Release the Prisoner

Actually, Zhang Ye's original plan was to hand all this work over to Pietro.

After all, he was a speedster. Since he could bring Zhang Ye in and collect keys to all the cells without alerting the other soldiers or the warden, that proved Pietro was absolutely capable of opening every cell door in no time flat.

Unfortunately, that plan wouldn't work.

The entire Mutant Prison's power supply was housed in the Military Factory aboveground, and the two were linked. If anything went wrong in the Mutant Prison, the power system would immediately activate an automatic defense grid.

This automatic defense grid was a highly advanced electric barrier. Anyone who crossed it would be electrocuted to ash, and the barrier would envelop the entire Mutant Prison in an instant, trapping everyone inside.

Even if a few powerful or special mutants could break through the barrier, what good would it do? They'd be caught again in a few days, and letting a handful escape wouldn't achieve Zhang Ye's goal.

So that idea was impossible. Likewise, destroying the power system first to prevent the barrier from activating, then coming in to release the prisoners—that plan wouldn't work either.

Because once the power system was wrecked, the entire Mutant Prison would go into lockdown. The whole army would surround the place. Pietro couldn't dodge bullets in such tight quarters; he'd only end up dead. Even if he succeeded, how many mutants could he free? It was just as useless as the previous plan.

To pull this off, there was only one option: release the prisoners first, then destroy the power system from the outside to disable the electric barrier. That way, more mutants could break free. With so many mutants charging together, those soldiers outside wouldn't stand a chance.

To make that happen, Zhang Ye and Pietro had to split the work. The power unit was heavily guarded; Zhang Ye didn't have the confidence to destroy it under those conditions, so that task had to go to Pietro. He himself would handle the lock-picking.

With the division of labor clear, Zhang Ye and Pietro immediately split up. Zhang Ye hid the keys, then pretended to be a soldier changing shifts, strolling out of the room.

Walking through the prison corridors, the dampness, the chill, the stench of blood and rotting flesh mixed with the grating noise of chains scraping the floor—it felt like being in hell.

Zhang Ye kept his head down, trying to minimize his presence.

At the same time, he curiously glanced out of the corner of his eye at the caged mutants lining both sides of the passage. Some were asleep, others awake, staring at him with icy eyes.

They didn't know Zhang Ye, but they knew the uniform he wore. In the Mutant Prison, crossing a guard was a dangerous thing.

Zhang Ye had to admit, Warden Fisk had trained these prisoners well.

He recognized quite a few faces: Banshee, Psylocke, Sprite—all former X-Men from his past life—and others who showed no obvious mutant abilities, making it hard to pin down their identities.

The whole prison was drowsy and sluggish, even the guards. As he passed a half-asleep soldier, the guy just glanced at Zhang Ye, then nothing more—he closed his eyes and dozed off again.

Condensed water dripped from the prison ceiling. In the darkness, he could faintly hear what sounded like sewage flowing through drainage pipes, a sound that felt oppressive and hopeless.

Zhang Ye couldn't imagine the inhuman treatment these imprisoned mutants endured every day. He admitted to himself that if it were him, three days here would probably drive him insane.

Heading down the stairs, the stench grew worse. On the third level, he saw the mutants who had degenerated into monsters—like Nightcrawler, whom Pietro had mentioned. Besides him, Angel was here too, with one wing broken off, and Beast, turned into a giant blue monster.

And there was Shadowcat Kitty, fused with a pillar. As Zhang Ye passed her, she showed no reaction at all, her eyes vacant as if she were already dead.

"You're early today?" A guard on duty yawned as he spotted Zhang Ye, surprised his colleague was so diligent, showing up ahead of schedule.

"Early? Not really. I think I'm late," Zhang Ye said flatly.

Then, in the next instant, Zhang Ye pulled out a silenced submachine gun from his coat and sprayed the drowsy soldiers in front of him.

No one expected Zhang Ye to strike out of nowhere, and they were too groggy to think straight. Without any resistance, they were riddled with bullets.

The gunfire instantly roused the prisoners. The mutants who had become monsters perked up excitedly, catching the scent of blood like sharks. They pressed their bodies against the cell bars, reaching out toward Zhang Ye, trying to grab something.

"Quiet, you freaks!" Zhang Ye knew that the moment he fired, the surveillance cameras had already caught him. There was no helping it—he had to speed up.

"I'm letting you out." He stripped off the soldier's jacket. Instead of using the keys directly, he extended his left hand. A Particle Beam gathered, and a Repulsor Ray fired instantly, blasting the nearest cell door to pieces.

That cell held Beast. Seeing his cage broken, he charged out, then glanced at Zhang Ye, his gaze finally settling on Zhang Ye's metallic left hand, as if fearing that devastating weapon.

After a few seconds' pause, seeing that Zhang Ye wasn't stopping him, Beast let out a roar and lunged at the soldiers' corpses, devouring them ravenously. The guy was clearly starving.

Watching this, Zhang Ye couldn't help taking a few deep breaths. Honestly, after all this time in this world, he still hadn't gotten used to it. Scenes like this always churned his stomach.

Ignoring Beast as he feasted, Zhang Ye quickly moved to other cell doors and unlocked them with the keys.

After Zhang Ye blasted Angel's head to pieces when he tried to attack him, the rest went much smoother. These monsters might be driven by wild instincts, but the remnants of their sanity made them understand one thing: if they didn't want to die, they'd better not mess with the human helping them escape.