Novel Bin Book 1: Chapter 1
Book 1: Chapter 1
Name: Zhu Liangzhe
Sex: Male
Nationality: Chinese
Birth Date: 1997
ID number: XXXXXX
Age: 21
Marital Status: Not yet married
Education: Military-machinery field studies graduate
Cause of Death: Drowned saving a citizen
Honours: Posthumous Second-class award for unwavering loyalty
Thats right.
Im dead.
The last thing I saw before my death was a young girl falling into the water. As a soldier whos dedicated to serving the country and its people, I jumped in after her without thinking. The waves were strong and freezing as the ice had just melted after the harsh winter. I was washed away after I managed to get the young girl aboard a rescue boat. It was merely water and yet it felt like a huge rock was being smashed into my face in those moments.
I lost conscious after getting washed away and never woke up.
And so, I, Zhu Liangzhe died at twenty-one just like that. To be frank, I was fairly indifferent about it. I didnt have any regrets, I didnt feel happy nor did I have a sense of satisfaction. My family has always served in the military since the Red Army. My parents would only be upset over my death for a while before changing their perspective and seeing it as me bringing glory to the family, and actually feel proud about it. I didnt have any worries since I had an older sister whod take care of them.
Oh yeah, for the record I was single.
I never had any goals while I was alive. I just went along with the daily training and lessons. I think that perhaps military school was suited for me since Im the sort of person who lacks motivation and needs a push. I wasnt an outstanding soldier to be honest. My grades were average. You know, the type that teachers dont remember, and you have to reintroduce yourself every single time? When I started working, it was just to put food on the table. I never made mistakes and never stood out.
But thanks to this incident, I was awarded a posthumous second-class award and seen as a loyal solider. Im sure thats going to help me get my name recorded in history. Yeah, I dont think its so bad to die a celebrated hero instead of being another face in the crowd with nothing to show. Instead of seeing it as the start of my life, I think its better to look at it as my one-and-only glorious moment.
It was perfect if I say so myself.
Alright, thinking time is up. Can I pass on now? Why am I still conscious of my own thoughts when theyre supposed to have been buried with me at my funeral? Arent I dead?! How do I still possess self-awareness? Based on the Principle of Materialisation, Im supposed to have my lights out like a lantern when I die. So how the heck am I still able to consciously process my thoughts?
Dont tell me humans really have souls and that were just unaware of it because they cant communicate with the living? Can I safely assume that souls dont exist if humans cant see them? No idea. What am I even right now? I seem to just be an abstract thought without a body or limbs. I cant seem to do anything other than think. I have no sight, hearing or smell, nor can I sense my surroundings.
I seem to be limited to just being able to think. Is this what happens after people die? So we lose everything and all that remains is our ability to think, and think indefinitely? A human corpse will corrode, so does our conscious escape our body and continue to exist or something? Uhh So are these Zhu Liangzhes thoughts? Zhu Liangzhe is dead, so are these his thoughts or what?
Holy shit, now Ive gone all philosophical.
Id be chuckling right now if I had a mouth. The problem is I cant do anything right now. Since this the case, Im just going to stop bothering with anything. Will my conscious disappear if I stop thinking? Alright ladies and gentlemen, thank you for listening to my endless rambling. I wont bother you any further. Goodbye.
Troy! Troy! Troy, I beg you Troy Wake up Troy Im beg you Dont Dont make mommy worry I beg you, please wake up How can I continue on living without you? Im begging you, please wake up
Hmm
Hey lady, could you please show some respect for the dead? Like, could you please not lie on my body and cry? Arent you aware that pressing your body on top of another persons body will give them a hard time breathing? Do you want him to wake up or sleep for eternity?
Huh?
Wait a second
Why am I still breathing? I can smell the scent of grass and flowers wafting into my nose and down my throat with each gasp of air. I can taste a strong stench of blood in my throat thats fumbling with my head. I can hear rain falling on the ground and the lady beside me crying.
How are my hands able to feel warmth? Im more surprised as to how I have all these senses than why my hands are being held by someone.
Im dead, and the dead arent supposed to have any senses. Just a moment ago, I only had my thoughts. So how do I suddenly have a sense of touch now? Arent I dead? How come I suddenly feel life again? I can hear my faint heartbeat.
I coughed violently and spat a mouthful of blood out, clearing out my throat. The chilly air blew into my lungs and gave all the cells in my body a wake-up call. I slowly opened my eyes as a few teardrops landed on my face. Still in my stupor, I looked at the grey sky that was still spitting.
How am I alive?
Where is this place?
I died. Im one-hundred percent positive I died. What on Earth is going on? The fact that I was still consciously processing thoughts after death was a surprise, but I dont know what to think of being reincarnated. What in the world is going on? Im mind-blown right now.
Troy!! My son! My son! Im so glad! Im so glad! Im so glad youre still alive! Thank you Goddess Clementina for protecting my son! Thank you! Thank you!
Before I could figure out what was going on, I got pulled into some ladys embrace out of the blue with my head wedged in between two big round warm things All that air I breathed in just now slowly began to get depleted and all I could smell was a strong flower-scent What flower is this? I feel like Ive encountered it before But theres a more important matter at hand so lets put that aside for now Miss, could you please let go of me, Im suffocating here!!The sourc𝗲 of this content no/v(𝒆l)bi((n))
After she let go of me, she anxiously cupped my face in her hands. A face so beautiful with eyes coloured blue like lightning, youd think it was the perfect 3D sculpture appeared before me. One question Why are her ears pointy? Her slender fingers slid across my face as she caressed my face and then she anxiously asked: Whats wrong? You must be in lots of pain! Its all mommys fault Its all mommys fault Mommy shouldnt have let you go and hunt Earth Dragons Its all mommys fault Im so glad youre alright, my son Im so glad Mommy will take you home Mommy will take you home
Hey, uhh Who are you miss? I mean, could you please tell me who I am? I just came back to life and am still having trouble trying to figure out what just happened. I know I passed on, so why am I here, and uhh While everything Im seeing looks familiar to the things I see every day, for some reason it feels foreign at the same time
Especially, this lady in front of me who called herself mom
Whats wrong? Do you still recognise me? Its me, Im your mom! She caressed my face in her palms and held it up so that our gazes would meet. Perhaps she noticed the look of bewilderment on my face. As she held my face in her hands, she shouted: Im your mom! Son Im your mom! Dont scare me Dont scare mommy Youll be fine, youll definitely be alright!
M-mom?
Thoughts that seemingly didnt belong to me came gushing in. I looked at the lady in front of me, and called her mom is if it were natural to. She sniffled, pursed her lips and put on a smile filled with infinite happiness. She tightly held me in her embrace and cried on my shoulder.
I spaced out as she tightly embraced me. All I could feel were her supple breasts, her body warmth and smell her fragrance. It looks like I need to reprocess my thinking here. Its safe to assume at this point that Im living the plot of those dimensional travel novels Ive always despised right now.
I looked at her pointy ears and thought to myself: This is a rather unusual time-travel experience, because I didnt travel to the past nor future, but what appears to be a different world My mom probably isnt human. In fact, she resembles an elf Hold up! My moms an elf! Doesnt that make me an elf too then?!
I swiftly lifted my hands up to my ears and touched them. Eh? Human ears? What the? So Im a human? Did this lady mistake me for someone else? Im a human! How is it possible an elf give birth to a human? Could my father be a human by chance? If so, doesnt that mean Im a half-breed then?
My brain was overcome with these questions. And the more I thought about it about, the more questions I got. Wait, no. I didnt get answers, they were more like: It is what it is, type answers that were supposed to be common sense knowledge here. The question is why? Whats with these conscious thoughts and memories? Do these memories belong to the original owner of this body? Have I inherited his memories? So, the original owner of this body is dead then.
This lady hugging me from the front is my mother And And
Your highness! We have finally found you!
The sound of horse hooves approaching came from behind my mom. A group of people dashed out from the forest after seeing my mom and I, and let out a huge sigh The leader of the people, I mean, elves, wore armour and looked quite handsome for a man, or should I say, he looks a little weak although handsome for a man? He walked up to us, knelt down on one knee, pressed his right hand to his chest, lowered his head and said: It is dangerous here. Your highness, please take his highness and leave this place quickly.
So my mom is the queen of elves now?! Thatd make me the prince of elves then!! What the hell is up with this dimensional travel plot? What are the chances this is all coincidental? Youre telling me that I reincarnated, and then just conveniently woke up as the prince of elves?! I dont buy it!
Mom wiped the corner of her eyes, grasped my hands tightly and stood up. She then turned around and said: You must protect the prince no matter what! Dont worry about me. I cant bear to see my son get hurt.
She then turned around and gently caressed my face as she comforted me with a smile: Its alright, itll be fine now. My dear son, its fine now. Dont be scared, mommy is here for you. Dont worry, well be home soon. I wont ever let you come to such dangerous places again Its all my fault Its all my fault
I could feel her sincere motherly love towards me. Its a pity that Im not the original owner of this body I watched her mournful face and saw her tears rolling down like a shattered diamond I didnt want to aggravate her any further so I just nodded.
And thus began my new life in a new and unfamiliar body.
This body felt strangely light. I looked down at myself and couldnt see how I was any different to any other human. I just looked slightly leaner than before. I may have just whiled away in my previous life, but I did build a muscular body, so I wasnt too comfortable in this leaner body.
Right now, I was wearing a simple piece of leather armour. However, underneath the armour was an evidently superbly made shirt. My cape was torn, shredded and covered in mud, while my shoes were so worn out they were ready to hit the trash can. These were equestrian boots, which means this person came to this place by via horseback. The scabbard dangling on my waist was empty. Wheres my sword?!
All of a sudden, images started popping up in my mind like a movie. There were cheers from the townspeople Bustling crowds Soldiers gathered around together Myself waving with a smile as I rode atop my horse The darkness in the forest A large shadow trampling on troops Cries of agony While I was fleeing, a huge beast sent me flying and then stomped on me
AAARRGH!
That flashback feels so realistic that its scary. I hastily touched my stomach and discovered it was evidently dented. The sudden surprise caused me to break out into a cold sweat. Its a miracle that this body didnt get reduced to mince-meat. If it did, it wouldve been pointless for me to be reincarnated. Looks like I was brought here to slay something but ended up getting killed instead
I think that massive beast is called an Earth Dragon or something They look similar to three horned dragons. It looked immune to magic and resistant to physical attacks from weapons. Facing a creature like that, Im not surprised they failed. The dragon scales are too hard, and according to the memories of the original owner of this body, my men didnt seem to have any heavy weaponry equipped.
Could it be possible that elves dont possess any heavy firearms?
Seeing as how I dont have any recollections of that, I gather that the memories Ive inherited are very limited. I only have the memories of the day of my death. The only complete memory I have is of my mother.
Two troops walked up to us and dismounted. I took the reins and awkwardly hopped on. Mom clumsily mounted her house. I saw her glorious boobs jiggle as she mounted her horse. She wasnt dressed in battle attire. She was dressed in a casual everyday dress. Mom evidently traversed their forest for a long time trying to look for me as her dress was tattered.
Mom trudged a few steps on her house, but then suddenly turned back, faced the troops and said: Lets head back to the palace now. Oh, right. All of you get changed.
The captain froze for a second, but then quickly caught on to what mom meant. He commanded the troops below: Throw some mud on your clothes, tear them, and splat some blood on them! Remember, we won! Our campaign was a success! We are the victors! Victory!
Victory!
Mom nodded and then said: Have you prepared what I asked for?
The captain took a bag out and said: It is ready, your highness.
Mom took the bag and opened it. I could hear the rattling of gold pieces. I leaned over to steal a peek and saw something shiny akin to gold, but seemingly resembling once live scales.
These are Earth Dragon scales. Remember son, you were victorious this time. Youre returning as a victor. When we get back, scatter these in the crowds. Itll be alright. Dont worry about Earth Dragons and whatnot. Just stay by my side and everything will be fine. Please, dont ever get yourself in trouble again. Mommy wont let you go to such dangerous places like that again.
Mom looked at me with adoration as she handed me the bag. The bag felt as heavy as a bag filled with gold. They were just some creatures scales so why were they so heavy?
I lifted my head and suddenly understood what happened earlier.
The waste-ground with snapped tree branches where I woke up upon arriving in this world was a pool of blood.
This bag of scales contained the weight of their lives
And then, the rain stopped and the sun shined through the clouds. The sunrays reflected off my leather army as I caught a glimpse of faces filled with despair