Maintenance and Backstab

Name: Dug; ID: 48699527;

Mental Power: 60;

Current Rank: 3000/3000;

Scenario Keyword: Maintenance;

Scenario Keyword: Backstab;

Advanced Skills: None;

Derived Items: None;…

Dug opened his eyes, and a string of data floated before him, illusory and futuristic, yet through it, he could see dust-covered beams, purlins, and rafters on the ceiling.

The ancient architectural style clearly didn't belong to modern times.

Transmigrated? Dreaming? A faint smell of blood and a sour odor lingered in his nostrils. The scent was very unpleasant. Dug instinctively tried to sit up, but the intense pain throughout his body made him fall back down.

Hiss! Dug groaned. He then realized that his entire body, inside and out, felt as if it had been torn apart. There wasn't a single spot that didn't ache.

Holy crap!

Dug grimaced. This body must have been beaten up by dozens of people! However, this also confirmed that he had transmigrated, not dreamed. If it were a dream, he would have woken up from such pain long ago.

Dug sighed inwardly. These days, the ways of transmigration are getting more and more absurd; they don't even spare you sleep.

"Don't bother. Your injuries are worse than mine. You won't be able to move for at least a month without rest." A muffled voice came from beside him.

Dug turned his head. Another injured person lay on the wooden bed beside him.

The man's face was swollen like a pig's head, a blood-stained dirty strip of cloth stuffed into one nostril. His swollen eyes squinted at Dug, and his mouth kept moving.

He had one functional arm, which was tearing at the straw mat beneath him, continuously feeding shriveled reed stems into his mouth as if they were the most delicious delicacy in the world.

However, seeing his grimacing expression as he swallowed, Dug knew the straw mat didn't taste good. By then, he had already chewed off a large, twenty-centimeter-square section of the reed-woven mat.

Had his family become so poor that he had to eat the mat? Dug assessed his current situation, a wave of sadness washing over him. Could it be that the person he transmigrated into wasn't just severely injured, but also so poor he couldn't even afford food? What kind of person did he transmigrate into? What a terrible start!

Dug refocused on his personal data, secretly relieved. Good, he had a cheat…

The man's mouth kept moving, and he continued to ask, "Brother, what's your keyword?"

Dug froze, instinctively looking at the two keywords in his personal profile: "Maintenance" and "Backstab." What's going on? Does everyone have a panel? It's not exclusive to him? This is…

"Stop pretending." The man gave a difficult laugh. "I watched you take over this body. Don't believe that nonsense from your commoner schoolteachers about not revealing your keyword. It's all a lie. This is a Simulation Arena trial, not a real Alien Battlefield. Cooperation is the only way to a win-win. If you don't cooperate, given your current physical condition, I'll eliminate you in minutes once I recover. Believe it or not?"

Simulation Arena? Alien Battlefield?

What are those things?

Dug grew more confused. He hated this feeling. Losing all information was so unfriendly to a transmigrator. Since he transmigrated, why didn't they give him the host's memories? After a moment of silence, Dug calmed down and asked, "The premise of cooperation is honesty. You go first, what's your keyword?"

"Honesty?" The man scoffed, shaking the piece of reed mat in his hand. "I'm constantly eating this unpalatable straw mat. With such an obvious hint, what do you think my keyword is?"

Dug said quietly, "People can disguise themselves."

"Again with that commoner academy nonsense…" The man looked at Dug incredulously, then let out a scoff of amusement. "I'm impressed by your thought process. I'm eating straw mats that even dogs wouldn't touch just to trick you? Who do you think you are?"

A keyword related to eating?

Dug associated it with his own keywords and tentatively asked, "Desperate Hunger?"

"Go to hell with your desperate hunger, don't play dumb like that." The man said angrily, "My keyword is Taotie."

"Taotie?" Dug repeated in surprise.

"That's right." The man grew smug, shaking the straw stem in his hand. "As long as I keep eating, I can grow rapidly. It's one of the best keywords. Before I took over this body, my injuries were similar to yours. After two bowls of rice and a piece of straw mat, I can sit up now. Brother, if we cooperate, you'll get a huge advantage. Otherwise, with your injuries, you probably won't make it."

Dug saw the two empty bowls in front of the man and then looked at his own empty bedside. He didn't care that the guy had eaten his food but focused on the core of his words: Taotie, as long as he kept eating, he could grow rapidly…

It seemed keywords were the key to breaking the situation.

Dug mused, his keywords were Maintenance and Backstab. Since Taotie was about eating, then Maintenance and Backstab…

Two definitions appeared in his mind: Maintenance: To sustain, protect, and prevent from damage; Synonyms: repair, upkeep, safeguard, cover.

Backstab: A blow from behind, to stab in the back; Synonyms: betrayal, sneak attack.

Before transmigrating, Dug was a Chinese literature major, so he understood the meanings of these words perfectly. Since Taotie grew by eating.

By analogy, his key to growth should be maintaining others.

But if there was Maintenance, why was the second keyword Backstab?

They should be conflicting, right?

No.

That guy just mentioned one keyword…

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

"Anything else?" The man retorted, then let out a cold laugh. "Brother, don't be too greedy. I'm in control right now…"

"My keyword is Maintenance." Since the other party only mentioned one keyword, Dug also kept one hidden.

He had too many things he didn't understand. Regardless of the other person's intentions, any information he got from them, whether true or false, was better than fumbling around blindly on his own.

He just needed to gain their trust with one keyword. Besides, a keyword like Backstab that required stealth to be effective didn't need to be spoken aloud. Dug was even prepared to make up a random word if asked.

"Maintenance?" But the man didn't press him at all. His eyes lit up, and he swallowed the straw mat in his mouth with effort. "A support-type keyword, that's great! You truly are a heaven-chosen partner. It was worth possessing you and coming here. You protect me, I'll eat like crazy, and big bro will take you to the top, kicking everyone else out…"

The other person showed no interest in a second keyword. Could he only have one keyword? In that case, he still has a cheat, but it needs to be verified…

Dug chuckled, trying to be friendly. "Big bro, what's your name?"

The man said, "Feng Jiu."

"Your real name?" Dug asked.

"Of course, it's the name of this body." Feng Jiu chuckled softly. "Little brother, our relationship is limited to this Simulation. We both get what we need, and once we're out of the Simulation Arena, we won't know each other, got it?"

"Understood." Dug nodded, no longer pressing the issue.

This was the second time Feng Jiu had mentioned the Simulation Arena. Combining it with the current situation, Dug inferred that the Simulation Arena most likely referred to the current world.

Simulating a real world for people to play in? Dug looked around at his surroundings.

Buildings, smells, and the pain in his body…

Everything was incredibly lifelike.

If such a realistic world was virtual, how advanced must the technology of the other world be?

If it's a game, there should be an exit button, right?

Dug looked at his character panel again. He couldn't find an exit button, but he did notice a change in a numerical value. The value for "Current Ranking" was originally 3000/3000, but now it had changed to 1115/1213.

"1213?" Dug muttered subconsciously.

"That's the six-tenths of unlucky folks who didn't successfully possess a body!" Feng Jiu sighed, looking at Dug. "Brother, I have to say, with your mental strength, it's incredibly lucky you managed to possess a severely injured person."

A 60% elimination rate? Dug latched onto the key point in his words and continued to probe. "Brother Jiu, you said if we two cooperate, can we eliminate others?"

"Absolutely." Feng Jiu grinned, continuing to gnaw on the straw mat. "My keyword is Taotie, the epitome of winning by doing nothing. With your Maintenance added, if we don't make it into the top ten, there's no justice. Don't worry, if I can get into the top ten, I can definitely bring you in too. Otherwise, with your unremarkable Maintenance, it'd be a miracle if you could grow."

"Brother Jiu, I'm counting entirely on you." Dug forced a smile. "Brother Jiu, what kind of identities do the people we possessed have? Could you tell me? I don't know anything, I don't want to blow our cover…"

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

Sure enough, he's the only one without memories. What a complete rip-off!

Dug cursed inwardly, then said dejectedly, "I don't have any memories at all. I don't know what went wrong."

Feng Jiu looked at Dug with pity, clicking his tongue. "Maybe the person you crossed into was too severely injured and died during the possession, which is why you lost your memories! This has happened in the Simulation Arena before. Luckily, you met me. Otherwise, a support-type keyword, and you've lost your memories, how would you even manage?"

Phew! Dug let out a soft breath, forcing a bitter smile. "Bad luck, I guess!"

"You've turned your luck around by meeting me." Feng Jiu spat out the indigestible straw bits with a "Pleh!" and cursed, "Pleh, this is disgustingly bad. When my body recovers, if I don't eat delicacies every meal, I'll be letting down all the suffering I went through gnawing on this straw mat."

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

Dug was puzzled. "Sparring partners?"

"Basically, punching bags." Feng Jiu spat out another bit of straw. "Those young masters don't treat sparring partners as people at all. Otherwise, why do you think we'd be so severely injured? But we also benefited from it; if they weren't so severely injured, our possession wouldn't have been so easy…"

Punching bags?

Dug's face immediately darkened. Sure enough, it's another tragic start.

He continued to ask, "Brother Jiu, are there any other key pieces of information?"

"In half a year, the Qiao Family Sacred Land will open, and the Tenth Martial Arts Convention will be held there to select outstanding young people from the martial arts world to enter the Sacred Land to search for treasures. This should be the main questline of the world. We need to find a way to participate in the Martial Arts Convention; only by staying close to the main questline can we hope to achieve a good ranking." Feng Jiu looked at Dug, saying seriously, "The young masters and direct descendants of the Feng Family are preparing for the Martial Arts Convention, and they've been mercilessly tormenting us sparring partners, which is why we're so severely injured. Our most pressing task is to find a way to escape the Feng Family, otherwise, they'll train us to death sooner or later…"