Young David's grades were far from ideal.
Literally.
Inside a rental apartment converted from a relocated housing unit near Handong University in Handong Province, the Chinese-American called David Yang looked at the grade report on his desk. The red ink was so bright it stung his eyes, and he let out a long, heavy sigh.
"Forget it. Trying to reach the top using external things like grades is too much of a shortcut anyway."
"I'll just stick to honest hard work and sweat to activate my cheats."
"That is the true path of the strong!"
David stood up and stretched, his back to the wide floor-to-ceiling window. The stress of his failing grades vanished instantly. He blinked, and a screen that only he could see shimmered into existence before his eyes.
[Name: David Yang | Race: Human]
[Class: Psyker]
[Psionic Level: Manifest Grade 1]
[Remaining Warp Salvage Attempts: 1]
As I thought, just like the memories of my past life—this psionic stuff really is linked to human emotion, David thought as he looked at the data from the cheat he'd received upon reincarnating.
His cheat came from a networked online game he played in his previous life called [Space Marine]. He vaguely remembered that because his username was too abstract, he had accidentally entered a "hacker server."
There, he watched teammates who looked like they were possessed by Khorne and blessed by Tzeentch—humans taking on Greater Daemons solo, completely indifferent to the fact that their combat shockwaves were killing David over and over again.
After dying N times, an enraged David spent five hundred bucks to buy an "Enhanced Emperor's Blessing" account from a modder, vowing to correct the toxic atmosphere of the game.
The good news: the cheat was real.
The bad news: it was a bit too real.
Where the hell did this send me?!
The sunlight outside was blinding, but it only served to momentarily steady his nerves. He took a tactical sip of plain water from his thermos. He picked up his phone, opened the academy app, and scrolled to the faculty list for the Astrophysics course.
The name Ye Wenjie sat there in bold, dark letters. It was a piercing sight that shattered the last of David's illusions, confirming the suspicions his memories had already formed.
It really is the Three-Body world... David sighed inwardly.
He looked up at the calendar on the wall. The date was September 23, 2005. If his memory served him correctly, Ye Wenjie and Mike Evans had already co-founded the ETO and established the Second Red Coast Base. Furthermore, the two Sophons launched from Trisolaris to blockade human technology had already arrived on Earth.
Which meant—
David's gaze sharpened as he warily scanned his surroundings. Right now, the entire planet was under Sophon surveillance. Although a "failed student" with no power, money, or knowledge wouldn't be allocated many computing resources, the Sophons would easily detect his abnormality if he behaved too strangely.
David didn't want to bet on whether the tiny bit of psionic energy he'd gained—fueled by the sensation caused by his public confession to a beautiful upperclassman—could punch through a Sophon's defenses.
Thinking about the stupid things he'd done before regaining his past-life memories made him want to bury his face in his hands.
You idiot! Of all the people to confess to, why did it have to be Yang Dong?!
Granted, Yang Dong was beautiful, gentle, intellectual, and a famous physicist. But setting aside the fact that her mother was Ye Wenjie—the biggest antagonist of the early Three-Body era—the most important thing was that Yang Dong already had a boyfriend!
Are you really not afraid of getting beaten up for trying to steal someone's girl so publicly?
Though it was embarrassing, David eventually came to terms with it. He realized the sheer courage it took for his "memory-less" self to choose Yang Dong. A young man's love is impulsive and pure, defying logic and transcending differences in class, race, and status. More importantly, without that incident, he wouldn't know how much longer it would have taken to recover his memories and awaken the system.
But... is this the Warhammer mana bar—the power of emotion?
David looked at the text on the panel: [Psionic Level: Manifest Grade 1].
According to the Warhammer setting, psionic power is divided into twenty-four levels. Positive psionics belong to the "mages," who use the Warp—a massive reservoir of biological emotional energy—to turn those emotions into mana to perform feats. Negative psionics act like mini-black holes, swallowing and neutralizing psionic energy before it can overload them.
David looked at his hands. He wasn't in a hurry to cast any spells; he knew Sophon monitoring was a constant possibility. Until he figured out a way to counter that surveillance, he could not expose his powers.
He looked thoughtful. Since psionics are real... what about the Warp? And the way I awakened the system... the probability of Chaos Gods being born in this world...
Whatever. Since it's come to this, let's pull some cards.
David shook his head. As a "Lore-Marine" who had only ever bought miniatures for display and never actually played the tabletop game, the relationship between the Warp, the Four Great Powers, and sentient life was too complex for him to grasp. After all, even the game creators probably didn't know how many times they'd retcon the details of the Gods' births.
"Gacha Simulator... Start!" David thought as the [Remaining Warp Salvage Attempts] dropped to 0.
The screen in front of him rippled like water, transforming into a tattered golden boat sailing on a grey sea. As the boat cast its net, white, blue, purple, and gold fish flashed across the screen. Based on experience, white was trash, while blue and purple were better. Gold, which appeared only rarely, was the rarest tier.
As a lifelong "unlucky" player who was bad at games but addicted to them, David held his breath. With trembling hands, he hit the confirm button just as a golden light flashed by.
Please be gold... purple or blue is fine too... crap, why is it all white?!
Does the Warp have lag too?!
Watching the rickety boat drop its net with the sluggishness of an old man, David felt his vision go dark as he watched the gold, purple, and blue lights slip away. Despite his "skill issue," three options finally materialized before him:
[Warp Energy (1/10)]
[Power Armor Blueprint (Fragment)]
[Psyker Ability: Precognition]
David weighed the choices. The first was likely related to his psionic level—a "pity" mechanic. The second was clearly a technological ability. The third was a spell.
His eyes flashed. He was still a long way from leveling up his psionics, and a fragmented blueprint was useless to a failing college student who couldn't even pass Physics. The only thing that could provide an immediate boost to his survival was the last one.
However, the timing of [Precognition] was almost too perfect. Did the third option change based on his real-world situation?
"Predicting fortune and misfortune? Avoiding danger?"
David looked at the system description and grinned. Being bullied by hackers was painful, but when it was his turn to cheat? The bigger the cheat, the better!
If I'm not banned, it's not a cheat. And a little cheat isn't really cheating! What's the matter, Trisolarans? You got a problem with that?