After Death, I Became a Superhuman

Chapter 3 – Border Station

Jiang Bei had a very strange dream.

At first, everything in the dream was normal, just like any other mundane day in his calm life. He finished his day's work, bought some daily necessities from Old Chang's shop and then went home...

...until he was abruptly confronted by a lunatic in a white suit in the middle of the night, who didn't hesitate to have a heart-to-heart.

The physical heart.

He woke up, scared out of his wits.

Jiang Bei woke up drenched in cold sweat, his entire body soaked. He let out a sigh of relief when he realized that it was just a dream. But the feeling of the dream was so realistic that for a moment, he actually thought he was going to die.

He hadn't even had a chance to appreciate the thirty-plus gigabytes of private learning material he had just downloaded to his hard drive the previous night, and he hadn't even deleted his browsing history. To die like this was really regrettable.

After regaining his composure, Jiang Bei focused on the situation in front of him and was taken aback once again.

An unfamiliar ceiling...

No, everything was unfamiliar, from the ceiling to the walls, doors, and windows.

A room that gave off a sci-fi vibe, with walls covered in silver metal. It didn't take him long to realize that he was in a line, with all sorts of people lined up in front and behind him. Men, women, old, and young, the line extended to a counter at the front, behind which sat a gentle and refined Clerk.

Above it hung a sign: "Deceased Registration Desk."

While he was still dumbfounded, a melodious and gentle female voice rang out from one side, "Hello, all you newcomers to the world of the deceased~"

Jiang Bei was startled and instinctively followed the sound. He quickly realized that the voice was coming from a speaker hanging in a corner of the room.

"Surely many of you are wondering what's going on?

Please don't panic, it's quite simple—you're dead."

Jiang Bei: ???

"Yes, since you've arrived at the Border Station, it means you've died. Those who unfortunately died in the Present World all come here." The female voice on the broadcast was still speaking, gentle and pleasing, "The next step is crucial to you, and it will determine your future direction.

Please follow the instructions of the staff to get your number, do not push or crowd. The Border Station is committed to providing you with the highest quality and efficient service..."

High-quality and efficient reincarnation service, right?

Jiang Bei vaguely seemed to understand.

No, that was not a dream. That was his memory, something that really happened not long ago.

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He was dead.

The moment he realized this, he suddenly felt a great sense of emptiness sweep over him, almost engulfing him entirely.

From the current situation, this might be what people traditionally imagine as something like the Underworld. But the style was vastly different from Jiang Bei's previous imaginations.

There were no Ten Kings of Hell, no black and white impermanence, no bull-headed or horse-faced figures, and it didn't feel as dark and oppressive as depicted in TV dramas. The whole place felt more like a Citizen Center to Jiang Bei.

Perhaps times have indeed changed, even the Underworld has WiFi now. Jiang Bei imagined the King of Hell lounging in a swivel chair, playing games with a group of students on his phone. He might even threaten to erase the player who makes a stupid move from the Book of Life and Death, shouting "you're done, I'm going to cross you out right through this internet line."

He felt a bit cold, and quickly realized that his heart, which had been working diligently for twenty years, seemed to have finally gone on strike. The blood in his veins stopped flowing, and every organ and cell in his body felt lifeless.

Only then did Jiang Bei realize that for the past twenty years, he had never noticed his heartbeat or the flow of blood, but now it might be because he had taken them for granted. Only now, when he had lost these, did he realize how uncomfortable this felt.

People are always like this, only realizing the value of things when they are lost. Life itself is a miracle that lasts for decades, yet its value only stands out in the moment of disappearance.

Jiang Bei felt a sudden wave of despair. Like a mechanical unit, he moved with the queue, not knowing how he had taken the number plate from the Clerk's hand. He didn't even glance at the plate before carelessly stuffing it into one of his pockets.

What did it matter anyway? He was already dead.

The massive, chilling emptiness constantly reminded him that he was nothing more than a lifeless shell. For a moment, everything seemed to lose its importance.

"Please show your number plate."

He didn't realize when he had arrived in front of a gate - or perhaps it was more appropriate to call it a customs checkpoint. Multiple gates and service windows were set up side by side, each with a gentle and refined Clerk behind it.

"Please wait while we check your Treasury value." The Clerk took the number plate and began typing rapidly on a device similar to a computer.

"Uh... what value?" Jiang Bei asked.

"Treasury value, a statistical method reflecting your value in the Present World," the Clerk explained as he continued to work, "It determines your future destination.

If your Treasury value is exceptionally high, exceeding 51200, then congratulations, you have qualified for entry into the 'Ideal State'."

Jiang Bei felt even in life, he had never felt as heavy as he did now. Each step was like carrying a thousand pounds, laboriously moving towards his fated destination.

A spotted hyena.

Sure, when he was young, he would shout things like, "Better to be a pig in life, better to be a dog in death." But that was all talk. Who would actually want to turn into a dog?

Now looking back, he felt his life had been pretty worthless. He sacrificed his childhood to get into a better middle school, and his sleep to get into a better university. After graduating, he became a coder...

It seemed like he had lived his entire life for the future, thinking that the struggles he faced were investments for better days. But suddenly, he had no future.

The truth was, there were so many things he wanted to do, so many foods he wanted to try. He had hundreds of games he had bought on sale but never downloaded, a list of movies he wanted to watch but never found the time for...

But now it was too late.

Boom.

Jiang Bei stumbled, almost falling over. It felt as if the entire space had shaken.

Boom...

The second time, more intense than before. He was sure it wasn't his imagination. Jiang Bei fell on his buttocks, feeling the entire floor trembling beneath him. The unknown light source in the room seemed to be affected too, flickering.

What the hell?

Jiang Bei turned his head in confusion, finding the entire transition center in chaos. The Clerks, who had been calm and professional, were now screaming like mad.

"'The Sea of Time' has been breached!"

"That's impossible! The 'Sea of Time' is a realm where both space-time and life have no meaning, nothing can..."

"It's a 'Transcendent'!" Someone screamed hysterically, "Call the Director! Quickly notify the Director..."

"It's too late, she's already here..."

Boom!

All the lights went out, and the Transition Center shook violently once more. Jiang Bei felt as if he were in a birdcage being toyed with by a cat's paw.

Until now, his impression of the Transition Center had been similar to the underworld. So, who or what could cause the Clerks of the underworld to panic like this? The Monkey King?

Another tremor, this time a door was forcefully blasted open. No, there wasn't even a door in this space originally. Those who end up in the Transition Center are the dead, and the dead should be obediently gone, so there was no entrance back to the Present World from the beginning.

But now, an entrance had appeared. It was as if a door had been carved out of thin air in the void, then blasted open from the outside with unimaginable brute force.

Jiang Bei felt a beam of light shoot in, pierce through the crowd, breaking through the darkness like lightning, and illuminating him directly.

Actually, a second before, Jiang Bei felt he had accepted the reality of turning into a hyena. Massive sorrow and despair, as well as unprecedented attachment to his once dull life, had enveloped him in a web of despair.

A second later, an angel appeared.

She broke directly into hell, moving so quickly that her afterimage seemed to ride the light. Jiang Bei felt his arm being pulled, and he was lifted off the ground.

For a moment he thought it was good that he was dead, otherwise, he was sure his lungs would have been squeezed dry at that moment.

He heard a Clerk exclaim in surprise, he thought he saw someone running towards him. But they clearly couldn't catch up, because the angel pulling Jiang Bei flew incredibly fast, possibly even faster than light.

Jiang Bei saw the people and the room rapidly shrinking in his vision, until he was out of the Transition Center, plunging into something like a sea.

A salty, moist liquid unexpectedly rushed into his mouth and nose, and before Jiang Bei could react, he gulped a large mouthful. His speed was like light, as he blinked and passed through the water, then crashed through a glass curtain wall with a "clang". Fragments of debris scattered around him like a shower of flowers, refracting a spectrum of light and interweaving into a curtain of rainbows.

What came into view next was a kaleidoscope, countless mirrored layers composing a complicated space, tormenting his eyes. After another light-speed passage, there was pitch black, like an abyss made up of all the sins in the world, with no light or temperature, just an eternal fall into endless despair, like Lucifer's nine days and nights of falling from heaven...

It felt as if everything had happened in the blink of an eye, yet also as if it was eternally long.

Finally, Jiang Bei screamed, and opened his eyes on his apartment bedroom bed.

Then, he froze.

He felt a pleasant, soft sensation.

From the girl who was straddling him.

Almond-shaped eyes, peachy cheeks, dreamily pale, golden hair flowing down to her hips, she was curiously observing Jiang Bei.

Before the crashing Jiang Bei's brain could figure out what was going on, she spoke.

Holding her stomach and tilting her head, she said, "I'm hungry, I want to eat."