Chapter 1: Phoenix Awakened 1: Thanks
Yu Ze was in a car accident in his original world and ended up being completely paralyzed, the doctors consider him in a vegetative state. While he can still hear what everyone around him is saying, he does not have the ability to respond.
So when an AI calling itself System 02 appears in his brain, telling him he can get all functions of his body back, Yu Ze jumps at the chance. System 02 explains to him that he has to pass through several worlds as the cannon fodder who dies early. His mission is to live as these cannon fodders and keep them alive past the original time when they die.
With each mission, Yu Ze can earn points depending on the star level. For the one-star level, Yu Ze can earn 5,000 points. For five star levels, 100,000, but of course, with each star, the difficulty level increases, and there is the potential of losing his life. In order to gain complete function of his body, Yu Ze must earn over one million points. Although the number is staggering, Yu Ze accepts the chance.)
"ZeZe, what's wrong with you? Are you not feeling well?" The gentle female voice was tinged with worry.
Yu Ze was receiving memories that did not belong to him, and his brain was dizzy for a while, so he did not answer immediately.
"ZeZe?" The female voice became more anxious.
Yu Ze's sleeve was gently pulled, and he subconsciously shook his head, "I'm fine."
Once the words he said fell, he froze. He could move!
This was simply impossible for someone in a vegetative state! In other words, what happened before was not a dream!
He was selected by the survival system and came to the mission world, becoming a seventeen-year-old boy on Planet Watt, Feng Ze. He suppressed the shock and surprise in his heart and looked at the beautiful woman in front of him, and a sense of closeness followed.
Xie Wan was Feng Ze's mother and his only relative. Seeing him dumbfounded, Xie Wan reached out to take the watering can from his hand. Xie Wan did not hold back the inclination to cough twice, "It's better for me to go. Go back to your room to rest first, cough..."
"I'll go," Yu Ze gripped the handle as he moved his back, avoiding her hand. He looked at the woman's slightly white face, and afraid of her worry, he curved up the corners of his lips and smiled, "I'm fine."
Xie Wan saw this, and was slightly stunned. She had not seen her son smile for a long time. She couldn't help but show a light smile, the end of her eyes flushed with fine wrinkles, and coughed twice more in a low voice.
"You go rest," Yu Ze's eyebrows knitted worryingly as he stressed again, "I'm fine."
Xie Wan was afraid that her son would worry about her, so she stopped insisting and carefully reminded him, "There are many guests in the main house tonight, so go back to your room to rest after watering the flowers and be careful not to bump into them."
Yu Ze nodded obediently and watched Xie Wan go to her room before following the garden path to the main house as he remembered. The Feng family's main house was brightly lit, and it seemed like another world compared to the corner of the garden.
Yu Ze looked up and heard the lively sounds of people faintly coming from the front. The trees on both sides of the main path had decorations hung up on them, many with the number sixteen. Yu Ze immediately understood the point in time of his arrival; it was the second young master of the Feng family, Feng Hai's coming-of-age birthday party.
Feng Ze's surname was also Feng, but he was only a distant relative of the Feng family. His grandmother and mother had turned to the Feng family in desperation, and after his grandmother died, his mother stayed with the Feng family as a gardener, taking care of the flowers and plants.
In addition to the garden with flowers and plants, there was also a flower room on the fifth floor rooftop of the main house, which had many precious ornamental flowers that needed special care. Xie Wan was not well, and whenever she was not feeling well, Feng Ze would help her finish watering with the nutrient solution in the flower room.
From memory, Feng Ze was stopped on his way back to his room after watering the flowers by someone Feng Hai sent, telling him to send flowers to the banquet hall where he was then verbally bullied.
Yu Ze didn't care about this, instead he was relieved that there was no danger to his life. As long as he survived in this world for more than a hundred days, his mission in this world would be complete.
He carried the watering can to the staff passage on the left side of the main house and climbed up the stairs.
Tonight, since almost all the underlings of the Feng family were busy in the banquet hall on the first floor, the hallway was very quiet. As he walked, he sorted out the memories in his head that belonged to his predecessor.
When he reached the third floor, he froze and stopped in his tracks.
The front stairwell window was open, and there was a tall man standing in front of it. The man leaned forward and poked his head out to look downstairs.
Yu Ze stared at him. From memory, when Feng Ze went to water the flowers, he did not see this person.
Could it be that, because he had been delayed talking to Xie Wan, something beyond his memory had occurred? He felt very odd. Did this mean that as long as he acted a little differently from the original, his experiences would be different from the original?
But he and the original were originally two individuals, how could their mannerisms be exactly the same? What's more, if they were exactly the same, two months later, he would be dead and the mission would fail.
While his thoughts were turning, the man in front of the window suddenly moved. The man propped his right hand on the windowsill, hopped up on to it with great agility and lightness, then bent his knees and leaned forward.
"No!" Yu Ze's heart tightened, and his eyes widened in shock. He threw down the watering can with a clang, and instantly burst out with the fastest speed, jumping behind the man and grabbing his backward swinging arm in time.
All of Long Yuan's thoughts were occupied with the idea of 'I want to fly', and he did not notice anyone behind him at all. When his arm was pulled back, his body lost balance and fell backwards.
Yu Ze saw this and subconsciously tried to dodge, but the man fell back too fast, and before he could move his feet, the man crashed down. The man's reaction was extremely quick. His foot kicked against the window sill when he fell, his body flipped to the left, and he didn't press against Yu Ze when he fell to the ground.
Yu Ze's heart was thumping, and he stood in place for a second before reacting. He quickly squatted to the man who fell to the ground face down.
"Are you okay?" He held the man's shoulders and said nervously, "I'll call a doctor for you."
Although he couldn't see the other's appearance clearly, the man was wearing an exquisite suit and tie with the scent of wine, so it was obvious that he was a guest of the Feng family.
"How dare you?!" The male voice was violent and depressed.
The man waved his hand and pushed Yu Ze away, got up swiftly and then glared at Yu Ze with an unkind face. He looked around, saw the surveillance in the corner, and his face got even darker.
He had never fallen so badly before!
Yu Ze, who was pushed back, placed his palms on the ground to stabilize his body in time. He tilted his head to look at the man, slightly frozen.
The man, no, he should be called a teenager. Although tall, he was clearly young, with an unreserved face and profound features, very handsome. The most eye-catching thing was the teenager's black hair with highlights of cyan, similar to the color of the sea. He looked very nice, and not mainstream.
His clothing...
Yu Ze's memories quickly flashed by, trying to see if this person existed in the original's memory. As he was not too familiar, it took him a moment to think. He could not think carefully, so he stood up, patted the dust off of his hands, and worried about affecting each other's emotions, his voice was soft as he said, "Take it easy. I won't call the doctor." He moved to the window, closed it, and warmly advised, "You are so young, do not think about it. Life is only a one time thing and it will be too late for you to regret it once it's lost."
"Huh?" Long Yuan raised his sword eyebrows, pushed back the black hair that fell on his eyes and stared at Yu Ze for a few seconds. His anger dissipated, "You think I want to kill myself?"
Yu Ze looked at his reaction and suspected that he had misunderstood, but... "If I hadn't pulled you, you would have jumped."
Long Yuan snorted, "Who would choose the third floor to commit suicide? It's not like anyone could fall to their death."
Yu Ze frowned, disapproved of the teenager's casual attitude, and gave him a serious face to scare him, "Death is not the most terrible. If you had not fallen to death, but fell and became half-paralyzed, that's worse."
Long Yuan glared at him, but there was no anger in his eyes as he emphasized, "I did not want to kill myself."
Yu Ze did not believe that the teenager did not want to jump since he had not shown an ounce of hesitation before.
Long Yuan was a little annoyed. His black hair was messed up by him as he stared at Yu Ze and said through clenched teeth, "What just happened is nothing. I just couldn't control my instincts."
Yu Ze was puzzled for a second when information about the Awakened floated in his mind.
"You're an Awakened of the flying beast variety?" He inquired, with a hint of curiosity in his eyes. One of the characteristics of the Awakened flying beast class: they like to jump down from high places but would not fall to their death. In their consciousness, they were able to fly.
The teenager hummed, his face still a bit unpleasant.
As an S-class Green Dragon Awakened, with all the top physical intelligence, he really didn't want to admit that he almost fell and hurt himself because of his instincts during the Awakening period.
He did not react in time to perceive that his consciousness was affected by his Awakening! He was too weak!
Yu Ze breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, "It's good it wasn't suicide," but he was still a little worried, "will you do what you just did in the future?"
"No!" Long Yuan felt that he was underestimated, "Are you questioning my ability?"
Yu Ze waved his hand, "No, I'm just a little worried. It's good that you won't." He then turned around and picked up the watering can, "I have something to do, I'll leave now."
Long Yuan looked at him, the corner of his mouth twitched, but he did not say a word.
Yu Ze passed Long Yuan and continued to walk upstairs.
"Hey." Yu Ze had walked three steps when he heard the teenager call out to him, he turned around.
Long Yuan looked uncomfortable. Seeing him turn around, his head slightly tilted over to face Yu Ze, and his voice dropped several degrees compared to the word 'hey', "Thank you."
Yu Ze looked at the squirming teenager and smiled, "You're welcome."
"I owe you a favor," Long Yuan's chin was slightly raised, his tone straightforward and confident, "My name is Long Yuan. In the future, if you have any trouble, come find me. I'll help you solve it."
The corners of Yu Ze's mouth were pursed, and he held back from laughing, thinking that the teenager sounded a bit middle-aged. But soon, he did not think that any longer as he remembered who Long Yuan was.
Long Yuan, the first grandson of the Long family, one of the four great families; a S-rank Green Dragon Awakened, close to becoming fully awakened when the original died two months later.
Those words, spoken by someone with strength, were not middle-aged sounding but were the truth.
"Okay, I'll remember that. Thanks." He seriously answered and smiled at Long Yuan. His looks were high and cold when he wasn't smiling, but beautiful and compelling when he smiled. However, he himself was completely unaware of it.
Long Yuan froze, and only when Yu Ze disappeared around the corner did he come back to his senses, grunting softly in his head.
What are you smiling at? Do you believe me? He glanced towards the window and took a step to leave the stairwell, when he suddenly thought of something and stopped. He looked up at the monitor in the corner and opened his communicator.
"The third floor stairwell, all surveillance video from the last ten minutes, destroy it all. No one is allowed to see it!"
He had fallen face down on the ground. It was so humiliating, absolutely no one could see it!
Feng Sheng received a report from the security office, raised his glass towards the guests, smiled apologetically and walked aside to ask in a low voice. "Delete the surveillance video? Why?"
"I don't know, everyone is keeping watch on the lobby tonight, not paying attention to the staff passageway. Young Yuan also did not say. He just forbade us to look and told us to directly delete it. We have reviewed it and see no problems from during that time."
Feng Sheng, as a member of the Feng family, never believed in unprovoked moves. His eyes narrowed, "During this time, besides Long Yuan, who else had been to the third floor of the staff passage?"
"Feng Ze. He appeared on the fifth floor after that surveillance and went to the flower room."
Feng Sheng thought for a moment, "Do as Long Yuan said, and have A'Hai take Feng Ze to the side room."