Chapter 231 - Battle Royale: Survival of the Jedi (XXI)

”Alien exodus! Exotics on the loose! Guard out, guard out-”

The radio broadcast came to an abrupt halt and was replaced by the majestic strains of the International Anthem.

A song so old that you can’t help but laugh at it.

Through the shattered floor-to-ceiling windows is a long windowless corridor, the only way to the outside. The corridor is strewn with a dozen or so secret rooms, and there are no windows of access to the interior.

After confirming that the two dozen or so technicians still working had been taken down, the powerful girl crossed the corridor, made sure everyone had taken cover, and kicked the locked electronic door: “What a shitty song, who ordered it!”

At that very moment, the fists of a teenager manipulating iron matter clashed, and as far as the eye could see, all the iron matter instantly twisted, creating a huge dome shield that gathered around the flying door panel.

Instantly, countless lead bullets dented the surface of the shield.

Thanks to this momentary interruption, the girl who kicked in the door was able to dodge and escape death.

A hot nosebleed dripped from the iron manipulator’s nose, and after wiping it away, he ducked into a nearby room and shouted, “It’s a lead bullet! I can’t do anything about it!”

Chi Xiaochi replied, “There’s always a way!”

Seventy-five powers, plus his, for a total of seventy-six.

There will always be a way.

” Dan Shuang!” Chi Xiaochi called.

Dan Shuang took a deep breath: “Yes!”

He poked his head out of one of the rooms, took a quick glance at the line of guards outside, and with a single flick of his eye, all the guns in their hands fell to the ground!

As the crowd’s hands went limp and their guns were discharged, a blaze of fire roared up the corridor like a dragon of fire, spewing straight up!

The already disorganised lead bomb squad was completely scattered, screaming and screaming, with men on fire and rolling around in agony.

A girl who can harness fire stands in the middle of the corridor with red flames coiled around her fingertips, her hair and her chest.

She pressed her hands down, creating a fire-free path to life for the crowd, “Go!”

It was late afternoon and by now it was time to go off duty, and the psychics had already gone to bed early, lying in one capsule or another with a look of almost peaceful numbness.

Many of the Exotics had just fallen asleep when the stark warning lights snapped to life and the shrill ringing vibrated in their ears –

”There’s an alien exodus!”

”A total of 76 Alter Ego’s!”

”All psychics out! Retrieve the rebels!”

The hive-like dormitory area was thrown into a slight commotion, with a number of alters instinctively obeying orders to sit up from their beds and wait for the doors of their rooms to open en masse, while alters in adjacent rooms communicated with each other, asking what was going on.

Here, there are no walls between rooms.

This is done to prevent contraband, and the institution is encouraging the exotics to snoop and snitch on each other.

If the informant is successful, he or she will receive a family visit, which is already a very generous reward.

A shifter sat up from the bed and looked across the railing to the room across the room.

The room opposite had just been cleared and the alien remembered that the alien was called Lu Qingshu , always flipping through a superhero comic and saying that he could only be a gutter rat now that he had the powers of a superhero.

Just two days ago, he failed in his mission and died.

New personnel have not yet been filled in and the institution has been busy the last two days, so his belongings are still on the bed, unpacked.

The superhero comic book cover, which glowed unusually brightly under the flashing alarm lights.

The alien looked at it for a moment, then suddenly closed his eyes and collapsed back onto the bed.

When the man in the next room saw him like this, he was busy greeting him, “Old Li. …… Hey, hey! Old Li, what are you doing, you don’t want to live?”

The shifter known as “Old Lee” snored heavily.

As if he understood something, the alien who had beckoned him stared at him with strange eyes for a moment, then also backed away from the door and sat down on the bed, half silent, and fell back to sleep.

When the “manager” arrived in a hurry to count the number of people ready to form a team, he found that the two men had not gotten up and hit the railings hard with an iron bar: “What are you doing? Get up! Didn’t you hear the alarm?”

The duo lay in bed, motionless and snoring like thunder.

The “master” immediately activated a slight current as a warning.

The shifter next door held on hard while Old Lee got up from his bed with a jolt.

The “manager” waved the steering wheel and shouted from the outside: “Don’t you understand people? Get up!”

Old Li watched him in silence, and with a fierce fling of his hand, his arm flew out in the air like rubber, wrapping around the neck of the “manager” several times, and pulling back, the “manager” hit his forehead on the iron bar with a local thud, bleeding like water, and immediately passed out.

Old Lee lay down, rolled over and went to sleep.

Another shifter next door yelled at him, “Are you crazy? If we don’t get them back, they’ll tell the public what we’ve done here and we’ll be finished! We’ll become murderers! We–”

Old Lee clenched his fists.

Seventy-six Alter Ego ……

If, that is, they can get out ……

If only, they could make everything that happens here public ……

Old Li opened his eyes and said word for word, “I’d rather go to an outside prison, squatting for four hundred years or the death penalty. At least it’s better than living here …… like a human being.”

Old Lee is not the only one.

In many places, there were small riots of this kind, with constant scuffles between the psychics and the “managers” and occasional shouts of anger and groans of electric shocks.

However, the “master” does not dare to activate the anaesthetic and poisoning functions easily.

These men were only negligent, and not yet at the level of serious violations of the regulations; if they were killed, they could not be accounted for, and if they were anaesthetised, they would be tantamount to breaking their own war effort.

Not far from the dormitory area, the head of the “managers” hissed into the intercom, “Don’t open the door! They’re very unstable right now!”

On the other side of the phone was the anxious voice of the head of Emergency Response, “If we don’t open the door, should we let those psychics get away?!”

”With the doors open, I don’t know how many rebellious aliens there will be! If this side gets into a riot too, it’s over!”

The minister’s roar trembled to a pitch, “Then let those people escape? If we let them escape, we’ll be in big trouble too!”

The two were at a standstill as the chief hung up his comms and swept his gaze over a face in a steel cage.

Some of them lie in bed and pretend to sleep, and it is clear from a glance that they do not want to go out at all.

Some watched others fool around with numb faces and wondered what they were thinking.

Some looked like they were genuinely angry and volunteered to catch the defectors, but did they know that this was not their chance to escape?

It’s a face that looks so suspicious.

The chief executive had an unbearable headache and scratched his hair in annoyance.

To release, or not to release?

With a few hesitations, the best time had been lost.

He stomped his foot several times in anger as if venting his frustration, and finally let out a long, hopeless sigh.

…… is finished.

This time, something could really go wrong.

On the other side, the Exotics who had stormed out all the way with the International Anthem on top cleared all the human guards along the way.

The occasional small detachment of Exalts they encountered was pushed aside by the torrent of these seventy-five men.

…… has never had a saviour or an immortal emperor.

As the line is sung, a shifter guarding the window is crushed to the ground by Chi Xiaochi’s air.

The window was broken and one by one the Alter Ego’s came out in a fishtail.

The weather outside was inclement, the rain pouring down as if the sky had been shattered in a gaping hole, and the lightning that ripped through with a splash, snowy white and brilliant purple, was a frightening sight to behold.

Unlike that virtual world of consciousness where it is clear and cloudless, all year round, the sky is tiled blue and the clouds are so clear that they are sickeningly fake.

The alien’s feet landed in the thin muddy water and darted forward.

The rainwater that pours into the mouth of

The teenager who was able to manipulate the radio had switched the song to the next pure track called ‘Fearless’, with a slightly depressing tone and a tight rhythm that harmonised with the speed of their steps.

In the pouring rain, Chi Xiaochi, carrying Zhao Rou, who was still unconscious, raised his voice and asked Lou Ying: “Is the tracking function of the collar still on?”

Lou Ying shouted to Chi Xiaochi, “Don’t worry! These collars are not the same as the official ones, they are unapproved, and only the …… alters who survive will be declared upwards for registration and replaced with official collars to become their slaves – these unofficial collars can only be used within the institution and cannot perform remote control! As soon as they leave this range, they are useless!”

Chi Xiaochi was drenched by the rain, and all the depression, anger and fire of the past few days were doused by a handful of rain!

They were one layer of a two-storey high grid away from freedom!!!

The dozen or so humans tending the grid stood overhead, guns in hand, trying to strafe.

Dan Shuang stepped out on one leg, crouched down slightly and bellowed in anger as the guns fell from their hands, one of the psychics with insulating power held the grid in both hands and instantly activated his power, blocking the electricity within a three feet radius.

With a loud bang, a huge gash was made in the grid.

The crowd ran forward and backwards towards the escape tunnel.

There were also people who didn’t even escape at the first opportunity.

There were a dozen people who had their eyes trained on a huge statue not far from the escape.

That is the statue of the institution.

A god holding scales, representing a just verdict.

Every person admitted to the institution has seen the statue in a desperate struggle and hiss.

The statues are placed all over the institution. In the “capsule” compartment, there is a floating statue; in the electroshock room, a reduced statue; in the middle of the playground, a huge statue like this.

The gods, symbols of education and fairness, stare at them coldly, never once reaching out for help.

…… as if they were born guilty.

The huge statue was toppled to the ground and smashed to pieces by a dozen angry shifter’s in the magnificent female chant of ‘Fearless’.

Among them was the fire woman.

The fire in the firewoman is too hot for rain to quench.

She stepped on the shattered head of the statue, dropped her eyes for a moment in a cold stare, and kicked the head away.

And Chi Xiaochi, after burrowing out of the grid, took out the locked spirit vase that held countless broken souls.

Over the sound of the pouring rain, he whispered, “Go back.”

”Go back to see your loved ones, kill your enemies, it’s all up to you. I have all the information you want, and I will give it to you.”

”But there is very little you can do. You have only partial energy left, and no body to carry it, and there is a chance that you will dissipate halfway through. Do what you think is worth doing, and do not waste your last hours of light.”

With that, he opened the bottle.

Countless firefly-like broken spirits struggle out of the bottle, mayfly-like, and drift away in the wind.

Some of them completely disintegrated as soon as they encountered the cold rain, others were like shooting stars that disappeared in a flash, while others even took human form, bowed hastily to Chi Xiaochi and dissipated into the wind.

At least, they died in this world of men.

……

A middle-aged man walks up to the door of a familiar home and as he reaches out to knock, his fingertips pass through the security door.

With a small sigh, he stepped inside.

The window was left open and the wind ruffled the curtains and the small wind chimes hanging from the window.

The man went upstairs and looked at his sleeping son.

Three years later, there is still a picture of his son on his bed from the first time he took him to a baseball game, but with an additional guitar, presumably a new hobby.

His son was sleeping so soundly that the man dared not do more than touch his hand.

He would not have concealed his identity as a shifter if it were not for the fear of discrimination against his son at school.

He gave a small sigh, and the regret in his heart, though present, had faded considerably.

He went to his wife’s room.

There is already a new pair of men’s slippers by his wife’s bedside and the wedding photo on the wall has been replaced.

She lay in her new husband’s arms, her brow lightly furrowed, tears in the corners of her eyes, wondering if she had dreamed of her husband, who had been pronounced dead three years earlier.

The man stood silently in front of the bed for a while before it dawned on him that this might frighten his wife and he took a few steps backwards, half of his body embedded in the wall.

He lifted his hand, looking despondent.

When he was escorted into the institution, his wedding square ring had been on his hand for over ten years and could not be removed with soap and water, so he was allowed to wear it into the institution.

Now, as a conscious body, he managed to shed the ring on his hand.

He has come back this time to return it.

He placed the ring gently on the bedside table, kissed it silently and wordlessly, and was careful not to touch his wife, who no longer belonged to him.

Having done everything, he chose to leave.

The man standing on the street looked back at the house that could be called home, bowed deeply, and then disappeared under the streetlight like a melted shadow.

The ring he had placed on the bedside table disappeared without a trace with him.

……

Another shadow, too, stands in front of a bed.

In front of the bed lay her brother, a ten year old child.

In his arms he was holding a teddy bear, a birthday present she had given him two years ago.

At the time, he argued that he didn’t want such a girly present, but Lego, and was so angry that she didn’t speak to him for two days.

On the third day, her psychic powers awakened.

She gently stroked her brother’s little curls, left his room and went to the kitchen to get a kitchen knife.

She took a step towards the other room, knife in hand, her ears filled with the chaos of the day when the authorities came to arrest her.

”Brother!!! Daddy, Mommy, help me, help me–”

”Don’t you take my sister away! My sister is good, good to anyone, she won’t harm anyone, uncle and aunt I promise you OK, I beg you, don’t take my sister away ……”

”Brother, let go of me! This one says it’s not contagious! If you infect her, and then infect you, mum won’t want to live.”

”His mother, take her brother away! My daughter is in your hands, she’s been rebellious since she was a little girl, and we’re having a headache, if she has powers, she’ll get into a lot of trouble! If she doesn’t behave, go ahead and teach her a lesson, beat or scold her, it’s up to you.”

At the moment, the girl stands in front of the door of her parents’ room, stands still for a moment and enters the room.

……

On the other side, a man who had just exited the live studio collapsed to the ground, his face full of fear, his body shaking violently like a pendulum, and the spilled coke dripping stickily all over the floor.

A 24 or 5 year old woman with a pretty face stood in front of him with a ghostly charm in her brow: “Do you remember me.”

The man’s legs shook: “I don’t …… how did you get in ……”

The woman crouched down in front of him, “You don’t remember, but I remember your ID, to the day I die.”

”You say to the shifter who killed me, come all the way, day her, what are you waiting for.”

”Someone called you names and said you were sick.”

”Her blood, you say, and it’s not like she can splash on me. Dead is dead, isn’t it?”

A desperate whimper escaped the man’s throat.

”That’s why I’m here.” The woman said slowly, “How do you want to die?”

”…… I’ll let you choose.”

All of this happened over the next short night.

Chi Xiaochi was still outside the institution and could not have foreseen the story that was about to unfold in all corners of the world.

He spat out the rainwater in his mouth and put away the spirit-locked bottle, “Is this good or bad.”

Lou Ying said, “That’s their business. We still have our task.”

The two said in unison, ” Jiao Qingguang .”

When they said that, both of them laughed instead.

Lou Ying : “Are we going to find him?”

Chi Xiaochi looked at the sky: “Let’s wait until dawn. When it’s dawn and our full video is posted all over the intranet and extranet, he’ll naturally know.”