Seven years ago, when the terrible news about his father came, Brian Bolton felt as if his whole world had collapsed. Life became unbearably bleak, but now his father had actually returned. He didn’t want to dig into the reasons—so long as his father was alive, that was enough!

In the call, his father nagged on and on, reminding Brian Bolton to take care of his health. Brian Bolton felt a warm glow in his heart. Even if this was just a dream, he wished it could last as long as possible.

Finally, his father got to the main point: “Yuan’er, your uncle has passed away.”

“Uncle… didn’t he already…” Brian Bolton remembered clearly that his uncle Samuel Bolton had died ten years ago, the cause being excessive use of Gamma Type-III body-strengthening rays, which led to his body’s potential being exhausted and collapsing.

“What nonsense are you talking about?” his father gently scolded, then continued, “Come home this Saturday, and on Sunday we’ll go back to the Zhang family estate. After all, we are members of the Zhang family, and we must attend your uncle’s funeral.”

Hearing this, Brian Bolton was even more shocked. His gaze wandered around the inside of the mecha cockpit, finally settling on the time displayed in the upper right corner: “July 23, 2174, 13:27.”

His heart skipped a beat: “July 2174? Isn’t that exactly when my uncle died? Could it be that I’ve gone back to the past? Is this really just a dream?”

Brian Bolton couldn’t believe such a thing could happen. He hurriedly pinched his own arm—ouch, it hurt! And nothing around him had changed. This wasn’t a dream; it was reality!

He looked carefully at his surroundings and realized he wasn’t in a real mecha cockpit, but a virtual mecha pod, used for virtual mecha combat. Looking at his own body, it was clearly his high school self from ten years ago!

If he remembered correctly, at this time he should be at the game center next to his school, playing the most popular mecha game of the moment, “Hero.”

He turned off the noise-canceling function of the virtual mecha pod, and the clamor of the game center immediately flooded in, confirming his guess.

“Oh my god, I really have gone back to the past… and my father is still alive!” Brian Bolton was overjoyed, but then anxiety quickly followed: “Uncle is dead, and as the second son of the Zhang family, my father will soon shoulder the family’s responsibilities. But my father has never undergone high-intensity mecha combat training, and starting so late, no matter how hard he trains, his achievements will be very limited. If history doesn’t change, in two years my father will die in battle at the Hangu Star Gate… No, no! I absolutely cannot let history repeat itself!”

With his uncle’s death, neither his father Nathan Bolton nor Brian Bolton felt much grief, and this was related to the past.

Back then, the family opposed his father’s marriage to his mother, with his uncle being the most vehement opponent—he even harbored murderous intent toward his mother.

Because of this, his father fell out with his uncle’s family and nearly left the family altogether. Although things didn’t completely fall apart in the end, over the years, neither he nor his father had relied on the Zhang family for any favors, and their relationship with the family had always been distant. Even his third uncle, who married into the family, was closer to the Zhangs than they were.

You could say that if nothing had happened to his uncle, Brian Bolton would have only drifted further and further from the Zhang family, and after a few generations, they would have become complete strangers.

But now that his uncle was gone, and with only two daughters, his father Nathan Bolton became the only son of the Zhang family’s second generation, and Brian Bolton the only legitimate grandson of the third generation. Returning to the Zhang family was inevitable.

Even so, whenever he thought of the look of disdain from his grandparents, Brian Bolton felt a wave of discomfort. Because his mother came from a humble background and he had been weak and sickly since childhood, even suffering from mild autism, he was never favored by his grandmother. Even after his uncle’s accident, this didn’t change much, and he really didn’t want to go back.

“Forget it, forget it, I won’t think about this anymore. Being able to return to the past is already a huge blessing from the heavens—what more could I ask for?” Brian Bolton shook his head, tossing these unhappy memories out of his mind.

“Dad, I remember. I’ll come back,” Brian Bolton replied.

“Good. You’re not strong, so don’t push yourself too hard with your studies. No matter what, you still have your old man,” his father reminded him again before ending the call.

Brian Bolton felt warmth in his heart. His father had always treated him like a child, always shielding him from the wind and rain with his own body, and in his previous life, he had naively thought this would last forever.

He suddenly recalled the last call his father made to him from the Hangu Star Gate. At that time, the battle at the Hangu Star Gate was at its climax, and his father had already accepted his fate, but his words were as gentle as ever.

“Yuan’er, take good care of yourself.”

That was his father’s last sentence. At the time, Brian Bolton hadn’t noticed anything unusual, and only realized something was wrong when the bad news arrived. Years later, when he thought back on those words, he slowly came to understand his father’s feelings at the time. There was deep concern for his child in his voice—he knew he was doomed, and his worry was tinged with helplessness.

Recalling his father’s final words, tears once again slid from the corners of Brian Bolton’s eyes. He wiped them away, took a deep breath, and said, “Father, I’ve grown up!”

In this life, he would not waste a single moment. He would do everything he could to strengthen himself, and his opportunity lay in the virtual mecha game “Hero” he was playing right now—or more precisely, in the game’s Dark Exploration mode.

The essence of the game “Hero” was that it was a recruitment game for Earth’s military.