Chapter 173 - System vs. System (23): Prison escape, reason, mutual trump cards
Translator: kiribold
Unedited
After explaining the rules, they played five games of two-player mahjong.
In the first game, 061 played somewhat shakily and unsurprisingly lost. The second game was much smoother. Although he was still defeated, it also successfully aroused his opponent’s interest.
At the beginning of the third hand, 061 disguised a signal and infiltrated their network, scanning the entire system s.p.a.ce map.
The handover point mentioned by his cellmate was in the northwest of the s.p.a.ce. It required a 24-digit pa.s.sword to enter. The pa.s.sword was dynamic and would be randomly generated and sent to the inside of the system after the world line code pa.s.sword was reported at the interface.
He had obtained the world line code during the interrogation just now without worry.
…but how to get the dynamic pa.s.sword?
And…
061 didn’t dare delay his tiles while he was thinking.
He won the third hand.
His opponent rubbed his hands excitedly, “Again, again.”
061 said, “It’s not fun like this. Let’s bet on something.”
His cellmate thought about it, turned around and walked to the corner bed, and lifted the bedboard with a clatter.
The inside of the bed was hollowed out and full of snacks. His cellmate raised his eyebrows with interest, “I told you, it’s not the first time I’ve come in.”
061 smiled and put his handkerchief in front of him, “This is all I have.”
However, the other party did a roll call, “I saw that you have a peace knot. The style isn’t bad, and I want to use it as a gift.”
061 gently refused: “It was given to me by my friend…”
Having said this, his mind suddenly moved. He reached out and stroked the peace knot in his front breast pocket. He seemed to realize something, put his hand down, and pretended nothing happened.
061 played mahjong with him patiently for a long time. The two of them had a back and forth with wins and losses. 061 lost his handkerchief, while his opponent lost three bags of snacks.
The other party asked for 061’s name while he was drawing tiles.
061 said, “Just call me 061.”
The other party smiled and said, “Liu? You’re quite liu at playing cards. I’ll call you Liu-laoshi.”
061 shook his head, “No.”
This was the first time that 061 had shown such evident a.s.sertiveness in his speech.
The other party blinked, “Why?”
061 didn’t intend to explain and only said gently, “Just call me 061.”
The other party didn’t mind and said cheerfully. “Liu-ge?”
061: “…” Okay.
The two played mahjong for seven or eight hours until the other party fell asleep holding a new hand of tiles. 061 got up, walked to the corner of the bed, and laid on his back in a trance.
…how’s it going over there with Xiaochi?
Since he disguised himself as Wen Yujing, he had already laid down enough foreshadowing. Chi Xiaochi should have thought of that possibility after he disappeared with “Wen Yujing.”
If he thought of it, then he would undoubtedly panic.
The more this was the case, the less he could stay here for a long time.
Thinking of this, he reached into his pocket and took out the peace knot.
When 089 gave it to him, he made a somewhat particular action.
At the time, he patted his jacket pocket twice and said, “Take it. This is a piece of father’s painstaking effort.”
…”painstaking”?
He took out the peace knot and scrutinized it.
061 pinched the peace knot between his fingers and tried to squeeze it twice.
Nothing happened.
He squeezed it twice more, but nothing happened.
It didn’t seem to feel unique to the touch. After a.n.a.lysis, there was some radioactive material. It appeared that it had been placed with something radioactive for a long time, and it stained on the silk thread, which didn’t look special.
But 061 laughed softly after a short daze.
In a sense, 089 indeed put a lot of painstaking effort in, ah.
He held the peace knot, resting his clenched fist on his forehead. He counted the pa.s.sage of time, his lips slightly opened and closed as if he was mumbling something to himself.
The 1:2 speed of time pa.s.sing in the system s.p.a.ce and the actual s.p.a.ce made him a little anxious.
To ensure Xiaochi’s safety, he only reserved one day for his stay here. If he couldn’t get permission for his departure, he would have to think of other ways.
He was detained too suddenly, and now he only had to return and show himself in front of Chi Yunzi and the others to solve the immediate problem for Xiaochi.
At that time, even if he was recaptured, it didn’t matter if he was detained until the end of the mission.
But as expected, things didn’t turn out the way he wanted.
The next day, he applied twice, hoping to see the security system in charge and talk to him.
But the person watching over him said that Mr. 002 had a lot of work and didn’t have time to see him.
061 didn’t seem very impatient and said that since he couldn’t see him, he would wait.
Fortunately, there was a cellmate who could accompany him to talk.
His cellmate looked young and extraordinarily talkative when he had his cards. He chatted a lot about the system and knew everything.
He pointed to the electric shock collar around his neck and said, “Look at this thing, it’s made by our second boss, yes, it’s that 002.”
061 pulled the collar up and examined it, “Mn, it’s very cleverly made. It’s a total control type, and there are some other built-in designs, and it’s been encrypted. If you want to unlock it, you have to find him, right?”
The other party said bitterly, “Isn’t that right, he’s an old pervert. We’re all being squeezed by him.”
061 smiled as if he didn’t care, put down the collar, and continued playing cards.
The day was uneventful.
At night, his cellmate slept soundly again.
And 061 had waited long enough.
The longer it dragged on, the more danger Xiaochi would be in.
He wasn’t going to wait any longer.
He condensed the half cup of residual water into a hairpin-thin ice needle, held it gently in his mouth, and precisely put the tip into the keyhole of his handcuffs.
When the ice needle entered the keyhole, the hardened ice needle turned into fluid, the seeping pivot immediately short-circuited, and the handcuffs opened with a sound.
He wordlessly removed the handcuffs and sent a small program he had written over two days into the running security system.
In an instant, all the doors in the system s.p.a.ce popped open in response. The seven fire alarms in the southeast corner went off simultaneously. Simultaneously, all the indoor and outdoor sprinklers began to spray water.
As soon as 061 turned around, the clothing data on his body was fine-tuned and rewritten, and it became the same dark blue color as his cellmate.
He bowed slightly to his sleeping cellmate and pointedly said, “Thanks a lot.”
With that, 061 took the work cap he won from him this afternoon, put it on, and walked straight out of the cell.
When he got to the door, he came face to face with the system that was in charge of guarding him.
The other party was so confused by his dress that he failed to react at first until he saw the electric shock collar around his neck and was shocked: “You—”
He turned his head away, intending to grab the electric shock activation b.u.t.ton on the table, but 061 stepped forward and knocked him out with a clean hand chop.
061 took the man’s waist, put the fainted man gently on the table, and made it look like he was dozing off. He pulled off the identifying wristband, put it on himself, picked up the activation b.u.t.ton on the table, and studied it.
No, this b.u.t.ton could only activate the electric shock function and couldn’t remove his neck ring.
After confirming that the guard didn’t have the key to unlock the collar, he put his face close to the employee and scanned his retinal data with his left eye. Then, he pressed the brim of his hat and walked towards the handover point at the northwest corner.
The “sleeping” cellmate walked out leisurely when his figure disappeared around the corner.
He pulled the unconscious system up and found that the ident.i.ty wristband on his hand had been lost, so he directly took a photo of his face. He manually entered a line of words on the floating electronic screen that popped up above his wrist and muttered to himself, “Failed to pa.s.s the quarterly a.s.sessment.”
061 rushed to the handover point as quickly as possible.
With the water pipes spraying in unison, a man walking with a hat on the edge of the water pipe didn’t look suspicious at all.
A system wearing gla.s.ses ran out of the room and was caught off guard by a spray of water to the face, making his gla.s.ses blurry.
He took off his gla.s.ses and wiped them, squinted his eyes, and asked 061 who pa.s.sed by him, “What’s going on here?”
061 replied smoothly, “It seems there’s a fire in the southeast corner.”
The system stretched his neck to look in the southeast direction, but when he turned his head again, the person just now had disappeared.
Turning his head again, he came face to face with the “cellmate.”
The “cellmate” grabbed the dumbfounded man’s wrist and swiped his ident.i.ty wristband, “You also failed.”
The “cellmate” was humming a little tune, excitedly following 061, collecting various data happily along the way, when the back of his collar was grabbed from behind.
A tall, slender young man grabbed him by the back collar, one hand behind his back. His movements were restrained, and his demeanor calm.
His voice was a little weak and sounded very elegant and polite, “Boss, where are you going.”
The “cellmate” who was caught escaping from prison immediately put on a smile, “Er-ge, good evening, ah.”
The young man he called er-ge had the number 002 on his chest.
“Shouldn’t you be in jail right now?” He spoke quietly and softly, but a faint smile was on his face, “What are you fooling around with again?”
“Who’s fooling around?” The “cellmate” was quite unconvinced, “You daring to put your big boss in jail is impudent. You’re rebellious, and your courage is only getting bolder. Such a big work mistake today. Believe it or not, I’ll fire you.”
002 hit the nail on the head, “So you gave the network code to that system and helped him escape from prison just to check if my security work had errors?”
001 looked at him for a moment and teased, “It’s not just security work.”
002: “Hmm?”
001: “After he was locked in yesterday, I verified all the information. It was our own employees who violated the rules, and the matter has nothing to do with him. Didn’t I send you a message last night asking you to approve his report in advance?”
002 smiled gently, “Sorry, because you’re always annoying, after blocking you last time, I forgot to unblock you.”
001 wasn’t surprised nor angry, “Forget it. Forget it. Let’s not take this as an example or I’ll really fire you.”
002 bowed humbly, “Yes. Then can I recapture that person now?”
001 waved his hand, “Don’t. I wanted to hold a security drill a long time ago. I wanted to see whether he could escape without either of us doing anything, and also to see if our staff could subdue him. If he escapes, we won’t look for him. By the way, should we bet something? I bet he can get away.”
002: “At the risk of asking, is gambling that interesting?”
“Of course it is.” 001 had a big-tailed wolf expression, “Er-ge, how about betting on that old-fashioned pocket watch of yours?”
002 responded, “Okay.”
But 002 knew there was no way 061 could get out.
First of all, even if he stole the ID, knew the code of the world line, and scanned the retina of the employee, he couldn’t get the dynamic pa.s.sword.
Without the dynamic pa.s.sword, the transmission gate couldn’t be opened.
Secondly, the design of that collar wasn’t so simple.
002 glanced at the pedometer displayed on his wrist.
He only had to take thirty more steps…
Most of the systems were woken up from their dreams by the cold water pouring over their heads. They were busy rescuing their beds that had been soaked in water. 061 didn’t encounter any systems on the way.
061 picked up the pace after noticing that the handover point was close at hand.
The interface console at the handover point was similar to his system s.p.a.ce, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to operate.
Very soon, he would be able to—
However, as he lifted his foot, a ring of light blue sparks unexpectedly lit up, and a bright arc of light burned down his neck!
061’s face changed, his body staggered, and he fell forward. For a time, he couldn’t even crawl his way up.
His heart suddenly brightened:
He had never been able to crack this collar successfully, and several programs in it had been encrypted.
It turns out that the hidden program was to calculate the number of consecutive steps.
Once the number of consecutive steps exceeded the specified value, the collar would automatically generate electricity.
…And on the ejection port of the power generator, there was an extremely thin hidden needle, and the needle was coated with diluted cyanogenic jellyfish toxin.
061’s whole body was quickly paralyzed.
He raised his hand and stroked his cheek.
Large, scorching whip-like wounds that were painfully hot and burned emerged on the skin on his chest, back, and even his face. The severe pain invaded every piece of data, extending to all limbs.
It was the kind of tingling nerve pain that made people’s teeth tingle.
But 061 stood up, trembling even in the continuous pain. He dragged one foot that had lost feeling and stumbled towards the console step by step, reaching out and fiercely pulling the edge of the collar.
The collar was still releasing a steady stream of electricity, and under the forcible tug, the flow of electricity immediately increased exponentially.
His hands were instantly burnt with large swathes of red and black charr. His cheeks and lips were the same blue and white, and he looked like he would pa.s.s out at any moment.
He practically threw himself onto the console.
002, peering from the shadows with his hands behind his back, shook his head slightly.
To tell the truth, in 002’s cognition, the other party could be considered strong-willed if he hadn’t already pa.s.sed out under such circ.u.mstances.
Why bother?
It was just a matter of waiting for a few days. What kind of urgent matter did he have to rush back to now?
001 felt a little sorry for this good poker buddy.
He gave 061 a chance to escape and a reminder that the collar wasn’t so simple, but unfortunately, 061 didn’t seem to take it to heart.
He said to 002, “Okay. He’s going to faint. Hurry and take him back.”
However, a ghostly voice came from 001’s mind, “Thank you…for the concern Mr. Lord G.o.d, it’s not necessary.”
001 froze and immediately exited the system s.p.a.ce in front of him, only to find that 061 had used his network code. He secretly built a two-person mahjong room and set it up to run in the background so that he wouldn’t notice it along the way.
The room’s voice system was always on.
Didn’t this mean that the conversation he just had with 002…
Wait, didn’t this also mean he probably knew his ident.i.ty long ago?
And just when 001 showed a rare expression of surprise, something even more shocking happened.
061 grabbed the electric shock collar, his fingers kept pulling, and the electric shock collar, little by little, was deformed, distorting until finally, it was torn apart with a click.
This time, even the always calm 002 widened his eyes slightly.
He actually destroyed the electric shock collar by physical means?
How is this possible?!
061 leaned his upper body on the console, raised his hand, scanned the ident.i.ty wristband with difficulty, scanned the retina he had just copied, and pa.s.sed the preliminary verification successfully.
He entered the world line information with shaking hands and said softly, “Mr. Lord G.o.d, I told you about that time I was reported and reformatted…I don’t remember what happened before. I only know that reformatting was painful. The pain of having your whole head blown off but your body is still alive. Later, for a long time, when I pa.s.sed by that punishment room, I would reflexively want to vomit.”
He put one foot on the torn electric shock collar on the ground, “So, you, this… it’s nothing, you don’t need to feel sorry for this.”
001’s curiosity at this point had utterly overwhelmed his shock, “How did you know that I’m the main G.o.d here?”
061 entered the world line information wrong twice and patiently corrected it one by one.
He said softly, “The network internet code you gave me had high access. You can even check how the handover point operates, but when I tried to see the specifics of the security system or the design of the electric shock collar, it showed that it was unreadable. I guess you wanted me to see what you want me to see, don’t you?”
001 said, “You know my ident.i.ty. Why don’t you let me call the shots for you?”
061 held the console, the end of his eyes red and panting slightly, “You didn’t admit your ident.i.ty. I didn’t know what you wanted to use me for, so I could only play along and beat you at your own game…Xiaochi said that when the other party’s purpose is unclear, don’t show your cards before him. However, thank you, Mr. Lord G.o.d, for letting me return.”
… He really heard his bet with 002.
He didn’t expect the opponent to keep a trump card when he thought he had a sure win.
What an excellent poker buddy.
001’s surprise had pa.s.sed, and his tone involuntarily expressed a few points of appreciation, “‘Xiaochi,’ is this person the reason you want to go back?”
“He’s always been my reason.” 061’s face was pale, and he stepped on the teleportation point. He simultaneously stretched his hand into his jacket pocket, “I am his system. I have a contract with him, my body and everything I have belongs to him. When he’s in danger, I’ll be by his side.”
002 was calm, “He can’t go back, he can’t open the door…”
And the next instant, when his words fell, an energy fluctuation in the air distorted a transparent vortex s.p.a.ce.
A hand stretched from the s.p.a.ce.
And Ji Zuoshan’s voice came from that side, “Liu-laoshi, grab my hand!”
061 revealed a somewhat pale smile. He let go of the console supporting his body and stood up straight shakily.
At a time like this, he hadn’t given up his manners.
He said softly, “Mr. Lord G.o.d, this hand will count as my win. Your card skills are also very good. I hope to play a few games with you in the future if I have a chance…I have faith we’ll meet again.”
After saying that, 061 grabbed Ji Zuoshan’s hand.
In the next instant, his figure disappeared into the system s.p.a.ce like a dense mist.