Chapter 51 White Hole Prison (28)

Chapter 51: White Hole Prison (Twenty-Eight)

That was no illusion.

The bag, which had initially been virtually weightless, now felt as if it were being slowly filled with some invisible substance. Its weight was steadily increasing. Shi Wu could feel the muscles in his arms tensing, his knuckles turning white from the strain.

He instinctively glanced at Scarface ahead and noticed that his previously relaxed stride had also become heavy, with fine beads of sweat breaking out on his temples. Clearly, he had sensed this bizarre change as well.

The girl had it even worse; she was practically dragging the cargo, which was taller than she was.

Feeling Shi Wu's eyes on her, the girl turned her head. Her eyes were wide with a silent, terrified question: "You feel it too, don't you?"

Shi Wu's face remained expressionless. He merely gestured forward with his chin, signaling her to keep walking and not stop. He didn't dare move to help her.

However, when they reached the darkest central area of the passageway, something even more bizarre happened.

"Hoo..."

An extremely faint, moist breath suddenly sounded right next to Shi Wu's ear. The sound was incredibly close, almost brushing against his earlobe, as if someone were leaning in as far as possible, pressing their mouth against his ear, breathing in sync with him.

He paused mid-step and immediately tilted his head to listen.

Scarface and the girl behind him noticed his strange behavior and stopped in their tracks, tense.

The entire passageway instantly fell into dead silence.

Apart from the growing thunder of their own heartbeats, there was nothing.

No breathing, no sighs, not even the echo of footsteps remained.

Scarface shot him a questioning look: "What's wrong?"

Shi Wu frowned and slowly shook his head, signaling, "It's nothing."

He lowered his head to look at the utterly still cargo in his arms. Perhaps it was just an auditory hallucination caused by the overly empty and silent environment.

They continued forward. The light deeper in the passage grew dimmer, almost swallowing their shadows.

Just as Shi Wu stepped into a patch of thick darkness, the straight, elongated bag in his arms—in his peripheral vision—suddenly folded in half!

As if the person lying inside had abruptly sat up in an extremely stiff posture!

"!"

Shi Wu's heart skipped a beat, and he nearly threw the bag on the spot.

Was it finally coming back to life?!

He snapped his gaze back, only to see the bag in his arms was still that same straight, rigid, lifeless elongated shape.

Everything was exactly as before.

Was it an illusion?

Shi Wu couldn't be sure.

However, before this "illusion" could fully subside, the truly strange event descended upon them!

"Thump! Thump-thump!"

The bag in his arms began to struggle violently without any warning! This was no longer an illusion, but a real, powerful impact! Whatever was inside seemed to have come alive, frantically striking the wrapping with its head and limbs, as if it would tear its way out at any second!

"Mmph!" The girl also let out a muffled groan. The bag in her arms was similarly writhing violently. Scarface was even knocked back several steps by the immense force, his face pale as a sheet.

At that very moment, Shi Wu saw that the bags carried by the NPC prisoners walking ahead were also struggling in the same way.

But the expressions on those prisoners' faces remained as dull and lifeless as stagnant water.

Then, one of the prisoners, expressionless, unzipped a side zipper on his bag.

To the astonishment of Shi Wu and the others, he slowly slid his hand into the violently struggling bag!

What happened next was bizarre.

The prisoner's hand inside the bag seemed to stroke something gently, as if offering comfort.

Then, the bag, which had been frantically thrashing just moments before, miraculously calmed down.

Several other prisoners followed suit. They reached their hands into their respective bags, as if petting a misbehaving pet. Soon, all their bags also fell still.

Shi Wu, Scarface, and the girl exchanged glances, each seeing extreme disbelief in the others' eyes.

"Put... our hands inside?" the girl mouthed silently, her face full of resistance.

The bag in Shi Wu's arms struggled even more fiercely, almost flying out of his grasp. He looked at the backs of the prisoners ahead, who had already regained their composure and continued walking, then looked down at the living thing in his arms that was about to "explode."

It seemed there was no other choice.

Shi Wu gritted his teeth and gave Scarface and the girl a "do the same" look. With great difficulty, he freed one hand, fumbled for the zipper on the bag, and was about to pull it open when he suddenly remembered the task requirements.

Damn it, he almost forgot!

This was a trap! Those NPC prisoners acted that way either because they were no longer "human" and weren't bound by the rules, or... because they had abandoned thought and were completely following the instinct to "soothe the living thing."

"Don't move!" he blurted out in a low, urgent whisper, forgetting the rule against talking for a moment.

Scarface and the girl, who were about to imitate the prisoners and unzip their bags, were startled by his low shout and instantly froze. They looked at Shi Wu, their faces filled with confusion and terror.

The bag in Shi Wu's arms thrashed even more violently. Clenching his jaw, he rapidly recalled the rules on the wall in his mind.

"① Do not open the packaging," "② Do not converse," "④ Do not question," and...

"③ Do not observe changes in the cargo"!

Do not observe?

A bold idea instantly flashed into Shi Wu's mind.

He abruptly looked up, gestured toward his own eyes with his gaze, and then squeezed them tightly shut.

He mouthed three words silently to the other two:

"Close—your—eyes!"

The girl and Scarface were stunned. Close their eyes? Walk with their eyes closed in this godforsaken place?

But the look in Shi Wu's eyes carried a convincing force.

The two exchanged a glance and ultimately chose to trust him.

Then, a miracle happened.

The moment they closed their eyes, the bags in their arms, which had been struggling wildly as if about to "come back to life," went instantly still. All the writhing, bumping, and jumping vanished without a trace.

The passageway was straight. They kept a slight distance from one another, carefully inching forward step by step, relying on their senses.

After a few steps, Shi Wu's damned curiosity resurfaced.

Hearing faint rustling sounds ahead, he couldn't resist and quietly cracked his eye open a slit.

*Thud!!!*

The bag in his arms, as if a switch had been pressed, jerked violently upward, nearly knocking him off balance!

Shi Wu was so startled he immediately squeezed his eyes shut tight.

The world returned to silence.

"..."

So that's it.

A mischievous, wicked grin slowly curled at the corner of Shi Wu's mouth.

He suddenly felt like this process wasn't so terrifying after all.

And so, he began a silent game, known only to him and the "cargo."

He snapped his eyes open.

The cargo in his arms: *Thud! Thud-thud! Thud-thud-thud! (Frantically struggling)*

He shut his eyes just as quickly.

The cargo in his arms: "......" (Instantly quiet)

He lazily opened one eye.

The cargo in his arms: *Thud! (A tentative nudge)*

He closed it again.

The cargo in his arms: "......"

Open. Close. Open. Close again...

The cargo: ......

The cargo: #@$%&!

In this one-sided, 'pleasant' interaction, they finally reached the end of the passageway.

The three opened their eyes to find themselves standing on a metal platform. Ahead was a massive, deep, jet-black slanted opening, like a slide leading into an abyss.

Above the opening, a line of red text was glaringly obvious: "Please throw the cargo inside."

Several prisoners had arrived before them and were queuing up, with blank expressions, throwing their quiet bags one by one into the opening.

The bags slid down the slope and quickly disappeared into the darkness.

Everything seemed normal, except they never heard the cargo hit bottom.

Until an NPC prisoner further back in the line, after throwing his bag down, turned around and, as casually as tossing trash, took a step and jumped down himself!

The entire process was natural, fluid, without any hesitation, as if it were just part of the task.

The others barely had time to react!

Scarface's eyes bulged.

The girl was so terrified she slapped a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream.

Shi Wu looked at the prisoners and noticed that those who jumped afterward were the ones who had opened their cargo earlier.

So this was the real consequence of violating the rules.

The three exchanged a glance, not daring to hesitate for a moment. They quickly stepped forward and forcefully threw their own cargo into the abyss.

Task completed.

They didn't linger for even a second at that seemingly all-devouring opening. Silently, they turned and retraced their steps along the passageway they had come from, which now felt even more sinister and terrifying.

Their subsequent trips went quite smoothly once they understood the rules.

Soon, the "mountain of cargo" blocking the passage was almost cleared.

But just as they were about to deal with the last few obstructions at the left edge, an accident occurred.

Scarface was struggling to drag a stuck bag out from a recess. To exert force, he leaned his back heavily against the towering "mountain of cargo" beside him.

They heard a faint rustling sound. The seemingly stable "mountain wall" beside him, destabilized by his lean, suddenly shifted! A tightly wrapped, exceptionally thick white unit, pressed at the very top, wobbled and silently plummeted from nearly three meters high!

The bag landed on the metal floor at their feet with a soft thud! Then, for some reason, the bag opened.

The "thing" inside was exposed to the three of them, completely unobstructed.

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

Shi Wu stared fixedly at that arm and the profile of the face, pale and lifeless yet still recognizable, peeking from the torn opening. It felt like all the blood in his body rushed to his head at once!

It was actually him!

Author's Note:

There were a few minor changes earlier, but it's not a big deal, folks. The last chapter had quite a few edits; if it feels disjointed, you can give it another quick read.