Suicide?

Li Yao woke up in the middle of the night.

Of course, the interrogation room never saw sunlight, so Li Yao had no idea whether it was day or night. Nor did he have the mind to care.

The moment he woke up, the memory of the pain before he passed out remained. He instinctively jerked his left hand back.

No intense pain struck him.

However, the stinging deep in the web between his thumb reminded him that none of it had been a dream.

Huff... Li Yao let out a long breath and relaxed his left hand.

As long as it wasn't like before he passed out... Huh!

Li Yao suddenly froze.

It was strange. The lingering sting between his thumb and forefinger did not seem to hurt nearly as much.

In the past, this level of pain would have made him howl.

Yet now, he barely felt anything.

Sure enough, a person's tolerance depended only on how much pain they had endured.

And he had actually survived that kind of pain.

"But can I endure it a second time?"

Li Yao asked himself inwardly.

He was lying on the floor now, no longer on that bed that had made him tremble in terror, yet his heart was still shaking with fear.

Li Yao struggled to his feet. His hands and feet were still shackled, but the restraints were much looser than before. At least he could lie down; standing up should not be a problem.

Sniff, sniff!

Suddenly, a faint warm fragrance entered Li Yao's nostrils, instantly stirring his appetite again.

He hurriedly got up.

Clang!

Clang!

The chains collided as his stomach cried out in hunger.

Using the weak candlelight, Li Yao quickly spotted a bowl of ramen on the floor in front of him, still giving off faint steam.

He took a step forward. He could reach it.

He immediately sat down, picked up the chopsticks and bowl, and started stuffing the noodles into his mouth.

After wolfing down several large mouthfuls, he finally slowed down.

Along with the sushi he had eaten earlier, Li Yao's energy had recovered considerably. His mind could now think more clearly.

He calmed down and looked around as he ate.

Suddenly, his body stiffened, and he instinctively backed away several steps.

In a distant corner stood a single-person emergency bed—or rather, a torture bed. It was too dark to see clearly, like a ravenous beast staring silently at him.

After only one glance, Li Yao began trembling all over. He hurriedly turned away and took several ragged breaths before he could breathe normally again.

He was still in the interrogation room, which meant that he... was not dead yet.

The Third Hokage had not killed him?

What was the Spirit Transformation Technique?

What did the Third Hokage want him to say?

Or rather, what did the Third Hokage want to know?

Thinking back to the memories before he had fainted, Li Yao was confused for a while. After a long moment, he began considering his current situation.

First, because of his transmigration, his mutated consciousness had completely fused with his body. He could not simply withdraw it whenever he wanted; he was incapable of doing so.

As long as he was alive, his consciousness, flesh, and Chakra would remain firmly fused together.

Genjutsu and the Memory Probing Technique were both useless against him.

That being the case, if the Third Hokage wanted to learn about the Spirit Transformation Technique he imagined Li Yao possessed, he could only get it from Li Yao's mouth.

But Li Yao knew absolutely nothing about any Spirit Transformation Technique.

It was easy to imagine that no matter what he said, the Third Hokage would not get the information he wanted, and the torture would not stop.

"So... how long I live depends on how long I can endure the torture."

"And... when the Third Hokage loses patience."

No matter which possibility came true, there was only one ending for him: death.

Heh heh!

Li Yao suddenly laughed bitterly.

Death?

Perhaps death was the ending he wanted most.

At the thought of that pain before he had passed out, merely thinking about it made Li Yao tremble uncontrollably.

"Can I endure that kind of pain?"

"Even if I endure it this time, what about the next time? And the even more terrifying torture afterward—can I endure that?"

No!

Without needing to think further, Li Yao gave himself the answer.

He absolutely could not endure that kind of torture.

He would definitely beg the Third Hokage to kill him amid that agony worse than death.

But clearly, the Third Hokage would not kill him anytime soon.

He was bound to suffer even more torture.

Thinking of this, Li Yao knew he had only one path left.

"Suicide!"

That was right, suicide.

If he wanted to avoid suffering that inhuman pain again, Li Yao could only kill himself.

Reality was not an anime. He was not the protagonist.

If he were the protagonist, he would rather not be one. He could not endure that kind of torture.

But when Li Yao smashed the bowl and picked up a shard, pressing it against the artery in his left wrist, he simply could not cut down.

His right hand, tightly gripping the shard, trembled constantly, yet he could not bring himself to slice his wrist.

That was right!

Needles piercing the gaps beneath his fingernails had hurt terribly, making Li Yao truly understand what it meant to be worse off than dead.

But the great terror between life and death also made him unable to kill himself.

Huff... huff... huff!

Li Yao's eyes were wide as he stared fixedly at his left wrist, gasping for breath.

Should he continue suffering a fate worse than death?

Or commit suicide?

The two thoughts repeated endlessly in Li Yao's mind, and he could not make up his mind.

In the end, Li Yao threw away the bowl shard and repeatedly slapped the floor with both hands, venting the anger in his heart.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Li Yao's hands quickly turned red.

He was furious.

Furious that even after being reduced to this state, he still lacked the courage to kill himself.

He clearly knew that even if he could continue enduring the Third Hokage's torture, enduring the waves of inhuman torment to come, it would all be pointless in the end. He would still die. The Third Hokage would not let him go.

Rather than die after being tortured to the brink of death, it would be better to kill himself now and end it all. That was better than suffering for nothing, only to die in the end.

Yet even though he clearly understood all of this, he still could not bring himself to end his own life.

He was weak, cowardly, afraid of pain, and seemingly even more afraid of death.

Li Yao was furious!

Furious at the heavens for making him transmigrate.

He had been doing just fine on Earth. His life had been ordinary, but there had been nothing particularly unsatisfying about it. Why had he been made to transmigrate?

Transmigrating was one thing, but why had he not transmigrated through death? Why had he simply opened and closed his eyes, gone to sleep, and woken up in another world?

With that kind of transmigration, he had never experienced death. How could he not fear it?

All night long, Li Yao complained about this and blamed that, until he unknowingly fell asleep.

The next day.

Li Yao did not know whether it was day or night, but judging by the times the Anbu brought him food and the type of meals, he roughly determined that it was daytime.

After three meals, Li Yao guessed that night had arrived.

At this time, although the interrogation room was quiet, Li Yao's heart beat faster and faster as time passed.

Creak!

The interrogation room door opened. The moment Li Yao heard it, his body froze, and his heart seemed to stop beating. His face filled with terror as he looked toward the door.

The man who made his pupils dilate and his entire body tremble walked in.

The Third Hokage was still wearing his Hokage uniform and looked perfectly upright—if one ignored the toolbox in his hand.

Two Anbu ninja followed behind the Third Hokage.