"Chen Hao!"
"Wake up! The homeroom teacher's coming!"
Chen Hao, deep in the middle of a sweet dream, was shaken awake by his seatmate, Li Yang.
Still half-asleep, Chen Hao swatted his hand away and mumbled, "I'm the man who's going to be the Pirate King... What's there to be afraid of, even if the homeroom teacher shows up?"
"Chen Hao, stand up."
The sudden voice jolted him. He looked up—and froze.
The homeroom teacher was already standing in front of him, arms crossed, face expressionless.
He shot a glance at Li Yang, who had already buried his nose in his Chinese textbook and pretended to read intently.
"Chen Hao," the teacher said, sighing, "The college entrance exam is just around the corner. Even if your grades are slipping, you should at least try to read something."
Chen Hao nodded vigorously like a chicken pecking at rice.
Once the teacher moved on, Chen Hao kicked Li Yang under the desk. "Traitor! You saw her coming—why didn't you warn me earlier?"
Li Yang looked genuinely wronged. "I shook you! You were the one who started yelling about being the Pirate King in your sleep. Now the whole class knows your dream career."
Chen Hao looked around the classroom, seeing a few snickers and glances. Embarrassment washed over him.
He hadn't expected to fall asleep that soundly during class.
"...Do you really want to be the Pirate King?" Li Yang asked, half teasing, half curious.
Chen Hao didn't answer. Instead, he raised his eyes to the top-right corner of the blackboard.
[108 days left until the College Entrance Exam]
He sighed.
Another dream.
It had already been a week since his rebirth, and he still found himself dreaming randomly.
Always about manga.
He figured it was because he'd spent more than a decade chasing series that never ended. The resentment probably followed him into his dreams.
But now, it was 2006—not 2019.
No matter how many dreams he had, he couldn't go back.
Ever since his rebirth, he'd discovered something strange: not only had he returned to three months before the entrance exams, but he'd also brought back a mysterious memory archive.
Over the past week, he'd explored this archive and realized it contained an enormous library—books, newspapers, manga, music, even movies that existed before 2019. As long as it had existed, it was in there.
However, he soon noticed something else: although the people and past events around him remained mostly unchanged, some things... were different.
For example, no one had ever heard of One Piece.
Or Naruto.
The realization hit him hard.
Without One Piece, without Luffy's straw hat and dreams, the world felt a little dimmer.
At least Detective Conan still existed. If even "There is only one truth" disappeared, he might've started doubting whether he'd ever return to his original world.
"Oi, Chen Hao, you spacing out again? Don't tell me you actually do want to be Pirate King?"
Li Yang nudged him with his elbow.
"Pfft, who wants to be Pirate King these days? If anything, you'd have to head to Somalia for that."
"Not me. You're the one who said it."
"That was just from a manga I read..."
"A manga about a Pirate King? Never heard of it." Li Yang tilted his head, confused. "What's it called?"
Chen Hao rolled his eyes. "There's a lot you haven't read."
"Hah! I've read just as much as you have. I just finished the latest Hunter x Hunter yesterday. Want me to lend it to you?"
Chen Hao scowled. "Ugh, don't talk to me about Hunter x Hunter. That guy Togashi only draws when he runs out of mahjong money. Even if you read it now, I bet the next chapter won't come out for half a year."
"Don't jinx it, man!" Li Yang hissed. "You'll curse the whole fandom."
"I'm just stating facts. You should read something else. Domestic manga's not that bad either."
Li Yang sighed. "Domestic manga? Come on. Most of it's just collections. Like that 'April Story' thing I read recently—doesn't even count as a full volume."
"That's not true. There are a bunch of hidden gems. Like Uncle Da's Chang Ge—"
Chen Hao stopped mid-sentence.
Right. It was 2006. Chang Ge Xing hadn't even been published yet. Uncle Da wasn't the Uncle Da of the future.
Sure, there were talented creators out there, but truly influential manga were still rare.
"Chen Hao, you were saying—"
"Chen Hao! Li Yang!" the homeroom teacher's voice rang from the front of the room. "If you want to keep chatting, do it in the hallway!"
Li Yang instantly snapped his textbook upright and nodded like a model student.
Chen Hao did the same, then leaned over and whispered, "Your book's upside down."
Li Yang peeked down, muttered a curse, and flipped it the right way.
A moment passed in silence.
Then Li Yang lowered his voice and said, "Chen Hao... just over three months until the exam. What's even the point of staying in school for guys like us? The teachers have practically given up on us."
"We're just wasting our youth at this point."
"You know you're wasting time," Chen Hao said, side-eyeing him.
"That's why I've been thinking. After we take the graduation photo, I might just drop out."
"Why?"
Li Yang gave a bitter smile. "You know why. My grades are hopeless. And you know my family situation—maybe others don't, but you do."
Chen Hao didn't reply.
Li Yang came from a poor household.
They say kids from poor families mature earlier, and that was true for him.
He was the eldest. One little brother, one little sister.
Back in their generation, the two-child policy hadn't eased up yet, so most kids were only children.
But after his parents had a daughter, they found out their next baby was a boy—and decided to have him anyway, secretly.
Of course, secrets like that don't last.
After the boy was born, his father was fined and forced to get sterilized. The financial penalty was heavy, and the family was already struggling.
It only made life harder.
Li Yang used to be one of the top students in junior high. But once they got to high school, everything got tougher. He couldn't keep up. His grades plummeted.
By now, he was near the bottom of the entire year.
"I want to start working early. Help my parents out a bit."
"What can you even do out there?" Chen Hao asked quietly.
"Move bricks," Li Yang chuckled. "Seriously. Every winter and summer break, I follow my second uncle to construction sites. Don't look down on it—twenty yuan a day."
Chen Hao opened his mouth, then closed it again.
At least Li Yang had something in mind.
But what about him?
He'd been given a second chance. A do-over.
Was he really going to just drift through life again... exactly the same as before?