Chapter 28

In the 18th prison, the mechanical prison guards carried away the bodies of the three dead assassins.

There was some silence in the prison, and everyone was silent.

Qingchen sat by the dining table, lost in thought, his face somewhat pale.

This was the first time he felt fear, and the unease in his heart gradually turned into physical discomfort, making it hard to digest the breakfast he had just eaten.

At school, his teachers taught him what functions and subjects, predicates, and objects were.

At home, his parents taught him how to use chopsticks, how to do laundry, and how to take care of himself.

But no one had ever taught him what death was.

Such things, you only truly understand when you see them with your own eyes, the shock of life dissipating before your eyes.

As for the sight of the assassins biting the poison sacs to commit suicide, if he were to tell others about it in the real world, they would probably think he was making up a story.

Uncle Li looked at Qingchen and asked, "First time witnessing death?"

"Uh-huh," Qingchen responded, pursing his lips.

"Scared?" Uncle Li asked.

"A little," Qingchen nodded.

"Do you know, everyone has two lives," Uncle Li smiled, "the second life begins when you realize you only have one life."

From that moment on, you start to tell yourself the importance of time and clearly realize how much time you have wasted.

For some reason, the more fearful Qingchen felt, the more calm he became inside.

He reviewed his past and also envisioned his future.

Uncle Li looked at him and asked, "These three assassins were most likely targeting me, so helping me find them counts as a favor. You can exchange for something from me, what do you want?"

Since they started playing chess, Uncle Li had asked him several times what he wanted to exchange for.

Qingchen said, "I want a list of members of the Li family consortium."

"Strange," Uncle Li said, "why don't you exchange for the method to become an extraordinary being? There aren't many people in this world who can make me owe them a favor, but the only one who doesn't cherish the opportunity is you."

Qingchen thought for a moment and said, "Because this small matter is far from being worth your secret. Trying to exchange for an extraordinary opportunity with this would be futile."

Uncle Li laughed, "How do you know if you don't try?"

Qingchen continued, "Besides, when the time is right, you will give it to me yourself, no need to exchange."

Uncle Li's smile grew wider, "You are smarter and more patient than I thought, and you know how to endure. But you are right, some things are not for exchange, they will come when the time is right. Although I am a bit disappointed that you haven't seen blood, I thought about it carefully, and if you were indifferent to life, I would find it boring."

After saying that, he asked Lin Xiaoxiao to fetch a list of Li family members, "I am curious, what do you want this for?"

"I don't need to explain its use, do I?" Qingchen asked.

"Never mind, never mind, I won't ask," Uncle Li waved his hand, laughing and crying, "This is to repay your favor, do what you want with it."

...

At night, Qingchen waited in his cell for the countdown to return.

He originally thought that Lin Xiaoxiao would come to do the nightmare test again, but she didn't.

Perhaps the other side thought he was no longer bound by nightmares, so the test was useless.

Or maybe, Uncle Li thought there was no need to test anymore.

Subconsciously, Qingchen felt that he was getting closer to the path of becoming an extraordinary being.

The countdown hadn't reached zero, but he lay down on the cold bed and closed his eyes to sleep. Unlike the previous times of anxious waiting, Qingchen, after witnessing death, felt even more calm.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already lying in his small house on Xingzhu Road, the chirping of birds coming from outside the window, and the sky was bright.

He glanced at the white lines on his arm, the countdown read 40:20:21.

It seemed like another two days.

"The process of crossing is silent, even a sleeping person cannot be startled," Qingchen thought to himself.

After the tense two days, Qingchen felt a sigh of relief upon returning to the real world, feeling much lighter.

However, he was already looking forward to crossing again, as there were more opportunities waiting for him there.

He put on his school uniform and was about to go out when he saw Jiang Xue leading Li Tongyun.

"Good morning, Aunt Jiang Xue, is everything okay with this crossing?" Qingchen asked.

"Everything's fine," Jiang Xue smiled, "I'm just about to take Little Yun to school. Come to our house after school, I'll buy some fish and pork ribs to celebrate."

"Celebrate what?" Qingchen was puzzled.

"We'll talk about it tonight, you'll know then," Jiang Xue smiled and left, leaving Qingchen deep in thought.

On the way, Qingchen opened his phone and stared at the trending topics, wanting to see what new and interesting things had happened after this crossing.

Sure enough, a trending topic caught his attention: foreign news reported that someone on the dark web was selling information, stating that killing a crosser would not inherit the crossing opportunity.

Qingchen was stunned when he saw this news, as these few words meant that a life had been lost.

Reality was often more brutal than what words could convey.

When he arrived at school, he noticed that a large crowd had gathered in the neighboring class.

Qingchen pulled aside his classmate, the study committee member Yu Junyi, who was joining the crowd, and asked, "What's going on, what are they all looking at?"

Yu Junyi explained, "Didn't they say there was a crosser in the neighboring class, Liu Dezhu? He just came to school, and everyone is asking him about the crossing."

Qingchen was taken aback; he didn't expect the other party to come to school.

After all, this guy was taken away by the mechanical prison guards as soon as he entered, and during the two days of this crossing, he hadn't seen him again.

Qingchen had thought that the other party would have some psychological trauma and would take a leave of absence like Huang Jixian, but he didn't expect him to be sitting in the classroom as if nothing had happened.

At that moment, Liu Dezhu was surrounded by classmates, and someone loudly asked, "Where did you appear after crossing?"

"Right, what was your identity after crossing?"

"Why don't you have mechanical limbs? I've seen many crossers with them."

"Are you really a crosser, or are you just joking?"

Everyone was asking questions, and Qingchen pushed his way forward to hear where the other party was taken by the mechanical prison guards and what he experienced.

However, Liu Dezhu seemed to be getting flustered, "I really did cross!"

"Then why don't you have mechanical limbs?"

Liu Dezhu stiffened his neck, "Aren't there many people without mechanical limbs? And having mechanical limbs is a good thing? Let me tell you, I crossed to the 18th prison and met Uncle Li!"

The classroom suddenly fell silent.

He Xiaoxiao was a very famous game streamer, and her reputation had soared even more after the crosser incident, especially among students.

So everyone knew that the 18th prison was a very important place, and Uncle Li was a very important figure in the other world.