Chapter 21: Breaking Out of Hell (Part 2)

Chapter 25 Breaking Out of Hell (Part Two)

June 2, seven in the morning. One hour before the prison break.

Zuo Dao had not slept all night. It wasn't that he didn't want to rest, but whenever he thought about what would happen in the morning, even the exhaustion of forty-eight grueling hours in a cage coffin couldn't make him close his eyes.

Hades's Divine Mist could suppress the special abilities of ability users and mutants outside the Constitutional Mutation category. Yet with a sufficiently deep mastery of energy, it was possible to use one's abilities to a limited extent even under the mist's suppression. That was how Zuo Dao had killed a man two days earlier. Whatever the difference in their strength under normal circumstances, at that moment it had effectively been an ability user killing an ordinary person.

Under EAS classification standards, Zuo Dao's ability fell under Energy Conversion, at Paper rank. Before Tian Yi forced him to study energy, he had scarcely explored how to use his ability in actual combat. Otherwise, with his intelligence, he could easily have reached Normal rank or even Strong rank before turning twenty.

Of course, the years that have passed cannot be reclaimed. Many people think that if they'd made this or that choice back then, their lives might have taken a different course, and perhaps they'd be a different sort of person now. There's really no need. Giving up one way of life means choosing another.

If Zuo Dao had become an upright young man who strove to better himself, hated evil, and vowed to defy heaven and change his fate, constantly training and growing stronger until he finally joined the ranks of the world's mightiest, he wouldn't be Zuo Dao. He could change his name to Wang Dao (the Orthodox Way) and go be the protagonist of some other book.

It was precisely because he'd devoted all his talent to crooked pursuits, to promising lines of business such as fraud, smuggling, forging bonds and credit cards, and acting as a criminal intermediary, that he was the Zuo Dao he was today, with his present disposition and circumstances.

The world is always changing people, while people often cannot change the world.

Today, however, Zuo Dao might well witness the extraordinary feat of someone changing the world.

…

At the same time, in another cell block, a madman entirely unlike Zuo Dao was sleeping soundly.

“Blood Owl.” A guard opened the cell door and came inside. “Get up.”

Blood Owl opened his eyes. Two seconds later, almost every sign that he'd just woken up was gone. His eyes were alert, his body temperature rose, and all his organs returned to peak working order.

“What? You do wake-up calls now?” Blood Owl asked casually.

“Cut the chatter. You're wanted for questioning,” the guard replied. “Get up. Move.”

Questioning… Is it Butcher? Blood Owl thought. Of all days, they pick this one. Looks like my luck isn't so good.

He kept his expression neutral, stood, and followed the guard out of his cell without resistance.

Across the central well on the same floor, Yan Kong sat cross-legged on the ground as though meditating. The lights outside had yet to come on, but even in the darkness, he watched everything happening over by Blood Owl without once looking away.

Yan Kong murmured thoughtfully, “A change on the eve of battle is no good omen. Have they found out…? No, impossible. It can only be heaven's will. It seems today won't go as smoothly as that youngster said.”

…

Living conditions in Tidal Prison were poor, even worse than those aboard an aircraft carrier. Space was precious here, and the staff's living quarters occupied only a tiny area compared with the sections used for prisoners. This design, which conserved space and resources, wasn't what Jefferson would have wanted, but it was the most sensible arrangement. As warden, putting up with it himself to set an example was a necessary part of the job.

Take a simple example: razors. The warden hadn't enjoyed the convenience of an electric shaver in years. For someone who cared about his appearance and had to shave every day, lathering up with soap and shaving with a blade wasted quite a bit of time. Yet Jefferson had put up with it for years, simply because Tidal Prison's regular supplies included no AA batteries. There was no use for them. (In this future, remote controls could draw power wirelessly from their main units. Shock rings used the same technology and contained no power source of their own.) Nor were there any spare wall sockets where he could plug in a shaver to charge. That alone showed how bad conditions in the living quarters were. If you wanted to charge some little gadget, you had to unplug an essential appliance that came with the room…

All in all, working at Tidal Prison wasn't much easier than serving time there.

Still, plenty of people wanted a job here, because the pay was generous. Very generous. A few months on rotation earned you a few months off, and the salary was far better than that of a private or junior officer in HL or the military.

But there was another, baffling sort of person who stayed here year after year without a single day's leave. No matter how much money they had saved up, no matter how their families were doing in the outside world, they held to their posts, regarding the guarding of hell as their sole mission for the first half of their lives.

Jefferson was one of them, a man of firm principles. In his mind, everything had its order. Heaven and earth, ruler and subject, father and son; loyalty, duty, justice. Jefferson assigned everything its place in a hierarchy and an order of precedence. What he did might not always be right, but it would always have a rationale.

Such a man would never feel lost or hesitate. Even if he felt a trace of guilt or doubt about something, he would never let it shake him. In this warden's world, human nature was evil, and the law alone was the weapon that could restrain or punish that evil.

As the old saying goes, teach propriety to guide the people; establish laws to rein in the recalcitrant. Jefferson's creed was that since the propriety, righteousness, integrity, and sense of shame encompassed by “virtue” could not restrain human nature, only criminal law could keep these stubborn elements in check.

Of course, after years of service to the Empire, Tidal Prison's warden and head guard would receive tangible rewards. Both were required to step down at fifty. When either left Hell Island, an imperial prince would come to greet him and personally escort this distinguished official, who had spent at least ten years burning himself out at his post, to Tiandu. There, the emperor would grant him a noble title and an inconceivably large pension. The current head guard, Sean, had worked his way up from an ordinary guard precisely for the noble title and reward money. A few more years of endurance, and he too would have what he wanted.

That morning, at seven fifteen, the warden stood before a mirror tidying his appearance, ready to head to his office and begin the day's work.

He turned on the tap, wiped away the lather with a towel, and rinsed his razor clean. Alert and fully dressed, Jefferson was ready to go. He put his toiletries in the cabinet before him and closed the door.

That very second, a classic horror-movie scene unfolded. In the mirror on the cabinet door, Jefferson saw a figure standing behind him.

The washroom was cramped. Even the one in the warden's quarters was scarcely more spacious than an ordinary guard's. There was barely enough room to spread your arms and turn around. Jefferson therefore made no rash move. He was certain of one thing: this was an area without Divine Mist. If an ability user of considerable strength approached him, there was no reason he wouldn't sense it. The person behind him was at most a Normal-rank ability user. As long as he protected his whole body with energy, the other man would have no opening.

“Don't be afraid, Warden. I'm not here to take your life,” Tian Yi said.

“I doubt someone like you could,” Jefferson said bluntly.

“Oh? What if I had a shotgun aimed at your groin right now, ready to thrust it forward, shove it in, and pull the trigger?” Tian Yi said. “Could you still use energy to stop a shot fired inside your intestines?”

Jefferson said, “Hmph… An interesting hypothetical, but there's one problem with your joke.” As he spoke, he moved to the washroom doorway and turned to face Tian Yi. “To me, every move you make is in slow motion.”

Tian Yi smiled. “You were afraid I'd put what I just said into practice in ‘slow motion,’ so you changed position?”

“I have no interest in pointless mind games or verbal sparring,” Jefferson said. “Tell me. Who are you, and how did you get in?”

Tian Yi replied, “Even if I gave you my name, you wouldn't know me. With your capabilities, and I mean no offense, simply organizing the files on the prisoners here is a project measured in years. Never mind that the roster is constantly changing. Some dead prisoners' files can't be destroyed immediately, either. The paper records have to be kept for several years, and all the data has to be retained.

“Mr. Warden, how long has it been since you took an interest in the outside world? You know nothing about the criminals on this planet who haven't yet been arrested, the ones still at large. If you paid even a little attention to major world events, you'd have known who Zuo Dao was when you summoned him a few days ago. Why would you have needed to look up his file before questioning him?”

“Hmph… Yet you seem to know a great deal. Not only about the outside world, but about this prison as well. Things… you shouldn't, and couldn't possibly, know.” Jefferson's reply was icy.

Tian Yi said, “To cut a long story short, getting information out of me will be harder than getting it out of Zuo Dao. Harder than interrogating any prisoner in this place. So if there's something I don't want to tell you, there's no need to keep probing. Now, let's discuss a deal.”

“A deal? In these circumstances, here and now, do you think you're in any position to negotiate terms or offer me anything?” Jefferson found it amusing. He believed he could subdue the man before him simply by reaching out.

Tian Yi ignored Jefferson's question and continued as though he hadn't spoken. “I am going to take three prisoners out of Tidal Prison.”

Jefferson listened as though it were a joke. “Then suppose, for some reason, say I've suddenly gone mad… I agree to your proposal. What will you give me in exchange?”

Tian Yi said, “I can let the other prisoners stay.”

Jefferson's expression changed abruptly. He'd heard something terrifying and incredible in those words. But he soon regained his composure and replied with a cold smile, “I see what you mean. You're saying that if I don't let you take three prisoners of your choosing, you'll release every prisoner in the place?”

Tian Yi's answer was firm. “Yes.”

“Ha ha ha ha…” Jefferson laughed, though there was no amusement in his eyes. “And how do you intend to do that?”

Tian Yi replied, “First, I'll cut off the entire island's power supply, disabling every device here that relies on remotely supplied wireless power. The air circulation system will stop, and the Divine Mist's effects will disappear within an hour. The shock rings will stop working, and once the ability users and mutants recover, they'll be able to remove them easily. Your guards' armored uniforms carry pitifully little backup power. It'll last only an hour, or twenty minutes at most in combat. If the armor suffers severe damage, its power will be diverted to life support first. So… to return to the air circulation system I mentioned earlier, a lack of oxygen will have a far greater effect on the guards' fighting strength than on that of the average prisoner.

“Second, my companions and I will enter the prison and head straight into the special containment area. We'll find a way to destroy the pure alloy, defeat the high-level guards stationed there, and use your link to Tiandu, the system that broadcasts prisoners' fights to the death, to show Tiandu what's happening in the prison. We'll release the w-class mutants and the high-risk prisoners of Fierce rank and above to cause panic.

“Third, with the prison out of control, we'll direct and assist the prisoners' escape, persuading them to band together as much as possible, flee Hell Island, and engage the forces sent in from outside to surround and eliminate them. Believe me, once I've completed the second step, those forces will arrive very quickly.

“Fourth, I'll take my people and leave the scene, keeping clear of the whole affair…”

“Haven't you forgotten something, Mr. Raving Lunatic?” Jefferson said. “You should add a step before all the others. Take my life first. Otherwise, you can't even leave this room.”

“Heh heh heh… Ha ha ha… Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” Tian Yi broke into deranged laughter. “You know, heh heh… you can go ahead and kill me now.”

Jefferson stared into his eyes but could make nothing of what Tian Yi was thinking. “What did you say?”

“Our negotiations have broken down, haven't they? I didn't know much about you to begin with, just things on paper. Now that we've met, I understand. You're not the sort of person who'll make a deal with me,” Tian Yi explained. “So kill me. Otherwise, everything I just described will be put into motion and become reality.”

Jefferson pressed the intercom button on the wall. “This is the warden. Guards near my quarters, listen carefully. Send two men over with a universal shock ring, handcuffs, and leg irons.”

Paying no attention to what Jefferson was doing, Tian Yi simply continued. “Actually, even if you kill me, all of this will still happen. If you don't believe me, we can try it.” Before he'd finished speaking, Tian Yi rushed up to Jefferson and aimed a hand chop at the side of his neck.

His movements are slow, and he isn't using energy. He doesn't look like a high-ranking ability user concealing his strength. What exactly is he trying to do…?

As Jefferson pondered this, he caught Tian Yi's attacking hand quite casually in his own. “I think you're simply insane. Somehow you got onto Hell Island from outside. Using an ability like spatial transfer…?”

Tian Yi said, “What a disappointing reaction. You don't even have the ruthlessness to kill an attacker without hesitation… Then I'll do it myself.” As he spoke, his eyes suddenly filled with blood, and his face turned deathly pale.

“What are you doing?” Jefferson asked in alarm. He hadn't seen Tian Yi do anything like take poison to kill himself, yet the man was suddenly, unmistakably at death's door.

Tian Yi's expression was bizarre. Speaking was difficult, but his tone was relaxed. “There are over a hundred ways to die suddenly. The odds are very small, but…” The sentence broke off because Tian Yi died, just like that. Absurdly.

Only thirty seconds later, the corpse dissolved into a cloud of black smoke and dispersed.

For a moment, Jefferson couldn't quite tell whether this had been a nightmare or something that had actually happened…

…

At seven thirty-five, the submarine had reached the waters near Hell Island in stealth mode.

The members of the Inverted Cross heard their boss's voice once again.

“All right, gentlemen. I just made a rather unsuccessful attempt. It seems the warden is a tough nut to crack, so… the plan proceeds as usual.”

Gunsmith asked in surprise, “What did you just do? Was there a plan B?”

Gu Wen said, “I'm guessing he just went to see the warden, hoping to make a deal or something.”

Gunsmith stared. “What? How did you get into the prison?”

Before Tian Yi could answer, Gu Wen cut in again. “In theory, the bookstore can transfer inside, but the destination has to satisfy the bookstore's ‘transfer conditions.’ True, the technology follows the rules of the Black Documents, but you built the device. Think it over carefully and you should understand.”

Gunsmith said, “Then why didn't we use the bookstore's transfer to break them out in the first place?”

Tian Yi finally managed to get a word in over the speakers. “Divine Mist, shock rings, Jefferson, Sean… and so on and so forth. Unless you can shrink that submarine you built until it can pass freely through the bookstore door while retaining all its current functions, going in would just be walking into a trap.”

“But haven't you gone in now?” Gunsmith asked.

“Obviously. You've already reached the island, and in twenty minutes the prison will be in chaos. Why would I still worry about being caught?” Tian Yi replied.

Gu Wen sneered. “If you get caught now, I'll certainly take command immediately, order everyone to turn back, and cancel the prison break.”

Almost without thinking, Tian Yi replied, “Want to bet I won't mail nude photos of you to Steel Commandment?”

Gu Wen said, “Where did you get…” He stopped there, not daring to finish the question. He knew that if he did, Tian Yi would seize the opening to reply that since Gu Wen didn't believe him, he'd find a way to obtain a few.

“All right, you'll have plenty of time to carry on your comedy double act. Boss, perhaps you should move the bookstore into the submarine first. If you're discovered while you're still there…” Gambling Snake said. At a critical moment, his suggestions were still the more dependable ones.

Tian Yi's voice suddenly came from behind them. “I came back before I called you.”

They all turned and found Tian Yi walking through the doorway onto the bridge, speaking into Destiny on his wrist.

Gu Wen broke into a cold sweat. That bastard. Good thing I didn't keep arguing with him just now. He might've crept up, knocked me out from behind, and taken photos…

Tian Yi walked into their midst. “Comrades, the hour of decisive battle is upon us. We shall achieve greatness for the ages in a single battle. ‘We did our best’ is a line reserved for losers. We won't be saying it. Today, if we don't succeed… we won't even get to die as martyrs…”

…