So this is it. The mechanisms of This Realm have developed to such an extent.
Inside the cramped Medical Room, Wang Jixuan carefully reviewed Mu Liang's short twenty-two-year life, gained a preliminary understanding of the current world, and began considering how Mu Liang had died.
His understanding of this world matched the upper limit of knowledge a Level 3 Ordinary Citizen could possess.
What was a Level 3 Ordinary Citizen?
That was rather complicated to explain;
and it was connected to Mu Liang's suicide.
Mu Liang had begun receiving a systematic education at the age of six and watched many educational films depicting the once-glorious Human Civilization.
Through those films in his memories, Wang Jixuan saw towering skyscrapers and all manner of devices that could soar through the skies and dive beneath the seas without any talismans or restrictions, such as airplanes and submarines.
That had been the beautiful era before the Great Cataclysm;
it was also known by modern humanity as the Golden Age.
Just as humanity's gaze began shifting from conflicts on the ground toward the depths of space, a disaster erupted simultaneously across the world.
It had been a premeditated Civilization Invasion.
Mimic Blade Beasts had appeared eerily in cities everywhere, releasing massive amounts of poisonous gas and wiping out fifty percent of humanity overnight.
Fortunately, humanity had always been actively engaged in Internal Strife before that, maintaining an abundance of martial spirit.
The humans who survived the initial catastrophe were scattered across different regions, yet they continued fighting tenaciously. Stockpiled weapons around the world were finally used to protect ordinary people's lives.
All kinds of Blade Beasts poured endlessly from the toxic fog;
they barely needed to eat, their bodies covered in hard armor, while some exceptional Blade Beasts could continuously evolve by devouring human corpses;
when Special Winged Dragons, capable of catching hypersonic missiles and covered head to toe in alloy-like biological armor, flew out of the toxic fog, humanity's only aerial advantage vanished completely.
"Powerful demon beasts, and terrifyingly numerous."
Wang Jixuan summarized it simply.
After more than a decade of fierce fighting, humanity was ultimately driven from the surface world by the Blade Beasts.
Yet the flame of Human Civilization continued burning stubbornly in fortresses underground and in space.
This young man, Mu Liang, had lived in Fortress 76 within the Ancient Basin region.
The fortress was a typical Second-Generation Industrial Fortress. It had originally been designed to hold a maximum population of 150,000, but exceeded that limit twelve years after operations began. By today, the fortress had operated for over 150 years and housed 890,000 people.
The figure of 890,000 was actually inaccurate.
The Fortress Intelligent Control Center could only effectively count the population of the Upper Second City. As for how many people lived in the long-out-of-control Lower City, the center could only make a conservative estimate.
The resources produced by the fortress itself had long since become insufficient to support all the humans within it.
In the twenty-fifth year of Fortress 76's operation, it initiated the Overload Social System. Every resource was allocated by the governor, who changed every ten years, and the Fortress Intelligent Control Center. Every fortress citizen received corresponding [Quotas] based on their contributions to the fortress.
The [Quotas] possessed by Mu Liang, a Level 3 Ordinary Citizen, were divided into three categories:
General Quota, Food Quota, and Medical Quota.
The three types of Quotas could not be converted into one another, transferred between people, or used by anyone other than their owner.
Mu Liang was a technician who performed quality inspections on a mechanical production line. His weekly pay was neither much nor little—25 General Quota, 35 Food Quota, and 5 Medical Quota.
A shirt or pair of trousers cost 5 General Quota, a pair of underwear cost 2 General Quota, and the Holographic Music Player Mu Liang treasured had cost him a full 185 General Quota.
The price of buying that thing was that he had only a few old pairs of underwear to rotate through for half a year, and they had all been washed until holes appeared in them...
To feel full twice in a day would probably require 6 Food Quota;
aside from Medical Quota, which could be accumulated without limit, General Quota and Food Quota could only be saved for up to three months.
In Mu Liang's memories, Wang Jixuan saw that the young man had been diagnosed with Moderate Depression half a year ago.
Wang Jixuan did not really understand depression or anything of the sort. His instinctive conclusion was...
Mu Liang had been starved to death.
A week had seven days, with an average daily Food Quota of 5. If Mu Liang had consumed all of that Food Quota himself, his body would probably have been quite healthy.
But in reality, Mu Liang only spent 3 Food Quota on himself each day. Long-term malnutrition had left him extremely frail, and his mental state had steadily worsened.
Where had Mu Liang's Food Quota gone?
That required mentioning...
Click.
The lock on the partitioned Medical Room door was turned. A female doctor wearing a white coat over a strapless crop top and hot pants stretched lazily as she shut the alloy door.
Wang Jixuan opened his eyes warily, then immediately turned his head to the side.
He complained inwardly;
the women of this world dressed far too boldly!
His senior and junior sisters usually wished they could wrap even the backs of their hands, yet the women here always liked exposing their snow-white thighs and collarbones like flower buds.
Sexy was sexy, and they did look quite nice, but...
what about one's Dao heart?
This Medical Room was only about four square meters. A narrow hospital bed and several standard medical devices occupied most of the space.
The female doctor skillfully unfolded a folding chair. After sitting down, she crossed her legs, and the slight excess flesh around her waist squeezed into a small roll.
Her wavy hair swayed slightly as she swiftly finished reading Mu Liang's file.
"Only twenty-two, and you already couldn't bear living?"
The female doctor's voice was somewhat hoarse. Her lips turned faintly downward as she pulled a stylus from beneath the tablet and began scribbling down medical records no one would inspect. Casually, she asked:
"You were diagnosed with a mental illness half a year ago. Have you received medication during these past six months?"
Wang Jixuan replied with his head turned away, "No."
The female doctor clicked her tongue. "Saving your Medical Quota instead of using it—were you planning to save it for a cremation furnace with acceptable temperature control?"
"No," Wang Jixuan replied calmly.
This woman really had a nasty mouth.
Did she think he could not understand that mocking tone? His command of words and language was now far stronger than that of this body's original owner.
The female doctor suddenly asked, "What did it feel like to be on the verge of death? Was it... pleasurable?"
Wang Jixuan: Hm?
Fine, he took back that arrogant statement.
He did not quite understand what she meant.
The female doctor shifted her still fairly slender body and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching one hand toward Wang Jixuan's wrist.
Was she checking his pulse?
Wang Jixuan suppressed the instinct to pull away, but he quickly discovered that the female doctor's fingers were beginning to stroke lightly along his arm.
Every hair on 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? Though the mechanism is cerebral hypoxia, that really is cool, isn't it? Your skin is so smooth. You're still a virgin, right?"
"Demoness! What are you doing?"
Wang Jixuan finally could not endure it any longer. He yanked back his arm, forcibly sat up despite his still-weak body, and glared furiously at the female doctor.
They were very close at that moment. An ambiguous smile rested on the female doctor's delicate, made-up face, though she was already over thirty.
She blinked her left eye lightly. "Demoness? Are you saying I'm seductive? That's a great title."
"No one will come near here, and the soundproofing is quite good. Nobody will come for two hours. They're all at work."
The female doctor continued talking to herself as she took a small mirror from her white coat, scooped up some foundation with her finger, and casually touched up her makeup.
"Mu Liang, it seems you still don't understand.
"Young people with self-destructive tendencies are generally sent to the medical center to have part of their brain tissue removed, ensuring that you can continue contributing to the fortress and do not waste the resources the fortress invested in you over the past twenty years.
"You will lose most of your emotions, suffer headaches from time to time, and cry for no reason... It is unimaginably painful, believe me.
"I can help you issue a certificate, one that keeps you from going to the medical center, and then... help you emerge from the gloom through pleasure."
Her white coat slowly slipped down. She secretly drew in a breath, making her full chest stand even more prominently while flattening her abdomen.
How could a young man with no experience who had already given up on himself resist her charm?
So the female doctor thought. A soft hum escaped her nose, while her tongue pushed apart her red lips before they met her white teeth again.
The female doctor had already imagined what she would do next.
She would turn around, kneel beside the bed on her left knee, lower her head toward this young man, casually undo the first and second buttons of her top, and begin conquering territory from his lips...
He's so adorable.
Thinking this, the female doctor turned around, knelt by the bed on her left knee as planned, leaned forward, her eyes seductive, her lips parting slightly...
Bang!
A dull thud rang out.
The female doctor stared at the young man before her in shock. A little blood seeped from her fair forehead.
"You hit..."
She collapsed weakly onto the hospital bed, rolled her eyes, and fainted.
Wang Jixuan calmly set down the somewhat heavy iron box in his hand and shook his aching wrist.
What the hell was that!
With looks like that, she wanted to steal this Dao master's Primordial Yang?
Even the old sect master of the Joyous Union Sect was not as wanton as her!
Then Wang Jixuan looked at the female doctor sprawled beside the bed and began frowning in thought.
The female doctor's threat had not been false. A brain tissue removal operation...
His Dao body could not be damaged. That was the prerequisite for him to walk the path of cultivation again.
Moreover, he was weak and frail right now, and this second life had truly not come easily.
Once this female doctor woke up, there would probably be another round of trouble.
A feeling of weakness swept through his limbs again.
Wang Jixuan touched the bruises on his neck, lowered his head, picked up the female doctor's white coat, and rummaged through it until he found several items.
Level 13 Class C Pass;
Quota Card;
Level 4 Ordinary Citizen ID (Junior Physician).
Wang Jixuan felt that no matter what he wanted to do next, he first needed to fill his stomach. This woman would not be waking anytime soon.
Food was to mortals what spiritual energy was to cultivators.
Therefore, Wang Jixuan could not calmly accept the fact that Mu Liang had been bullied by his coworkers for so long and that his Food Quota had become someone else's meal.
He would avenge Mu Liang, if only to settle this karmic debt.
Before you continue