CH 1

Updated: Mar 30, 2021

Hunger jolted Shi Qingyang awake.

He was no stranger to the sensation. It was normal to wake up like this. He had gone hungry every day for many years in the past. As a result, if you had asked him what's his favorite thing, he would always answer - food.

But now, wasn't he already dead? How can one feel hunger when they are already dead?

An onslaught of insect beasts had descended on the city.

Even the highly fortified research institute where he was held had been breached. How could there be a safe place?

Furthermore, Shi Qingyang vividly recalled a massive earthquake sweeping through Central City as he was thrown to the ground by the giant spider beast. This blast was most likely triggered by the Central City, triggering its self-destruct system. Central City was China's biggest city. If it exploded the city's inhabitants, the bug beasts rampaging around it, and he himself would perish!

At that time, despair, rage, and terror filled his whole body. But now, all he felt was hunger…

Shi Qingyang opened his eyes, and what he saw froze his whole body.

A tiny, dimly lit space. Except for a poster of a tank commercial, the metal walls were bare. It depicted a haughty two-wheeled tank with an open cockpit. The guy behind the wheel wore a mask and scowled at the camera. The guy was very attractive.

He was Shi Qingyang's favorite rad-warrior when he was younger.

Born as a normal civilian, he faced all kinds of adversities to become the greatest rad-warrior.

The individual was once one of the driving forces behind Shi Qingyang's continued progress.

However, he quickly caught up to, and even surpassed, the guy. When they eventually met, that guy had already been severely weakened by the radiation riot in his body, so he bowed to Shi Qingyang's power.

He also happened to discover the truth about that person. Reports on how much work he put into rising through the ranks were mostly fabricated.

As a result, the worship he had felt in his childhood vanished...

So why did this poster unexpectedly appear in front of him? Or more importantly, how did he appear in this room, where he had spent one of the most painful and difficult two years of his childhood?

Shi Qingyang abruptly grabbed his right wrist and was taken aback by the feeling of the cool metal. He lowered his head, his heart pounding harder. He wore a black square-shaped communication terminal on his slim wrist. This was the most common communication terminal that the Chinese government offered free of charge to all citizens. Not only was it unsightly to look at, but it only had a few functions. Except for the people at the very bottom, no one else used it.

Shi Qingyang had it in his childhood and was mocked for it by his peers. Therefore, when he eventually had enough money at the age of 19, he quickly purchased a newer model.

Shi Qingyang had discarded the contact terminal in front of him and tossed it out like rubbish. Sadly, he didn't have the chance to wear his new one for long.

Shi Qingyang has experienced great rises and falls in this life. In the beginning, he lived on government handouts and odd jobs. Later, he became the strongest warrior in China, with the exception of two elderly people who were too old to fight.

And then the radiation energy riot in his body left him worthless...

In recent years, he was locked up at the research institute. Those 'people' stated to the media that they were providing him with the best care possible in order to rehabilitate him. In reality, they were researching him, how he became an eighth-level powerhouse in such a short period of time, as well as why he was so good in radiation control?

The months he spent battling in the ant den was the biggest factor he could become an eighth-level powerhouse, but the precise reason wasn't even obvious to himself. As for his radiation control ... it's a product of his efforts!

Since both of his parents died when he was young, he had to pay for school himself. He needed to work harder if he wanted to succeed. How can the family's young masters, who had been cultivated like roses their whole life and had the best upbringing possible, comprehend this?

In any case, now was not the time to worry about it. Shi Qingyang needed to understand his situation right now. According to the old terminal, the current time was August 3, 3016. While he couldn't recall the exact dates and times in the institute since his days were filled with the repetition of drawing his blood and cutting his flesh, he did clearly remember that it was the year 3037 when he entered the research institute.

Was he hallucinating or dreaming of returning back in time twenty years?

Shi Qingyang subconsciously became mindful of the radiant energies in his body. The radiant energy was so weak that it was almost insignificant, but it was still under his control!

What was going on here exactly?

His mind was overwhelmed with questions, feelings, and memories. Shi Qingyang clenched his fists, sinking his nails deep into the skin. Only when the contact terminal rang did he snap out. He realized his palms now hurt and his strong sense of hunger was still there.

He could still feel pain and hunger. Did that mean he was still alive?

Shi Qingyang's heart began to race, and he immediately reached out and pushed the response button on the communication terminal. Ordinary terminals cannot be used for virtual projections, but it can display images. Since the person on the other side didn't activate the private mode, Shi Qingyang saw a face full of beard and behind him a wall with various washing and maintenance equipment for tanks.

This face was not new to him; it was the owner of the car wash where he had worked in his youth. When his powers finally developed quickly, he left Spark city and never saw this guy again.

"Kid, why aren't you here yet? Are you feeling unwell?" Although the terminal displayed Tao Rubao's concerned frown, his tone was not friendly.

Shi Qingyang was in a daze for a moment.

"Hey, kid, what's wrong with you?" Tao Rubao inquired once more.

"I'll be right over!" Shi Qingyang finally replied.

He was now anxious to learn more about his current situation.

"That's good." Tao Rubao abruptly disconnected the communication.

Shi Qingyang got out of bed, and he felt even hungrier.

He recalled his former habit of preparing food the night before for the next day. Sure enough, he found half an iron box of nutrient meal on the table. While a nutrient meal sounds healthy, it was actually made from combining water with various scraps from mutated bugs' flesh. The taste was very bad, but the price was cheap. Since an asteroid carrying large quantities of radiation reached the Earth thousands of years ago, half of the planet's flora and fauna have died out, and the remaining had undergone mutations.

Nowadays, all plants in the wild were infected and cannot be consumed. With the exception of a few city-grown vegetables, the human diet was entirely dependent on the meat of mutant bugs. However, the price of tasty mutant meat wasn't cheap. It was unaffordable for Shi Qingyang, who lived off relief funds. He also ate even worse than others to save money for Spark Academy tuition. He didn't even eat the whole box of the nutrient meal and left the rest for the next day.

He lived like this for two years, and for a while, he felt very motivated. Yet he then regretted it, realizing far too late that he was killing himself.

At that time, he had just acquired the radiation energy. He had to work every day, had to do high-intensity exercises, and on top of that, his body at sixteen was still developing.

He was starving all the time.

The radiation energy in his body was relatively stable, but because he kept only eating this way and overtrained while he was still young, he irreparably harmed his body.

When he fought for an extended time, his body hurt.. and others used this vulnerability and dropped him from the clouds into the dirt, never allowing him another chance to turn around.

...

Shi Qingyang slapped himself and proceeded to eat the 'tasty' nutrient meal without further ado.

There was no way to make food from nothing, no matter how advanced the technology. The food was quite valuable. As a result, even though the flavor of the nutrient meal was unpalatable, Shi Qingyang consumed it all, leaving no leftovers. He even licked the package.

Still, in secret, in front of people, he maintained an arrogance, never bowing his head attitude, and even though someone once politely offered him something to eat, they were mercilessly refused... That was due to his self-esteem.

Looking back on his past as he laid in the research institute with no pride, he remembered how foolish he was in his prime.

Can self-esteem be eaten?

If he had been willing to accept help from others back then, if he had been willing to bow his head down and fainted from malnutrition while exercising, surely this would't have happened.

Shi Qingyang touched his stomach after putting away the empty iron box. Half a box was insufficient to fill him. But at least it was something, which made him feel much better. He drank some water from a bottle and left a half later.

Finally, he opened the only door to leave his home. That's right, his home was just one small room of no more than ten square meters in the underground city's slum district. Outside was a narrow passageway in which only two people could walk side by side. The passageway had doors on both sides and the walls were made of steel. Behind each door was the same kind of small room. There were many more floors deeper down where more people lived just like this.

Since the whole ecosystem of the earth was destroyed thousands of years ago, and strong radiation flooded the entire planet, humans have had to live underground for a long time. Cities did not begin to surface from the earth until nearly 500 years ago, splitting into above-ground cities and underground cities.

Nowadays, the majority of wealthy and capable citizens choose houses above ground, which allow them to experience daytime and nighttime through the massive protective cover, despite the fact that radiation was higher above ground. They all had access to the underground.

Shi Qingyang had once lived in such a building, be later he preferred to remain underground, therefore it was more familiar to him there. As long as the monthly management charge and energy usage fee can be paid, there was no need to buy a house. The Shi Qingyang parents had lived in a nice four-room underground apartment.

It was a nice home. Unfortunately, after his parents died in mutant insect teeth, he couldn't afford more than 1,500 credit energy bill. His new residence was one-fifth the price of the previous one.

Passing two hundred meters through the narrow corridor, Shi Qingyang arrived at the tram to the aboveground.

There were spacious streets above ground where chariots could drive, while the tram was the only means of transportation underground. With two tracks in the middle of the lane, all you had to do was swipe the touch terminal and you can get in for the cost of two credits.

He drove to the underground's exit.

Shi Qingyang recalled that he had never driven the tram in the past. If he had money to spare, he would've certainly preferred to buy food. Also, he didn't have money to rent an exercise room, therefore he run. Wasn't that one way to exercise?

Shi Qingyang was perplexed for a while as thoughts of his childhood kept resurfacing, and he stared at anything that looked familiar. The more he saw, the clearer it became that this was no joke.

He had actually traveled back in time to when he was sixteen!