CHAPTER 55: CHAPTER 52: REINCARNATION, ISLAND AND SHIP

Tap, tap, tap.

Zhu Zhengwei walked all the way.

Western-style buildings, old structures, nightclubs, newspaper boys, and all kinds of sallow and thin people, the huge gap between rich and poor, all seemed to fit the societal structure of a "Doomsday Shelter."

The entire city’s population numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but the slums occupied most of it.

He stealthily took a silver dollar from the pocket of a wealthy businessman by the roadside and hailed a rickshaw.

"Sir, where to?"

The man had a somewhat simple expression, his body was skinny and bare-chested, ribs protruding on his lean frame.

"Just take me around, tell me about the recent events." Zhu Zhengwei said, tossing him a silver dollar.

The skinny man took the silver dollar and his eyes widened, stuttering, "Sir, this is too much, I don’t have change."

"It’s okay, keep it." Zhu Zhengwei replied.

The rickshaw driver was dumbfounded, a bit unsure, but still quickly said, "Then please sit tight, I’ll take you around, share some stories, I usually pull people from all walks of life, so I’m quite informed."

Zhu Zhengwei looked at the buildings as they passed.

At this time on the Shanghai Beach, it was still filled with concessions, various residences, small lanes, with photo galleries and news agencies, clearly divided into rich and poor areas.

And the rickshaw driver continued to chat, "What I do know is that the rickshaw company raised their prices again. Now they charge us 30 wen a day for rent. It’s killing us drivers."

"And recently, I heard that the two major gangs at the harbor had a fight. A lot of people died..."

"But they didn’t use guns; those are precious resources. The shelter can’t produce them anymore, they’re kept by the bigwigs for self-defense."

That was only to be expected.

The same thing happened in Bamboo Scenic Village when technology began to regress.

And here, it’s bound to happen sooner or later.

Soon, listening to these stories, Zhu Zhengwei realized that most things were still the same and couldn’t help but feel relieved.

Thanks to the mature underground architecture of the city, they had never considered moving to the island’s surface, and most still feared the unknown and mysterious outside world.

However, with the internal strife and conflicts in the shelter, people began to want to leave the shelter where they’d lived for decades, to explore the outside world.

"It’s alright."

Zhu Zhengwei’s expression calmed down, "It fits with me having just awakened underground after dozens of years."

He had the rickshaw stop outside an old building, and then let it go, at this moment stopping outside an old hospital, Zhu Zhengwei saw a scene from afar.

"Wah wah wah!"

"Congratulations, it’s a boy!"

...

The baby was born without crying.

"I’ve really been reborn, I’ve gone back to a hundred years ago?"

A week later, lying in the swaddling clothes, the baby organized his memories, "In reality, I’m nearly a hundred years old, a famous biological scientist of my era, renowned nationwide, with countless descendants, on the verge of death..."

He seemed to remember encountering a godlike, beautiful being in the hospital room, and after some exchange, was allowed to be reborn, traveling through time to the past.

"But in this world, the parents and family, the neighbors are the same, but the worldview is different. Is this a parallel world?"

"Since I can start over, I must change the regrets of the past in this life."

He began to organize some timelines, planning for the future,

"I know what happens in the future, but the worldview has changed, future events will change too... To protect my family and make up for the regrets of my past life, I can only rely on my expertise!"

Zhu Zhengwei smiled subtly, hiding in the dark.

After all, he’s read quite a few novels.

This pattern is something Zhu Zhengwei figured out from "rebirth stream novels," still following the path of "rebirth parallel universe," copying the tech stream approach.

The specific content, I’m sure many have seen:

A modern person mastering a certain special technology, travels to a world with witchcraft and mysterious powers, starts farming, makes gunpowder, then follows their technology, combining it with mysterious powers, forging a new path, then conquers beautiful witches, powerful servants, dominates the Extraordinary Kingdom, and pursues immortality...

The initial tests had a good effect.

"However, when you think about it....A modern person reborn, returning to a parallel universe, changing past regrets...Who knows if it’s orchestrated by me behind the scenes, a bunch of chumps crossing over to work?"

Zhu Zhengwei smiled, turned, and left:

"Come now, I’ve specifically prepared a starting point for you on a newly germinated ancient relic island in this world...."

"You will, for my burgeoning Extraordinary World, sing the praises of civilization and history, research new plants for me, create new beasts, discover four-dimensional creatures, explore extraordinary powers, and cure my ailments."

With that about done, now it’s just waiting for time to pass.

Zhu Zhengwei logged out of the Mobile Dream Net and checked the time, nine-oh-three.

"Hmm, nice! The work’s done!"

Zhu Zhengwei sat on the bed, stretched lazily, feeling very comfortable and at ease,

"At nine, the second internal test opened, two thousand people were let in, constructing a new ancient relic shelter, and that old man was officially reborn there, having completed various things....only three minutes have passed."

Alright!

Zhu Zhengwei wasn’t in a hurry.

He began to sit in the dormitory, in reality, organizing this batch of server nodes, locations, structure, drawing blueprints, adjusting the overall Mobile Dream Net.

"This time it expanded to the limit of the servers again."

He looked up, vaguely seeing a massive world of awareness clouds floating in the sky above everyone’s heads, the realm of the Four-dimensional World.

In due time, what this whole world would look like, was truly exciting.

And after finishing up, he looked down at the time again, it was already nine-thirty.

"Time in reality seems to pass so quickly. Just three exhausting minutes and now it’s half an hour blinked by."

Zhu Zhengwei went downstairs to the canteen to have a late-night snack,

"But in reality, half an hour means only a few months pass inside, no hurry, by the time I sleep tonight, that island relic will have had a few years go by, just about time to start seeing research results."

On the night road, few students wandered, and in the distance by the small bridge, couples were talking, emitting a sour smell.

As he arrived at the canteen, Zhu Zhengwei saw only a few people in line, but he saw his two dorm mates chatting with the chubby classmate at a table.

"No wonder there was no sign of them in the dorm, turns out they ran here." Zhu Zhengwei grabbed some food and sat directly at their table.

Usually, these two would either talk about girls or how to make money and compete, but today was different.

"Let me introduce, this chubby senior, called Li Pang, is a new player from the second batch of internal testing. This game is so hot, getting a spot is as if chosen by destiny." Wang Jun was quite proud.

Can sightseeing become popular?

No wonder Zhu Zhengwei noticed there were so many more people earlier.

"By the way, did you know what happened when the second test opened at nine?" Li Xiang asked.

"What happened?" Zhu Zhengwei feigned ignorance, his acting skills kicking in.

"I heard the second batch of test players, born as plants on an island, occasionally saw people moving around nearby, seemingly living underground," Li Xiang added, "This senior here was among them and can share some intel with us."

"Oh, two thousand players all in the same scenic wallpaper, watching the landscape as plants, is this game running out of ideas?" Zhu Zhengwei jokingly said, trying to lower their enthusiasm.

"Hmph! You can’t say that, there must be some new developments, gathering strength," Wang Jun said angrily, as if anyone badmouthing the game was his mortal enemy.

"It’s gathering strength."

Li Xiang said casually while eating his late-night snack, "Just now, their batch of players said that boats were spotted passing by, and there was a war with those mysterious people underground, then the boats were hijacked, everyone was captured underground."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Zhengwei pondered.

Hmm, it was probably those Witch from the continent’s dynasty, exploring on a boat, only to get captured by the Shanghai Beach gangs.

After all, they have guns, even cannons, fully armed, the average Witch would only be knocked out.

Probably tortured, the witchcraft practices will find their way to Old Shanghai Beach.

What if they can’t be tortured into submission?

Heh, heh, heh.

The terror of Shanghai Beach in those days, how formidable their interrogation methods were, is known to all.

It was the culmination of five thousand years of penal law.

But this was all in his expectations, they would inevitably encounter passing ships and initiate contact at some point.

"Seems like it’s happening faster than I anticipated, gang powers from Shanghai Beach, Foreigner’s Concession, battling with the Witch civilization? This aesthetic is too punk, quite interesting."

Looks like he needs to finish his late-night snack and hurry back to check on the situation.