Chapter 20

This time, the table fell completely silent.

The cafeteria doors were suddenly kicked open, and the rude youth from before walked in, cursing, with gauze taped to his face and his lips pale. He wore the same black wristband as Xu Qingran, and his already foul mood reached its peak when the person at the serving window told him, "You're too late. There's no food left."

He slammed his tray onto the floor in anger, then kicked a robot that was leisurely passing by him.

The commotion the youth made plunged the whole cafeteria into dead silence. His gaze swept around before finally settling on a figure in an off-white outfit, head lowered as he quietly ate, who looked like the easiest person to bully.

He touched the wound on his cheek with a pained expression, then walked over and slapped the table hard. "Move. I'm taking your food."

But the young man not only ignored him, he even quietly moved his plate farther onto the table, as if afraid the hand slapping it might dirty his food. To the youth, already in a terrible mood, the gesture only added fuel to the fire. With a flip of his hand, he sent the plate he had set his sights on crashing to the floor.

The unfinished food, along with the glass of water beside the plate, spilled all over the floor.

In the corner, the younger sister shrank into her brother's arms, though she also looked a little angry, daring to feel it but not to speak up. No one else dared make a sound either, afraid they might accidentally get caught in the crossfire.

The troublemaking youth was pleased with all the attention he had drawn.

He also noticed that the young man in front of him wore a wristband identical to his own, which pleased him even more.

Leaving aside the fact that he had rarely lost in all his years of fighting, he had learned just how powerful the wristband was when he first put it on. If this guy dared to fight him, he could just wait to get—

As he gloated, the young man suddenly stood up and drove his wristband-wearing fist hard into the injured side of his face.

Xu Qingran grabbed the youth, who was still shorter than his current body, and thought, Why is it so hard for me to just eat a quiet meal until I'm full?

The wound on the youth's face, which had only just been treated, split open again, and blood ran down his jaw. But Xu Qingran, whose mood for eating had been ruined and who had also seen someone waste food, clearly had no intention of letting the matter go. The person in his grasp shouted and struggled to strike back, only for him to pin him down with a few effortless moves.

His expression impassive, he pressed the brat's face hard into the pile of food scraps on the floor, gripping his jaw tightly with his other hand.

His gaze was frighteningly calm. "Didn't you want to eat? Then open your mouth."

The youth's injured face scraped against the floor, whether on purpose or not, and the pain turned his eyes red, tears falling uncontrollably. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the hand forcing his mouth open, its red beads flashing.

It was a signal that the wristband was attacking.

Yet the grip on him remained just as steady, and he finally felt a trace of fear.

Having experienced it himself, he knew that even the Evil Tower's basic punishment was no joke. A single shock had left him lying on the floor for ages, trying to recover. For this mild-looking man to have that kind of endurance, he was probably a prospective E—

While he was still shocked by his discovery, someone lifted him slightly by the back of his collar, then shoved his head down against the sticky floor again.

The impact left him dizzy and seeing stars. It was merciless, and the pain from his wound was so intense that he couldn't cry out.

So everyone in the cafeteria could hear the youth, who had looked ready to challenge the whole world just moments ago, speak in a humiliated, trembling voice. "I-I'll eat... I'll eat, sob..."

There was no trace left of his earlier arrogance.

After all that, Xu Qingran had only eaten enough to be half full.

Unsurprisingly, the staff took him away as well.

At the entrance to Building 4, Xu Qingran held out his hand for a staff member to check his wristband. An additional one had been placed on his other wrist.

"It's not broken..."

The staff member in a Silver Dragon uniform murmured to himself. After finishing the inspection, he said to Xu Qingran with a stern face, "You haven't even been here a day, and you've already attacked someone. With a temper like that, you'll never get out of the Evil Tower."

Xu Qingran replied, "I think I have a pretty good temper."

He had barely gotten angry.

The staff member took it as a blatant lie and led him into Building 4, deeper inside.

The atmosphere here was noticeably different from that of Building 5 on the outermost edge. As soon as they went upstairs, they could hear all kinds of shouting from within. Some people were losing their tempers and smashing against their cell doors, while others were quietly acting crazy.

He was told he would be left alone in this environment for a few days to properly reflect on his actions. If he still showed no remorse, they would start using real punishments.

Xu Qingran was taken to a floor in Tower 4.

Every compartment on this floor was a single-person cell. The cell doors also seemed to be made of Star Sand, with a simple, partially open design that allowed the occupants' condition to be seen at once. The bars had a mechanism to prevent escapes, and he saw someone trying to break through a cell door suddenly collapse to the floor and convulse wildly.

The staff member saw it but paid no attention.

Each cell door bore the basic information of the person inside. Xu Qingran glanced casually at them; most were not E-Types he knew of.

Before long, they encountered another guard responsible for patrolling and watching over this floor.

The two staff members chatted as they registered his information. "Wow, he's only been here half a day and he's already been sent to Tower 4. The last time I saw that happen... it was the guy who escaped a while back."

"Speaking of him, he's been confirmed as an E-Type, right? Have they found him?"

"No. By the time they discovered it, he'd already escaped Queen Star. Aren't they searching for him now, with tight controls at checkpoints across the country? A few of my buddies who work at the checkpoints complain every day, saying it's a pain to suddenly have to work overtime on guard duty."

"Hahaha, good thing I wasn't transferred there..."

While they chatted, Xu Qingran casually looked around and suddenly spotted a balding man in one of the rooms, kneeling and repeatedly kowtowing to an empty wall. He muttered, sounding deranged, "Please, spare me. I really didn't mean to get you killed. Please, spare me..."