the art of naming the night

Chapter 4: not only me

Return Countdown 47:59:

Return Countdown 47:59:

Did I travel through time?

So, the end of the countdown signifies traveling to another dimension, and the return countdown indicates the time to go back.

Thinking of this, Sergio Q. breathed a sigh of relief. Being able to return was a good thing.

Although it's possible that no one over there would miss him, his mother had a new life and couldn't spare the time to think of him, his father... should be in the detention center.

So, he probably couldn't spare the time to think of him either.

But even so, he still wanted to go back and see.

Sergio Q. began to reassess the "new world" in front of him.

The moment the world pieced itself back together, Sergio Q. saw the prison uniform on his body and instantly understood his situation.

He was in a gray, dimly lit prison cell, with a technologically advanced alloy gate on one side, and completely sealed walls on the other sides.

The cell was solitary, containing only a bed with a thin sheet on it.

Next to it was a shelf, which, besides a quilt, toothbrush, and towel, was completely empty.

The walls of the cell were gray, but what Sergio Q. couldn't understand was that under the faint light from outside, these gray walls clearly shimmered with a metallic luster.

Metal walls?

Sergio Q. sat up and absentmindedly touched the walls. What kind of place would use such a costly building material?

Clearly, this place did not belong to the world he once knew.

He quickly looked down at his palms. The boning knife was gone, but the fingerprints on his palms were exactly the same as before, even the positions of the pores on his hands were identical.

This was his own body.

Sergio Q. sat on the bed, hugging his knees, staring at the heavy alloy door, lost in thought.

Gradually, noise began to arise from outside, and someone next door was banging hard on the alloy prison door.

Sergio Q. slowly walked to the door, trying to listen to what was being shouted outside, but before he could make it out, the alloy door emitted a clear pneumatic transmission sound, and the door opened.

He looked outside, where there was a circular corridor.

This square-shaped prison fortress had seven floors, each filled with densely arranged prison cells.

From each of the just-opened alloy doors was a gloomy cell, as if containing wild beasts.

Sergio Q. stood in the doorway, seeming to know that if he took this step out, he would be walking into an unknown life.

In the vast prison, a broadcast suddenly sounded from somewhere, with a pleasant female voice: "7:00 in the morning, breakfast time. All prisoners, please line up in order and proceed to the dining hall for your meal."

The voice echoed throughout the prison fortress, and Sergio Q. was still looking at the threshold in front of him.

It seemed that if he stepped out, everything would be different.

In fact, he felt that from a certain moment, he had already become different.

When did it start?

Probably... when he thought he had only the last two and a half hours of his life left, so he did what he most wanted to do but never dared to do before.

He even reported his own father, what else was there to be afraid of facing.

He stepped out of the cell.

　　But the next moment, he was stunned again.

Outside, in the not-so-spacious corridor, there was a prisoner standing in front of each cell door. An old man hunched over and looked towards him, his right eye socket containing a mechanical eye that emitted a faint red light. The entire right eye socket was mechanized, with the metal components extending to the temple on the right side.

The mechanical eye did not look refined; it was even somewhat crude, constantly adjusting its focus.

It seemed as if the man was analyzing the details on his body.

Just like how he would analyze others with his memory.

A burly middle-aged prisoner had an arm that was entirely mechanical. The man moved his fingers, and Sergio Q. could hear the metallic sound of mechanical parts moving as the man opened and closed his hand.

That thick metal arm, like twisted steel muscles, was strong and aggressive.

Half of the people in this prison fortress possessed mechanical limbs.

Mechanical civilization?

These four words popped into Sergio Q.'s mind.

Before he could continue pondering, the burly prisoner in the neighboring cell smiled at him, "Hey, newcomer, don't eat too much for breakfast, or it'll look ugly when you throw it up."

As soon as these words were spoken, laughter erupted from the corridor: "Heard that twelve new people came last night, today we can have some fun."

"This kid doesn't have any mechanical limbs, looks like he's got no connections outside either."

Hearing the words "newcomer," Sergio Q. was startled; he initially thought the man knew he had just crossed over from Earth.

But he quickly realized that "newcomer" probably meant he had just entered the prison, and the man likely did not know about his identity as someone from Earth.

Moreover, Sergio Q. frowned as he pondered, the "entertainment" mentioned by the man could well be a disaster for him.

He restrained the restlessness and fear in his heart. As an ordinary high school sophomore faced with a sudden and fierce change, all Sergio Q. could do was to force himself not to show any abnormality.

Suddenly, on the fourth floor of the corridor opposite, a young man started to freak out, "What is this place! I want to go home! I don't want to stay in this hell, who are you people!? I am John h., my dad is the chairman of the Yongle Group in City L, stay away from me!"

Saying so, the young man started to run frantically along the corridor.

The others did not move, standing in place as if watching a spectacle, still maintaining their formation.

Someone wondered, "Where is City L?"

All of a sudden, Sergio Q. heard a buzzing sound overhead. He looked up and was shocked to find four drone-like objects detaching from the high and deep ceiling, beginning to fall downwards.

Sergio Q.'s gaze stayed on the ceiling, where eighteen Gatling-like metal storm turrets were neatly "embedded" and hanging upside down.

As the panicked young man ran, nine of those metal storms also started to rotate!

"Please stop moving," a female voice came from the drones, "Warning again, please stop moving."

Following that, a broadcast sounded throughout the prison fortress, "All prisoners, please stand by in your current positions."

In just over ten seconds, the four drones had cornered the young man at a certain spot in the corridor, each drone pointing its gun barrel directly at him.

At the same time, gates opened below the prison fortress, and 9 robots holding cold black firearms entered at full speed.

The young man sat down in fear, while Sergio Q. coldly watched everything unfold.

The actions were somewhat excessive, but they helped Sergio Q. gather a lot of information.

Machine guns, drones, robots, mechanical limbs, countless pieces of information flooded into his mind at once.

But what surprised Sergio Q. the most was... he suddenly realized: he was not the only person who had come here from Earth.

He was not the first, and likely not the last.