"I'm alive…?"
Jin Moxi muttered in disbelief, his body soaked in cold sweats as he looked around him in panic.
'The pain just now… it was worse than anything I have ever felt…'
He couldn't exactly describe how it feels like, it was an indescribable sensation. He wiped the sweat off his forehead.
"Now, what exactly is happening?" His gaze swept through the room, a somewhat familiar feeling rose from his heart. "Where have I seen this place?"
Then, it struck him, he knew where he was now. It was his parents inheritance—his house.
"It has been such a long time… but how could it still be intact?" He tried to rationalise his situation, he had ended up here after death and the safest bet was that he was in an afterlife.
"Then does that mean…" a flame was lit within his heart, at the thought of the afterlife, he hoped, really hoped to meet his parents again. "Mom! Dad! Are you there!?"
There was only silence, an utter silence.
He didn't stop clinging onto a sliver of hope that he could see their smiling face again even for a moment. "Where are you!?"
He went through the home, each door opened with a hope of seeing his parents' tired face greeting him yet as the number of opened doors piled up—there was no trace of them.
"Haha…" he laughed at his own foolishness, tears slowly dripping down his face. "Goddamn it…"
He sat down at the sofa, his face devoid of emotion as he stared at the nostalgic surroundings. "So… where exactly am I…?"
His eyes landed on the calendar and it widened. "4th April 2025…? There's no way…"
He couldn't believe it. "Have I returned to the past?"
He sprinted toward the full-body mirror beside the large wall-mounted flat television, he checked on his face. The face that stared back at him was a man in his late twenties.
"I'm back as a human…" he muttered.
He hesitantly touched his face, the sensation of skin, the warmth of the living—he was alive. Yet, he felt strange, he had lived a long life, for all he knew this face was almost like a stranger to him. After all, the memories he had with it had long since been foggy from time.
"It's a strange feeling to see the mirror to see my human self… I couldn't remember the last time I ever looked like this." He let out a sigh as he stopped looking at himself in the mirror.
He stared at his hand. "A month before the apocalypse… I should be able to prepare a lot of stuff but should I take care of some thorn in my side first?" His mind wandered toward several blurry silhouettes.
…
The next morning.
"Good morning," he greeted himself in the mirror with a smile before returning to his usual vacant expression.
He sighed. 'I really need to get used to this face, but I'd say this empty expression really doesn't suit it, this kind of expression looks significantly better when I have that face.'
"Hm? What's that?" He noticed the ringing of his smartphone and began to tinker around with it. "What was the password…? Damn, I can't remember…"
Then, suddenly it opened by itself as the caller was revealed to be a contact named Mu Yaoyao. 'Ah, face ID… I forgot about that…'
"Mu Yaoyao… Mu Yaoyao…" he repeated the name multiple time within his mind, it seemed familiar but he couldn't really remember the exact details.
He decided to answer the call, "hello?"
"Jin Moxi! Are you deaf!? I've been trying to call you for the past five minutes! How can you do that to your girlfriend? Especially someone like me!" A loud feminine voice of an angry girl erupted from the phone.
'Girlfriend…?' His mind raced to connect the dots of Mu Yaoyao and the term girlfriend together. 'Ah… that bitch?'
"Get to the point." He replied sternly.
'Hm? What's up with this bastard's tone? He usually would try to apologize to me, probably trying to trick me. Heh, my dear Piggy Bank, I don't know what trick you have learned, it won't work on me!' Mu Yaoyao scorn inwardly. "Alright, when are you going to transfer the ownership of that old house as a dowry? I can't wait to start a family together~"
'I remember now, we got into a fight because I refused to transfer the ownership of this house to her, she then broke up with me and went to that Zhang guy.' He recounted the events that happened in his past life.
"Get lost." He calmly replied before blocking Mu Yaoyao's number.
He rubbed the outline of his chin, "I should kill them off before the apocalypse begins, right?"
His face remained expressionless as he wanted to concoct a plan to assassinate the thorn on his side—Mu Yaoyao's and her four rich pawns.
"Oh, I almost forgot."
He blocked another number belonging to the best friend of Mu Yaoyao—Xia Mengmeng.
— Ding!
[ Loading… ]
[ Synchronization-0…3…18…34…66…71…89…94…100% ]
[ Synchronization—Complete! ]
[ Congratulations, Host! You have successfully bonded with—the Apocalypse's Strongest System! ]
[ Current Host: Jin Moxi ]
"Hm…?" His gaze landed onto the glowing translucent screen.
— Ding!
[ Do you wish to open: System's Starter Pack ( x1 )? ]
"Apocalypse's Strongest System? That's great, my worry about the apocalypse not being real can be dispersed now." He sighed in relief.
Now, staring at the translucent screen, he pressed—Yes.
[ Loading… ]
[ Rewards: Physical Enhancement Serum +2 ( x1 ) ]
A regular-looking syringe with +2 written on it suddenly materialized above his hand. "Is this it?"
'System… if it's like the system in Webnovels, it should have 'that', right…?' He wondered.
"Status."
— Ding!
[ Loading… ]
[ The word "Status" has been registered as the command word for the Feature » Status Window ]
[ Status Window ]
[ Name: Jin Moxi ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Lifespan: 27/109 ]
[ Stats ( Average - 5 ) ]
[ Physical: 7 ]
[ Mental: 10 ]
[ Spiritual: 10 ]
[ Ability: None ]
"Oh, is this it? Physical should refer to my overall physical condition while the other two are… something I guess…" he couldn't confidently declare the purpose of the other two "stats" so he'd rather stay silent.
He brought the syringe closer to his arm and gently injected it into his body as he placed the empty syringe on the table. Sitting on the wooden chair he relaxed his body to measure the strengthening in real time.
[ Physical: 7 → 9 ]
"Woah… I really could feel power coursing through my body, it seems to be around a 40% or so increase?" He said, roughly measuring the increase.
He looked at the word near the [Stats]. "5 is the average human? If that's true, then I would be roughly 80% stronger than an average person…"
Looking around his house, he noticed that it was empty, he never had a habit of stocking up on anything at all. "That was the reason why I really struggled back then, huh?"
'At this time, I shouldn't have wasted any of my money, right? I really need to stockpile supplies and find a suitable base… while I do have some attachments to this home, if I can abandon it once… I can do it again…'
— Ding!
[ You have activated the Feature » Mission ]
[ You have acquired the Ability » Infinite Duplication Level 1 ]
[ You have acquired the Ability » Spatial Storage Level 1 ]
"Oh? What a generous system!"