Chapter 1 I Died

This shriek was the first string of desperate data Luenk's consciousness emitted after its reconstruction in cyberspace. He had a premonition that in the long "eternal life" to come, this wail would become his theme song.

Year 2185 AD, New Century Space.

Luenk had thought that after his 150-year-old physical body met its end, he would be greeted by a perfect second life. His consciousness data stream passed smoothly through the photon-interwoven holographic welcome corridor. However, when the virtual avatar generated for him by the system appeared, he saw only a young, robust body, but one conspicuously lacking a head.

In this world, appearance modification had been strictly prohibited by the United World Government fifty years prior. The bodies generated by the system were always in one's peak physical state. For this reason, countless people had spent fortunes on cosmetic surgery and even bone lengthening and muscle augmentation before death, all to be "reborn" in the most beautiful and handsome form in the afterlife.

Luenk had once scoffed at this, quite confident in his youthful appearance. But now, where had his once-proud features gone? He subconsciously raised a hand, touching the eerie void above his shoulders, feeling as if his head, along with his entire central nervous system, had encountered a century-and-a-half-long delay during the upload and was still loading.

"Luenk, you old bastard, you finally died! I've been waiting for you for a full five years!" A booming voice shattered the hall's silence. A muscular Asian man with a beaming face walked in enthusiastically from the doorway. He looked around eagerly, his gaze finally landing on Luenk's headless body, and his brow furrowed.

"What's this? Someone's doing a Halloween cosplay already? The system notified me Luenk arrived... Where is he?"

"So, you're saying, after your consciousness was uploaded, you found your head was gone?" The man, named Yosuke Akamine, scratched his own head, a look of disbelief on his face. "Luenk, be honest, is this some prank you planned? Are you secretly recording my reaction to upload to Prism (a future virtual world video simulation site) so you can become a star Prism-caster on your first day?"

"Yosuke, I swear I don't know anything! It was gone when I got here!" Luenk explained urgently. His voice emanated directly from where his head should have been, with an empty, surrounding quality, like the air speakers popular in 2080. His line of sight, too, projected from that eerie void.

"Then let's ask the AI customer service first," Yosuke said, tapping a floating red beacon in the air with his fingertip.

Two hours later, after an infuriatingly polite exchange with the AI customer service, the truth finally came out.

"Aaah! Are you kidding me?! You mean, I sold my own head before I died?!" Luenk's wail once again came from his empty neck.

"Calm down, friend, it's just a head, what's the big deal," Yosuke comforted him in a tone he considered very composed.

"It's not your head that's missing!" Luenk roared in exasperation, angrily refreshing the transaction record before him. The information was irrefutable: years ago, after uploading his consciousness data, he and his friends had gotten roaring drunk. He'd vaguely browsed online auctions and discovered he could list his own modeled virtual assets. So, for fun, he had sold his head for 500 US dollars (equivalent to 200 US dollars in 2025). That was in 2065, and he had completely forgotten about it afterward.

"Sigh," Yosuke sighed. "That kind of virtual asset trading was completely banned in 2095. Later, the government even sent out emails notifying sellers they could buy back their assets at a low price. Knowing your habit of not checking your email for a century, you definitely missed it. And the rules state that only the real-world person can apply to buy it back. That route's probably a dead end now."

"Then what am I supposed to do? Walk around with a paper shopping bag over my neck?" Luenk asked in despair.

"Maybe you can still buy it back. Let's check the open market first."

Five minutes later.

"What?! Five billion US dollars?!" (This was equivalent to thirty million US dollars in 2025) Luenk screamed again. If he still had a head, his expression would undoubtedly be as contorted as if he'd just swallowed a whole lemon. The vigorous data-hormones in his young body (though virtual, the residents here maintained youthful hormonal settings) made him feel like he was about to explode.

"Wow, your head is that valuable?" Yosuke, on the contrary, stroked his chin, a hint of jealousy in his eyes. "Luenk, your head's had a much more exciting life than you have. Eighty years ago, in the New Century Space, it ranked third on the 'Annual Bizarre Virtual Collectibles' list. Later, after changing hands several times, it was bought by a sports club and used as a ball for several seasons in the 'Freak Football League.' Its scoring rate was pretty high too... Tsk tsk, much better looking than your financial statements."

After speaking, Yosuke clapped Luenk heavily on the shoulder. "Relax. In this 'New Century Space,' you get a ten-thousand-dollar allowance every week, and you don't need to eat or drink. Worst case, go live in World Park, run around naked like those guys who still pursue a primitive nature in the virtual world after dying. Your look will definitely be the center of attention. Then you just wait for... hmm, a thousand years? We're all immortal here anyway, right? As long as your head doesn't go up in price again."

"Damn it!" Luenk jumped up in frustration. He found this young body made him exceptionally emotional.

"It's okay, friend, I'm here with you," Yosuke said with a cheerful laugh. "Having a headless friend is so cool. By the way, do you want to contact your ex-wife and kids now? Hmm... give them a big surprise?"

"No need," Luenk's voice came from the void. "My relationship with them wasn't good to begin with. Besides, I'm a headless dead man now."

"Family"... The word felt to Luenk like a fragile artifact unearthed from an ancient civilization.

In his era, when humans could live vigorously to 80 or 90, with irreversible aging only setting in at 120, the foundations of "family" had long been eroded by the vast expanse of time. People chose to upload their consciousness around the age of 150, not because their bodies were failing, but merely to avoid the risks associated with digitizing an aging brain.

On such a life scale, eternal promises became a joke. His parents had spent their lives in a constant cycle of divorce, remarriage, and finding new partners. And he himself had perfectly replicated this pattern. His so-called "ex-wife" was merely a girlfriend with whom he had once raised a child. Their relationship had fractured when the child was only twelve, in early adolescence, and they had only managed to maintain it until the child reached adulthood before separating.

Luenk himself had only one child, and that child didn't even like him.

He recalled the vast, hazy network of relationships formed throughout his long life, consisting of over fifty girlfriends and ten boyfriends (in this future world, this was perfectly normal; five of the boyfriends and twenty of the girlfriends were transgender. Yosuke was just a regular buddy, not a boyfriend). The vast majority of those faces, along with their names, had long since disconnected from his memory.

In a world where all relationships expired, he had no desire to revisit those long-expired old accounts in his new life.

"Alright then," Yosuke, seeming to sense his low spirits, changed the subject. "So, what are your plans now? Want to go meet some of my friends here? I bet they'd love to make friends with a cool headless guy like you."

Luenk didn't answer. His gaze was fixed on the virtual auction interface before him. His own head was displayed there, a commodity. With a simple swipe of a finger, the face he had once known so well, capable of displaying any expression, would spin like a top.

He remained silent for a moment, then made up his mind:

"No. I'm going to buy back my head first!"