Mushoku Tensei: Re

Chapter 1: Prelude

Night.

Distant lights flicker.

A gentle evening breeze caresses the boy as he calmly gazes at the faraway moon.

The hazy moonlight spills down, casting a faint glow on the street before him.

He takes out his phone with some worry. It was a recent purchase, but now two clear lines of text flash on the screen:

【Do you want to understand the meaning of life? Do you want to truly live?】

【Yes / Yes】

The boy’s name is Jiang Feng. He is eighteen, from China, and has just finished the college entrance exam, waiting for his acceptance letter. Although his family isn't rich, they live comfortably. His parents are alive and well, though often away for work. Life is decent.

In short, he feels content with his life. He doesn’t want to understand the meaning of life or become a pawn of some supreme being.

But the two options on his screen make him chuckle helplessly.

As someone who loves surfing the internet, he’s seen these lines overused on a certain Chinese web novel site.

He’s fantasized about such scenarios before, but now that it’s happening, he hesitates.

Jiang Feng wondered if it might be a hacker’s virus, waiting for some naive person to click so they could steal their WeChat and bank details.

After much deliberation, he decided not to click.

No matter how he looked at it, not clicking seemed the best option.

And so, the phone remained on from last night till now. Thanks to it, Jiang Feng hadn’t used his phone for a whole day.

He tried using someone else’s phone, only to find that the screen would also go black and display the same two lines.

Jiang Feng fell into deep thought.

He pondered silently.

He was at a loss.

Returning to the question at hand: should he click?

It felt like something bad would happen if he did.

After all, the options were both "yes," like signing a contract of servitude.

Lost in thought, he unknowingly walked along the quiet night street.

But in the next moment, his worries became moot.

A truck, like a portal from another world, sped towards him. It was so fast that he barely had time to react. The immense inertia and impact shattered the scene. 

Amidst the sounds of metal scraping and tearing, Jiang Feng was thrown like a broken kite.

Pain overwhelmed him, and in an instant, his consciousness was consumed by the agony.

Then, he lost consciousness.

Jiang Feng didn’t even know where the truck came from. It seemed to appear out of thin air. 

Logically, a truck moving at such speed on a quiet night should have been very loud.

But he hadn’t heard a thing, as if the truck had just popped out of nowhere.

When Jiang Feng opened his eyes again, he found himself in a white, misty world.

He looked around in confusion. The surroundings were enveloped in a grayish-white fog, blurry and indistinct.

Feeling his intact limbs, without the gruesome injuries from the accident, Jiang Feng tried taking a step forward. His foot touched the ground, causing ripples in the white world.

Frowning in thought, he surmised that he must be dead.

Strange indeed, first those lines of text, then getting hit by a truck.

Is this how many ways there are to travel to another world these days?

Afraid he wouldn’t agree, do they now have quotas to meet for these otherworldly travels?

But what to do now?

He tried to speak, but no sound came out. It wasn’t that he wasn’t speaking; there was just no sound.

It was as if this place was a vacuum.

He looked around in confusion and waited, but no supreme being or goddess claiming to be Aqua appeared, which frustrated him.

Jiang Feng silently complained: "You dragged me here forcibly, and now there’s not even an entity to greet me."

And so, he wandered aimlessly.

The vast, endless white world showed no signs of ending.

The lonely, foggy world held only this one boy, walking through it in solitude.

No one else, just him.

He didn’t know how far he had walked or how many steps he had taken.

Finally, as a sense of loneliness began to creep into his heart, transforming into fear, he continued walking silently, having stopped looking around.

The journey was long, devoid of any life or sound.

There was no color, only an endless expanse of white.

This?

A bitter smile appeared on Jiang Feng’s lips.

He was brought here, but there was no supreme being, only this vast white world.

He felt tired and weary.

He wanted to sit down and rest.

So Jiang Feng sat on the ground, causing ripples in the white world once more.

He began to gaze at the world around him.

A white world without color, without warmth, just an endless white.

This white world was like a blank canvas waiting for an artist to paint or a new book waiting for an author to write.

An audacious idea popped into Jiang Feng’s mind: without a supreme being or goddess, maybe he was the creator of this world?

He began to recall the silent night before the accident.

The night shrouded the entire city, with bright neon lights flickering in the darkness. The streets were almost empty, save for a few drunken stragglers. The night breeze rustled the leaves, whispering secrets.

In the distance, tall buildings stood brightly lit like giant castles in the dark. Shops along the streets were closed, except for a few night snack vendors. The enticing aroma wafting from these shops made mouths water.

Suddenly, a cat slinked out from the corner, quietly approaching a trash can. It sniffed around and then licked, producing a sibilant sound. Not far away, a dog started barking, breaking the night’s silence.

Jiang Feng walked through this night-shrouded city.

Stars twinkled in the sky like countless diamonds set against the black canvas. The moon, half-hidden, cast a gentle glow. A nightingale sang in the distance, its clear voice echoing in the air.

The city at night seemed like a mysterious world, full of unknowns and imagination. It made Jiang Feng feel both elated and lonely.

The world began to change. The once white world turned upside down. Jiang Feng looked up, and the sky was no longer a white expanse but a pitch-black night. The bright moonlight cast silver hues, and the street started to come alive. A black-and-white cat appeared before him. Scenes rapidly spread out from Jiang Feng’s position, and he stood there quietly.

The sense of loneliness vanished, and the fear of the unknown dissipated, replaced by a strong sense of curiosity.