NOVEL FROG 017. Fleecing
- Fleecing
Li Aozi kept a low profile, leveraging his high charisma to effortlessly portray a sunny, considerate, and gentle personality—traits stereotypically attributed to men from Frosted Land, where a strong female culture inevitably fosters gentle, non-aggressive men.
When Nordri spoke the common language, it carried a hint of a Frosted Land accent, and Li Aozi took advantage of this, deliberately engaging her in conversation during leisure moments.
With his high charisma, Nordri would almost always respond. Li Aozi then displayed characteristics typical of Frosted Land men, such as saying things like, "What are you doing~~ Oh my, oh my," "Is your Aozi amazing?" and "I practiced security at a bank for two and a half years, and I enjoy singing, dancing, rapping, and basketball."
Li Aozi's judgment was correct.
In the desolate and impoverished outer regions, there couldn't be many educated people. Despite Nordri's tall and strong appearance, her education level was likely only an undergraduate degree at most.
In the outer regions, where survival is paramount, education naturally falls by the wayside. After chatting with Li Aozi for a while, Nordri inadvertently revealed that she was from Frosted Land.
Fellow countrymen had much to talk about, and without realizing it, Nordri became less harsh towards Li Aozi after getting to know him.
Li Aozi was also tactful. Though he knew ZX-101 was one of his targets, he avoided mentioning the ZX-102 room, which was a sensitive topic for Nurse Nordri.
Over time, coupled with Li Aozi's cooperation in training, Nordri's favorability towards him gradually increased to 20 points—reaching a level of indifference.
Assistant Anna would occasionally come by to check on Li Aozi, drawing blood and conducting tests. After taking indicators, she would also take X-rays.
Every afternoon, he would be called by psychologist Elni, a gentle and kind older sister who patiently talked to him about his past. Initially, Li Aozi pretended to be 'reserved,' 'impatient,' and 'nervous,' but he gradually opened up and began cooperating with her therapy and consultation.
At night, alone in the isolation ward, Li Aozi secretly practiced manipulating gravity, training himself. Though he wasn't unfamiliar with this Aoneng, his 【Agility】 attribute wasn't high enough, making the practice somewhat strenuous.
"Such a miraculous power."
Li Aozi tossed a spoon into his palm. With a thought, the spoon hovered 10 centimeters above his hand. He gently flicked his hand, and the spoon spun rapidly in a circular motion until his Aoneng points were depleted, causing a slight headache, and the spoon lost its gravity and fell into his palm.
He played this repetitive game with great enjoyment.
As a humanitarian aid organization, Abyssal's isolation wards naturally didn't have surveillance cameras. However, his monitoring bracelet constantly sent his personal health status and information to the doctors.
This was more useful than mere surveillance; through his heart rate, brainwave frequency, pulse, and temperature, the doctors could easily infer his mental and physical state—whether he was exercising, tense, having a good dream, or a nightmare—all could be deduced.
However, these doctors overlooked one thing: on Azure Star, only the four nations had the capability to detect traces of Aoneng usage, and gravity manipulation was known for its subtle and invisible nature.
In other words, unless Li Aozi explained it himself, no one would know he had mastered an Omega-grade top-tier Aoneng.
Li Aozi ate, drank, chatted, and had doctors constantly monitoring his physiological state. He had ample time for exercise every day—aside from the heavy restrictions on his freedom, there were virtually no problems.
The doctors collected various samples from him, starting with blood and hair, then moving on to waste, eventually feeding him various drugs and monitoring his excretions under surveillance.
Although Li Aozi appeared somewhat resistant, he didn't actually mind. As the doctors meticulously observed him like a lab rat, he was also observing them.
Sometimes he casually inquired about the purpose of the experiments, then acted conflicted and hesitant, prompting them to explain further. Comparing this with his initial conversation with the professor revealed many discrepancies and doubts.
"It's been 13 days."
Li Aozi scratched a new mark on his bed with a spoon. While ordinary people might feel depressed or even collapse in such a confined environment with constant monitoring, it posed no pressure for Li Aozi.
During the 5.0 version, he had bad luck. Just as his streaming career was starting, he had to meet duration requirements while also pioneering a new version.
Although 【Star Descender】 was a solo profession, pioneering was an activity that only large guilds could undertake. The pressure on Li Aozi, a solo pioneer, was ten to nine times that of ordinary players.
To meet his streaming hours and busy with pioneering, Li Aozi worked overtime for 12 consecutive days, with the camera never off. He only left the game to use the bathroom and eat, single-handedly completing the pioneering tasks and earning his monthly streaming salary.
If not for cooperating with Elni the psychologist's tests, occasionally expressing sentiments like "It's so boring alone," "I wish I could interact with more people," Li Aozi felt he could stay in Abyssal until the organization went bankrupt.
Moreover, he earned 150 contribution points daily. Occasionally, if they drew his blood or he seemed a bit down, he even got an extra drumstick at dinner.
Abyssal Humanitarian was indeed humane. If not for the daily exercise and blood draws, Li Aozi felt he might even have gained weight.
With various scattered faction tasks, by today, Li Aozi had accumulated 2065 faction contribution points.
There are many brutal human experiments, but it's rare to see an experimental subject fleece the experimental institution. Li Aozi almost enjoyed the life here.
"The 【Esha Test Agent - VI Type】 costs 2500 contribution points. I'm still a bit short."
He glanced at his bread. Over the past few days, his 【Constitution】 and 【Strength】 had each increased by 2 points.
"Current attribute panel: Strength 6, Agility 5, Constitution 7, Charisma 15, Will 8."
Li Aozi stroked his chin. Compared to ordinary people, his attributes were actually quite high. Ignoring Aoneng and Charisma, non-transcendent athletes would have similar levels.
The Esha test agent obtained from the Abyssal faction was guaranteed to awaken Aoneng—whether it would awaken Omega-grade was another matter.
As long as it wasn't the lowest Alpha-grade, Li Aozi could make it work.
"Actually, as a 【Mutant】, I don't need much equipment, and 【Gravity】 Aoneng is very strong. How about... stirring things up?"
Doing daily faction tasks was getting boring for Li Aozi. He scratched his nails, already planning to interact with plot characters tomorrow.
Ding ding ding!
While contemplating his next move, suddenly, there was a light knock on the iron window of the isolation ward.
"Who's there?"
Li Aozi became vigilant. He immediately got out of bed, stuffing his pillow under the blanket to create the silhouette of a sleeping person. Then, he tiptoed over, leaning against the wall, using the light seeping through the iron bars to form a faint shadow on the ground resembling a head.
Someone was peering through the bars?
Li Aozi's gaze moved upward, but he saw no one at the bars.
He remained silent, waiting for a while. The shadow on the ground anxiously shook its head, then knocked on the door again.
Clang...
The door trembled slightly, and the shadow disappeared.
Just as Li Aozi was about to leave, he noticed something falling from outside the bars.
He picked it up and saw it was a prescription slip from Elni, but scribbled all over with random colors. Using the dim light, Li Aozi barely discerned the chaotic lines, realizing that different colored lines, seemingly random, actually had a pattern.
"Following this line, it forms a circle, and in the other square is the word 'urgent'—wait, this is in common language, not to be interpreted with the logic of Yanxia characters... so the real meaning of these two words is..."
Li Aozi lightly tapped the back of the paper, his gaze serious:
"Run quickly."