Chapter 4

Regression Countdown: 47:59:58.

Regression Countdown: 47:59:57.

Did he travel through time?

So, the end of the countdown means he has traveled to another dimension, and the regression countdown refers to the time to return.

Thinking about this, Qingchen let out a sigh of relief. Being able to return is a good thing.

Although no one might be thinking of him there, his mother has a new life and doesn't have time to think of him, and his father... should be in the detention center.

So, he probably doesn't have time to think of him either.

But even so, he still wants to go back and take a look.

What he needs to do now is to live well during these 48 hours.

So... it's the first day of the countdown.

Qingchen began to re-examine this "new world" before him.

The moment the world reassembled, Qingchen saw the prison uniform on his body and instantly understood his situation.

He was in a gray, dim room, with a technologically advanced alloy gate on one side, and the rest of the walls were completely sealed.

The 90 cm wide door had a small window, but it was currently closed.

The cell was a single room, with only a bed inside, covered with a thin sheet.

Next to it was a storage rack, which, apart from a blanket, toothbrush, and towel, was empty.

The walls of the cell were gray, but what puzzled Qingchen was that under the faint light from outside, the gray walls clearly emitted a metallic sheen.

Metal walls?

Qingchen sat up and touched the wall in a daze. Where would such a cost-effective building material be used?

Clearly, this was not the world he once knew.

He quickly looked down at his palm, and the fingerprints were exactly the same as before, even the pore positions were identical.

This was his own body.

After traveling to this world, the bone-removal knife in Qingchen's hand was gone, and the clothes he was wearing were also gone, but his body was indeed his own.

Fingerprints and pore positions can't be faked.

Qingchen sat on the bed, hugging his knees, staring at the heavy alloy door, lost in thought.

Gradually, the noise outside began to increase, and there were even people pounding on the alloy door.

Qingchen slowly walked to the door and tried to listen to what they were shouting, but before he could hear clearly, the alloy door made a clear sound of air pressure and opened.

He looked outside, where a U-shaped corridor lay.

This square prison fortress had seven floors, each with densely packed cells.

In the vast and spacious prison fortress, only a few lights were on, and the open alloy doors revealed dim cells, like cages for wild beasts.

Qingchen stood inside the door, as if taking a step forward would lead him to an unknown life.

In the vast prison, a broadcast suddenly sounded from somewhere, with a pleasant female voice: "It's 7:00 AM, breakfast time. Please all inmates line up in order and proceed to the dining hall for breakfast."

The voice echoed through the prison fortress, and Qingchen still stared at the threshold.

It seemed that as soon as he stepped out, everything would be different.

Actually, he felt that he had already changed from a certain moment.

When did it start?

Probably... when he thought he had only two and a half hours left in his life, so he did what he most wanted to do but had never dared to before.

He even reported his own father, so what else was there to fear?

He stepped out of the cell.

But the next moment, he was stunned again.

In the not-so-wide corridor, a prisoner stood in front of each cell door.

Qingchen's pupils suddenly constricted:

An old man hunched his back and looked at him, and in his eye socket was a mechanical eye that glowed with a faint red light. The entire right eye socket was a mechanical structure, extending to the right temple.

The mechanical eye didn't look delicate, even a bit rough, but for some reason, Qingchen felt a sense of oppression from the eye staring at him.

It seemed that the other person was analyzing the details of his body.

Just like he used his memory to analyze others.

A burly middle-aged prisoner had a completely mechanical right arm. He moved his fingers, and Qingchen could hear the metallic sound of the mechanical parts moving in his hand.

The thick metal arm looked like knotted steel muscles, strong and fierce.

In this entire prison fortress, about half of the people had mechanical limbs.

Mechanical civilization.

These four words popped into Qingchen's mind.

Before he could continue thinking, the burly prisoner in the neighboring cell smiled at him: "Hey, new guy, don't eat too much for breakfast, or it'll look bad when you throw it up."

As he spoke, laughter echoed down the corridor: "I heard twelve new people came in last night, so we can have some fun today."

"This kid doesn't have any mechanical limbs, so he probably doesn't have any connections outside."

Hearing the word "new guy," Qingchen was stunned, thinking the other person knew he had just traveled from Earth.

But he quickly realized that "new guy" probably just meant he had just entered the prison, and the other person didn't know he was from Earth.

Qingchen frowned, thinking that the "fun" the other person mentioned would likely be a disaster for him.

The question was, how could he survive among these mechanical "beasts"?

He suppressed his inner agitation and fear. As an ordinary high school sophomore facing sudden and fierce changes, the only thing Qingchen could do was to force himself not to show any unusual behavior.

Because he didn't know what consequences would arise if his origin from another world was exposed.

Suddenly, a teenager on the fourth floor corridor went berserk: "What is this place! I want to go home! I don't want to stay in this hellhole, who are you people!? I'm Huang Jixian, my father is the chairman of Luo Cheng Yongli Group, stay away from me!"

As he spoke, the teenager ran down the corridor in a frenzy.

The others didn't move, standing still as if watching a show, still in line to go to the dining hall.

Someone asked, "Where is Luo Cheng?"

Suddenly, Qingchen heard a buzzing sound from above. He looked up and saw four drone-like machines detach from the high, deep ceiling and start to fall.

Qingchen's gaze lingered on the ceiling, where eighteen Gatling-like six-barreled machine gun turrets were neatly "embedded" in the alloy walls, hanging upside down.

As the panicked teenager ran, nine of the machine guns' barrels began to turn!

"Please stop moving," a female voice from the drones said, "This is a final warning, please stop moving."

Then, a female voice broadcasted through the prison fortress: "Please all inmates remain in place."

In just over ten seconds, the four drones had cornered the teenager in a part of the corridor, with gun barrels pointing at him from below each drone.

At the same time, a gate opened below the prison fortress, and nine robots with unknown weapons rushed in at full speed.

The teenager, terrified, fell against the wall, while Qingchen coldly observed everything.

The other person's actions were a bit extreme, but they helped Qingchen understand a lot.

Machine guns, drones, robots, mechanical limbs—countless pieces of information flooded his mind.

But what surprised Qingchen the most was that, as he watched the teenager's every move, he suddenly realized: he might not be the only one from Earth who had come here.

Not the first, and probably not the last.

(Chapter 4, please recommend and vote)