Dragon Tribulation of All Realms

Chapter 213 - Gravel and Dust
Wu Chen stood in front of the tombstone, motionless and silent.

A flood of distant memories washed over him, and he felt as if he had returned to that rainy night, that gas station, that inexplicable accident, and the explosion and flames that came crashing down on him.

Ten years ago, on a stormy night, a family of three took shelter from the rain inside a gas station. Whether due to human negligence or years of disrepair, a particularly loud bolt of lightning struck, causing the entire gas station to explode in an accident that should never have happened.

Only one child survived; he had been arguing with his family and happened to run into the rain outside the gas station during the accident. In his last moments of consciousness, all he saw was a blinding red and white light.

He lay in the hospital for six days before regaining consciousness. When he woke up, he was surrounded by familiar yet unfamiliar faces—distant cousins ​​who hadn't intended to adopt him but hadn't mistreated him either. In the midst of his loss, he also received humanitarian care.

After that, everything went smoothly—the source of the accident was identified, and those responsible either disappeared during the accident or were dealt with fairly. The innocent victims received adequate compensation, and there were no further surprising revelations from journalists.

No one touched the compensation money in the boy's hands, and no one tried to seize his inheritance. The psychologist also found no irreparable symptoms in the boy. And when the distant relative, whom he barely knew, returned to his own life with the money the boy had forced upon him, everything continued as usual.

The boy got into a good middle school and university. His adolescence went smoothly throughout. There was no pity, no bullying, no strange looks. Before he came of age, he received the same kind of proper treatment as someone with a normal family.

He did not become a loner, nor did he become withdrawn, extreme, or averse to society.

He did not become an outstanding person, nor did he develop enthusiasm, ambition, or a spirit of dedication.

He simply became an ordinary person, with decent grades and a skill. He excelled in science subjects like math, physics, and chemistry, but not exceptionally. His excellent grades, however, resulted in a narrow social circle. He had a few friends, but not many, and while the relationships were acceptable, they weren't particularly deep. In his spare time, instead of using it to improve himself or participate in community service, he simply indulged in video games.

He's just an ordinary person.

Gravel and dust don't possess the ability to stand out—if he hadn't obtained that phone, hadn't had that stroke of luck. He would have ultimately graduated as an excellent, but not outstanding, student. He would have joined a decent company, gotten a decent job. A few years later, he would have settled down, started a family, and by the time his child was around ten, he should have owned a car and a house, had some savings, and been able to keep pace with his parents.

This was the fate that Wu Chen was meant to have.

This is also Wu Chen's unremarkable past.

There are at least tens of thousands of his peers with similar experiences in this populous country. He is neither outstanding nor lagging behind, but rather mediocre, and slightly better than his peers.

He stood here.

He looked at the stone tablet in front of him.

There were no bodies beneath the tombstone, only ashes sealed in a container. And it's difficult to accurately estimate how much of that ashes belonged to his parents, who died in the accident.

He is thinking.

He heard hurried footsteps approaching from afar, then slowing down as they drew nearer. He was still lost in thought.

—I am certain that I am a talented person.

He thought, recalling his past. In nearly a month of exploration in another world, what he had acquired, learned, and mastered was clearly not limited to the fate bestowed upon him by the Dragon Priest and the basic abilities of the Primal Spirit fragments. He knew that his success in the magical realm must have a reason, and that even if he embarked on other paths, he would inevitably achieve something as well.

—But in the past decade, I have been nothing more than a mediocre person.

People nearby were being evacuated, and some noticed him in the eye of the storm. Some passersby seemed about to say or do something, but these tendencies were easily nipped in the bud. Wu Chen looked at his palm, his fingers clenched, then relaxed. Knowledge and power seemed to be held within, flowing down his fingers.

He could have had more—he was now certain he could have had more. He could have been a hero, a demon, or a rising star on Earth. Because he now knew that from the very beginning, he possessed extraordinary potential.

But he stopped there—mediocre, neither here nor there, like grains of sand and dust, the foundation of great achievements, yet also a multitude of alternatives. And the reason for this is…

“…You died too young.” He reached out, using his mental power to brush away the dust from the tombstone and the small weeds growing on its exterior. “You didn’t tell me what kind of person I should become. You didn’t teach me which direction to take.”

What you desire but cannot obtain in your youth will ultimately haunt you for the rest of your life.

Young children lack their own opinions and therefore do not know how to move forward.

Because he lost them, and before they left him, their only expectation of him as a child was that he grow up healthy and happy—a good student, good grades, and be joyful and healthy. That was all they asked of him, so he just stayed where he was.

They didn't guide him forward; they didn't have time to teach him what initiative and ambition were. So, he became just an inconspicuous grain of sand by the roadside.

One more or one less makes no difference. He's somewhat useful, but not much.

So, he has become what he is today—even with power and knowledge, he still drifts along with the tide, possessing almost no agency. Because from beginning to end, he has never understood certain things.

I don't understand what I want to do, what I want to become, what I want to create, or what I want to defeat.

He was just a grain of sand, a grain of sand in the wind. Hard and sharp, yet drifting with the current, he would not do anything superfluous unless touched or forced by external forces. And if others placed expectations on him, even if he agreed, he would at most give a passable response.

And now, he finally understands this.

—My time has not moved forward since that explosion.

—I...I've always just been a clueless little kid.

His heart was pounding. The grief and regret had long since faded into the past. He thought he would be excited, nervous, and devastated, but when he stood here, his feelings were surprisingly ordinary.

Just like his past school days, it was ordinary and uneventful, without pride, satisfaction, anger, or pain. It was as if his lost parents had never truly left, but had always been by his side, never communicating with him. And now, he stood here merely to make them move their long-stagnant feet a little.

He wasn't even in a hurry to perform the spell immediately, because he felt no urgency whatsoever.

He exhaled silently, and the surrounding sounds finally fell completely silent. Then, accompanied by a series of firm and steady footsteps, a capable voice came from a mouth not far from him.

"Do you have time to talk?"

“Classmate Wu Chen.”

(End of this chapter)