Chapter 28: Three Deadly Ordeals in Prison

Chapter 28: Three Deadly Ordeals in Prison

The police gave no reason. They simply showed their credentials and a detention warrant.

My senior brothers gathered outside the compound trying to stop them. I called them back.

I respected law enforcement. A straight body need not fear a crooked shadow. Still, I handed the green jade token to Senior Brother Guanghuai for safekeeping—once inside, it would be hard to avoid confiscation. If someone discovered its secret, that would be trouble.

The police took me first to an interrogation room at the station for procedural questioning.

I cooperated. But something felt wrong. The officers were all from Jizhou, with clear Baoding accents.

During questioning, they told me to confess truthfully.

I didn’t even know what I’d done. Confess what?

They wouldn’t say. Just told me to think about it, then launched into a long recitation of policy.

I had no idea, so fine—we could drag this out.

The biggest thing I could think of was when Zhu Shaohua saved me and I’d injured several police-uniformed people under AI control. But Gao Minjun had died taking the blame for that, and both Zhu Shaohua and Gao Minjun were dead. Not much point reopening it.

But the police never asked about that. They kept pressing about the “electronic worm”—how I knew that name, where I’d been a month ago.

“Electronic worm” was a name I’d made up on the spot, and a month ago I’d been detained by CWP at their base.

I answered honestly and told them to verify it.

I don’t know if they checked. Either way, after interrogation they didn’t release me. They sent me to a detention center in the northern suburbs of Pingdu City.

The center sat deep in the remote northern mountains. A small compound—a yard in the center, two buildings, several rows of single-story rooms. Five- or six-meter electrified fences all around, armed guards in six corner towers.

As soon as I arrived, I was placed in a rear holding room with three burly, oily-faced men.

All three were covered in tattoos, heavily muscled, faces hard. They clearly knew one another and moved in sync.

When they saw me, they smiled wickedly.

I read danger in their thoughts. They’d been hired to finish me off.

I couldn’t tell yet who’d hired them or why. Based on my reasoning, two possibilities.

One: the Sweepers. They’d released me, but maybe under pressure. I’d learned too many of their secrets.

Two: whoever plotted against Du Changfeng. I’d just saved him and exposed their method. They might fear exposure.

I thought the second more likely. At the Sweeper base I’d beaten Min Long—they wouldn’t send three fools.

But if it was the second, the plotter’s reach was terrifying. He could mobilize the police.

Facing three vicious-looking men, if this had been me when I first arrived in Pingdu, I’d have been in trouble. Back then, I had still been a student fresh out of the novice village.

But now? They had no idea what I’d been through eighty levels underground. Against ordinary people like these, I barely bothered looking.

Sure enough, late that night one man stood guard by the door while the other two crept toward my bed, cotton blanket in hand, planning to muffle me before working me over.

I’d long seen through them with same-frequency sensing, so I lay relaxed, pretending ignorance.

Just as the blanket fell, I didn’t even sit up—I kicked sideways from the bed, one kick per man, both landing on the kneecap seams.

Both crashed down screaming. The police didn’t come right away.

The lookout at the door stood frozen, trembling. I ignored him and stayed on the bed.

I hadn’t shattered their kneecaps, only dislocated the joints. It was the kind of injury that caused excruciating pain without serious harm—but it stripped their will to fight.

Five or six minutes later, three detention guards ran over. The lookout looked like he’d seen a ghost, wanting only to flee. The guards grabbed him.

Only then did I sit up. I pointed at the lookout. “Ask him what happened…