Utterly Shocked

Yaxiu pulled the towel off his face and propped himself up with his arms. His first reaction was to feel his neck, but he didn't find a single scar. "Strange. You didn't use me as lab material for surgery after all." "I already finished." Sitting at the foot of the bed, Healer 222 didn't even look up from the book in their hands, the crow beak bobbing slightly. "It's already done. The operation was a massive success—you're a handsome man now." "What?!" Yaxiu scrambled to find a mirror, but there wasn't one anywhere nearby. The healer burst out laughing. "Just kidding. Actually, patching up your throat was so easy it barely took any time, so while I was at it, I gave you a few minor procedures. Nothing major. You slept through the whole thing." Yaxiu breathed a sigh of relief. "Then what procedures did you do on me?" "The Dafi procedure for epicanthoplasty, the Aibo procedure for contouring the brow bone, the Luoza procedure for reshaping the chin, the Ailas procedure for making your eyelashes naturally curl, the..." The more Yaxiu listened, the more baffled he became. "Then how much do I even resemble my former self?" "Pretty similar, I think. You've still got two eyes, a mouth, and... well, a mouth." "And you call that 'nothing major'? Does a major overhaul involve replacing my entire head?" "Not quite. Swapping heads is still rather risky," the healer gestured. "The major surgeries popular among sorcerers usually just replace all your facial features. For instance, swapping your eyes for those of a swift hawk, your teeth for morph shark teeth, your nose for a fang wolf's nose, your ears for bat fiend ears... Replacing limbs and internal organs isn't uncommon either. Lately, mechanical prosthetics have been a very hot trend in modifications." Good grief. So sorcerers had already unlocked the tech tree for bio-implants and bodily modifications? No wonder Yaxiu had seen a chimera in prison with rabbit ears and wild boar tusks. Back then, he had wondered whether rabbits and boars could actually cross species boundaries to interbreed. Turns out it wasn't the beasts running wild—it was the sorcerers. Curious, Yaxiu looked at the healer. "Have you had a major overhaul like that?" The healer hesitated. "You could say so." "Oho~" Yaxiu stared at the healer's crow mask. "I see..." How could the healer not know what Yaxiu was thinking? Akimbo, they said, "I'm not hideous like you. My face has always been flawless; it doesn't need changing." "Oh, so it's not your face you swapped." Yaxiu scanned the healer's body, but unfortunately, the healers all wore thick, baggy robes that hid any trace of a silhouette. "What are you looking at?" "I'm checking to see if a Phillips screwdriver bit will pop out of your finger." "No screwdriver bits here, only an earpick. Want to try it?" "Yes." "I'm not wasting my breath on you. Here." The healer pulled ten silver coins from a pouch, placed them on the bedside stand, and waved a hand. Yaxiu pointed at the pile of silver coins. "What's this for?" "Didn't we agree? You let me perform surgeries on you, and I pay you. I practiced ten sorcery procedures, so I'm giving you ten silver coins. Perfectly fair." "No, what I mean is, didn't you pay in gold coins before?" "I went back and asked other healers! When they find people to practice sorcery procedures on, they don't pay anything at all. At most, they hand out silver coins—nobody pays in gold coins!" "You just have no backbone. You can't go around mindlessly echoing other people; you have to stand firm in your convictions. If everyone else goes around eating shit, are you going to eat shit too?" "You make a good point. Deep down, I actually didn't want to pay at all. I can't let myself be charmed by you anymore—" "Then again, listening to other people's advice from time to time is also a fine virtue." Yaxiu hastily pocketed the silver coins. The healer nearly laughed, but quickly stifled the chuckle. "You've really made a name for yourself this time. You're the only sinner in Kaimeng City's history to be wounded in a Blood Moon Trial and survive." "The only one? Has no death-row inmate ever been caught in the crossfire during a trial before?" "There were, but none could be saved; the Executioner tore them to shreds on the spot. A case like yours—killed by another death-row inmate, yet with a wound so shallow that failing to resuscitate you would violate the Life Rescue Act—is practically unheard of." Yaxiu still couldn't get used to how this world classified wounds. An injury that nearly lopped off his head was treated as a minor scrape that could be fixed with a bandage. "Once you're out of here, remember to find a way to earn more contribution points so you won't be picked for the next Blood Moon Trial. There won't be an elf standing in front of you next time." Yaxiu looked at the healer with curiosity. "Caring about me this much? Did you catch feelings from treating me?" "You show up in the medical room almost every day. If the prison had a few more model inmates like you, I could probably leave this place after just another month or two of hard work." The healer shrugged. "Thanks to you, I've gotten quite proficient with plenty of sorcery procedures." "Can you take me with you when you leave? I'll even promise to be your lab rat for three years at most. Sounds like a bargain, doesn't it?" "Sure." "Really?" "If you're willing to be packed into three separate crates when I take you out, I have no problem with it, and the prison would gladly let us pass." Yaxiu smacked his lips. "Can you piece me back together once we're out?" "If I were a Four-Winged Legendary Sorcerer, I probably could. I might even install a few add-ons for you while I'm at it." "So are you one?" "If I were, I wouldn't have time to shoot the breeze with you like this." The healer crossed their arms. "Besides, you're actually still thinking about breaking out? Tsk, tsk, tsk. After going through a Blood Moon Trial, you still haven't given up on such a childish idea?" "What fine young man wouldn't spend every night dreaming of a prison break? And after seeing a Blood Moon Trial with my own eyes, who could possibly stay here?" Yaxiu clenched his fist. "I am definitely breaking out of this prison!" "Good luck. Remember to stay safe during your escape, and try your best to keep your corpse intact." Yaxiu leaned closer to the healer. "Got any good ideas for a breakout?" The healer glared at him through the beak. "Don't think I won't report you just because I made you a bit handsomer." "Don't be so tense. You've already done all this to me, so just treat this as aftercare pillow talk." Yaxiu wore an indifferent expression. "Think of it as a puzzle game. Suppose you were framed and locked up in Shattered Lake Prison—how would you plan to escape?" "Except I wouldn't be framed." "Why are you so sure?" "Because memory masters exist. Once a memory master checks my memories, they'll know I'm innocent." Yaxiu recalled that detail as well and couldn't help asking, "Don't you feel that's very... wrong?" The healer was puzzled. "What's wrong with it?" "Having your memories searched by someone else. Don't you think memories are crucial privacy that shouldn't be scrutinized?" "And you claim you're innocent! Isn't that just liberal terrorism?" "Huh?" "Only terrorists harboring malicious intent and plotting treachery would want to abolish the memory inspection system. Some even make far more outrageous demands, like unbinding miracle chips, granting pregnant women the right to voluntary abortion, or even making reproductive pairing records public... Why do you look so nervous?" Yaxiu swallowed hard. "Pregnant women aren't allowed to have abortions?" "Of course they are. If the fetus is diagnosed with any congenital diseases or latent genetic disorders, an abortion is mandatory." "Mandatory?" "Mandatory." "And what if the fetus is healthy?" "Then it definitely has to be carried to term." "Without asking the pregnant woman for her opinion?" "Why ask?" The healer found the question bizarre. "Would a pregnant woman ever refuse? The childbearing subsidy for each birth is almost equal to three years' salary for a mid-level profession, fluctuating depending on race. If you're a sorcerer, the subsidy is even higher: a 100% bonus for the first child, plus another 50% bonus if you give birth at the designated age. "Unless a female sorcerer is exceptionally talented and doesn't want to waste a single second, most women will have their first child at the designated age. As for whether there's a second or third time, that depends on how lively their nightlife is. After all, it's only a bit of trouble during pregnancy; once the baby is born, it's sent to a rearing institute, and the mother receives her due childbearing funds that very day." Yaxiu was utterly shocked. He suddenly gave the healer a strange look. "What about you?" "What about me?" "Did you... get the childbearing funds?" The healer hesitated. "I can't give birth." Yaxiu hurried to apologize. "I'm sorry." The healer waved a hand dismissively. "Nothing to apologize for; I don't lack that pocket change anyway. Still, are you actually in the camp that supports a pregnant woman's right to voluntary abortion? That makes you quite radical even among liberal terrorists." Yaxiu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "That counts as radical?" The healer replied as if it were obvious. "Of course. Supporting voluntary abortion is tantamount to driving down the birth rate. Races like humans and orcs aside, races like elves and Veela whose birth rates have always struggled to climb despise such rhetoric the most. An assembly member who proposed that bill was ousted within days after being hit with an avalanche of scandals. "Supporting the abolition of the memory inspection system is tantamount to increasing the difficulty of criminal investigations and creating fertile ground for crime. Only people who want to commit crimes would endorse such talk; not even assembly members would dare float such sensationalist nonsense. "Likewise, supporting the unbinding of miracle chips is tantamount to advocating the removal of shackles from a criminal's neck, needlessly making criminals harder to catch and increasing the likelihood of reoffending..." Yaxiu asked, "But all of you have miracle chips, so aren't all of you wearing shackles? Aren't you afraid?" "The way you phrase that makes it sound like you're not one of us." The healer gave Yaxiu an odd look. "Besides, we don't commit crimes or break the law, so why should we be afraid? Only criminals who disrupt public order have anything to fear." It made complete sense. Yaxiu had no way to refute it. He realized that in the Blood Moon Country, the healer's worldview was the worldview of the masses. Since they all endorsed this system of social surveillance, it meant this approach was, relatively speaking, correct. The ones who were wrong were the death-row inmates in prison—and Yaxiu himself. Who would have thought that a taxpaying citizen who had obeyed the law and supported regulation in his previous life would cross over here only to become a liberal terrorist... "We're getting off track. Just pretend you're like me—framed as the leader of the Four Pillar Gods cult, with the Sin Hunting Hall not daring to search your memories, and locked away in Shattered Lake Prison. How would you plan to escape?" "Were you really framed..." "A game! Just treat it as a thought experiment! Though I heard healers aren't great at logical thinking—is this game too hard for you?" "You think I'd fall for such a childish ploy? Do you take me for a kid?!" The healer turned away with a cold huff. "Still, isn't the path of escape blatantly obvious? Only someone like you wouldn't realize it."