Chapter 25

After the chaos, the prisoners slowly got up. Dozens of mechanical prison guards entered the square with a整齐的液压传动声, directing the prisoners to clean up everything that had been knocked over.

In the dining hall, Guo Huchen was sitting on the ground nearby, as if he were a monk in deep meditation.

Lin Xiaoxiao looked at the black rubber bullets scattered on the ground and sighed, "When the immortals fight, the mortals suffer. The fighters themselves are fine, but the prisoners who didn't fight are the ones who really suffer. Hey, Guo Huchen, isn't it said that you are compassionate and often do good deeds? What about those who are affected by you?"

Without even lifting his eyelids, Guo Huchen replied, "You're talking to me about harming the innocent in prison? Here, every single one of them is guilty."

"Hypocrite," Lin Xiaoxiao sneered.

"Also, let me emphasize this," Guo Huchen opened his eyes and looked at Lin Xiaoxiao, "I'm not a monk, don't describe me with words like 'compassionate.'"

After saying that, he closed his eyes again and focused on regulating his breathing.

During the fight with Li Shutong, he appeared to be unharmed, but now his internal organs were truly in pain, as if they had been burned by fire.

Seeing him meditate quietly, the others left him alone. Lin Xiaoxiao gave Ye Wan a nod, and suddenly, an invisible force field expanded around them.

Qingchen had seen this ability before, when black rain fell from the steel sky, all the raindrops that fell on Ye Wan were deflected by this force field.

Seeing Qingchen's confusion, Lin Xiaoxiao explained with a smile, "Speak freely, your voice won't go out."

Li Shutong sat at the dining table, holding a large cat in his arms, and said to Qingchen, "This morning, I saw Lu Guangyi interrogate those people during the new prisoner ceremony. Was that your order?"

"It was," Qingchen knew the other party was already aware of his relationship with the Qing family and that Lu Guangyi followed his orders, so he didn't hide it.

"Why did you interrogate them?" Li Shutong asked.

"I wanted to see if there were any other forces competing for the forbidden object," Qingchen lied, needing a reasonable explanation for his actions.

Li Shutong nodded, "I like your honesty, but I noticed that Lu Guangyi didn't abuse the new prisoners this time. Was that also your order?"

"Yes," Qingchen said.

"But I remember that when you first came in, you didn't help the other new prisoners," Li Shutong said.

"Within my means," Qingchen said.

Li Shutong smiled but didn't comment.

If he couldn't protect himself, Qingchen would watch others die without helping. That was his principle.

His life had never been smooth, so he learned to be selfish early on.

This was the attitude life had given him, not something he chose.

At this moment, Lin Xiaoxiao suddenly looked at Guo Huchen, who was not far away...

Qingchen turned his head and saw that Guo Huchen was still sitting on the ground with his eyes closed, but his long arms were hanging by his sides.

He saw the other person using his index and middle fingers to support his entire body, slightly off the ground.

Then, his four fingers moved like walking, inching closer to Ye Wan's force field...

Clearly, he had realized that sitting there, he couldn't hear the conversation, so he wanted to sneak closer.

This made Qingchen somewhat amused and exasperated. A two-meter-tall, tattooed brute who had just fought fiercely was now pretending to meditate, but was actually trying to eavesdrop.

The contrast was too great.

Seemingly sensing the others' gazes, Guo Huchen calmly moved himself back to his original position with his four fingers, as if nothing had happened.

This scene even made Li Shutong laugh, "Alright, let's call it a day. It's a bit of a pity we couldn't play chess today. I'm going to read a book."

Before leaving, Lin Xiaoxiao squatted in front of Guo Huchen and said with a smile, "If you lose, just stay put. We really don't want to make enemies with the Spades. We know it's tough for you out there in the wilderness, but don't cause us trouble, okay?"

Guo Huchen lifted his eyelids, "I didn't lose to you, why are you so smug?"

Lin Xiaoxiao raised an eyebrow, "Do you think I can't do anything to you?"

Guo Huchen said calmly, "Try touching a single hair on my head."

Lin Xiaoxiao looked at his shiny bald head, "…?"

The rumors were just rumors; this Guo Huchen was completely different from what he had heard!

Qingchen ignored their bickering and went to the window to get his meal, then wolfed it down.

In the real world, he was so poor that he had eaten compressed biscuits for two days after returning. His home had rice, flour, and vegetables, but no meat, which he couldn't afford.

The food here, though average, at least had the taste of real meat.

Qingchen felt a bit nostalgic; the prison food in this world was actually better than what he usually ate in the real world.

While he was eating, he inadvertently looked up and suddenly noticed that a quarter of the 210 cameras in the 18th prison had silently turned to face him.

It seemed that his ability to find a shooting blind spot in a split second had caught someone's attention.

But he didn't know who was behind those cameras.

After Lin Xiaoxiao finished bickering with Guo Huchen, he stood up, moved Qingchen's plate aside, and got a new one from the window, tapping on it and saying to the robot inside, "The boss said to give him real meat from now on, as much as he wants."

Qingchen was taken aback, "Why?"

Lin Xiaoxiao smiled mysteriously, "You'll find out soon, and it might not be a good thing."

...

At night, as Qingchen was brushing his teeth in his cell, he suddenly felt a wave of drowsiness. He immediately sensed something was wrong.

However, this time, he didn't collapse and fall asleep like before. Instead, he calmly rinsed his mouth and, after lying down on the bed in a comfortable position, slowly closed his eyes.

The nightmare began.

In the dream, Qingchen found himself in a desert, with two people sitting on a sand dune opposite him.

The nightmare world was filled with yellow sand and a scorching sun.

After just a few seconds, Qingchen felt his lips dry and crack.

One of the people opposite him pleaded, "Qingchen, give us a drink from the water in your backpack, or we'll die."

Qingchen took off his backpack and opened it, revealing a bottle of water inside.

He didn't say a word.

The person couldn't hold back any longer, "We won't drink it for free, name your price."

Suddenly, a voice in Qingchen's ear asked, "What price will you set for your fellow travelers who are about to die of thirst?"

Qingchen coldly looked at the person and said, "I'll let the one next to you die of thirst first, then let him set the price."

As he spoke, the person opposite him turned into Lin Xiaoxiao, while the other person slowly faded away like a mirage.

Lin Xiaoxiao was speechless, "Are you even human?"

"I knew this was your nightmare, so I won't feel any sympathy," Qingchen found a comfortable spot to sit.

"Truly strange," Lin Xiaoxiao said, sitting opposite him, "You can now enter the nightmare and remain fully conscious and retain your memory. You should also be able to resist the nightmare's call."

"Sure, I can," Qingchen replied simply.