The Escape Route

The prison was filled with noise and chaos, but Feng Xue was tirelessly digging her way to survival. As the passage behind her was slowly blocked by rubble and mud, Feng Xue could hardly hear the sounds of the outside world anymore. Only the vibrations from the ground told her that the chaos in the prison was not over yet.

The narrow passage wasn't wide enough; it was just enough for Feng Xue to move forward. It was only because he was now nothing that he no longer needed to breathe; otherwise, at this rate of digging, he would suffocate before reaching the sewer.

Generally speaking, such dark and narrow passages can easily induce claustrophobia. Even if breathing is easy, ordinary people will feel intense oppression and discomfort after staying in such a passage for ten minutes or so.

Feng Xue was able to persevere not because of his exceptional mental fortitude, but because he held the Shawshank's Spoon in his hand.

Although the equipment's detection function couldn't detect living creatures, its 100-meter radius detection range gave Feng Xue an incredibly wide field of vision.

It's like being locked up but allowed to watch TV. Even though you can only watch people and nature without sound, the open view and bright environment alone are enough to alleviate the mental stress caused by confinement.

However, a hundred meters is not a very large area. All Feng Xue knew was that the prison door had been blasted open and most of the prison fence had been destroyed. Apart from that, her Physical Clone had not yet disappeared.

In fact, Feng Xue could now relax completely, because even if her clone was exposed, clearing the tunnel behind her that had been filled in by the sky would be extremely difficult, not to mention that in such a narrow tunnel, the person who could get down there would at most be carrying a pistol.

As for attracting the excavator...

By the time the excavator could reach the location of this prison cell, Feng Xue would have already dug through the sewer.

"Even a pistol is quite dangerous." Feng Xue shook her head, rallied her spirits, and continued digging, but then a tearing pain shot through her ribs.

The bodies of the Void are very strange, both in the Infinite City and in reality. If you say they are mortal, they don't need to eat or drink, nor do they need to excrete or defecate, and they don't even need to breathe.

But you call it a data entity, right? It bleeds, gets tired, has various organs, follows human anatomy, and can even eat and drink.

Feeling the faint pain and slippery sensation under his ribs, Feng Xue knew that he had dug a little too hard—or rather, he had rested a little too long.

Relying on squeezing the wound to stop bleeding is ultimately not a proper medical method. Even if most vital areas are avoided, a 60-millimeter-long incision is still quite dangerous.

After a brief pause, the sudden movement tore open the scab that had just begun to form.

However, Feng Xue was also very clear that she could not stop.

"Boss, the invaders have been repelled. Our total losses were..."

"I don't want to know how much was lost, I just want to know how things are in East Second District!" Jeston abruptly interrupted Jones's report, because he knew very well that if nothing had happened there, Jones would have talked about what he cared about first, instead of bringing up these minor issues that could be settled with a little money.

"Um, boss, the intruders blew up the isolation wall in East Second District, and then the ghosts imprisoned there collectively escaped, but..."

Upon hearing this, Jeston's eyes immediately turned red. Fortunately, he caught the twist in Johnson's words and immediately said:

"But what?"

"However, Mr. Han Meimei didn't escape; he's still in his cell." Jones's words carried a hint of surprise. Not only him, but even Jeston found it strange. Had Han Meimei become addicted to being in jail? Why hadn't he taken such a good opportunity?

However, the fact that he didn't run away is good news, Jeston immediately said:

"Don't move! I'm taking men there right now. No one is allowed near Han Meimei until I arrive!"

"Yes, boss!"

After hanging up the call, Jeston turned to the security guard beside him, his eyes red, and said:

"Bring your family with me. It's too dangerous to leave Han Meimei, this Money Printer, there. I shouldn't have considered Fran's feelings; I should have moved him to a different place a long time ago!"

Although he said that, Jeston knew very well that if Han Meimei hadn't missed such a good opportunity to escape, he wouldn't have felt comfortable placing her anywhere else. After all, among his properties, the safest place was the prison.

Ten minutes later, arriving at the East Second District prison with bodyguards responsible for his personal safety, Jeston's face darkened.

By this time, half of the prison's outer wall had been blown down, and the twisted steel bars and crushed corpses made it look more like a high-intensity battlefield in a war-torn country than a prison that had just been broken into.

But amidst these ruins that resembled a painting of hell, inside a relatively well-preserved cage, a figure dressed in a formal suit and holding a dictionary came into Jeston's view.

Although the dress was wrinkled and the other person's hands and feet were still shackled, the scene inexplicably possessed a sacred charm. If a ray of sunlight were to shine through the narrow window at this moment, it would surely be a masterpiece that would be passed down through the ages.

Even Jeston, who had absolutely no interest in art, couldn't hide his shock the moment he saw this painting; though how much of that shock was the joy of something lost and found again was unknown.

However, Jeston quickly recovered from the shock and waved his arms vigorously, shouting, "Quick! Quick! Get Mr. Han Meimei out of here! We need to move immediately!"

The bodyguards didn't bother looking for a key; they simply fired several shots at the lock and opened the iron door. But just as they were helping Feng Xue to her feet, the shackles on her right foot suddenly fell to the ground with a clatter.

The scene froze at that moment...

"Huff... huff..." Underground, Feng Xue, who was almost half-buried alive, was panting heavily. Although he didn't need to breathe, his remaining human instincts still allowed him to relieve his physical fatigue through this action.

He couldn't remember how long he had been digging. He could only deduce that he had been digging for at least four hours by the fact that he was still about a meter away from his escape route. His Physical Clone had long since become useless, and now, the ground that was shaking again seemed to be a countdown to his failed escape.

Clenching her teeth, Feng Xue forced her arms to move. With this movement, the soil, which had become much easier to dig, slowly disappeared, replaced by a thick "wall" made of concrete and bricks.

Faced with this situation, Feng Xue was not discouraged at all, because even without the perception ability attached to Shawshank's Spoon, he knew that his way out was behind this wall!

Some people asked, so let's just summarize the jailbreak timeline:

Around 1 a. m., a prison break occurred in the North Third District. Unprepared, the protagonist began digging.

Around 2 AM, the escapees and intruders, working together, attacked East Second District. The escape attempt hadn't even begun; the protagonist had already dug up a quarter of the prison.

Before 3 a. m., the suppression was completed. The protagonist had dug about one-third of the way through. Jeston arrived at the East Second District prison, and the physical double's shackles broke, exposing a weakness.

Around six in the morning, Jeston began violent digging; the protagonist was about to reach the sewers.