Leo didn't know how he’d managed to escape.

  He stumbled back to his quarters and engaged the lock.

  For the past two days, since he stopped playing dead, he had been carefully profiling this mentally unstable employer.

  But he never expected to be assaulted during his first "medical round."

  "She brainwashed me, calling me her Guardian, all while trying to kill me... A classic manic episode. She should be locked in an isolation ward immediately!"

  Leo leaned over the sink, staring at his pale face in the mirror, his skin prickling with goosebumps.

  A chill ran down his spine. For a moment, he genuinely felt that the female patient wanted to eat him.

  "No. This isn't just a dangerous medical mission; it's an uncontrollable prefrontal lobotomy. The risk is too high."

  Three minutes later, he stormed into Mora’s office.

  "I quit." Leo got straight to the point.

  Mora sat behind her massive mahogany desk. Amidst the strange smell of spices and ozone, she was using her exoskeleton manipulators to suture a piece of skin as thin as a cicada's wing.

  "Just now, your Fire Keeper attacked me again. If I hadn't been fast, she would have bitten my tongue off."

  "She wanted to initiate the Fated Covenant?" Mora paused her stitching, revealing an odd, unreadable expression—like she was watching a child throw a tantrum.

  Leo continued, gesturing wildly.

  "I am a doctor. I can monitor the Fire Keeper's psychological and physiological state, propose solutions, even perform impromptu heart surgery—but I need the patient's cooperation!"

  Leo pointed at his own head. "According to you, she is going to participate in the Lunar Rite, a game with obviously extreme danger. Yet now she is bent on coercing her own doctor... How can we cooperate?"

  He paused, feeling the absurdity of it himself. A doctor, terrified of his patient.

  "She... she is exhibiting forced attachment! Coercive abuse!"

  "Done complaining?"

  Mora packed up her workbench, removed her exoskeleton, and spun her wheelchair around. "I thought you were an adult who understood how the world works. But you look like a child who lost his toy, running to me to tattle."

  Leo raised his voice. "Tattle? This is attempted murder! I know how dangerous psychotic patients are."

  "You're just worried I won't honor my promise, right? Fine. Look at this."

  Mora produced a document and slid it in front of Leo. It was a construction contract, stamped with the wax seal of Star Ring Heavy Industries. Leo's gaze was instantly pinned to it.

  [ MODEL: HOPE-V (CUSTOM EDITION) ] [ STATUS: KEEL LAYING IN PROGRESS ] [ DELIVERY CLAUSE: BEARER IS DESIGNATED CAPTAIN ] ...

  "This ship is already in the drydock." Mora interlaced her fingers. "I will say it again. Accompany Her Highness to the Lunar Rite, and your name will be filled in the 'Bearer' slot. The remaining balance will be loaded onto the ship."

  Leo’s Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

  This witch, Mora, understands human nature too well. She turned abstract money into a tangible blueprint. I have to admit, this is massive bait—big enough to make me swallow the hook whole.

  "Why must I accompany her... it's unfair." Leo forced himself to look away. "You know that female patient. How could I possibly..."

  If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  The corner of Mora’s mouth hooked into a meaningful smile.

  "Fine. I'll be blunt. Don't treat her as an ordinary patient. Act like a man..."

  Act like a man?

  Leo's mind immediately flashed back to Crow assisting Vivian with physical training. When the corrector, known as "The Thorn," lashed Vivian, she couldn't hide the smile on her face.

  Did I misdiagnose?

  The Fire Keeper isn't a sadist... she's a masochist?

  If that's the case, the problem isn't entirely with Vivian, but with me failing to grasp the patient's true state.

  She doesn't need gentle counseling; she needs strong control! Fine. It's a one-time mission anyway. As long as I can control the patient during the period. As for the methods... whatever works!

  "So that's it... Alright." The more he thought about it, the more sense it made!

  Leo straightened up, his anxiety vanishing instantly, replaced by the absolute confidence of picking up a scalpel again.

  Start with physical fitness! To have control, I must become strong! At least strong enough to beat her!

  He looked at Mora. "But I haven't adapted to the simulated Earth gravity of the Tycho Ring. To complete the mission, I need to improve my physical fitness."

  "No problem. Crow will arrange it. The Lunar Rite requires it anyway."

  Problem solved. Leo returned to the main mission: The Lunar Rite.

  "What exactly is the Lunar Rite? Your theological vocabulary is ambiguous. I need a rigorous scientific interpretation!"

  Mora turned her wheelchair to the stained-glass window.

  "The Lunar Rite is a march. A total length of three hundred kilometers, symbolizing the Silver Ring's path of asceticism. There is only one rule: Finish it alive." Mora’s voice suddenly lifted. "However, participants can only rely on Miracles! No cybernetics, no exoskeletons, no power armor, and no drugs are allowed. The 'Eye of Truth' will scan every frequency band."

  "That is suicide!" Leo blurted out. "No one can walk three hundred kilometers in vacuum and radioactive dust."

  "Of course. But don't be so quick to deny. Those settings are for the believers of the solar system to see."

  Leo’s eyes widened. Sure enough, another play for those fools at the bottom.

  Hopeless. Utterly hopeless! He sighed, discarding that long-rotted sorrow. I only need to save myself.

  Mora remained expressionless. "For the participants, the rule is different: Don't get caught. So, this is a medical competition about 'Stealth Technology.' You served as an assistant to Lord Morrison, you're a black-market doctor, and your knowledge of the Raphael Life Support Unit surprised me. It shows you are very good at this trick. That is why I bought you. You need to build a Stealth Life Support System that can fool the 'Eye of Truth'—for yourself and for Vivian. Do you understand?"

  "Then... can I attack other people's life support systems?"

  "Of course. But first, you must learn to defend." The sound of striking copper rang out. Crow appeared, a dagger plunging into the stone slab at Leo's feet.

  Leo looked at the ship contract again.

  "Good." He bent down and pulled out the vibrating dagger, spinning it in his fingers. Though the movement was clumsy, his resolve was set.

  He looked at Crow. "Three months left." He tossed the dagger back. "Then teach me well. How to defend, and how to... use the simplest method to take out other participants without getting caught."

  Crow caught the dagger. On his face, dead as a corpse, a rare twitch appeared.

  "As you wish."

  ...

  In the days that followed, Leo tried his best to avoid Vivian, sneaking into the deep archives of the Third Sanctum's underground library.

  With Mora’s authorization, he didn't browse the competition materials. Instead, he logged into the Ring's hidden server with his own private account.

  "Since it's a competition of who cheats more sophisticatedly..." Leo muttered to himself, writing a deep sniffer program that bypassed the frontend index and drilled directly into the backend database marked [ LOSS / RECOVERY / TOP SECRET ].

  He had to see how those so-called "Success Cases" of the past actually played the game.

  Data flashed by rapidly. Probing, decoding.

  Finally, he found a snapshot of an old file.

  File No.: X-77-C [DESTROYED] Date: 30 years ago. Content: Only an autopsy report and photos of the corpse remained.

  The deceased was male. Body shriveled, blood vessels collapsed throughout, skin clinging tight to bone. But in the high-magnification pathology slice, Leo saw the truth. A Micro-Bio-Pump was implanted in his spine. The femoral artery was modified into a living dialysis port.

  Leo’s finger froze in mid-air.

  He finally understood the true meaning of Mora’s "Don't get caught," and what the so-called "Stealth Life Support System" really was.

  On this pilgrimage road where no external plugins were allowed, the Servant was the Fire Keeper's plugin.

  To put it bluntly: they were the employer's Human Filter, Human Battery, and spare parts.

  "Heh... so I'm to be a Human Blood Bag. No wonder the price is sky-high!"

  He straightened up. The blue light of the screen reflected on his face, which was abnormally calm after seeing through the truth.

  "Mora... you old witch. You didn't give me a ticket; you gave me a Battery Pre-order Form."

  He stared at the shriveled corpse in the photo—like looking at his own future in three months.

  "But this modification plan is too amateur. What era is this? Still using such a low-level solution?"

  Leo’s fingers tapped lightly on the table.

  "Fine. Since you want to play a surgical offense and defense game... then let's see who sucks whom dry when the time comes."

  the story is fully written.

  [Read 5+ chapters ahead on Patreon!]