Rules for Bad Kids

"Lunge and punch!"

"Hmph!"

"Throat strike and snap kick!"

"Ha!"

At the Pig-Headed Man's commands, the young people in camouflage kept throwing punches.

Military boxing, formation drills, running, standing at attention.

This is just ordinary military training!

Too weak to take part, Chen Feng had been allowed to watch from the sidelines.

That one, and that one—they're both alive.

Chen Feng noticed that most of the trainees in camouflage wore blank expressions, said nothing beyond simple grunts and shouts, and obeyed the Pig-Headed Man without question.

After his visit to the Happiness Internet Cafe, he could tell at a glance that they were all Imposters.

The ones whispering to each other, getting the moves wrong, and being caught and punished by the Pig-Headed Man, on the other hand, were real people.

Half of the hundred trainees in camouflage were Imposters.

Chen Feng felt a surge of despair. With so many monsters, even the Water Ghost might not be able to handle them on a rainy day. And then there was the Pig-Headed Man.

I have to find a way out.

As dusk approached, the Pig-Headed Man called for them to disperse.

A girl with glasses who looked about fifteen walked over and asked Chen Feng, "Hey, new guy. Do you want to escape?"

Of course I want to escape, but girl, are you out of your mind?

Is that something you ask in front of everyone?

Chen Feng glanced at the Pig-Headed Man nearby. He had only just been let out and had no desire to be locked up again.

"Escape? Don't even think about it!" A young man with a crew cut cut in and warned the girl, "Talk about escaping again and I'll report you."

At the word "report," the girl went pale and hurried away.

The young man turned to Chen Feng with an approving look. "You're the guy who was locked up for seven days? Pretty sharp of you not to fall for that."

Chen Feng frowned. Something was off. "Fall for what?"

"If you'd agreed to her escape plan, she would've gone straight to Pig Instructor and reported you," the young man explained.

"Why? What would she get out of it?" Chen Feng asked.

"You get fruit and candy for reporting people here."

"For that?"

"Yep. Come on, I'll take you to get cleaned up."

The young man led Chen Feng to the communal Bathhouse on the building's ground floor, where they picked up necessities like a toothbrush and towel.

"I'm Li Guolong. What's your name?"

"Chen Feng. So what exactly is this place?"

"Didn't you see the sign upstairs? It's the Internet Addiction Rehabilitation Academy. We're all kids with internet addictions who got picked up at internet cafes."

Kids?

Chen Feng paused. He was twenty-six. How did he count as a kid?

"So in Cihang City, anyone who goes online gets brought here?" he asked.

"Not exactly," Li Guolong said. "You have to be at an internet cafe and not have an ID card on you."

"I see." Chen Feng finally understood why he had been caught. It was all because he had no legal identity in this world. "But they just grab people off the street? Don't the police do anything?"

"Shh, keep your voice down." Li Guolong put a finger to his lips and looked around. "There's nothing the police can do. Anyone brought here has their entire life—the fact that they ever existed—erased from the world!"

"You mean like in the novels Dragon Raja and Re:Zero? Anyone brought here disappears from everyone's memory, and even the traces of their existence are replaced by someone else?"

"I haven't read those novels, but that's about right." Li Guolong nodded. "Take me, for example. After I was caught, my parents no longer believed they'd ever had me. Photos they'd taken of me vanished. If I'd ever ranked first in my school, someone else would have that record instead."

So their existence gets erased.

"How do we get out of here?" Chen Feng asked.

"Get out?" Li Guolong gave a bitter laugh. "No one can leave the academy."

"What about escaping?"

Li Guolong froze. He clearly hadn't expected someone who had spent seven days locked up to still have the nerve to resist. After a long hesitation, he joked, "What, are you after some candy too?"

Chen Feng could tell Li Guolong was hiding something. But they had only just met. Asking him to risk solitary confinement by discussing an escape was rushing things.

After they washed up, Li Guolong took Chen Feng to the dormitory.

They called it a dormitory, but it was really a sheet-metal construction-site shack. At a glance, Chen Feng saw only four Metal Bunk Beds, a crudely welded table, and a few battered plastic chairs.

Overhead, a single incandescent bulb provided all the light.

An eight-person dorm, and not even a damn electric fan.

Chen Feng grumbled inwardly. Put nicely, it was minimalist decor. Put bluntly, a prisoner-of-war camp wouldn't have been much worse.

Ten school rules were posted on the wall:

1. Staying up late makes you a bad kid.

2. Fighting makes you a bad kid.

3. Being picky about food makes you a bad kid.

4. Lying makes you a bad kid.

5. Slacking off makes you a bad kid.

6. Dating makes you a bad kid.

7. Going online makes you a bad kid.

8. Not behaving makes you a bad kid.

9. Escaping makes you a bad kid.

10. You are a bad kid.

"Students who break the rules get punished," Li Guolong explained. "The lightest punishment is physical training. Then comes electric shock, then solitary confinement, and finally, reconditioning."

"Reconditioning?"

"See them?" Li Guolong pointed at the Imposter Trainees sharing their room. "They're called Model Students. They used to be disobedient students before they were reconditioned."

Chen Feng sucked in a breath. Those monstrous Imposters had once been human?

"Brother Li, we got a new roommate?"

A young man with dyed yellow hair and a fat young man entered the room.

Yellow Hair patted Chen Feng on the shoulder and grinned. "Man, you're something else. You actually stood up to an instructor. Respect!"

The fat young man shook his head. "Good grief. What's so impressive about getting locked up for seven days? Man, if I were you, I'd have backed down."

"This is Fatty and Yellow Hair," Li Guolong said. "They're our human roommates."

So if I don't resist when they make me undress, I won't get locked up?

Chen Feng had been planning to reset his save point, but the fat young man's words made him reconsider.

No need to rush.

After making his bed, it was time for dinner.

Dinner was better than sour porridge, but not by much.

The two dishes were tomato and egg stir-fry without the egg, and green chilies stir-fried with red chilies.

Chen Feng thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. "It's all peppers. Where's the meat? Did they lose it while cooking?"

The soup was seaweed and egg-drop soup with bits of eggshell floating in it.

After Chen Feng lined up for his food, he noticed that Li Guolong and Fatty were gone. He asked Yellow Hair, "Where did those two go?"

"They went to do a side quest," Yellow Hair said mysteriously.

A side quest? Does he think this is a game?

Chen Feng could tell this one really was a kid with an internet addiction. "You like gaming that much?"

"Of course!"

"When I get out of here, I'm going pro," Yellow Hair said excitedly. "I'm going to make a name for myself!"

When he gets out?

So they really do have an escape plan.

Chen Feng caught that immediately and tried to draw him out. "Good luck. But if you want out, can you get past the Pig-Headed Man boss?"

"Pig Instructor isn't a boss." Yellow Hair scoffed. "He's an elite mob at best."

Chen Feng raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Then who's the boss?"

Yellow Hair held up three fingers and launched into an explanation. "The Fourth Mental Hospital has two bosses. We students have to get up at six to study. The one in charge of morning reading is the miniboss, Sheep-Faced Professor. Like Pig Instructor, he has an animal head—a goat's—and he can control lightning."

Holy shit.

"I didn't expect this world to have a Lightning King too," Chen Feng blurted out.

Yellow Hair blinked. "What did you say?"

"Nothing. Go on."

"Behind our Internet Addiction Academy is a convalescent home. Its director is the main boss, Rabbit-Faced Nurse. I don't know what her abilities are, but every reconditioned Model Student comes from there."

"If the Nurse and the Professor are bosses, what about the Director? The Director of this Mental Hospital can't be an ordinary human, right?"

"That, I don't know. Maybe the Director's a hidden boss you have to wait for the DLC to unlock."

Yellow Hair's words sent a chill through Chen Feng.

He hadn't expected so many monsters to be lurking in this Mental Hospital.

Good thing he hadn't acted rashly earlier. Even if he had spent points to kill the Pig-Headed Man, he still wouldn't have escaped. He would have paid dearly and gained nothing.

Dinner ended, and Li Guolong and Fatty did not return to the dormitory until it was nearly dark.

They pulled Yellow Hair aside and whispered among themselves.

They hadn't invited Chen Feng, so he knew better than to force his way in.

After their private talk, Li Guolong walked over to Chen Feng and said quietly, "Tomorrow during morning reading, sit in the last row by the window."

"Okay, but why?" Chen Feng asked.

Li Guolong didn't explain. Instead, he called to the others, "Come on, let's go to the bathroom together."

Yellow Hair glanced at Chen Feng, looking as though he wanted to say something.

Fatty grumbled as he put on his clothes. "Seriously? A grown man scared to go to the bathroom in the dark without company? Aren't you embarrassed?"

What terrible acting.

Chen Feng narrowed his eyes. He had a fair idea of what they were up to.

Sure enough, an hour later, the three still hadn't returned. Barring the unlikely possibility that they had all fallen into a cesspit, they had probably escaped.

They didn't ask me along. In Yellow Hair's gaming terms, my friendship level wasn't high enough.

As for the seat, Li Guolong must have something he wants me to find out.

I'll see what it is tomorrow morning.

Chen Feng lay down and was about to sleep when the incandescent bulb overhead suddenly went out.

The power was out.