He lives on another planet and is majoring in Earth Science.

Li Ji opened his eyes groggily and found himself lying naked on a small bed.

The metal bed was cold and stiff, making it uncomfortable to sleep on.

He sat up, his eyes almost touching the ceiling.

He looked around and realized he was in a small metal box, where everything was incredibly dark.

A set of dark red bodysuits sat on the bedside table, like some kind of warning tape.

He quickly put on his clothes and began to work in the "room" where the research institute was located.

Because the ceiling is so low, even the eyeballs have to be bent, otherwise they would rub against the cold ceiling.

"I used to think that a beastly principal making a dormitory in the dark was already cramped, but I never thought there would be someone who was completely inhuman."

He knocked on all four walls but found no ventilation or entrance/exit.

"Is this really a prison? It feels like I'm being suffocated in a metal can."

Thinking of this, Li Ji couldn't help but feel a little panicked, and he started kicking the wall desperately.

Suddenly, a powerful force field completely enveloped his body, making him look like an octopus with its tentacles bound.

The metal bed slowly rose, revealing a huge whale face, as if it were looking down through a dog hole.

A blue head, a white chin, and a pair of pure blue eyes staring at Lee Ki.

"You're awake. Are you trying to escape from prison?"

"What is this place?"

"Dabus Detention Center, where all serious offenders are held before trial."

"What crime have I committed?"

"Crime of endangering the security of the Interstellar Alliance".

"What specific accusations are you making against me?"

The whale-man frowned: "You know what you've done!"

"I do not know!"

“That’s right, you don’t know. You don’t know anything, all the criminals say that.”

Li Ji sighed.

But at least I'm in a detention center, instead of being sealed in some iron can and sunk into the sea to feed the sharks.

During interrogation, the crimes they are accused of can be deduced from the interrogator's questions.

Are we going to interrogate me now?

"No, it's lunchtime. I still need to show you around this place, you heinous criminal. But don't worry, you should be leaving here soon."

"Lend your auspicious words."

I am not wishing you well.

"I'll take that as my opinion."

The whale-man reached out and dragged Li Ji out of the cell, then roughly threw him to the ground.

Li Ji didn't complain; he simply followed the other person.

He discovered that he was not indoors; the entire prison was open-air.

The prison cells, large and small, resembled metal boxes scattered across the red earth.

The red, barren plains stretched as far as the eye could see, with no fences or building walls in sight.

"What kind of design is this? Is it trying to confine me to a self-imposed prison?"

The hazy stars bathed the sky in an orange-red hue, like a sea of ​​oranges under the afterglow of the setting sun.

The prisoners, dressed in red uniforms, came and went in a scattered manner.

The jailer led Li Ji toward a huge, square, silver building that looked exactly like all the buildings in the Alliance.

"I get up at 5 a.m., have 15 minutes for breakfast, then work until noon, have a half-hour lunch break and nap, and then work until 11 p.m. to go to sleep. Do you understand?"

Li Ji felt something was missing: "Wait a minute, where did dinner time go? And why is it only 6 hours of sleep?"

The whale-man jailer turned his head and said viciously, "You bunch of social scum don't deserve to eat dinner! It's already the Alliance's mercy that you can still get 6 hours of sleep."

"Pure slavery!"

The jailer glanced at his watch: "You have three minutes left. Hurry up and go eat."

Li Ji rushed into the building. The first floor was noisy, with prisoners standing in various places, eating gray nutritional paste. He came to a large-headed robot.

The robot's head resembled a giant, old-fashioned monitor, displaying "Today's Lunch" on its screen.

[Nutritional paste (0.4% of body weight): Rich in mosquito protein]

"I'd rather you didn't write down the ingredients."

The robot's left hand was a giant spoon, and its right hand held a rubber tube that connected to the wall; who knows what was behind the wall?

The robot mechanically said, "Reach out."

Li Ji obediently extended one of his tentacles.

The robot sprayed a clump of grayish-brown nutrient paste into the spoon, then roughly tossed the spoon into Li Ji's hand.

"Aren't they even going to provide a container?"

"You only have one and a half minutes to eat."

Li Ji immediately inserted the pointed tip into the nutrient paste and began to suck it.

He could still hear people complaining in the cafeteria.

"Today's nutritional paste tastes even worse. I suspect it's something the chef ate. Who knows what's connected to that tube?"

"This stuff is practically inedible. I still miss the days when I ate the StarCraft 6-Eyed Fish. You know what? That fish was worth 800 million. Taking one bite was like ascending to heaven."

"You've never seen the world. What's so great about eating an eight-million-dollar rotten fish? How pathetic."

Li Ji slurped up the nutritional paste, and he didn't find it unpalatable.

After all, I've been eating nutritional supplements on the battlefield lately, so I've gotten used to it.

It seems that the conditions here are much better than in the war zone.

Suddenly, a sharp alarm bell rang outside, and everyone dropped their food and ran outside like madmen.

Li Ji quickly followed.

Everyone gathered in the open space.

The whale-man jailers announced the day's work at the front of the line.

"Group 1, responsible for mining uranium."

Li Ji clearly heard the frantic sighs coming from the group at the front.

Are they going all in? Mining uranium? The work here must be incredibly tedious.
"Group 2, responsible for completing the greening work in area 076."

"Group 3 is responsible for spacecraft maintenance at the space station."

Li Ji suddenly perked up. Spaceship maintenance was a good job; if he had the chance to get in touch with the spaceship, he could escape from prison.

Wait a minute? What am I thinking?
I was wrongly accused. I should be thinking about how to prove my innocence, not about escaping from prison. I must have been watching too many old movies.

"Group 4, responsible for peeling potatoes."

Li Ji heard the people around him let out even more frantic sighs.

Is peeling potatoes the scariest thing?

The jailer shouted, "12409!"

"12409!"

Everyone turned to look at Li Ji.

Am I 12409?

He looked down at the electronic tag on his chest; it was indeed 12409.

"Here, you have no name; you are simply 12409! Do you understand?"

"Oh."

The jailer raised his hand and fired a shot. Li Ji fell heavily to the ground, feeling numb and painful all over his body, as if he were about to die.

He vaguely heard people saying, "He's another clueless hothead who doesn't know the rules. He's going to suffer a lot."

He stood up unsteadily, his breathing extremely rapid, and the distant stars seemed to multiply into three in a daze.

The jailer roared, "12409, did you understand?"

"understood!"

"You're joining Group Four, responsible for peeling potatoes. Welcome to Dabbs Detention Center!" (End of Chapter)