Lingering On

The fusion of the two souls had actually happened by a twist of fate.

When he first entered this world, his soul had already been extremely weak. If he had faced the soul of a normal person, he would never have been able to devour it.

With no other choice, he could only settle for the next best thing. When Wang Gao was on the verge of death, he devoured his soul and stabilized the Devil Fruit Wave that had been about to leave the body.

That was right—the Devil Fruit Wave.

In his soul state, he had only briefly sensed that peculiar Devil Fruit ability at the instant Wang Gao was nearing death.

After stabilizing the Devil Fruit ability, the body formed from the fusion of all three regained a faint spark of life, allowing him to survive.

But this Devil Fruit ability of his...

Fine! It was the Chain-Chain Fruit.

No, more accurately, it was the Chain-Chain Fruit, similar to Doflamingo's String-String Fruit.

If his memories were correct, this Devil Fruit should have been eaten by that treasure hunter.

Although it looked like a trash ability, Devil Fruits had a great deal to do with their users' intelligence and knowledge reserves.

To put it bluntly, many Devil Fruit users suffered because they lacked education.

But as soon as he felt the weakness in his body and the faint pain from his wounds, Wang Gao began to think.

He still called himself Wang Gao merely for convenience. Besides, he had nothing worth missing from his previous life. He had only been a tech otaku and a Delusional Patient.

His most urgent task was to deal with the Seastone Shackles on his hands, then find a way to escape Impel Down.

Fortunately, this was before Golden Lion's prison break. Devil Fruit user prisoners either wore ankle shackles or handcuffs; the restraints had not yet been further upgraded.

If it had been after Golden Lion's escape, Impel Down's precautions against Devil Fruit user prisoners would have been even tighter.

A plan like Golden Lion's, cutting off his own feet, would basically have had no chance of succeeding.

At the same time, through this interrogation room incident, Wang Gao had already guessed at some possibilities behind Golden Lion's escape, explaining why Golden Lion had been able to cut off his own feet in a weaponless cell.

The reason was very simple. Golden Lion might not have escaped from his cell at all, but from the interrogation room, because that was where the weapons were.

However, that escape plan held little reference value for Wang Gao. After all, he did not have the Float-Float Fruit. Even if he cut off his hands, he still would not be able to escape.

The current Impel Down not only had Magellan, Shiryu of the Rain, and Hannibal, but also Columbus, a warden whose strength was unknown.

Wang Gao's bounty before entering prison had been 72 million Beli. After being tormented for so many years, combined with prolonged hunger and dehydration, he would be thanking heaven if he could use even One Tenth of his strength.

With that kind of strength, trying to force his way out of Impel Down was nothing more than a fool's dream.

But... for now, he should heal his injuries first.

Dry heat and hunger filled Hunger Hell. All the prisoners were extremely quiet. Although Impel Down would not kill them outright, it certainly would not let them have an easy time.

The prisoners in Hunger Hell either had bounties exceeding 50 million Beli or possessed special talents, such as Devil Fruit abilities.

To ensure the prisoners would not resist without letting them die outright, prisoners in Hunger Hell were usually fed once every five days.

But today seemed to be an exception. Two guards carried an iron bucket into Wang Gao's cell, then examined his body. Seeing that he had not stopped breathing, the Bearded Man guard teased him.

"You're lucky. Warden Shiryu didn't kill you."

The other one-eyed guard remained expressionless. He scooped three large ladles of mush from the iron bucket and poured them into the feeding trough beside him, then turned his head to the Bearded Man and said, "Let's go."

The two guards locked the door again, and the cell fell silent once more. Wang Gao opened his eyes, got up, and painfully crawled toward the feeding trough.

Like a pig in a farm, he lowered his head and ate the mush from the stone feeding trough.

Dignity did not matter.

He only wanted to live. Without food and water, his wounds would heal very slowly. Wang Gao did not want to experience that helpless feeling of being at someone's mercy like he had that morning ever again.

He wolfed down every last bit from the trough, then lay on the ground again. The scorching floor at least meant he did not need to worry about catching a chill.

Perhaps because his injuries were too severe, the guards had not thrown him into one of those cells crammed with several people. Instead, they found him an empty cell by himself.

If he had been sent into a multi-person cell while on the verge of death, he probably would have been eaten clean within half a day.

He quickly hypnotized himself into a deep sleep. It was a minor skill from his previous life, and after the fusion of souls, it seemed to have been enhanced.

A moment later, Wang Gao entered a deep sleep inside the cell.

Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, three days had passed, and it was time for the routine meal that came once every five days.

It was still the same two guards. The Bearded Man guard pushed a cart carrying a huge iron bucket, while the one-eyed guard used a large ladle to place mush into the feeding troughs of the cells. Every prisoner received only one scoop, roughly the equivalent of a normal bowl.

The usually silent Hunger Hell became somewhat noisy only when feeding time arrived.

When the one-eyed guard reached Wang Gao's cell and saw him sitting up, he knew Wang Gao had mostly recovered. He casually scooped out a ladleful, poured it into the feeding trough, and headed for the next cell.

Wang Gao did not feel the slightest embarrassment. He simply lowered his head and licked the food clean from the trough.

After eating, he sat on the floor with his back against the inner wall. He briefly checked his wounds, and seeing that they had nearly healed, he could not help marveling at how the humans of this world possessed recovery abilities at a monstrous level.

At last, he could think about how to escape.

His gaze swept over the cell opposite his. A corridor roughly fifteen meters wide separated them. In the opposite cell was a member of the Longleg Tribe and three White Bone skeletons. Those three unlucky bastards had clearly ended up in his stomach, and one of the Longleg Tribe man's legs had been broken.

There were three cells visible across from him in total, which meant the prisoners opposite could likewise observe his cell.

However, because buildings along the corridor blocked the light, the front half of this cell was clearly illuminated while the back half received no light at all.

The Den Den Mushi installed above the corridor likewise could not monitor the rear half of this cell.

Furthermore, Impel Down had not sought complete coverage with its internal lighting system, leaving the corridor lights sparse and scattered.

Outside the cell block, that expanse of "Sea of Sand" was not only scorching and arid but also brightly sunlit. Yet the composition of the sand was somewhat unusual—the sand within it was actually formed from weathered prisoner bones.

This showed just how many prisoners had died miserably here over the past eight hundred years on Impel Down's third level. Their bones had weathered into an entire desert.

Sitting against the innermost wall, he stared across for a while but still could not see the inner sides of the three opposite cells.

Of course, that also had much to do with the prisoners' widespread night blindness. Impel Down was not a charity; they did not care that a lack of Vitamins could cause night blindness.

They might even welcome it, since it made managing and weakening the prisoners easier.

After observing his surroundings, he focused once more on the Seastone Shackles around his hands. Over the past three days, aside from resting, Wang Gao had been studying these shackles.

Wang Gao did not want to cut off his hands—and he had no knife anyway. His mind raced. Compared to brute-forcing it, he actually had at least three ways to free himself from these Seastone Shackles.

The problem was how to carry them out. He needed to think further. If he did not consider everything carefully, even freeing himself from the Seastone Shackles would not let him escape Impel Down.

From his observations just now and his earlier memories, among the three cells opposite, aside from the crippled Longleg Tribe prisoner directly across from him, the cell to the left was empty, while the cell to the right held a sharp-faced Devil Fruit user.

The Longleg Tribe prisoner had been imprisoned even earlier than Wang Gao, so he must have developed severe night blindness by now. As long as Wang Gao hid in the darkness at the back of his cell, he should not be noticed.

The only person he needed to worry about now was the "Monkey" in the cell on the right. That guy had been imprisoned around a year ago, so his night blindness was probably not too severe.

Because he was a Devil Fruit user, that monkey was also imprisoned alone. Impel Down was probably worried that these Devil Fruit users would be treated as food by the other prisoners.

That was why they chose to isolate them, to avoid too many Devil Fruit user prisoners dying. It was one of Impel Down's strategies.

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