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Deadly Game
墨書 Inktalez
The first thing that Fatty woke up to was his nose.
He lived in the basement of a Three-Star Restaurant, and every day before five in the morning, the enticing aroma wafting from the kitchen would rouse him from sleep.
At that moment, he would take a deep breath of the intoxicating air and then get up to gnaw on the steamed buns he had bought the night before. After a night, the buns had turned as hard as rocks, providing quite a chew.
After finishing work at night, he would always grab a few from the late-night food stall. Perhaps the morning buns were sweeter and tastier, but the ones at night were always the cheapest.
However, Fatty had caught a cold from soaking in cold water these past few days, his nose completely stuffed up, preventing him from smelling anything at all. This allowed him to sleep soundly for a few nights.
For this reason, when he finally woke up from his stupor this time, his first sensation was not of some pungent odor but rather that his face was pressed against something cold, which felt quite comfortable.
He slowly opened his eyes and realized that his round face was tightly pressed against the ground in an extremely awkward position. He was currently bent over with his butt in the air, his right hand stretched out stiffly while his left hand lay beneath his chest, already numb. Saliva was spilling out of his slightly open mouth.
In a hurry, he pushed himself up to sit on his knees and wiped his mouth with his sleeve, only to accidentally smear it on the back of his hand. It was then that he realized he was completely naked; all of his clothes had vanished without a trace.
Strangely enough, his first reaction was not to cover himself but to check for his wallet, which he usually kept in the back pocket of his pants. Of course, it wasn’t there because he wasn’t wearing any pants at all. He had nothing on him.
What a thorough robbery, he thought to himself with a wry smile. This wasn’t the first time he had woken up to find things missing from his body. But this time, he didn’t even know whether the person who had knocked him out was male or female.
He slowly recalled what had happened before he lost consciousness... It had been nighttime when he bought a newspaper and got some change; suddenly, he felt like calling home. In the biting cold wind, he stumbled into a phone booth, nearly getting stuck in the narrow doorway. He didn’t pull out the wallet tucked behind him but instead dug out a few coins from his jacket pocket and counted them—just enough for three minutes.
Three minutes would be perfect; he could hear his mother’s voice without having to explain his current situation.
He rubbed his fingers, frozen stiff like carrots, and carefully inserted one coin after another into the phone’s coin slot.
“Ding!” The sound of the first coin dropping was unusually dull compared to what he expected; it felt like something inside had been triggered.
As he dropped in the second coin, Fatty’s hand trembled slightly, causing the shiny coin to slip from his grasp. Instinctively, he tried to catch it with his foot—how could he possibly manage that? He wasn’t Huang Feihong.
The coin hit the top of his foot and bounced into the corner of the booth, landing right under the phone. Straining to bend down and retrieve it, he accidentally caught sight of a strange device hidden beneath the phone.
It was a small brass horn protruding from below. Just as he bent down, it emitted a puff of dark yellow smoke that wafted towards his face, bringing with it an oddly warm sensation. In that instant, thoughts of ether or date-rape drugs crossed his mind—what they called "soul-stealing medicine" back in Hong Kong.
He hadn't thought too much about it when he suddenly fell into an unconscious state. He didn't even know how he had collapsed until he woke up, completely naked.
What the hell, this robber is way too high-tech.
The fat man blinked hard and tried to stand up, swaying unsteadily.
Before he could straighten his back, his head slammed against the ceiling, and the floor beneath him began to shake. Losing his balance, he fell back down and realized he was trapped in a cage suspended in mid-air.
This cage was like an oversized birdcage, made of black iron bars. The so-called "floor" was a smooth, cold sheet of metal, very thin.
Due to his weight, the center sagged slightly, forming a shallow dish shape. He felt like a dish on a platter, the fat man thought with a hint of humor.
Fat people tend to have an optimistic mindset—perhaps it’s precisely because they are optimistic that they become overweight.
The platter had a diameter of about a meter, with iron rods about the thickness of a pinky finger welded along the edge.
There were twelve iron rods in total, extending slowly upwards for over a meter before converging at the top and fastening to a thick steel cable.
The cage hung in mid-air, so any slight movement caused it to sway back and forth. He carefully reached for the edge of the cage, gripping the iron rod to steady himself while looking around.
The area surrounding the cage was empty; there were no visible walls. However, not far away in the air hung another cage containing white objects—could they be fellow captives sharing his plight?
But the fat man couldn't see clearly due to his severe myopia.
His usual thick bottle-cap glasses were nowhere to be found when he woke up, leaving the entire world shrouded in a thin layer of mosaic-like distortion.
Moreover, there was no obvious light source in this room.
Suspended in mid-air naturally left him feeling anxious.
He leaned forward to try and see what was below the cage, at least wanting to know how high up he was. Although the gaps between the bars were wide, his head couldn't fit through.
Fortunately, the cage tilted slightly due to his weight, giving him a rough view of his surroundings.
About two meters below, there was a large pool filled with a dark yellow liquid.
If the cage were to suddenly drop, it would fall right into this pool.
Beside the pool, there was a narrow walkway, and beyond that was another pool, positioned directly beneath another cage.
“Finally awake, huh?” A youthful and arrogant voice echoed from the air not far away.
The chubby guy jumped in surprise and looked toward the source of the voice.
It came from another cage, where a pile of pale flesh revealed itself to be a girl.
He regretted not taking better care of his eyes when he was younger.
“You’d better not move around,”
the girl seemed to give him the finger. “Can’t you smell that pungent odor in the air?”
He took a deep breath, but unfortunately, his nose was blocked from a cold and was of no use at all.
“Listen carefully, the liquid below is a strong acid. From my previous experience, it’s highly likely to be concentrated Hydrochloric Acid. Do you understand? The chemical formula is HCl.”
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