Cannon fodder in the Interstellar

“It hurts, it really hurts.” Lin Kexin endured the overwhelming pain in her head, feeling as if it might explode. She struggled to integrate the memories of two individuals in her mind, trying to distract herself and alleviate the pain.

The first sensation she felt after suddenly regaining awareness was an unbearable headache. Fortunately, after being a wandering soul for hundreds or thousands of years without sensory perception after her death, the vividness of this pain was startling. For a moment, she didn’t know how to react and even found the pain to be a beautiful and real experience.

Because this was what it meant to be alive; only the living could feel pain, while a wandering soul was like a wisp of air—empty, ethereal, and unaware.

To be honest, this all happened too suddenly, without any warning, and Lin Kexin really couldn’t process it.

At that moment, she was anxiously watching Ruo Manni tremble violently in pain, her face pale to the point of being blue. But as a soul unable to communicate with Ruo Manni, no amount of anxiety could help.

Suddenly, another wave of intense pain hit, causing Ruo Manni to shake violently. Lin Kexin suddenly saw Ruo Manni’s soul rising from her body, leaving it behind.

Lin Kexin widened her eyes in disbelief. Before she could make sense of everything, she felt a sudden, powerful force pulling her soul out of the jade pendant and pressing it against Ruo Manni’s body. At that moment, a sharp pain shot through her head, as if it were being pried open.

Having watched everything unfold, even though it happened too suddenly, Lin Kexin still understood her current situation, leading her to a guess: perhaps the original soul had exited and disappeared, and her soul was passively drawn into this body. From now on, Ruo Manni would be her, Lin Kexin.

Although ever since she gained consciousness and realized she had become a wandering soul, Lin Kexin had longed to be reborn, she had never considered seizing a body to do so. In fact, even if she had thought about it, she wouldn’t know how, so this wasn’t something she had actively sought.

However, such an extraordinary act of seizing a body to change one’s fate couldn’t possibly come easily. The sheer agony that made the original soul’s pain force it out was terrifying.

Before Lin Kexin could even take a moment to marvel at regaining human sensations, she realized that the previous sharp pain was merely an appetizer.

At first, she only felt as if her head might explode from the pain, but now the agony was surging through her entire body. In less than a minute, she felt intense pain throughout every part of her being. What was worse, she could sense that the various pains were only intensifying.

Lin Kexin felt her entire body’s veins repeatedly snapping and reassembling. At the peak of her pain, she couldn’t help but want to bang her head against the ground, rolling back and forth to alleviate the unbearable suffering.

But she was tightly bound, unable to move at all; even taking a deep breath felt impossible.

Amid the intense pain, time seemed to stretch infinitely, as if it would never end. Despite Lin Kexin’s resilient willpower from having died once, when the pain reached its extreme, her consciousness began to fade uncontrollably.

In the haze, one thought persistently echoed in her mind: if she could endure the onset of the pain while awake, it would greatly benefit her.

Therefore, she absolutely could not lose consciousness; if she fainted, all the pain she endured would be in vain. She couldn’t afford such a loss, so she couldn’t pass out—she absolutely couldn’t.

Thus, despite the excruciating pain throughout her body, Lin Kexin gritted her teeth, using every ounce of willpower to prevent herself from losing consciousness.

She had no idea how long she had endured this; for Lin Kexin, every minute felt like an eternity in hell, stretching on for hundreds or thousands of years.

In the midst of this nearly fainting pain, time seemed to elongate indefinitely. Just as she felt she had lived a lifetime, her awareness half-foggy, suddenly sensed two warm currents surging from her sea of consciousness and dantian, rapidly spreading throughout her body.

Wherever these warm currents flowed, the pain in her veins vanished instantly, nourishing and repairing her exhausted body with abundant energy. Soon, she felt a blissful, floating sensation.

Lin Kexin thought she had ascended from hell to heaven, overwhelmed by a comfort so profound that she wanted to moan.

Had she passed the crisis? Had she won? Lin Kexin thought dreamily, her spirit and body relaxing to the point where she could no longer hold on and slipped into a deep sleep.

Lin Kexin was jolted awake by an alarm clock. Her consciousness was still fuzzy, leaving her confused about her surroundings.

It seemed she was in a virtual realm, as her body floated in a white space. In front of her was a nine-inch screen displaying the message: “Player Name: ?”

What was this? Player? Did that mean a game player? What was going on?

Suddenly awakened from a deep sleep, Lin Kexin was utterly bewildered. There was no time for her to think, as she noticed the countdown on the screen rapidly decreasing. A sense of urgency compelled her to input her name—Lin Kexin.

Then she heard a sweet mechanical voice: “Binding the gene of citizen Ruo Manni…”

Ruo Manni? Right, Ruo Manni… She had been reborn; now she was Ruo Manni.

The War Realm, yes, the War Realm…

Her awareness started to return as Lin Kexin shook off her confusion. She recalled the environment she was in and the information about the War Realm.

That’s right, the War Realm officially launched today at midnight. She was now in a holographic game pod, and the original owner had encountered an incident inside the pod.

In the War Realm, players were allowed only one account each. When creating a character, the game would automatically bind the citizen’s gene sequence number, preventing account theft. After she entered her player ID, the War Realm system had automatically extracted her gene number.

“Player Ruo Manni has successfully bound her gene sequence number…” The mechanical voice echoed in Lin Kexin’s ears, and the screen “in front of her” began to automatically switch, quickly displaying a line of text.

War Realm Player ID: Lin Kexin

Physical Value: 810

Mental Value: 3010

Intelligence Value: 810

Agility Value: 310

Strength Value: 210

Speed Value: 310

Comprehensive Life Value: 5454

At the bottom of the screen, a note read: For players under level ten, the average value for each attribute is ten points. A raw value exceeding five points qualifies as C-grade, while exceeding eight points qualifies as D-grade. Player Lin Kexin’s mental value reached 30 points, qualifying her as F-grade; she is a natural psychic and is advised to choose the psychic profession in the War Realm.

War Realm? Psychic? Lin Kexin finally remembered everything.

Four hours before the War Realm launched, the original owner, Ruo Manni, had added a second-generation gene enhancement agent obtained from the black market into the nutrient solution of the holographic game pod.

Ruo Manni’s actions were well-planned; she intended to enhance her physique with the second-generation gene enhancement agent in hopes of upgrading her martial potential to B-grade, allowing her to showcase her abilities once the War Realm went live.