Chapter 5

Qingchen had once wondered if there might be others with countdowns on their arms.

It was because of this speculation that he had been so cautious, taking the subway to a distant place to verify some things, to avoid leaving any clues for others to find later.

However, a series of subsequent events almost made him forget this speculation.

Now, it seemed that his speculation had ultimately become reality.

There must have been quite a few people who had crossed over from Earth to this world. Just in this prison, there were two, let alone the rest of the world.

How many people had crossed over? Hundreds? Thousands?

Why had they crossed over?

Qingchen couldn't be sure.

"This new guy is interesting. He must be a fool," someone said, looking at the collapsed teenager with a grin. "I heard he was sentenced to seven years for tax evasion? He didn't cry when he was brought in yesterday, but he's crying now."

"Who dares to mess with the tax authorities these days if not a fool..."

Qingchen looked in the direction of the voice and saw a young man with mechanical legs. When he noticed Qingchen's gaze, he smiled and said, "Hey, new guy, are you ready?"

The crowd around them burst into laughter, as if they were all waiting for a show.

This place, despite its advanced and sci-fi nature, seemed to have done little to change the dark side of human nature.

Qingchen frowned but ignored them, turning his attention back to the teenager surrounded by drones.

Only he knew why the teenager hadn't cried yesterday but was crying today: the teenager, like him, had just crossed over from Earth, the "greenhouse," and was struggling to accept the reality.

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

Qingchen was 17 years old and in his second year of high school at Luocheng Foreign Language School.

The collapsed teenager was in his first year.

They had never interacted, but Qingchen had a photographic memory and found it hard to forget anyone he had seen.

This made Qingchen somewhat surprised. Could it be that people who were close to each other before crossing over would end up close to each other after crossing over?

He couldn't be sure.

However, Qingchen noticed something: everyone here spoke Mandarin, and no one spoke dialects.

At that moment, the mechanical guards were rushing up the stairs, each step covering five stairs, accompanied by the unique sound of hydraulic movement.

The teenager was already crying uncontrollably.

Half of the people in this prison fortress had mechanical limbs. Encountering an Earthling in this place, surrounded by steel beasts, felt like meeting an old friend in a foreign land.

Most people would feel a sense of security when they met someone from their hometown in a strange place.

But Qingchen didn't feel that way. Looking at the nearly collapsed teenager, he realized that "fellow countrymen" might not necessarily help you and could even become a burden.

Not everyone could remain calm when faced with this new mechanical civilization.

His goal now was to survive the first two days and then return to Earth to understand why all this was happening.

Qingchen observed quietly, and for some reason, he felt more calm than before.

At this moment, all the prisoners were still standing still.

He looked around the prison fortress. The nine robots that had rushed in from outside the prison gate had left three to guard the square downstairs, while the others went upstairs to take the panicked teenager away.

The square downstairs was spacious, about the size of a football field.

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

There were no barriers between these areas, making it a large, open activity space. At the edges of the square, there were eight large steel gates.

These gates were so large that they could allow armored vehicles to pass through.

Suddenly, Qingchen was stunned. He saw that three people had already appeared at a table in the square downstairs.

A middle-aged man in his forties was sitting, with two young men smiling and standing guard beside him, looking up at the prisoners upstairs with interest.

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

What was most surprising was that a cat, gray with pointed ears that looked a bit like a lynx but wasn't, was lying on the chessboard, dozing with its paws tucked in.

A Maine Coon.

Cats in a prison?

Qingchen was shocked. He had been so focused on the "fellow countryman" that he hadn't noticed when these three people and the cat had arrived in the square.

At that moment, the middle-aged man was concentrating on the chessboard, as if the events upstairs had nothing to do with him.

What was even more surprising was that the robots in the square seemed to ignore the three people and the cat.

The tension upstairs and the ease downstairs were a stark contrast, like two different worlds.

Of the three, the two young men were wearing the standard blue and white prisoner uniforms, while the middle-aged man was dressed in a white martial arts uniform.

In this dark and oppressive environment, the white uniform stood out.

Qingchen wondered if this was the warden.

No, although the man was wearing a martial arts uniform different from the other prisoners, the uniform had a small black prisoner number embroidered on the chest.

The middle-aged man was a prisoner, but a very special one.

As if sensing his gaze, one of the young men beside the middle-aged man suddenly turned and smiled at him.

Qingchen immediately looked away.

After the collapsed Earthling was taken away, the prison fortress's intercom announced, "Form lines and proceed to the dining area for meals."

As soon as the announcement was made, all the prisoners turned right and formed a long line, heading down the stairs to the square.

At this point, Qingchen had a chance to count the total number of prisoners: 3102, including himself.

The prison fortress had seven floors, and the prisoners on each floor formed a line, led by the prisoner at the front, proceeding to the dining area in an orderly manner.

During this time, no one cut in line, and no one left the line. Qingchen felt that everyone was operating like a well-programmed machine, as if everything was "constrained."

This order continued until everyone had received their meals from the robot windows.

It seemed that after getting their meals, they could move freely.

Qingchen lived on the fifth floor, so by the time it was their turn to get food, the first floor prisoners had already finished eating. He saw two muscular prisoners dragging a young man toward the nearest cell on the first floor, with many others following and cheering.

Someone instructed, "Hurry and get him into the cell. Don't hurt him in the square; be careful the robot guards don't intervene."

The prisoner dragging the young man responded casually, "Don't worry, I'm not as stupid as Yang Jie."

Meanwhile, the young man struggled and shouted, "Let me go!"

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

No matter what he said, no one listened to his pleas, and instead, he was met with more laughter.

Suddenly, an old man with a mechanical eye turned and laughed, "Stop looking around; it'll be your turn soon."

Qingchen calmly looked at him, and the old man suddenly felt that the young man's gaze was different. For some reason, he felt a sudden tightness in his heart.

After getting their meals, the formation dispersed.

Qingchen noticed that three people were subtly moving closer to him, as if trying to control him!

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

In the next moment, the scene in the prison fortress flashed through Qingchen's mind.

Eighteen steel machine guns on the ceiling were quietly on standby, like sleeping tigers.

Seventy-two drones hung in the slots on the gray alloy ceiling, like sleeping wasps.

Two hundred and ten surveillance cameras slowly adjusted their angles, and three robots with guns stood guard in the square.

Prisoners were lining up to get their meals, and some complained about the tasteless synthetic meat.

At the sink, some were washing their plates, and others were washing plates for others.

As more and more people finished eating, the square became lively. Some went to the fitness area, and others gathered to watch the initiation of the new prisoners.

However, everyone instinctively avoided the middle-aged man staring at the chessboard.

The man continued to focus on the chessboard, and no one approached within five meters of him, like a calm and solid reef in the ocean, where all the turbulent waves and ships had to give way.

Qingchen suddenly held his tray and accelerated through the three people's encirclement, heading toward the middle-aged man.

Seeing his direction, many people suddenly realized what the new prisoner was trying to do.

Gradually, more and more people turned their attention to him, whispering and waiting to see his humiliation.

Many new prisoners had noticed the middle-aged man and tried to rely on him to escape their困境, but none had succeeded.

However, Qingchen ignored the mocking voices and continued to walk through the crowd with his tray, as if no one else was there.

Before he could get close, he was stopped by one of the young men beside the middle-aged man, who smiled and said, "New guy, I know what you're thinking, but we won't help you."

The young man had guessed Qingchen's intentions, and Qingchen looked past him.

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

Qingchen looked at the middle-aged man and said, "Pawn moves forward one, I can solve this endgame."

At that moment, the middle-aged man finally looked up, and the square suddenly fell silent. The cat opened its eyes.

...

Thank you, Haihunyi, for becoming a Silver Alliance member of this book.

Thank you, Liren, Ren Laoshi, Dahaodehaizi, Da Binger, Jiangsaohuashangreping, Yan Zuzu, and Wang Jianing, for becoming the patrons of this book!