Li Guanqi had never been this utterly bewildered———– he’d been kidnapped.
He was now sitting in a rapidly speeding vehicle.
His mind was a complete mess.
“What what what———— what even is all this?”
In his memory, he had been interning at a hospital.
Xu Fei had said something to him, he’d gone to Room 505, opened the door…
Everything after that was a blur.
The next thing he knew, he was being thrown into a truck by robots.
“Human trafficking?”
He tried to explain the situation using some common sense, but quickly rejected his own conclusion.
He’d heard of kidnappings involving women and children.
But him?
Why him?
Organ trafficking?
Did Xu Fei ambush him and sell him out?
No, that didn’t make sense.
What kind of criminal group would have access to tech like this?
Li Guanqi turned his head slightly to the right.
Sitting near the door was a massive robot, one that looked downright violent.
Aside from that, there were two other people in the truck.
Directly across from him sat a young man in his 20s, dressed in a pristine white uniform.
His hair was neatly slicked back, the uniform trimmed with gold and stained in a few places with dark red splotches.
His hands were cuffed in front of him, heavy shackles clamped on his feet, and his eyes were cold and distant.
His entire aura screamed: Do.
Not.
Mess.
The young man’s name was Nanyang Ming.
His gaze swept up and down Li Guanqi, and upon seeing the fresh brand “0478” on his wrist, he let out a soft sigh.
“Another unlucky b*stard.”
He didn’t speak loudly, but the truck was small and well-sealed.
Those two words, unlucky b*stard, rang out crystal clear to Li Guanqi.
His nerves instantly snapped taut.
He wanted to scream.
“Bro, say a few more things, come on!”
“What do you mean unlucky?
Are they taking kidneys or sending us to dig mines?!”
“If it’s money you want, we can talk!”
“I’m a med student, okay?
I’ve got skills, I’m useful!”
He ran through every possible plea for mercy in his mind.
But he couldn’t say a word.
His mouth was stuffed with that d*mned metal bar, only muffled whimpers came out.
Li Guanqi swallowed hard and slowly shifted leftward.
Aside from the two men and the robot, there was one more person in the far left corner of the truck: a girl.
She wore a tidy blue school uniform with a gold school crest pinned to her shoulder.
Her skirt reached just past the knees, her long legs wrapped in black thigh-high socks.
Her jet-black hair was tied into a high ponytail, radiating youth and vitality.
But she was curled up, knees drawn to her chest, face buried in them, as if sobbing.
Compared to the young man, she had no bloodstains on her clothes, no shackles, nothing, completely normal.
In a human trafficking case, she was the textbook perfect victim.
“Mmm———” Li Guanqi carefully inched closer without alerting the robot, and gently tapped her shoulder with his elbow.
His elbow met something odd, but he didn’t think much of it.
The girl flinched but didn’t lift her head.
“Who’s there?” she asked, her voice soft and ethereal.
Li Guanqi didn’t have time to be shy.
Keeping one eye on the robot, he reached out and wrote one word in her palm: victim.
“How pitiful.” the girl replied, her tone surprisingly calm.
No fear, only pity.
She reached toward his shoulder, fingers fumbling as if in the dark.
Then she tapped his chest twice, left, right.
Li Guanqi had no idea what she was doing.
He just sat there, frozen.
Her hand drifted downward, grazing his wrist, then wandered clumsily———
Suddenly, she recoiled with a gasp.
“Ara——-a boy?”
“AH———” Li Guanqi mentally collapsed on the spot.
“That’s how you confirm someone’s gender?!”
His mind filled with stampeding curse words, but all he could do was groan helplessly.
She giggled, then sighed, “Boys are fine.
They’ll be sent to the mines.”
Li Guanqi exhaled in relief.
Getting sent to a mine was definitely better than ending up on an operating table.
“My name’s Baizhi.” she said softly.
“I’m blind.
Sorry if I was rude.”
“Blind…” Li Guanqi echoed, a twinge of sympathy flickering in his gaze.
“It’s okay.”
Grrrrgle———-
His stomach growled loud and clear, shattering the moment with embarrassment.
“Why am I hungry already?”
“I just ate, didn’t I?”
He tried to recall, but a sudden, sharp pain tore through his head, like hundreds of shards of glass slicing through his nerves.
Baizhi seemed to sense his distress.
She gently patted his leg in comfort.
“Don’t be scared.”
“Here, take this.”
She opened a box of something———— it looked like a double yolk mooncake.
Using a small knife, she cut it into a few pieces and gave him half.
Li Guanqi ended up with the half that still had the knife.
He broke off a chunk and shoved it through the gaps in the metal bar strapped to his mouth, swallowing it down whole.
Then he slipped the small knife into his pocket.
He must’ve been starving.
Even after eating half a mooncake, he still didn’t feel full.
“Are you a multifunctional Numbered Citizen?” Baizhi asked softly, setting down her own half.
“That’s rare.
You can even write.”
His brow furrowed.
The term sounded oddly familiar, but whenever he tried to think harder about it, his head would throb painfully.
“Do you know where we are?”
He didn’t want to dwell on the “Numbered Citizen” thing, so instead, he wrote the question on Baizhi’s palm.
He needed more information if he ever wanted to escape from this so-called mine.
After a moment’s thought, Baizhi said, “Probably…
outside Bianyuelong Fortress.”
“Bianyuelong?” His brow furrowed even deeper.
That name felt even more familiar.
But where had he heard it before?
He quickly scribbled more questions into her palm, what province Bianyuelong belonged to, what kind of place the mine was, whether there were toxic gases or radiation, etc.
One couldn’t speak.
The other couldn’t see.
So the two of them huddled together in the corner of the truck, holding each other for warmth.
It should’ve been a romantic, cozy scene, but sitting across from them, Nanyang Ming only frowned deeper.
He watched Li Guanqi’s every movement, his pupils narrowing oddly, as if watching a farcical play, with an actor performing absurdly on stage.
“What is all this?” Li Guanqi muttered after his chat with Baizhi, now even more bewildered.
There were so many terms he couldn’t understand.
Ba, Affinity, Spirituality, Negative Crystals…
And apparently the mines held duels regularly, which sounded terrifying enough.
Li Guanqi still thought like a regular person.
When regular people hear the word “duel”, they usually think “melee fight”.
Just then, the transport truck slammed the brakes.
The whole compartment tilted violently before settling back down.
From the driver’s seat, a voice rang out:
“Huh?
League disadvantage?
You want to sub in a stand-in?”
“Yeah, no problem, I’ve got someone.
Don’t worry.”
“They’re all cannon fodder anyway.
Just throw in a Numbered Citizen.
I’ll give you a discount.”
Li Guanqi sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes widening.
“Cannon fodder?
Numbered Citizen?”
His gaze swept the truck.
One robot.
One schoolgirl.
One violent young man.
Only he had a number on his wrist.
Me?
I’m the cannon fodder?
He’d seen this plot before: some underling taking the fall, bag over the head, marched to a firing squad.
“Perfect!” the driver laughed, satisfied.
“I’ll head over now.
Half an hour, plenty of time.”
“Sh*t!” Li Guanqi’s heart sank.