CH 1.2

However, his relief is clearly premature.

“Yo. Finally awake?” Lowly Lackey lets go of Tattooed Snake’s collar and walks in front of Jiang Yiyi, then crouches down, staring him down with a wicked look on his face.

Jiang Yiyi stares at his nickname for a few seconds before nodding.

“First time here? Know the rules of this place?” Lowly Lackey pulls Jiang Yiyi up with his arm while moving his other hand towards the pocket of Jiang Yiyi’s pants.

Jiang Yiyi looks over at the others.

Four-Eyes has retracted his gaze to continue brushing the toilet.

Tattooed Snake is leaning on the wall, giving Lowly Lackey a death glare.

Murderer is watching them with a smile.

He tries to recall what he has brought in——From the scattered mess that was the flashback, he recalls that he has some money hidden. Money is always a viable resource everywhere.

Clearly, Lowly Lackey has designs on that.

What a terrible, and entirely expected opening development given the style of this game.

Jiang Yiyi thinks for a few seconds, contemplating the choice of giving up his money or resisting.

The former would appear to be the best solution here, since Jiang Yiyi does not see himself needing any money any time soon. It’ll be terribly unwise to suffer a beating for what he does not need.

However…

Jiang Yiyi looks at the hand that deftly sneaks into his pocket. In his eyes, the hand is not only a hand, but also a hand marked with clear lines for dissection. Clear enough that Jiang Yiyi can’t resist trying…

“Argh——” Screams Lowly Lackey.

Jiang Yiyi is using his left hand to subdue the hand inside his pocket, while his right hand is manipulating a thin blade. Thin enough to get through the heavy duty screening they do before letting people into Stargaol.

Of course, this makes it hardly a worthy weapon for most. At least, it looks quite lacking in lethality.

The blade slices past the marked skin accurately, as fresh, colourful blood emerges pouring like a malfunctioning faucet. A pool forms soon enough.

Lowly Lackey, with his arm at another’s mercy, and facing the onslaught of a stream of blood, freezes in place.

Both Tattooed Snake and Murderer react almost immediately with grave expressions, and approaches them.

Four-Eyes takes a deep breath, then throws away the blanket on his hand to yell loudly, “murder; help——”

The dissection diagram is quite professional.

Jiang Yiyi’s hand is extremely smooth in movement, as befits a surgeon.

While his mind is thinking so, he glances at Tattooed Snake and Murderer, ordering them with a calm tone, “don’t move.”

They both stop, but continue to keep their eyes on Jiang Yiyi. They look like they’ve seen a madmen.

“Don’t do anything rash. The officers are coming soon…” Murderer is the first to speak.

Tattooed Snake quickly follows, “it was just a joke, man…”

Jiang Yiyi’s index finger makes a slick movement, as the blade disappears before their very eyes.

He hears some hurried footsteps, belonging to the prison officers rushing towards them.

Unexpectedly, he is calm——as befits, again, a surgeon’s mental fortitude.

This game… is not normal.

Not that its normalcy has ever been without question since something like transmigration has happened.

While dissing, Jiang Yiyi retrieves needles from himself with impeccable expedience. Before the footsteps even come to a stop, he’s already sewn up the wound with staggering speed. Blood has stopped flowing, and the horrifying sight of degloved flesh is gone. There is no sign of what has just transpired outside of the fresh scar.

It is truly fortuitous he did not choose to operate on an artery, or he might be dead.

“Congratulations. Player skill Surgery has reached Entry level.”

Jiang Yiyi lets go of Lowly Lackey’s hand and glances over at Four-Eyes.

Four-Eyes looks at the blanket he just threw away, and, with a moment’s hesitation, and under Jiang Yiyi’s gaze, rushes over to Lowly Lackey to wipe away the large surface of blood…

“What’s going on here?” The prison officer knocks on the bars of the window, eyeing the eerie scene in the cell with suspicion.

Jiang Yiyi does not answer, as he is busy investigating his skills——Although Entry isn’t much better than Simple, it should not have upgraded that easily. In other words, this is abnormal.

Jiang Yiyi recalls the dissection diagram of the arm that he just saw, and can’t help but lick his lips discreetly.

“No-nothing.” While the prison officer looks on, doubtful, Lowly Lackey pulls his sleeve back down and holds his hands together, forcing a smile, “Four-Eyes was yelling bullshit.”

Zhang Zheng looks over at Four-Eyes.

Four-Eyes has a forced smile as well. He holds the ball of blanket tightly, leaving the bloodied side towards himself, and bumbles through an excuse, “I was scared by a nightmare.”

Zhang Zheng observes him for a moment, before looking over at Murderer.

Murderer glances over at Jiang Yiyi, who is deep in thought with his head low.

“2091!” Zhang Zheng calls out Jiang Yiyi’s designation.

Jiang Yiyi looks up at Zhang Zheng.

“What happened just now?”

“He asked me for cash. I didn’t give him.” Jiang Yiyi points to Lowly Lackey.

Zhang Zheng’s expression turns grim, “Lowly Lackey, did you strike him?”

Lowly Lackey holds his arm tightly while looking back at Jiang Yiyi.

Could it be, that the NPC’s low skill level was due to transmigrated soul within? The original NPC’s own abilities were nowhere near as useless?

Jiang Yiyi settles on this loving hypothesis, before noticing the gaze and looks towards Lowly Lackey.

He thinks his gaze is friendly, but Lowly Lackey clearly begs to differ.

Because, as soon as their eyes meet, Lowly Lackey turns back around to admit having ‘struck Jiang Yiyi.’

“Where did you strike him? Where is the bruise?” Zhang Zheng is nowhere near incompetent enough to overlook the cause of this strange atmosphere.

Lowly Lackey has been here a few months already. They know what he’s like. The brawn is all he has going for him, and he doesn’t actually dare do anything out-of-line.

But this guy——Zhang Zheng looks at Jiang Yiyi, and recalls the reason for his imprisonment, before furrowing his brows.

He looks harmless, and his sentence is as simple as can be. He can’t imagine a scenario where Four-Eyes would yell “murder” because of him.

“I kicked him twice, in the stomach.”

Lowly Lackey confesses.

That was the reason the NPC himself fainted in the first place.

But eh? Given that, it seems the NPC was unlikely some hitherto-unknown dalao either…

To be taken out by two kicks to the stomach.

Though that does not make sense either. Why else would he have entered prison with these objects on himself?

Jiang Yiyi is absorbed in pondering whether this NPC is or is not a strong character.

Zhang Zheng, though, isn’t interested in further deliberation. He makes a snap judgement, “2091, 1123, one day in solitary confinement for brawling! I’ll make it three days if I catch you making trouble again!”

Zhang Zheng bangs his baton on the window harshly, while sweeping his gaze across everyone in the cell.

Tattooed Snake is leaning on the wall and staring at Jiang Yiyi.

Murderer has moved back to his sitting spot, also staring at Jiang Yiyi.

Lowly Lackey is hanging his head, looking at the ground.

Four-Eyes has shrunk down as well, looking at the ground.

Jiang Yiyi… is still maintaining a poker face. A poker face that betrays the hint of a smile.

Someone dangerous is here.

Zhang Zheng retracts his gaze as he opens the cell door, gesturing for Jiang Yiyi and Lowly Lackey to come outside.

The confinement room is small. Outside of a window for meals, there is practically no breathing space, nor lights, for that matter. This is the only officially sanctioned punishment for prisoners in the era of freedom and rights——Solitary confinement.

Dark enclosed spaces breed fear. A long period spent within can easily erode someone’s mental defences.

This is why there are limits on the length of solitary confinement——the rights of the prisoners must be observed, after all.

Author’s notes:

Let’s get this straight:

Logic? You see that logic? ——Omnomnom. I ate it all.

Outline? You see my outline? ——I almost forgot. I don’t have something like that

The background setting is a futuristic world.

The game’s background is the same, with some ‘ancient’ (for people in the future, anyway) settings, forming the crux of this futuristic, survival video game.

Now, though, Jiang Yiyi has transmigrated here.