2 Chapter 2 After Rebirth, I Bound a System_1

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So this is what it feels like to be blown to bits.

Body torn and shattered.

One word:

Pain.

One sentence:

It fucking hurts.

-

[Get up quickly.]

[Come on, get up, get up.]

[The enemy will reach your location in 30 seconds, get up...]

So annoying.

Ming Ge, slightly irritated, opened his eyes in a flash!

Above him was a hotel ceiling painted with images of the floating world, the light was dimmed just right, adding a subtle, blurry charm to the whole room.

...So the Underworld is this upscale now, each person gets a presidential suite after death?

Sure enough, people like him who had killed and committed heinous acts were bound for Hell.

Ming Ge was thinking all sorts of nonsense with a splitting headache when a voice kept blabbing in his head nonstop.

[Hey, if you don't get up now, you're really going to die.] That voice sounded like it was running out of patience and was quite rude.

Ming Ge paused, "Black and White Impermanence?"

[...]

"Ox-Head and Horse-Face?"

[...]

"Could it be Lord Hades himself?"

[...]Just keep guessing wildly.

The System rolled its eyes, [Stupid human, you did die...]

She thought as much, turned to ash already, with no body left, it made no sense to still be alive.

Ming Ge sighed.

But his avenger's fury had dissipated, replaced by profound relief; even in death, he wouldn't become a resentful ghost.

He could reunite with his old man and that damned dog in the netherworld.

That seemed rather nice.

The very next second, he heard that voice again, [But, you've come back to life.]

Ming Ge: "..."

Are you fucking with me?

What do you mean by you're dead, but now you're alive again?

Even if he had gone to Hell to be reincarnated, he hadn't drunk the Meng Po soup yet, or else how could those vivid and painful memories be so clear?

[Huh, stupid human.] The System looked down on him, then introduced its origin, [I am the Superstar Cultivation System 438 from the Alpha Nebula...]

438?

Dead blockhead?

Pfft.

Ming Ge couldn't help but laugh at it.

But the next thing it said made Ming Ge freeze, unable to laugh.

[To be precise, you were already dead, but the great System 438 chose you from the multitude for your exceptional qualities, so naturally, you couldn't stay dead...now, you have returned to ten years ago.]

Returned to ten years ago, what does that mean?

Ming Ge frowned.

Then, a bold conjecture slowly took shape in his mind.

...Rebirth?

The concept of rebirth wasn't new; for instance, some of the popular works on the leading online literature site Qidian featured this theme.

But Ming Ge had never thought that one day the word 'rebirth' would be connected to him.

The shock overwhelmed his mind, causing Ming Ge to overlook the strangeness he felt in his body.

He stared blankly for a few seconds before turning over and scrambling for his phone frantically.

A black, unfamiliar, and aged phone lay on the floor, and he picked it up with trembling fingers.

In the year 2020, the iPhone had clearly reached its 15th iteration; although he was destitute then, and all the money he had couldn't buy one, iPhone 15's advertisements were everywhere.

How did he know?

Because the spokesperson for the iPhone 15 in China was his arch-nemesis, Yin Ruowei.

But the phone he was holding now was clearly an ancient...flip phone.

With shaking fingers, Ming Ge flipped open the lid and saw a line of date and time on the screen.

April 1st, 2010.

...

Ming Ge's mind was in chaos, with countless images flashing by like a rapidly-marching army.

Almost exploding.

```

She, really... was reborn?

Ming Ge held her breath with a touch of disbelief and glanced back at the screen of the outdated flip phone.

Meticulously, she didn't dare miss even a punctuation mark, her nerves on edge.

It was still—

April 1st, 2010.

No matter how much she blinked, it did not change.

Thump.

Thump, thump.

Ming Ge's heart quivered, pounding rapidly.

She was reborn.

She had returned to ten years ago, to this April Fool's Day.

Reflecting on her life, it seemed heaven had played quite the joke on her mother!

Ming Ge buried her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking as a low chuckle emerged from deep within her throat.

Even though she was laughing, it oddly tugged at the heartstrings.

As if she was laughing out all the bitterness and hardships of her past life.

The burning hot tears leaked through her fingers, wetting the smooth cheeks beneath her hands and there was that voice in her head claiming to be the damn 'System 438' spouting nonsense...

Each one was a clear sign—

She, Ming Ge, had been reborn.

It took her three seconds to fully digest this astonishing fact, and then Ming Ge lowered her hands from her face.

Ming Ge lifted her head.

Her eyes were slightly red, her cheeks streaked with tears, and her eyes, clear and bright as if washed by water, sparkled with broken light.

The expression in her eyes was not one of pitiful sadness, nor tearful distress.

It was—

Excitement, thrill, the glint of someone ready to stir things up!

Ming Ge, keeping in check the restlessness in her heart, asked pointedly, "Tell me, what price must I pay for being reborn?"

There's no such thing as a free lunch; this was something Ming Ge understood clearly and deeply.

In her later life, impoverished and languishing in a basement rental room, she had clutched an old phone with peeling paint and devoured several popular web novels about rebirth, fancifully imagining that one day she might also obtain a golden finger and be reborn.

Now, this one in a billion chance had landed on her, and Ming Ge was nothing but cautious.

Having lived a life worse than a dog's, plagued by endless misfortune, could such incredible luck really befall her?

Ming Ge remained skeptical.

Couldn't be because she was beautiful, could it?

Well, that's getting it.

It seems this human is not particularly stupid.

The System changed its address, "As a host personally chosen by the great Superstar Cultivation System, what you need to do is...]

[Achieve ten billion star luck value within ten years and become the invincible superstar of the universe.]

Star luck value?

Ten billion?!

This is seriously an astronomical figure.

Ming Ge's heart quivered, and she asked, "How much is my current... whatever value in total?"

[-250000.]

Ming Ge: "..."

Fuck off with your 250000, you're the 250000.

And it's negative.

This is really stirring up trouble.

Through the System's explanation, Ming Ge understood that star luck value signified popularity, reputation, faith.

It depended entirely on how much humanity loved her.

To put it plainly, star luck value hinged on fans.

Haters -10.

Indifferent bystanders 0, negligible.

Fans +5.

Loyal fans are worth 10.

"So, I have twenty-five thousand haters?" Ming Ge asked the soul-searching question, "Even if one loyal fan equals 10 star luck value, to gather ten billion, I'd need ten, a hundred, a thousand... ten billion, right?"

[Yes, that's right.]

Damn you.

Do you know how many people there are in all of China?

You're really defying the heavens.

Ming Ge thought with a sense of doom, "What happens if I don't achieve it in ten years?"

The System replied in a tone as if it were a heartless killer:

[Annihilation.]