I Have a Numerical Kind of Beauty

A woman entered the room. After taking a seat, she tapped her watch, and a 3D projection screen appeared.

The photo showed a young Eastern man. His pitch-black eyes were as deep as uninhabited space, casting a hint of gloom over his otherwise sunny and handsome face.

Beneath it were the man's name and other details. The woman merely glanced over them before looking away, not only because she had reviewed them many times, but also because the person in question was sitting right in front of her.

"Lu Li, correct?"

The man seated across from the woman was wrapped in a Restraint Suit, bound tightly from head to toe, with only his head exposed.

His face was covered in unruly stubble, and his hair was filthy, making it impossible to tell what he had originally looked like.

"Is there anyone else in the company's Jail who gets the same treatment as me?" Lu Li smiled, sounding both mocking and self-deprecating.

The woman was not angered. She brushed back the purple hair by her ear and spoke in a businesslike manner. "You can call me Nefel. I'm responsible for taking your final statement. I hope you'll cooperate. That way, I may be able to secure you the breakfast you want."

Lu Li fell silent, seeming to recall something. After a while, he sighed softly. "The breakfast I want probably no longer exists in this era."

Nefel did not ask what Lu Li wanted to eat. That was not her task today. She checked the time and began the formal questioning. "Before the execution begins, I have a few more questions for you."

She paused and flipped through the images in the projection. It showed a middle-aged man wearing Exoskeleton Armor. The armor over his chest had shattered, and a long spear had pierced his heart. He lay in a pool of blood.

"Did you kill Master Lin Zhengdong?"

Faced with Nefel's question, Lu Li looked up at the man in the image and snorted. "Master?"

Nefel frowned. "Answer my question. You know that executions come in many forms."

Lu Li withdrew his gaze from the projection and stared at the woman before him. She was a standard New Era human. Her physical traits had already diverged somewhat from those of Old Era humans. For instance, her purple hair was not dyed; it was a genetic trait.

Being stared at by Lu Li made Nefel inexplicably uneasy, though her expression remained calm. Her voice rose several pitches. "I've read your previous statements. You admitted to your crimes, but you never explained your method."

Lu Li leaned back and twisted his neck, as though stretching his muscles after being restrained for too long. "I already told you how I did it. You just didn't believe me."

A strange look flashed through Nefel's eyes. Indeed, the man before her had described his "method."

But what he described had been far too absurd. It was simply impossible.

Just as Nefel was considering how to pry open the man's mouth, Lu Li looked at the ceiling and began listing names.

"Lin Zhengdong, Wang Luo, Ning Feige, Murong Gu, Liu Huabo, Hong Wu, Ma Huguo, Li Xiao, Tian Huahu, Cheng Lu."

With every name he spoke, Nefel's brow furrowed a little deeper. Every one of those people was a famous martial arts master.

Though she had no respect for martial arts, a relic of the Old Era that she considered nothing more than fraudulent nonsense, utterly helpless before technology.

Still, she had to admit that those people had trained their bodies well. Combined with their Exoskeleton Armor, they were extremely strong by individual human standards.

Yet the man before her had killed all ten Martial Arts Grandmasters without relying on any technological power...

The human body was weak. That was common knowledge. Historical records showed that even strongmen capable of hauling several hundred kilograms had reached their limit, but with Exoskeleton Armor, even a sickly person could easily lift a three- or four-hundred-kilogram stone.

And those Martial Arts Grandmasters, already naturally powerful and robust, could easily exert over a thousand kilograms of force while wearing exoskeletons.

"How did you do it?"

Nefel could not help asking. Discovering Lu Li's secret was her assignment, and he had genuinely stirred her curiosity.

"Is it that hard to believe?"

Lu Li smiled. "I don't think killing them was difficult."

"That's impossible. Don't tell me your martial arts were better than theirs again. I checked the records. Why were Old Era boxing matches divided into weight classes? You weren't even in the same league."

As Nefel spoke, she leaned forward and met Lu Li's eyes. "If you confess now—if you tell us how you discovered and exploited the system vulnerability—the company can consider withdrawing its punishment and, depending on the circumstances, granting you a position within the company."

At first, Lu Li was stunned by Nefel's words. Then he realized that these people had misunderstood. They believed he had found a system vulnerability in the company's exoskeletons and used it to defeat those so-called Martial Arts Grandmasters.

No wonder the company had held him for so long without being willing to kill him. They wanted to determine whether their product had a flaw.

"Looks like I caused you quite a bit of financial loss."

Lu Li smiled sarcastically.

"And your answer?"

Nefel asked. Yes, this was what the company truly feared.

The incident had caused an enormous uproar. Even though the company could control the media, plenty of people still knew that ten Martial Arts Grandmasters had been killed in hand-to-hand combat. It had not only made the public question the quality of the company's products, but had even caused the military to return a batch of orders.

Until they uncovered the truth and ensured that the company's new-generation exoskeleton system had no vulnerabilities, they did not want to dispose of Lu Li hastily.

"Have you read manga?"

"What?"

Nefel had not expected Lu Li's answer to be this. She had heard of manga—it was an entertainment medium from the previous century—but what did it have to do with their discussion?

"When I was little, I read a manga called Baki. There was some guy called the strongest creature on Earth. I thought his approach to fighting was pretty good."

Lu Li spoke as he reminisced, while Nefel sat across from him looking utterly baffled.

"Mr. Lu, please answer the question seriously."

Nefel spoke with a cold expression. She believed Lu Li was making a fool of her.

"It's really hard to communicate with you. Fine, I'll put it simply. When facing someone stronger than you, use technique. When facing someone with better technique, you can also brute-force your way to victory with greater strength."

Lu Li grinned as he spoke. "Your exoskeletons may be excellent tools for increasing strength, but those people's technique was too weak."

"You're saying that, at barely over twenty, you were much stronger than masters who had immersed themselves in martial arts for half their lives?"

Nefel looked utterly unconvinced. "Strong enough to bridge an absolute gap in strength?"

Even if Lu Li had killed only a child wearing the company's Exoskeleton Armor, she would have found it unbelievable. The human body was limited and fragile.

"You can understand it that way."

After saying that, Lu Li closed his eyes, as if he no longer wished to communicate with Nefel.

Before the company sent this purple-haired beauty, more than a dozen interrogators, negotiators, and psychologists had already "talked" to him, but none had gotten the answers they wanted.

Most of what he said had been true, but these people did not believe him, because people only believed what they wanted to believe. Even in this day and age, that had not changed.

The company believed he had found a vulnerability in their product's system and perhaps even gained access to a backdoor in the company network, which was how he had defeated those ten Martial Arts Grandmasters so easily.

They wanted to find the vulnerability in their system, but they also wanted to know whether some resistance organization stood behind him.

But in truth, he was alone, and he had long prepared himself for the end.

He knew Nefel was the company's "final chance" for him. After more than half a year, the company's patience had run dry. By now, their systems had likely been fully updated, and the social impact of what he had done had gradually faded.

Nefel was like a foot the company had extended before his face. If he stuck out his tongue and licked it, he might have a chance to live, but he did not want to lick it.

"Then let me ask another question. Why did you kill them?"

After taking a deep breath, Nefel continued recording the statement, prepared to simply follow procedure and get it over with.

"They became the company's dogs, betrayed their stance, and got my Master killed... There were too many reasons. You should know that."

Lu Li yawned and glanced at the time on the projection. "Can the execution begin now?"

Nefel frowned. She had seen people who were not Afraid to Die, but the man before her was far too calm. It was as though... he had grown weary of this world.

Like a powerful man standing atop a mountain, chilled by the loneliness of the heights, he reminded her of an ancient Eastern phrase: invincible and alone.

She stood and put away the projection. "I'll take you to the execution grounds."

The statement would be preserved as an audio recording. As Lu Li was a special death-row prisoner of concern to the company, she, as his final recorder, also had to film his execution from start to finish and archive it with his death certificate.

Escorted by two guards in Exoskeleton Armor, Lu Li was soon brought to an open-air execution ground.

Under the blinding sunlight, he narrowed his eyes. Once he adjusted to the light, he swept his gaze around.

"What a sick sense of humor. Sometimes I really wonder how far your so-called progress has actually progressed. Isn't this just dragging history backward?"

Lu Li's voice was laced with mockery as he looked toward the execution platform, where a motorized device stood.

Once the execution began, he would be secured to the platform while several mechanical arms pulled at his limbs until he was torn apart.

He remembered that this method of execution had been called Five Horses Dismemberment in ancient Eastern times. The company had many similar methods.

To prevent any accidents, the outer edge of the circular plaza was packed with heavily armed soldiers. Several figures also stood atop the high platforms along the walls, watching the situation below.

"Violent criminals like you deserve severe punishment, to serve as a warning to others."

Nefel stood beside Lu Li. "Any last words?"

Escorted by the two guards, Lu Li climbed the steps one at a time. "I just remembered something my Master praised me for when I was young..."

As he spoke, his Restraint Suit was removed. One guard used an exoskeleton arm to secure his neck, pressed a gun to his head, and then fastened him to the machine according to procedure.

Nefel did not understand why Lu Li would bring this up at death's door, but she still asked curiously, "Did he praise you for being a martial arts genius?"

Fixed to the machine, Lu Li felt the strength of the mechanical arms around him and grinned as he looked toward the figures on the high platform.

The execution arms were also company products. Whether intentional or not, the company had used the same series model as the exoskeletons worn by the people Lu Li had killed.

Seeing the cameras around them, Lu Li guessed that the company was likely trying to clear its own name. To show there was nothing wrong with its products, it was using the models Lu Li had defeated to execute him.

That way, it could prove that its exoskeleton arms had no quality issues and were powerful enough to tear apart a human body with crushing ease.

As for the defeated Martial Arts Grandmasters? They could only be called weak. It had absolutely nothing to do with the company's products.

And if Lu Li truly had mastered a system vulnerability, then when faced with death, he surely would not pass up the chance to use it to escape.

Of course, the company did not believe Lu Li could interfere with their products without the assistance of electronic equipment. They wanted to see whether the "organization" behind him would intervene in this execution.

Lu Li could not help admiring how cleverly the company had calculated everything. Under normal circumstances, no matter what happened, they would either recover their reputation or strike at the resistance.

But today, the company had calculated wrong. He had gambled right.

The old man on the high platform wore a black robe and sunglasses. Looking down at Lu Li, he revealed a relieved smile.

Lu Li smiled as well. He bared a mouthful of stark white teeth and burst into loud laughter, like a man driven mad before death.

If the mechanical arms had not been restraining him, he would probably have doubled over laughing.

The executioner pulled the switch. Lu Li immediately felt tremendous force acting on his limbs. The mechanical arm did not secure his neck, because this execution method was designed to make the prisoner die in agony.

If he were strangled or had his neck snapped outright, the prisoner would die too easily. A prisoner whose limbs were torn off would continue howling for quite some time before dying.

Lu Li reflected on the company's cruelty, yet also felt grateful to whoever had designed today's execution. He laughed in delight as, beneath everyone's shocked gazes, the muscles in his limbs tightened and resisted the mechanical arms' force.

"My Master didn't praise me for being a martial arts genius..."

Lu Li's voice was slow at first, then gradually took on a gritted, strained quality as he exerted himself. The muscles in his limbs bulged and knotted, with power like erupting volcanoes contained within their swelling peaks.

The man's voice tangled with the roaring whine of the mechanical arms, like a whisper from Hell. "He said that I... have a numerical kind of beauty."