Chapter One: The Ultimate Classic Time Travel

Su Ling halted his steps, his expression growing somewhat dazed.

“Where am I?”

Around him stood dilapidated buildings, their surfaces overgrown with creeping vines, and scrapped cars haphazardly parked along the roadside.

A look of confusion flickered in his eyes.

“Have I… traveled through time?”

No, walking down the street and suddenly time traveling? That cheap?

And to top it off, into the body of a strange man?

Before he could make sense of it, a deafening roar came from an old residential block ahead.

A large, black SUV, resembling a beast, was speeding rapidly toward him.

“Target acquired.”

The SUV screeched to a halt before Su Ling, kicking up clouds of dust.

“Level Three Dust Citizen. For evading mandatory military service, exiled outside the city. Sentence completed. Now forcibly transferred to the outer third-ring area of the Greater Xia Federation.”

The door swung open, and a heavily armed, burly soldier stepped out, rifle in hand, speaking in a cold, uncompromising tone filled with iron resolve.

Hearing this, confusion deepened in Su Ling’s eyes.

“What does that mean?”

Before he could comprehend, a haughty young man descended from the SUV.

As he approached, he spoke with icy disdain.

“Lowly scum.”

“You must be Su Ling? The first Dust Citizen to evade military service in Greater Xia?”

“Military service isn’t something you can dodge. To refuse a duty mandated by the Federation is courting death!”

The young man appeared nineteen, clad in a tailored sapphire blue suit, a tall and strong enforcer.

He looked down on Su Ling, who stood ragged and disheveled in the broken street, eyes cold and contemptuous.

One by one, the iron-blooded soldiers cast chilling glances as if staring at an ungrateful betrayer.

Su Ling frowned.

Military service?

What was going on?

Just as the thought surfaced, a strange memory burst into his mind—both familiar and alien.

Clutching his forehead with one hand and crouching, Su Ling sifted through the fragments in his mind, a sudden clarity dawning about his predicament.

The “military service” the enforcer spoke of was a rule established five years ago by the Greater Xia Human Federation.

This service was not like in his previous life; it meant going to the frontlines to fight against powerful and savage alien beasts.

Rather than a battle, it was almost a death sentence.

Originally, this military duty had nothing to do with him, but his youngest sibling—the previous life’s sister—had awakened extraordinary abilities.

This should have been a blessing, yet developing such powers required resources. Coincidentally, the Federation had just imposed mandatory military service.

If a family’s children served, the household would receive generous Federation rewards—essentially money for buying life.

His former parents held no affection for him, largely because he was not their biological child.

This led to a betrayal by his foster parents without his knowledge.

To avoid a fatal fate, his previous self refused military service and was exiled by the Federation, branded as a fugitive throughout the entire human domain.

He was forever nailed to the pillar of disgrace in human history, scorned by future generations.

It had been five years since exile to the perilous outer city; his former self was lucky to be alive but destined to endure unending humiliation.

Frankly, once he stepped into the Federation’s residential zone, he would be drowned in contempt like a rat scurrying through the streets.

A shiver ran through Su Ling; his gaze grew distant.

His former self’s plight was truly pitiful.

His foster parents treated him worse than a dog; he had survived purely by sheer will.

And now, they intended to break his spirit utterly.

“What, unwilling?”

The enforcer noticed Su Ling’s reluctance and sneered with contempt.

“A thankless wretch, less than a beast. What use are you? Might as well…”

An impetuous young soldier nearby raised his rifle angrily but was restrained by a larger comrade.

“Hmph!”

“…”

This treatment was truly like that of a despised street rat…

Witnessing this, Su Ling had no desire whatsoever to return to the Greater Xia Federation.

“Keep him. He’s very useful.”

The enforcer glanced meaningfully in Su Ling’s direction.

Su Ling instantly understood: he was being used as the Federation’s highest standard example of a negative case.

“What use is a lowly person without any powers?”

The young soldier muttered resentfully.

Hearing this, Su Ling frowned.

Superpowers?

Memories quickly flooded his mind.

On Blue Star, in the latter half of the 25th century.

Since humanity began awakening superpowers and the planet entered an era of revival, five hundred years had passed. It was now the year 2501 in the new era.

As for so-called superpowers…

This new era was no longer materialistic; various paths of extraordinary evolution had been developed.

Superpowers were a prerequisite for becoming an evolved being—some awakened suddenly, others through ancestral bloodlines.

Those with powerful abilities automatically appeared on the power rankings, sorted by strength and potential.

The power rankings were an unknown special phenomenon that emerged alongside awakened humans.

There were also bloodline rankings, constitution rankings, and overall human rankings.

The Federation now had over a hundred million ordinary people, and many had awakened powers.

His former sister ranked among the top ten thousand on the power list, indicating formidable abilities.

His former self, however, was a useless nobody who had not awakened any powers—an ordinary person, or rather, now even less than ordinary.

“Let’s go.”

An authoritative voice came, and Su Ling, helpless, obediently got into the vehicle, escorted back into Federation territory.

The enforcer held a translucent thin panel displaying an endless cascade of data streams.

Soon, Su Ling noticed the red indicator light on his left wristband switch to green.

Staring intently at the sleek silver wrist device, he recalled why the enforcer had been able to pinpoint his location so precisely.

It was likely due to this wristband, worn since birth. Its material was unknown, but it had many functions, accessible only with citizen permissions.

Unfortunately, his current permissions only allowed three internet browsing sessions of three minutes each daily.

The enforcer seemed to notice Su Ling’s gaze, stowed away the panel, and sneered disdainfully.

“This is a locator developed by the Federation, designed specifically to track those like you who refuse to cooperate—deserters.”

“You won’t get away! Tomorrow morning, Federation agents will come to pick you up and forcibly send you to the frontlines.”

While speaking, the enforcer’s eyes narrowed, full of coldness and anticipation.

He seemed already to envision this deserter being taken to the frontlines at dawn and soon meeting a miserable death.

As for resistance or escape?

A lowly Dust Citizen without awakened powers, whose physical condition was worse than ordinary people—what chance would he have to resist or flee?

Inside the vehicle, the soldiers’ eyes showed a trace of pity.

Though Su Ling was a deserter, he was still one of humanity’s own.