Three Million Six Hundred Seventy Thousand High-Quality Men

"What should we do? Without the proper channels, if we rashly expose the fact that we kept Xin Cheng's kidney, the company won't let us off!"

After everyone else dispersed, "Mom" and "Dad" also put away their grief and turned toward the house.

"Mom" looked nervous. Having worked for the company for nearly thirty years, she knew very well what the consequences of violating the prohibition were.

"Dad," however, was clearly the type who became calmer the bigger the crisis. He lit himself a cigarette.

"If you're really scared, then just pretend we never took anything from Xin Cheng's body. I'll find a buyer as quickly as possible while that kidney is still viable."

"Mom" nodded hesitantly, failing to notice the veiled glance "Dad" cast her way.

He had long since had enough of this stupid woman. He would have to find an opportunity to deal with her later.

Never mind dividing the spoils. With a life-threatening secret like this, the safest arrangement was not that heaven knew, earth knew, you knew, and I knew.

It was that only he knew.

"Hurry back and pack up. The experiment failed, so the company will definitely find some other arrangement for us."

The two of them pushed open the door together, but the moment they entered, they heard the sound of a gas stove heating something inside.

"Dad" frowned.

"Were you boiling water before you left?"

"Mom" looked confused and shook her head.

"No. I didn't go into the kitchen."

She lifted her foot, intending to hurry into the kitchen to see what was going on.

However, before she could even take her first step—

A boning knife pierced straight through her back and out through her chest!

"Mom" looked down blankly at the blade protruding from her body. Before her eyes could even react, the light of life vanished from them in an instant!

Thud!

Her body crashed to the floor. At that moment, "Dad" reacted in terror, but before he could turn around to see who the murderer behind the door was—

A wooden stick torn from a chair slammed heavily into his neck!

Before darkness completely swallowed his consciousness and vision—

He seemed to see an exceptionally familiar figure behind him pull out an apple and begin eating it expressionlessly!

Li Wei did not even glance at "Mom's" body as it gradually turned cold. He took another crunchy bite of the apple, grabbed "Dad" by the back of his collar with one hand, and dragged him to the kitchen door.

Just then, a notification suddenly popped up in his mind, catching Li Wei's attention.

[Kill: Obtained illegal assets worth 730,000. Experience +7.3]

[Experience: 7.3/1000]

Staring at the suddenly changed experience bar, Li Wei froze for a moment before looking at "Mom," beneath whom a pool of blood had already gathered.

So there was no need to spend money? Killing people counted as plundering their assets and granted experience for leveling up?

But wasn't this illegal acquisition conversion rate of 100,000 to 1 absurdly low?

The growl of his stomach pulled Li Wei's thoughts back to reality. He stopped paying attention to the changes in his experience and walked into the kitchen.

A meal was warming on the stove.

After reheating the leftover millet porridge from breakfast, Li Wei enjoyed the game's taste simulation.

"Mom's" cooking was not great, but a simple bowl of porridge could not taste all that bad.

Honestly, only after dying once did Li Wei truly feel that a game being too realistic was not necessarily a good thing.

Even though he knew the feeling of dying just now was fake, the sensation of consciousness fading away and his body perishing as if he had fallen into an abyss still left him shaken.

This issue definitely had to go into the report. Everything else could be made realistic, but the feeling of death and the pain players could endure absolutely could not approach reality.

After all, no one played games to suffer.

After tossing away the apple core and finishing the porridge—

Li Wei found a hemp rope, tied "Dad" up tightly, then dumped a basin of cold water over him.

"Dad" had a nightmare.

He dreamed that Xin Cheng, the son he had raised for seventeen years, stood before him with an empty waist, nothing there but a bleeding hole, crying and begging him, "Dad, it hurts so much. My body hurts so much!"

"Dad" wanted to run. He wanted to run far away, but he was constantly drowned by the blood seeping from the hole in Xin Cheng's waist.

Then he jolted awake and saw the exact same face from his dream!

It was a face created by combining the finest features of 3.67 million exceptional men, hailed as the most perfect visage.

Many of those vile rich people had once been willing to pay more than half their fortune just to buy that face.

But upon realizing this astonishing face was not part of a dream, "Dad's" pupils constricted and his heart nearly stopped!

He asked in disbelief.

"Y-you... who are you?!"

Li Wei had already pulled out the boning knife that had pierced "Mom's" heart. Looking at "Dad's" face twisted in terror, he crouched down with a broad smile.

"I'm Xin Cheng, Dad. Your dearest son."

Pfft!

The instant Li Wei finished speaking, the boning knife gleaming coldly plunged straight into "Dad's" waist!

"Aah!!"

Without drugs numbing his body, the excruciating pain of a sharp blade piercing his organs made "Dad" howl.

But aside from the crippled woman still kneeling before the warehouse that had burned into ruins, everyone else in town had long since moved away from the building. No matter how miserably "Dad" screamed, no one would notice.

Scarlet blood splashed onto Li Wei's coat like plum blossoms. He slowly pulled out the boning knife.

"Dad, you promised me. You said you'd give me back double the kidneys."

"Xin Cheng... Dad... Dad was wrong! Y-you have to let Dad go, please. No matter what, I raised you for seventeen years. Whether to kill you wasn't my decision. I had feelings for you..."

"Dad" wept bitterly, begging with a face full of humiliation.

He could not understand why Li Wei, who had clearly burned to death before everyone's eyes, was now alive!

And completely unharmed, without a single scar!

Then what was that kidney he had dug out half an hour ago?

He could not figure out this incomprehensible question, but he was terrified of death—terrified beyond measure!

Li Wei chuckled softly and wiped the bloodstained boning knife on "Dad's" white shirt.

"The kindness of raising me is the kindness of raising me. But a person should keep his word. You taught me that too, didn't you?"

"Dad" only cried. He knew Xin Cheng was a good child who valued feelings and was easily softhearted. Now, that was his only hope of survival.

Sure enough, Li Wei's tone suddenly shifted.

"Still, it's not like I can't forgo the interest and leave you one kidney." Li Wei looked at him with a faint smile.

Upon hearing those words, "Dad" instantly stopped crying. Like a drowning man clutching at his final straw, he stared tightly into Li Wei's eyes.

"I-I can do anything, Xin Cheng! As long as you're willing to let Dad go, as long as you promise to spare me!"

Li Wei calmly pointed at himself.

"What am I?"

The instant "Dad" instinctively opened his mouth, he suddenly fell silent.

The company's strict rules and regulations appeared in his mind. He knew perfectly well that an experiment subject asking that question touched upon the greatest taboo of all!

Li Wei saw his hesitation and fear. He did not urge him, merely lightly aimed the boning knife at "Dad's" still-intact left kidney.

At that moment, "Dad" completely cast aside his hesitation.

He had already violated the taboo by digging out one of Li Wei's kidneys before choosing to burn him to death. Now that he was about to die anyway, violating it once more did not matter!

"You are Biological Man Patent No. 626 of the [Central] Biology Institute! A new human created by combining 3.67 million outstanding men!"

"Dad" did not dare pause for even a moment. Breathing heavily and speaking at breakneck speed, he finished the statement.

His heart pounded wildly. He had revealed Li Wei's identity in the files, but he did not dare speak of the secret hidden behind those files.

Not even if he died!

Li Wei could tell that he had truly been scared out of his wits and could not lie.

Li Wei was at most somewhat surprised to learn that he was an artificial human, but he did not care all that much. After all, games always had to give players a reasonable identity and backstory.

"Why am I here?" Li Wei continued.

By this point, he had naturally realized that the whole town was fake.

The half-collapsed sky and the houses in the distance that were constantly being torn down proved that this so-called town was merely a false stage.

And "Xin Cheng" was the protagonist of a stage play who knew absolutely nothing!

"Dad" did not dare shift his eyes from Li Wei's gaze. Blood still continuously poured from the hole in his waist, and his voice had clearly weakened.

"The minister... the minister suspected that the reason Patent No. 626 still had defects was because of psychological denial and distortion regarding your identity as a biological man! He wanted to create a gentle environment for you and control your growth, hoping to make up for those defects!"

At this, Li Wei narrowed his eyes.

"If all you wanted was a gentle environment to grow up in, you could have hidden my origins and had a family adopt me. Why go to all the trouble of constructing a fake town like this? It seems you haven't told me the truth."

Noticing the change in Li Wei's eyes and the position of the boning knife in his hand, "Dad" was terrified beyond his limits. He screamed and desperately explained.

"Everything I said is true! That's the reason the minister gave us! When he came looking for us seventeen years ago, that's exactly what he told us! I've told you everything I know! I said it all!"

Li Wei showed no reaction to his defense. It was impossible to tell whether he believed him or not. He simply continued asking.

"Who was the person who injected me today? Why did that injection mean I had to die?"

"Feng Zi! Her name is Feng Zi! She comes from an illustrious family! She's extraordinarily talented! She's also a specialist at the [Central] Physics Institute, the head of Tian'en Company's physics gravity special task group! You are the only remaining sample of Patent No. 626! Her father was the one who gave you to the minister! But she has always disagreed with that, so she came all the way from [Central] to take you away!"

"She injected you with a key! The Biological Taboo Treaty explicitly states that any biological man given a key is an extremely dangerous item! A taboo among taboos! They must be destroyed within one hour! The minister gave the order. He declared the experiment a failure and ordered your destruction!"

"Dad" revealed everything he knew without holding anything back. He looked pleadingly at Li Wei, placing all his hopes on Li Wei keeping his promise.

Li Wei pondered for over ten seconds. After fully digesting the information, he turned and met those eyes filled with cowardice, fear, and pleading once more.

"Of course I'll keep my word. What you told me is enough to pay off your other kidney."

That answer made "Dad" let out a long breath of relief, as if he had been granted a pardon.

But before he could draw another breath of fresh air, the boning knife that had been resting at his waist somehow suddenly plunged into his chest!

His eyes widened as he stared in disbelief into Li Wei's cold eyes.

"Y-you promised me."

"That's right, I promised you I'd leave the other kidney in your corpse intact."

Li Wei pulled out the scalpel again, and the gushing blood completely dyed his white lab coat red.

"See? I keep my word."

But "Dad's" unfocused eyes were clearly no longer capable of expressing sincere gratitude for Li Wei's faithfulness to his promise.

At that moment, another experience notification popped up in Li Wei's mind.

[Kill: Obtained illegal assets worth 910,000. Experience +9.1]

[Experience: 16.4/1000]

The experience gained from killing was a drop in the bucket compared to the entire experience bar, but Li Wei had not expected to level up anyway.

He was just a game tester. By now, he had experienced nearly all of the plot. It was time to exit the game, go back to being a miserable office drone, and write his report.

Looking at the devastation filling the room, even though he knew it was only a game and everything before him had been caused by himself—

Li Wei still could not help feeling sickened by the all-too-real bloody scene.

He shot the room one final disgusted glance. Out of the corner of his eye, he inadvertently saw the girl named Feng Zi still kneeling before the burned-down warehouse.

Li Wei clicked his tongue. He felt that if the story went any deeper, that girl would definitely become crucial to the later plot.

But none of that had anything to do with him. Today's workload should end here.

Imagining the comfort of going home after work and making himself a bowl of noodles with a fried egg, Li Wei cheerfully called up the player information. He was about to select the little gear in the lower-left corner and confirm his exit—

His body suddenly stiffened.

Staring at the long list of player traits, Li Wei looked through it twice more before finally confirming that his eyes had not deceived him!

Forget an exit button—this was purely a textual description. There was not even any so-called gear icon!

Li Wei stood frozen in place as an absurd thought arose in his mind.

I'm trapped in the game?