Bad Kid Rules

"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!"

Chen Feng was too weak to participate, so he was allowed to watch from the sidelines.

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

Chen Feng noticed that most of the people in camouflage were expressionless. They could only grunt simple responses and obeyed the Pig-Headed Man's orders without question.

Having been to the Happiness Internet Cafe, he recognized them at a glance. They were all Imposters.

The ones who whispered to each other, got the moves wrong, and were caught and punished by the Pig-Headed Man, on the other hand, were real people.

Of the hundred people in camouflage, half were Imposters.

Despair crept over Chen Feng. With so many monsters, even if it rained and the Water Ghost came, it might not be able to handle them. And then there was the Pig-Headed Man.

I need to find a way out.

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

A girl with glasses who looked about fifteen came over and asked Chen Feng, "Hey, new guy. 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? What are you talking about?" A young man with a buzz cut cut into their conversation and warned the girl, "Mention escaping again, and I'll report you."

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

Buzz Cut turned to Chen Feng with an approving look. "You're the guy who got locked up for seven days? Pretty sharp. You didn't fall for it."

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

"If you'd agreed to her escape plan, she would've reported you to the Pig Instructor on the spot," Buzz Cut explained.

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

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

"That's all?"

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

Buzz Cut took Chen Feng to the communal Bathhouse on the building's first floor, where they collected necessities like a toothbrush and towel.

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

"Chen Feng. What exactly is this place?"

"It's written upstairs, isn't it? The Internet Addiction Rehabilitation Academy. We trainees were all picked up at internet cafes for being internet-addicted kids."

Kids?

Chen Feng froze. He was twenty-six. How could anyone call him 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 have no ID on you."

"I see." Chen Feng finally understood why he had been caught. It was all because he had no official identity in the Otherworld. "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. "They can't. Anyone brought here has their life history—the fact that they ever existed—erased from the world!"

"You mean like in Dragon Raja and Starting Over from Zero? Anyone brought here disappears from everyone's memories, and even the traces they left behind get replaced by someone else's?"

"I haven't read those novels, but that's about right." Li Guolong nodded. "Say I get caught. My parents won't remember ever having me. Photos they took of me will disappear. If I once ranked first in the whole school, that achievement will belong to someone else."

So it's Existence Erasure.

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

"Get out?" Li Guolong gave a bitter laugh. "No one leaves the Academy."

"What about escaping?"

Li Guolong paused. 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, you want 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 plan was rushing things.

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

Calling it a dormitory was generous. It was a prefab 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.

"Eight people to a room, and not even a damn electric fan."

Chen Feng grumbled to himself. Call it minimalist decor if you wanted. To him, it looked no better than a POW camp.

Ten school rules were posted on the wall:

One: staying up late makes you a bad kid.

Two: fighting makes you a bad kid.

Three: being a picky eater makes you a bad kid.

Four: lying makes you a bad kid.

Five: slacking off makes you a bad kid.

Six: falling in love makes you a bad kid.

Seven: going online makes you a bad kid.

Eight: disobeying makes you a bad kid.

Nine: escaping makes you a bad kid.

Ten: you are a bad kid.

Li Guolong explained, "Trainees who break the rules get punished. Physical punishment is the mildest, then electric shocks, 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 trainees."

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

"Brother Li, we got a new roommate?"

Just then, a young man with dyed yellow hair and a fat guy walked in.

Yellow Hair clapped Chen Feng on the shoulder and grinned. "Bro, you're something else! You actually stood up to the Drill Instructor. Respect!"

The fat guy shook his head. "Good grief. What's there to admire about getting locked up for seven days? Bro, if I were you, I'd have backed down."

"Fatty, Yellow Hair," Li Guolong introduced them. "Our human roommates."

So if I hadn't resisted when they told me to strip, I wouldn't have been put in solitary?

Chen Feng had planned to reset his Save point, but after hearing Fatty's words, he changed his mind.

No rush.

After making his bed, it was time for dinner.

Dinner was better than the rancid porridge, but not by much.

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

Chen Feng thought he had misread the menu. "It's nothing but chilies. Where's the meat? Did they stir-fry it out of existence?"

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

After Chen Feng queued up for his food, he noticed that Buzz Cut and Fatty were gone. "Where'd those two go?" he asked Yellow Hair.

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

A side quest? You think this is a game?

Chen Feng could tell this one really was addicted to gaming. "You like video games that much?"

"Of course!"

"When I get out of here, I'm going pro and making a name for myself!" Yellow Hair said, brimming with excitement.

Get out?

So they do have an escape plan.

Chen Feng seized on that and probed further. "Good luck with that. But if you want to get out, can you get past the Pig-Headed Man boss?"

"The Pig Instructor isn't a boss," Yellow Hair scoffed. "At most, he's an elite mob."

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

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

Holy shit.

Chen Feng couldn't help saying, "I never thought the Otherworld would have its own Lightning Lord."

Yellow Hair blinked. "What did you say?"

"Nothing. Go on."

"Behind our Internet Addiction Academy is a convalescent ward. The one in charge there is the big boss, the Rabbit-Faced Nurse. I don't know what she can do, 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, can they?"

"No idea. Maybe it's a hidden boss you have to unlock with DLC."

Chen Feng was shaken by what Yellow Hair had told him.

Who knew this Mental Hospital had so many monsters hiding in it?

It was a good thing he hadn't acted rashly. Even if he had spent Points to kill the Pig-Headed Man, he still wouldn't have escaped. He would have paid a steep price for nothing.

Dinner ended, and the sky had nearly gone dark by the time Li Guolong and Fatty returned to the dormitory.

They pulled Yellow Hair aside and whispered among themselves.

Since they hadn't invited him over, Chen Feng had enough sense not to butt in.

When they finished, Li Guolong came up to Chen Feng and said quietly, "Bro, during morning reading tomorrow, sit in the last row by the window."

"Okay," Chen Feng said. "But why?"

Li Guolong didn't explain. Instead, he called to his friends, "Come on, let's go to the toilet."

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

Fatty grumbled as he pulled on his clothes. "Good grief. You're a grown man, but you're scared to go to the toilet in the dark without company? Aren't you embarrassed?"

What terrible acting.

Chen Feng narrowed his eyes. He had a fair idea 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 probably has some secret he wants me to find.

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.