After Death, I Became a Superhuman

Jiang Bei was pulling out items from his shopping basket one by one, placing them on the counter.

The convenience store owner, donned in a floral apron, sleeves rolled up, wielded a laser scanner, running it over the barcodes of the items.

When he reached a bottle of shampoo, he flipped it over to read the label, grinning cheekily, "Hair growth shampoo, again?"

The owner, Mr. Zhang, was quite familiar with Jiang Bei, who frequented the store every few days.

The scanner beeped as it registered the shampoo, and Mr. Zhang glanced at Jiang Bei's still relatively thick black hair, "Actually, you look pretty good, your hair volume is decent, no need to fuss so much."

"It's better to prepare for the rain before it pours," Jiang Bei casually chatted along, "Eight out of ten in our line of work are bald, and the other two are on their way. I've just graduated and started working, so I'm essentially one of the ones on the way."

Mr. Zhang nodded sympathetically, "Hmm, a programmer, right? I understand."

After a pause, he changed his tone, "So, you should hurry up, Jiang. You're young now, have hair and no belly, and your salary isn't bad. You should find a beautiful wife while you can! Look at me, I got married at nineteen, my wife is beautiful and virtuous, she listens to everything I say, she doesn't dare to go west if I tell her to go east. We even have two kids now..."

The door at the back of the shop opened, and a teenage girl with a blank expression walked out, "Dad, Mom said she's going shopping with her colleagues and will be back late. She asked you to remember to do the laundry and hang it out, she'll check when she comes back tonight."

"Alright!"

Mr. Zhang responded reflexively, only to realize something was off when he saw Jiang Bei's amused expression.

"Eh...haha, doing laundry is good, you know, for physical exercise." Mr. Zhang rolled up his sleeves and flexed his arms, as if showing off his non-existent muscles.

"Yes, yes, of course it is."

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Jiang Bei agreed with a broad smile, lifting the bag filled with his purchases. He gestured in the air, a variety of UI screens appearing on his retinal display. With a few swipes, a prominent "Payment" button quickly appeared in the center of his field of view.

Implanted chips greatly facilitated modern life. The screen projected directly onto the retina could almost complete all the operations needed for work, travel, and daily life.

In truth, Jiang Bei was not one of those lone warriors who lived with no thoughts of romance. He understood what the shop owner was saying. But reality didn't always cooperate.

Looking back now, Jiang Bei felt some regrets. During his university days, he mistook games for treasures and ignored the charms of girls. Whenever there was some free time, he'd be gaming at the internet café with his buddies, feeling like there was always enough time.

Only when he graduated, and his entire life and energy were consumed by the notorious 996 work schedule, did he realize that the innocent romance of college was the easy part. Stepping into the real world felt like jumping from basic tutorials to the toughest difficulty level. It was like the teacher saying, "We just learned quadratic equations today, so your homework is to solve the Riemann Hypothesis."

He definitely couldn't solve that problem, but fortunately, he had his reliable left hand.

The rise of AI art in recent years had stirred up a craze in the digital pleasure industry. Tons of explicit images, outputted at a staggering rate, brought good news to all, but also pushed human coping systems towards a direction beneficial for psychologists. So, he felt he could manage for now.

Leaving the convenience store, Jiang Bei walked down the evening-lit street with his bag of groceries.

Kuntu City wasn't the kind of place that was suitable for night activities, at least not in the Xiangjiang District. By ten o'clock, there were hardly any pedestrians left on the streets. The night was like a vast canvas, with several shades of black forming the primary color palette, interspersed with the city's unique red and green lights, like blemishes dotted on the canvas.

Just last week, the convenience store owner had complained about a supermarket two streets away that had been robbed in the evening. When the robber put a knife to the cashier's neck demanding money, at least five people inside and outside the store saw it happen. Yet, no one did anything.

They were like detached spectators outside a movie screen, munching on popcorn, silently watching the robber empty every coin from the register and swagger out. It wasn't until the robber disappeared around the corner that the security bureau received a call.

But you can't really blame them. That's just how things are these days. People have learned to mind their own business. Without hundreds of thousands in savings, they wouldn't even dare help an old man who had fallen on the street.

About halfway home, Jiang Bei saw a man.

A man dressed in a white suit, a tall hat on his head, and a black cane in his hand, an image seemingly walking out of a painting. His refined attire seemed out of place in the empty midnight street and more fitting for a Grammy award ceremony.

As Jiang Bei walked past, the man raised his cane and held it across Jiang Bei's path.

Startled, Jiang Bei looked at the conspicuous figure, assuring himself that he hadn't met such a person before. So he hesitated and asked, "Uh, excuse me... Do we know each other?"

"Oh, just a small question, it won't take much of your time, sir."

The man stepped forward gracefully, resembling a gentleman from the West often seen in movies. The streetlamp's light cascaded over him like silver, making him appear as though he had stepped out from a dream.

"Excuse me, is this 'real'?"

"What?" Jiang Bei didn't understand the question.

But the man looked serious, as if he urgently needed an answer to this cryptic question.

It seemed like he wasn't actually expecting an answer from Jiang Bei but instead, he let out two eerie laughs that made one feel uneasy.

"Ah, it seems there is still a distance from 'reality', my journey hasn't ended yet."

With that odd comment, he suddenly reached out with his left hand.

Jiang Bei swore that this was the fastest person he had ever seen; he couldn't even see the arm movement clearly with his naked eye. When he came back to his senses, his throat was already clenched tight.

The vise-like grip, the massive pressure squeezing the last bit of air out of his windpipe. The man in the white suit held a terrifying power that contrasted his appearance, and in his presence, Jiang Bei felt as helpless as a chick.

Jiang Bei couldn't make a sound, even thinking seemed to be severed by this abnormal strength. He saw a chilling excitement appear in the man's eyes.

He saw the man's other hand plunge towards him.

The piercing movement was as swift as lightning. Jiang Bei's chest was penetrated like a paper window, and his gushing blood stained the white suit. He saw the man pull his hand out from his chest, clutching a bloody object.

Jiang Bei quickly realized that it was his own heart.

The man had pulled out his own heart.

"Critical damage, life signs at risk..."

To read the uncut version, go to ].

"Automatically dialing emergency services... Dial failed..."

A prompt popped up on the screen before his eyes, but his vision quickly blurred. Jiang Bei thought he heard the man's laughter mingling with the alarm from the chip, but they quickly faded into the distance.

The man released his grip. Freed from the restraint, Jiang Bei immediately fell into the arms of gravity. It was as if an invisible hand had reached out from the earth's core, pulling him downwards.

Jiang Bei landed on the freezing sidewalk.

The critical life signs warning flashed before his eyes, gradually becoming blurry. The lights dimmed, the sidewalk was as cold as the polar ice, and the world seemed to be coated with a dark filter. Everything seemed to be moving away from him.

This is what death feels like.

At the last moment before everything plunged into darkness, he seemed to see a light.

Like a meteor trailing a beautiful path, tearing through the darkness, rushing towards him from the other end of the abyss.

In the next moment, an unparalleled explosion of light and heat erupted.

As if everything was obliterated.