Boom! Boom! Boom!
“Ugh, why is it so loud? Did someone fucking lit a firecracker this early in the morning?”
Hawking was sleeping soundly when a loud sound suddenly woke him up. He couldn’t help but complain loudly as he opened his eyes.
As a 9/9/6 worker who worked 12 hours from 9 AM to 9 PM, six days a week, it was rare for Hawking to afford a good night’s rest. His rage after suddenly being woken up was understandably terrifying.
Still, like clockwork, he managed to get through some traditional Chinese martial arts stretches before realizing something.
“Where… is this?”
Hawking was at a loss for words as he observed his surroundings.
The retro European room, spacious and even somewhat luxurious, contrasted with the old, cheap, and dingy apartment he rented.
He rubbed his eyes several times to ensure he wasn’t seeing things.
But he then noticed something else about his hands that made him cry out in disbelief:
“What happened to my body!”
He found that his body had shrunk quite a bit as if he had become a child.
He scrambled from the bed and rushed to the full-body mirror in the room. Looking back at him from the mirror was a little boy who couldn’t be more than eleven or twelve years old.
“Have I…been reincarnated?” Hawking muttered to himself.
The little boy in the mirror looked similar to his appearance when he was eleven or twelve years old. It was undeniably his own body—he would know.
“But I never lived in such a house as a child!”
He recalled that he should’ve been living in a boarding school around this age.
“Boom!”
Before he could get any answers, a loud noise interrupted from outside.
“Was that a cannon? Why is it so loud?”
Hawking set aside his confusion and went to the window to see what was happening outside.
He reached the curtain and pulled it open. His pupils immediately shrank when he saw what was happening outside. His stomach churned, he could barely hold back from vomiting.
What did he see?
Ruins and rubble, blood and corpses covering the ground. Warplanes circled in the skies, while artillery fire raged below them.
The booming noise he heard just now was not a mere cannon shot, but the sound of an exploding shell, or perhaps a missile. A cruel war was being waged here.
Danger, extreme danger!
Run, quickly run!
Primal instinct filled Hawking’s heart. He needed a moment to calm himself down.
There was nowhere for him to run.
With such a war raging outside, it couldn’t be safe to leave this house.
One unlucky step, and I would be turned into Swiss cheese. It would be safer to stay here.
But looking at the ruined buildings outside the room, even staying here would be a gamble. A single missile would rend this house to pieces along with him.
“Maybe I should find a place like an air raid shelter to hide, but… I don’t even know where this place is!”
Hawking was faced with an impossible dilemma.
After all, he was just an ordinary person, and a child at that. It was just a wishful thinking to navigate and find an air raid shelter on his own in this strange place.
“Pop!”
Suddenly, a floating holographic panel appeared in front of Hawking, who was still at a loss of words. A line of words appeared on it:
[Random Protagonist Template Extraction Device activated. You have a free chance to draw a Main Character Template. Would you use your free chance? ]
Despite the fantastical events happening right in front of him, Hawking didn’t even hesitate to press the button on the holographic panel.
It wasn’t the time to be confused about why he woke up in this war-torn city, or why he had became a child, or why a strange hologram had suddenly appeared.
He needed to survive, first and foremost.
The holographic panel began flashing after he pressed the button, akin to a disco ball.
A moment later, the panel returned to normal. A line of words appeared on it again:
[Congratulations, you have drawn Protagonist Template of Son Goku — Dragon Ball — 13 years old. Would you like to load the template?]
“We’re saved!”
Hawking became excited when he saw the Protagonist Template that he had drawn: Goku from Dragon Ball world. He pressed the yes button again without hesitation.
If he remembered correctly, the 13-years-old Goku should have received the training from Master Roshi and participated in the first World Martial Arts Competition. Ordinary guns and missiles should not be much of a danger to him.
[13-years-old Son Goku Protagonist Template has been loaded. It will last for an hour, and will enter cooldown mode for the next 24 hours afterwards.]
As if on cue, Hawking felt strange changes happening across his body after the notification appeared. It was as if he had lived all his life as an ant, and now he had been given the body of an elephant.
At the same time, a series of memories appeared in his mind. It was all the memories of Goku from birth to thirteen years old.
He turned his head and looked at the mirror again. His height and face had not changed at all, and he still looked like himself when he was eleven or twelve years old.
However, his flat hairstyle had changed into long, spiky, and stiff black hair. It was just like Goku’s hair from Dragon Ball.
Moreover, his pajamas had been replaced with the uniform of the Turtle School, complete with a red staff on his back.
“I only have an hour, I need to find a safe place!”
The hologram told him that he could only keep his current state for an hour before returning to his normal, weak self.
Thus, he had no time for trying out his powers or showing it off to stop the war. He needed to find a safe place to wait for the war to end—or at least wait for the Protagonist Template to cool down.
Having made up his mind, his body immediately rushed out of the room at a speed far beyond the limits of normal people.
“Nobody’s home.”
A quick glance, he didn’t notice anyone else in the house. He proceeded to rush out to the street.
Hawking stopped for a moment to find a direction with the least gunfire noises, and then ran full speed to that direction.
With his current body, he felt that he could leave the city within an hour. He no longer needed to waste time looking for some air raid shelter that might not even exist.
However, it didn’t take long before he ran into two soldiers in different military uniforms. The two engaged in close combat, their guns empty.
The normal Hawking would’ve ran away as far as he could.
In such a dangerous scenario, nevermind two soldiers fighting, he wouldn’t even spare a second glance to massacred civilians.
He wasn’t heartless: he didn’t mind helping people as long as it wouldn’t endanger himself. But right now, the time left on his Protagonist Template was ticking away constantly. He had to prioritize his own safety.
However, for some reason, the sight of combat excited his blood. He involuntarily rushed over to the fighting soldiers.
“Are you guys fighting? Count me in!”
Hawking was completely speechless as he saw his handiwork five minutes later: the two strong soldiers out cold on the ground.
“This… Could it be similar to the divine possession used by Taoist priest from Maoshan Sect?
“It didn’t only summon the Protagonist’s power, but also their personality?!”
……
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