Restart 02
As usual, Tian Xiao ate the loving breakfast Mom had prepared.
The familiar color scheme, familiar appearance, familiar taste.
Tian Xiao habitually praised Mom's cooking skills and received a slightly stiff smile in response.
Everything was just like any other day.
That was until Tian Xiao shouldered his small backpack, left home, and stepped onto the bustling street.
"…What in the world…are all these things?"
Earlier, walking along the quiet path, he had only felt that the air quality today seemed a bit different from usual. But no matter how closely he looked, he couldn't pinpoint what was wrong. Now, stepping onto the crowded street, Tian Xiao lifted his gaze…
What were these people moving back and forth on the road? They were no longer ordinary humans.
They were all strange-looking creatures that still somewhat resembled people.
Some had twisted and deformed limbs, others crawled on the ground, and many had lush branches or mushrooms growing from their bodies, as if infected by some terrifying, full-body fungus-related disease.
The entire street was filled with bizarre "monsters."
Yet the words and actions of these monsters were still the familiar routines Tian Xiao knew.
"I'm late, I'm late…"
"Hurry up, hurry up."
"Ah… I can grab some breakfast up ahead."
"This short video is pretty interesting."
Tian Xiao: "…"
After standing still for a long moment, Tian Xiao took a step forward.
Those strange beings in his eyes instantly reverted to ordinary humans, holding takeaway breakfasts or coffee, walking faster than one another.
Tian Xiao lowered his gaze and muttered softly, "The hallucinations are quite severe today."
It wasn't just hallucinations.
After walking a distance, Tian Xiao stopped.
He confirmed one thing.
Throughout this walk, while ignoring the hallucinations, every person he encountered matched his "memories."
Those memories he had thought were from a dream realm.
So, he hadn't just had a strange dream—after dying, he had experienced time reversal once again.
Only this time, the reversal went further back.
Back to after he woke up this morning.
And after waking up, severe hallucinations had appeared.
At first, he only saw pedestrians on the street as strange monsters. After walking a while, he even began hallucinating the collapse of surrounding buildings and the cracking of roads.
The hallucinations were so vivid that Tian Xiao couldn't distinguish them from reality just by sight.
But by acting according to everything in his memories, the illusions would shatter.
If this really was "time reversal"…
Tian Xiao stared at the road ahead for a moment, then turned and headed toward a nearby, rarely visited park.
This park was usually sparsely populated, even more so during work hours.
Tian Xiao circled the park and found a secluded corner to stay in.
As time passed, the hallucinations in his eyes grew increasingly severe. Just sitting there, Tian Xiao saw the ground before him crack open at least five or six times, trees and ponds completely destroyed, spore-like particles floating in the air, and a faint, strange fragrance lingering.
But all of that was merely part of the hallucinations and illusions.
Completely ignoring all the changes before him, Tian Xiao counted the time in his mind.
When the time was about right, Tian Xiao looked up toward the sky.
Just as he had seen in his "dream," the brilliant white light appeared once more.
The moment the white light emerged, all hallucinations and illusions vanished completely.
Tian Xiao confirmed that "time reversal" had occurred again.
And just like in his memory, that white light came rushing straight toward him.
This time, Tian Xiao wasn't at school, and the white light didn't perform any sharp turns—it simply locked onto the park where Tian Xiao was and headed straight for it.
"I need to do something," Tian Xiao murmured softly.
Being chased and attacked by this white light wasn't his style.
Tian Xiao pulled out the system space that resided within his consciousness.
At first glance, the system space's functions were indeed impressive, but its only drawback was its severe energy consumption. Currently, it was nothing more than a blank slate, and Tian Xiao had no way to replenish its energy, so he had to set it aside for the time being.
But now, the situation was different.
The speeding white light carried immense energy within it.
"You seem like quite the glutton, so… go for it."
Tian Xiao activated the system space's energy-charging function and aimed it directly at the descending white light.
Then, once again…
Tian Xiao was engulfed by the white light.
Good news: The system space could indeed intercept the white light's energy to charge itself, unlocking corresponding functional options.
Bad news: The white light's energy was overwhelmingly vast, and everything happened too quickly. The system space could only absorb a small portion of the energy brought by the white light in such a short time.
Tian Xiao had originally thought that, if conditions allowed, he would pull the white light into the system space and create a cosmic vacuum within it.
But now…
Just before the white light could melt and disintegrate him once more, Tian Xiao successfully activated the system space and slipped inside.
Through the system space, Tian Xiao watched as the white light "exploded" before his eyes.
The immense energy instantly blasted a massive crater in the entire park, altering the properties of matter itself. A wave of intense heat surged outward in all directions, leaving nothing visible but an overwhelming expanse of heat waves and white light, accompanied by a powerful sense of vibration.
Apart from the light, Tian Xiao couldn't see anything clearly for a short while.
But he finally saw what was concealed within the white light.
It was a… massive corpse.
It should be a corpse.
A towering body covered in strange patterns, missing half a shoulder and its head.
At the site of its wounds, numerous intricate branches and flowers, brimming with vitality, had grown, adorned with crystal-clear, shimmering light—so beautiful it was almost unbelievable.
And its body.
The patterns covering its body, upon closer inspection, were also composed of blooming flowers and various symbols.
They intertwined and complemented one another, radiating a vibrant glow that made it impossible to look away once seen.
It was… incredibly beautiful.
For the first time, Tian Xiao wanted to use the word "beautiful" to describe a corpse that, despite being dead, exuded such vitality.
It felt as though this body wasn't truly dead.
But it was indeed "dead."
It lay motionless there, half-reclining in the enormous crater.
As the white light and intense energy surged outward, those vibrant, beautiful flowers also began to grow and spread in all directions.
Further ahead were mushrooms.
Mushrooms of varying sizes and colors, so vivid and beautiful that one would hesitate to eat them.
They sprouted everywhere, continuing to grow visibly toward the distance.
Tian Xiao: "…"
Before everything "calmed down," Tian Xiao did not choose to leave the system space immediately. Instead, he stared outside through the system space for a long time.
Apart from the changes brought by the Corpse to its landing point, the hallucinations that had appeared in Tian Xiao's eyes were also gradually turning into "reality."
Tian Xiao saw many familiar scenes: buildings collapsing and the earth cracking.
He also saw some pedestrians affected by the white light explosion beginning to undergo changes that felt familiar to him.
They hadn't fully taken shape yet, but the signs of distortion or mutation were already there.
Tian Xiao waited in the system space for a long time.
Until everything around him completely "calmed down."
Finally, Tian Xiao cautiously leaned out from the system space.
Good, no issues at all.
Tian Xiao stepped out.
The white light explosion had been quite a commotion, yet even after so much time, Tian Xiao didn't see anyone coming specifically to check.
The passersby affected by the white light explosion hadn't died; they simply lay stiffly on the road, yet no one passing by spared them a second glance.
It was as if these people and the park with its massive crater didn't exist at all.
Tian Xiao poked the surface of the Corpse, confirming it was just as he had guessed.
This was a corpse with soft skin, full of elasticity and vitality.
But no matter what he tried to do to the Corpse, he couldn't harm it in the slightest.
Tian Xiao gave up and instead reached out toward the flowers, plants, and mushrooms near the Corpse.
Very smoothly, all these flowers, plants, and mushrooms became energy sources for the system space.
Tian Xiao harvested all the flowers, plants, and mushrooms around the massive Corpse, then walked out of the park.
He had no idea what the Corpse was all about, and for the time being, there was nothing he could do about it. Now, the thing to do was to go home and check on Mom.
Was he supposed to just stay by the Corpse forever?
On his way back, Tian Xiao noticed that his hallucinations and illusions had already healed on their own.
It was just that the entire town was developing in the direction of his earlier hallucinations.
Apart from the area affected by the white light explosion, the scope of the town's influence was steadily increasing.
This could be seen from the inexplicably growing mushrooms.
They grew in messy clusters, sprouting on walls or roads.
At first, people couldn't see these abruptly growing mushrooms at all, but once the mushrooms reached a certain level of normalcy, they quickly caught the attention of passersby.
No matter what the passersby had intended to do before, upon seeing the vigorously growing mushrooms, they would stop in their tracks and then…
Display an extraordinary appetite and possessiveness toward the mushrooms, fighting fiercely to obtain them.
Tian Xiao: "…"
Tian Xiao naturally avoided another group of people fighting over mushrooms.
At the same time, he casually picked the mushrooms that hadn't been noticed by others and stuffed them into the system space.
These mushrooms weren't meant to be used as energy for the system space; they were intended for Mom to eat.
The mushrooms had distinct shapes and contained considerable energy. Thinking that he might pick some to take home for Mom to eat, Tian Xiao did just that.
He walked all the way back, picking mushrooms along the way. By the time he reached home, the system space was already filled with quite a few.
In areas far from the park, the people walking around clearly hadn't been affected yet.
Mom at home also seemed perfectly normal.
Except that her gaze kept drifting toward the direction of the park where the white light had fallen and the Corpse lay.
When Tian Xiao returned home, his mother's attention naturally shifted to him.
Tian Xiao, of course, knew what his mother was most concerned about and immediately greeted her, explaining that there was no need to go to school today.
Well… Tian Xiao lied.
He hadn't even asked his teacher for leave.
He wasn't a well-behaved or sensible child, not someone other children should emulate.
But Tian Xiao guessed that he wouldn't need to do much—today, the school would likely announce a holiday.
Or perhaps it would be forced to close without any announcement.
—If no one noticed that corpse and no one dealt with it.
Upon returning home, Tian Xiao casually turned on the TV in the living room, which didn't require electricity to operate, and confirmed that there were no news reports about the white light falling in the park or the corpse.
While thinking, "I should find a way to buy a computer and a usable phone," Tian Xiao took out the mushrooms he had stored in the system space.
The moment the mushrooms appeared, his mother instantly materialized beside him—moving without any delay—and stared intently at the mushrooms.
Tian Xiao: "…Mom, do you think these mushrooms are edible?"
His mother remained silent, her gaze fixed on the mushrooms.
"If there's no problem, I'll use them to make mushroom soup?"
Still silent, his mother shifted her gaze to Tian Xiao's face, the corners of her lips curling into a stiff yet delighted smile.
It seemed his mother really liked these mushrooms.
Having confirmed this, Tian Xiao made a decision on the spot. "Mom, sit in the living room and watch me show off my skills!"