Chapter 112: Narrative Cage (9)

Li Cheng stood on the gravity-sensing floor of the Protagonist Effect Chamber, lost in thought.

The prisoners of the Narrative Cage are none other than the marauders or heroes who left their names across the starry sea — but here, they are prisoners, and prisoners alone.

'No wonder that Isaac carved words into the bed railing, no wonder the prisoner in the bottom-right cell turned into an idiot — every escape attempt tears him apart, and after a few rounds of that, even a sane man would go mad.'

He reached out and lightly brushed the grey-white wall of the isolation cell. The wall was made of some unknown material, solid and smooth, without a single dent, as if one could hear the weeping and raging from within through its surface.

Just as the metal sliding door was about to open, the wooden door behind them was shoved open with a 'bang'. Grey Rain stepped into the cell, met Li Cheng's puzzled gaze, and said frankly, "How about you and I cooperate — escape together?

I've been in this prison for half a year. During that time I've tried to escape ten times. My most successful attempt took eight hours to press four buttons in the engine rooms — I was just a little short of the last 【Trace Continuity】."

The success rate of two people plotting together is always higher than one."

"."

Li Cheng's heart stirred slightly, but he still said tactfully, "Each engine room generates its traps based on the escapee. If two people go together, are you sure it won't raise the difficulty?"

"You don't need to worry about that. That missing Isaac once said he'd tried to escape together with his cellmate in the bottom-left cell — the trap difficulty was the same as a solo escape. Also,"

Grey Rain raised her right arm; the slender hand of grey skin gradually melted and warped until it became a massive chainsword.

Liquid metal? A T-1000? The problem is she was just enthusiastically drinking corn juice a moment ago. Could it be some kind of cybernetic prosthetic...

Squeak—

The metal sliding door in front of them opened fully. What appeared before the two of them was no longer a square room, but the bridge of a starship.

At this moment, Li Cheng and Grey Rain stood at the end of a T-shaped corridor. Soldiers in military uniforms kept running past the junction ahead. They all wore magnetic boots, and with every running stride the red and green lights on the boots would flash, firmly clamping onto the metal floor.

The soldiers' ranks were clearly distinguished — helmeted pilots wore black uniforms.

Engineers holding comms devices and shouting to coordinate energy distribution between the engines and the ship's shields wore red uniforms.

Medical personnel transporting the wounded wore green uniforms.

Maintenance crew installing multi-function mechanical arms and patching internal damage to the ship wore yellow uniforms.

These 'people' came in all manner of appearances — there were pure humans, cat- and dog-like sub-humans straight out of a wasteland world, octopus-like creatures that could float in the air, and rhino-men with horns on their heads.

And the starship they were on seemed to be in the middle of a fierce battle. Cables were spitting sparks, the octagonal corridor flashed with red alert lights, and the broadcast system was delivering nothing but bad news.

【Artificial gravity system power supply has dropped to 9%. All crew of the Blood Eagle, activate magnetic boots immediately.】

【Starboard power room hit by missile. Repair crew working on it. 15 minutes 13 seconds until restoration.】

【8.7% light-speed torpedo accelerating in from the 7 o'clock direction on the port side. 48 seconds until impact. Shield energy has been allocated.】

The corridor was in total chaos, and for the moment no one noticed Li Cheng and Grey Rain in their prison uniforms lurking in the dark — with gravity gone, the two of them had to brace themselves against the wall to avoid floating off the floor.

"Stow your weapon."

Grey Rain lowered her voice and reached out to grab Li Cheng's arm — her limb turned liquid again, flowing and sliding along his skin, covering the prison uniform.

Perhaps liquid metal, perhaps some mercury-like magical artifact whose principle was still unknown — once it covered the prison uniform, it gradually changed color, becoming the yellow uniform worn by the maintenance crew ahead.

In addition, the liquid metal also shaped itself into a pair of magnetic boots on Li Cheng's feet, fixing him to the floor (in fact it had no magnetic function — it simply grew a slot on the bottom that could catch into the grating of the metal floor).

"Captain Isaac!"

An engineer in a red uniform ran quickly down the corridor, heading straight for Li Cheng and the other.

Grey Rain immediately sidestepped to dodge, ducking in front of a liquid-crystal panel and pretending to be a maintenance worker reading parameters. Li Cheng took the hint, crouched on the floor studying the sparking power lines, and muttered, "Hydro's soft, thermal's warm, nuclear's hard, wind's gentle."

He wasn't surprised by Grey Rain's liquid-metal shapeshifting. What caught his attention was the starship called the Blood Eagle, and the 'Captain Isaac' the engineer had mentioned.

Isaac Lord — the former owner of Li Cheng's cell, captain of a star pirate crew, and the original owner of the perfect-grade equipment particle emission gun 【Last Salvation】.

According to Grey Rain's account, and the traces in the cell, this Isaac had clearly gone missing during an escape attempt — so how could he appear in the 【Protagonist Effect Chamber】?

Could he, like Li Cheng in the 【Misleading Chamber】, be trapped, believing himself still on the normal world-line and flow of time?

The engineer in the red uniform paid no attention at all to the two prisoners disguised as crew, and kept sprinting straight for the bridge.

Seeing this, Li Cheng lowered his voice and asked Grey Rain, "What's going on? How is Isaac here?"

"I don't know either."

Grey Rain's face was equally taut as she whispered, "By the end he could barely remember his own name. He didn't tell anyone about his last escape attempt — I don't know how he disappeared.

I've broken into this 【Protagonist Effect Chamber】 a few times, and I've never run into anything like this before."

Li Cheng looked around and noticed a liquid-crystal panel clearly projecting the Blood Eagle's status.

It was a cigar-shaped — or rather, cylindrical — warship, 815 meters long, 152 meters wide, and 223 meters tall. Sixteen large-caliber particle cannons were mounted on either flank, and an extra-long railgun painted with a blood-eagle insignia sat on the prow. Beyond that, it carried sub-light torpedoes, missiles, close-range dogfight drones, and a whole suite of weapons.

The whole ship was equipped with energy shields and a hyperspace jump engine, capable of jumping through the stars.

At a single glance, Li Cheng could tell that this ship's technological level far surpassed the real-world Earth, crushing the New Human civilization from the last wasteland world that had only just begun to explore the starry sea.

Forget a full-scale plunder — even stealing a single cannon or snatching a crewman's tablet, if he could make it back to the real world, would be a fortune beyond measure.

The Special Affairs Bureau, the Global Paranormal Alliance, even the demon scientists — all of them would swallow their pride to cooperate with him, agreeing to every demand, just for technology hundreds or thousands of years ahead.

Money? Just paper — name the amount. Have a brand-new aircraft carrier renamed after him? Not impossible. Abolish the anti-addiction system for minors playing online games—

Uh, strictly speaking, Li Cheng was still a minor — he had to put up with the anti-addiction limits on his daily gaming.

The problem was—

Li Cheng's mind was crystal clear. The Killing Ground wouldn't leave such an obvious, low-threshold loophole that let a player ascend to the heavens in a single step. The narrative trickery in the 【Misleading Chamber】 had nearly turned escapees into comic-book characters, and the 【Protagonist Effect Chamber】 was unlikely to be any kinder.

That's what he said, but... it really did feel real.

Li Cheng's finger slid lightly across the liquid-crystal panel, zooming out the image.

Opposing the Blood Eagle were thirteen smaller cigar-shaped warships, all painted with the same pirate insignia. The two sides faced off at a distance of several light-seconds, continuously firing torpedoes and missiles.

Only both sides' hit rates were terrifyingly low — most of the missiles missed, skimming past the Blood Eagle; a small portion were intercepted by point-defense guns and drones; and a very small fraction actually struck the energy shields.

The real weapons of both warships were still the heavy cannons on the port and starboard flanks, and the one on the prow.

In space, due to factors like the ship's center of gravity, engine layout, and angle of incoming fire, a cylindrical hull is one of the most reasonable ship configurations — even with shield technology.

At the same time, because space combat is three-dimensional and both warships are several light-seconds apart, observing enemy maneuvering units at long range introduces a detection-delay effect, making it impossible to pinpoint their exact positions.

This forces the observer to rely on the enemy's initial velocity, acceleration, and other data to roughly calculate where the enemy maneuvering units (warships, drones) might be a few seconds later, and fire in that direction.

This phenomenon is known as the space-combat probability cloud.

Under this phenomenon, both sides of the space warships would first deploy small units (cruisers) to launch sublight missiles and torpedoes to harass the enemy, forcing them to shrink their maneuvering range—the probability cloud space.

Then, they would use the warship's main cannon—the only weapon capable of breaching energy shields—to deliver a fatal strike.

"Hasn't this just regressed back to the battleship era of giant guns? So even in the interstellar age, people still love going backward? Are they all Paradox players?"

Li Cheng silently grumbled, activated multi-threaded thinking, and his fingers darted across the LCD screen, using the battlefield system's translation function to gather more information.

At the same time, he strained his ears, listening intently to the sounds from the bridge.

"Wait—"

A rabbit-eared girl in a high-ranking officer's uniform, with a curvaceous figure, blocked the red-uniformed engineer and demanded sharply, "What are you doing here?! Didn't I order you to repair the hyperspace engine?"

The engineer saluted her and replied grimly, "The engine is repaired, but the Y-ray energy storage units in ionization chambers #1, #3, and #8 are severely damaged—they can't support a long-range space jump."

Although the Blood Hawk was a pirate ship, its crew wore uniforms and behaved like proper officers, even saluting their superiors when speaking.

"What's the maximum jump distance?"

The rabbit-eared girl pressed. The Blood Hawk was currently holding off thirteen enemies—barely holding on. If the hyperspace engine wasn't fixed, its shields would eventually drain.

The engineer answered, "Eight hundred light-minutes—that's the absolute limit. Beyond that, the reactor will melt. But even that distance won't outrun the enemy pirate fleet."

With the engine broken and no retreat possible, dawdling only meant slow death. The entire bridge fell silent; every eye turned to a towering figure.

It was a two-meter-tall imposing silhouette, clad in a crisp black-and-red military uniform, wearing a hooded cape, a yellow sash draped over each shoulder, a peculiarly shaped pistol pinned at his left hip, and a longsword on his right.

Gray Rain silently poked Li Cheng's side; just from the pistol's design, she knew the figure was Isaac Lord.

"."

Isaac, who had stood motionless until now, turned without a sound. He—or rather, It—was not alive, but a skeleton forged from black metal. Its surface bore no intricate patterns; within its eye sockets flickered ghostly blue flames.

"If long-range jumps are impossible,"

Isaac spoke slowly, his genderless mechanical voice commanding, "can it support multiple short-range jumps?"

The engineer nodded silently. "Multiple jumps will drastically reduce total range. At five-light-second intervals, we can jump at most seven times."

"Seven chances are enough."

Isaac stared at the 3D spatial projection above the bridge's central table and said calmly, "Everyone return to your stations. In three minutes, concentrate all shields to the starboard side. Jump behind their last ship and fire starboard cannons. Then reorient the cannons and prepare for another jump—directly into the space between enemy ships #12 and #13."

Everyone on the Blood Hawk's bridge froze in shock. Experienced officers instantly understood: Isaac intended to fight from the brink of death—using short-range jumps to appear behind enemy ships, using them as probability cloud cover.

After one volley destroys one enemy, they would immediately jump into the gap between two enemy vessels, unleashing their pre-aligned heavy cannons from both sides simultaneously.

The Blood Hawk's greatest advantage over the pirate fleet lay in its massive energy shields. At extreme close range, both sides' particle cannons would fire at full power—rendering shields useless.

Isaac's decision was like a gambler going all-in on a poker table—betting the entire crew's lives on a minuscule probability, repeated seven times.

After a brief moment of stunned confusion, every crew member—pilots, engineers alike—returned to their stations without protest, without argument, silently obeying their captain's dangerously audacious order.

"This kind of command presence—could he be Yurii?" Li Cheng muttered under his breath.

"Who's Yuri?" Gray Rain asked. "Famous?"

"He's Yula's cousin, Yuna's cousin, Ymir's adoptive brother, the master of Kazari, the Psychological Mastery Queen of Tokiwadai, and the inventor of the ukulele. He loves taking postgraduate exams. If he fails, he starts World War III."

Li Cheng made it up on the spot, his gaze sweeping across the entire bridge to fix on the command room.

The Blood Hawk's bow was open-design; numerous high-ranking officers and operators sat behind control panels, coordinating the ship's weapons, communications, energy distribution, and engine power.

The panels were packed with countless switches, levers, and buttons—but only one button glowed a vivid, blood-red.

Given the narrative prison's tendencies, it was almost certainly the 【Protagonist Effect Chamber】 button.

'This Isaac is probably another tyrant-hero type, also trapped inside the engine room, unable to distinguish reality from illusion. I'll have to find my own chance to press that button amid the chaos.'

Li Cheng's thoughts raced; his focus centered on his inventory, locking onto the 【Thunder Horn】 and the 【Final Redemption】.

The Blood Hawk's internal structure was far weaker than the narrative prison. Based on the Thunder Horn's description, it could likely destroy the bridge—or at least cause a major disturbance.

Plop.

Gray Rain gently tugged his sleeve, her expression oddly strained.

"What is it?"

Li Cheng turned to see Gray Rain pointing with her other hand at the LCD panel—showing the ship's core, where a reinforced emergency shelter was encased in heavy armor. Due to its unique construction, even if the entire ship were blasted apart, the shelter would remain intact.

Inside the shelter were hundreds of women, elderly people, and children.

They wore ordinary clothes, looked healthy, and their faces held only fear—not the hollow terror of long-term abuse. Some women held sketchbooks and dolls, trying to comfort frightened children.

These people weren't prisoners or slaves—they were clearly protected refugees.

(End of Chapter)