Chapter 209
His head hurt again. Cheonchilbaek felt like he shouldn’t stay here any longer.
There was no way the GM would leave such a hint for nothing.
Cheonchilbaek raised his unfocused eyes and looked toward Paradox. With a calm expression, he was following behind the Model prisoners guiding the Companions.
Had he not seen the text string? That couldn’t be.
[Everyone, listen without making it obvious. You saw the GM’s message, right? Things are looking unusual. Stay on your toes.]
Cheonchilbaek was startled.
And for good reason - Paradox’s voice had suddenly echoed inside his head!
Seeing him suddenly shudder, the Model Prisoner next to him gave him a strange look, but seeing the prisoner click his tongue and turn his head away, it seemed he just assumed it was one of the side effects of the Ability suppression being lifted.
[I said don’t make it obvious. It’s my ability. It’s easier if you think of it as Telepathy. It’s not hard to use. Thanks to this, it’s become much easier to give you instructions. It’s a highly advantageous Supernatural Ability in Glitch Hall, where there isn’t a single communication device.]
Cheonchilbaek looked around in bewilderment.
Even if they had become Model prisoners, was it okay to use a supernatural ability this openly? They said the inquisitor could detect supernatural abilities.
As if Paradox were reading Cheonchilbaek’s mind, Paradox’s voice was heard.
[I know what you’re all worried about, but it’s fine. I got more stance information about the inquisitor from the Officer. The inquisitor only reacts to Supernatural abilities above a “certain level”.
Come to think of it, it’s only natural. Model prisoners use Supernatural abilities to control the Ordinary prisoners, but if those Model prisoners had to constantly walk on eggshells every time they used a Supernatural Ability, there would be no point in employing them, right? This kind of light usage doesn’t seem to be a problem.]
Paradox then added a word out of concern.
[Still, you all should restrain yourselves as much as possible. My superpower doesn’t show on the outside, which is why I can use it so easily, but your situations will be different.]
Paradox’s words seemed correct. There was no sign of the inquisitor, the entity feared by everyone in Glitch Hall within the Simulation, making an appearance.
However, apart from that, the feeling was still not good. A tingling sensation that seemed to press down on his nerves continued to sound an alarm.
Suddenly, someone approached from far down the corridor.
It was another Model Prisoner. Perhaps a senior to the Model Prisoner leading the group, he naturally pulled him aside and gave some sort of instruction.
“Yes. What should we do with the newcomers? We have to train them, and regarding their abilities… Yes? Ah… Then.”
The conversation between the two couldn’t be heard well. However, the way they kept glancing over here in the middle of it was unsettling.
The Model Prisoner’s hand stroked the handle of the suppression shock baton at his waist.
He felt a premonition that something was about to go wrong.
Cheonchilbaek quickly scanned the surroundings. Excluding them, there were four other Model prisoners. There were too many people. Could they escape this?
Just then, Paradox gave an instruction.
He wasn’t the only one who felt that things were unusual.
[This… isn’t going to work. We have to flip the board. Let’s take one each. Attack!]
Despite the sudden instruction, neither Samsao nor Osai panicked.
Samsao abruptly smashed his clenched fist into the face of one Model Prisoner. He hit him so hard that blood immediately burst from his face, and he fainted on the spot.
Osai used a more refined method.
“Um, Senior. That…”
He spoke to a nearby Model Prisoner to distract the prisoner, then snapped his fingers. At the same time, another Osai dashed out from behind the Model Prisoner’s back and choked the prisoner’s neck.
Osai had also utilized his supernatural ability. It seemed he possessed the kind of ability that created a clone.
Cheonchilbaek thought it suited the insidious Osai perfectly.
In Paradox’s case, it went without saying.
With his fat body, he powerfully subdued the Model Prisoner’s vitals in a single strike, knocking him out. It was so fast that it almost brought to mind a scene from a famous robot boxing match.
He was the problem, Cheonchilbaek.
He received Paradox’s instruction and belatedly tried to attack the Model Prisoner next to him, but his reaction was a step too late. Moreover, his physical condition was feeble.
There was no way a vicious criminal who even possessed a superpower in Glitch Hall would fall for it unless it was a proper Surprise Attack.
The Model Prisoner lightly dodged Cheonchilbaek’s flailing punches and then kicked him.
He was hit in the abdomen by a kick and sprawled out, crawling like a bug… To be exact, he had a strong premonition that it would somehow turn out that way.
The bitter scene was so vivid before his eyes that it would be better to call it a hallucination rather than a premonition.
Because of that, Cheonchilbaek stopped his punching mid-way, lowered his body, and rolled to the side. He saw the Model Prisoner, who had been about to kick him, get flustered with a 'Huh?'.
He must have been dumbfounded seeing the guy who had been limply flailing suddenly perform a weird punching and then miraculously dodge the kick.
However, the panic was only temporary. The opponent was a Model Prisoner. That meant he could use a supernatural ability.
“You bastards… are you crazy?”
Saying so, he brought his two hands together.
In an instant, the lights went out and the surroundings grew dark. At that moment, it felt like some tremendous blow was about to fly in!
When everyone narrowed their eyes in the darkness and waited for the Model Prisoner’s strike, the lights turned back on.
The Model Prisoner was taking advantage of the darkness to run far away and escape.
“…”
Right. A Model Prisoner of Glitch Hall had to possess at least that level of shrewdness.
Because all the other Model prisoners had lost consciousness, he was the only one left, and no matter how confident he was in fighting, a many-on-one was too much, so he quickly grasped the situation and fled. It was likely his intention to inform the other Model prisoners of the situation.
It was impossible to catch up to him now.
Cheonchilbaek’s complexion turned pale.
This was a disaster. If he had just properly done his part, this wouldn’t have happened. If the mission failed because of him…
Sure enough, Osai shouted right on cue.
“Hey, you bastard! You can’t even handle that one thing properly? This is why I didn’t like working with this useless idiot from the beginning - “
“Stop! Stealer is a member I chose. Not you. Are you questioning my judgment right now?”
As expected, Paradox was the only one he could trust. When he appropriately intervened and shouted in a cold voice, Osai, who was strong against the weak and weak against a powerhouse, backed down on his own.
'Still, it’s true that I messed up…'
With that thought, Cheonchilbaek studied Paradox’s face.
The anger he had shown, spitting out curses when Osai blundered, was still vivid.
Thinking that it might be directed at him, Cheonchilbaek, and not someone else, made him afraid. Because of his mistake, the Companions were about to be chased by the Model prisoners, so was Paradox really not an artist?
Paradox spoke calmly.
“True, one of them escaping is an unexpected situation. However, Cheonchilbaek, it’s not your fault. I didn’t think you would fight and win when your condition was visibly poor. I just thought we could wrap it up if we finished quickly and helped you… I didn’t know he would bounce that fast. This supernatural ability thing is definitely a variable.”
In an unexpectedly relaxed voice, Samsao asked, “Did he have some sort of plan?”
“What do we do now? We’ll be chased until we die.”
“There would have been a problem even if that Model Prisoner hadn’t escaped anyway. I overheard them talking earlier, and it seems an order to kill on sight or capture us alive came down from that guy called the Transcendent Inspector. It seems something leaked from the Officer’s side.”
At Paradox’s words, Osai frowned.
“Damn it, that bitch… If I knew things would turn out like this, I would have at least laid her out.”
“Doing that here would just be pointless self-gratification that would only complicate things. Enough with the nonsense, and since it’s come to this, we’ll move the plan forward.”
Paradox said.
“Since we’ve lifted the suppressors, we’re breaking out of prison today.”
* * *
The prison break plan was based on the information obtained from the Officer.
First, they had to go to Sector 1.
In Sector 1, the innermost part of Glitch Hall, the Core Room existed.
According to the Officer, the Core Room, which was responsible for the power source, was connected to the outside for repair, and that passageway did not close.
It was different from the Regular Transfer Route, which was opened only at predetermined times and through specific methods for the transfer of related personnel or new prisoners.
Just because it was a maintenance passageway didn’t mean it was safe.
However, for the safety of the power source, they could not carry out aggressive attempts to subdue, such as firing guns or utilizing supernatural abilities inside it.
That was strictly when they were inside, and it was obvious they would face kill on sight the moment they exited the passageway.
But the Companions' purpose, the goal of the Simulation, was not to safely and flawlessly break out of prison. If they just set foot outside Glitch Hall by any means necessary, it would be a success at that moment.
To put it nicely, it was a brilliant strategy, and to put it bluntly, it was just blindly throwing themselves at it.
The problem was that heading to Sector 1, the first step, was not easy to begin with.
Model prisoners really popped out from everywhere and held them back.
It was understandable why lifting the suppressors was a quest. If they hadn’t had supernatural abilities, they would never have been able to deal with them.