Chapter 85
Lunch time came to an end at 00:09 with desperate wails.
The prison cafeteria had a strict rule: skipping lunch would result in a beating. After five or six beatings, 0009 finally finished the nutrient solution in the glass bottle, tears streaming down his face.
0001 quietly complained to Cen Xun, "0009 makes a scene every day by refusing to eat lunch, and he gets beaten every time. He has to drink anyway, so what's he trying to achieve?"
Cen Xun thought about it and made a reasonable guess: "Maybe he has a masochistic tendency and feels uncomfortable if he doesn't get beaten."
0001 choked at his strange angle.
"Just kidding," Cen Xun said coldly, "He must just be having trouble with his brain."
""0001 suddenly discovered another negative trait of 0000: meanness.
This mouth is so poisonous, it's like it's soaked in paraquat.
But actually what 0000 said made a lot of sense. 0001 silently agreed and thought, knowing that you can't escape being beaten, but still deliberately rebelling, doesn't that mean you are not smart enough?
After lunch, it was time for "labor reform". According to 0000, they needed to line up and go down the well to work for up to ten hours.
In addition to the "atonement" at midnight, "labor reform" is another way to obtain a reduction in sentence.
When Cen Xun heard the word "going down the well" from 0001, all he thought about was mining. Until he arrived at the so-called "well", the scene he saw completely overturned all of Cen Xun's ideas.
It's a very strange place.
They were first driven into a very high-tech elevator. The elevator wall was made of translucent material, which looked very much like glass, but if you touched it carefully, you could clearly feel the texture of metal. The elevator went down very quickly, and the picture outside the glass turned from bright to dark, from an intricate steel frame structure to a pitch-black void.
The searchlights around the elevator barely illuminated a small area of darkness, and no living creatures could be seen in the area.
Cen Xun originally thought that the elevator they were riding should lead underground, but after seeing the darkness, Cen Xun overturned this idea.
They should have entered the area around the underwater elevator, which is probably all sea water.
In other words, Chiyuan Prison is located on the sea?
This is not good. If we are at sea, wouldn’t the difficulty of jailbreaking be greatly increased?
Of course, he had no intention of escaping from prison, he was just expressing his feelings casually.
Before the voice of self-condemnation sounded, Cen Xun shifted his thoughts in time and thought calmly, since they were going into the sea, what exactly were they going to do?
A full twenty minutes passed before the elevator dinged and stopped descending.
They walked into a translucent tunnel. At the end of the tunnel was a room with a broken and aged sign on the closed door that read "Dressing Room".
When Cen Xun went in, he saw a messy room that looked like it had been attacked by wild beasts.
Horrifying claw marks covered the walls and cabinets, dark blood was splattered everywhere, the collapsed cabinet was in tatters, empty inside, without any trace of protective clothing, and the deformed iron sheet fell to the ground. When the dim light on the ceiling was turned on, the rust on the iron sheet was immediately clearly revealed.
It is obvious that a fierce battle took place here a long time ago.
Judging from the large, deep, and sharp claw marks, the creature that attacked humans was probably not a normal creature.
The locker room has become like this and of course it has lost its purpose of changing clothes. The only things that can be used are the ten special tools placed in the corner.
This tool is very similar to pruning shears, with a long handle and a short blade, but it is not exactly the same as pruning shears. The place where the blade should be has become two "【】" shaped half frames. No matter what it is used to collect, the collected object should eventually appear in the shape of a small cube.
They picked up this somewhat crude tool, without wearing any protective clothing, and went directly into the real "labor camp."
It was a pitch-black cave.
As he took his first step into the cave, Cen Xun felt something was wrong with the touch under his feet. It felt like a piece of meat, soft, slippery, and a little elastic. When he stepped on it with his shoes, he felt a disgusting sticky feeling. Every step he took made a "bang" sound as if his feet were covered with rice grains.
There was also a strange smell in the air, not a rotten smell, but another kind of indescribable fragrance that easily invaded all thoughts and slowed down the thinking speed infinitely.
The dark picture in the field of vision began to become distorted, and the white light spots embedded in the black rock wall suddenly rotated rapidly, connecting with each other to form a series of light circles. The rock wall disappeared, and was replaced by the vast and endless universe. The dark background was boundless, and everything in sight became bizarre. The disordered and distorted light circles together formed an extremely absurd and completely incomprehensible picture on the retina.
The dizziness symptoms became more and more severe, until a sharp pain from the back barely brought Cen Xun back to consciousness.
Countless winding white light circles disappeared in an instant, and the scene in front of his eyes returned to normal. The dark and cold light circle universe disappeared, and the place where he stood was just a mine cave embedded with white crystals.
Other people who were in hallucinations were also awakened one by one by their respective prison guards using electric batons.
What's strange is that even though they had entered the same cave and were not wearing any protective gear, the prison guards seemed to be unaffected by the hallucinations and even had the energy to force them to "mine."
The so-called "mining" is to use that strange tool to cut a cube of stone from the rock wall and then put it into a special metal box. But to say that those things on the rock wall are "stones" doesn't seem quite right.
When they are mined, the texture changes from stone to sticky flesh underfoot, which is very strange.
Not much like stone anyway.
The prison guards did not allow them to stop. Anyone who stopped because of the hallucinogenic effect of the cave would be mercilessly shocked awake by the prison guards. Apart from that, whispering that did not affect the work speed was allowed.
Cen Xun quietly moved away from 0001, 0009, and 0096, and approached 0006 without making a sound. 0006 also had good sense and quietly moved towards 0088 and 0113.
0088 naturally also saw their little movements. He pursed his lips and thought for a moment, and finally chose to move closer. 0113 also made the same choice.
The four of them met in a corner.
0006 kept moving his hands and whispered, "We all have necklaces. Are we four supposed to be in the same group?"
Cen Xun asked, "What style are your necklaces?"
The other three people took out their necklaces, all made of black metal, but each person's pendant was subtly different.
The pendant on necklace 0006 is a closed simulated eyeball, the one on necklace 0088 is a rusty gold coin, and the one on necklace 0113 is a small cat-shaped mirror.
Cen Xun took out her necklace. On the black metal chain hung three fluffy feathers of different colors.
The tokens matched, and they finally confirmed each other's teammates' identities.
0088 frowned and analyzed, "Since we put on matching necklaces in advance, it seems we anticipated what we would encounter once we entered."
0006 continued, "But I studied the necklace yesterday, and it doesn't seem to be anything special."
Cen Xun said rationally, "Its purpose shouldn't just be to make it easier for us to identify each other. If that's the case, a single necklace would be enough, and there's no need to add different pendants."
"The pendant must be reminding us of something as well."
0113 thought thoughtfully: "My pendant is a cat-shaped mirror. Is it a hint that I like cats?"
"Be bold and open your mind," Cen Xun said calmly, "Doesn't 0088 only remember the cats he raised? Maybe you are his cat."
Hearing this, 0088 was slightly startled, and looked at 0113 who was also shocked. The calm expression on his face slowly broke, and he denied in disbelief: "Impossible! How could my cat become..."
Before he could finish his words, he stopped mining and was electrocuted by the prison guard behind him.
0006 strongly agreed with Cen Xun's reasoning and said excitedly, "I've been wanting to say this for a long time! What normal person would steal cat strips? Eliminating all impossibilities, no matter how bizarre the remaining answer is, it's the truth. The truth is that 0113 is the cat!"
"But how can a cat turn into a human?" 0088's worldview was greatly shocked. He muttered unconsciously: "Impossible, my cat is a black and white cow cat. It has never turned into a human. But it did steal cat food. But people can also steal cat food. No one says that people can't steal cat food."
0113 glanced at 0088 awkwardly, trying to identify familiar marks on him. "That's not right. I don't remember stealing any cat food."
0113's expression was very upright. If he hadn't been holding a tool in his hand, he would have almost sworn, "I've only eaten goat milk, canned food, tuna, and Supreme."
"Royal cat food."
0088 continued with almost no expression: "My cat loves this cat food the most. It has been eating it almost since it was little."
0113 was shocked: "Huh? Are you really mine?"
0006 subconsciously exclaimed in an exaggerated tone, "Amazing! The cat owner and cat have transcended the biological divide and staged a truly extraordinary recognition scene! It was a tear-jerking scene!"
""
With just one sentence, the other three teammates were instantly silent.
Cen Xun coughed lightly and brought the topic back to the topic: "Obviously, this is a world of 'magic'. Since cats can transform into humans, can we then make a conclusion that we also have our own 'magic'?"
0088, nearly broken, managed to regain his composure. "You're saying that the pendant on the necklace might correspond to our respective abilities?"
"It's very likely." Cen Xun pondered, "However, how to trigger it and why we can't use it now are two problems that we need to solve urgently."
"When we get back tonight, let's study the necklace carefully again," Cen Xun whispered. "If it were me, I would have done something else with the necklace in advance, knowing that I would lose my memory after entering prison."
The other three responded with serious expressions.
0001 in the distance secretly watched the movements of the four new prisoners. As he had guessed, these four people who came in at the same time seemed to be in the same group.
0096, who was working slowly beside him, coughed a few times and said in a hoarse voice, "Four new people? This kind of thing is rare."
0001 said: "Well, it is indeed a very special situation."
0096's eyes were filled with fatigue. "How long can they stay awake? Will they be like you and me, going from hope to despair?"
"No." 0001 said softly, "I don't think they will."
At least, 0000 doesn't.
0096 worked tirelessly, his mental state was already very bad. He had to stop to rest almost every three stones, and then be electrocuted by the skinny and shriveled prison guard behind him. This cycle repeated itself, making his movements even slower and heavier.
After a long silence, 0096 suddenly asked, "Do you still want to go out, 0001?"
"Yes," 0001 said slowly but firmly, "I haven't missed a single moment of going back."
"Then you need to spend more time interacting with the newcomers." 0096 breathed heavily and spoke intermittently, "I'm afraid I can't hold on any longer. 0001, you should also make more new friends."
0001's eyes grew moist. "Are you going to fall asleep too? 0096, don't give up hope. Once you fall asleep, you'll be stepping into death. And when that happens, you'll never be able to return home."
"My memories of home have completely blurred. I've lost all reason to hold on." 0096 said softly, "Besides, perhaps no one is waiting for me to return. I've been gone for ten years. No matter how sad they are, it's all been too long. Just treat me as dead. There's no need to resurrect the dead."
"That's all, 0001." 0096 said hollowly, "I'm really too tired. I think I should have a good sleep."
0001 took a deep breath and said, "0096, can you hold on for just one more day? Just think of it as a favor for an old friend like me."
0096 slowly turned his eyeballs and looked at 0001 with his cloudy eyes, silently questioning with his eyes.
0001 gripped the tool tightly in his hand, not knowing whether he was talking to him or to himself: "Wait one more day, no, one more night, and maybe things will turn around."
"We've held on for so long, let's just hold on for another day, okay?"
0096 thought about it for a moment, but didn't ask why. He seemed to have vaguely guessed what 0001 was thinking.
He agreed: "Okay."
0009 didn't participate in any of the conversations. He just used his tools to dig randomly, glancing at 0001 and 0096, then at Cen Xun, pouting unhappily.
Damn it! Why don’t you take him out to play?
After all, he is the 9th ranked prisoner!
Shouldn't the super dangerous 0000 brother treat him differently?
It's okay to play with 0006, after all, he is ranked ahead of him, but why are 0088 and 0113 also ranked ahead of him?!
The middle school boy is furious and helpless.
He swore that he would make Brother 0000 treat him differently!
He will prove to Brother 0000 that 0088 and 0113 are both losers, and only he is worthy of the super devil Brother 0000!
Thirty years in prison, thirty years in prison, don’t be fooled by your young age!
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