Transcendent Status

Qing Chen had once wondered if others also had a countdown on their arms.

It was precisely because of this speculation that he had been so cautious when taking the subway to distant places to verify certain things, so as not to be traced later.

But then a series of unexpected events followed, causing Qing Chen to almost forget this speculation.

Now, it seemed his guess had finally become a reality.

The number of people who had transmigrated from Earth to this world must be considerable. There were two in this prison alone, let alone the world outside.

How many transmigrators were there? Hundreds? Thousands?

And why did they transmigrate?

Qing Chen couldn't be sure.

"These new arrivals are quite something. Are they stupid or something?" someone said, looking at the distressed teenager with a smirk. "I heard he got 7 years for tax evasion? He didn't cry when he was brought in yesterday, only now."

"Who dares to mess with the tax authorities these days? They must be idiots..."

Qing Chen looked towards the source of the voice. It was a young man fitted with mechanical legs. Seeing Qing Chen look over, the man smirked. "Hey, newbie, are you ready?"

The surrounding crowd burst into laughter, as if they were all waiting to see a good show.

This place, despite being so sci-fi and advanced, seemed to have changed nothing about the darker side of humanity.

Qing Chen frowned but ignored them. He looked back at the teenager surrounded by drones.

He suspected he was the only one who knew why the teenager hadn't cried yesterday but only today: the teenager, like him, had just transmigrated from the "greenhouse" of Earth, and was having trouble accepting this reality.

This wasn't a guess; he had seen the teenager before.

Qing Chen was 17 this year and a sophomore at Luocheng Foreign Language School.

This distressed teenager was a freshman.

They had never interacted before, but Qing Chen had a photographic memory and found it hard to forget anyone he'd seen.

This made Qing Chen a bit surprised. Could it be that if their locations before transmigration were close, their locations after transmigration would also be close?

He couldn't be sure.

However, Qing Chen did notice one thing: everyone here was speaking Mandarin, with not a single person speaking a dialect.

At this moment, robot guards were rushing up the stairs. Each step covered five stairs, accompanied by a distinct hydraulic transmission sound.

The teenager was crying uncontrollably now.

Half the people in this prison fortress were fitted with mechanical limbs. Encountering someone from Earth in a place surrounded by these steel beasts felt like meeting an old acquaintance in a foreign land.

Most people would feel a sense of security when meeting a "compatriot" in a strange place.

But Qing Chen didn't feel that way. Looking at the teenager on the verge of collapse, he realized that "compatriots" might not necessarily help you; they could even become a burden.

Not everyone could remain calm when facing this newly arrived mechanical civilization.

What he needed to do now was to survive these first two days and then return to Earth to understand why all this was happening.

Qing Chen quietly observed with a low profile. For some reason, his mood at this moment had become even calmer.

Until now, all the prisoners were still standing motionless.

He scanned the prison fortress. The 9 robots that had rushed in from the outer gate of the prison sector had left 3 to maintain order in the plaza below, while the rest went upstairs to take away the panicked teenager.

The plaza below was vast, feeling about the size of a football field.

The open plaza was divided into several areas: a dining area, a fitness equipment and entertainment area, a reading area, an audio-visual area, and so on...

There were no partitions between these areas, making it like a large free-activity space. Along the edges of the plaza were 8 large steel gates.

Those gates were so large they could probably allow armored vehicles to pass through directly.

Suddenly, Qing Chen froze. He saw that three people had appeared by the dining tables in the plaza below at some point.

A middle-aged man in his forties was sitting, while two young people stood beside him with smiles, looking up at the prisoners upstairs with interest.

In front of the middle-aged man was a chessboard with a finished endgame setup.

Most astonishingly, next to the chessboard on the dining table lay a cat, curled up and dozing. It was gray, with two tufts of pointed fur on its ears, looking a bit like a lynx, but not quite.

A Maine Coon.

They could keep cats in prison?!

Qing Chen was somewhat astonished. His gaze had been drawn to the "compatriot," so much so that he hadn't noticed when these three people and the cat had arrived in the plaza.

At this moment, the middle-aged man was staring intently at the chessboard, as if the events upstairs had nothing to do with him.

What surprised Qing Chen the most was that even the robots in the plaza seemed to act as if these three people and the cat didn't exist.

The tense seriousness upstairs contrasted sharply with the relaxed composure downstairs, like two different worlds.

Among these three people, the two young men were wearing normal blue and white striped prison uniforms, while the middle-aged man was wearing a white training uniform.

In this dim and oppressive environment, that touch of white was exceptionally refined.

Qing Chen mused to himself, could this be the warden?

No, although he wore a training uniform different from the other prisoners, there was a small black inmate number embroidered on the chest of the uniform.

This middle-aged man was also an inmate in the prison, just the most special one.

As if sensing his gaze, a young man beside the middle-aged man suddenly turned his head and looked back at him with a smile.

Qing Chen immediately withdrew his gaze.

After the distraught Earth boy was taken away, the prison fortress's broadcast sounded again: "Proceed to the dining hall in order for your meal."

As soon as the voice finished, Qing Chen saw all the prisoners turn right and form a long line, advancing towards the plaza along the stairs.

Only then did Qing Chen have the opportunity to count the total number of prisoners: including himself, 3102.

This prison fortress had seven floors in total, with prisoners on each floor forming a team. Led by the prisoner at the front of the team, they proceeded to the dining hall in an orderly fashion.

During this time, no one cut in line, nor did anyone leave the formation. Qing Chen felt as if everyone here was operating according to a predetermined program, as if everything had been "regulated."

This order only ended when everyone had received their food from the robot counter.

It seemed that after getting their food, they were free to move about.

Qing Chen and his group lived on the fifth floor, so by the time it was their turn to get food, the people on the first floor had already finished their meals. Qing Chen saw two burly prisoners dragging a young man towards a prison cell closest to the dining hall, with many others following and cheering them on.

Someone even instructed, "Hurry up and drag him into the cell, don't hurt him in the plaza, be careful of the robot guards intervening."

The prisoner dragging the young man responded nonchalantly, "Don't worry, I'm not a fool like Yang Jie."

At the same time, the young man struggled and roared, "Let me go!"

But just as he was about to be dragged into the cell, his voice turned into a plea, "Please, spare me!"

However, no matter what he said, no one paid attention to his request; instead, it only drew more boisterous laughter.

Suddenly, the old man in front of him, who had a mechanical eye, turned around and smiled, "Stop looking around, it'll be your turn soon."

Qing Chen glanced at him calmly. The old man suddenly felt that the gaze of the young man opposite him seemed a little different. For some reason, he felt a sudden tightening in his heart.

After getting their food from the counter, the formation scattered.

Qing Chen noticed three people subtly moving closer to him, as if intending to control him!

He immediately quickened his pace, and they did the same, tightly surrounding him!

The next moment, the scene within the prison fortress seemed to replay in Qing Chen's mind.

Eighteen steel beast-like machine guns on the dome were waiting quietly, like slumbering tigers.

Seventy-two drones hung in the slots of the gray alloy ceiling, like dormant hornets.

210 surveillance cameras slowly rotated their angles, and three robots stood with guns in the plaza.

Prisoners received their meals one by one from the counter, with some complaining that it was the same unappetizing synthetic meat again today.

Someone was washing dishes by the sink, and some were washing dishes for others.

As more and more people finished their meals, the plaza began to liven up. People moved about, some heading to the fitness area, others gathering to watch the newcomer ceremony.

However, everyone consciously avoided the middle-aged man who was staring at the chessboard.

The man continued to look intently at the chessboard, with no one approaching within five meters of him, like a calm and hard reef on the sea surface, forcing all surging seawater and ships to give way.

Qing Chen suddenly picked up his meal tray and accelerated through the encirclement of the three people, walking towards the middle-aged man.

Seeing his direction of movement, many people suddenly realized what this newcomer intended to do.

Gradually, more and more people turned their attention to him, whispering amongst themselves. The expressions on the faces of the prisoners were as if they were waiting to see him make a fool of himself.

There were many new inmates who noticed the middle-aged man's peculiarity, and many new inmates who wanted to rely on him to escape their predicament. Qing Chen was never the only one.

But in fact, everyone had failed.

However, Qing Chen ignored the taunts and continued to carry his meal tray as if no one else was there, moving through the crowd.

Before he could get close, he was stopped by the young man beside the middle-aged man, who said with a smile, "Newcomer, I know what you're planning, but we won't help you."

The other party had guessed Qing Chen's intention, and Qing Chen cast his gaze behind the young man.

The middle-aged man remained oblivious to everything happening around him, as if he hadn't heard anything.

He looked seriously at the middle-aged man and said, "Pawn advances one, I can solve this endgame."

Only then did the middle-aged man look up, and the plaza suddenly fell silent. The cat also opened its eyes.

Thanks to Hai Hun Yi for becoming a Silver Great Ally of this book.

Thanks to Li Ren, Teacher Ren, Snoring Rat, Big Iceer, Hot Commenter on Flirty Talk, Yan Zuzu, and Wang Jianing for becoming Allies of this book!