Chapter 4 - Chapter 4: 2. Deconstruct Everything_2

The illiteracy rate in the Tatis Empire is as high as 60%. You, with your extensive knowledge, are a rare scholar among many.

Charm: 21 (7)

Before you come into contact with certain extraordinary factors, this value only relates to your personal image and temperament.

The higher the value, the better or worse the impression you leave on people you interact with. The specifics depend on your relationship and interest alignment.

[Energy Points] 14/15

Your ‘Spirit’ attribute is 15 points. This means that the speed of your energy recovery is 15 points every 24 hours.

[Blood Volume] Immeasurable

You are entirely organic. Your blood volume cannot be displayed in data terms. However, your blood volume is similar to that of an average adult male, with nothing particularly unique.

[Soul Strength] 2 points

You have absorbed the soul of the original master “Noland Lee Jarvis”. Your Soul Strength is double that of an average adult. This attribute is basically useless until you learn how to consume Soul Strength.

[Skills]

Active Skills: Deconstruction, highest level. Decompose anything you want to decompose, and you will get the answer. Of course, the premise is that you have enough energy points.

Passive Skills: None.

Scholarly Skills:

Tatis Modern Mathematics, Level 5, equivalent to the graduation level of City College’s moderate acumen.

Tatis Modern Literature, Level 6, equivalent to the graduation level of City College’s moderate acumen.

Tatis Empire History, Level 15, equivalent to the graduation level of City College’s high acumen.

Archaeology, Level 8, equivalent to the practical level of a City College History Assistant Teacher.

(This panel will be updated synchronously as more scholarly skills and knowledge are mastered)

…

Noland Lee read his personal panel from beginning to end, admitting in his heart that he was indeed a weak history student.

The memories of the Original Master are stored in his mind. As long as he spots certain keywords, a memory fragment belonging to the Original Master will pop up from the depths of his mind.

Just by reading his personal panel like this, several memory fragments automatically began playing in his mind.

Noland Lee has figured out the rough course of events.

The Original Master had a formal job as an assistant teacher of Tatis history at a City College.

It’s precisely because the Original Master studied and researched history that Noland Lee has a Tatis Empire history skill of up to level 15 and an Archaeology skill of level 8…

And now, he, a person engaged in teaching history, is going to become a sinner in the Suffering Borderland…

How is this different from sending him to his death?

As Noland Lee placed his hand on his forehead and sighed silently, a glance at the debt scale on his personal panel made his eye twitch violently.

A personal debt of 3.11 million New Solon currency…

This was too agonizing, too unbearable…

The Original Master’s father was a dealer with a business group.

He signed a big value distribution contract and needed to go to another city to expand the market.

During the relocation to the new city with his goods and family, a disastrous car accident occurred.

The Original Master’s parents, brother, and sister, all died in the car accident. Only the Original Master survived because he was in a different location.

The goods waiting to be sold were all damaged in the car accident.

Due to the distribution contract, the dealer had to take responsibility for the damaged goods.

After all the property of the Original Master’s parents was compensated to the business group, there was still a significant financial gap. This financial gap, under the operation of laws such as the Empire’s “Debt Law”, became a heavy debt.

Indeed, in the Empire called Tatis, like personal assets, personal debts are inherited by direct relatives after death.

While one can choose to inherit assets or not, debts are compulsory to inherit.

Since almost all of the Original Master’s family had died, the debt naturally fell on him.

“Oh, no, to be more precise, it should be on my head.” Noland Lee shook his head and sighed.

Speaking of which, this Tatis Empire really is peculiar.

For serious criminals, the punishment isn’t just a bullet to the head.

Their approach to disputes arising from debt issues has its unique methods too.

When an individual is clearly unable to repay his debt, his citizenship rights will be forcibly taken away, reduced to a mere Sin Soldier, and sent off to the Suffering Borderland along with many other convicts to serve as fodder for the guns.

Now, Noland Lee was in precisely this situation.

The Suffering Borderland, it certainly wasn’t a pleasant place.

It was the intersection of three forces.

It lies to the west of the Tatis Empire’s western border and south of the Golden Federation’s southern borderline, east of the Undead Cult’s eastern narrow pass.

The Tatis Empire and the Golden Federation belonged to the camp of the living, while the Undead Cult was the realm of the lost souls.

Life and death, it’s just like water and fire.

The clash of the two invariably gives rise to intense conflict.

Usually, death is the end of life.

Every time a living being dies, it adds strength to the camp of the lost souls.

Therefore, the camp of the living naturally stands at a disadvantage when facing the camp of the lost souls.

This was the the case in the Suffering Borderland:

The Undead Cult held an absolute advantage, occupying more than eighty percent of the territory in the boundary, which includes large areas of surface land and nearly all of the underground caves.

The living could only establish military fortresses on land and periodically clear the surrounding territories to contain the growth and spread of the lost souls’ influence.

In this unfamiliar Suffering Borderland, the only thing Noland Lee could rely on at the moment was the deconstruction technique provided by the Deconstruction Core System.

He had to plan his energy points well, not wasting them on deconstructing insignificant items.

Only things that could change one’s life, trigger a transformation, or provide skills and knowledge are worth consuming energy points for deconstruction.

Then, what kind of things meet this criterion? Noland Lee touched his cheek gently, wiping away the dried filthy blood.

He propped himself up on his arms, shifting from his half reclining position to a sitting one.

The car window reflected a haggard young face, pale with high cheekbones and deep-set eyes. These eyes glistened with a crystal ice blue hue.

The hard yet soft lines on the face made this male face quite handsome, albeit steeped in a gloom hard to dispel.

Temporarily ignoring this face that was both strange and familiar, Noland Lee fixed his eyes on the bleak view outside the window.

Under the dim sunlight, the ruins were full of broken furniture, furtive rats, broken gun barrels, and many horrifying bone remnants.

All of these things could be deconstructed using the deconstruction technique, with the required energy point consumption ranging from 1 to dozens of points.

He estimated that the deconstruction result should be similar to the personal panel — an introduction to the specific parameters of the item.

Looking upwards, where the thick clouds covered the starry sky and the sun, Noland Lee curiously murmured, “Deconstruct cloud layer”.

The system feedback message was somewhat beyond his expectations.

The cloud layer could actually be deconstructed…

[System Message: You are about to launch a deconstruction technique on the “abnormal cloud layer”. Every 1000 energy points consumed is estimated to improve the degree of deconstruction by 1%. Confirm deconstruction?]

[Warning, your current energy points are insufficient, deconstruction technique will not get any results.]

Abnormal clouds… could it be that these clouds didn’t form naturally?

Just for 1% degree of deconstruction, it requires consumption of 1000 energy points…

I wonder what kind of deconstruction result deconstructing the clouds will yield…

Noland Lee furrowed his brow in thought.

Just then, heavy footsteps were heard from the narrow hallway outside his room.

Somebody stood in front of the room’s door, pulling the door open with his hand.

The same cigar-smoking yellow-toothed guard from before appeared before Noland Lee.

“You’re finally awake, Sin Soldier Noland Lee Jarvis. Don’t idle either, cooperate with me for a statement,” he said.

The guard entered the small room, shutting the door behind him, locking the two of them inside.