One misty, drizzly morning in March 2014, the sound of students reading aloud rang out from a classroom in Donghai City No. 2 High School.
At the last desk of the first row in Class 3, Year 2, a boy lying sprawled over his desk slowly opened his eyes and looked around in a daze.
“Another dream of being back on campus. How many times has this been now?”
“I’m already a thirty-year-old man. Why do I keep having dreams like this?”
Meng Hao wearily rubbed his forehead and couldn’t help shaking his head slightly.
He remembered that he had just been “optimized” by a company—beautifully phrased as having “gloriously graduated” to provide talent for society.
But in this job market, where could he possibly go to be talent?
Once he was unemployed, his girlfriend immediately broke up with him on the grounds that she “had no sense of security.”
Mm… no stable income equals no sense of security. Fair enough.
He should be grateful. At least she hadn’t saddled him with the charge of “violating a woman’s will.” That was already something to thank the heavens for!
He hadn’t tried to make her stay, either. After all, feelings begged for on one’s knees were as cheap as grass.
Meng Hao vaguely remembered that on the night of the breakup, he had taken a treasured tennis racket he had kept for years and gone to a nearby tennis club to play.
Back in university, he had joined the school’s tennis club. It was during that period that he had thoroughly fallen in love with this lonely yet free sport. Perhaps there was also a lonely and free soul within him, which was why he fit so well with tennis.
It was just that after graduating from university, he had been busy with work, and the number of times he went to the tennis club to play had grown fewer and fewer.
That night, he had played an intense match against an amateur expert at the club. Both sides had gone back and forth, and the emotions that had been suppressed in his heart for so long were vented to his heart’s content.
Meng Hao vaguely remembered rushing up to the net, preparing to make a volley, only for the other party’s hand to seem to slip when he struck the ball. The tennis ball came whistling over and hit him directly in the head. After that, he lost consciousness.
Wait!
According to web novel records, some people were reborn after being hit by cars. As for him, he had been hit by a tennis ball. Could it be that he had also…
Meng Hao abruptly sat up straight and looked left and right, crying out inwardly: So real!
He took a deep breath, cautiously raised his hand, then slowly pressed it to the top of his head.
Such a thick head of beautiful hair!
Immediately afterward, Meng Hao slowly placed his hand on his abdomen.
He actually had abs!
Meng Hao quickly reached a conclusion: My hair has increased, and my body has gotten stronger too. Could I really have been reborn?
He glanced at his deskmate again and finally had some impression of him.
This person was called Yan Cong. He had indeed been his deskmate in the second and third years of high school.
In his previous dreams, whenever he returned to his high school days, the deskmate he dreamed of would often change, and wasn’t the one from his memory.
This time, even his deskmate was this real. It seemed he had truly been reborn.
Only, what year was it now? This was the question in Meng Hao’s mind.
“What are you doing, jumping at every little thing!” his deskmate Yan Cong said as he flipped a page of his book.
Only then did Meng Hao notice that what the other party was flipping through was not a high school textbook, but a novel. The novel was called A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality.
“You’re reading Mortal? I read the Human Realm arc before, but I haven’t read the Spirit Realm arc yet. Is it finished?” he asked quietly.
“It’s finished. It ended last year, almost half a year ago!” Yan Cong replied without thinking. “It’s over seven million characters. Reading it made my head spin!”
It was finished, and had already been finished for half a year!
Meng Hao immediately understood.
A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality had ended in September 2013, so the current time should be around March 2014. He was right in the second semester of his second year of high school.
Second year of high school, seventeen years old, in the prime of youth.
Meng Hao quietly looked around the entire classroom. One youthful face after another entered his eyes, and he couldn’t help sighing inwardly: Youth was truly wonderful.
Only, since he had been reborn, he had to seriously consider what he should do.
At Donghai City No. 2 High School, a key high school, Meng Hao’s academic results were actually just like Old Devil Han’s looks. In four words: utterly unremarkable.
Meng Hao tried to calm himself down and focus on these high school math, physics, and chemistry textbooks.
Why did they feel like heavenly scriptures?
It seemed that after being reborn, he hadn’t undergone any kind of heaven-defying transformation. He had no photographic memory, nor was his intelligence exceptional.
Huh? This is…
When Meng Hao opened his desk, he discovered a green tennis ball lying quietly in the corner.
A tennis ball?
Although he had liked watching tennis matches in high school, it was only after entering university and joining the club that he truly experienced playing tennis himself.
The characteristic of tennis was that although it was very difficult to get started, simply watching matches made it fairly easy to understand.
“But where did this tennis ball come from?” Meng Hao was filled with curiosity.
He remembered that the reason he had been reborn was because he had been struck by that tennis ball. Could it be that the tennis ball had also transmigrated with him?
He was absolutely certain that he had never bought a tennis ball in high school!
Meng Hao’s heart began pounding faster. He took a deep breath, then reached out and grasped the tennis ball.
“When did you buy a tennis ball?” his deskmate Yan Cong asked curiously, leaning his head over.
“Just bought it yesterday!” Meng Hao said without thinking. “Look how green and shiny it is. Isn’t it nice?”
When he grasped that vivid green tennis ball, an extremely wondrous feeling surged through his heart, one that could not be described in words.
Meng Hao held the tennis ball, then involuntarily closed his eyes.
Suddenly, a voice rang out in his mind.
“Activating Newbie Gift Pack!”
“Welcome to the legendary court of Roland Garros!”
“You will personally experience the legendary 2005 French Open journey from the perspective of Rafael Nadal!”
The scene before Meng Hao’s eyes abruptly changed, and he found himself standing on a red clay court.
All around him, the spectator stands were packed to capacity.
So I’ve now transformed into Nadal, the King of Clay?
Meng Hao could feel every swing, every run, every slide, every leap, and every roar of this body, but he could not control its movements.
Very soon, Meng Hao experienced the championship journey of the 2005 French Open from Nadal’s perspective.
The nineteen-year-old clay-court genius had appeared out of nowhere, winning seven consecutive matches with overwhelming momentum and finally claiming the crown at Roland Garros.
Meng Hao abruptly opened his eyes and found that he was still in the classroom.
His deskmate was still reading his novel with relish. Everything was as before.
“What was that just now… That was way too immersive!” Meng Hao murmured to himself.
Clay-court sliding!
He suddenly touched his thigh.
In his previous life, he had never played tennis on a clay court.
But now he had a very strange feeling: he could skillfully use sliding techniques on a clay court.
Ding~
Clay-Court Sliding Technique +10!
Forehand +5!
Serve +5!
At this moment, a panel suddenly appeared in Meng Hao’s mind.
Host: Meng Hao
Age: 17
Height: 1.82 meters
Clay-Court Sliding: 10 (Base 0)
Grass-Court Sliding: 0
Hard-Court Sliding: 10
Serve: 50
Forehand: 30
Backhand: 15
Footwork: 20
Net Play: 10
Stamina: 70
Tactics: 30
Movement: 60
Mentality: 50
Gear-Shifting Ability: 0%
ATP Points: 0 (Can be exchanged for certain special master-level shots!)
Meng Hao’s eyes flickered. Only one thought flashed through his mind: The dream buried deep in my heart in my previous life now has a chance to be realized!
…