Identity Exposed: Bonus Chapter Eleven

Three days later, the cruise ship finally arrived at the port of Jer Star.

Gu Ding disembarked immediately. Noya Mei waved to him through the window, and he simply raised his hand in response before renting a hovercar and leaving the port.

"Sir, where are you going?"

"Rioben Prison," Gu Ding said in a low voice, his face expressionless.

Watching Gu Ding's hovercar depart, Noya Mei dialed her team members' numbers. "Jin Gang, you should all be here by now? Meet at the port. I have two tasks for you."

"Boss, a mission already? Could it be related to the Gu Ding Team?" A burly voice came from the other end of the communicator.

"I would like that," Noya Mei laughed, "We just caught a few idiots who hijacked the cruise ship, and there's still a bomb we need to deal with."

"We'll be right there!"

Meanwhile, Gu Ding quickly arrived at the entrance of Rioben Prison.

Looking around, the walls, made of Cabot Alloy, appeared silver-gray under the sunlight, devoid of any other colors, giving off a somber feeling. Just as Noya Mei had said, the prison was heavily guarded, with people watching everywhere.

Sea Emperor transformed into a single strand of hair and stuck it to Gu Ding's head. Gu Ding then casually put on a Smart Watch and walked straight toward the front door.

The first step was visitor registration. The watch on Gu Ding's wrist had already been activated by Sea Emperor and entered with Gu Ding's forged identity. With just a swipe of the Smart Watch, Gu Ding's fake identity was entered into the system.

The second gate was a security check. Gu Ding took off the Smart Watch he was wearing and passed through the security check smoothly under the control of Sea Emperor.

At the location of the third door, prison guards were conducting body searches.

"Sorry. Smart Watch are not allowed in. Our prison has to prevent hacking." After the body search was completed, the prison guard held out his hand.

Gu Ding handed over the Smart Watch, and he finally understood why Sea Emperor had made him wear a different watch before.

The fourth door was a holographic inspection, and Sea Emperor had tampered with it again. Otherwise, the hair he was disguising would have looked different from Gu Ding's real hair under the holographic effect.

After passing through four checks, Gu Ding was led by the prison guards to a man.

"Whom do you wish to visit?" The person who greeted him was a woman wearing glasses.

"Perritt." When Gu Ding uttered the name, a strange feeling welled up inside him, a feeling that seemed to be nervousness.

"What is your relationship with the person you are visiting?" the woman with glasses asked.

"To be precise, it's not related. I grew up listening to his legendary stories, so I just stopped by Jer Star to visit him." Gu Ding didn't lie about this either.

"Okay, this is the first time I've encountered a visit like this. Generally, for non-relatives, it depends on their wishes. If they don't want to meet, there's nothing we can do to force them. So, please have a seat, and I'll have someone notify them." The woman with glasses said, dialing a number. "There's a visitor at number 073925. I've already sent the visitor's information to you. See if they're willing to see him."

"073925, you have a visitor!" In a completely white room, a dialog box suddenly popped up out of nowhere.

A one-eyed man wearing an eye patch stood up; most of his left leg had been replaced by a metal prosthesis. The same was true for his right hand.

He raised his left hand and tapped on the visitor's message.

In the upper right corner of the text is a photo of Gu Ding wearing Disguise Mask at this moment.

"I thought it was some old friend passing by who suddenly remembered me," Perritt said hesitantly. This visitor was clearly a stranger, and he didn't like dealing with strangers, because strangers usually approached him with ulterior motives. "Grown up listening to my stories? That sounds like a good reason for the visit, but I don't know if it's the real reason. Anyway, I have nothing better to do, so I'll see what this kid's purpose is."

About two minutes later, the woman with glasses nodded to Gu Ding. "He agreed to the visit. I'll have someone take you there now."

Not long after, a man in a police uniform walked over.

When Gu Ding saw the person, he was clearly taken aback.

The prison guard had a fleshy face, a spherical body, and extremely short legs.

"Prisson?! What's he doing here?" Sea Emperor's voice reached Gu Ding's ears. "But it's a good thing he didn't recognize you. Remember to lower your voice and slow down when you speak."

"Come with me!" Prisson glanced at Gu Ding only once before turning and leaving expressionlessly.

Gu Ding followed him into a room. After closing the door, he stood in the doorway, seemingly with no intention of leaving.

"I just checked the prison roster again, and this guy is indeed Prisson, not some other person who looks like him. I also looked at his file; he just immigrated to the Fei Me Universe Country last week. He has a relative here who is a viscount, someone with some status, and combined with his previous resume, it was easy for him to get into Fei Me Universe Country Rioben Prison. He just passed his interview yesterday, and today is his first day at work." Sea Emperor checked the prison staff list again and sure enough, Prisson's name appeared. He last checked three days ago, and at that time, Prisson's name wasn't listed.

Perritt was quickly led over by another prison guard, who did not leave after they entered the room.

The Big Beard Perritt, sat down opposite Gu Ding and squinted at Gu Ding.

"You're taller than I imagined..." Gu Ding's opening remarks sounded a bit strange.

"Thank you for the compliment. Young man, eat more calcium-rich foods and exercise more. You're only 21, you still have a chance to grow taller." With just this opening remark, Perritt vaguely realized that the reason the other party mentioned for the visit might be genuine.

"It's really great to meet you in person. I always thought it was just a pipe dream." Gu Ding couldn't help but grin, but was warned by the Sea Emperor.

"Don't grin!"

That signature smile was too easy to recognize; at least for now, by lowering his voice and slowing his speech, Prisson hadn't noticed anything unusual.

"Young man, tell me, what do you want from me?" Perritt asked, getting straight to the point.

"Can I see your eyes?" Gu Ding pointed to Perritt's eye patch.

Perritt readily nodded. He removed the blindfold, revealing a mechanical eyeball.

"So cool!" Gu Ding couldn't help but exclaim.

"I think so too." Perritt felt that the other person and he seemed to have some things in common.

"I grew up in taverns and have always heard your story. Was your eye really pecked out by a tenth-tier Gene Beast, the Iron Feather Crow? Or by Eleventh Order Burst Bird?" Gu Ding couldn't help but ask.

"Wow, the rumors are so outrageous! Who made up these stories?" Perritt shook his head with a laugh after hearing the two versions Gu Ding told him. "My eye was ruined not long after I started out, by a genius gunsmith from the Federal Government. The bullet was lodged in my head, and I had to have six surgeries to remove it safely. I almost became a vegetable."

"So this is the truth of the matter?"

Gu Ding then asked his second question, "What about your right hand? Was it because your team members were being chased by a Twelfth Order Gene Beast, and you cut off your own arm to feed the beast and save your companions?"

"This story is even more far-fetched. I did cut off my right hand myself, but not for the reason you mentioned. It was because of gambling. For a while, I was addicted to gambling. Every time we arrived at a planet, I would rush to the casino, and most of the time, I would lose. Once, I gambled particularly badly and lost the entire spaceship to someone else. Because of that, many of my brothers completely lost faith in me and left me, including my first mate. That night, in front of all my brothers, I cut off my right hand and swore that if it ever happened again, I would cut off my own head. I quit gambling from then on."

"That still sounds quite admirable," Gu Ding, finding the story quite satisfying. "And what about your left leg?"

"What was the story you heard?" This time, Perritt was actually more interested in Gu Ding's story.

"I heard that she was bitten by a powerful Gene Beast while trying to save a child," Gu Ding said, recounting the version he had heard in the tavern.

"It was indeed for a child, but it wasn't because I was bitten off by a gene harvester." Perritt recounted the incident again, "It happened at an Interstellar Port. There was a fire in a house, and I saw a child trapped in the flames, so I rushed in to save him. But the house collapsed due to the high temperature. Although I rescued the child, my left leg was trapped. When I was rescued, I found that my entire left leg was charred black by the fire. I had no choice but to have it amputated at the local hospital."

"I actually think your version of the story is better," Gu Ding laughed. "When you encounter these things, aren't you afraid or frustrated at all?"

"Of course I was afraid. When they removed that bullet, I was terrified the surgery would fail and I'd die on the operating table because I had so much left undone. There was also frustration; after my left leg was amputated, I even regretted saving that child. But later I realized that even if it happened a second time, I would still make the same choice. But don't you think it's precisely because we have these emotions that we become stronger? It's because of pain and fear that we have the motivation to become stronger. It's because of sadness and grief that we strive to become more resilient..."

Gu Ding and Perritt talked for a long time, more than half an hour, until the two prison guards urged them to stop.

As he said goodbye to Perritt, Gu Ding grinned and said, "Perritt, I'll come to see you again if I have the chance."

Just then, Prisson's expression suddenly changed upon seeing the smile on Gu Ding's face. "You really are Gu Ding!"