Free Advice.

Alex had no other options. He had to sit back down.

"Good boy."

Hao Qiao made a remark. He chose not to respond to it, and closed his eyes.

Time started to move again.

"Why do you choose to stay down here?"

"I like it here. No other reason."

He slowly folded his arms.

"Interesting. So you prefer isolation?"

"No. I don't prefer isolation. But when I first arrived at this place, Isolation was my mandatory punishment for a short period of time. When that time was up, I chose to spend my remaining months in this place."

An astute answer. He had to regain some of the authority.

"What about missions?"

Hao Qiao was finding this exchange very refreshing.

"If I can do it by myself, then I would prefer to leave others out of it. But I am not too shy about asking for help."

"I believe there is more to it than that."

The one-eyed prisoner wasn't buying it.

"Excuse me?"

He gave an apt answer. There shouldn't be any causes for skepticism.

"The answers you give me are very reminiscent of a person I once knew."

Qiao said.

"I didn't know him for long. At most, we had a 5 minute conversation. But in those 5 minutes, I was able to nail his personality, down to the most vague details of his traits."

"What was he like?"

Alex asked.

"Patience. I am getting to it. As I was saying, this man was one of my targets. Just like you, I used to kill people for my family, and I was pretty good at it."

His expression turned grim.

"The client wanted me to record his death. They wanted to see the man suffer. The plan went without a hitch. I killed the man after torturing him for about and hour, and left without any problems."

'Then why do my words remind him of that person?'

"Because that man was hollow, just like your answers. Now I can't quite put my finger on what your true goal in life is, but I can confirm one thing. Most of your life, you will not be able to confide in anything, or anyone."

"Hollow?"

"Devoid of anything. These are the generic answers that people outside of this cell would eat up like idiots. But by the end of the day, these answers are nothing more than fabricated Bullshit. That guy was not my target. He was a double. My target had successfully made a fool out of me, and had killed the client while I was busy killing a hollow double who had been broken into being a puppet."

Alex was stunned.

"You have been speculating that this might be a test. Let me be very clear. This is a test. But not by Lei, not by the collective, not by your mother, and not by anyone else. Right now, the only person asking these questions is me. And the only person that has to answer is you."

He took a second to catch his breath.

"This world is cruel to normal people. But it is unforgiving and ruthless to the people that choose to control it. One mistake, and you could lose everything. And I am pretty sure that you know what the stakes are. After all, your secret is related to the fact that you succeed, isn't it?"

"Don't tell me your secret. Don't tell me who you are. Don't tell me what your motives are. I am absolutely fine with that, because I simply care too little. If all your answers would have been 'none of your business', I would have been more than happy. But you continued to talk nonsense like it was the truth. You can't fool people like me. And there are at least 100 people like me in the world who are stronger than you. Remember that. Fool all the people you want to, but you don't fool the man that can read you like an open book. By the end of it all, that man will be the person who will be the reason for your burial. Because he could look through your façade all along."

A pause.

"And that man will convince the people that you have fooled to turn on you. No matter how close they are. Once a crack appears, no one will hold back. Some free advice from an old man like me."

Alex had been fooling people all this time. He was making a point to create an image of himself in front of everyone. His true image was always hidden, because he never trusted anyone.

Today, someone that could look through his façade reminded him something. This image is not invincible. Once its shattered, he will not only be alone, but with a few more enemies.

"So what should I do?"

He asked.

"Stop pretending in front of me."

Hao Qiao said that, and closed his eye.

"And?"

"And nothing."

He said that, and fell asleep.