Consciousness returned like clawing out of a swamp, or rebooting a simulation android with a rusted motherboard.

  First, the olfactory sensors came online. The air was thick with the scent of oxidized iron dust and medical alcohol.

  Then came the pain. The familiar "termites" were back, gnawing frantically along his nerves.

  Life is a bitter journey; the only thing that matters is the scenery along the way.

  Leo opened his eyes. The static on his retinas coalesced into the water stains on the ceiling above.

  This was his small clinic?

  And there was a face.

  Oba? That prosthetic-wearing believer of the Silver Ring?

  Yes. Oba was sitting on a high stool beside the operating table, holding something. His eyes were squeezed into slits, his gums exposed in a grin of muscular paralysis.

  His mouth was opening and closing, clearly speaking, but the auditory input had not yet initialized.

  A moment later, the gears of his body finally turned smoothly.

  "Doctor Leo... you're finally awake." The fat man’s voice buzzed like a broken speaker. "You had a seizure. The Fire Keeper’s attendant caught you... I carried you back. Nearly killed me. Luckily, I knew you lived here."

  Leo propped himself up, his spine cracking audibly.

  He saw what the fat man was holding: a blue box, cradled carefully as if it were a bomb.

  "Who would have thought? After seeing your attack, Her Holiness the Fire Keeper ordered her attendant to leave this for you. I brought it."

  Leo recalled the moment the man in black had taken him down.

  He took the box. It felt cold to the touch—anti-corrosive synthetic crystal.

  The liquid inside was cobalt blue, indicating heavy metal ions or neurotoxins.

  A neuron inactivation agent?

  He lowered his head slightly.

  Yes. It must be to stage an overdose.

  In this underground black market, such things happen every day. No one would look twice.

  "You don't know, do you? This is the legendary Holy Water. They say just one drop cures all diseases and grants eternal life..."

  Leo looked at Oba.

  The man’s risorius, masseter, and zygomaticus major muscles trembled together, gesturing exaggeratedly as if afraid Leo wouldn't understand.

  They cannot comprehend the complexity of this world, so they interpret everything through rumors and hearsay.

  Then, everything clicked.

  The water, the wiping of sweat, the vigil.

  Oba thought this was a miracle drug and wanted a share. But the box had a specialized bio-lock.

  Haha. The pig wants the feed, but lacks the claws to open the sack.

  Disgust mixed with the anger of being ambushed by the man in black rushed to Leo's head, compounded by the palpitations from the painkillers.

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  A vicious thought suddenly struck him: Fine. Very well. Since greed is one of the driving forces of biological evolution, why should I defy the laws of nature?

  He slid off the operating table and swayed toward his workbench.

  Oba rushed to support him, but Leo shook him off.

  Ten minutes later, the bio-lock clicked open. A wisp of cold air escaped, instantly dropping the ambient temperature by several degrees.

  He picked up an empty syringe and turned around.

  "You want it?" He issued a death invitation.

  "Well... that would be... embarrassing..." Oba's Adam's apple bobbed violently. He stretched his neck like a starving fledgling, practically wailing: Give it to me... give it all to me...

  This is the happiness of fools. Even as they enter the slaughterhouse, they are filled with joy.

  Leo drew two milliliters. This dose was enough to burn Oba's central nervous system clean like a short-circuited wire.

  He pushed out the air. The needle tip, bearing a droplet of cobalt blue liquid, hovered over the fat man's sweaty neck.

  The skin dented slightly, making the artery beside it pulse with extraordinary vigor. Thump. Thump. That was the power of life.

  No!

  Oba had a son. That little boy with eyes that were unreasonably large, whose lung disease forced him to wear an air filter constantly.

  He had come to the clinic once, pulling out a huge rainbow lollipop, insisting that Leo take a bite.

  Leo moved the needle away.

  This pile of meat in front of me... no matter how it rots, it won't affect the world much.

  But it’s different for his piglet.

  Once the father is gone, the child will be sent to an orphanage. In the fight for blankets and bread, he will be shoved into a toilet by the other kids.

  A sensation of suffocation hit him.

  Leo slammed the needle into the rubber mat beside him.

  "Get out." His voice sounded like it was squeezed from a rusted pipe. "You greedy pig. This is a gift from the Fire Keeper to me, not you!"

  Oba was stunned.

  He didn't understand why Doctor Leo had suddenly exploded in rage.

  The corners of his mouth twitched, as if he had suffered a stroke, unable to speak.

  "I knew it!" Oba finally jumped up. "You look down on us ordinary people! You arrogant cripple! Epileptic! You think just because you know a little medicine, you're so great? Doing volunteer work is just to get an access card to the Upper City so you can lick the Lords' asses! Haha, you're just a Rat like us! You'll never climb up. You deserve to be alone for the rest of your life! You can't even get a woman!"

  "Get out!!! Get the fuck out!"

  Leo grabbed the electric surgical knife from the workbench.

  The fat man fled, trailing endless curses upon Leo's ancestors.

  Leo slammed the door and sank into his chair.

  He stared at the wrinkled sterile felt on the operating table. A giant fissure appeared before his eyes, revealing a bleeding heart.

  "Fixing..." He muttered to his own hand. "I just wanted to fix this world a little. Even if it's just a circuit board, a severed nerve, a bearing."

  He chuckled.

  "Leo, you really know how to move yourself. You're just fixing yourself. Oba is greedy, but you are greedier. Essentially, you are both maggots scavenging in a trash heap. No different."

  He looked at the vial of blue "The Drop."

  It stood quietly on the stainless steel workbench. No impurities, no bubbles. Pure as a slice of the deep sea.

  In a world filled with rust and rot, it was so pure.

  How ironic. The cleanest thing is death.

  "Since it can no longer be repaired..." Leo reached out. "...Then let it be scrapped."

  He picked up the syringe.

  The cobalt blue level slowly descended, snaking into the barrel like a viper swimming upstream.

  "This truly is your grace, Her Holiness the Fire Keeper."

  He whispered to the empty air, unsure if he was toasting the Fire Keeper or Death itself.

  The needle pressed against the side of his neck.

  Suddenly, his professional habits kicked in.

  Every detail played out in his mind.

  The bevel of the needle will pierce the epidermis first. The sting will be instantly replaced by numbness.

  Thumb presses down. Liquid forces into the vein.

  There will be a slight distension.

  After ten seconds of systemic circulation, the drug will rush irreversibly to the brain.

  The blood-brain barrier will be useless. The lipid membrane will be forcibly penetrated. Neural circuits will begin to collapse.

  By then, even if I want to put my hand down, it will be too late.

  Dying isn't hard... but I can't die yet. I still want to see that beach you saw.

  He closed his eyes!

  White foam. Salty sea breeze. Seagulls shrieking.

  That stupid woman standing under a coconut tree. She holds his hand, stepping on the sand one foot after another.

  Grains of sand fall between his toes, fine as lunar soil.

  Tears fell from his eyes.

  I'm sorry. I can't do it yet. Give me a little more time.

  He was about to lower his hand.

  But suddenly, another hand covered the back of his.

  Leo was startled. He turned his head violently, his pupils reflecting a black silhouette.

  Before he could focus, the sound of striking copper sheets fell with absolute control.

  "You think you're worthy of being the Fire Keeper's kindred? Die, junkie!"

  The cold current rushed into his veins, but the beach in his mind only became clearer.

  Leo let out a final roar.

  "Just wait... as long as you don't kill me..."