Whistle Blower

Early morning.

Countdown: 16:20:00

Last night, another batch of newcomers went to the No. 18 Prison Fort.

And under Qing Cheng's instructions, Lu Guangyi went to ask the newcomers about their origins.

In the end, Qing Chen could confirm that there wasn't a single transmigrator among these newcomers.

He guessed that all transmigrators would enter and exit at the same time. No one would suddenly enter this world when the others were in the transmigratory process.

If this was the case, all transmigrators would exist on the same timeline.

At this moment, Li Shutong and Qing Chen were long seated at the meal table and playing a game of chess.

"After you got Lu Guangyi to tone down his activity a notch, the number of newcomers that wailed incessantly in misery really did decrease." Li Shutong glanced at the chessboard and spoke, "However, have you noticed that the people from the other two powers in the prison are already extremely unhappy with Lu Guangyi?"

Usually, the three powers in the prison would take turns to 'welcome' the newcomers. This was considered a topic of entertainment for everyone.

Hence, Lu Guangyi's current act of having a monopoly would surely incur dissatisfaction and unhappiness from others.

Qing Chen shifted a red piece forward and replied, "I noticed it but I believe Lu Guangyi should be able to handle this himself."

"Have you thought about this? Those newcomers might not feel grateful to you." Li Shutong laughed.

Qing Chen pondered and replied, "When you meet a beggar on the streets and toss some spare change to him. This bit of money might not allow him to escape poverty. But at the very least, you can feel some inner joy and peace."

Li Shutong smiled but didn't reply to Qing Chen's answer.

The endgame today was named Feral Horse Trampling the Fields. However, Qing Chen didn't win this match this time. It ended in a draw.

In truth, all chess endgames were situations where the black pieces had the advantage. If the player could make things end in a draw, it could be considered as them solving the endgame.

Different from the chess viewers previously, other than Lu Guangyi and a bunch of prisoners who had no idea what was going on, there was now an additional Guo Huchan.

Yesterday, this burly man had still acted very politely and sat far away. But today, he sat directly beside Qing Chen, diagonally opposite Li Shutong.

The body figure of this burly man of over two meters looked like a campstool when he sat on the chair. It looked extremely awkward.

However, Guo Huchan didn't care so much. He simply wanted to be on Li Shutong's side.

Since he couldn't win against the man, he might as well join him!

At this moment, he saw that there was meat on Qing Chen's plate while his plate had none. Hence, he spoke in a just and forceful manner to Li Shutong, "No matter what, I'm considered a major character of Spades. You guys are eating real meat while I'm eating synthetic meat. This isn't the way you are supposed to treat a guest, right?"

Lin Xiaoxiao coldly smiled when he saw how rude this person was. "Are you the same as us? Why don't you fight a round against my boss? You can eat meat as well if you win."

"We shouldn't keep fighting and killing every time, it isn't good to do so." Hu Guochan rubbed his bald head and continued, "In addition, it's fine if the three of you can eat this. But why does this little chess player get to enjoy real meat too? He is just an ordinary person. Oi, brat! Go and get another meal. I will be eating your current meal!"

Everyone was startled. They didn't expect that Guo Huchan was such a coward. After discovering that he couldn't afford to offend Li Shutong, he decided to pick on Qing Chen, someone who seemed like a soft persimmon.

At this moment, Qing Chen actually lifted his head to match his gaze with Hu Guochan. After that, he glanced at Lin Xiaoxiao and the others.

He discovered that this time around, Lin Xiaoxiao didn't say anything to rebut Guo Huchan. Rather, Lin Xiaoxiao was smiling and looking at Qing Chen. It was as though Lin Xiaoxiao wanted to see how he would deal with this baldly.

After that, Qing Chen silently closed his eyes and didn't bother the other party.

Upon seeing this, Guo Huchan thought that this young man didn't dare to antagonize him. Hence, he grinned and pulled Qing Chen's plate toward himself. "You guys saw it. He's the one who gave this up himself."

However, at this moment, Qing Chen's thoughts seemed to have returned to yesterday.

At that instant when Guo Huchan stretched his hand out.

The world stilled.

Back then, the prisoners were suppressed so badly by the Metal Storms that they couldn't lift their heads. Their prison clothes were blasted by the rubber bullets to the extent where they seemed like a water surface of a rainy day, constantly producing ripples.

The alloy gates slowly raised, and the robot prison guards rapidly entered. The sound of guns and rubber bullets colliding into objects, along with the sound of hydraulic transmissions, mixed together and rang out.

At that moment, only Qing Chen alone was calmly observing everyone.

Wrong, the moment he wanted to find wasn't this.

Qing Chen stood within his memories and swiped forth with his palm. The scenes of the entire world seemed to play in reverse.

The rubber bullets that fired from the sky to the ground returned to the gun muzzles.

The prisoners that fell down stood back up again in a bizarre manner.

Time passed seconds by seconds, and the scenes that happened before were now replaying in reverse in Qing Chen's mind.

Until…the instant where Guo Huchan entered the No. 18 Prison Fort.

Qing Chen slowly wandered through the crowd and listened to the voices of everyone.

The people in his memories didn't speak, but the details on their bodies would reveal secrets.

Just when Guo Huchan was planning to finish all the meat on Qing Chen's plate, Qing Chen opened his eyes.

"Lu Guangyi."

"Mn, I'm here. Boss, what's the matter?" Lu Guangyi didn't bother to conceal his identity and hurriedly replied.

Qing Chen spoke, "I will name a few people. Get them out for me."

After speaking, he turned and started to point at the prisoners, naming eight in one go.

After that, these people were pulled out of the crowd by Lu Guangyi, and Guo Huchan's expression gradually turned unsightly. He no longer had any mood to eat the meat.

Qing Chen sat back down on his seat and spoke to Guo Huchan, "These eight are your men, right?"

"Not all of them." Guo Huchan's countenance turned black.

"Mn." Qing Chen nodded. "After you were escorted here, your gaze swept past five of them. The five of them also made the gesture of stretching out their index fingers. Although I don't know the meaning of this gesture, I'm very sure they did it for you to see. As for the other three, the moment they saw you, they immediately exchanged gazes."

Right now, the way Lin Xiaoxiao and Ye Wan looked at Qing Chen directly changed. At that point in time, even they were hurriedly avoiding the rain of bullets. They basically had no time to observe the reactions of others.

It was as though during that instant of chaotic torrential bullet storm, only Qing Chen was a clear observer.

Li Shutong smiled. "The No. 18 Prison Fort is a place where dragons mixed with fishes. It's considered normal for people from other powers to keep an eye on me."

Lin Xiaoxiao felt complacent. He then asked, "Boss, why don't we transfer these people to other prisons?"

"There's no need." Li Shutong shook his head. "If we transfer eight people with no rhyme or reason, the outside world will surely speculate about me. Ye Wan, lock these eight up separately and interrogate them. Also, find out who sent the other three here."

At this moment, Qing Chen stared at the complacent look on Lin Xiaoxiao's face. When he thought of Lin Xiaoxiao's act of sitting on the fence earlier, he stood up once again and pointed out over twenty people. 

This time around, he didn't say anything. However, Lin Xiaoxiao felt a toothache when he saw this. He then whispered in a low voice beside Li Shutong, "Boss, this fellow even found all of our men…"

Li Shutong looked at Qing Chen and praised, "Although you are not a surpasser, your memory abilities and analytical skills are already at a level many surpassers cannot match."

Guo Huchan upon seeing Qing Chen naming those from the Knight Organization, he immediately understood that this youth wasn't a part of the Knights. "How should I address this little brother?"

Qing Chen cast a glance at him. "Qing Chen."

"The Qing Clan?" Guo Huchan started. "Why would the knights have a connection with the Qing Clan Corporation?"

"Is he from the Qing Clan just because he is surnamed Qing? Even if he is, it's impossible for someone to stay in the Qing Clan forever." Lu Shutong smiled. "Isn't there also a very famous person with the surname 'Qing' in the wilderness?"

Guo Huchan's gaze flickered. His attitude immediately underwent a 180-degree change.

He then pushed the plate back to Qing Chen and spoke passionately, "Little brother Qing Chen, I wonder how your impression is toward Spades?"

"Ordinary." Qing Chen coldly stated.

Right now, he still couldn't be clear about Hu Guochan's character. He was clearly a tall and muscular dude but his thoughts were unusually active. Moreover, he didn't have much integrity.

In addition, the other party came to snatch something from him, so he naturally wouldn't treat the other party nicely.

Today, he relied on Li Shutong's strength and clipped the wings of some parties who had arranged for their men to be sent to this prison. It could be considered that he had some gains.

As they spoke, sounds of clamor at the side rang out.

Qing Chen glanced over there and saw Ye Wan furrowing his brows.

The three other members who were not of Spades, which he had pointed out earlier, were now lying on the ground with purplish bruises on their lips and faces.

This was a typical symptom of death by suffocation.

After taking off his shirt and wrapping his palms, Ye Wan squatted down beside one of the corpses and lightly pried its mouth open. He then lifted his head and looked at Li Shutong. "Boss, it's a poison sac that was hidden behind his molar tooth. There's also a faint bitter almond smell when his mouth is pried open; it's cyanide."

Guo Huchan spoke, "These three aren't a part of my Spades."

"Death warriors," Li Shutong spoke with a calm look on his face. "This is somewhat surprising."

No one knew who had arranged for these three to be sent here, nor their purpose for coming to the No. 18 Prison Fort.

Qing Chen silently watched. There were no hints of any reactions on his face.

Only his tightly clenched fists revealed his nervousness.

He spread his palms and glanced at them. There were red marks caused by his fingernails and also sweat.

Regardless of whether being in the Surface World or Otherworld, this was his first time coming directly face to face with death.

Hiding a poison capsule behind one's teeth was something he had only seen in the movies.

Hence, the fierce and cruel means of the three death warriors pulled Qing Chen back to reality and made him realize that this place was, after all, a world where ferocious beasts roamed.

Countdown: 15:21:29

His return was imminent, so he didn't want to be caught up in any unnecessary ramifications.