Chapter 53

Three Years

“Oh, so it can work this way?!” The original owner’s voice, which only Juan could hear, was even more excited.

“I haven’t been able to stand for so long! This feeling, this feeling—”

“Like every muscle is filled with cement!”

“So light!”

Juan: …If it’s filled with cement, shouldn’t it be heavy?

Puzzled but silent, Juan adjusted himself in his new body…or rather, this time, it was a living body.

With careful precision, Juan adjusted his soul within the body, filling every corner, compressing until his presence was embedded completely. Though the body was frail, Juan’s strong spirit made it agile, even slightly fortified. Upon close inspection, the man’s skin took on a healthier color, with a hint of glow.

“I don’t think I was ever this healthy, even before I got sick.” Staring at his reflection, the man muttered in awe, “Could it be… that I won’t die now?”

Juan cut his hopes short, saying bluntly, “You’ll still die. The reason you can stand is because my soul is controlling your body. The bodies I’ve used before were also recently deceased; they could move just fine.”

The man: …So, in his eyes, my body isn’t much better than a fresh corpse.

Realizing he might have been too blunt, Juan added, “But it’s much more flexible than a zombie.”

The man wasn’t comforted, but after a moment of dejection, he suddenly cheered up again, as if something had come to mind.

“I heard our chef’s skills are excellent, but I’ve been too frail to eat and have been living on IV drips. I’ve always wanted to taste a real feast. Do you think…you could let me have a taste now?”

From within his body, the man asked hopefully.

As his stomach growled, Juan considered it and agreed.

Following the man’s instructions, Juan picked up the phone and dialed the butler. Initially, the man tried to specify a menu but then decided to simply have the chef bring out one of each specialty dish.

Thirty minutes later, the butler, dressed meticulously, knocked on the door of the underwater room. Guided by the man’s directions, chefs in pristine uniforms came in, each carrying silver platters. One after another, a stream of delicacies filled the table before the young man.

After everyone left, the young man shouted, “Let’s eat!” in Juan’s mind, and Juan pulled the table closer and began to eat.

“Wow, this is delicious! This dish is amazing!” Although Juan was the one eating, the man could clearly taste everything.

“This is delicious too! Please, eat more; I want to enjoy this a bit longer,” he requested eagerly as he tasted each bite.

Thus, surrounded by exclamations of “delicious” and “so good,” Juan enjoyed his first grand feast in this world.

After wiping his mouth, Juan kept his expression composed, though he had to admit it was a truly satisfying meal.

The food was delicious. No matter the world, human cuisine was always exquisite—he thought with a satisfied burp.

Only now, after indulging in the feast, did the man realize that Juan had actually cleared every last dish—even the decorative carrot flowers.

Noticing what had caught his attention, Juan patted his new body’s stomach. “I accelerated the digestion in the stomach and intestines.”

The man exclaimed, “You can even do that?”

Juan nodded and said honestly, “With precise control, yes.”

After marveling for a while, the man asked Juan to order a pot of tea.

“This tea was bought at great expense by my old man, who claimed it was ‘for my health’ yet never let me drink it. I know he’s just being biased. Hmph. Well, not anymore; now I’ll drink it!” With a cup of tea in hand, the man directed Juan on how to taste it, watching as the butler came in to clear the plates. Seeing the butler’s thinly veiled surprise, he felt a surge of satisfaction.

Surprised, huh? I’m not explaining anything!

So, the butler, barely concealing his amazement, left Juan to his leisurely tea, dialing the master’s phone in haste as he departed.

During this time, Juan listened to a rather dramatic human story.

“I was an orphan in an orphanage until I was 12, when the old man finally found and brought me home. Dramatic, right? It gets worse. When I got there, they’d mistaken another kid for me, and they treated him better than they ever treated me. The tea that the old man denied me? He gave it to that kid instead. That guy drank tea in front of me every day—he was definitely doing it on purpose!”

“In the words of those popular novels before the apocalypse, it’s the true son and the fake son,” the man summed up.

“But the old man doesn’t love me, and I don’t love him either. In my heart, I have my own dads,” he continued, lowering his voice even though no one could hear him. He whispered to Juan, “Actually, I have a secret that I’ve never told anyone…”

“I was reborn.”

“This is my second life. In my previous life, I stayed in the orphanage, never found by the old man. Instead, I was adopted by a gay couple. I grew up with them—not rich, but I had a good life.”

“Though the old man did find me in my past life, it was around this age, right after I went back with him that I died. Ha, both times, I died young.”

Without any questions from Juan, the man continued, as though he had wanted to say these things for a long time but had no one to confide in. Now that Juan was here, he poured everything out:

“This time, I deliberately let the old man find me. Actually, I used a few tricks to make sure he’d find me sooner.”

“I had the same illness in my past life as I do now. I didn’t want to burden my dads, so I figured I could rely on the old man’s wealth to treat me!”

“Alright, I admit, I was dazzled by the wealth I saw at the end of my last life, so I came back wanting to live in luxury. Ha…who would’ve thought?”

At this, he let out a mocking laugh.

“This family loves their adopted son more than their real one. And I’m so useless—sickly, lacking intelligence, with no talent that could make them proud. The other kid is outstanding, though.”

“But my former dads treated me so well… I was also sickly and not that smart in my past life, without any talents to show. Yet…they always treated me so well.”

He sighed, almost whispering that last sentence.

“I miss my dads—not my dad here, but my dads from my previous life.” His voice became firmer as he continued, “It doesn’t matter if they don’t recognize me. This is heaven’s punishment for my greed and selfishness. But I still want to see them. I want to see them in the final stage of my life.”

“The Lauckin Base exploded in my past life. Since the old man had just taken me away that day, my dads left with me and were spared. But this time, I’m worried that without me, they’ll still be there on schedule. I need to meet them before the explosion and give them tickets to leave.”

“This is my only wish. Please help me fulfill it!”

In Juan’s mind, the man solemnly made his request.

Alright, Juan thought, another reincarnation story.

He’d already promised the man once, so he simply agreed again without much thought.

With that, the man felt a sense of relief and grew excited for the meeting to come.

“Oh, by the way, my name is Scott. It was given to me by my dads from my previous life. What’s your name?” The man finally remembered to introduce himself in Juan’s mind.

“Juan,” he replied briefly.

According to protocol, they should be shaking hands at this point, but as that wasn’t possible, they shared an awkward pause.

But before they could dwell on it, there was a knock at the door. Without waiting for a response, the butler entered with a group of people in white coats and promptly moved Juan into a wheelchair, pushing him outside.

“That last room was just an underwater observation room. They’re in the underwater mining business, so building an ocean-view room is nothing for them.” In Juan’s mind, Scott quickly explained.

“They’re probably taking you in for a check-up now. This family is big and powerful, with private doctors and a private clinic, all equipped with the latest technology. But you won’t be found out, right?” Scott asked, suddenly a bit worried that Juan, now controlling his body, might get caught.

“No,” Juan replied.

If he were occupying a dead body, he’d have to mimic things like heartbeat and blood pressure, which could expose him. But now he was in a living body, so everything functioned as normal. There was no reason for anything unusual to be detected.

And sure enough—

“The second young master’s body is quite…hmm, just like before; nothing particularly wrong,” the doctor said after a thorough examination.

Inwardly, the doctor thought, “Not wrong, but not good either.” The young master’s body was still in terrible condition—like he was half a step into the grave and might go before the old master himself. The doctor sighed inwardly, though his face remained calm and professional.

The butler, however, was surprised. “Even his stomach is fine? The second young master just ordered a lot of food, which I thought he’d only look at like before. But when I went in to clear the dishes, he’d eaten everything. The young master hasn’t eaten a regular meal in a long time, and suddenly eating so much, I was worried his body couldn’t handle it…”

“Everything appears normal; there’s no indication of anything wrong,” the doctor repeated.

The butler could only glance at Juan, staring hard. Since Juan had no intention of explaining, he sighed, waved his hand, and someone gently helped Juan off the examination bed and back into the wheelchair before pushing him away.

Without resisting, Juan focused entirely on observing his new surroundings. As he looked around, Scott provided commentary in his mind. Before long, Juan had a general understanding of his current situation.

He was now in what they called a “city”—no longer referred to as a “base.”

“All the larger bases are de-basing, now called cities. For instance, where we are now was once called the Bricha Base, but it’s now Bricha City.”

“Britza is my family’s name. This base was built from the ground up by my grandfather, who was already in the mining business before the apocalypse. Afterward, he kept going. The old man’s incredible—he had powers before the apocalypse, and he gained formidable abilities afterward. Not only did he protect his business, but he also expanded it. The current mainstream energy source was discovered right in his territory, along with many other resources. In no time, the old man went from being rich to ultra-rich.”

Sitting in the wheelchair, Juan looked back at the grand mansion behind him, then at the maze-like lawns in front. He raised his head, gazing at the blue sky and white clouds above. Just from appearances, this place looked no different from before the apocalypse. Like the underwater scene he’d seen earlier, everything here seemed peaceful, as if the apocalypse had already ended.

But through Scott’s explanation, he knew the apocalypse was far from over.

The current year was the fifty-third year of the Apocalypse Calendar, three years since he and Pedro had parted ways.