New Century, Year 1305, Week 46, Day 1.
On a life-bearing planet in some "backwater" billions of light-years away, some school-age people had begun facing the trials of a new term. Meanwhile, Gideon, one of the mid-level managers at Xingsheng Laboratory on Plane Six of the Boundary Curtain region, was also being battered by reality.
His luck had been terrible lately.
During Week 43, while he was on duty, the Police Station had carried out a surprise inspection. He had managed to muddle through without anything going wrong, so he had not paid much attention to it.
But after hearing rumors recently, he gradually realized that he had likely been used as a scapegoat—apparently because his side channels for making extra money at the Laboratory had been discovered.
He had no choice. His severely depleted Original Body had been ravaged by various powerful drugs and was beyond saving. He had been forced to use half-baked Uploader and Clone technology to buy himself ten more years of breathing room.
But this kind of illegal modification was never a one-and-done deal.
To maintain his Clone body and his soul state, ensuring the success rate of the next transfer, he had to spend extra money every week, every day. With all those costs piling up, how could his meager Laboratory income possibly be enough?
He had no choice but to live off the mountain when he was by a mountain, and live off the Laboratory when he was in the Laboratory... Well, he had skimmed plenty from it before. Otherwise, where would he have gotten the money for the illegal modification?
Under the pressure of debt, he had become increasingly reckless. Even he himself felt he was acting without restraint, which meant some of the things he had done had truly gone too