blackie was once again taken aback by the sudden question, but seeing Shi Feng's serious face, he also seriously answered "Of course I do. You're my good brother, after all."
Hearing that, Shi Feng felt relieved.
"Good." He said, as he extended a finger and pressed it on Blackie's forehead.
Blackie wanted to ask what he was doing, but before he could, his body froze, and his mouth stayed in the middle of trying to speak. Blackie's pupils became diluted and empty. He looked like he was watching his life flash before his eyes.
Shi Feng's aura changed as a torrent of energy rushed out of Shi Feng and went towards Blackie's soul.
---
Somewhere in the Greater World. In a secluded mansion
An old man opened his eyes as the crystal ball in front of him started glowing.
The man furrowed his brows, as he felt an ominous feeling come from the crystal ball.
"A disaster?" The old man mumbled to himself in confusion "But from where?" He spread his senses as he used his prediction ability with the crystal ball as the catalyst, searching for the source through the entire Greater World.
Seconds went by, then minutes, then hours, yet still nothing. No realm was left unchecked, no stone left unturned.
"How could there be nothing?" The old man was even more confused now. Normally, he would start feeling a bit of danger before it gradually grew; but now, a big sense of danger came at him out of nowhere. Worse yet, he couldn't find the source.
Of course, this was because he was only able to search the Greater World. Shi Feng's world has yet to merge with it or even have a slight connection, so there was no way to sense him. Although the old man knew that he couldn't search for things outside of the Greater World, he never considered the threat to come from one of the smaller worlds.
Something that could be of any threat to him had to be at the Mental Strength Great Grandmaster standard or something that could rival it at the very least. Even reaching the One-star Mental Strength Grandmaster standard while in the smaller worlds without the Greater World's resources was nearly impossible, let alone above it.
So how could the danger possibly come from one of those? Thus, the old man guessed there was something hiding the source.
Alas, no matter how much the old man racked his brains, he would never guess the truth.
---
Meanwhile, back to Shi Feng.
A moment later, Shi Feng removed his finger as he stumbled, nearly falling over before leaning against the wall. His face was completely pale, and he was drenched in sweat. Although it seemed like it took only a moment, for Shi Feng, it felt like hours had passed.
He could have never imagined it would be so difficult.
Even with his current shitty mental energy, he thought it wouldn't be that difficult. However, he quickly realized how naive he was being. How could reconstructing ten years worth of memories be that simple?
Recreating all those little details wasn't as simple as copying something from one paper to another.
Shi Feng had still thought that, even if he couldn't do it, he could at least recreate the first year or something like that. Even if that didn't work he could at least stop and give up. He could then come up with some excuse to give to Blackie and then convince him like he did in his previous life.
Nope
When he started, there was no going back.
Simply touching Blackie's soul and intervening with his memories had created problems, and he still wasn't skilled enough with his ability to only recreate a small part of Blackie's memories, so he could only finish it or risk breaking Blackie's mind.
Blackie had just told him that he trusted him, so how could Shi Feng do that? Therefore, he pushed himself and completely restored Blackie's memories.
After taking a couple of deep breaths and regaining some of his strength, Shi Feng started observing Blackie, who had a lost expression on his face. A few seconds later, light returned to his eyes.
He looked around in confusion before his eyes fell on the pale-faced Shi Feng.
"Brother Feng?" Blackie asked with an unsure tone.
"Who else has this handsome face other than me?" Shi Feng laughed, but Blackie was now even more confused as he looked at him before looking down at his hands. He reached up and touched his face, before pinching himself, still wondering if he was dreaming.
"A-are we...? How a-am I?" He still had no idea what had happened, and countless questions were swimming in his mind. He looked at the only person who could possibly explain just what the hell was going on.
"Please, Blackie. For your good brother, time traveling is something simple." Shi Feng said, trying to sound like he did something casually, while unsure how to properly explain. He didn't think this far ahead. Originally, Shi Feng hadn't even been sure if it would work and was only thinking about what he'd do if it didn't. In retrospect, he should have thought his plan through a bit better.
So now, he could only awkwardly joke and confirm what Blackie was already thinking.
Meanwhile, Blackie, whose suspicions were confirmed, stood still in a daze, not knowing how to react. However, seeing Shi Feng's pale complexion, he knew that things were nowhere near as simple as they seemed; not that things seemed simple in the first place.
"Ahem, let's go somewhere else." Shi Feng cleared his throat and said. They were currently in a public place, and anyone passing by could listen in on their conversation.
"Alright." His still dazed friend nodded and followed him.
After getting to a private location, Shi Feng explained the gist of things to Blackie, who more or less understood.
He had already heard that Shi Feng was ambushed by a group of Mental Strength Pseudo-Supreme Grandmasters. Blackie had hoped that Shi Feng would get away and was anxiously waiting for the news, not being capable of providing any help at all, but when he saw Shi Feng after his memories were restored, he assumed the worst.
Only, he didn't think that Shi Feng was capable of time traveling, or reincarnating, or whatever it is. And he was technically right, since Shi Feng had no actual idea of how it works.
"So what do we do now?" Blackie asked, gritting his teeth in anger. His best friend had died in battle, while he could only stay safe and wait for news, unable to help. Like a wife whose husband went to war.
Never again. He was determined to get stronger.
"We start from zero." Shi Feng answered with a laugh.
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