The mechanical prison guards in Prison No. 18 carried away the corpses of the three dead soldiers.
The prison fell quiet, and everyone remained silent.
Qing Chen sat by the dining table, seemingly lost in thought, his face somewhat pale.
This was the first time he had felt fear. The unease in his heart slowly turned into physical discomfort, leaving even the breakfast he had just eaten impossible to digest.
At school, teachers had taught him what functions were, what subjects, predicates, and objects were.
At home, his parents had taught him how to use chopsticks, wash clothes, and take care of himself.
But no one had ever taught him what death truly was.
Only when you witnessed something like this with your own eyes did you understand how shocking it was to watch a life vanish before you.
As for seeing those dead soldiers bite through poison capsules and kill themselves, if he told anyone about it after returning to the Outer World, they would probably think he had made it up.
Li Shutong looked at Qing Chen and asked, "Is this your first time witnessing death?"
"Mm," Qing Chen replied, pursing his lips.
"Are you afraid?" Li Shutong asked.
"A little." Qing Chen nodded.
"Do you know that everyone has two lives?" Li Shutong smiled. "The second begins when you realize that life only comes once."
From that moment on, you would begin to understand the importance of time, clearly realizing just how much of it you had once wasted.
For some reason, the more afraid Qing Chen became at that moment, the calmer he felt inside.
He examined his past and contemplated his future.
Li Shutong looked at him and asked, "Those three dead soldiers were most likely after me. Since you helped me uncover them, I owe you a favor. You can trade it for something from me. What do you want?"
Ever since they had started playing chess, Li Shutong had asked him several times what he wanted in exchange.
Qing Chen said, "I want a list of Li Corporation members."
"Strange," Li Shutong said. "Why not ask for my method of becoming a transcendent? There aren't many people in this world who can make me owe them a favor, but you are the only one who doesn't seem to value the opportunity."
Qing Chen thought for a moment. "Because such a small matter is nowhere near equal to the value of your secret. I can't trade something like this for a chance to transcend the ordinary."
Li Shutong smiled. "How would you know if you don't try?"
Qing Chen continued, "Besides, when the time is right, you'll give it to me yourself. There's no need to trade for it."
Li Shutong's smile deepened. "You're smarter than I thought, more patient, and you know how to endure. But you're right. Some things aren't meant to be traded for. When the time comes, you'll naturally obtain them. Though I was somewhat disappointed that you had never seen blood before, after thinking it over, if you were indifferent to life, I would find you boring instead."
After saying that, he had Lin Xiaoxiao fetch a list of Li Corporation members. "I'm curious. What do you want this for?"
"I don't need to explain its purpose, do I?" Qing Chen asked.
"Fine, fine, I won't ask." Li Shutong waved his hand with a wry smile. "This is repayment for my favor. Do whatever you want with it."
That night, Qing Chen waited in his cell for the return countdown.
He had originally thought Lin Xiaoxiao would come again for another nightmare test, but he did not show up.
Perhaps Lin Xiaoxiao believed that nightmares could no longer restrain him, so there was no point in testing him.
Or perhaps Li Shutong felt there was no need to test him anymore.
Vaguely, Qing Chen felt that he was drawing ever closer to the path of becoming a transcendent.
Before the countdown even reached zero, he lay directly on the cold bedboard and closed his eyes to sleep. Unlike the anxious waits for his return before, witnessing death had instead made Qing Chen increasingly calm.
When he opened his eyes again, he was already lying in his little house on Xingshu Road. Birds chirped outside the window, and dawn had arrived.
He glanced at the white markings on his arm. The countdown read 40:20:21.
It looked like another two days.
The crossing process is completely silent. It can't even wake someone who is asleep, Qing Chen thought.
After two tense days, Qing Chen suddenly felt much more relaxed once he returned to the Outer World.
Yet at that very moment, he had already begun looking forward to crossing over again. More opportunities awaited him there.
He put on his school uniform and prepared to leave, only to see Jiang Xue leading Li Tongyun when he opened the door.
"Morning, Aunt Jiang Xue. This crossing... everything went okay?" Qing Chen asked.
"It was fine," Jiang Xue said with a smile. "I'm about to take Xiaoyun to school. Come over tonight after class. I'll buy some fish and ribs, and we'll celebrate."
"Celebrate what?" Qing Chen asked, puzzled.
"I'll tell you tonight. You'll find out then." Jiang Xue left with a smile, leaving Qing Chen deep in thought.
On the way, Qing Chen opened his phone and stared at the trending searches, wanting to see what new developments had emerged after this crossing.
Sure enough, one trending topic caught his attention: Foreign news reports said that someone was selling intelligence on the dark web claiming that killing a traveler would not allow one to inherit their chance to cross over.
Qing Chen froze when he saw the news, because behind those few words was the disappearance of a living life.
Reality was often bloodier than words could convey.
When he arrived at school, he found that a large crowd had gathered outside the neighboring classroom again.
Qing Chen grabbed Yu Junyi, his class's academic representative, who was watching from the edge of the crowd. "What's going on? What is everyone looking at?"
Yu Junyi explained, "Didn't they say there was a traveler in the class next door? His name is Liu Dezhu. He came to school just now, and everyone is asking him about crossing over."
Qing Chen was stunned. He had not expected Liu Dezhu to come to school.
After all, the guy had been taken away by the mechanical prison guards the moment he arrived. During the two days Qing Chen had spent there this time, he had not seen him again.
Qing Chen had assumed Liu Dezhu would be traumatized and suspend his studies like Huang Jixian, but instead, he was sitting in the classroom as though nothing had happened.
At that moment, Liu Dezhu was surrounded by classmates. Someone loudly asked, "Where did you appear after crossing over?"
"Yeah, what identity did you have over there?"
"How come you don't have any mechanical limbs? I saw that lots of travelers have them."
"Did you really cross over, or are you just joking?"
Everyone fired questions at him one after another. Qing Chen squeezed forward, wanting to hear where Liu Dezhu had been taken by the mechanical prison guards and what he had experienced afterward.
However, Liu Dezhu seemed to have been pushed to the limit by the questions. "I really did cross over!"
"Then why don't you have mechanical limbs?"
Liu Dezhu raised his chin. "A lot of people don't have mechanical limbs, okay? And are mechanical limbs even a good thing? Let me tell you, I crossed over into Prison No. 18 and met Li Shutong!"
The classroom suddenly fell silent.
He Xiaoxiao was a very famous game streamer, and her fame had surged even further after the traveler incident, especially among students.
So everyone knew that Prison No. 18 was an extremely important place, and Li Shutong was an extremely important figure in the Inner World.
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