Maintenance and Backstab

Name: Dug; ID: 48699527;

Mental Power: 60;

Current Rank: 3000/3000;

Match Keyword: Maintenance;

Match Keyword: Backstab;

Advanced Skills: None;

Derivative Items: None;...

Dug opened his eyes to find a string of data floating before him, illusory and brimming with a technological feel. Through it, he could see the dust-covered beams, purlins, and rafters overhead.

The archaic architectural style clearly did not belong to the modern era.

Transmigration? A dream? A faint smell of blood and sour rot lingered beneath his nose, making him deeply uncomfortable. Dug instinctively tried to sit up, but the intense pain throughout his body sent him crashing back down.

Hiss! Dug groaned. Only then did he realize that every part of him, from his limbs to his internal organs, felt as though it had been torn apart. There was not a single place that did not hurt.

Fuck!

Dug bared his teeth in pain. Had this body been beaten up by dozens of people? Still, that confirmed it—he had transmigrated. This definitely was not a dream. If it were a dream, pain this severe would have woken him up long ago.

Dug sighed inwardly. Transmigration methods were getting more and more ridiculous these days. They would not even leave people alone while they slept.

"Don't waste your strength. Your injuries are worse than mine. Without a month of rest, don't even think about moving." A muffled voice came from beside him.

Dug turned his head and saw another injured man lying on the wooden bed next to his.

The man's face was swollen into a pig's head. A filthy, bloodstained strip of cloth was stuffed into one nostril. His swollen eyes glanced sideways at Dug while his mouth kept wriggling.

One of his arms could still move. He was tearing at the straw mat beneath him, continuously stuffing shriveled reed stalks into his mouth as though they were the most delicious food in the world.

But judging by the agonized expression on his face as he swallowed, Dug knew the mat was not tasty at all. By now, the reed-woven mat had already been gnawed through, leaving a sizable hole nearly twenty centimeters square.

Had things gotten so desperate that he had to eat the mat? As Dug assessed his circumstances, his heart filled with misery. Had he transmigrated into someone who was not only gravely injured, but so poor he could not even afford food? What kind of person had he become? What a miserable start!

Dug refocused on the personal data before him, secretly relieved. At least he had a Golden Finger...

Without stopping his chewing, the man asked, "Brother, what's your Keyword?"

Dug froze and instinctively looked at the two Keywords in his profile: "Maintenance" and "Backstab." What was going on? Did everyone have a panel? Was this not his exclusive Golden Finger? What the hell...

"Quit pretending." The man smiled with difficulty. "I watched you take over that body. Don't believe the nonsense your Commoner School teachers taught you about not revealing your own Keyword. It's all bullshit. This is a Simulation Arena trial, not the real Alien Battlefield. Only by cooperating do we have a chance at a win-win outcome. If we don't cooperate, then with your current condition, once I recover, I can eliminate you in minutes. Believe that?"

Simulation Arena? Alien Battlefield?

What the hell were those?

Dug grew even more confused. He hated this feeling. Being stripped of all information was far too unfriendly for a transmigrator. Since he had already transmigrated, why had he not been given the host's memories? After a moment of silence, Dug calmed down and asked, "The foundation of cooperation is honesty. You tell me your Keyword first."

"Honesty?" The man snorted and waved the piece of reed mat in his hand. "I've been constantly eating these disgusting mats. Isn't that obvious enough? What do you think my Keyword is?"

Dug said quietly, "People can pretend."

"That Commoner Academy nonsense again..." The man stared at Dug in disbelief, then snorted in exasperated laughter. "Your way of thinking is unbelievable. I'm chewing on a mat even dogs would not eat just to fool you? Who do you think you are?"

A Keyword related to eating?

Based on his own Keywords, Dug made a few associations and tested the waters. "Eating whatever you can get?"

"Fuck your eating whatever you can get. Even playing dumb has limits." The man snapped. "My Keyword is Taotie."

"Taotie?" Dug repeated in surprise.

"That's right." The man grew smug and shook the reed stalk in his hand. "As long as I keep eating, I can grow rapidly. It's one of the highest-quality Keywords. Before taking over this body, my injuries were about as severe as yours. I ate two bowls of rice and a piece of straw mat, and now I can already sit up. Brother, cooperating with me is a huge bargain for you. Otherwise, with injuries like yours, you probably won't make it."

Dug saw the two empty bowls before him, then looked at the empty space beside his own bed. He did not care that the guy had stolen his food. Instead, he focused on the key point in his words: Taotie—so long as he kept eating, he could grow rapidly...

It seemed that Keywords were the key to breaking the deadlock.

Dug pondered it. His Keywords were Maintenance and Backstab. Since Taotie involved eating, then Maintenance and Backstab...

The meanings of the two words surfaced in his mind. Maintenance: to sustain, protect, and prevent something from being damaged; synonyms: repair, upkeep, protection, cover.

Backstab: an attack from behind, stabbing someone in the back; synonyms: betrayal, sneak attack.

Before transmigrating, Dug had studied Chinese literature. He could not have been clearer about the meanings of such words. Since Taotie grew through eating things...

By that logic, the key to his growth should be maintaining others.

But if he had Maintenance, why was his second Keyword Backstab?

The two should conflict, should they not?

No.

That guy had only mentioned one Keyword just now...

Dug looked at the man and asked ambiguously, "Anything else?"

"Anything else?" the man echoed. Then he sneered. "Brother, don't be too greedy. I'm the one holding the initiative right now..."

"My Keyword is Maintenance." Since the other party had only revealed one Keyword, Dug hid one as well.

There was too much he did not understand. No matter what the other man's intentions were, any information he could obtain from him, true or false, was better than blindly groping around on his own.

One Keyword would be enough to earn his trust. Besides, there was no need to reveal a Keyword like Backstab, which needed to remain hidden to work best. Dug had even prepared to make up another word at random if the man pressed him.

"Maintenance?" But the man had no intention of asking further. His eyes lit up as he forcefully swallowed the mat in his mouth. "An auxiliary-type Keyword? Fantastic! You really are the chosen partner. Chasing after you to take over this body was not in vain. You protect me while I eat my heart out. Big Brother will carry you and crush everyone else..."

The other man showed no sign of having a second Keyword. Did he only have one? If so, then Dug still had a Golden Finger after all, though that needed further verification...

Dug gave an awkward laugh and tried to get closer to him. "Brother, what's your name?"

"Feng Jiu," the man said.

"Your real name?" Dug asked.

"Of course it's this body's name." Feng Jiu chuckled. "Little brother, our relationship only lasts for this Simulation Arena. We each take what we need. Once we leave the Simulation Arena, we are strangers. Understand?"

"Understood." Dug nodded and did not ask further.

This was the second time Feng Jiu had mentioned the Simulation Arena. Combined with the current situation, Dug guessed that the Simulation Arena most likely referred to this world.

Could it be a simulated, realistic world for people to play in? Dug examined his surroundings.

The architecture, the smells, and the pain wracking his body...

Everything was lifelike.

If such a realistic world was virtual, just how advanced was the technology in the other world?

If this was a game, there should be an exit button, right?

Dug looked at his character panel again. He found no exit button, but noticed that one value had changed. His Current Rank had originally been 3000/3000; now it had become 1115/1213.

"1213?" Dug muttered deliberately.

"Those unlucky fools who failed to take over their bodies—the sixty percent of them," Feng Jiu remarked, looking at Dug. "Brother, I have to say, with your Mental Power, it was incredibly lucky that you found a severely injured body and successfully took it over."

A sixty-percent elimination rate? Following the key point in his words, Dug continued probing. "Ninth Brother, you said the two of us working together can eliminate others?"

"Definitely." Feng Jiu continued gnawing the mat through clenched teeth. "Big Brother's Keyword is Taotie, the very definition of an easy win. With your Maintenance added in, if we don't make the top ten, then there's no justice in the world. Don't worry. If I can make the top ten, I can definitely take you with me. Otherwise, with Maintenance being so unremarkable, how could you ever grow strong?"

"Ninth Brother, I'm counting on you." Dug forced a smile. "Ninth Brother, what kind of identities did the people we took over have? Tell me about it. I don't understand anything, so I don't accidentally give myself away..."

"You don't have any memories?" Feng Jiu asked in astonishment.

So he really was the only one without memories. What a fucking trap!

Dug cursed inwardly and said dejectedly, "Not a single memory. I don't know what went wrong."

Feng Jiu looked at Dug with pity and clicked his tongue. "Maybe the person whose body you took over was too badly injured and died during the possession process, so the memories were lost! This has happened in Simulation Arenas before. Good thing you met me. With an auxiliary-type Keyword and no memories, how were you supposed to get by?"

Dug let out a quiet breath and smiled bitterly. "Just bad luck, I guess."

"Meeting me changed your luck." Feng Jiu spat out a mouthful of reed pulp he could not swallow and cursed, "Pah, this is fucking disgusting. Once my body recovers, if I don't feast on delicacies every meal, I'll have let down all the suffering I endured chewing this damn mat."

He tore off another piece of mat and stuffed it into his mouth. "Your name in this world is Feng Qi. Mine is Feng Jiu. We are sparring partners for several young masters and disciples of the Feng Family."

Dug was puzzled. "Sparring partners?"

"Sandbags, really." Feng Jiu spat out another mouthful of reed pulp. "Those young masters do not treat sparring partners like people at all. Otherwise, why do you think we were injured so badly? Still, we got lucky in a way. If they had not been so severely injured, taking over their bodies would not have been so easy..."

Sandbags?

Dug's face immediately darkened. Sure enough, this was still a miserable start.

He continued asking, "Ninth Brother, is there any other critical information?"

"Half a year from now, the Qiao Family Sacred Land will open. The tenth Martial Arts Convention will be held then, selecting outstanding young martial artists to enter the Sacred Land and search for treasure. That should be the world's main storyline. We need to find a way to participate in the Martial Arts Convention. Only by getting close to the main storyline can we possibly achieve a good ranking." Feng Jiu looked at Dug and said seriously, "The Feng Family's young masters and direct disciples are preparing for the Martial Arts Convention. They have been ruthlessly tormenting us sparring partners, which is why we are so badly injured. Our top priority is finding a way to escape the Feng Family. Otherwise, sooner or later, they will train us to death..."