In Prison No. 18, the prisoners were so frightened by the sudden upheaval that they did not dare make a sound.
Even the prisoners who usually loved lifting iron began setting their dumbbells down gently, afraid of disturbing the behemoths lurking within the prison.
Before this, there had only been one Li Shutong in the prison. Though no one could afford to offend him, thankfully, this true god had never paid anyone much attention.
In the underground world under his control, as long as you understood the rules, you would not die.
But things were different now.
Even an idiot knew the Qing Consortium would not send someone to the prison for no reason.
Guo Huzhan had arrived, and so had the Qing Consortium. A storm was coming.
At the dining table, Guo Huzhan was also eating real beef. He wolfed it down, while Qing Chen ate more slowly.
Standing behind Li Shutong, Ye Wan suddenly asked Guo Huzhan, "Stop focusing only on eating. Was that person one of yours? I heard there are still a few places in the wilderness where people speak strange languages."
"Not one of ours. That kid doesn't look like he's from the wilderness either," Guo Huzhan said, rubbing his gleaming, greasy lips. "When have you ever seen a Wilderness Person with skin that soft and delicate?"
"True enough." Ye Wan frowned.
"Our people have all been found by Brother Qing Chen already, so don't worry. I came here alone!" Guo Huzhan said cheerfully. "Could you get some meat for my three brothers too?"
"Is there a shortage of real meat in the wilderness?" Ye Wan asked disdainfully.
Guo Huzhan sighed. "We have to deal with consortium raids every few days. Who has the time to raise livestock? And two more Forbidden Zones have appeared in the wilderness, nearly costing people their lives. Our living space isn't as vast as you imagine. Of course, if Brother Qing Chen comes, we'll make sure he gets the best food."
Qing Chen froze for a moment. Forbidden Zones—another new term.
The name sounded as though it might be connected to Forbidden Items.
At that moment, Guo Huzhan turned and threw an arm around Qing Chen's shoulders. "Brother Qing Chen, why not come to the wilderness with me? I can't promise anything else, but a talent like you would have whatever you wanted. You could eat anything you pleased!"
Li Shutong was puzzled. "You want to recruit him into the wilderness that badly? Can't you see? He belongs to the Qing Consortium. Wouldn't it be better for him to honestly become the Qing Consortium's Shadow than to go with you into the wilderness?"
"How could those be the same?" Guo Huzhan said carelessly. "There's not even any certainty that he'll become the Shadow yet. A Shadow selection is incredibly dangerous. Why take that risk? If he comes to the wilderness with me, he'll have everything. Why go through all that trouble?"
Li Shutong laughed. "What do you even have in the wilderness? Why should anyone go with you?"
Qing Chen, beside him, said, "He has the empty promises he drew."
Guo Huzhan: "..."
Qing Chen looked calm on the surface, but he alone knew best.
Lin Xiaoxiao would return soon, and he would face the most dangerous trial of his life.
Although Qing Chen had gained two lives after crossing over, he still had no real trump card.
He knew what he was about to face, but he could not run.
Nor did he have anywhere to run to.
In a corner of Prison No. 18, Lin Xiaoxiao sat in an interrogation room, quietly watching Jian Sheng, a traveler from Chuanzhou, across from him.
The interrogation room was dim and gloomy. Under the LED light overhead, dust drifted slowly through the white beam.
Jian Sheng was asleep. Lin Xiaoxiao had just used his nightmare ability to enter Jian Sheng's dream, only to be cursed so viciously that he was forced to end the nightmare...
This was an exceptionally irritable person, Lin Xiaoxiao concluded.
To be honest, he was truly curious where such a talent had come from. The man had managed to curse people out for half an hour without repeating himself once.
Jian Sheng gradually woke up. The moment he saw Lin Xiaoxiao in front of him, he opened his mouth and cursed, "I'll fucking—"
"Stop," Lin Xiaoxiao interrupted with a dark expression. "Don't talk yet. Fuck, just hearing you speak makes the back of my head hurt. Can we have a proper conversation?"
"I'll smack a clump of earwax into your kid's—"
Lin Xiaoxiao: "..."
Just as Jian Sheng was about to continue cursing, Lin Xiaoxiao hurriedly activated his nightmare ability. Jian Sheng felt another wave of drowsiness wash over him and fell asleep again.
"What a sin," Lin Xiaoxiao sighed, then turned and went to the interrogation room next door, where Liu Dezhu sat trembling.
This time, Lin Xiaoxiao did not waste any breath. He directly took Liu Dezhu to see Huang Jixian's condition.
Huang Jixian's hands and feet were secured to a bed in the infirmary with alloy restraints. One moment, he muttered to himself; the next, he struggled with all his strength.
Lin Xiaoxiao said to Liu Dezhu, "See that? Whatever I ask, you answer. If you lie, you'll end up like him. Understand?"
Liu Dezhu had no backbone to speak of. "I'll talk, I'll talk, I'll talk! I crossed over from another parallel universe. I'm a high school student..."
Seeing him spill everything like beans from a bamboo tube, Lin Xiaoxiao immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
If he had known this guy would be so easy to interrogate, why the fuck had he gone and provoked Jian Sheng?
"Where is Luo City?" Lin Xiaoxiao asked bluntly.
"Luo City is just a city where we live," Liu Dezhu said.
"How many people crossed over?"
"I don't know. Some say there are several thousand, while others say there are already more than ten thousand."
Lin Xiaoxiao's voice turned stern. "What are your intentions in crossing over? Why did you approach my boss, Li Shutong?"
Liu Dezhu was on the verge of tears. "We crossed over randomly! Before crossing over, no one knew where they would end up or what identity they would become. We really didn't have any intentions! I approached Li Shutong because someone said that if you found Li Shutong in Prison No. 18, you could obtain a career path..."
This interrogation of Liu Dezhu lasted a full three hours. During that time, Jian Sheng woke up three times in the next room, cursed twenty-seven times, and was knocked unconscious three times again.
At first, Lin Xiaoxiao had not believed in the crossing-over incident. But every word Liu Dezhu said held up under logical scrutiny.
He believed that an idiot who treated his boss like an NPC to grind could not have invented such a logically rigorous framework for the Outer World.
So by now, whether he believed it or not, he had to accept that Liu Dezhu was telling the truth.
The most unbelievable thing in the world had truly happened.
The interrogation room seemed to sink into eternal silence. Liu Dezhu trembled and did not dare speak.
After a very, very long time, Lin Xiaoxiao suddenly asked, "Have you heard a song called 'Farewell'?"
Liu Dezhu was taken aback as well. "Yeah, I know it."
"Does it have a lyric that goes, 'Half of one's close friends have scattered and fallen away'?"
"Yeah. How do you know that?" Liu Dezhu asked, puzzled.
At last, Lin Xiaoxiao's brow relaxed.
He knew.
At that very moment, several thousand travelers had arrived in the Inner World where he lived, taking over the identities of its original inhabitants and continuing their lives.
Those people had different identities, and their fates had only just begun to intertwine because of a strange event.
But that was not the most important part.
The most important part was that he had learned Qing Chen's secret.
Please vote with your monthly tickets. The sixth update, a big chapter, will be out around eight tonight.
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