Chapter 1: Reborn Five Years Ago

  "System prompt: Player Duan Chen, your game time has ended, please log off!" Just as Duan Chen was still excited about successfully refining the Power Pill, the system prompt sounded, forcing Duan Chen to reluctantly choose to log off.

  "See you next time!" Duan Chen shook his head and directly exited the game. With the Power Pellet, which was a heaven-defying pellet in the early stages, Duan Chen could now try to solo the level 15 Lord.

  "The formula for the Strength Pill was quite good in the early stages, but the configuration is almost non-existent. If I didn't know the formula from my past life, I really wouldn't be able to configure it!" Duan Chen couldn't help but reveal a hint of a smile as he spoke to himself. In his past life, he had also been in a difficult situation. After all, the Dark Night Country was only established four years later, and before that, there was a year when he could be said to have mixed extremely miserably, relying on alchemy to make a living for a period of time. Otherwise, Duan Chen really wouldn't have been able to refine the Strength Pill.

  "The Power Dan is equivalent to a three-level attribute point increase in the early stages, and it should be able to handle a Lord-level monster without too much trouble." Duan Chen muttered to himself as he logged off.

  He took off his helmet and looked at the dark sky outside, unable to help but smile wryly. Playing games had made him forget about time, and now it was already 10 o'clock at night. Fortunately, his father worked the night shift, or else he would have been scolded to death.

  "I'm starving!" Duan Chen shook his head and muttered to himself, it's really possible to say that he was starving since he hadn't eaten anything from lunch till now.

  "Still have to be careful later, games are fun, but the body is also important!" Duan Chen couldn't help but shake his head and muttered to himself: "No biological warehouse, can't be reckless!" Duan Chen remembered that it wasn't until a year later that the biological warehouse was released, at which time, even if you didn't eat or drink inside and played until you went offline, there wouldn't be any problems. But now, it's not possible.

  Just then, Duan Chen's phone rang.

  "It's him!" Looking at the familiar name on his phone, Duan Chen couldn't help but reveal a hint of a smile. Zhang Yu, his former best friend and partner in crime.

  "Time is merciless!" Looking at this name, Duan Chen couldn't help but have a multitude of thoughts, memories flooding back. After he went to college, he had little contact with this classmate and sworn brother, and after his success in the Dark Night Country, they had completely lost touch.

  "Let's try again, maybe I should seize this feeling!" Duan Chen couldn't help but reveal a hint of a smile as he muttered to himself. Duan Chen's family background wasn't very good. During his school days, there were only a few true friends, and Zhang Yu was one of them.

  "Haha, dead squid, how did you think of calling me today!" Duan Chen answered the phone, laughing and asking.

  "I'm coming! Can't you see I'm looking for you?! Hurry up and come out, I'll be waiting at the usual place!" Zhang Yu's voice was tinged with a hint of amusement as he spoke.

  "Just in time, I'm starving!" As soon as he heard this, Duan Chen couldn't help but laugh. He and Zhang Yu's old haunt was a big stall not far from his house, where they often came to eat together.

  Duan Chen walked out of the house and headed straight to the large shed. Soon, he saw Zhang Yu sitting alone inside. Memories seemed to resurface again, just like in his past life at this same time period. It was as if he had come with Zhang Yu before. This guy kept boasting about how great "Contend for Hegemony" was, but back then, Duan Chen hadn't paid attention until later when he attended a class reunion and bought the game headset.

  "You little brat, I was really worried you wouldn't show up!" Zhang Yu punched Duan Chen heavily and laughed out loud.

  "Some of you won't come?" Duan Chen directly grabbed a string of lamb skewers from the table and started eating them in big mouthfuls. Having gone without food for eight consecutive hours, he was already starving to the point of dizziness.

  "My god, how many days haven't you eaten?!" Zhang Yu was shocked to see Duan Chen devouring his food like a wolf.

  "Don't talk about me, you've ordered so many dishes, how many days haven't you eaten!" Duan Chen said with his mouth full of food, pointing at the table filled with enough food for three or four people.

  "I'm so hungry! Playing Hegemony made me forget everything!" Zhang Yu picked up a string of chicken wings and started eating, suddenly, Zhang Yu was stunned, looking at Duan Chen and asked: "You're not also playing Hegemony, are you? Otherwise, why are you so hungry?"

  "Got it right!" Duan Chen chuckled and patted Zhang Yu's shoulder, laughing: "I'm also playing!"

  "Haha, that's great, kid! What level are you now? When did you leave the newbie village? Let's play together, brothers!" Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu's face showed a hint of surprise and delight, but his eyes still held a hint of doubt. From what he knew about Duan Chen, he was clearly aware that Duan Chen had never been enthusiastic about games before. Although this time's competition was quite fierce, it was still a bit far-fetched to think that someone who didn't usually play games would also go and play.

  "Bored at home, just playing casually!" Duan Chen looked at Zhang Yu's eyes and couldn't help but laugh: "Level 10! But don't expect me to play with you, I'll stay in the newbie village for a while longer!"

  "Level 10 already!" Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu's gaze towards Duan Chen became even more peculiar. The game had only been open for eight hours, and it seemed that fewer than a million players had entered the Huaxia City server. Most players were still only level 7 or 8, so how was it possible for Duan Chen to reach level 10 in such a short amount of time? Was this really the same friend who didn't play games before?

  "Why didn't you leave Newbie Village?" Zhang Yu suddenly discovered this problem and looked at Duan Chen asking aloud.

  "It's nothing, just a task I've taken on, it'll probably take about ten days to half a month to finish!" Duan Chen didn't mean to hide anything and directly told Zhang Yu.

  "What task is so formidable?" Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu couldn't help but pause for a moment, asking aloud.

  "I'll tell you when the time comes, by the way, what's your level and occupation?" Duan Chen changed the subject, looking at Zhang Yu and asking.

  "Reached level 8, my profession is Summoner, now I only have a level 5 Hungry Wolf, it's really bad!" Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu couldn't help but regretfully say: "I knew I shouldn't have chosen to be a Summoner!"

  "Don't look down on summoners, after level 30, it's the summoner's time to shine!" Duan Chen shook his head and said, "After reaching level 30, summoners can unlock two summoning positions. That's when summoners start to get strong. After all, summoners summon based on monster skulls, and only beast-type monsters have a certain chance of dropping skulls, which makes it difficult for solo-playing summoners to survive in the early stages."

  "How did you know that summoners become powerful after level 30?" Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu was stunned again and asked aloud.

  "I knew it!" Duan Chen said without even looking at Zhang Yu.

  "Whatever, never mind. What's your profession and name in the game? I'm Shenxiu! When we leave the newbie village, let's team up! Zhang Yu looked at Duan Chen and said: "Several classmates are also playing, it'll be better if we team up together!"

  "Whatever, I still know which classmate you're talking about. That bunch of guys doesn't want to have anything to do with me!" Duan Chen shook his head and let out a bitter laugh. The classmate Zhang Yu was referring to was Wang Lin and a few friends. This group of people had never gotten along with Duan Chen in school, and he hadn't expected to interact with them either.

  "Whatever! When the time comes, I'll take you with me and we'll deal with these annoying guys together!" Chapter Rain couldn't help but say out loud.

  After drinking a few more cups of wine, they each went their separate ways. After all, it was already midnight now, and it was time to disperse.

  "By the way, around August 18th, we're going to have a class reunion and I'm in charge of letting you know!" Zhang Yu said with a smile as she looked at Duan Chen.

  "Alright, I'll call you then!" Duan Chen nodded in understanding upon hearing the words. However, his heart was stirred up like a massive wave. The mere thought of the class reunion made Duan Chen's heart skip a beat. It was all because of this class reunion that Duan Chen's personality had changed so much. If it weren't for this reunion, Duan Chen might not have even touched online gaming in his entire life.

  "Alright!" Upon hearing this, Zhang Yu couldn't help but reveal a hint of a smile. What he feared the most was that Duan Chen would directly reject him, after all, in the entire class, Duan Chen was his only friend.

  "It's gone!" Duan Chen took a deep breath and slowly suppressed the raging anger in his heart, looking at Zhang Yu with a smile.

  On the way back home, Duan Chen's mind kept echoing with the bits and pieces of his past life's classmate reunion, his eyes filled with a cold and stern expression.

  "What's coming will come, and you can't escape!" Duan Chen shook his head and muttered to himself: "This time, I won't be a joke like in my past life. I'll show you who the real joke is!"