Chapter 3 Sophia’s Castle (1)

Chapter 3: Sophia's Castle (Part 1)

Shi Wu braced himself against the inside of the ventilation duct, smearing the blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. He grunted in pain. That damn Bao Yan had hit him hard.

He spat out a mouthful of blood-tinged spit and gritted his teeth as he inched forward. The light behind him, sliced by the fan blades, flickered on and off. His elbows ached from being scraped raw, and sweat-soaked hair clung to his forehead. He was a complete mess.

"Damn it, these Federation dogs won't even bother to renovate this piece of junk."

Who would have thought the Federation Security Bureau was still using such an old-school ventilation system?

What century was this? Even toothbrushes could monitor body temperature in real time and cleanse your psyche, yet they insisted on sticking with this old, human-maintained system.

Their reasoning was downright absurd: supposedly, it was to make prisoners hear the natural wind day after day, to make them dream about the "outside world" and deepen their punishment, to break their spirit.

"What a bunch of stick-in-the-mud lunatics," Shi Wu muttered under his breath.

After crawling a bit farther, he finally felt the metal edge of the exit. Just as he was about to climb out, his terminal suddenly beeped, flashing red. A string of garbled code started scrolling wildly.

The signal bar went dead, the map glitched out, and the screen flickered erratically.

"Fuck."

He glanced over: error codes popped up one after another—location failure, data link severed, identity recognition scrambled. Even his forged permissions had completely failed.

This wasn't ordinary interference.

This could only happen in—the White Zone.

Shi Wu's heart lurched.

The White Zone—a term that sent a chill across the galaxy, a dead zone for all information. Wherever it appeared, civilization was cut off. All signals, AI, and networks would drop into a void; even basic communication would instantly die.

Such extreme environments usually only existed on abandoned planets or near black holes.

How could he have run into one inside a high-security Federation Security Bureau building?

A thread of unease wound through Shi Wu's chest.

But turning back wasn't an option. As he thought this, he kicked open the vent at the end of the duct and flipped down from above, landing steadily.

A deep silence hung around him. The walls were a heavy metallic gray, the floor covered in some kind of anti-magnetic material. No surveillance, no guards—even the air was dead and heavy.

He scanned the area warily, then suddenly caught sight of a line of text glowing a faint blue on the wall:

Federation Level-Zero Restricted Area · High-Risk Prisoner Isolation Layer · Unauthorized Entry Will Result in Immediate Execution.

"...Just my luck. I've waltzed right into my future home."

He'd entered a place even dust couldn't penetrate, and he'd done it so easily.

He'd really screwed himself this time.

Shi Wu pondered for a moment, realizing that since he'd become a space pirate, he'd made countless enemies. But if someone had this kind of pull within the Federation, there seemed to be only one person.

Even the clothes he was wearing right now were...

Shi Wu's face instantly clouded over. He kicked the wall bearing the warning.

"Shi Wu, you really have the worst fucking luck."

With that, he slid down to sit against the wall, tilting his head back. Watching his terminal flash red incessantly, a pins-and-needles sensation prickled over his scalp.

This couldn't go on.

He glanced to the side. Not far away, in the corner, there seemed to be a special isolation cell.

It was enclosed by black glass on all sides, with only a thin observation slit in the middle, like a morgue drawer. Under the dim yellow light, he could make out a faint, grayish-white silhouette through the slit.

Something—or someone—seemed to be lying inside.

Shi Wu hesitated, but he wanted to find a "living thing" to ask for directions. Even if it was a death-row inmate who had committed heinous crimes, it was still a person, not some cold machine.

After all, he was currently a "poor bastard" who had mistakenly entered the White Zone, with a failed terminal, a map that wouldn't load, and no clue which direction home was.

Shi Wu finally stood up and took a few steps closer. He saw a figure leaning slightly against the inside of the glass wall, half-lying, curled up. The prison uniform was disheveled, and straw-yellow hair stuck to skin that was pale and unnaturally white—like a two-week-old corpse that hadn't started to rot.

Shi Wu narrowed his eyes and tiptoed closer.

"Hey," he called out softly, his tone deliberately casual and flippant.

"Future roommate? Wake up, give me a tour of the place? Your digs are pretty trendy."

He expected no response, but the curled-up figure shuddered violently.

Then Shi Wu saw the person suddenly sit up as if electrocuted, their entire body convulsing violently.

Their neck arched back, spine contorted into an unnatural curve. Hands clawed at the floor, fingers bent back at a sickening angle. A low, guttural sound tore from their throat, like a dying animal caught in a trap.

Suddenly, the person's eyes snapped open.

An eerie light glowed in their pupils. They stared fiercely, almost with a cursed obsession, at Shi Wu outside the glass.

Muttering, "You can't escape... none of you can escape..."

Through the slightly fogged glass, their gazes met.

Shi Wu instinctively took half a step back, intending to observe more closely, but the person abruptly stopped convulsing.

Then, like a marionette with its strings cut, their body slumped to the floor.

Without warning, they were dead.

Their eyes glazed over, black blood trickled from the corner of their mouth, and their body heat visibly drained away.

Then, something even more horrifying unfolded before Shi Wu's eyes—

The corpse began to slowly disintegrate, as if having instantly undergone tens of thousands of years. It dissolved from the edges outward, particles scattering rapidly, as if the entire body was being 'deleted.'

Shi Wu froze in place, even forgetting to breathe. He had seen death before, but never had "death" been elevated to this level—where even death was no longer natural but directly erased.

He took another half-step back, his spine pressing against the cold metal wall. Only one thought echoed in his mind:

What the hell is going on?

Suddenly, he felt the world spin. Darkness clouded his vision, and sharp electric buzzes reverberated in his mind—

Attention! Player "Shi Wu," binding successful.

Attention! Player "Shi Wu," binding successful.

Attention, player "Shi Wu," binding successful.

Immediately after, amid a crackling sound, an emotionless mechanical voice rang out—

High compatibility detected. Congratulations, player "Shi Wu," successful team member binding...

An intense jolt of electricity swept over him, and Shi Wu instantly blacked out.

"Ding—You have arrived at the Newbie World. Heads up, everyone."

Shi Wu slowly opened his eyes. The first thing he heard was that same mechanical voice.

He frowned. Where the hell was he?

He looked around and found himself in an old-fashioned castle, the kind the empire's traditional nobility loved.

Ugly, inconvenient, massive, and, more importantly, ridiculously expensive.

As a space pirate, Shi Wu found it hard to understand these old-timers' obsession with pursuing old relics.

He was sitting at a long table in the very center of the castle's great hall. The table was neatly arranged with some ancient books and faintly glowing metal objects, giving off a mysterious and archaic vibe. Around the table sat several men and women with varied expressions.

When he looked up, his gaze collided with the face of the person opposite—he went subtly quiet for half a second.

Bao Yan? What was he doing here too?

Suddenly, a mechanical voice echoed throughout the hall—

"Let me introduce myself. I am System 000."

"This Newbie World round has landed on the instance—Sophia's Castle. Difficulty: One Star."

"Now, allow me to continue introducing this world's background story—"

Despite being a stiff mechanical voice, it feigned a know-it-all tone. Shi Wu could even pick up on a hint of sadness in it regarding the upcoming tale.

"Once upon a time, on a beautiful planet, there was a very wealthy merchant. He had a most beloved child named Sophia. To make Sophia happy, he built this magnificent castle. However, he later discovered that Sophia in the castle would often vanish inexplicably. At first, he thought it was just Sophia being too playful, until that day, the day he is unwilling to mention... boo hoo..."

"It can cry too?" Shi Wu widened his eyes.

"Ahem, my apologies, everyone. Got a bit carried away with the emotions." The mechanical voice cleared its throat twice, then continued sorrowfully. "Then, the merchant discovered that Sophia had disappeared completely! From then on, the poor merchant was sick with worry. Boo hoo... What a sad story..."

Just as System 000's acting skills were hitting their peak, an explosive roar suddenly erupted from the table.

"Fuck!"

Shi Wu looked to his left. It was a man with white hair, a pale complexion, wearing the cheapest Star-Waste attire. He didn't seem to be from the Federation, probably a black-market pirate from some remote star system.

"What the hell is this?"

The older man was extremely irritable, his face screaming "urgent matters at hand." He even stood up, slamming the table so hard it echoed. "This is illegal confinement! What instance? What system? Let me out now, and kowtow a few times while you're at it, or I'll sue you under interstellar law until you're... ruined."

Before he could finish.

"Biu—" A cheerful, almost childlike notification sound chimed—from the system.

The next second, screams erupted.

The white-haired man instantly turned into a pile of pulp, crimson blood flowing down the mahogany chair onto the floor.

Amid the heavy scent of blood, the hall fell into a deathly silence.

Shi Wu leisurely raised a hand and covered his nose.

"Please don't say insulting things about me, 000~ I might secretly write you down in my little grudge notebook, you know."

Despite the playful, coquettish tone, it sent a chill down everyone's spine.

A vibrant life could be extinguished in an instant before their eyes—absurd and bizarre to the extreme, more bloody and grotesque than those 18+ games banned by the Federation.

The system's words also reminded Shi Wu of the recently exploded popularity of instance-based holographic games across the stars. They had gradually faded into obscurity due to being too boring before, but for some reason, they had become hot again lately. This place seemed just like a game. However, it exuded strangeness everywhere—no way to quit, no basic rules, and people were genuinely dying.

Shi Wu lowered his gaze, staring slightly dazedly at the pile of minced meat, until he noticed extremely faint particles floating around it—identical to the particles generated by a prisoner's annihilation!

"Oops, we've wasted so much time. My apologies." Although the mechanical voice apologized, there wasn't a trace of remorse; it felt more like mockery.

"The background story for this instance has been introduced. Everyone's main quest is: Find Sophia. The side quest is: Leave Sophia's Castle."

"Note: Since this is a rotating newbie instance, you only need to complete the main quest to pass this instance."

"The instance begins now. For the time ahead, everyone, do your best~"

The electric current sound that had accompanied System 000's appearances vanished completely, and only then did everyone truly relax.

Shi Wu lightly tapped his fingertips on the table. What exactly was the connection between the White Zone, the prisoner, and this inexplicable castle?

Suddenly, he felt a cold gaze upon him. Looking up, it was indeed Bao Yan again.

Even if he couldn't win in other aspects, he wouldn't lose in attitude. Shi Wu raised a middle finger towards the opposite side, flashing a mocking smile.

Author's Note: