Return Again

The mechanical prison guards in Prison No. 18 carried away the bodies of the three suicide soldiers.

There was a quiet stillness in the prison, everyone silent.

Qing Chen sat by the dining table, lost in thought, his face a little pale.

This was the first time he had felt fear. The unease in his heart slowly turned into physical discomfort, making it impossible to digest the breakfast he had just eaten.

In school, his teachers had taught him about functions, about subjects and predicates.

At home, his parents had taught him how to use chopsticks, how to do laundry, and how to take care of himself.

But no one had ever taught him what death truly was.

It was something you only understood when you witnessed it firsthand, how shocking it was to see life fade before your eyes.

As for witnessing the suicide soldiers bite their poison sacs and kill themselves, he suspected that if he told anyone in the Outer World, they would think he was making up a story.

Li Shutong looked at Qing Chen and asked, "First time witnessing death?"

"Mm," Qing Chen replied, pursing his lips.

"Are you scared?" Li Shutong asked.

"A little," Qing Chen nodded.

"Do you know, everyone has two lives," Li Shutong chuckled. "The second life begins when you realize you only have one."

From that moment on, you would start telling yourself the importance of time and clearly realize how much time you had wasted.

For some reason, the more Qing Chen feared at that moment, the calmer he became.

He examined his past and conceived his future.

Li Shutong looked at him and asked, "Those three suicide soldiers were most likely after me. So, you helping me find them means I owe you a favor. You can exchange it for something from me. What do you want?"

Ever since they started playing chess, Li Shutong had asked him multiple times what he wanted.

Qing Chen said, "I want a list of members of the Li Clan."

"Strange," Li Shutong said. "Why don't you ask for the method to become a Transcendental? There aren't many people in this world who can make me owe them a favor, and you're the only one who doesn't seem to cherish the opportunity."

Qing Chen thought for a moment and said, "Because this small matter cannot be equated to the value of your secret. Trying to exchange it for a chance to become extraordinary wouldn't work."

Li Shutong chuckled, "How do you know if you don't try?"

Qing Chen continued, "Besides, when the time is right, you'll give it to me yourself, without needing an exchange."

Li Shutong's smile grew wider. "You're smarter, more patient, and more resilient than I thought. But you're right, some things aren't meant for exchange; you'll get them when the time is right. Although your lack of bloodshed disappoints me a little, I've thought about it carefully. If you were indifferent to life, I would find it boring."

After speaking, he asked Lin Xiaoxiao to retrieve a list of Li Clan members. "I'm curious, what do you need this for?"

"I shouldn't have to explain its purpose, right?" Qing Chen asked.

"Forget it, forget it, I won't ask," Li Shutong said with a wry smile, waving his hand. "This is me repaying your favor. Do whatever you want with it."

At night, Qing Chen waited in his cell for the return countdown.

He had originally thought Lin Xiaoxiao would come for the nightmare test today, but he didn't.

Perhaps the other party felt he was no longer bound by nightmares, so the test was useless.

Or perhaps Li Shutong felt no further testing was necessary.

Vaguely, Qing Chen felt that the path to becoming a Transcendental was getting closer and closer.

The countdown hadn't reached zero, but he lay down on the cold bed and closed his eyes to sleep. Unlike the previous times when he anxiously awaited his return, Qing Chen, having witnessed death, felt increasingly calm.

When he opened his eyes again, he was lying in his small room on Xing Shu Road. Birds were chirping outside the window, and the sky had brightened.

He glanced at the white patterns on his arm. The countdown read 40:20:21.

It seemed like another two days.

"The process of transmigration is silent, not even waking a sleeping person," Qing Chen mused to himself.

After two tense days, Qing Chen, back in the Outer World, suddenly felt a sense of relief, much lighter.

However, he was already looking forward to transmigrating again, as there were more opportunities waiting for him there.

He put on his school uniform and prepared to go out. As soon as he opened the door, he saw Jiang Xue leading Li Tongyun.

"Good morning, Aunt Jiang Xue. This time... are you okay?" Qing Chen asked.

"I'm fine," Jiang Xue smiled. "I'm just taking Xiao Yun to school. Come over to our place after school tonight. I'll buy some fish and ribs to celebrate."

"Celebrate what?" Qing Chen asked, puzzled.

"We'll talk about it tonight. You'll know then," Jiang Xue said with a smile before leaving, leaving Qing Chen in thought.

On the way, Qing Chen opened his phone and looked at the trending searches, wanting to see what new things had appeared after this transmigration.

As expected, a trending search caught his attention: Foreign news reports stated that someone on the dark web was selling information indicating that killing a Transmigrator does not grant the transmigration opportunity.

Qing Chen froze when he saw this news, because behind those few words lay the demise of a vibrant life.

Reality was often more brutal than words conveyed.

When he arrived at the school, he noticed a large crowd gathered around the adjacent classroom again.

Qing Chen grabbed the study committee member from his own class, Yu Junyi, who was on the outer edge of the crowd, and asked, "What's going on? What is everyone looking at?"

Yu Junyi explained, "Didn't we say earlier that a Transmigrator appeared in the next class? His name is Liu Dezhu, and he just arrived at school. Everyone is asking him about his transmigration."

Qing Chen was stunned for a moment. He hadn't expected the other party to show up at school.

He knew that as soon as Liu Dezhu was taken away by the mechanical prison guards, he hadn't seen him again during the two days he had transmigrated.

Qing Chen had estimated that the other party might have suffered some psychological trauma and taken a leave of absence like Huang Jixian. He didn't expect him to be sitting in the classroom now as if nothing had happened.

At this moment, Liu Dezhu was surrounded by classmates. Someone loudly asked, "Where did you appear after you transmigrated?"

"Yeah, what was your identity after transmigrating?"

"Why don't you have mechanical limbs? I see many Transmigrators have them."

"Did you really transmigrate? Are you kidding us?"

As everyone asked questions one after another, Qing Chen squeezed forward, wanting to hear where Liu Dezhu was taken by the mechanical prison guards later and what he experienced.

However, Liu Dezhu seemed to be getting agitated by the questions, "I really transmigrated!"

"Then why don't you have mechanical limbs?"

Liu Dezhu stuck out his neck, "Aren't there many people who don't have mechanical limbs? Besides, is having mechanical limbs a good thing? Let me tell you, I transmigrated to Prison No. 18 and met Li Shutong!"

The classroom fell silent for a moment.

He Xiaoxiao was a very famous game streamer, and his fame had surged even more after the Transmigrator incident, especially among students.

So, everyone knew that Prison No. 18 was a very important place, and Li Shutong was a very important figure in the Inner World.