Chapter 109: The Narrative Cage (Six)

Whether due to prison regulations or coincidence, the newspaper in Gray Rain's hands bore no date or related information. Watching her so absorbed, he doubted he could extract any further clues.

Li Cheng stepped back two paces and returned to inspect the two single cells in the lower-left and lower-right corners.

The cell door in the lower-left corner was tightly shut; the food slot appeared welded shut, immovable no matter how hard he pushed. Knocking and calling yielded no response.

As for the lower-right cell, the hunched, disheveled figure inside showed no reaction to external disturbances, muttering softly to the corner by itself.

Li Cheng listened closely and faintly heard a rough, hoarse voice—indistinguishably male or female—ask in a gentle tone: "Did you behave well at school today? Did the teacher praise you?"

Immediately, the voice shifted, turning cold: "You know you're wrong—you just know you're going to die."

Then the voice changed again, becoming calm and resolute: "Port-side third turbine laser cannon, shift five degrees left!"

Finally, it fell silent again, chuckling foolishly.

"What kind of weirdos are these cellmates? Psychopaths?"

Outside the cell, Li Cheng stared blankly, sighed, and turned toward the vending machine. "Dissociative identity is terrifying."

"Yes, we think so too," said the voice in his mind.

Arriving before the vending machine, he saw it had no power cords, powered by some unknown means. Behind the glass panel lay a full array of snacks and drinks, priced from 1∑ to 5∑; behind them were daily necessities—hairdryers, toothpaste and toothbrushes, bottle openers, dolls, shirts and pants—priced from 20∑ to 70∑.

"This ∑ symbol is probably some kind of cosmic-era legal currency. But who the hell would run a vending machine inside a prison? Prisoners don't have money—could this just be advertising?"

That hypothesis wasn't entirely implausible: just as in the real world, some down jackets, heaters, water heaters, and watches sponsor Antarctic expeditions, placing ads in special locations is itself a form of advertising.

To the right of the vending machine were two coin slots: one for paper bills, one for coins.

Li Cheng didn't rush to insert money. He reached beneath the machine, groping for any coins accidentally dropped by previous users. Then he stuck his hand into the delivery chute, hoping to retrieve a drink that had fallen out.

He didn't feel any drink—but he pulled out a newspaper.

The entire paper contained only one article, titled 【Food Poisoning Incident at City School】: "Yesterday afternoon, the First Public School in the Proxima Centauri A Zone colony city experienced a mass food poisoning incident. Multiple students and teachers developed fever and vomiting and were rushed to the hospital. One student has since died. The incident is believed to have been caused by expired ant-cow canned goods purchased by the cafeteria."

Following it were long, nutrient-free social commentaries.

Another newspaper, again with no date or publisher information.

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow, tucked the newspaper away, removed the White Bone Corridor forearm guard, and took out a metal box containing currency from different eras and nations: Song Dynasty jiaozi, ancient Roman silver coins, modern U. S. dollars, Republic of China gold yuan notes, grain coupons, oil coupons, gold ingots, and gold coins.

Among them were even several hundred billion Tian Di Bank spirit notes.

Unfortunately, every currency—including the gold coins—failed the vending machine's verification. In the end, he pulled out The Chai Classic, tore off a page, folded and ripped it to the size of a bill, and inserted it into the slot—only to have it spat back out.

"Tsk."

Li Cheng clicked his tongue, pulled the stabilized superheavy-element-particle pistol named 【Last Redemption】 from his backpack slot, spun it once, and began exploring the hexagonal space.

The gun's description clearly stated that pulling the trigger would fire a powerful particle stream—but only once.

In a puzzle game, this was the kind of limited-use hint item: usable to brute-force solutions.

It could blast open the vending machine and take its goods. It could shatter the cell door and force Gray Rain to reveal information. Or it could fire at the seemingly indestructible walls to see if it could simply break through and escape.

These thoughts spun through Li Cheng's mind and vanished—The Narrative Cage radiated strangeness everywhere; perhaps beneath Gray Rain's little girl appearance lurked a titaness ten meters tall and ten meters wide.

Who was threatening whom, then, was still uncertain.

Half an hour later, Li Cheng returned to his original position. He pushed open the wooden doors at the end of all six corridors—all unlocked, and behind each door lay identical design—

A pressure-sensitive floor, and a sliding alloy door resembling a diving decompression chamber.

The escapee had to stand on the pressure-sensitive floor, then close the wooden door from the inside, before the alloy door would slide open, revealing the true space beyond.

The design's purpose was obvious: to give the escapee no chance to reconsider or choose another room.

"So now, there's only one path left."

Li Cheng rubbed his palms, pushed open the wooden door of the Reversal Room. With too many gaps in the information, trusting Gray Rain—the relatively friendly NPC—was acceptable; if all else failed, he could always blast his way back with the 【Last Redemption】 pistol.

"Deng deng ↓ Deng deng ↑"

He hummed the theme from the American TV series "Prison Break," stood on the pressure-sensitive floor, and waited patiently.

The alloy door slowly slid open to the right, revealing before Li Cheng a rectangular room slightly smaller than a basketball court.

The room had no pillars; many metal rods hung from the ceiling, their purpose unclear, each emitting a faint glow to serve as lamps, their surfaces printed with the "Pishi Shuai" brand logo.

These rods clustered near the entrance; beneath them, the floor consisted of a checkerboard pattern of black-and-white tiles, made of marble, each 1.5m × 1.5m.

Ten tiles from left to right, ten from back to front, forming a square of one hundred tiles.

Where the tiles ended, the light at the far end of the room grew dim; faintly visible was a thick cable hanging from the ceiling, its end tied to a red button—presumably the control switch mentioned in the mission objective.

Hum!

As Li Cheng observed, the entire room suddenly trembled. He felt his hands, feet, and head grow heavier.

More precisely, gravity increased—from approximately 1G to 1.06g.

Moreover, all the metal rods on the ceiling lit up, firing searing laser beams that wove into a dense net high above, slowly descending over time.

Without hesitation, Li Cheng drew his Bat Hook Gun and fired at a distant tile.

But the tile, made of some unknown material, deflected the hook instantly—and this action triggered an abrupt spike in surrounding gravity. The laser net above plummeted sharply downward, only resuming its normal descent rate after he retracted the hook.

(End of Chapter)