"So it turns out, the mechanical techniques of this realm have developed to such an extent."
In the narrow medical room, Wang Jixuan carefully examined Mu Liang's short life of twenty-two years, gaining an initial understanding of the current world, and began to ponder how Mu Liang had died.
His understanding of this world was consistent with the maximum knowledge a third-level ordinary civilian could possess.
What is a third-level ordinary civilian?
This is rather complicated to explain;
and it is related to Mu Liang's suicide.
Mu Liang began receiving systematic education at the age of six, watching many educational films depicting the once glorious human civilization.
Through the memories of these films, Wang Jixuan saw towering skyscrapers and various instruments that could fly through the skies and dive deep into the oceans without any talismans or prohibitions, such as airplanes and submarines.
That was the beautiful era before the great catastrophe;
and it was referred to by the present-day humans as the golden years.
Just as humanity's vision was shifting from terrestrial conflicts to the vastness of space, a disaster synchronously erupted across the world.
This was a premeditated invasion of civilization.
Morphed Blade Beasts eerily appeared in various cities, releasing large quantities of poisonous gas that eradicated fifty percent of the human population overnight.
It was also thanks to humanity's prior constant internal conflicts, which maintained abundant martial virtues.
The humans who initially survived the disaster were scattered across different regions, yet they still fought tenaciously, and the stockpiled armaments were finally used to protect the lives of the ordinary civilians.
All sorts of Blade Beasts continuously emerged from the poisonous mist;
they hardly needed to eat, covered in hard armor, certain unique Blade Beasts could continuously evolve by devouring human corpses;
when a 'Special Winged Dragon' capable of chasing down hypersonic missiles and covered in alloy-like bio-armor flew out of the poison mist, humanity's last aerial advantage completely vanished.
"Formidable and astonishingly numerous demon beasts."
— Wang Jixuan summarized simply.
After over a decade of intense battles, humans were ultimately driven from the surface world by the Blade Beasts.
Yet, the torch of human civilization stubbornly continued to burn in the fortresses underground and in space.
This young man, Mu Liang, lived in No. 76 Fortress in the Middle Ages Basin area.
The fortress was a typical second-generation industrial fortress, originally designed to accommodate a population limit of one hundred fifty thousand, but twelve years after it began operation, this limit was exceeded; today, after running for over one hundred fifty years, it housed eight hundred ninety thousand people.
The figure of eight hundred ninety thousand actually has some discrepancies.
The fortress's intelligent control center could only effectively count the populations of the middle and upper city, conservatively speculating how many people were in the already out-of-control Lower City of the fortress.
The resources generated by the fortress itself could no longer sustain all the humans within it.
No. 76 Fortress activated the 'overload social system' in its twenty-fifth year of operation, with a governor, elected every ten years, and the fortress's intelligent control center distributing all resources, each citizen of the fortress received a "quota" corresponding to their contribution to the fortress.
As a third-level ordinary citizen, Mu Liang had three types of quotas:
General Quota, Food Quota, Medical Quota.
These quotas could not be converted, traded, or shared among people and could only be used by oneself.
Mu Liang was a technician, working on a production line for mechanical inspection, receiving a not-too-excessive weekly salary—General Quota 25, Food Quota 35, Medical Quota 5.
A shirt or a pair of trousers required 5 General Quotas, a pair of underwear needed 2 General Quotas, the holographic music player that Mu Liang treasured took up a total of 185 General Quotas from him.
The cost of buying that device was that he only had a few old pairs of underwear to rotate through for half a year, and those pairs all washed out with holes...
To feel satiated twice a day would roughly require 6 Food Quotas;
While the Medical Quota could accumulate indefinitely, the General and Food Quotas could only accumulate for up to three months.
In Mu Liang's memories, Wang Jixuan saw that this young man was diagnosed with moderate depression six months ago.
Wang Jixuan didn't quite understand what depression meant, but intuitively he felt...
Mu Liang was literally starved to death.
A week consists of seven days, with an average daily Food Quota of 5, if all these food quotas were consumed by Mu Liang himself, his body would generally be quite healthy.
But in reality, the Food Quota Mu Liang spent on himself each day was only 3, chronic malnutrition had left his body extremely frail, and his mental state progressively worsened.
Where did Mu Liang's Food Quotas go?
This one cannot help but mention...
Click.
The door lock of the compartment medical room was twisted open, a female physician wearing a white lab coat, clad inside in a tube top and hot pants, stretched as she shut the alloy door.
Wang Jixuan cautiously opened his eyes and then immediately turned his head away.
He inwardly complained;
The women of this world dress far too boldly!
His senior sister and junior sister would usually prefer to cover even the backs of their hands, while the women here always enjoyed exposing their snow-white thighs and bud-like collarbones.
It's sexy, and quite pleasing to look at, but...
What about Dao Heart?
This medical room was only about four square meters, a narrow sickbed and a few standard medical instruments occupied most of the area.
The female physician smoothly unfolded a chair, sat down, and crossed her legs, a small belly with a slight amount of fat squeezed out a very subtle muffin top.
Her wavy, curly hair slightly shook as she quickly finished reading Mu Liang's information.
"Only twenty-two and already giving up on life?"
The female physician's voice was a bit raspy, her mouth corners slightly downturned as she pulled out a stylus from the bottom of her tablet and began carelessly writing down records that no one would check, casually asking:
"You were diagnosed with a mental illness six months ago, did you receive any medication treatment during this period?"
Wang Jixuan turned his head and replied, "No."
The female physician clicked her tongue, "Saving up your medical quota, planning to save it for a cremation furnace with the right temperature for yourself?"
"No," Wang Jixuan responded calmly.
This woman's way of speaking was quite harsh.
Did she really think he couldn't understand the sarcasm in her words? His control over language and words was now much stronger than the original owner of this body.
Suddenly, the female physician asked, "What does it feel like to be on the brink of death? Is it… quite pleasurable?"
Wang Jixuan: Huh?
Alright, he took back the arrogant remark he had just made.
He didn't quite understand the meaning of her statement.
The female physician, with a still svelte figure, shifted and sat on the edge of the hospital bed, her hand reaching towards Wang Jixuan's wrist.
To take his pulse?
Wang Jixuan restrained his instinct to dodge, but he soon realized the female physician's fingers began to lightly glide across his arm.
Wang Jixuan felt a chill run down his spine.
"You're still very young… do you like that feeling of suffocation?" the female physician asked softly.
"Have you seen a wonderful world inside? Although it's due to cerebral hypoxia, it's really cool, isn't it? Your skin is so smooth, you are still a virgin, right?"
"Demoness! What are you doing!"
Wang Jixuan finally couldn't hold back any longer, pulled his arm back, and with his somewhat weak body, forced himself to sit up and glared at the female physician.
At this moment, they were very close, the female physician's face, over thirty but still delicate due to her makeup, bore a hint of an ambiguous smile.
She winked gently with her left eye: "Demoness? Are you saying I'm very enchanting? What a great nickname."
"No one will come close here, and the soundproofing is also very good. No one will come in the next two hours; they're all at work," she said to herself as she pulled out a small mirror from her white coat and scooped up some foundation, applying makeup to herself.
"Mu Liang, it seems you still don't quite understand.
"Young people with self-destructive tendencies are usually sent to the medical center for partial brain tissue removal surgery to ensure that you can continue to contribute to the Fortress and not waste the resources the Fortress invested in you over the past twenty years.
"You will lose most of your emotions, and you'll get occasional headaches, crying for no reason… the pain is unbearable, trust me.
"I can provide you with a certificate, a certificate that keeps you out of the medical center, and then… help you walk out of the gloom with joy,"
Her white coat slowly slipped, and her breath deepened, causing her full chest to stand out more and her abdomen to flatten.
How could a young man with no experience and who had given up on himself resist her charm?
Thinking thus, the female physician let out a soft hum from her nose, her lips, supported by her tongue, grazing her white teeth.
The female physician had already envisioned her next move.
She was to turn around, kneel by the bed with her left knee, bow her head close to this young man, and casually unbutton the first and second buttons of his shirt, starting her conquest from his lips...
'He's really cute,' the female physician thought, turning around, kneeling on her left knee by the bed, leaning forward, her eyes seductive and lips slightly parted…
Bang!
A muffled sound.
The female physician stared in shock at the young man in front of her, a trickle of fresh blood seeping from his pale forehead.
"You hit…"
She collapsed weakly onto the bed, her eyes rolling back as she passed out.
Wang Jixuan calmly set down the somewhat heavy iron box he held, shaking his wrist that was stinging from the impact.
'What a thing!'
'With just that bit of beauty, she thought she could steal the Daoist's Primordial Yang?'
'Even the old Sect Master of Joyful Union Sect wasn't as promiscuous as you!'
Afterward, Wang Jixuan looked at the female physician collapsed by the bedside and began to frown in thought.
The threat the female physician had made earlier wasn't false – the brain tissue removal surgery...
The Dao Body must not be damaged, that was his premise to tread the path of cultivation again.
Moreover, his current physical weakness made this second chance at life all the more precious.
When this female physician woke up, more trouble was likely on the way.
The feeling of powerlessness in his limbs surged again.
Wang Jixuan touched the bruise on his neck, bowed his head, and began searching the female physician's white coat, pulling out several items.
Thirteenth Floor C-Class Pass;
Quota Card;
Level 4 Ordinary Citizen Certificate (Primary Doctor).
Wang Jixuan thought, regardless of what he wanted to do next, he had to eat first; this woman wouldn't wake up anytime soon.
Food, for mortals, was like Spiritual Energy for cultivators.
So, the fact that the former owner of his body, Mu Liang, had been bullied by his coworkers for a long time, turning his food quota into a topic of others' gossip, was something Wang Jixuan could not calmly accept.
He would avenge Mu Liang, and consider it settling this karmic retribution.