"So noisy! Who the hell is setting off firecrackers so early in the morning? I... BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP."
Hawking, who was sound asleep, was suddenly awakened by a deafening noise and couldn't help but roar as he opened his eyes.
As a 996 worker, it was a rare day off to sleep in, but the resentment of being woken by noise was truly terrifying.
After a string of profanities, he suddenly froze.
"Where is this?"
Hawking scanned his surroundings, bewildered.
This ornate, somewhat luxurious European-style room was clearly not his cheap, dilapidated rental.
Rubbing his eyes, he confirmed he wasn't hallucinating and couldn't help but want to throw off the covers and investigate.
But when he saw his hands and body, he let out a scream of disbelief:
"What happened to my body!"
He found that his body had shrunk considerably, seemingly turning into a child.
Scrambling out of bed, he rushed to the mirror standing in the room and, looking at the boy of about eleven or twelve reflected there, Hawking couldn't help but murmur:
"Could it be... could I have been reborn into my childhood?"
The boy in the mirror looked exactly like he did when he was eleven or twelve, it was him, he could confirm that.
"But I never lived in a house like this when I was a kid!"
He carefully recalled, and in his memories, at that age, he had always lived in a boarding school.
"Boom!"
Just as he was wondering, a loud explosion suddenly came from outside.
"Whose firecrackers are those, so loud?"
Putting his confusion aside for a moment, Hawking went to the window, wanting to see the outside environment to determine where he was.
He pulled back the curtain, and when he saw the scene outside, his pupils immediately contracted, followed by a churning in his stomach, almost making him vomit.
What did he see?
Shattered buildings, blood-stained ground, fallen corpses, planes circling in the sky, and continuous gunfire below.
Clearly, what he had heard earlier were not firecrackers, but actual shell explosions, and even missile strikes; a brutal war was taking place here.
Danger, extreme danger!
Run, run quickly!
This was Hawking's first reaction, but then he forced himself to calm down as soon as he moved.
Because he realized he had nowhere to run.
In such a dangerous war, would leaving this house truly be safe?
It was possible that if he went out, with bad luck, he would be riddled with bullets; it might be safer to stay in this room.
But looking at the bombed-out buildings outside the window, staying in this room also seemed like gambling with luck; if a missile hit here, he would be shattered along with the house.
"Maybe I should find a place like an air-raid shelter to hide, but... I don't even know what this ghost place is!"
At this moment, Hawking fell into a dilemma.
He was, after all, just an ordinary person, and now he had turned into a child; finding an air-raid shelter safely in this strange place was simply wishful thinking.
"Click!"
Just as Hawking was at a loss, a virtual panel suddenly popped up in front of him, followed by a line of text on the panel:
"Protagonist Template Random Draw System activated. You have one free draw opportunity. Do you wish to draw?"
Seeing the incredible scene before him, Hawking barely hesitated and immediately pressed the 'Draw' button displayed on the panel.
Now was not the time to dwell on why he woke up in a war-torn city, why he turned into a child, or why such a strange virtual panel appeared.
What he needed to do now was survive first.
As the confirmation button was pressed, the virtual panel immediately began to flash rapidly like a disco ball.
A moment later, the panel returned to normal, and another line of text appeared on it:
"Draw complete. The protagonist template drawn this time is the thirteen-year-old Son Goku from the Dragon Ball World. Do you wish to load it?"
"I'm saved!"
Seeing that the randomly drawn protagonist template was Goku from the Dragon Ball World, Hawking's spirits immediately lifted, and he unhesitatingly clicked 'Confirm' again.
If he remembered correctly, the thirteen-year-old Goku should have already undergone Master Roshi's training and participated in one World Martial Arts Tournament; ordinary thermal weapons would be hard-pressed to harm him anymore.
"Thirteen-year-old Son Goku template loading. Loading duration: one hour. Cooldown period: twenty-four hours.
After loading, automatically acquire the same bloodline as the template protagonist."
As a new prompt flashed on the panel, Hawking immediately felt a wonderful change occurring in his body, as if his original body was an ant, and now it had transformed into an elephant.
At the same time, a series of memories flooded his mind—all of Son Goku's memories from birth to thirteen years old.
He turned to look at the mirror again; his height and face hadn't changed at all, still his own appearance from when he was eleven or twelve.
However, his original short, flat hair had now grown into spiky black hair, exactly like Son Goku's hairstyle in dragon ball.
Moreover, his pajamas had been replaced by a Turtle Hermit Style martial arts uniform with the 'Turtle' character written on it, and a red staff was strapped to his back.
"I only have one hour. I need to find a safe place to hide first!"
According to the panel's description, he could only maintain this state for one hour; after an hour, he would revert to his original form.
So, now was not the time to be brave and go out to stop the war in the city, but to find a safe place to hide first, either until the war ended or until the cooldown of the loaded protagonist template was over.
Having made his decision, his body immediately rushed out of the room at a speed beyond the limits of normal humans.
"No one."
He glanced around, found the house empty, and without stopping, quickly went out onto the street.
Hawking started sprinting wildly in a direction where the sound of gunfire seemed less intense.
He felt that with his current body, he should be able to run out of the city in an hour, so there was no need to waste time looking for a so-called air-raid shelter.
However, he hadn't run far when he suddenly saw two strong soldiers wearing different colored military uniforms engaged in close-quarters combat with empty rifles on the street.
Normally, with his personality, upon seeing such a situation, he would definitely run as far as possible.
In such a dangerous situation, let alone watching two soldiers fight hand-to-hand, he wouldn't even stop to save civilians if he saw soldiers shooting them.
Under the premise of ensuring his own safety, he wouldn't mind lending a hand, but now his protagonist template could only be loaded for a maximum of one hour, so he had to prioritize his own safety.
Yet, for some unknown reason, seeing the two fighting fiercely, his blood immediately boiled, and his body involuntarily turned and rushed over.
"Are you guys having a martial arts match? Count me in!"
Five seconds later, looking at the two strong soldiers he had knocked out, Hawking was completely speechless.
"This... is it similar to a Maoshan Taoist inviting a deity to possess a body?
Not only did I get the protagonist's strength, but I also got a bit of the protagonist's personality?"