29 Waking Up Old

And just like that, another three months passed.

One thing he realized was that Little Silver's IQ was not good. He had taught her the Chinese alphabet for another three months and as a result she could only understand 100 characters, which isn't enough to speak yet.

So, after educating her for six months on the Chinese language, he gave up.

It seems that she might struggle on reading certain letters and that him constantly teaching her the language had halted his reading meaning he can't grow in strength. He knew that there were so many years left of her childhood, so he decided to take it slow and let her understand by interacting with him from now on.

"Little Silver, catch two fish and come back!"

One of the biggest gains he had gotten from educating her was that she could catch fish on her own. If there was someone to do the labour, let them do it. It saved Chen Fan a lot of time travelling to the river and coming back, and now he has Little Silver doing that job from now on.

While Little Silver went out to catch fish, Chen Fan stood at the entrance of his base and took a deep breath of fresh air.

After 20 years of extreme environmental climate, he has seen it all. From destroyed mountains, trees, and buildings, it felt like the world had no breath of life anymore. But now, looking at the surroundings of his base, and seeing the flowers that are now in full bloom, he smiled.

"CHIUU~!"

While enjoying the fresh air and the area, Little Silver flew back with two fish in her mouth. "You are so awesome! Thanks, Little Silver!"

Chen Fan patted her on the head and praised her for a job well done.

Next, Chen Fan skilfully cooked the fish and after eating it with Little Silver, the sky was turning dark.

When it was time to go to bed, Little Silver obediently slept next to Chen Fan. This was the case every night for the past six months and Chen Fan gradually became accustomed to sleeping next to her.

The next day, Chen Fan slowly opened his eyes and saw that Little Silver wasn't by his side.

Strange, usually when he wakes up, he sees her staring at him. So, why wasn't she here today?

Chen Fan got out of bed and felt very tired inexplicably, he struggled to take a step like a old man who was faltering.

'What's going on? Why am I so tired today?'

Chen Fan slowly walked out of the bedroom, wanting to know where Little Silver was. But after looking around, he couldn't find her at all.

He pushed open the door.

'Huh, why are the steel walls gone?' Chen Fan felt more and more confused.

And it was already so bright outside, he would never get up late ever.

Because he slept six hours a day and made sure he wakes up at 6am everyday for the past 20 years. He had developed such a regular sleeping schedule that it would be strange for him not to wake up at the same time every day.

'The trees are all missing, what the hell…'

He walked out and saw that everything around him was destroyed. All the buildings in the distance had collapsed, not because they were destroyed but rather, they were too old.

'What the hell is going on? Why did everything change overnight? Little Silver is gone, the green grass and trees had all disappeared and replaced with a desolate landscape. Is this a dream?"

Chen Fan raised his hands and wanted to pinch his arm, but when he saw his hand, he was instantly stunned.

What he saw was an old, wrinkled and veiny arm which trembled as he lifted it. Chen Fan couldn't believe what he saw.

He staggered into the base and hurriedly went to the mirror in his room and saw himself in the mirror.

'What kind of old man is this?'

White hair and a hunched body, he couldn't even straighten his back, he was thin as paper, and his face was extremely old to the point where his eye sockets were deeply sunken.

'How long have I been asleep?'

Chen Fan didn't want to believe what was going on.

He raised his hand with difficulty and pinched his arm hard.

'Ouch! It hurt, which means this isn't a dream?'

In an instant, countless memories flooded into his mind.

In this memory, he remembered that he dreamt that on the day when mankind had crossed, he got a system, he got the Scroll of the Titans, which made him powerful and kill the dormant trolls that slept in the city.

Moreover, the system had prolonged his life, restoring his youth and gave his body abilities which granted him even more powers.

With the help of the system, he done all that while also raising a cute little silver dragon as a daughter.

What a wonderful dream it was. But now, he woke up.

He recalled his real experience over the decades.

It turned out he never encountered the system at all. On the day when all humans crossed to the other world to cultivate, he was left on Earth alone and he didn't gain nothing. From the beginning to the end, he had no powers, no way to destroy the dormant race in the city and no way to make a huge base.

He was struggling to support himself on this Earth alone, and he wanted to wait until his sister came back and so he could see her again.

But he waited and waited for sixty years!

He realized that he might never see his sister in this lifetime, nor did he expect humanity to return. This year, he was eighty years old.

"That was all a dream huh…"

Chen Fan looked at the vicissitudes and aging face in the mirror. It turned out that his power just an illusory dream and his real self was just a ordinary person who was powerless and had no adventures at all.

"Now I am just a old man who had lost the ability to survive. What reason is there to live when I'm so old and my sister isn't coming back."

Chen Fan felt depressed.

It was as if there was a voice in his heart that wanted him to end his life here and see his loved ones in another lifetime.

"Trees will wither, people will die, flower of life will eventually wither and eventually life will come to an end. There is no difference between living another day and dying now."

When the idea of suicide came up, his heart felt possessed, as if the voice was growing louder and louder whispering in his ear to commit suicide.

Just telling him to end his life, over and over again.

'Wait, suicide?"

In a trance, he thought of the system in his dream. Even when he was lonely and desperate, the system never gave up on him. From beginning to end, the system kept him alive no matter how difficult it was.

'How did I become so vulnerable? Why would I think like this?'

Chen Fan who repeatedly thought that suddenly widened his eyes and looked at his old self in the mirror.

"No… this isn't me… I would never think like this…"

"Is this… a illusion?"