Chapter 27#
Zhao Xing touched his burning right ear and subtly shifted his body, turning his back to the man and woman behind the mirror, cutting off their prying eyes.
Actually, compared to the conversation between that pair, Zhao Xing was more concerned about his sudden ability.
Thinking carefully, it seemed that ever since he woke up this morning, his hearing had been a bit off—occasionally, he could pick up sounds from far away.
What the hell was going on?!
Could it be that he had been exposed to radiation from the high-tech semi-finished products on the surface these past two days, causing his body to mutate?!
For now, Zhao Xing could only come up with this relatively scientific explanation.
But then, why were the others fine?
Unable to find a definite answer, Zhao Xing had to put the matter aside for the moment. After all, his body had always been a bit unusual since childhood—for example, all the smoke and anesthetics in this world were ineffective on him.
Ten minutes later, three people chose to give up the mission.
The remaining ninety-eight entered the iron house one by one, guided by the robot to record their voluntary declarations.
Zhao Xing was number 101, the last to enter.
He stood in front of a camera, with a cue card placed before him.
Seeing the content on the cue card, he hesitated for a moment before raising three fingers and swearing—
“I have violated the Code of Conduct for Earthlings. I repent. I admit my fault. My crimes are unforgivable, my sins inexcusable. I voluntarily participate in the F101 Project, to contribute to the survival and development of Earthlings, to atone for the wrongs I have committed, to offset the evil I have done. Even if I die as a result, I will do so with gratitude and without complaint. Declarant: Zhao Xing.”
As soon as Zhao Xing finished speaking, the female voice he had heard earlier rang out again, tinged with regret: “Ah, this young guy looks pretty good. What a pity.”
The male voice chuckled: “Senior has taken a liking to him? How about we have some fun with him before sending him in?”
Zhao Xing’s body stiffened, his raised hand frozen mid-air.
The female voice hesitated for a moment, then said: “Forget it, time is tight. Besides, now that I know he’s a Black Rat, I’ve kind of lost interest.”
Zhao Xing silently breathed a sigh of relief and quietly lowered his hand, standing still and upright.
But… Black Rat?
Was that the term the “superior humans” on the surface used to refer to those of them who lived underground?
When Zhao Xing stepped out of the iron house, three new volunteers had already been brought over by another robot.
The three who had refused the mission were also led away by this robot.
One of them asked: “So we’re done with F District now, right? What about the monitoring devices we had implanted in our bodies?”
The robot responded with a cold, flat electronic voice: “Don’t worry. They will fall off on their own in three days.”
“Ah, that’s good.”
“Actually, I don’t have any grand ambitions. I’m not hoping for money, power, or freedom. I just think that living in misery is better than dying.”
“Same here. Although the reward for that mission was tempting, the thought of dying is terrifying.”
The three murmured among themselves.
The gate of F District closed, presumably completely cutting off the voices of those three.
But in Zhao Xing’s right ear, their overlapping footsteps grew clearer.
Suddenly, the series of footsteps came to a halt.
Then Zhao Xing heard three terrified screams.
When the sounds stopped, the robot again emitted its cold, emotionless electronic voice: “Cleaner Robot 03, please come here to clean up the trash. Thank you.”
Zhao Xing slowly closed his eyes.
After the three new recruits had also finished their oaths and come out, the innermost wall of F District suddenly lowered.
What appeared before them was a vast, pure white room. It contained 101 square platforms, each with a set of clothes labeled with numbers.
The robot issued a command: “Please change into the clothes on your respective platforms.”
The outfit was a silver-white bodysuit, reflective, looking novel and cool.
The suit had zippers at the waist, head, and wrists. If all zippers were pulled up, it would completely envelop the person, not even leaving a strand of hair exposed.
However, the accompanying instruction manual told them that they did not need to zip up the head part for now.
Alongside the bodysuit was a pair of underwear, also silver-white, but softer to the touch.
“Do we have to… strip naked right here and change?” Gu Xiaoxi, not far away, suddenly spoke timidly.
Another tall, burly man sneered disdainfully: “We’re all men here. Why are you being so fussy? What, afraid someone might see everything?”
Zhao Xing felt it didn’t matter much either.
After figuring out how to wear the suit, he quickly removed his upper garment.
Just as he was about to take off his pants, the familiar female voice echoed in his ears again—
“Tsk, haven’t seen such nice abs in a long time.”
The male voice laughed: “What, senior is tempted again? Didn’t you just say Black Rats don’t arouse your interest?”
The female voice laughed openly and teasingly: “I didn’t expect him to look good in the face and have a nice body. I just wonder if his other assets will be just as surprising.”
Zhao Xing: “…”
Zhao Xing suddenly felt that his waistband was scorching hot, making it hard to take off.
The female voice sounded puzzled: “Why is he taking so long to take off his pants?”
Just then, the light above Zhao Xing’s head suddenly went out, followed by the entire white room plunging into darkness.
“A power outage?!”
“How can there be a power outage? I haven’t finished changing! How am I supposed to get dressed like this?”
Zhao Xing let out a long sigh of relief, silently thanking heaven for its help, and quickly changed into the suit in the dark.
As luck would have it, just after he finished dressing, the power returned to the entire white room.
“Why did the power go out just now?” the woman complained, dissatisfied as she looked at Zhao Xing through the one-way glass—now in his form-fitting suit, his shoulders appeared broader, waist narrower, and legs longer.
At that moment, the door behind them opened, and the prison warden walked in with an ingratiating smile: “My apologies, two officers. Something came up unexpectedly, which delayed me. I’m late.”
The woman sneered: “The prison warden certainly knows how to make an entrance, keeping us waiting.”
The warden forced a bitter smile, bent over, and wiped cold sweat from his brow: “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. This time it was truly an unexpected incident.”
The woman was about to make another sarcastic remark when she saw who was behind the warden, and her words caught in her throat.
Behind the warden followed three people: two robots and a long-haired man.
He was truly… an incredibly beautiful male.
Even on the surface, she had never seen such a breathtakingly beautiful face.
He looked as if he had not yet recovered from an illness—his lips were pale and cracked, but his cheeks bore an unhealthy flush. His stunning eyes held an otherworldly, detached calm as he silently gazed at the scene on the other side of the one-way glass.
“This is…” The woman’s voice softened.
The warden leaned close to her ear and whispered: “He’s the young master of the Luo family. He insisted on coming here to broaden his horizons. Couldn’t be stopped.”
The woman: “The Luo family? The underground shareholders of Sector K13?”
The warden nodded.
The woman felt a bit disappointed.
This identity was… really hard to get a handle on.
Turning her head, she noticed the male colleague beside her staring at the Luo family’s young master with undisguised infatuation.
The woman rolled her eyes in disgust.
Zhao Xing’s right ear was alternately sharp and dull.
Ever since the power outage, he hadn’t heard any distant sounds again.
But he didn’t pay much attention. He simply adjusted his clothes and waited for the robot’s next instruction.
The robot: “Please stand at the center of your platform.”
Once the 101 criminals had taken their positions, the silver-gray platforms emitted rings of light, scanning the people on top from head to toe.
Immediately after, a series of electronic voices sounded in succession.
“F001 passed.”
“F002 passed.”
“…”
“F081 passed.”
Each person who passed the scan had a red dot flash on their arm—the spot where their “monitor” was implanted.
Zhao Xing glanced at the monitor attached to his wrist, his heart tightening.
“F101…”
The platform beneath Zhao Xing suddenly stuttered. His heart clenched, but his wrist remained pressed against the seam of his pants.
“Passed.”
Zhao Xing closed his eyes and wiped the sweat from his palms, his heartbeat gradually steadying.
After everyone passed the inspection, the square platforms beneath them began moving at a uniform speed, transporting them all to the left corner of the room.
When the platforms assembled into a large rectangle, the ceiling above lowered 101 hanging rings.
Everyone was familiar with these rings—after all, every person arriving at Sector K13 had to ride in the D-class train, fastened in standing harnesses.
Without waiting for the robot’s command, everyone wisely grabbed the ring above with one hand and waited for the ring to extend chains around their waists, securing them into standing harnesses.
Then, a transparent square glass case descended from above, enclosing all of them, locking perfectly into the platforms beneath their feet.
“Is this a new type of train? Where does it go?”
“I don’t see any tracks!”
“Are we going on the mission already? So sudden.”
“It’s a bit cramped.”
Everyone looked around, murmuring anxiously and curiously.
Zhao Xing looked up, and the more he looked, the more it seemed like a giant elevator.
Was this… going up?
Zhao Xing’s eyes lit up slightly.
Just then, a burst of smoke drifted down from above. Ten seconds later, all one hundred people except Zhao Xing fell unconscious, leaning and crowding against each other.
Zhao Xing also closed his eyes, pretending to be unconscious.
“Slap—”
A hidden door suddenly opened, and a series of footsteps came from another room.
After the smoke in the elevator cleared, the man and woman also walked in. Fortunately, they were positioned far from Zhao Xing, diagonally opposite, so they probably wouldn’t notice he was faking.
The elevator door closed again.
“Let’s go.” The woman pressed a button in her hand.
Zhao Xing cautiously opened his eyes and was stunned by the person he saw in his field of vision.
It was Luo Mingshan.
Beside Luo Mingshan stood the prison high-ranking official whom Zhao Xing had bribed on the day he was locked in the iron house.
Had he… bribed that official again to see him off?
Had his illness recovered? Why did he still look so sickly?
What was that rare disease that made his body alternate between hot and cold?
Could it be cured?
There was a catheter in his hand; his lips were so pale, his cheeks so flushed—he must have come before finishing his IV fluids.
This little fool.
Luo Mingshan caught Zhao Xing’s gaze, and his eye rims instantly turned red.
His pale, cracked lips moved slightly, and his beautiful eyes misted over, as if brimming with sorrow.
The moment the elevator moved, Luo Mingshan took a step forward, as if to rush recklessly toward Zhao Xing.
But he stopped himself, frozen in place.
“Brother Axing…”
He looked up at Zhao Xing, mumbling his “Brother Axing,” standing there alone.
As if abandoned by the entire world.
The elevator ascended slowly, and Luo Mingshan’s face gradually receded.
Zhao Xing looked into his eyes, and a touch of bitterness surged in his heart.
But gradually, a carefree, brilliant smile spread across his face. His brows lifted, his eyes dazzling, as if he were relieved, about to head toward a bright future.
He curled his lips, casually waved at Luo Mingshan, and silently bid him farewell:
“Bye-bye, my little Luoluo. Let’s never meet again.”
With that, he turned and closed his eyes.
He didn’t look back.
The elevator sped upward, and a strange sensation of weightlessness washed over his body. His ears also began ringing, buzzing, with his right ear feeling especially uncomfortable.
Zhao Xing covered his right ear for a moment, waiting for it to adjust.
He slowly opened his eyes, gazing into the boundless darkness revealed as the elevator ascended.
Those barely perceptible feelings of reluctance, the anxiety toward the unknown, the faint ache in his chest—all of it was left behind as he rose.
Only his heart beat wildly.
As if it wanted to burst from his throat, searing him, burning him, suffocating him.
After an unknown amount of time, the elevator gradually slowed down.
But Zhao Xing’s heart raced faster and faster.
“Whoosh—”
The moment the glass elevator stopped, a blinding light flooded the entire world.
Zhao Xing instinctively lowered his head and covered his eyes, but his eyes still stung, and tears flowed uncontrollably.
Even through his thin eyelids, the dazzling brightness couldn’t be blocked; the whole world was dyed red.
Along with the light came an intense heat, as if he were being scorched by flames.
The unfamiliar temperature settled on his skin, reaching his heart.
He broke out in a sweat all over.
Zhao Xing raised his head, slowly moving his fingers away.
He opened his eyes.
—He saw the sun.