Step Five: Become a guinea pig

When Lei woke up for the third time, the small room was already crowded with people wearing white coats. The moment they saw him opened his eyes, they immediately began to gather around his bed. There were about ten people- one person checked his vitals while another was recording them. The rest just stared at him intently, their hands slightly raised, as if ready to restrain him the moment he becomes violent.

Lei was instantly stunned. He didn’t know what expression he should make at this moment. The pressure in the room was slightly higher than that of Ms. Emily. One of the people standing by the side courageously tried to talk to him.

“Hello. What is your name? Do you understand me?” He was looking at him cautiously. Are you sure it’s right for you to be so cautious? I’m the one having slight difficulty breathing here, ok?! Lei lamented in his mind. He recognized this voice. It was that cheap guy from before. Lei tried to suppressed the twitching of his lips. He replied to them with a timid and fearful look.

“Y-yes. U-um.. who are you? Where is Ms. Emily?” The people around him immediately relaxed the moment he said this. They also seemed to lower their guards, seeing his timid and fearful look. They then turned around and discussed between themselves. Lei tried to listen in on their discussion but he couldn’t make out of their jargons and finally had to give up. After a while, they turned around and looked at him again. There was a warm smile on each of their lips.

“Son, we are the doctors currently in-charge with you. Can you tell us who you are and where you came from?”

These people seemed to be really eager and desperate, asking him who he is and where he came from the moment he woke up. Lei really wanted to complain but he had to maintain his harmless look. The effect of the paralytic drug had already worn off. It wouldn’t do him good if they suddenly injected him another one because he was being ‘violent’. Lei tried his best maintaining his previous look before finally stuttering a word.

“M-my.. My name is Arthur.” He lied, if course. He even tried so hard to come up with a name, but in the end, he could only used the name that first came into his head.

Originally, he wanted to pretend to be amnesiac but then he suddenly remembered his encounter with Ms. Emily. According to their interaction, he didn’t look like someone who can’t remember at all. Even if he did looked like it, with this place's high technology, he wasn’t too sure if it would be a good idea. Not to mention, he doesn’t think these people would let him go easily either.

As expected, that cheap guy immediately asked right after.

“Arthur, how about the place you came from? Where is it?”

“Mata.” Lei blurted out the first word that came to his mind before he even realized it. He then added a sentence in a flustered manner, fidgeting by the way. “I-I live in a small country in a planet called Mata.”

The people in the room looked at each other and someone immediately looked it up. Lei wasn’t very nervous about the name he gave. There are billions and trillions of stars and planet in the universe. No matter what, his probability of guessing a planet’s name should be higher than fifty percent.

Although his heart was about to jump out of his chest, the thing he worried about is actually different. He is more worried about whether the planet matching that name is a low civilization planet. After all, he did came from a ‘low civilization planet'.

After a while, he heard that person whisper. “It’s here, I found it. It’s a low civilization planet.” He showed the result to the cheap guy, which appeared to be their leader, called Dr. Smithe. The cheap guy nodded and looked back at him.

Lei’s expression was the same as before but inside, he was already shouting his thanks to all the Gods and Buddha that he knew. He internally thought, My luck seems to be on par with protagonist from books and movies. Very good.

However, before he could completely rejoice, the cheap guy, Dr. Smithe began to ask him again more detailed questions, such as where did he live, who are his parents, what was his job, how did he ended up in the beast planet, what did he do there and so on. Lei tried to answer them as best as he can, trying to make it sound real and consistent as he can.

He said he was living in a small apartment in City D and was an orphan. His complete name is Arthur Reiss.

His mother is Alison and his father is Edward Reiss. Both died in a car accident when he was still in primary school. He has no other relatives.

Sincehis parents’ death, he had been alone, doing everything he could to survive. He didn’t finished his study and is currently jobless. He was walking on an alley, about to go for an interview when he was kidnapped by a group of men. However, some accident happened along the way, causing him to escape and somehow found himself standing in the middle of a forest. The huge explosion soon came afterwards and he lose his consciousness.

Lei tried to add as much details as possible in his story to convince them and make it seem more real. Though as much as he want to, he really didn’t want to lie to them, after all, it can only make his situation worsen if he were to be found out.

However, right now, he really doesn’t have any other choices. Like what he said earlier, this place is definitely connected to Earth. That conversation from before made Lei realized his position. Since this place is connected to connected to Earth, or even Earth, itself, if he told them the truth, then what would happen to him, then? The situation might become more troublesome than it already is and investigating him would be more easier for them.

Not to mention, he couldn’t even explain how he came here. It would be no problem if he was with the other passengers from the plane. With so many of them, it would be more convincing.

But he was alone when he came here. Who would testify for him? Even worst it might only make them more convince that he in possession of a space travelling device or even a spatial ability. Though, he didn’t know what happened to them, he has a strong hunch that it wasn’t anything good. It can only be either he disappeared by himself or everyone died and he survived. Either way is no good so telling them the truth would also do him no good.

For this reason, he decisively told them a lie. He was Arthur and he was only an ordinary person from a low civilization planet. He was kidnapped and only managed to get away due to luck. This way, he will have a slim chance of getting away.

After all, he wouldn’t have to carry the burden of someone with a space travelling device or spatial ability on his shoulders. And he was also sure that, that planet, although it was called Beast planet, there must still be some humans there. Otherwise, how could’ve Ms. Emily found him? It must at least be a place that people from the empire go to.

Now, he could only hope that they will not do a thorough investigation after this or at least the result of their investigation wouldn’t come that fast, or else, he would be really doomed. This decision of his was in fact, the right one. This is because travelling through time is a huge taboo for the empire. Anyone who breaks this taboo can only have death as their final outcome. Whether it was someone from the past coming to the future or someone in the future coming to the past, the verdict is all the same.

Upon finishing spouting nonsense, Lei felt somewhat proud of himself. He sure is talented as hell. He can still write a story even at a time like this. Those people who were listening to him attentively, seemed to believe his nonsense and was even feeling somewhat emotional.

Remembering his tattered ‘low quality' clothes, they couldn’t help but exclaimed in unison. “So that’s how it is!”

They then all began to look at him with great pity and turned to discussed with themselves again. The cheap guy, Dr. Smithe finally asked the last question.

“Do you remember who kidnapped you? What did they wanted to do, do you have any idea? How did you escape?”

Lei shook his head. Looking somewhat frustrated before opening his mouth again to speak. He tried his best to give a reasonable explanation based on the things he currently know.

“T-their faces were covered but I seemed to hear them mention something about a c-client and feeding a beast?.. A-as for how I escaped.. I-I’m not too clear, myself. I-I was panicking and scared out of my wits at that time. T-the only thing I remembered was the commotion and then after that, everything was blurry..”

Dr. Smithe stared at him. Lei was still maintaining his timid look. In fact, what he said reminded the doctor of those nobles who liked to keep beast as pets and even feed them human flesh.

This is an issue that has been long known in the Empire. And although he wasn’t surprised by the fact that this cruel behavior was present still present till this day, it was still quite shocking how courageous this people are becoming, even taking people from the low civilization planet. They were even too clever to chose an orphan.

Such a move, will indeed prevent future troubles of being found out. If this young fellow here haven’t escaped and found, he’s afraid all of this will go unnoticed until who knows how long.

Dr. Smithe have already have a hunch the moment he heard he was kidnapped but he didn’t expect it to be like this.

This is something they never once considered. They were so certain that this guy travelled from a low civilization planet to the beast planet by himself and had something extraordinary on him. It was such a pity that they were too enthusiastic and didn’t think about other possibilities.

Now, they can only be disappointed. Nonetheless, inadvertently coming face-to-face with this huge case is also good. At least they can now condemn those evil nobles.

But even with this discovery, they still need to do the other test. He still need to submit the result to Dr. Brown, nevertheless. Although his pity for him has doubled, they still had to do it.

Lei have no idea that his extremely random nonsense have just exposed a huge case of human trafficking that has been going on for decades. He still has his timid and fearful look on his face.

After these series of questioning, Lei was finally put to rest. It was only for an hour but it still helped him calm his nerves a lot.

Since he was already recovered, these people wanted to run the test on his body as soon as possible. This way, this pitiful guy can finally really be able to recuperate.

After an hour’s rest, Lei experienced what it was to be a guinea pig.

He was tossed and turned, injected with several drugs, forced to endure to his limit, electrocuted until he almost turned into human charcoal, repeatedly taken his body fluids until he was almost dry, and he wasn’t even allowed to rest and sleep! In the end, he passed out midway quite pathetically.

When he woke up again, he almost thought that he has already entered the cycle of reincarnation and was reborn once again but when he saw the nurse from before, smiling gently at himself, he was horrified to find out that it was only the beginning! Lei really wanted to cry.

The test continued for a week. Lei was muddleheaded during the entire process due to the pain. He almost didn’t know how he manage to survive. He wanted to shout but even his voice won’t come out. How was this a test?! It was obviously a pure torture! Lei was so mad his internal organs hurt. Fortunately, it finally came to an end.

On the seventh day, the moment it ended, Lei was immediately sent to the Intensive Care Unit for immediate treatment. He was really dying and he could almost see Saint Peter extending his hand on him. He wondered, What would’ve happen if I really told them the truth? Was he going to spend the rest of his life like this. Lei shuddered. Just the thought of it is enough to make him lose his mind.

After a day on the ICU, Lei’s body have already half recovered. This is a very high-tech world indeed. Their technology can almost stand against the heaven.

Two days later, he was finally out. The moment he came out, he was directly thrown out of the institute to fend for himself- ah no, Ms. Emily was waiting for him outside.

However, he couldn’t help feeling aggrieved.

Is this really how you treat a person? After exhausting my body of everything, using my body as you wish, you’re just going to throw me away?!

He paused. Hey, this doesn’t sound right. Why does he feel like he was one of those concubines from one of those Chinese dramas he watched who suddenly lose the Emperor’s favor and was thrown to the Cold Palace?!