Chapter 1: A New Life

On the morning of December 23, 20412, Rock Planet—half shrouded in gray land, half veiled in blue ocean—glimmered beneath the rays of the Kiah star. The planet’s atmospheric cloak shimmered with shifting hues. Even from the expanse of space, one could see the scars marring the land below: years of relentless warfare had left their mark, and greenery was scarce, the earth largely lifeless and gray. Only the presence of the blue ocean confirmed that this world still held water, the most fundamental resource for life.

From a distance, the ever-shifting colors of Rock Planet seemed dreamlike, almost illusory. Yet in truth, it was only a low-quality administrative world within the Stellar Federation, barely meeting the minimum standards for human habitation. Such worlds provided the necessities of survival—oxygen, fresh water, food—but the harsh environment made life outside the settlements nearly impossible.

High above Rock Planet, the calm, sunlit sky was abruptly shattered by a piercing sonic boom. Points of dazzling light appeared and drew closer, revealing a high-speed pursuit between several flying craft.

At the forefront raced a silver-white personal flyer, hounded by four Interceptor drones from the planetary defense web. Inside the solitary flyer, Abbott’s expression was grim as he maneuvered desperately, the controls shifting wildly beneath his hands. He pushed the vehicle’s limits with sharp, jarring course changes, fearing that if he strained the craft any further, it might break apart of its own accord, without need of enemy fire. Yet he dared not hesitate, his grip relentless on the throttle and directional controls.

He hoped to shake off his pursuers through speed and unpredictable flight, but the four Interceptors clung to his tail as if glued there, impossible to shake.

“Damn it, I should never have come here in this piece of junk!” Abbott cursed under his breath.

Abbott was an interstellar mercenary, a member of the notorious Sirius Company, and a wanted criminal throughout the Federation, bearing charges of murder, resisting arrest, assault, and robbery. He had killed scores of civilians. On his last mission, the Sirius Company had hijacked a luxury starliner, earning a handsome bounty that sent the mercenaries off to indulge themselves.

Abbott had received a generous share of credits, which he used to fabricate a new identity and sneak away to Rock Planet for some relaxation. He hadn't anticipated any trouble on this remote world and brought no weapons or gear, slipping in aboard his personal flyer.

Such covert entries were common among wanted men; no matter how convincing the fake identity bands, they wouldn't withstand a proper checkpoint, but they sufficed for basic credit transactions. Abbott hadn’t expected to be detected the moment he entered the planet’s atmosphere.

“Why aren’t these tin cans off hunting bugs instead of chasing me?” he grumbled, eyeing the Interceptor drones on his console screen.

These drones were part of the planetary defense net, designed primarily to detect and attack aerial Zerg threats, not infiltrators like him.

If they found a powerful Zerg, the Interceptors would report and monitor; against lesser ones, they would attack outright. Abbott’s luck was simply bad—he’d stumbled into a drone patrol and been targeted. Armed, he could have handled four Interceptors with ease, but in an unarmed flyer, even escape was a challenge.

“Warning: Cease flight immediately and submit to inspection! Warning: Cease flight immediately and submit to inspection!” The message blared from the Interceptors, relayed by operators monitoring the defense net in real time.

Abbott’s situation was already reported—an attack would come at any moment. Fortunately, the Interceptors’ primary target was Zerg; otherwise, they would have fired without warning.

He ignored their orders. He knew Interceptors well, their capabilities and protocols. While he couldn’t shake them, these drones typically only forced illegal craft to land, not attack directly. The command to fire on humans could only be issued by a person with the appropriate authority—a hard rule, born of countless AI disasters.

Glancing at the navigation map beside his controls, Abbott saw that Peran City lay just ahead. Relief washed over him; once he reached the city, the Interceptors could not pursue, bound as they were to prioritize citizen safety above all.

He gunned his flyer toward Peran City, the four Interceptor drones blaring warnings and sweeping him with powerful scanners.

—

“David, did you skip breakfast? Hurry up!” Jessica called back over her shoulder, her short brown hair bouncing as she urged him on.

Jessica was not especially beautiful, but at seventeen she radiated the vibrant energy of youth. Her tone made it clear she’d invited him only out of necessity.

Jessica understood this herself: had it not been a winter holiday morning, with no one else to accompany her, she would never have chosen someone as withdrawn as David for company.

“All right,” David replied curtly.

Even as he spoke, the word felt strangely alien—instinctive yet unfamiliar. That odd sensation was only natural: he had only arrived in this world yesterday, inheriting none of its body’s memories. At least, through some unknown means, he had absorbed the language and script.

In his previous life, his name had been Li Dawei, a “successful” IT engineer. The quotation marks were intentional—he was merely a local star in a fourth-tier city, a nobody in any major metropolis.

The crash happened on a sloping stretch called Fan Gong Bridge. He wasn’t driving his underpowered car or his nearly dead electric scooter, just walking. As a runaway heavy truck barreled toward him, he and several others were on the sidewalk—among them, a few students just released from school.

The truck did not collide with the sturdier cement mixer on the road, but veered toward the more vulnerable pedestrians. David didn’t want to ascribe malice to the driver, but in hindsight, his doubts gnawed at him.

With people on either side and no room to escape, he acted on impulse, thrusting the nearby students aside. The impact that followed was brutal. He didn’t know how many perished, but he remembered clearly: he had saved the students.

When David awoke, it was in this new body, lying in a bizarrely furnished basement—a scene of some dark ritual: a shattered altar, charred lumps of unknown flesh, ancient books opened to cryptic texts, and himself, completely naked.

If not for the overhead lighting, high-tech gym equipment, and metal-paneled walls, he might have believed he’d been transported to some primitive and savage world.

It took him nearly an hour to accept that he was no longer an Asian man, but a tall, broad-shouldered Caucasian youth. Another hour passed before he discovered how to leave the basement—a simple palm scan, but without the original’s memories, everything was trial and error.

Once he emerged, however, the strangeness of his surroundings ceased to trouble him. The home’s AI steward—a humanoid domestic robot—was already waiting for him outside the basement.

Beyond the door, David was astonished to find a vast underground vegetable cultivation facility. Guided by the AI, he returned to the bedroom on the surface.