Chapter 12: Extra: Memories Part One (Origin)

Extra: Memories Part One (Origin)

My name is Chén Chén, and I'm an orphan.

I currently live in the Seven and a Half Orphanage in Jianghai City, Jiangnan Base City.

When I transmigrated into this body, I was only three years old; according to the orphanage staff, I was about five or six months old when they found me in the wilderness.

What does it feel like to become a three‑year‑old? It just feels like the whole world has gotten much bigger, and sometimes my body doesn't obey me.

In the orphanage, people come and go; in this era, abandoning infants doesn't seem all that unusual.

No parents?

Then there's none.

Chén Chén isn't someone who desperately craves parental love—after all, this isn't his first time being an orphan—but in this life he absolutely refuses to go into the engineering profession.

In his previous life he really did say something like that: if heaven gave him a chance to start over, he would definitely never choose to work on a construction site.

The orphanage offers introductory classes, mainly language and math; a little later a history course is added.

It was after the history class that Chén Chén fully confirmed the world he had been reborn into.

"Damn, Devouring the Stars!" Chén Chén cursed silently.

Come to think of it, this book feels like the web fiction I read in high school; back then everyone's imagination was limited, and the H1N1 flu mutating into dozens of variants nearly destroyed humanity.

Think about it—the virus I came across this time has dozens of effective mutations… Hard to say, really; I'm already dead, so maybe the original world was also wrecked by the virus.

Anyway, I should just focus on the present.

The Devouring the Stars world…

Although it's far better than worlds where people casually talk about destroying the world or defying heaven, it's still not great.

As a transmigrator, Chén Chén may not claim to be ambitious beyond heaven, but at least he doesn't want to live a meaningless life—after all, who deep down doesn't wish for a protagonist's fate?

But after all these years of transmigration, he's never seen any kind of golden finger, which left Chén Chén feeling a bit down for two days.

A transmigration without a golden finger is undoubtedly the "Prophet Flow."

The so‑called Prophet Flow means seizing special opportunities through foreknowledge of the novel's plot and then rising straight to the top…

But the most ridiculous part is that you can't snatch any of this world's opportunities at all!

First off, Luofeng in the future is an existence beyond time and space; although I don't know whether my transmigration would directly cause the universe's timeline to rewind, the danger is definitely there.

And even if we set that aside, what is Luofeng's main opportunity?

The first step is the inheritance of the Fallen Ink Star, which requires talent as a stepping stone—I might not have it.

The second step is the body of the Golden Horn Giant Beast, which needs the Ink Fallen Star as a basis plus a desperate gamble—basically it's just protagonist halo.

After that come all kinds of opportunities in the universe, plus the most important inheritance of the Sitting Mountain Guest, which depends on talent, will, and luck. Without the earlier opportunities as a foundation, it's basically wishful thinking.

So trying to compete for Luofeng's opportunities is very likely to end in failure.

But if he doesn't compete for Luofeng's opportunities, even if Chén Chén manages to enter the universe, he might end up in a slave market within days.

The universe is far too dangerous.

"Well, with no golden finger at all, I can only take it one step at a time."

After all, Chén Chén's body is just that of a seven‑ or eight‑year‑old; trying to leave the orphanage would get him dragged back, and who knows—if a beast tide hits, he might just kick the bucket.

Ever since he realized this world is the Devouring the Stars world, Chén Chén has lost all interest in studying.

Time won't be wasted; the earlier he prepares, the better his chances of surviving later. Who knows whether Jianghai City, never mentioned in the original, might be wiped out by a beast tide any day.

A seven‑ or eight‑year‑old body naturally can't talk about martial arts; according to national regulations, you have to be at least sixteen to enter a martial arts hall and begin formal training.

But Chén Chén does have his own direction of effort.

Training in martial arts isn't just about tempering the body and comprehending laws; there are also some basic things that remain useful forever, no matter the era.

That is will and mindset.

In this era, the one who has cultivated will and mindset to the peak is none other than today's strongest in the world, "Hong."

And Hong, relying on extraordinary mindset and comprehension, even without Luofeng's constant opportunities and fortuitous fate, has still reached the level of a top‑tier cosmic genius. Even without clinging to Luofeng's thigh, without claiming to be the strongest in the universe, becoming a Universe Venerable is a breeze.

Chén Chén is a person with high execution ability.

In his previous life he went from being a helpless orphan in the orphanage to a high‑level manager at a construction company.

After settling on his future plan, Chén Chén began his daily tempering.

The so‑called "train in the three nines of winter and three dog days of summer"—constantly polishing his will without harming his body as much as possible—is Chén Chén's daily routine.

Naturally, Chén Chén's strange behavior inevitably draws odd looks from many peers.

Humans are an extremely exclusive species, so it's common for small groups of three or five to come looking for trouble.

When he isn't training his physique, Chén Chén also likes to ponder real combat, learning as much as possible through various channels about how martial artists fight, then studying and reflecting.

Doing this is also Chén Chén's way of trying to boost his comprehension as much as possible; even if it's uncertain whether it helps, it's certainly better than doing nothing.

Because of these musings, the orphanage's gangster cliques—whether three or five, or even a dozen or so—rarely gain any advantage over Chén Chén; at least four or five of them end up worse off than him when they leave.

"Chén Chén, Chén Chén, you okay? Why don't we go tell the teacher?"

After sending off the bunch of nobodies trying to challenge him for the "Fighting King" title, a black‑haired, red‑eyed little girl slowly came up to Chén Chén's side.

"If telling the teacher would help, I would have done it already."

In any era, the idea that victims are to blame is widespread; moreover, these days most of the time the little brats who fight Chén Chén end up getting beaten even worse by him.

"But… but…" the little girl stammered, upset to the point of speechlessness; after all, she's only six or seven, so not crying is already pretty good.

The girl in front of him is named Jiāng Jiāng, a classmate about the same age as Chén Chén, and also his most important "tool person."

To free up time for all‑round training, Chén Chén naturally has to get past all the various chores in the orphanage.

Things like calligraphy homework, math exercises, blanket‑folding drills, handicraft class, and so on.

As he gets older, these miscellaneous tasks only increase; given Chén Chén's status, avoiding them is impossible, so the only option is to find someone to do them for him.

And this Jiāng Jiāng, the little silly girl, is a perfect substitute.

All that's needed is a little snack and telling her a story in her free time to keep her occupied.

Alright, all right, they can't beat me again—what are you worried about?

Here, this is today's homework—I'll hand it over to you.

Chén Chén took out three homework notebooks from his bag and handed them to Jiāng Jiāng.

Well… that story from last time isn't finished yet.

Fine, let's go tell the story on that crooked-neck tree over there.

Little Jiāng Jiāng showed some resistance upon hearing about the crooked-neck tree, because according to the teacher, two kids had fallen from it and broken their hands in the past two years.

But thinking that Chén Chén had gone up there many times without trouble, Jiāng Jiāng hesitated again and again, then finally nodded and said:

Hmm.

There's a reason why Chén Chén always picks weird places to tell Jiāng Jiāng stories.

Firstly, honing his mind in various places is basically a required course for Chén Chén.

Don't underestimate the tree forks and rooftops—these places are already quite 'dangerous' for a seven- or eight-year-old body like Chén Chén's.

Human bodily instincts are honest.

Just as no matter how much you like or excel at extreme sports, being at high altitude still causes your heart to race and adrenaline to surge—the principle is the same.

Putting oneself in such 'danger' can have a certain training effect on body and mind.

As for why he brings Jiāng Jiāng along,

It's naturally because Chén Chén finds this girl fairly pleasing to the eye, and early training of her courage also helps her survive in this world.

As the saying goes, to see goodness through to the end, merely training courage is certainly not enough.

So Chén Chén decided to let Jiāng Jiāng listen to various past-life novels that mixed in the core idea of 'survival and staying low-key', and incidentally also told some examples of how being too ostentatious leads to house raids and clan extermination.

As for how much she can learn, it depends on this girl's comprehension.