IWOL Chapter 175: Confinement Lifted

Boom!

A loud noise came from the temple in the sky in Dong Zheng’s kernel world.

Dong Zheng’s figure appeared on the information superhighway. A crawler obediently came to him, and without him having to give it orders, it directly sent him to the sky according to his wishes.

A six-winged demigod and half-devil sculpture holding a sword and shield guarded the door. It was engraved with the words “I blessed the dead” on one side and “Everything will be destroyed” on the other. It was currently exuding a faint golden light.

This was an unprecedented phenomenon. Standing in front of the gate, Dong Zheng suddenly had a small hunch.

He hesitated for a long time and finally reached out his hand. With just the lightest effort, the heavy temple door opened.

Dong Zheng walked in. He had entered the temple many times, but his exploration was limited to the lobby on the first floor. The stairs leading to the second floor were always sealed by an invisible force, preventing him from breaking through.

The temple was very quiet. In the center, an astrological model rotated slowly, constantly changing its shape, the glittering stardust spreading out like a dream.

Dong Zheng got closer, and the stardust gathered as if alive, forming a strange “mirror” in front of him.

In the center of the mirror was a small and empty room. Judging from the perspective, the image likely came from a surveillance camera.

Dong Zheng searched his memories, but he couldn’t recall having ever seen this place. It stood to reason that he’d invaded all the cameras in the entire prison.

Of course, this didn’t rule out the possibilities that there were certain places with such powerful protective systems that they had managed to evade his consciousness. If so, this kind of place must be very–

A face suddenly appeared from below straight in front of the camera.

!!!

Dong Zheng was so startled that his heart nearly stopped.

It was a young girl with a flat nose, brown freckles on her cheeks, and unhealthily pale and ghostly skin. She watched the camera closely, as if she could see Dong Zheng spying through it.

Dong Zheng held his breath and concentrated his attention, clenching his hands.

This was his Temple of Thoughts. No matter what kind of danger, it was impossible for anyone to cause him any substantial harm; he needn’t be nervous.

But the fear that had emerged from the depths of his soul wrapped tightly around him.

He didn’t know how long it took, maybe five minutes or just a few seconds. The girl slowly backed away from the camera, and Dong Zheng saw that she was one and a half meters tall, and she was wearing a white dress and sitting in a wheelchair.

She faced the camera, and her bloodless lips opened and closed.

—Come to me.

At the same time.

A man hiding in the corner put the secret letter in his pocket and coldly watched the vampire vs. werewolf fight in the cafeteria.

Suddenly, a strange wave swept over him and he, who was able to sense the composition of the air, noticed that something seemed to have changed.

A strange gas was quietly pouring out of the gaps in the most central floor of the prison.

What was that?

The man frowned suspiciously. He glanced at the werewolf and vampire, both of whom hadn’t noticed anything, and silently left.

Find a place to hide first.

“Lifting S000009’s confinement and initiating release,” the voice repeated over the speaker.

What…was that?

The sound of a sharp, metallic snap came from a place deep, deep down below. When the sounds reached his ears, it directly caused all the goosebumps on his body to stand up and the root of his teeth to sour.

“Don’t fight anymore!” The young man was about to pounce on the woman’s identification card when she suddenly kicked him off and stood up breathlessly. “Wait a minute! Did you hear that strange noise?”

The young man narrowed his eyes, which made his plain face look sinister. “”Your ability is to strengthen your hearing?”

“Shut up!” the woman shouted in a low voice, directly ignoring the young man that was saying, “You actually shouted at me. Who do you think you are?” She laid down on her stomach and pressed her ear to the ground.

Whoosh—

The sound continued.

“What’s the matter?” The young man also had an unknown premonition when he saw this. Even though he hadn’t heard anything, the woman’s actions suddenly seemed to be a little unhinged.

Suddenly, the woman’s complexion changed drastically. She scrambled up, her eyes full of horror. “Something has come out! Find a place to hide, and hide as much as possible!”

“What, don’t try to scare me. I won’t be afraid!” The young man shouted, chasing closely after the woman. They ran very quickly through the hallway. “Hey, where are you going to hide?!”

“Lifting S000008’s confinement and initiating release.”

*********

One hour later, when Cui Zuojing was starting to become sleepy, the conversion machine finally stopped.

The lock on the intake booth automatically popped open, and before Cui Zuojing could go down, a red thing suddenly jumped out.

It was a blood-red hand, with the index finger and middle finger acting as the two feet, and the little finger and thumb as the arm. The ring finger was curled up, pressed against the palm.

The hand “looked around,” opened its two fingers, and walked forward.

Cui Zuojing watched it closely as it walked around, looking here and there, just like a newly born child that was full of curiosities about the world.

It passed by the container covered by tarpaulin, and its short stature allowed it to easily see the feet exposed from under the gap.

The hand stopped walking.

Either the girl hiding under the tarp didn’t see this strange hand or she had already succumbed to exhaustion and was leaning against the container under the dark tarp, sleeping.

The ring finger moved.

In the next instant, the little finger and the thumb suddenly stretched out at a speed too fast for the human eye to process, stabbing toward the girl under the tarp!

Attacking at this speed, even if the fingertips weren’t sharp, they could still easily pierce a human’s soft body.

Cui Zuojing’s gaze froze, and before his brain could think, his body had already jumped down on its own.

The fingers pierced the tarpaulin and, in an instant, reached the girl who was curled up inside.

At that moment, time stopped.

Cui Zuojing landed heavily. He strode forward and grabbed the two extended fingers and dragged it away.

The piercing sound from the tarp reached the girl’s ears. She immediately opened her eyes vigilantly. The sense of crisis that she’d developed from hanging on the edge of life and death caused a cold sweat to rise across her back. She cautiously and quietly peeked through the torn openingー

There was nothing there.

Girl: ?

…Was it an illusion?

She frowned and looked around suspiciously. Indeed, there was nothing there.

For some reason, she thought of the young man who’d brought a large group of faceless people over, and of the reckless smile on his face, so dazzling.

Why could he still smile in this kind of environment? Wasn’t he nervous and afraid?

Cautiously, she propped herself up and pushed deeper back in the gap between the containers, completely hiding herself.

Bang!

Cui Zuojing threw the hand fiercely to the ground.

The hand’s five fingers seemed to be able to extend without restrictions and were now wrapped around him, trying to strangle him. He gritted his teeth and directly stepped on it.

The hard sole of his shoe smashed against skin and flesh, and the fingers that were wrapped around his body suddenly tightened, as if it was in pain. The more Cui Zuojing increased his strength, the more the hand gradually lost its strength.

Finally, the five fingers dropped weakly, returning to their original thickness and length.

Cui Zuojing let go.

The hand was badly mangled under his foot.

He took a deep breath, picked it up, studied it carefully, and said in a low voice, “You have consciousness, right?”

The hand laid motionless, as if it was dead.

Not caring about its state, Cui Zuojing put his hand on the load-bearing pillar and said, “Listen, I’m the one who created you and gave you life. From now on, you must be loyal to me; otherwise, if not, I’ll kill you.”

“You know very well that you can’t resist me. Since I’m the one who gave you life, it would also be very easy for me to kill you.”

The ring finger trembled slightly.

“It seems that you agree.”

Cui Jing loosen the left hand. It didn’t fall; instead, it used its last remaining strength to hug the pillar with its little finger and thumb, quivering.

Sure enough, it was a counterfeit. The quality of the finished product was just this much, Cui Zuojing thought to himself.

“Good, keep up.” Cui Zuojing turned around and left. His original intention was to ensure that the monster the conversion machine created wouldn’t kill the other pilgrims.

Hand hesitated. The time force that had erupted from Cui Zuojing had instilled in it an instinctive fear. It was just a man-made object that had just been born; it wasn’t very high spirited. Therefore, this instinctive fear made it shudder.

Maybe, it gave in to Cui Zuojing’s violent coercion, or maybe it merely succumbed to its fear of the power of time; whatever the case, it still chose to release its hold on the pillar and follow after him.

Then, with a bang, it fell to the ground.

In this way, Cui Zuojing managed to successfully acquire a pet of a peculiar shape and variety.

This was the last day in the factory. After this day and night, the elimination match would end and the fight between cards would begin.

Cui Zuojing hid in the dark, pointed to the increasingly fierce battle over the secret letters, and said, “Rabbit, go grab that thing for me.”

The hand, now named Rabbit, nodded from its hiding place.

Cui Zuojing leaned back against the liquid compressor and waited. Within the sounds of rumbling machinery, he heard people shouting in panic and fear.

“What is that?”

“A hand! How come there’s a hand?! It’s moving!”

“Oh my god, it just snatched the secret letter!”

The people who were originally fighting immediately turned their heads and aimed at the one who’d snatched the secret letter in full viewーa hand?!

Why was there such a strange thing in the factory?

They searched the factory for the hand and ran to the place where Cui Zuojing had been, but he was no longer there.

Gone?

Did he…take the opportunity to escape?

The ring finger moved again.

“Hey, are you trying to escape?” Cui Zuojing picked it up with both hands. It struggled for a short bit of time, remembered the atrocities it had suffered last night, and obediently handed the secret letter over to Cui Zuojing.

“This is a good rabbit,” Cui Zuojing said with satisfaction as he put the secret letter in his pocket. “Let’s go.”

With Rabbit’s help, Cui Zuojing took away five to six more secret letters with little efforts. He didn’t even have to appear in front of other pilgrims.

After wandering around, he once again saw the pipe with the red strip of cloth painted with the clown’s head.

A piece of paper floated out from inside.

[You sure are brave to use biological samples in the conversion machine.]

“I’m a gambler, you should know this.” Cui Zuojing leaned against the wall with one foot pressed to it, his arms crossed over his chest. He leisurely laughed and said, “Just bringing your circus a new member. Isn’t this a good thing?”

—————

Xixi: I hope you all have had a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

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