章節 10: Chapter 4 All Like Beasts
Finally, Xia Heng managed to escape.
All the newcomers eventually fell into their hands, locked in wooden cages on carts,
It was the Japanese who suffered heavy losses, with only thirty men left, losing seventy percent!
Those who survived were all skin and bones, like starving ghosts.
It was clear to see that the leader, Tanabu Rokurou, had a terrifying black complexion!
It makes sense when you think about it, these fearless warriors must be very precious. They came to accept the newcomers only to lose most of their own, which must be unacceptable.
This made the rest of them behave, not daring to provoke his anger.
After all, it's better to be a slave than dead; any of these Japanese could take them down easily.
They huddled in the cages obediently, like pigs being led to slaughter, unaware of their fate to come.
Other than the sound of sobbing around him, Gao Xin could hear Luo Yan's faint, dying breaths.
His injuries were too severe—teeth shattered, covered in bloodstains from battle, and an arm severed.
Now bleeding profusely, he was at death's door.
Still, Gao Xin tore a piece from the corner of his prison uniform and bandaged Luo Yan's severed arm to stop the bleeding.
"Thank you," Luo Yan said in a deep voice.
Gao Xin shook his head, "What did you do to end up here?"
Luo Yan suddenly burst into tears, "I found a loophole in the Emperor Penguin Group's network and boosted my e-book platform with two million credits... I was sentenced to twenty years…"
People around looked over; indeed, this was the act of a cultured person, committing a crime just for the sake of reading books.
The Emperor Penguin Group was among the top three of the twenty giant corporations, building over a hundred metropolises—messing with them was like digging one's own grave.
"Do you love reading that much?" Gao Xin asked.
Luo Yan perked up, "Knowledge can change destiny!"
Gao Xin's eyes widened, change destiny?
"Can you teach me knowledge, then?"
Luo Yan looked at Gao Xin in surprise.
At this moment, Liu Di growled, "Change what, damn it? What's the use of reading so many books? Can you find a job?"
Luo Yan shook his head; he didn't have a job either.
Liu Di sneered, "There you have it. No matter how good your reading is, can it be better than AI? Reading books is useless in this age, what matters is money and power."
Luo Yan calmly said, "If it's useless, then why do the children of the rich still study? If it's useless, why is knowledge so expensive?"
Liu Di was stunned and didn't know what to say, then angrily retorted, "If you're so useful, why have you fallen to such a state? No matter how cultured you are, you're no match for someone with a bigger fist!"
Gao Xin sighed, "Stop it, aren't we all the same? Just as he said, we're all unfortunate souls under the same sky."
"Who is like him?" Liu Di shouted angrily, "If I had a family like his, I wouldn't have committed a crime and fallen to this place."
Gao Xin spoke pensively, "Even if you don't commit a crime, does that mean you won't end up here?"
And Luo Yan said bitterly, "You think I come from a good family? You're mistaken, I'm just from an ordinary family. My parents died early, and only my sister raised me."
Liu Di was incredulous, and others like Cao Yang and Sasaki who heard this also didn't believe it and said, "How is that possible? If your family isn't good, how could you afford to go to a vocational school?"
Luo Yan said gravely, "If I had been well off, why wouldn't I be a Radiation or a cyborg?"
Everyone paused, his point made sense.
Indeed, it was strange; even if one wasn't particularly wealthy, they'd at least give themselves cybernetic skeletal enhancements, right?
"Then how could you afford vocational school?" Gao Xin inquired.
Luo Yan didn't want to talk about it, as if there was some unspeakable secret.
Sasaki mocked, "Doesn't he have a sister? Maybe she sold herself to afford it!"
"You fucker!" Luo Yan was first shocked, then flew into a rage, wanting to attack, but he was too weak, and his wounds burst open to no effect.
Gao Xin held him back, "Enough, we're all slaves now, what's the use of arguing? Think about what to do next…"
Luo Yan spat out another bloody tooth, weakly saying, "What can we do? Take it one step at a time. I don't dare make any judgments now."
Gao Xin knew the impact on him was huge and didn't say much more.
Sasaki ridiculed him again, "Who would trust your judgment? What good does a lot of reading do you? No one will even listen to your jokes, it's laughable."
Luo Yan retorted, "Some parents know a few idioms and use them when naming their children, thinking it shows culture. But they don't know the first thing about raising kids, teaching them to be no better than dogs."
Sasaki was taken aback, and realizing Luo Yan was staring at him, he asked, "Are you insulting me?"
Luo Yan laughed, "You're mocking reading? Do you even know what your own name means? You'd lose your teeth laughing."
Enraged, Sasaki threw a punch and hit Luo Yan so hard he spat out another tooth; he hardly had any left in his mouth.
"My... my name is inspired by the great general of the founding of the country, King's Glory! You know shit!"
"If it hadn't been for your bullshit on the beach, I would have left already, instead of getting caught and turned into a slave. It's all your fault!"
As he said this, everyone's eyes lit up.
Indeed, at the beginning, those Japanese hadn't arrived yet; they had a chance to escape.
Gao Xin protected Luo Yan, indignantly saying, "Enough, our place and time of exile were predetermined, exploited by the navy for a quick profit, what does it have to do with Luo Yan?"
Sasaki glared and asked, "But why did they arrive late? Shouldn't they have been waiting for us here?"
Gao Xin knew it was because those people arrived late that they had time for Luo Yan to briefly organize everyone.
"...They sped up," Gao Xin sighed.
Sped up? Oh! Everyone suddenly remembered, the warship had sped up, arriving early.
The reason they increased speed was that an officer had killed an R along the way, lamenting the loss and wanting to deliver them to their destination quickly.
In that context, the officer meant that if one less R-class Radiation was delivered, they might lose some money.
That's why he said he really didn't want to kill, and asked the prisoners not to seek death, at least not by his hand, because once they were off the ship, they were no longer his concern.
"We prisoners are simply merchandise for the navy to make some extra money..." Gao Xin clenched his fist in indignation.
Upon understanding their conversation, Sasaki excitedly said, "So when we first got here, was that our only chance to escape?"
"Dammit, it's all your fault, Luo Yan—if it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have fallen into their hands."
He punched Luo Yan in the chest, nearly making Luo Yan gasp for air.
Seeing Luo Yan about to die, Gao Xin hurriedly said, "You can't blame him, right? Didn't you hear that this is the territory of the Emperor Penguin Group?"
"This is their turf, and they're specifically targeting us; even if we had left earlier, we wouldn't have escaped."
Liu Di and Chengmen Lixue were furious and kept hitting him, "Who knows, maybe we could have escaped? If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have been trapped here."
"He even lied to us, claiming he was a 'Radiation,' damn it!"
They completely abandoned their previous submissive demeanor behind Luo Yan, blaming him for their current plight and wishing they could beat him to death.
Gao Xin struggled to push them away, taking a few punches himself, which made him so angry that he retaliated in rage.
The already cramped prisoner transport descended into chaos.
"Bastards!"
The noise here undoubtedly alerted the Japanese guards. That guy Sasaki, enraged, tore open the prisoner transport with his bare hands.
A ripping sound! The wooden bars, as thick as a human's arm, were torn apart by him.
The Japanese driving the cattle also stopped, and several prisoners rolled down from the transport.
This is bad! Everyone was panicking; without much thought, they were too loud and ended up attracting these brutes.
That Sasaki, skinny as a skeleton, was still able to tear apart wood with his bare hands!
"It's not my fault, all this was caused by that Luo Yan, and also Gao Xin, making a racket and fighting!" Chengmen Lixue and the others were scared out of their wits, frantically pointing fingers at Gao Xin and Luo Yan.
Liu Di and Cao Yang also chimed in, believing that with more people on their side, they could distort the truth.
Sasaki's eyes, glowing red, looked towards Gao Xin and the others; Gao Xin was about to explain something.
Luo Yan secretly tugged at him, shaking his head.
Gao Xin had an epiphany, realizing that these brutes were just in a fury and wouldn't bother listening to any explanations; it was better to sit quietly and play dumb, which would likely mean less trouble.
He immediately sat there with a numbed expression, as if he were in a stupor.
As for Luo Yan, there was no need to mention him; he slumped, covered in blood and unable to move.
Sure enough, after giving them a brief glance, Sasaki ignored them and instead turned his attention to the still chattering few.
Chengmen Lixue, mid-sentence, was suddenly choked by the throat!
His eyes bulged out in terror; he raised his hands but didn't dare strike; he just desperately shook them.
Sasaki, on the other hand, had another hand scratching Chengmen Lixue's face like a chicken's claw, digging in forcefully, then viciously tearing!
"Rip!"
A large piece of facial skin was torn off by hand, leaving nothing but a gory, bloody mess.
"Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh!" Chengmen Lixue, with his throat seized, couldn't even scream; the pain was so intense that he lost all self-control and began pounding on Sasaki in a frenzy.
The people beside him were scared silly, collapsing to the floor, some so frightened they lost control of their bladder and bowels.
But the nearby Japanese guards were cheering them on with cruel laughter, each behaving like a beast.
Sasaki's eyes turned even redder; his emaciated claws kept ripping, eventually skinning Chengmen Lixue completely with his bare hands!
The horribly mutilated body lay still, blood spreading everywhere, with a thick scent of blood permeating the air.
Sasaki casually threw the body into the woods and then turned to look at Liu Di.
Liu Di was so terrified that he pissed himself, quivering so much he couldn't speak.
At that moment, Tanabu Rokurou shouted, "Let's go back."
Following orders, Sasaki threw the prisoners back onto the transport and proceeded.
The convoy fell silent; everyone was shaking.
The convoy moved on, and no one dared utter a word; a terrifying atmosphere haunted everyone's mind.
Gao Xin swayed with the lurching transport, his eyes fixed on the body in the woods receding into the distance, feeling an inexplicable tightness in his chest.
Though the guy was detestable, and he himself had taken punches from him, all he felt now was the sadness of 'one's own misfortune is the sorrow of others.'
It was as if he was looking at his own future.
"We must escape..." Throughout the journey, no one dared to speak; Gao Xin was the first to break the silence.
Especially in an environment where even breathing loudly was discouraged, his words seemed all the more piercing.
Everyone looked at him in horror, then at the Japanese guards at the front and rear of the transport. It was commonly known that Radiation individuals had keen senses; although the ruckus had just now caused trouble, it didn't mean they couldn't hear quieter sounds.
But people quickly realized that Gao Xin was speaking Mandarin.
While the universal language was common in the world, each ethnic group still had its own dialects. For example, the Han people spoke Mandarin, and those Japanese spoke Japanese.
"Once we get out of the control of this group, there will be others," replied Luo Yan, also in Mandarin.
Gao Xin said determinedly, "Then let's leave Crime Prison Island. I was wronged; am I destined to be tormented to death by these beasts? I must get out."
After he spoke, he stopped trembling; fear dissipated, replaced by a sense of resolute determination.
Fear comes from the unknown, but now that he knew his fate and had a clear desire, there was no need to be confused anymore.
Luo Yan saw his resolve and weakly said, "Alright, if I survive these injuries, let's find a chance together!"
Gao Xin nodded slightly to show he understood.
So they brazenly discussed escape plans right there in the transport, which terrified the other inmates.
Liu Di couldn't help but say, "Do you want to die? Aren't you afraid I'll report you?"
Gao Xin stared him down and raised his voice, "Why don't you try it!"
Liu Di shuddered with fear, quickly looking outside the transport and noticing that Sasaki indeed looked over — their eyes met, frightening Liu Di so much his heart nearly stopped!
But Sasaki only glared at him, didn't do anything, and continued on his way.
Liu Di finally breathed a sigh of relief and quickly gestured to Gao Xin, "Shh! Shh! Keep it down; are you crazy?"
Gao Xin glanced down at his crotch, "Your shit stinks; don't sh*t yourself next time."
Liu Di's face contorted with emotion; he had just wet himself, and his pants were still dirty.
...
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