Escape Plan

Caesar walked to the gate of the cave.

The others who were to participate in the reconnaissance mission also gathered around.

Some gladiators in the cave were woken up by the noise; seeing these people gather at the door, they realized that Caesar was once again going to boost the ratings for the show known as the Gladiator Arena Interlude.

Only this time, it wasn't just Caesar, but others as well.

"Hey, listen up." Caesar signaled for them to pay attention. "I've been out before. Once we step out, there's a corridor. About a hundred paces ahead is a crossroads. Two of the paths at the crossroads are dead ends, so we must take the one on the far left."

"Words of experience." Oeno nodded in satisfaction.

Angron asked, "And then?"

"And then?" Caesar spread his hands. "Then the Security Automata will come over and beat us to a pulp, provided you're as slow as I am."

Caesar's experience only extended as far as the left path of the crossroads.

"Is there anything else on the way we need to watch out for?" Qin Xa asked.

"No." Caesar shook his head with great certainty. "It's just a corridor, nothing else. It looks like it's made of some kind of metal."

"There might be lasers that can slice people into pieces covering every angle." Qin Xa offered a conjecture. "That counts as a classic trope."

Caesar raised a hand, his expression alert. "Wait... now that you mention it, that rings a bell... I was wondering why I saw a pile of body parts at the end of the road before."

"So there really was something?" Qin Xa smiled.

Caesar shook his head to clear his thoughts, then scanned Qin Xa, Angron, Oeno, and the female gladiator.

"Any other questions?" Caesar asked before the operation.

The female gladiator raised her hand.

"Go ahead." Caesar nodded.

"Why is a man like you so pretty?" The female gladiator lowered her hand. "You look just like a sissy who talks too much nonsense."

Caesar's handsome face seemed to be etched with dissatisfaction, but out of courtesy, he answered.

"Don't underestimate my looks, lowlife."

"It was precisely because of my looks that I was able to climb from the slums into high society, only for the person who loved me to grow tired of me and sell me here..."

After finishing this painful past, Caesar turned around and walked to the gate.

This guy had clearly worn the collar for so long that he had forgotten he still had a collar that suppressed his psychic powers.

But after Caesar turned around, Qin Xa tore the collar off him, as easily as tearing a piece of paper.

Caesar only then noticed, glancing at Qin Xa. "I think I know why those guys didn't put a collar on you."

As soon as he finished speaking, frost began to spread through the room.

This was a supernatural phenomenon triggered by the use of psychic powers.

Caesar focused all his attention on channeling his power.

The Warp.

The Sea of Souls.

The Immaterium.

The endless, majestic power contained within that alien dimension composed of pure spirit was seeping into reality, acting as a breach created by a psyker in the material realm.

"In ten seconds, we will all enter a state of nothingness, like ghosts." Caesar took a moment to look back and warn the four of them.

"Can you stop yapping, softie?" the female gladiator said with dissatisfaction.

"I have to warn you, lest you waste time being too surprised." Caesar turned back. "We can pass through any solid object, but don't try to pass through walls. This cave is thousands of meters underground, surrounded by rock strata. You cannot let my ability act on you for too long, or you will merge with the rock."

"I will go out with you."

Caesar continued to chatter incessantly.

Qin Xa felt that this might be a habit of Caesar's when using his psychic powers; some psykers just have quirks similar to this.

"When we get caught later, you two big guys help me block for a bit. After all, I did contribute to all of us, right?"

Caesar reached out, his body beginning to fade into a phantom state.

But this fading did not last long.

"Damn it... what's happening?" Caesar frowned. "Sorry, let me focus, and then we will..."

Bang--

After a muffled sound like a watermelon exploding...

Qin Xa's vision instantly turned scarlet, and a viscous, hot sensation transmitted from his facial nerves to his brain.

He blinked.

His vision was no longer a blurred scarlet; he saw the situation before him.

Caesar still maintained his standing, reaching-out posture, but his head was nowhere to be found. His exposed arteries and neck formed a fountain spraying scarlet liquid.

The commotion from inside the cave seemed to have alerted the outside.

The cave plunged into darkness, followed immediately by the continuous flashing of crimson lights.

A piercing alarm echoed throughout the arena, followed by the sound of heavy, rhythmic stomping. The Security Automata had arrived.

"Haa—haa—"

Qin Xa breathed in short, panicked gasps, raising a hand to touch the warm wetness on his face before bringing it before his eyes.

Amidst the strobing red light and the shrill alarm, Qin Xa saw that his hand was covered in blood.

A piece of something unrecognizable slid from the ceiling and landed on Qin Xa's shoulder with a sickening "splat."

Qin Xa turned his head, dazed and numb, to look at Angron, to look at Oeno, and to look at the female gladiator who had decided to join them.

They wore the same expressions, trapped in the same state.

Qin Xa realized they were all drenched in crimson, stained with fragments of flesh; only when he looked down at his own body did he realize he was the same.

It wasn't just his face that had been splattered with blood.

Thud—

The headless corpse of Caesar knelt on the ground before toppling over.

"This... this..." Angron breathed heavily, crouching down in disbelief as he stared at Caesar's corpse. "What happened? What happened!"

Oeno stood frozen in place.

The female gladiator reacted just like Oeno.

Both were numb, their minds dulled by having seen too much.

"His psychic powers went out of control." Qin Xa appeared utterly bewildered, staring at the corpse. "His psychic powers went out of control, and then his head just exploded."

As soon as he finished speaking, the blast doors opened.

The Security Automata marched into the cave in perfect formation, and upon finding everyone in a state of shock and confusion, they stood at attention on both sides of the corridor.

A spherical drone known as a Maggot Eye flew into the cave along the corridor, circling once above Caesar's corpse.

"So..." the host's voice emanated from the Maggot Eye. "This jailbreak ends with a wizard blowing his own head off?"

"That was a bit hasty."

"As the only wizard here, he was given a heavy responsibility, but he finished it all too abruptly."

The Maggot Eye began to record everyone's reactions.

The host, located elsewhere, seemed to be conversing with a colleague.

"Yes, rewind the observation footage to two minutes ago, record it, and broadcast it on the arena channel."

"Focus on that gladiator named Caesar; capture how, as the central figure of this jailbreak, he brought the entire operation to such a dramatic end."

"Then issue an announcement clarifying the situation, and tell those who bet on Caesar thinking he would escape... sorry to disappoint them."

The Maggot Eye captured the reaction of every person present to the failed jailbreak, then flew away.

The alarm ceased.

The lights stopped flashing.

The blast doors slammed shut with a boom.

Only Caesar's headless corpse remained where it was, as if it were a warning.

And at this very moment, for Qin Xa, this warning held an even deeper layer of meaning.

Update Note: During the new book phase, I will be releasing three chapters a day because I need to exhaust the recommendations; for my last book, I was releasing five or even six chapters a day, but it went to paid status before I could finish the recommendations. Today, to explain this, I am adding two extra chapters.