Chapter 2: The Failed Young Man

“I see, the mechanical arts of this realm have actually developed to such an extent.”

In the narrow medical room, Wang Jixuan finished reviewing Mu Liang’s brief twenty-two-year life in detail. Having gained a preliminary understanding of this current world, he began to ponder how Mu Liang had died.

His level of cognition regarding this world matched the upper limit of knowledge a Level 3 commoner could possess.

What was a Level 3 commoner?

This was quite complicated to explain;

and it was related to Mu Liang’s suicide.

Mu Liang began receiving a System education at the age of six, watching many educational films depicting the once-glorious human civilization.

Through these films in his memory, Wang Jixuan saw towering skyscrapers and various instruments that could fly through the sky and dive into the sea without any Talisman or Restriction, such as airplanes and submarines.

That was the beautiful era before the Cataclysm;

it was also called the Golden Years Great Dao by humans today.

Just as humanity’s gaze began to shift from surface conflicts to deep space, a disaster erupted simultaneously across the world.

This was a premeditated invasion of civilization.

Mimic-type Blade Beasts appeared mysteriously in various cities, releasing massive amounts of toxic gas, exterminating fifty percent of humanity overnight.

It was also thanks to humanity’s constant internal strife, which had maintained their abundant martial prowess.

The humans who survived the initial Cataclysm were divided into different regions, yet they still fought tenaciously. The stockpiled munitions in various places were finally used to protect the lives of commoners.

Various types of Blade Beasts poured incessantly from the toxic mist;

they almost never needed to eat, their bodies were encased in hard armor, and some specialized Blade Beasts could continuously evolve by devouring human corpses;

when Special Winged Dragons, covered in alloy-like biological armor and capable of catching up to hypersonic missiles, flew out of the toxic mist, humanity’s only remaining aerial advantage vanished completely.

“Powerful and astonishingly numerous Yao Beasts.”

—Wang Jixuan summarized simply.

After over a decade of fierce fighting, humanity was finally driven off the surface world by the Blade Beasts.

But the fire of human civilization continued to burn tenaciously in underground and space Fortresses.

This young man, Mu Liang, lived in the 76th Fortress in the Middle Ancient Basin region.

This Fortress was a typical second-generation industrial Fortress. It was originally designed to accommodate a maximum population of 150,000. Twelve years after the Fortress began operation, it Breakthrough that limit. Today, the Fortress has been running for over 150 years, housing a population of 890,000.

The figure of 890,000 was actually inaccurate.

The Fortress’s Intelligent Control Center could only effectively count the population in the Upper Two Cities of the Fortress. As for how many people lived in the long-out-of-control Lower City, the center only made conservative estimates.

The resources produced by the Fortress itself had long been unable to support all the humans within it.

In the twenty-fifth year of the 76th Fortress’s operation, the Overload Social System was initiated. The Administrator, who changed every ten years, and the Fortress’s Intelligent Control Center allocated all resources. Every Fortress citizen received a corresponding Quota based on their contribution to the Fortress.

The Quota owned by Mu Liang, a Level 3 common citizen, was divided into three types:

general quota, Food Quota, and Medical Quota.

The three types of Quotas could not be converted into each other, nor could they circulate between personnel; they could only be used by the individual.

Mu Liang was a technical worker performing product inspections on a mechanical production line. The weekly salary he received was neither too much nor too little—25 general quota, 35 Food Quota, and 5 Medical Quota.

A shirt or a pair of trousers required 5 general quota, a pair of underwear required 2 general quota, and the Holographic Music Player Mu Liang cherished like a treasure cost him a full 185 general quota.

The price of buying that thing was that for half a year, he only had a few pairs of old underwear to rotate through, and these pairs of underwear were washed until they had holes…

To feel full twice in a single day required about 6 Food Quota;

except for the Medical Quota, which could be accumulated indefinitely, the general quota and Food Quota could only be accumulated for a maximum of three months.

In Mu Liang’s memory, Wang Jixuan saw that this young man had been diagnosed with moderate depression six months ago.

Wang Jixuan didn’t quite understand what depression was or wasn’t. His intuitive feeling was…

Mu Liang had starved to death.

A week has seven days, with an average daily Food Quota of 5. If Mu Liang had consumed all these Food Quotas as food, his body would likely be quite healthy.

But in reality, Mu Liang only used 3 Food Quota on himself each day. Long-term malnutrition made his body very thin and weak, and his mental state deteriorated day by day.

Where did Mu Liang’s Food Quota go?

This brings us to…

Click.

The lock of the partitioned medical room was twisted open. A female doctor, wearing a white coat over a tube top and hot pants, stretched and closed the alloy door.

Wang Jixuan opened his eyes alertly, then immediately turned his head to the side.

He complained to himself;

the women of this world really dressed a bit too boldly!

His Senior Sister and Junior Sister usually wished they could even wrap up the backs of their hands, but the women here always liked to expose their snowy-white thighs and flower-bud-like collarbones.

Sexy was sexy, and they were indeed quite good-looking, but…

what about his Dao Heart?

This medical room was only about four square meters. A narrow hospital bed and several common medical instruments occupied most of the area.

The female doctor skillfully opened a folding chair. After sitting down, she crossed her legs, and her slightly fleshy abdomen squeezed out a small spare tire.

Her wavy curls swayed slightly as she quickly scanned Mu Liang’s profile.

“Giving up on life at only twenty-two?”

The female doctor’s voice was somewhat raspy. The corners of her mouth turned down slightly as she pulled out the stylus from the bottom of her tablet and began to scribble an archive record that no one would check, asking casually:

“You were diagnosed with a mental illness six months ago. Have you received any medication during these six months?”

Wang Jixuan answered with his head turned away, “No.”

The female doctor tutted. “Saving your Medical Quota without using it—are you trying to keep it to choose a cremation furnace with just the right temperature for yourself?”

“No,” Wang Jixuan responded calmly.

This woman’s words were so unpleasant.

Did she really think he couldn’t understand the sarcastic tone? His current command over words and language was much stronger than the original owner of this body.

The female doctor suddenly asked, “How does the feeling of being on the brink of death feel? Is it… very pleasurable?”

Wang Jixuan: Hmm?

Fine, he took back that arrogant statement from earlier.

He didn’t quite understand the meaning of this sentence.

The female doctor shifted her still-slender body and sat on the edge of the hospital bed, reaching out a hand toward Wang Jixuan’s wrist.

To check his pulse?

Wang Jixuan suppressed his instinct to dodge, but he soon discovered that the female doctor’s fingers began to slide gently over his arm.

The hair all over Wang Jixuan’s body stood on end.

“You’re still very young… do you like that feeling of suffocation?”

The female doctor asked softly:

“Did you see a wonderful world in there? Although the mechanism is brain hypoxia, it’s indeed very cool, isn’t it? Your skin is so smooth. You’re still a virgin, right?”

“Witch! What are you doing!”

Wang Jixuan finally couldn’t help but pull back his arm. His still-weak body forced itself to sit up as he glared at the female doctor.

At this moment, they were very close. The female doctor’s face, which was over thirty but still exquisite due to makeup, wore a hint of an ambiguous smile.

She winked her left eye gently. “Witch? Are you saying I’m very enchanting? A great title.”

“No one will come near here, and the soundproofing is quite good. No one will come for two hours; they’re all at work.”

The female doctor spoke to herself, took out a small mirror from her white coat, used her finger to pick up some foundation, and began to touch up her makeup.

“Mu Liang, you don’t seem to understand yet.

“Young people with self-destructive tendencies are usually sent to the Medical Center for partial brain tissue removal surgery to ensure you can continue to contribute to the Fortress and not fail the resources the Fortress has invested in you for the past twenty years.

“You will lose most of your emotions, you’ll have frequent headaches, and you’ll cry for no reason… It’s an incomparable pain, believe me.

“I can help you issue a certificate, a certificate that says you don’t need to go to the Medical Center, and then… help you use pleasure to walk out of the gloom.”

Her white coat slowly slipped down. She secretly inhaled to make her full breasts stand more upright and her abdomen flatter.

How could such an inexperienced and already self-abandoning young man resist her charm?

The female doctor thought so, letting out a gentle hum from her nose, her red lips parted by the tip of her tongue and then touched by her white teeth.

The female doctor had already planned her next moves.

She would turn around, kneel by the bed with her left knee, lower her head to approach this young man, casually undo the first and second buttons of her short shirt, and begin her conquest from his lips…

‘He’s really cute.’

The female doctor thought so, turned around, knelt by the bed with her left knee as planned, leaned her body forward, her eyes like silk and her lips slightly parted…

Thud!

A dull sound.

The female doctor stared in astonishment at the young man in front of her, a bit of blood seeping from her fair forehead.

“You hit…”

She slumped powerlessly onto the hospital bed, her eyes rolling back as she fainted.

Wang Jixuan calmly set down the somewhat heavy iron box in his hand and shook his aching wrist.

‘What is this!’

‘With just this much beauty, you want to seize this Daoist’s Primal Yang?’

‘Even the old Sect Master of the Hehuan Sect wasn’t as wanton as you!’

Afterward, Wang Jixuan looked at the female doctor’s slumped figure by the bed and began to frown in thought.

The female doctor’s threat just now wasn’t fake. Brain tissue removal surgery…

The Daoist body must not be damaged; this was the prerequisite for him to step onto the path of cultivation again.

Moreover, he was currently weak and powerless, and this second life was truly hard-won.

When this female doctor woke up, there would likely be another bout of trouble.

The feeling of weakness in his limbs struck again.

Wang Jixuan touched the bruise on his neck, looked down, and picked up the female doctor’s white coat, rummaging through it for several items.

A Class C Pass for the Thirteenth Floor;

A Quota Card;

A Level 4 Common Citizen ID (Elementary Doctor).

Wang Jixuan felt that no matter what he wanted to do next, he had to eat his fill first. This woman wouldn’t wake up for a while.

Food is to a Mortal what Spiritual Qi is to a Cultivator.

Therefore, regarding the fact that the original owner of the body, Mu Liang, had been bullied by his coworkers for a long time and his Food Quotas had become others’ meals, Wang Jixuan could not calmly accept it.

He would avenge Mu Liang, treating it as settling this piece of Karma.