Chapter 53 White Hole Prison (30)

Chapter 53: White Hole Prison (Thirty)

A cold sensation spread from his palm. Shi Wu could feel that the dagger seemed to be alive, pumping a sinister, murderous will into his veins. He closed his eyes, allowing that power to surge through his body, grinding all the pain, anger, and resentment into a blade-like hatred.

[Yes, just like that.] System 000's voice carried a distorted, satisfied chuckle, whispering in his mind like an artist admiring his own masterpiece. [Anger is your strength, hatred is your armor. See? This is the real you. Go, Shi Wu, go and enact your own 'justice'.]

With a dull *clack*, the heavy circular iron door of the cell slowly swung inward, like a giant beast opening its maw leading to hell.

Shi Wu gripped the dagger tightly, exhaled a deep, turbid breath, and slowly walked towards the iron door.

Beside the door, the several guards who should have been on duty now stood rigidly in place like puppets. Their eyes were vacant, their movements stiff, completely ignoring the prisoner walking out of solitary confinement on his own, as if he were just an invisible wisp of air. Or perhaps, they had already received an unquestionable order from a higher authority.

Shi Wu knew this was the path "System 000" had paved for him—a bloody shortcut leading to "revenge" and also to "destruction".

Without a moment's pause, he walked straight out of the solitary confinement cell and onto the oily, fleshy corridor.

He didn't look back, heading only in one direction—the direction Bao Yan had just left.

He was going to find him.

He was going to get some answers.

He was going to... kill him.

This thought spread like wildfire in his mind. With each step, the power flowing from the dagger grew stronger, the ache in his waist became more dulled, and his hatred for Bao Yan grew more intense.

And it was at this moment that he felt something different.

That feeling of being watched—the cold, dissecting gaze that had been shadowing him relentlessly, seeping into every pore since he set foot on the island—was slowly, silently, fading away.

It was like a colossal monster that had been lurking in his mental world, tightly wrapping him with its slimy tentacles, suffocating him. And now, this monster seemed to believe he was completely broken, that he had embarked on the "correct" path it desired. So, with satisfaction and a hint of arrogance, it loosened those tentacles.

The invisible mountain pressing down on his soul vanished.

The air even seemed to freshen a little, and the flow of his thoughts became freer than ever before.

Shi Wu's footsteps stopped dead in the vast, oppressive corridor.

He stood there, head bowed, his overgrown bangs obscuring his current expression.

A few seconds later, he slowly turned around.

When he raised his head again, those amber eyes, which should have been filled with hatred and killing intent, now held only a deep, unfathomable, and chilling calm.

—Finally fooled you.

He no longer headed in the direction Bao Yan had left. Instead, he spun around sharply and broke into a run towards the warehouse's location from his memory, in the completely opposite direction.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the prison, the surviving prisoners were granted their expected "yard time".

Over the broadcast, the Warden's voice remained gentle, announcing that to welcome tonight's momentous "Special Prayer Meeting", all prisoners would be granted an afternoon of free time to "purify their minds, tidy their appearance, and welcome the baptism of divine grace."

In the empty activity area, most prisoners remained numb, like programmed robots mechanically repeating walks or sitting quietly. However, amidst this gray stillness, two figures stood out starkly.

The girl and the tall, thin man huddled in an inconspicuous corner, clearly still in shock.

"What do we do?" the tall, thin man's voice trembled as he hugged his knees, his face pale. "One's dead, one's been taken away... next, it'll definitely be us."

The girl didn't speak, just bit her lip hard.

The image of Scarface falling, the sight of Shi Wu being dragged away—these were branded into her mind, impossible to shake off. Fear and helplessness surged like a tide, almost drowning her.

But it was precisely in this extreme despair that a flicker of defiance sparked to life from the depths of her heart.

She couldn't just wait like this.

She remembered what Shi Wu had said to her in the library: "Don't be afraid. You're actually braver and smarter than you think."

She also remembered Scarface, that bold and careful man who had been willing to turn back and pull her to safety when it mattered.

She couldn't just wait here, cowardly.

Just then, a task that had never appeared before quietly surfaced on her personal panel:

[Hidden Task Triggered: The Deity's Mercy. Please explore the Warden's past, help this lost soul rediscover his true 'self'.]

The hidden task had finally appeared?!

"We... we have to do something." The girl took a deep breath, as if mustering all her strength to speak.

"Hidden task?" The tall, thin man was stunned, then let out a bitter laugh. "Do what? What can we do? Fight the Guard Captain and his men? What's the difference between that and suicide?"

"No," the girl's gaze was unusually firm. She remembered the room they had discovered at the end of the library. "We go back. Back to the Warden's old office."

"Are you crazy?!" the tall, thin man exclaimed in a hushed voice. "Go back now? What if we're discovered..."

"This is our only chance!" the girl interrupted him, her voice soft but with conviction. "Have you forgotten? That newspaper, that family photo... The Warden wasn't always like this. He used to be a good person too. If we can make him remember the past, maybe there's still a chance for things to change!"

The tall, thin man fell silent. He looked into the girl's eyes. In those eyes, which had always held fear and panic, now burned a flame he had never seen before—a flame called "determination".

He remembered Shi Wu's hoarse roar telling them to run even as he was pinned down; he remembered the bewildered expression on Scarface's face before he died. A surge of warmth rose from his heart, dispelling some of the chill.

Yeah, they couldn't just do nothing and wait to die like cowards.

"Alright!" He gritted his teeth, as if also making a decision. "Let's do it! We're dead either way. Might as well make our deaths count. But we need a plan. There are fewer patrols now, but they're not completely gone..."

The two huddled together, using the corner's shadow, and began discussing infiltration routes and timing in low voices.

Perhaps the girl who once only knew how to cry and rely on others had truly begun to think independently and take initiative in this moment.

Meanwhile, Shi Wu had once again infiltrated the warehouse filled with the smell of rust and blood.

Wherever he went, the surveillance cameras overhead would conveniently turn in the opposite direction just in time. Occasionally, patrolling guards approaching head-on would be pulled by invisible strings, mechanically turning onto another corridor a second before seeing him.

The power of "System 000" was opening doors for him unreservedly, unaware that he was no longer the lured prey, but a wolf in sheep's clothing, about to turn on its master.

The warehouse was empty. Only the spot where Scarface had fallen and the pool of blood, now dried to a dark brown, remained, looking startling under the dim light.

Shi Wu's gaze lingered on the bloodstain for several seconds. Uncontrollably, a memory surfaced in his mind—

It was when they had just landed on the island, walking through that eerie, disorienting grove.

Back then, Scarface had turned around with a panicked look and said to them, "I... I just looked back and saw the person at the very end of the line... now has a different face." He spoke with conviction. "I looked at that guy a few extra times at first because he also had a scar on his face... and then in the blink of an eye, the scar was gone."

At the time, everyone thought it was just a supernatural phenomenon in the instance, a hallucination meant to scare them.

But now, Shi Wu looked at the cold corpse on the ground.

That was no illusion. The one who had vanished was none other than the scarred man himself.

Perhaps in that very moment, the real scarred man—the one who valued brotherhood—had already been silently "replaced" by this island. And the one who had been with them ever since was nothing but a perfect "sleeper agent" wearing his skin and possessing his memories.

"Rest in peace," Shi Wu whispered, bowing deeply toward the scarred man's body.

Without lingering, he then walked straight to the deepest part of the warehouse, toward the white body bag that the scarred man had accidentally knocked open, lying there quietly.

Shi Wu crouched down and skillfully sliced open the bag once more, revealing the Warden's face, frozen in sorrow and serenity.

He didn't act immediately. Instead, he first used his dagger to carefully cut a relatively clean, palm-sized piece of white fabric from the body bag.

Then, he refocused his gaze on the corpse's little finger—a congenitally twisted and deformed bone, long hidden beneath a glove.

Using the white cloth as a pad, he gently held the corpse's cold right hand with his left, then raised the pitch-black dagger, aiming at the finger joint.

*Snap.*

A faint, crisp sound of bone breaking echoed sharply in the silent warehouse.

Shi Wu carefully wrapped the small, eerie finger bone in the white cloth and clenched it in his palm.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the girl and the tall, thin man had also successfully and cautiously retrieved from the office the newspaper documenting the Warden's life and the long-yellowed family portrait, a snapshot of all a family's happy times.

The evening bell had tolled.

The broadcast for the prayer meeting echoed in every corner of the prison, urging all the "prisoners" to head to the final sanctuary.

Author's Note: