Emperor of Tomorrow

The meteor shower brought world-ending disaster along with it. Strange elements led to animals developing mutations. Micro-organisms invisible to the naked eye brought along countless diseases.

Humanity aside from its own diseases, also had to resist against the more numerous mutated animals. The omnipresence of threat, as well as the countless variations of microbes, resistant diseases, and disaster led to the evolution of civilization come to a halt and regress instead.

The bustling cities turned into ruins, the vast expanses of fertile land were reduced to h.e.l.l.

————————

Fang Zhao didn’t remember how long he had been surviving in that near-apocalyptic world, how long he had been fighting.

Ninety years? Or maybe a hundred years?

Can’t remember.

Before the end of the world, he was quite a famous composer with his career on the rise. Just when he was preparing the work that he was most satisfied with, he was welcomed by the war of extinction. In order to live, he went from fleeing in all directions to leading a squad of troops fighting bravely.

At the time when the lost lands were being recovered piece by piece, everyone thought that this war of extinction would come to an end and a golden age would reappear, at that time, he collapsed in the darkness before the dawn.

……

“If you are not determined to ride the line of certain death, you will certainly lose this war.”

“So, the 8 billion people of the world are now reduced to 80 million.”

“Old Zhao, you tell, can we achieve victory?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t fear death. I only fear that even after the death of so many people we still won’t have won the surface.”

“We will win.”

“That is good, after the victory, I will find a place and restart grazing, ai, the pastures from my childhood, the blue skies and green gra.s.s….forget it, I can’t reminisce about the old days. Old Zhao, what about you? After the victory, will you go back to being a composer?”

“‘Restart’? I never stopped in the first place.”

……

The conversation that Fang Zhao once had with his comrade-in-arms Su Mu echoed in his mind.

The shouts of his subordinates at death’s door, the roars of mutated creatures, seemed to be getting more and more distant. The pain from decades of injuries and fatal wounds had disappeared completely, he was gradually regaining consciousness.

Fang Zhao was quite perplexed by the overwhelming feeling akin to a dead wood meeting the rejuvenation of spring. After all, he was already more than a hundred years old, an injury-ridden old man with incomplete fingers. Even if the apocalypse caused the defense mechanisms of the body to undergo a mutation or physical enhancement, but after all was said and done, his injuries had developed too many complications, and his age was also too old. Having remained in that state of an overloaded machine at every moment, it was impossible to reach this kind of a gentle state.

At that time, Fang Zhao felt a slender p.r.i.c.k like sensation, as if a needle had been inserted into his brain. Countless images a.s.saulted his brain, crowded as if they might explode the next moment.

He was gradually regaining control of the body. Fang Zhao suddenly opened his eyes, sat up, and opened his mouth to take a deep breath. Overuse of the brain to the point of exhaustion had made his vision darken momentarily. However, with the gradual easing of the headache his vision recovered. Fang Zhao’s acute perception discovered an anomaly in the surroundings.

His intuition and sensitivity borne out of countless life-and-death battles on the battlefield, made it so that Fang Zhao didn’t even need to look to determine that he was in an unfamiliar place.

Wrong!

It wasn’t an unfamiliar place!

A picture emerged in his mind, a picture that he was seemingly quite familiar with.

This was where his host lived.

He was Fang Zhao, but also not Fang Zhao.

He had already died in the War of Extinction, but he had managed to come back to life. He was brought to life in the body of someone who was also called Fang Shao.

He had come back from death! !

Fang Zhao raised his hands and looked at the ten intact fingers, he felt somewhat fatigued while moving but there was no pain in his legs.

This was a young and healthy body!

In Fang Zhao’s mind were not only his own memories, he could still very clearly recall the scene of dying in battle, nearly a hundred years of fleeing, the battle experience, everything was in his mind, but at the same time he also had the memories of his own body.

This young man was also called Fang Zhao, he was only 23 years old, and he was about to finish his professional higher education.

This person was a young composer.

What a pity…...

Just as he was graduating, he had been dumped, he had been cheated out of his hard work. The friend who he felt he could fight with side-by-side, ended up betraying him for personal benefit. The results of his three months of work were all stolen. Under the repeated blows, this person chose a solution to thoroughly resolve all his problems -- Suicide.

Fang Zhao was quite puzzled, the apocalypse had ended. He was living in such a good world, why would he give up his life?

Wasn’t it just being dumped?

Wasn’t it just having your song stolen?

Wasn’t it just being betrayed by your good partner?

Then so what? !

Has the sky fallen? !

In the apocalypse, people were thinking up every possible means just to survive but because of this matter you committed suicide? People who live in this era certainly do not understand.

However, right now was the peacetime of the golden age after the apocalypse. People living in peace had different thoughts. Fang Zhao himself had also experienced peace once, but it was too distant in time, the memory had been rendered fuzzy by the countless carnages.

How do the people living in an era of peace think?

Never mind. No matter what, the event has already happened.

Fang Zhao searched through his brain for other parts of this body’s memories, aside from sighing he also felt anger. After encountering this kind of a situation, this choice was really too cowardly. The original host died and the people who stole his achievements are living happily. Suddenly transforming into successful people, while he died, was it really worth it in the end?

Anyways, Fang Zhao himself felt that it was not worth it. This life’s feud and the resulting karmic retribution, don’t know if ghosts have an afterlife.

Only, the original host didn’t dare to confront the current situation, Fang Zhao was not like that.

The experiences of a person who has experienced the end of the world, and one who has lived in an era of peace, are after all different.

After searching through the memories a bit more, Fang Zhao was quite surprised.

It truly is a new world…...

So many years of fighting, so many years of h.e.l.l-like life was all really worth it! As he rummaged through the original host’s memories, Fang Zhao didn’t stop exploring his surroundings. Regardless of what time it was, even if he was in a safe environment, Fang Zhao would not completely let down his guard, as it was a habit that he had developed in the time of the apocalypse. This was also one of the reason that he was able to live more than a hundred of years in the apocalypse.

There were more and more crooning sounds come from his side. Fang Zhao temporarily stopped his search for this body’s memories, and turned his head to the side.

He had realized only a moment ago that there was another life form in this small room, but it was no threat, and it had no intention to attack. This was not the kind of mutated animal from the end of the world period, so it didn’t catch his attention just now. However, now upon hearing louder and louder crooning, Fang Zhao turned to the side to face it.

Of course, it was a little dog, its finger long hair forming big lumps, covered in stains everywhere. This dog was very thin, if the dog’s hair were removed, only the skin and bones would be left.

The original host had taken in a stray dog before his suicide.

After the original owner picked it up last night, he gave it the final dinner, half of which was eaten by the original host himself, the other half was given to this dog-- both were laced with the drugs he had bought from the drugstore for his suicide.

Not far away on the table there was an empty bowl, the drugged food had been eaten up in entirety by the original owner. However, the bowl of the dog was still just like yesterday without any changes.

As per memory, the dog’s physical condition yesterday was not good, he couldn’t even stand up. After the night pa.s.sed, his spirits seemed to have gotten a bit better, but it was still difficult for it to stand. It lay down there, tilting its head, twisting its head to look at Fang Zhao while shaking its tail. The black and round eyeb.a.l.l.s looked attentively at Fang Zhao.

Fang Zhao tried moving his legs, even though there was weakness, but walking was still possible.

As both his feet touched the floor, the feeling of the surface pa.s.sed from his feet to his brain, causing Fang Zhao’s heart rate to speed up.

As if to determine the truth in front of his eyes, Fang Zhao walked very carefully, very earnestly.

One step, two steps…..

The slow-motion probing out in the beginning gradually became faster. Each and every cell in the body was transmitting joy and happiness to the brain.

From death to life, how lucky!

He walked over to the place where the dog was lying. Fang Zhao crouched down but he couldn’t identify the material in the plate. So he threw the drugged food along with the plate into the trash bin.

Seeing Fang Zhao moving, that dog also seemed to gain a bit spirit, there was some vitality in his eyes.

There was no edible food in the room. Fang Zhao acting in accordance to the memories, pulled out a bowl from the kitchen cabinet. He traced the bowl’s surface, and determined that he wasn’t familiar with this material. At first sight, it looked like ceramics, but the touch had the feel more like plastic, it was very light.

There were fuzzy memories in his brain about this new material. The only thing that Fang Zhao knew that this was a kind of material which would rapidly degrade under special conditions and would not release ma.s.sive deleterious substances.

He didn’t perform any serious investigations again, Fang Zhao went to the basin and filled the bowl with water up to half and set it in front of that dog.

The dog that was originally laying there, stood up swaying and with the appearance as if it could drop at any time, it still rigidly stood firm. It lowered its head to lick the water in the bowl, with its tail still flicking from side to side in a small scope. 

Even if it was a stray dog, it too was desirous of living.

Fang Zhao looked at the dog, and then put his attention once more towards this not so big room.

Altogether about 20 sq. meters of s.p.a.ce approximately, it was crowded and chaotic. The corner of the room was actually a complete mess, but the memories in his brain let Fang Zhao know that before yesterday, that corner was actually the neatest place in the entire room.

The corner was roughly 4 sq. meters with narrow and small s.p.a.ce, it was original host’s place of creation. In the past two months, the songs that he had created were completed in that narrow corner.

There were many tools and ornaments in the room that were strange, domestic electric appliances that Fang Zhao had never seen before, but he was able to understand them all with the remnant memories in his brain. Therefore, so long as he fuses all of his memories, he wouldn’t have any issue surviving in this place.

Fang Zhao walked to a spot, on the wall he pressed a small b.u.t.ton. A tall cabinet with identical s.p.a.ces extended out from the wall surface. Atop the cabinet there was a mirror.

Fang Zhao didn’t inspect the material quality of the mirror and cabinet, he looked carefully at the person in the mirror.

The appearances of the original host and Fang Zhao were somewhat similar. Actually, Fang Zhao didn’t remember how he looked when he was young, but seeing the face in mirror, Fang Zhao felt a familiar feeling that did not belong to the memory of this body, rather it belonged to the memories that Fang Zhao brought with him.

So it really was…...fated.

Although he didn’t know what was the cause that helped him obtain this healthy body, nor did Fang Zhao approve of the original host’s way of handling things, but since he had inherited this body and gained the memory of the rightful owner, Fang Zhao was still able to take on a share of the responsibility.

Staring at the eyes in the mirror, Fang Zhao said earnestly:

Your discarded life, I accepted.

Your enmity, I will avenge!

Your debt, I will help you too!

Was your dream to become a world famous Composer? It so happens, that that is mine also.

Actually, Fang Zhao’s ambitions were quite big, but after all this was a new world he was not familiar with. Many great ambitions must be established based on reality and one’s own ability. Before the apocalypse, the cherished desires that couldn’t complete, could come true now.

One could boast to everyone, but he had still not adapted to the circ.u.mstances. Before unravelling his own ability, saying anything was meaningless.

Pushing the cabinet once more into the wall, Fang Zhao arrived at the window and opened it.

At this time, noon was rapidly approaching. The weather was clear outside, and the window blinds were already pulled open, but the room was still dim. This was because this place was the Black Street. A place that was similar to slum housing.