Chapter 20#

There were only three days left until the thought evaluation, but these people had already been prepared by the prison authorities.

One hundred and one individuals, penned up like pigs awaiting slaughter in Zone F of the Special Grade Factory, all fattened up and brimming with energy.

Did they know that they were about to leave this place and head to the unknown surface?

Probably not.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so excited by the reward of a hundred repentance points that their eyes were bloodshot.

As for the listening device that was supposed to “help them keep Zone F’s secrets,” that was likely another scam.

Zhao Xing speculated that thing had other, more important functions beyond surveillance. Its purpose was to keep them fully controlled once they reached the surface, to be manipulated by whoever was behind the scenes.

Zhao Xing did want to go to the surface.

But if everyone who went to the surface had to have that device implanted, how should he choose?

Would he surrender willingly and let that listening device enter his body?

Or would he resist to the death, one against a hundred, fighting for a future that might not be bright?

Resist? Resist.

He had to try resisting. What if it worked?

He wanted to go to the surface to touch light and freedom.

Not to be a dog wearing a chain.

Zhao Xing’s arms hung naturally at his sides, gripping the table leg in his hand, his gaze calmly sweeping over the crowd.

“Zhao Xing, I know you’re good at fighting, but open your eyes and look at the situation. There are a hundred people here. Do you think you’re a god? Or just give up and let us earn those hundred points easily. You’ll spare yourself the pain,” a tall, burly man suddenly said loudly.

Zhao Xing didn’t know this man, but his number was F001, meaning he was the first one in. He had a fierce look in his eyes, like he was a tough opponent.

Zhao Xing suddenly smiled. “I don’t know you, but you know me. Looks like my reputation is bigger than I thought.”

He swept his gaze across the hundred people, his expression relaxing a little. “I wonder how many of you have heard my name?”

Most people didn’t move, just stared at Zhao Xing like a pack of wolves fixated on prey already trapped. Only a few criminals looked confused, whispering to the people next to them.

Tsk. Looks like most of them knew him.

That made things easier.

Zhao Xing smiled, then pulled out his electronic card.

He raised an eyebrow, his features handsome, his smile dazzling and bright, overflowing with arrogance and abandon. His voice turned lazy. “Seems like quite a few of you know me. Then do you know that I just loaded a hundred million into this card?”

The news that Zhao Xing had loaded a hundred million into his electronic card had only spread that morning, and it wasn’t very widespread yet.

When he said that, most people’s faces showed a bit of shock.

Zhao Xing waved his electronic card, a smirk curling at the corner of his lips. “Starting now, take off your jacket and choose to stand on the same side as me, and I’ll give you two hundred repentance points directly.”

The group exchanged glances, all hesitant.

On one side, there were two hundred repentance points. On the other, a hundred repentance points and the prison’s task. It wasn’t an easy choice.

Zhao Xing let out a scoff and started to spin his tale. “Hey, I’m asking you—have you been in prison so long that you’ve forgotten that you’re still going to get out someday? Think it over. If you choose me now, I’ll definitely take care of you once we’re out.”

Many people were starting to waver.

Who was Zhao Xing?

A man who could casually take out a hundred million and load it onto a card… What kind of elite was that?!

If they could truly follow him, when they got out, how glorious would that be? Whatever Zhao Xing let slip through his fingers would be enough to keep them comfortable for the rest of their lives.

“Slap!” The first man took off his jacket, threw it on the ground, and walked up to Zhao Xing. “Brother Zhao, I’m with you! I’ve got one more year before I’m out! When the time comes, I hope you’ll look out for me!”

Zhao Xing patted him on the shoulder and promised with a smile, “Of course.”

He immediately transferred two hundred points to him.

Then came the second person, the third, the fourth…

After transferring points to the thirtieth person, Zhao Xing called a halt.

Both groups started to panic.

The people gathered around Zhao Xing wiped their sweat, a little incredulous. “Brother Zhao, aren’t you taking any more? You want the thirty of us to fight the seventy of them?”

As for the group opposing Zhao Xing, many of them regretted not moving faster.

Zhao Xing reassured them. “What’s the rush? I haven’t even said anything yet.”

He looked at the seventy people on the other side and announced loudly, “Anyone among you seventy who doesn’t want to get hurt, who wants to drop out and stay neutral, just take off your name tag and come over. I’ll give each of you a hundred repentance points.”

Fight or not, both came with a hundred repentance points.

But if they didn’t fight, they wouldn’t get hurt, and they wouldn’t offend Zhao Xing, who clearly wasn’t someone to mess with.

Many people hesitated, then took off their name tags, collected their hundred repentance points from Zhao Xing, and withdrew from the fight.

There were thirty-three of them in this wave.

Now only thirty-seven people stood opposite Zhao Xing.

These thirty-seven could be roughly divided into two types.

The first type were already troublemakers before prison. They’d been bigshots in their own right. Some didn’t care about money, and others had long been annoyed by Zhao Xing’s arrogant behavior and saw this as a perfect chance to teach him a lesson. To stomp this cocky little brat into the ground, like Zhang Yue and the man who’d shouted first, number F001.

The second type were those unwilling to go against the prison authorities. In their view, no matter how rich Zhao Xing was, right now he was just a criminal in K13 District. A powerful dragon couldn’t crush a local snake. Here, the prison was the boss.

Thirty-one against thirty-seven.

Not bad.

Zhao Xing tossed the table leg in his hand, caught it again, and smiled. “Let’s begin.”

This was an unprecedented brawl.

Sixty-eight people were participating.

Actually, logically speaking, Zhao Xing’s side was at a disadvantage, with six fewer people than the other side.

Moreover, all thirty-seven on the opposite side looked extremely vicious. If you picked anyone out, they were leader-level figures. Zhao Xing’s side was slightly inferior.

But Zhao Xing was a wildcard.

Within a few minutes of starting, the scene had settled into one-on-one fights for everyone else, with Zhao Xing fighting seven at once.

And even then, Zhao Xing wasn’t losing.

To be honest, these people’s fighting skills were mediocre at best, far inferior to the professional thugs Zhao Xing had faced before.

Even the Su family’s thugs, who had fought Zhao Xing before, were top-tier in this crowd.

But every single one of these people had lived on the edge of a knife. Many had blood on their hands. Their fighting might not be professional, but their dirty tricks were second to none, catching people off guard.

If all these people had knives, Zhao Xing would definitely be stabbed full of holes.

But fortunately, no one had knives.

Only Zhao Xing did—he had three engraving knives in his pocket. The blades were small, but better than nothing.

Zhao Xing wielded both knife and staff, and within no time, he’d dealt with the seven surrounding him.

Some lay on the ground, clutching their legs and groaning. Others had their faces sliced open by Zhao Xing’s engraving knife, blood pouring into their eyes.

Zhao Xing turned his head and saw that although it was one-on-one, his side was already showing signs of fatigue.

But no matter. Brother Zhao would step in.

Zhao Xing twirled the engraving knife skillfully between his fingers, then plunged into the fray.

His involvement tilted the scales completely.

One after another, the opponents fell.

One-on-one gradually became two-on-one, three-on-one…

More and more of the enemy fell, and the speed increased.

By the end, some realized the situation was hopeless, threw down their things, raised their hands in surrender, and quit fighting.

After more than ten minutes, the brawl was completely over.

Zhao Xing’s side won a resounding victory.

Aside from a sharp, stabbing pain in his lower back from a surprise attack, he had basically no injuries.

Zhao Xing was a little excited. He ignored the discomfort in his back, couldn’t help whistling, and spun around on the spot amidst the crowd surrounding him, basking in their cheers and shouts. His expression was radiant, handsome, and arrogant beyond words.

The sounds of deductions from electronic cards began to ring out one after another.

Those who had attacked Zhao Xing weren’t deducted points. Neither were those who hadn’t participated in the fight.

Only those who had stood on Zhao Xing’s side had points taken away.

Everyone started with a twenty-point deduction, with the highest at forty. But Zhao Xing had given them two hundred in advance, so in the end, everyone had made a good profit.

Plus, they’d won this brawl decisively. Not only had they fought fiercely and satisfyingly, but they also felt they’d latched onto a big tree in Zhao Xing. Everyone’s faces were flushed with excitement, eyes bright, shouting, “Brother Zhao is the man!”

But after all this trouble today, there was only 368 left on Zhao Xing’s card.

Still, he had fought only twelve people today, and he’d controlled each injury. One person should have been twenty points, so he figured he’d be deducted around 240 points. But he’d used the engraving knife and cut someone… Anyway, he’d calculated that he’d lose no more than 350 points.

That would just about clean out the balance.

Though he felt a bit bad for Luo Mingshan, there was no other choice.

When in a crisis, flexibility was key.

Just then, Zhao Xing’s electronic card finally beeped.

“Beep.”

“Zhao Xing. Deducted 1,350 points. Balance: negative 982 repentance points.”

Zhao Xing froze.

He got deducted 1,350 points?

On what grounds?!

His arrogance and triumph receded like a tide, replaced by surging fury.

At the same time, the cheers and adulation abruptly stopped.

All eyes were fixed on Zhao Xing.

All one hundred people working here were unruly, and many were regulars in the repentance room. So almost everyone knew how to calculate repentance point deductions for fights.

And almost everyone knew that Zhao Xing’s deduction was unreasonable.

But unlike Zhao Xing’s anger, the others’ gazes carried a hint of fear.

Zhao Xing looked up, his gaze scanning left and right, finally settling on a smart surveillance camera that was turning.

Zhao Xing fixed his eyes on the camera, and the camera stopped moving, silently confronting him.

A chill crept into Zhao Xing’s expression.

He slowly lowered his head and toyed with his small engraving knife. The knife spun between his fingers, light as if dancing.

Zhao Xing stopped, raised the small knife to his lips, blew on it gently, then threw it like a paper airplane with force.

“Smack!”

The sharp engraving knife precisely blasted the surveillance camera’s red dot, as if piercing the eyes of the person behind it through the device.

Glass shards and electric sparks shattered noisily to the ground.

Even the innermost, hardest core processor was split by the knife, cracking into layers of spiderweb patterns.

Zhao Xing looked up at the deepest cracks in the camera.

The corners of his lips curled into a silent, cold smile.

Mocking, unbridled, and free.

The next second, a powerful electric current he had never felt before surged from his wristband, instantly coursing through his entire body. Zhao Xing’s pupils contracted sharply. Before he could even groan, his vision went black, and he collapsed on the spot.

A new robot approached slowly, dragging the unconscious Zhao Xing by the collar like a dead dog, hauling him into a dark iron room nearby, and locking the door.

The hundred people in Zone F immediately fell silent.

The two groups that had just been fighting fiercely exchanged glances and looked away.

Those who had taken off their name tags and remained neutral put them back on.

The “Zhao family army,” who had so boldly thrown off their work jackets, silently put their clothes back on.

They didn’t say a word. They just glanced at the place where Zhao Xing had been locked up, extinguished the grand ambition from a few minutes ago, and quietly returned to their workstations.

As if nothing had ever happened.

In a luxurious underground office near the No. 7 Academy.

The new prison warden was on the phone. “The one hundred and one people you requested are ready. You can pick them up anytime.

“No, no, everything’s smooth. No problems at all. Even if there were any who wouldn’t obey, we’ve handled them perfectly.

“We await your arrival here.”

The prison warden let out a long sigh of relief and hung up the phone as if a weight had been lifted.

Then he frowned again and dialed an internal line. “Secretary, come here. What’s going on with number 101, Zhao Xing? Why does it show he still hasn’t had the device implanted?”

“Bam!”

The pure black iron door, supposedly boasting the highest defense level, was kicked down violently.

The deafening crash made the prison warden shiver, nearly sliding out of his chair.

Then, a dark figure flashed, and his neck was suddenly gripped by a cold, slender hand.

“Where have you locked up Zhao Xing?!”

Amid the suffocation and fear of death, he heard an icy, gnashing voice in his ear.