The rain, the atmosphere, the air… Everything heavily weighed on Li Wei’s shoulders, to the point where everything felt like it exerted monstrous pressure.
His life, his family, his friends… Down on his knees, his mind couldn’t comprehend what was happening. A simple series of words kept going in an infinite loop : Where did everything go wrong?
“You were the prodigy of a generation, someone that could have changed the course of history. Instead, you chose a path that led you astray, finally ending up in front of me like the dog you chose to become...”
The voice was coarse and heavy, and every word made Li clench his jaw, with the fury inside his heart violently swirling and threatening to erupt at any moment.
However, faced with the absolute certainty of his death, the only thing remaining for him was to ask for forgiveness. Forgiveness for letting down everyone that was close to him and dragging them down this pathetic end.
With his heart heavy and mouth trembling, Li finally spoke while looking at the barrel of the gun pointed towards him.
“Colonel... Do you know why I did it?”
The tall and large man simply smirked at the question, but he was nonetheless curious.
“Speak up”
Li raised his lowered head, and the rage that was previously bottled up suddenly erupted. It was time to let everything out.
With a face now filled with disdain and anger, he sneered.
“You thought you were taking advantage of a weak researcher that would bend to all your whims, and I was almost swayed by all your bullshit, but when I saw the real you, fighting someone as stupid and ruthless was just child’s play...”
The Colonel’s body tensed up, and the atmosphere surrounding him changed to one of hostility and madness. Nobody had ever talked to him like that, especially those that had their lives in the palm of his hand.
“You shitty brat… Do you really think I won’t kill you?!?”
The coarse voice was filled with spitefulness, and the trigger of the gun was already halfway pulled, with the mechanism itching to send the bullet straight through Li’s head.
However, Li didn’t flinch, and stared at the barrel with even greater intensity. This was the first time in his 22-years-old life that the consequences of his actions didn’t scare him. Instead, one emotion seemed to prevail at that particular moment : relief.
That simple confrontation triggered his brain to playback all the events that led to this very moment.
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Since as far as he could remember, every item he could touch and examine would reveal its inner workings to him. It was as if each part, screw and material simply presented themselves in an orderly manner, and how they would react and behave once they formed a whole.
That is how he dissembled and reassembled his first object at the mere age of 2, which was a miniature toys’ car. The dexterity and intelligence he showed shocked his entire family, which was idling in the middle-class.
During that period in China, the only way to climb the social ladder for lower families was to have extraordinary individuals appear and make their name known throughout the land, and for the Wei family, it was the first time they could proudly say that a genius had appeared in their ranks.
Using all their financial but limited resources, they immediately tried to send Li Wei to primary school, trying to skip the entirety of preschool. However, their inexperience caused them to overlook an important fact : connections were just as important.
Thus, every time they tried talking to prestigious establishments, they were laughed out or thrown out before even having the chance to get a meeting. These setbacks eventually made the family give up on sending Li Wei earlier, forcing them to place him in a public school while hoping that his genius would be recognized.
Luckily, their patience paid off, and the child was soon recognized and hailed as one of the youngest and brightest mind of the country. His accomplishments, which ranged from re-engineering firearms to inventing new propulsion systems for rockets, placed him at the center stage of the world, and solidified China as an emerging superpower.
Of course, this also meant that the Wei family had massively increased their social standing, even putting them neck-to-neck with some of the most prominent and influential families of Beijing and Shanghai. After his graduation at 14 from the Tsinghua University, he was immediately approached by the military, which had taken quite an interest in his projects.
Offering him virtually inexhaustible amounts of money for his research, Li was hard-pressed to refuse, and so he began working for them, which took him away from the international spotlight.
Recognizing his genius, the military granted every request he made, from picking his team members to allowing him access to whatever projects they were already working on, even the ones that were highly classified.
His insatiable curiosity and hunger for knowledge almost terrorized the towering chain-of-command, but his constant breakthroughs more than outweighed the risk of him leaking anything. He was simply the crown jewel of the Chinese advancement in the military field, causing even the U.S. to pay closer attention.
Finally, after years and years of secluded and top secret research, his team, which now represented his closest friends, made a breakthrough into a field that would revolutionize humanity. They had finally managed to harvest “light”. All of its properties, which meant its speed, its radiations, its frequencies… Nothing had escaped them. Its uses were endless : travelling, medical equipment, weapons... The galaxy had finally become the playground of humanity!
The module, which was a behemoth, had cost a fortune to develop and was a masterpiece of engineering. When government officials saw the presentation and the results, they were shocked, to the point where words wouldn’t come out of their gaping mouths.
Before they could even recover from the initial shock, Li spoke, and that was when he made the gravest mistake of his life. His brain slowly replayed the exact words he said that day.
“Let’s announce this to the world!”
How naive… After that, everything was just a blur… He remembered them trying to convince him to reconsider, but his hard-nosed nature and ego had overtaken his rationality. After losing his friends, his family and now his life… He should have known better… Who would want to share such a discovery?
When he realized that everything was falling apart, he erased major parts of his research and severely damaged the working prototype, setting the entire project back several decades. The incident enraged the government, which immediately qualified him as a threat and a loose-end that needed to be closed.
His boiling rage was now subsiding, slowly replaced by melancholy. If he had another chance, he would do things differently… He had so many choices in front of him, so why was he now on his knees facing the barrel of a gun?
Seeing Li’s state getting calmer, the Colonel became even more enraged. How could this weakling be calm while facing his death? This didn’t make any sense! With his anger reaching new heights, the Colonel opened his mouth once again.
“You should have known that being alive was better than being a fool”
The final squeeze and the metallic sound of the hammer were the final sounds Li heard in this life…
***
[System initiated]
[Recovery of memories and abilities activated]
[Reboot sequence activated]
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[Welcome, Descendant of Leonardo da Vinci]