Chapter One: The Third Kind of Encounter

If he was not mistaken, he should already be dead, Liu Shaoyu thought.

But if he was dead, why could he still think? Did that mean he wasn’t dead? Instinctively, he tried to raise his arm, but nothing happened.

There was only boundless darkness—no body, no senses. Liu Shaoyu had no idea what state he was in. Was it possible that after death, consciousness did not dissipate but was instead imprisoned in this place?

As he considered this, Liu Shaoyu felt a chill. If that were true, it was terrifying.

Endless, timeless drifting. He tried to speak, but it was futile.

“Where is this? Is anyone there?!” Liu Shaoyu could only cry out in his mind, yet, as before, there was no response.

The darkness endured. Perhaps millennia had passed, perhaps only a second’s instant, or perhaps, here, time itself did not exist.

Eventually, Liu Shaoyu gave up. If this was death, it was far too dreadful.

“Ah—!” Suddenly, a booming voice echoed in Liu Shaoyu’s mind.

“Who’s there?” Perhaps he had been here so long that the sudden sound filled him with wild excitement.

No answer came, only silence once more. Was it just an illusion? Liu Shaoyu wondered.

Again, a sigh sounded. This time, Liu Shaoyu was certain it was not his imagination. Perhaps driven nearly mad by this endless isolation, he had never before been so thrilled by the presence of another voice.

After a long wait with no reply, Liu Shaoyu began to despair, thinking this was another futile hope, and again fell silent.

“Go back. It is not your time to be here.” After what felt like an eternity, a voice suddenly rang out in his mind. Though he could not hear the language, Liu Shaoyu nonetheless understood perfectly.

“Where is this?!” Liu Shaoyu could only shout in his heart, but this time, there was no answer.

Suddenly, he felt a tremendous force pulling at him from all directions, enveloping him, trying to drag him away. He tried to resist, but it was useless; the overwhelming pull nullified every struggle.

But why struggle? What could possibly be worse than this? Liu Shaoyu thought, and so he ceased resisting, letting the force have its way.

The sensation lasted a long time—how long, he could not tell—but it seemed endless.

Then, a surge of intense pain pierced him, making him twitch uncontrollably. Wait—he could feel his body again, his limbs. A shrill ringing in his ears, and then, gradually, sounds began to clarify.

“Consciousness transfer complete. Congruence at ninety-five percent. Progress at ninety-eight percent.”

It was an artificial intelligence’s voice, Liu Shaoyu realized. But what was happening? He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids were as heavy as mountains.

“Spirit response check. If you can hear this clearly, please confirm. The system will automatically test.”

Hearing this, Liu Shaoyu wanted to speak, but found his mouth unresponsive, his throat blocked as if something was stuck there.

“Spiritual state confirmed as healthy. Preparing to activate remaining senses. There may be slight discomfort.”

When the voice ended, a wave of nausea rose from Liu Shaoyu’s stomach, but his blocked throat only allowed him to hunch over, unable to vomit. The discomfort soon faded.

“Cultivation fluid ready for discharge.”

“Discharge complete. Please open your eyes slowly.”

Liu Shaoyu felt his eyes were once again his own. He opened them slowly, and a dazzling white light made him want to close them again. But having finally regained his sight, he was desperate to see what had happened, so he forced himself to endure the glare. Gradually, the blinding whiteness resolved into shapes and forms. Before him was a glass container—and he realized he was inside it.

Where was this? Liu Shaoyu wondered, puzzled.

He tried calling his personal computer, but received no response. It seemed his personal AI was also gone. Only when someone came to explain would he know what had happened. At least now, he could confirm he was not dead. But how could this be?

“Clone consciousness transfer complete. Vital signs normal. Activating new chip information.”

A sharp pain stabbed through his brain this time, making him want to clench his fists, but his limbs were weak and any movement brought only soreness.

As the pain faded, a string of green numbers flashed across his retina—like a computer booting up.

“Personal computer activated. Data initializing. Program self-check starting.”

Streams of data danced before his eyes.

After about thirty seconds, the green symbols vanished.

“Hello. I am your new personal computer. Please designate a name.” The familiar AI voice sounded.

“Thomas?” Liu Shaoyu asked tentatively.

“Confirmation complete. Computer initializing intelligence.”

Then the AI voice disappeared.

Was this a new computer? Liu Shaoyu wondered. But if it was a new device, the situation was not so simple.

He hadn’t expected that, having truly died, he would now be sitting here, wondering if his computer was new—this alone was extraordinary.

On Earth, Liu Shaoyu had originally lived in a residence in the capital.

Originally—because during that rescue mission, though he acted alone, the target was a senior researcher from the Ministry of Science and Technology. Even if Wang Weifu hadn’t approached Liu Shaoyu first, news of Mu Wan’s kidnapping would have reached the research department within a day, and the military, closely tied to them, would not have ignored it. The correction squad Liu Shaoyu belonged to would have likely been assigned the task anyway.

Thus, due to a series of coincidences, the mission was officially a military operation, and, in the end, Mu Wan was rescued.

The young officer Liu Shaoyu, killed in action during the mission, would be forever remembered by the Federation.

Officially, Liu Shaoyu was declared dead, his biosignals confirmed vanished by the Federation’s systems. His house would be repossessed by the military until reassigned.

In that room now sat a woman, dressed in plain clothes, her hair neatly coiled behind her head. Since Liu Shaoyu was declared dead, she had used her connections to transfer the property into her family’s name.

With her family’s influence in the military, just a hint of her intentions ensured everything was handled and delivered to her.

She had memories here, and didn’t want anyone else to take possession.

“It should be time,” she thought.

This woman was Xin Qingyi, a member of the Young Dragon Squad.

Having packed away Liu Shaoyu’s belongings, she was ready to leave. By now, he should have awakened. The thought brought a rare smile to her face—the first in months.

In that moment, she had thought he was gone forever. In fact, he almost was.

The mecha Xin Qingyi found was not a standard military unit, but a new experimental model from Galactic Universal Technology Corporation. Still in trials, its offensive systems were incomplete, so the squad didn’t notice anything unusual, and Xin Qingyi explained it had been modified.

The model’s greatest innovation was a thirty percent increase in armor performance, granting higher defense. Even without energy shields, it could withstand significant attacks.

But a railgun was simply too powerful. Even with the improved armor, it could not withstand a railgun’s energy blast.

Yet, that seemingly modest enhancement preserved Liu Shaoyu’s neural consciousness.

When the mecha reached its limit, the neural protection system activated, temporarily sealing Liu Shaoyu’s neural consciousness.

But his body was utterly destroyed by the railgun’s energy.

Hence, the Federation’s system registered his life as extinct.

But in her despair, Xin Qingyi discovered the data Liu Shaoyu had transmitted before his death. After reading it, she snapped out of her grief, rushed back to Earth, and confided everything to her beloved grandfather. The mention of a traitor in the military unsettled her, but her grandfather was the one person she trusted completely. After the trauma she had suffered, she could only turn to him.

Yet, her grandfather showed no shock when he heard that humanity might achieve immortality.

That was because the true master of Galactic Universal Technology Corporation was none other than him—Xin Yan.

Mu Wan and Wang Weifu could never have completed their research alone; even the planet they used was beyond their means. They needed the backing of a powerful consortium. Galactic Universal Technology Corporation was devoted to advancing humanity’s technology and securing Earth’s place in the cosmos.

The company was willing to fund the project as a private research venture, with the only condition being exclusive rights to the discovery if it succeeded.

Galactic Universal Technology Corporation was originally a state-owned enterprise founded jointly by the military and government. But after centuries of evolution, their combined shares were reduced to just fifteen percent. The Xin family, holding forty-five percent, became the largest shareholder.

The Xin family, a clan with roots stretching back to ancient China, possessed immense resources. With such a legacy, they were intimately linked to government—each generation, only one heir could inherit the family’s vast holdings; the others were sent to serve in government or the military. Those with idle tendencies were dispatched to manage minor businesses on frontier worlds. But over so many centuries, their descendants rarely failed expectations. Otherwise, the family would not have survived through the upheavals of Chinese history.

Mu Wan and Wang Weifu’s experimental base was secretly duplicated on a remote planet at the edge of the galaxy by the Xin family. When Wang Weifu discovered data theft, he destroyed the valuable research base.

The so-called “traitor” was simply some high-level officials who wanted to monopolize the discovery.

It was always thus: internal strife, played out by humanity after thousands of years.

The possibility of human immortality was already an open secret among the elite. For such a massive research budget, it was impossible for Galactic Universal Technology Corporation to move unnoticed. For humanity’s future, the Xin family even announced the project at a high-level meeting.

Driven by greed, some officials went so far as to collude with pirates. They meant to disguise the theft as a pirate attack, but the plan went awry.

Not only was the information not obtained, but after Mu Wan was rescued and revealed the truth, the leadership initiated a purge.

The existence of malicious elements and spies within the leadership was well known, but they were tolerated for their utility.

But this time, greed drove them to act recklessly, tearing off their masks. This forced Earth’s highest authority—the Group of Five—to resolve to clean house.

Overnight, many galactic powers were wiped out. Pirate factions were decimated, forced to flee to other star systems.

In their rage, Earth’s leaders realized the data was gone—and Wang Weifu had vanished. Only Mu Wan, with the key, remained.

Xin Qingyi’s news gave Xin Yan a rare surprise—few things in the universe could still astonish him.

But soon, his instincts as a businessman took over, and he began considering how to maximize the benefit.

“I can agree to transfer him to a new body, but you must give me a reason,” he told Xin Qingyi, who had always been granted anything she asked since childhood.

“Because I think I might love him,” Xin Qingyi said softly. Though the words were spoken, there was a tinge of bittersweetness in her heart.

“Silly girl.” At her answer, the old man’s stern face broke into a smile.

Even for such a request, he only asked for a reason. For in this universe, Xin family women needed no marriage alliances to maintain their power.

And for this granddaughter, he owed too much.

The massive upheaval caused by this small rescue mission only intensified in the following months, with many unforeseen consequences snowballing, but that is a tale for another time.

As for Liu Shaoyu—he now understood why he had not died. He was the first beneficiary of the “God Project.”

He now inhabited an entirely new body.

The Liu Shaoyu of old was gone, forever.

The second update of the day is delivered—a new chapter begins: the triumphant return of Liu Shaoyu!