Lam Minh staggered down the familiar narrow alley. The feelings of humiliation and bitterness were like a thousand needles stabbing his heart, making him want to collapse right there. He trudged back home, clutching a few dozen ice-cold beers, determined to drink until he forgot this painful chapter of his youth, forgot the deceitful face of Lieu Nhu Yen.
He pushed open the creaky door. The simple, shabby house came into view. His family was classified as a poor household; his parents—Mr. Lam Dao and Mrs. Nguyen Mai—were both workers at a nearby garment factory. Calling it a "house" was being generous; in reality, it was just a single room in a collective housing unit provided by the factory for workers in difficult circumstances. "How humane," he thought bitterly.
His sister must have already gone to work. He had a younger sister, two years his junior, named Lam Binh An, who was also a worker at the same factory as their parents.
Lam Minh locked himself in his room, a cramped space just large enough for a bed and an old study desk. He collapsed onto the bed, staring at the yellowed ceiling, replaying his entire 26 years of life. It was bitter and humiliating. Because they were poor, his parents had exhausted themselves to put him through university, hoping he could change his fate.
He remembered vividly the day he turned 18, when both of them had hoped he would get into the Combat University for cultivators. They had done everything to provide him with nourishing food, despite their modest means. But in the end, he had failed. He lacked physical stamina, and his aptitude was far too poor. After two years of slogging it out on the battlefield, shedding sweat and blood, he had only reached the third layer of Body Tempering—a cultivation level that any first-year student at the Combat University could easily surpass.
Through years of research and information gathering, humanity had mapped out the cultivation system of the Cultivation World: Body Tempering, Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Void Interpretation, Hong Hoang, and finally, the God Realm. The tomes "borrowed" from the Cultivation World had been deciphered by scientists, who had even created translation devices. Just by wearing one in your ear, you could understand what the cultivators were saying.
Body Tempering was the foundational realm, but with his third-layer cultivation, he was no better than the new recruits of the ASEAN bloc. The eleven nations of the bloc had decided to form an alliance, supporting each other for mutual development. They knew they couldn't compare to other major powers, so unity was their only strength.
His thoughts turned back to his family. To save money for his university education, his sister had to drop out of school early to become a factory worker. And yet he, for a woman, had willingly slaved away for her for six long years.
Lost in his bitter thoughts, he popped open a beer and chugged it down.
One bottle…
Ten bottles…
Thirty bottles…
He drank without stopping, until the alcohol seeped into every cell, dragging him into an endless darkness.
[Ding! Attribute Picking System is verifying!]
[Ding! The host has just consumed 30 bottles of beer and died suddenly. Congratulations!]
[The system is initiating a time rewind…]
[2035… 2034… 2033… 2025!]
[Rewind complete! Confirming host's status.]
[Name: Lam Minh]
[Age: 16]
[Cultivation: Mortal]
[Spiritual Root: Waste Spiritual Root]
[The system mourns the host's poverty. Decided to grant a Lucky Spin as a welcome gift.]
[SPIN] / [DO NOT SPIN]
Lam Minh slowly opened his eyes, his head throbbing as if struck by a hammer.
"Damn, drinking thirty beers at once, that was insane," he muttered, trying to sit up through the dizziness. "But that's strange, I think I heard someone muttering in my head while I was asleep, right?"
He thought to himself, feeling a bit odd.
Lam Minh stood up unsteadily and glanced at the wall clock. It was 3:30 PM. He felt as if he had just had a very, very long sleep.
A moment later, he stood frozen in front of the old, worn-out mirror in his room. His face was a mask of utter confusion and astonishment. The first thought that popped into his head was: "Young!"
Holy sht! Who was this young punk in the mirror?
It was hard to accept. Could drinking thirty beers really make someone this young?
Five minutes passed… Ten minutes…
Lam Minh still couldn't believe his eyes. He had changed so much after just one sleep. Forgetting to even brush his teeth, he rushed out into the living room.
His sister, Lam An, was studying on the tattered sofa, a hand-me-down from a neighbor.
"Sis… sister, why do you look so… young?" Lam Minh asked hesitantly, his expression filled with bewilderment.
The girl looked up, giving him an equally strange look that slowly turned to astonishment. "Huh? Big brother, aren't you going to school? Eleventh grade has afternoon classes! If you skip school, I'm telling Mom!"
Lam An's words struck Lam Minh like a bolt of lightning.
School? Eleventh grade???
He slowly turned his head and looked at the old calendar hanging on the wall.
October 6, 2025.
Two-Thousand-Twenty-Five!!!
His first thought was shock, which immediately turned into overwhelming joy.
He was back! Back to his youth! He was 16 years old, full of life!
Waking from his reverie, he looked at his fourteen-year-old sister, who was staring at him as if he were a mental patient.
"Hahaha!" Lam Minh couldn't contain his emotions, grabbing his little sister in a tight hug and laughing like a madman.
"Ah! Big brother's gone crazy! Help!" Lam An screamed in panic.
Ignoring his sister's alarm, Lam Minh was completely immersed in his joy. Life had given him a second chance! This time, he would not disappoint his family's expectations. He would strive to get into the Combat University! And more importantly, he would never be a pathetic simp again. His life would reach the pinnacle. He would carry his family and become a true "model child"!
(PS: "Con nhà người ta," or "model child," is a phrase Vietnamese parents often use to compare and lecture their own children.)
After a while, he let go of his sister, but his expression grew somber.
But… how?
It was easy to stop being a pathetic simp. But getting into the Combat University? Rebirth didn't mean his aptitude would improve. If he couldn't cultivate strongly in his past life, would his spiritual root be any different now that he was reborn?
He vividly remembered the "waste spiritual root" assessment result when he applied to the Combat University. The disappointed looks from his family, the harsh whispers from relatives: "That Minh kid has no future," "His parents worked so hard to raise and educate him, and in the end, he failed the exam."
It was truly too painful.
In this new era, the Combat University was the number one aspiration. Were other professions important? Yes, but it depended on the field. Medicine, for example, was still highly respected. But with his academic ability, how could he get into medical school? In his past life, he had majored in business administration, a promising field for getting rich, but his family was poor, so where would the start-up capital come from?
He still remembered the words of his Fourth Uncle, his mother's younger brother, whose daughter of the same age had been accepted into Medical University. He would often visit and berate them: "I told you, you should have let him quit school and start working when he was sixteen. At least then he could have helped the family."
Those words had once pushed him into depression. The girls in his class who used to admire him when he boasted about becoming a student at the Combat University later turned a cold shoulder. His friends even created a Facebook group to badmouth him, calling him "a useless show-off."
Such a harsh past, all because of his youthful, boastful immaturity.
A tangled mess of thoughts spun in Lam Minh's mind. Could he really change the past?
That's right! The first thing was to stop boasting about himself. The fall would be too painful.
God had given him a second chance, and he had to use it wisely. But the reality was, he didn't remember any useful knowledge from his past life. He couldn't even remember the lottery numbers for today, so how could he get rich? If he were reincarnated in 2012, him would buy BTC
As he was lost in thought, his gaze inadvertently fell upon his sister.
A few blue bubbles were slowly drifting out from her body. They looked exactly like item drops from killing mobs in a grinding game.
Lam Minh rubbed his eyes. He thought his vision was playing tricks on him, but it wasn't.
He slowly approached her. Lam An watched her brother with a wary look, thinking to herself, "What is he planning to do now?"
He timidly reached out and touched the largest bubble.
[Ding! The host has collected +10 Literature Knowledge points!]
Instantly, a stream of knowledge about literature flooded his memory.
Work: The Tale of Kieu. Author: Nguyen Du…