Who says a bad hand always means you’ll lose? Even a low card can beat the king sometimes!

He firmly believed that as long as he worked hard, he would definitely be rewarded. Ten years later, he wouldn’t be much worse off than the average person, and in thirty years, he was confident he could make his own child a second-generation official or rich kid, getting a fifty-meter head start in the hundred-meter race of life.

Unfortunately, in the end, this beautiful plan turned into nothing. He died in his sophomore year in the student dormitory—his death was anything but glorious. He was playing a mobile game before bed while charging his phone, and a poor-quality charger did him in, electrocuting him right there on his bed.

Heaven knows, he only played mobile games for twenty minutes before bed each day to relax and unwind, so he could sleep well. And yet, that’s how he died—in theory, a phone charger is low voltage, and 5V shouldn’t be able to kill anyone, but the cheap charger he bought was probably poorly made or a refurbished old one. When converting from 220V to 5V, it shorted, and he died tragically, electrocuted and killed by cardiac paralysis before he even knew what happened.

Then, just as muddled, he found himself in the body of a Japanese high school student, and even brought along a cheat—at the time, he’d been playing a fantasy idle mobile game before bed, and after he died, the game came along with him. Now, whenever he stared at something for too long, he’d see [Name: XXX] pop up, which was incredibly annoying.

This kind of post-death body swap and rebirth shattered his worldview, and the mobile game occasionally popping up to remind him of its existence made everything feel even more dreamlike. He suspected his body was dead but his brain was still alive, stuck in a “brain in a vat” scenario—maybe, in reality, a bunch of people in white coats were gathered around his brain doing research!

Or maybe everything he was experiencing now was just his cerebral cortex and prefrontal lobe being stimulated by electricity before death, making him experience a dream that felt endlessly long in just a few seconds—thanks to this inexplicable game, he learned the [Japanese] skill in just one day, and even gained a passive called [Neat Handwriting].

He used to only know one Japanese phrase, “Yamete,” but now, with the [Japanese] skill activated, he spoke Japanese fluently. This… although Japanese uses nearly three thousand Chinese characters, the pronunciations are different, more like the Wu or Tang dialects of ancient times, and don’t match up with modern Mandarin at all!

He couldn’t have just invented a new language out of thin air, could he?

If you only looked at this [Japanese] skill, it did feel a bit unreal, but he’d never set foot outside the country before. Now, looking at all these people he’d never seen, and these buildings full of foreign flavor, surely he couldn’t have just imagined all this before dying, right?

He’d probably really been reborn in Japan, so it was like he’d gotten his life back… or half his life?

Henry Carter—he was now impersonating this person, so he’d just treat it as his Japanese name. It was like when he learned English in elementary school and the teacher gave everyone an English name; same idea. It was a way to fit in, so he wouldn’t have to take forever to respond when someone called him—Henry Carter refused to join a club, which made Ryan Smith and James Walker stop bickering and look over at him.

Ryan Smith ignored James Walker and asked Henry Carter curiously, “Why aren’t you joining?”

“I plan to prioritize improving my academic performance.”

“I see…” Ryan Smith looked a bit disappointed, “Well, Mr. Carter is different from us, after all. I was actually planning to invite you to join the kendo club with me.”

James Walker asked in confusion, “Huh? How is he different?”

Ryan Smith shot James Walker a sideways glance and said irritably, “Idiot, focus on your studies! Mr. Carter is a specially invited scholarship student, ranked second in the grade on the entrance exam, and will be in the special advanced class next year… He can get into a prestigious school on academic merit alone. If it weren’t for personal interests, there’s really no need for him to join any club activities.”

James Walker slowly opened his mouth wide, looking at Henry Carter in disbelief, his expression complicated: “Second in the grade? There’s one from the top fifteen in each class, so you’re the one assigned to our B class! No wonder…”

No wonder Ryan Smith was always so polite to Henry Carter—Japan’s ancient class system still runs deep even today. In society, a boss scolding a subordinate is almost like scolding a grandchild. It’s not as bad in schools, but there are still clear ranks, and everyone keeps a mental ledger, figuring out their own position and others’, so they can act accordingly!

This could probably be considered a kind of national character, another example of respect for the strong.

Henry Carter waved his hand lightly to show it was nothing… and it really was nothing, since these two weren’t the ones who got the grades.

The original owner of this body was from Saihaku District, Tottori Prefecture, Japan, lured to the private Daifuku Academy with promises of free admission and scholarships, so of course his grades were excellent. Unfortunately, he died as soon as he arrived in Nagoya City—or at least, he should have. Maybe he should check if he ended up transmigrating to China instead.