Chapter 2  : New Life

Li Yi’s reactions were lightning fast, so Zhang Yan could not stop him in time even if she wanted to.

Done!

Li Yi heaved a long sigh of relief.

Zhang Yan’s expression turned slightly stern. “Follow me to the office after class.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Li Yi yelled and walked back to his seat like a champion who had been successful at war, his head held high.

To him, he could accept any sort of punishment. As long as things did not go the way they did in his past life, anything would be worth it.

In the past life, Zhang Yan had discovered this very same drawing of the naked woman when she was checking their workbooks. However, Zhang Yan did not go after Li Yi for it, because the picture had been slotted into someone else’s notebook.

The owner of the notebook was Chu Nan, one of Li Yi’s classmates. Since Li Yi was constantly sleeping or playing video games during class, Chu Nan, as one of the school’s Disciplinarians, naturally reported him without a moment’s hesitation. That was why Li Yi thought of this little ploy to ‘prank’ him slightly.

At the time, Li Yi had only intended to get a little revenge on Chu Nan, but it had never occurred to him that such an insignificant matter would end up destroying Chu Nan’s and Zhang Yan’s lives.

Zhang Yan had seen that slip of paper and decided that Chu Nan was the one who wrote it. It was already close to graduation then, and Zhang Yan reported it to the school authorities. On their side, the school decided that they would deal with it strictly and seriously.

Chu Nan went in search of Zhang Yan several times and attempted to explain, but Zhang Yan did not listen at all. In the end, Chu Nan was expelled.

After he received the notice of expulsion, a red-eyed Chu Nan found Zhang Yan. “You framed me, you motherf*cking framed me...” he swore as he stabbed her eight times, leaving Zhang Yan lying in a pool of her own blood. Chu Nan was sentenced, Zhang Yan was permanently disabled, and as a result of this incident, Li Yi’s relationship with his classmates reached rock-bottom.

Nothing stayed under wraps forever. If you did not want to be found out, the only way would be to not do it in the first place!

Li Yi himself regretted it as well. If he knew that things would end up like this, how could he have done something like that?

‘Did it change? Did I really change it? I...’

As he sat in his seat and looked at his classmates beside him, the tears in Li Yi’s eyes fell from time to time. No matter what happened to him, he was glad, so glad that he could live once more and make these amends...

...

“Spill it, what was on that piece of paper?!”

“A love letter.”

“A love letter? Yours? This is Chu Nan’s workbook, so how did your love letter end up in his workbook?”

“I misplaced it, duh. I wanted to put it into Xiaowei’s workbook, but I misplaced it, that’s why I wanted to get it back.”

“Xiaowei?”

Zhang Yan looked at Li Yi and could not stop shaking her head.

“Go home and write me a repentance letter. Also, your final exams are coming soon, so wait until the exams are over before you start this relationship business. Don’t distract Xiaowei.”

“Got it, Miss Zhang!”

Li Yi replied sincerely and left the counseling area.

The skies were bright and open!

Along the way, Li Yi laughed as he walked, completely disregarding the strange looks he attracted from the passersby.

When he got home and saw his parents who looked so much younger, Li Yi had even more emotions and thoughts threatening to overspill. On the other hand, his actions surprised his parents even more.

He took all the house chores off their hands, busting his butt off with work...

This definitely was not a spur-of-the-moment impulse. He truly did want to change, from the very bottom of his heart!

Li Yi might have been a big cheater, using illegal cash, illegal goods, and absolutely no scruples, but be it in this life or the past, he had always been a very filial son to his parents, aside from the fact that he was slightly lazy. Perhaps... that was the one and only good point he had left in his previous life.

At night, as he lay in his own bed, Li Yi could not get his emotions to calm down no matter what he tried.

He had reset back to eight years in the past. Everything was just like a dream.

“Is this a chance... that God has given me so I can change?”

In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed. Li Yi went to school and back every day, doing his chores when he went back home. The life that had once been dry and uninteresting to him had now long since become exceptionally colorful in his eyes.

June. There was still half a month until the final exams.

The incident between Chu Nan and Zhang Yan had clearly been settled, because it was this day in the past life that the school announced they would expel Chu Nan.

June. Li Yi received a pile of gifts. Soft toys, a bicycle, a hammer, books, pens, there was just about everything you could want there. And among all these many gifts, one was the most precious and also the most eye-catching.

It was the Game Helmet for the next generation virtual reality online game, King of Pantheon.

These were all gifts from Li Yi’s classmates, firstly because today was his birthday, and secondly because they were about to graduate and step into society. Giving each other gifts was a way of making memories.

The Game Helmet for King of Pantheon was a gift from Chu Nan, and Li Yi had already received this helmet once before in the previous life.

The incident where Chu Nan stabbed Zhang Yan caused Li Yi to steep himself in regret for a whole two or three years. The fact that Chu Nan gave him a present even after being expelled made him feel guilty about it to this day.

If he remembered correctly, when he received this Game Helmet from Chu Nan in the past life, he never used it for a long time due to his deep feelings of guilt...

Thankfully, the tragedy from the previous life did not happen again this time.

“Wow-wee, a King of Pantheon Game Helmet. I’ve been dreaming of one of these for a long time.”

The little fatty Yao Li hugged the helmet tightly with both arms, rubbing his face against it exaggeratedly.

It was no wonder he acted like this. At the time, the next generation virtual reality online game that claimed it would redefine the evolution of mankind, King of Pantheon, had been under closed beta for more than ten years. Now, they were finally saying that it would officially start its open beta come 15 July. That was why the Helmets on sale now were constantly getting sold out, and many people could not buy them even if they had the money to. The little fatty Yao Li was precisely one such person.

“Chu Nan, you’re way impressive. This stuff can’t even be bought with money, how did you get your hands on one of ’em? Also, also, order three for me, I’ll pay you double.” Once he found out that the Game Helmet was a gift from Chu Nan, Yao Li went up to Chu Nan and tried to discuss it over with the face of an apple-polisher.

“Sure, my dad is a direct seller for these King of Pantheon Game Helmets, so buying them is a cinch.”

“I want one too!”

“Me... And me too.”

An uproar rose in the decently-sized classroom. Chu Nan did not reject any who asked, noting down the names of any and all who wanted to buy a Helmet.

“Chu Nan, thanks.” Li Yi walked up to Chu Nan and stretched out his hand.

Chu Nan blinked and then clasped his hand, shaking it.

The little fatty Yao Li winked. “Oh yeah, Chu Nan, if your family is a direct seller for these Game Helmets, would you also happen to have the limited edition King of Pantheon Helmets or Platinum accounts or the like? If you do, I’ll pay you good money for them.

“Yeah, I want one too. A Platinum account, a limited edition Helmet.”

“Me, me too...”

In an instant, the classroom was in chaos once more.

“Um, I’m not very sure about that. How about this, I’ll go back and ask my old man, then I’ll get back to you guys about it.” Chu Nan’s brow was tightly furrowed.

Li Yi said with a laugh, “The King of Pantheon MMO doesn’t have any special accounts. Whether or not the player was involved in the alpha testing, and regardless of the equipment they’re using, be it the most expensive Nourishment Game Chamber or the cheapest Glasses-Type Controller, the character attributes on everyone’s accounts are completely the same. No one has any special privileges.”

“How can that be...”

“No way?”

“How d’you know that, Li Yi?”

In an instant, everyone had gathered around Li Yi.

It was no wonder, too. Although final exams were approaching, most of the people had the same mindset as Li Yi. Their academics were never good to start with, so they knew very well how their exam results would turn out. Unlike those students who were especially good at studying and constantly worried about their results, these guys were particularly aware of their limits...

“Of course there aren’t any privileges, the only difference between the Nourishment Game Chamber and the Glasses-Type Controller are the gameplay sensations. Let’s put it this way, if you enter the game using a Nourishment Game Chamber, you’ll be able to enjoy sensations that are more or less like the real world. But if you use the Glasses, it’ll be way different.”

“A Nourishment Game Chamber? Is that for real? I go to the official page every day, so why haven’t I see that before?” The little fatty Yao Li expressed his suspicions.

The Nourishment Game Chamber would only go on sale one year from now, so it would only be weird if he could see it.

Of course, Li Yi could not tell the little fatty that. Besides, even if he did say it, the other person would never believe him, anyway.

“It’s just a rumor I happened to see online, I don’t know if it’s real or not either.”

“Damn you~”

The classmates all scattered in an uproar, returning to their own seats.

“Chu Nan, this pen is for you. The line on it is pretty meaningful, I hope you’ll look at it more often.”

Li Yi gave Chu Nan a golden pen.

The pen was not expensive, just slightly over a hundred bucks. The reason Li Yi chose this pen for Chu Nan was because of the little line of words engraved on it.

“Think before you leap.”

“Thanks.” Chu Nan accepted it with a smile and read the words carefully.

Chu Nan was relatively docile in nature, but this was only his default state. Once he got angry, he found it very hard to maintain reason, and that was also the reason Li Yi gave him this pen.

“Come, come, come, it’s registration time. I plan on starting a guild in King of Pantheon, called the Holy Light Glory Knights. If you wanna join, come register now, I’ll be providing stuff like initial equipment and all that.”

The little fatty Yao Li started yelling again, and lo and behold, there were quite a few students in the class who were interested. All of them registered with him.

“C’mon, let’s go to the other classes and recruit ’em. The target is 200 people!”

Watching Yao Li walk out of the classroom, his expression ecstatic, Li Yi could not help but shake his head.

The little fatty Yao Li’s family was slightly wealthy, and in his previous life, there had indeed been a guild called the Holy Light Glory Knights in King of Pantheon. However and unfortunately, the guild did not long before it imploded.

...

In the afternoon, when filling in his post-graduation plans, Li Yi thought about it for a long time before he finally put in “professional video game player”.

In his previous life, he had written “boss”.

As was to be expected, he had failed his final exams. Having scraped out a graduation certificate, he began to look everywhere for a job, but he just kept hitting barriers everywhere. Even after two to three years, he still could not find a stable job.

Other than gaming, what else could he do? This was the question that occupied Li Yi’s mind the most after his life was reset.

He did not understand stocks, he did not look at the lottery, and he did not care about national matters either. Even if he had the memories of an entire lifetime, he still could not think of anywhere he could use them.

The only thing he was good at was the game. He believed that based on his knowledge of the King of Pantheon game, it would still be relatively easy for him to scrape together some cash.

Li Yi caressed the Game Helmet, an unprecedented level of determination in his eyes.

“Li Yi the cheater from the past is dead!”