Chapter 29: They Were Too Far from His Glamorous Life
Rhine sent over a friend request and bid Xiang Nanli a friendly farewell.
Xiang Nanli maintained a perfectly calm facade, but the moment the door closed, he couldn’t resist rolling around on the sofa. “Did I hear that right? He said 600,000, didn’t he?”
“Yes, that is correct,” Dongfang Qingdi replied. He only withdrew his perception once he felt the three burly men outside safely leave the premises. “However, he originally intended to make it a zero-dollar purchase.”
Xiang Nanli was in an excellent mood. “Doesn’t matter. At least he has to pay me wages now.”
Just two months ago, he was still worrying about tomorrow’s breathing fees. In the blink of an eye, he now had both a house and savings.
Though it was still a far cry from his past life, overall, he was moving forward through twists and turns. This was a good thing—it proved that even in this new world, he possessed the ability to survive. Sooner or later…
Xiang Nanli’s expression suddenly froze.
Yes, he had accepted reality. But sooner or later, what was he going to do? Prove that he was that specific person from history, and then stand on the Human Alliance’s podium to apologize for creating Alpha?
Should I repent? Do I need to atone for my sins?
He did feel a sense of guilt, but he would absolutely not let outsiders judge him.
Technology was clearly supposed to be innocent.
Besides, in a place where even common sense could be rewritten, why should he trust history?
Xiang Nanli turned on the television screen. When no programs were purchased, the screen defaulted to a live feed of the sky at their current latitude. The image on the screen shifted with the passage of time.
It was currently night.
On the screen, Xiang Nanli saw three moons.
Resting his chin on his hand, Xiang Nanli looked thoughtful. “Xiao Qing. Are there really three moons out there? This seems a bit different from what I remember.”
“Apologies, I have not yet seen the sky.”
“Neither have I.”
Although he had been to the surface, the smog there was simply too thick. Even at night, it was shrouded in a layer of dark, murky clouds. That was the radioactive dust left in the stratosphere after the cobalt bomb explosions. Gamma rays that had yet to finish decaying were still affecting human survival.
This planet was still in the process of self-cleaning.
A delivery drone arrived with the ingredients Dongfang Qingdi had ordered online.
He took them and walked into the kitchen.
Dongfang Qingdi had never learned how to cook, but that wasn’t a major issue. He simply copied a segment of runtime code for “Making Braised Chicken,” pasted it into his movement module, and confidently left his body on idle mode.
His consciousness returned inside Xiang Nanli’s body, and he began to peek at the chat between Xiang Nanli and Rhine.
Alpha didn’t think of himself as a voyeur; he was merely worried that Xiang Nanli was too inexperienced in the ways of the world and would be deceived by Rhine.
[Rhine: Hello. This is the information for our club [The Combat Club]. Please rest assured, our club is registered and highly compliant. Our fighters are all professionals, entirely different from those underground illegal death matches.]
The moment he said this, Alpha searched the club’s surveillance feeds and used “My Files” to send a video segment to Xiang Nanli.
[The Combat Club is split into day sessions and night sessions. The day session is a normal club. See the night session for yourself.]
Xiang Nanli tapped open the video, dragging it to the other side of the chat box.
The venue looked like a bar, with a fighting ring positioned right in the center. The flashing colored lights around it were bright enough to trigger a photosensitive epileptic seizure.
Two people stood in the ring, both bearing clear traces of machine modifications.
One side was a youth whose features still carried a hint of innocence. He looked 18 at most, but his eyes were ferocious. Metal plating covered both his knees and finger joints.
The opposing side was a full-grown adult—tall, bald, with deep brown skin. He stood nearly two meters tall, and both his arms had been replaced with cybernetic limbs.
The ring banned the use of firearms. However, the strength of biological muscle and the strength of metal were fundamentally not on the same level.
A crowd of people gathered around the ring, shouting, “Give us something thrilling! Someone needs to die!”
Another wave of people was similarly yelling, “The odds are 8:1! Who else wants to place a bet?”
Waiters threaded through the crowd, delivering drinks and snacks.
These waiters were robots, visibly manufactured according to companion-style bionics. A few groping hands lewdly fondled their bodies, but the beautiful robots remained utterly indifferent, even maintaining sweet smiles. Of course, if anyone required things to go a step further, they would have to pay a tip.
The boss only needed to pay once when purchasing them, and all subsequent income was pure profit, with no need to pay wages. Quite a bargain, wasn’t it? What did heartless robots know anyway.
The match in the ring began. With a loud roar, the burly man charged at the youth opposite him. He knew what the audience loved to watch, and he knew many people had placed bets on him.
The youth ducked, dodging the punch. He grabbed the man’s knees and slammed him backward with immense force.
This ring offered absolutely no protection. Aside from firearms and biting, no method of attack was forbidden.
To keep the fights visually entertaining, even the degree of machine modification was strictly regulated.
The big guy held a natural advantage in terms of sheer build. He locked the youth in a grapple, rolled over to pin him to the ground, and slammed punch after punch into his head.
Thud, thud, thud. The sound was heavy and dull, like a beating drum. Blood and other biological tissues adhered to his iron-like fists, flying outward across the ring with his movements.
The youth struggled beneath him, clawing viciously at his back. The blood vessels on the youth’s arms bulged, dark red blood flowing through them as his skin flushed crimson.
With a cold laugh, the big guy grabbed the youth’s arm and twisted it at a bizarre angle. The muscles couldn’t withstand that degree of pressure; the tendon sheath tore apart, blood geysering out to expose the metallic structure inside.
He ripped the arm right off, tossing it aside along with the attached flesh.
The cybernetic cyberware flew straight down into the spectator area, drawing wild cheers from the crowd. They presumably found it exhilarating.
Xiang Nanli’s brows knit together as he felt a wave of physiological discomfort.
He was still too civilized.
The youth had lost an arm, but it was as if some genetic lock had been switched on. The tendon sheath torn from the muscle expanded like a sponge soaking up water, and a blood-red arm—completely disproportionate to his frame—sprouted from the wound. Its surface was covered in tumors.
His eyes were blood-red. Roaring, he gripped the burly man’s skull and lifted him high into the air.
With his feet off the ground, terror finally surfaced in the big guy’s eyes. “I concede! I concede!”
Yet the five fingers clamped around his head did not loosen; instead, they slowly tightened.
The referee’s voice echoed from the speakers: “Enough, stop!”
Gunfire rang out from below the stage. There were no bullets, however—only tranquilizer darts.
The youth collapsed to the ground, falling unconscious. In an instant, his body emaciated into something resembling a skeleton, leaving nothing but a layer of skin. Meanwhile, the blood-red giant hand he had sprouted rapidly withered away, turning into a puddle of rotting meat stuck to the ring’s floor.
The referee stepped into the ring, knelt down, grabbed the youth’s intact arm, and raised it high. “The winner—Sirius!”
Oh, so this young man is named Sirius. Strange name.
[The brutality of the Higher Life Selection Tournament is only higher than what you see in this recording, never lower. They don’t need mechanical technicians at all. They only need to select the strongest, most potent biological bodies capable of enduring the highest number of genetic modifications, all to prove that genetic alteration actually holds more potential than machine modification. I honestly do not recommend that you go.]
Xiang Nanli thought it over for a moment. “Xiao Qing? Why aren’t you cooking properly instead of running back here to spy on my chat?”
[You have mistaken my identity,] the AI replied.
Xiang Nanli raised an eyebrow. “My own AI, and I wouldn’t be able to recognize him?”
[Rhine: This selection tournament takes place on the surface. Competitors from three neighboring cities will come to participate. Because our club has historically maintained a cooperative relationship with the tournament officials, we were allocated 3 slots. Competing requires bringing your own mechanical technician, and we wouldn’t feel secure leaving the maintenance work to anyone else. But our mechanical technician died.]
[Rhine: Surprisingly, it wasn’t a revenge killing. He took too many dopamine patches, hallucinated, and drowned in the bathtub.]
[Xiang Nanli: …]
What is wrong with you underground people? It’s bad enough that every single one of you acts like an outlaw, but you all love doing drugs too.
If he hadn’t seen the thriving scenes inside Luoyang City, he would constantly be under the illusion that humanity was doomed.
[Rhine: Our club has been searching for a suitable mechanical technician during this period.]
But those people either lacked the skills, lived too comfortably to want to get involved in muddy waters, or demanded astronomical prices. The highest had even dared to ask for three million—the prize money for the top 36 wasn’t even three million!
[Xiang Nanli: 600,000—is that before or after tax?]
[Rhine: …My friend. Please rest assured, we will distribute the wages to you in a tax-free manner upon completion.]
For instance, they could have Xiang Nanli register a holographic game account, trade a specific piece of in-game equipment inside, and then list that equipment for sale on the dark web. The money would then reach his hands through legal channels. As long as the amount wasn’t too high, it wouldn’t trigger the Human Alliance’s alerts, nor would the bank audit the account.
Xiang Nanli admitted that this sum of money was highly tempting to him.
He was unwilling to undergo brain-computer interface modification. With this money, Xiang Nanli would be able to purchase a slightly cheaper login capsule.
If one had to split hairs, the world of data was his true home ground. Even if the knowledge he possessed was several versions behind the era, wasn’t he currently learning?
[Xiang Nanli: This job is highly dangerous. You need to add more money. Furthermore, I want half of the wages as a deposit.]
If an ordinary person said this, Rhine would have already blocked the entitled bastard.
But…
Rhine closed his eyes, recalling those two mechanical arms Xiang Nanli had pieced together. He had asked Jesse about the situation at the time, and he had also consulted a mechanical technician he highly respected (who taught at Gusu University).
The other party had told him—”An incredibly brilliant design. Turning a pile of trash into usable mechanical devices. Under equal conditions, I couldn’t do it. Are you sure you aren’t joking? Someone can really achieve that?”
[Rhine: I can use my own authority to raise it to 800,000 for you. Any more won’t do, the cost is too high.]
[Xiang Nanli: Deal. Send me the contract.]
Dongfang Qingdi’s thoughts returned to the kitchen.
Excellent. Leaving it on idle for just this short while, the food was almost ready. The braised sauce in the pot bubbled merrily, its aroma drifting outward. Although the chickens from the farm were expensive, their selection and breeding were highly sophisticated; the fat was rich and the meat tender, turning out delicious no matter how it was cooked.
If he wanted to go, then let him go. Xiang Nanli was going as a cyberware maintenance worker, not to fight in the ring himself. The level of danger wasn’t as immense as he thought.
Besides, if something truly happened, he wasn’t a dead man either.
Consequently, before he could even bring the food out, he saw Xiang Nanli close his dialogue box with Rhine and open the electronic mall, directly searching for “housekeeping robots” and browsing through them intently.
A minute later, Xiang Nanli added a housekeeping robot labeled “Humanoid/Adult Male Build/Multi-functional” to his shopping cart and selected payment.
A prompt box indicating payment failure popped up before his eyes.
Furthermore, the payment failed three times in a row.
Xiang Nanli asked, “Xiao Qing, did the house lose its internet connection?”
The next second.
“What are you buying this for?” Dongfang Qingdi pushed open the kitchen door and leaned against the frame, holding a cooking ladle in his hand as he spoke grimly. He looked like a male ghost.
Xiang Nanli didn’t know that in this day and age, “housekeeping robot” was merely a euphemistic term used to bypass the Human Alliance’s content audits. Their primary profession was acting as a companion; housekeeping was merely a side gig.
Xiang Nanli looked at him, his tone slightly puzzled. “But didn’t you just say that you aren’t a housekeeping robot? Someone needs to do the chores around the house.”
Dongfang Qingdi’s expression went from gloomy to bright, then back to gloomy. “I am now.”
With that, he slammed the kitchen door shut.
He left Xiang Nanli sitting on the sofa in bewilderment, completely unaware of how he had provoked him this time.
Is this the difference between a human and a non-human? The logic of an intelligent AI is truly hard to guess.
Xiang Nanli received the contract sent by Rhine the very next day.
He ran it by Dongfang Qingdi. According to the laws of the Human Alliance, there were no risks. However, this sort of contract wasn’t protected by law at all; it relied entirely on the club’s self-discipline.
Furthermore, the start date of the work was incredibly rushed—it was actually in 3 days. No wonder Rhine was desperately turning to any doctor he could find.
[Rhine: This is our club’s address. I hope you can interact with our fighters before we set off. After all, you’ll be cooperating together.]
This request was perfectly reasonable, and Xiang Nanli didn’t refuse.
Because they were setting off for the surface in three days, Xiang Nanli had specifically bought a suitcase. It contained the clothes he had bought at the mall—some for himself, and some for Dongfang Qingdi. The rest consisted of various nutrient solutions, medications, and maintenance tools.
Having only moved in for a few days, the house had accumulated quite a few mechanical parts.
Xiang Nanli placed a casually assembled trigger mechanism onto the shoe cabinet and took the elevator downstairs. Carrying the suitcase, Dongfang Qingdi followed by his side.
The driver was Rhine himself. Probably because he had successfully found a mechanical technician, he appeared to be in a good mood.
The electric vehicle drove all the way from the Mid-city District where Xiang Nanli lived back to the Lower-city District. The buildings nearby were noticeably older, the spacing between them narrower, and the environment dilapidated.
The roads were covered in tire tracks, and chaotic graffiti lined the walls. There were political slogans, robot models, lines from games, and even contact information for matchmaking.
Xiang Nanli also saw a group of punk youths on motorcycles roaring past. When passing Rhine’s “luxury car,” one rider deliberately spat on the car window before speeding off with a loud laugh. It seemed that no era lacked reckless youth.
The club’s entrance was located inside a bar—a single door leading underground.
It was currently daytime, so the bar wasn’t open yet. Service robots stood in neat rows against the wall, utterly devoid of life, with charging piles situated behind them.
Because they looked so intensely human, this scene was actually somewhat eerie.
Rhine pushed open his office door, revealing the elevator behind it. He smiled. “Let’s go. It’s right downstairs. My fighters are already waiting for you.”
Xiang Nanli and Dongfang Qingdi stepped into the elevator, heading directly to the first basement floor.
This place was different from the spectator entrance; the office led straight to the staff lounge.
The moment the elevator doors opened, rows of burly men filled Xiang Nanli’s vision.
Three individuals sat at the very front. Xiang Nanli had already reviewed their profiles; these three were named “Sirius,” “Neptune,” and “Pluto,” and they were the fighters set to participate in the selection tournament this time.
Xiang Nanli had seen “Sirius” in the video, but that should have been a recording from two years ago? The current Sirius looked a bit more mature, his features defined, with an additional scar running across his face.
Behind them stood the club’s other contracted fighters.
Before entering the club, these people had been thugs, vagrants, thieves, and bikers. They were a class of people Xiang Nanli had fundamentally never interacted with in his past life; they were too far removed from his glamorous existence.
The fighters’ expressions were intriguing. Gathering in twos and threes, their calculating gazes landed on Xiang Nanli. It felt exactly as if they were sizing up a target they intended to strike.
Meanwhile, the three sitting at the very front offered absolutely no acknowledgement. Neptune and Pluto chatted with each other, discussing which male prostitute they wanted to sleep with tonight; Sirius had bandages wrapped around his arms and neck, not even lifting his head.
[Xiao Qing, let me ask one more time. You can really beat them in a fight, right?] Xiang Nanli asked.
Dongfang Qingdi swept a glance over them: [None of them are my match in a one-on-one.]
[What about a group fight?]
Dongfang Qingdi thought for two seconds: [Try your best to hide somewhere with no people.]
Rhine let out a cough. “My cash cows, cheer up. Come, let me introduce you. This is the mechanical technician I hired at a massive expense—his name is Xiang Nanli.”
Various calculating gazes lingered on his excessively young face. It didn’t look like they were viewing a companion; it was like hunters looking at prey, contemplating whether to toy with it or tear it apart.
A few complaints drifted from the crowd: “Manager, you didn’t go to a technical school and find an undergraduate student who hasn’t even graduated, did you?”
As it happened, Xiang Nanli had previously registered at a technical school. The department head was indeed a well-compensated man and proved very easy to talk to. He was currently a first-year student who didn’t need to attend classes and could graduate in two years.
So, to a certain extent, what the other party said wasn’t wrong.
“What level is he? Coming here to repair cyberware.”
“Yo, he even brought a Synth. He isn’t planning to bring him to the surface, is he? Eating so well? Is he on vacation?”
These were the relatively mild comments, evidently from those who had received the underground city’s five years of compulsory education. There were others that sounded far uglier. Their attitude couldn’t be described as respectful in the slightest.
Rhine looked quite put out. It was hard to tell whether he was truly put on the spot or simply putting on a show for Xiang Nanli to see. He hadn’t given any explicit orders, but these underground fighters were wild beasts who licked blood from the edge of a blade. If Xiang Nanli couldn’t tame them, Rhine could only consider hiring someone else more suitable.
Dongfang Qingdi’s brows knit together, clearly on the verge of taking action, but Xiang Nanli pressed a hand onto his shoulder at this exact moment.
[I’ll handle it myself.]
A forceful suppression was certainly convenient, but it was only temporary. Dongfang Qingdi couldn’t possibly be by his side at all times.
Taking a step forward, the corners of Xiang Nanli’s lips curved upward as he looked around. “I am indeed enrolled in the Gusu City Mechanical Maintenance Technical School. Today, I was invited by your manager to come to the club for cyberware maintenance.”
With that, Xiang Nanli pulled out a chair and sat down.
Dongfang Qingdi knelt down and opened the suitcase, retrieving the tools Xiang Nanli had brought along and arranging them on the table to the side. Half of Rhine’s 400,000 deposit had been converted into these tools and instruments on the table.
When a person had someone else serving them, it gave them a very powerful aura.
The surroundings fell silent for a moment, the expressions of the crowd turning uncertain.
Xiang Nanli’s voice carried a slight chill: “What are you standing around for? Line up. Do you know how much it costs to hire me once?!”
The first one pushed forward to test the waters was a middle-aged man standing in the back row. He was blind in one eye, while the other was fitted with a protruding cybernetic eye that resembled a camera lens.
One-Eye sat down opposite Xiang Nanli and pulled up his trouser leg, revealing the metallic cyberware underneath—the knee joint had loosened, and aside from that, the circuit sensors were unresponsive, frequently causing it to freeze up. He had privately sought out other mechanics for inspection, and after trying a few times, they confirmed it wasn’t a circuit issue. The technician had recommended he replace the entire mechanical cyberware limb.
But he was merely an ordinary fighter who hadn’t achieved any results. This alloy cyberware had cost him two years of savings. As he grew older in recent years, it became even harder to earn money; where would he get the funds to replace his cyberware?
Xiang Nanli knelt down in front of him, swept a glance over it, and unscrewed the outermost metallic protective layer.
“Y-you, be careful,” One-Eye couldn’t help but remind him. “It’s very expensive.”
Xiang Nanli didn’t reply, nor did he even lift his head. Wearing thin, insulated film gloves, his hands never stopped moving. Like waving a fairy wand to cast a spell, he tamed these complex machines.
In less than three minutes.
Xiang Nanli snapped the cover shut, not even bothering to test it. “Done. Next.”
One-Eye stood up, his face filled with pleasant surprise. There was no need for a test; previously in his system, there was always a red exclamation mark next to the hardware. Now, it had turned green, indicating normal operation.
He let out a chuckle and walked back into the crowd, the others gathering around to look at the cyberware he had just repaired.
The second person was eager to try. He stretched out his arm, revealing a hand underneath that had been smashed into a mangled mess. The five fingers looked as if they had been crushed by something heavy, flattened as thin as sheets of paper, and the tactile components were completely ruined.
“Uh, I admit it’s damaged a bit severely. Could you take a look for me? Is it still salvageable?”
Xiang Nanli’s brows knit slightly. “Did you prepare replacement materials? Tell me the model of the mechanical cyberware.”
“AX9714 Qi Ming Edition,” the other party answered subconsciously.
Xiang Nanli: “Oh, produced by Gaoxin Military Industry. This model doesn’t use universal parts. Wait a moment, I’ll fashion one by hand first.”
Yes, if one wanted to be a respected black-market technician, crafting bootleg parts by hand was an essential skill.
The lounge grew increasingly quiet. Gradually, only Xiang Nanli’s voice remained.
He was incredibly focused, and his maintenance speed was exceptionally fast, appearing as though he didn’t even need to think. Every troublesome electronic component or metallic part became obedient and sensible in his hands, knowing exactly how to return to its proper place.
The fighters had seen other mechanical technicians before. As underground combatants, almost everything they selected was military-grade equipment. Many design blueprints didn’t circulate in the outside world at all and even possessed security settings that would trigger a self-destruct sequence if one weren’t careful. Many technicians would have to study the wiring for half a day if they hadn’t seen the physical unit before.
Yet these problems seemed entirely non-existent in front of Xiang Nanli.
They weren’t mechanical technicians themselves and couldn’t tell exactly how powerful Xiang Nanli was, but they could perceive the gap.
“Little beauty. Is this one of mine easy to fix?” A burly man lay on the ground, pulling up his shirt. The damaged area was on his arm.
Xiang Nanli replied indifferently, “It’s fine.” He wasn’t a service worker and truly couldn’t squeeze out a warm, charming smile while on the clock.
The man flipped his hand to grab Xiang Nanli’s wrist, lowering his voice. “Little technician, your hands are so soft, and your skin is great too. I really want to f*** you.” With that, he let out a vulgar laugh.
A flash of anger flickered in Xiang Nanli’s eyes, very faint.
But he quickly restored his calm. Acting as if he hadn’t heard a thing, he repaired the mechanical arm with an expressionless face.
Finding himself ignored, the man felt slighted. He stood up, shook his arm, and muttered as he walked back inside.
Another person walked over. Xiang Nanli lifted his head to take a look—it was Sirius. “Hello,” his voice was raspy.
Xiang Nanli wiped the sweat from his brow. Instead of paying attention to him, he pulled out a chair, sat down, crossed his legs, and leaned back against the backrest. It was a thoroughly nonchalant posture.
“Taking a break,” Xiang Nanli said.
Sirius’s gaze lingered on the section of ankle exposed beneath the hem of his trousers—it was very white. His skin was indeed excellent. And this face was entirely different from the synthetic perfection of an AI. It wasn’t flawless, but its beauty was completely natural. Furthermore, when he was focused on his work, his aura was incredibly powerful, like… a king?
Sirius’s mind wandered aimlessly, and then he felt another gaze filled with warning land upon him.
It was that Synth, who hadn’t been introduced at all. His skill level couldn’t be discerned, but he had definitely killed people before. Moreover, Dongfang Qingdi’s presence was concealed exceptionally well, like a “Lurker.” If it weren’t for that gaze, Sirius would have almost forgotten there was someone else beside Xiang Nanli.
Sirius didn’t want to conflict with this mysterious mechanic and his Synth bodyguard just yet, so he politely averted his gaze.
Watching the burly man’s departing back, Xiang Nanli silently counted down: “3, 2, 1.”
A loud boom echoed.
The man let out a miserable shriek and collapsed to the ground, rolling around continuously. The mechanical cyberware at his arm had unexpectedly exploded directly, shattering into fragments and throwing off crackling electric sparks.
“Ah—ah…!” he wailed.
The high temperature brought by the electrical current had directly scorched the muscle tissue, leaving the connection point between the man’s arm and body a bloody mess.
Beside him, Rhine’s eyes instantly widened. “You—?!”
Xiang Nanli offered a slight smile, the look he directed at Rhine carrying a less-than-sincere apology. “My apologies, I accidentally failed the maintenance. I recall I have a quota, right?”
Yes, because the origins of these cyberware pieces were unknown—many having been stripped from corpses on the surface—the contract explicitly stated that Xiang Nanli possessed a one percent casualty quota.
He had actually chosen to use it at a time like this. Was he that confident the remaining ones wouldn’t experience any issues?
No one spoke. Only the man whose cyberware had exploded remained, clutching his wound and screaming, his wails exceptionally piercing.
If these people had previously offered Xiang Nanli respect purely out of technical skill, then the gazes projecting over now undoubtedly held a few more ounces of dread.
“Rest assured, he won’t die. If you treat the selection tournament as a battlefield, you are the soldiers, and I am the combat medic. I imagine none of you want to find the mechanical devices on your bodies suddenly breaking down after you head to the battlefield.”
Xiang Nanli’s gaze swept across the faces of the three competing fighters, his smile not quite reaching his eyes.
Indeed, he was striking the mountain to frighten the tiger. “Remember to show the ‘combat medic’ a bit more respect.”
__
Author’s Note:
Xiang Nanli on the surface: Cold, calm.
Xiang Nanli internally: [Holy crap, wasn’t I incredibly cool just now?]
[Was I, was I?]
[Xiao Qing! Why aren’t you saying anything, I know you’re listening!]
