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Volume 0 – Chapter 1: The Death Row Prisoner
Dong bang! The iron gates that led to section E of the prison automatically opened. Seven tall and well-built jailers walked on the corridor to the prison cell region. Other than the person who led, the four other people behind were heavy-armed jailers who held riot control shields and wore a protective hat. The last two jailers were carrying a rectangular password-locked cabinet.
The prisoners imprisoned in section E were heavy-sentenced prisoners. It was different than the other sections that detained light-sentenced prisoners. The jail doors were iron doors that only had a small window for looking inside.
Although humans entered the era of spaceships, the prisoners in the prisons did not have the qualifications to enjoy the conveniences brought by high technology. Within the jail rooms of the Hebei Supermax Prison, there were no 3D projection entertainment programs. There were no radio stations; no green-colored food that was developed in outer-space greenhouses.
The prisoners that had been stripped of their civil rights ate synthetic food that had no taste at all. They slept on several hundred-year-old, ancient-styled, double-decker wooden beds. Other than forced labor, the usual, daily activities left for the prisoners was exercising and reading books.
Of course, throwing away the crude and simple furniture that the prisoners used, the equipment that the Hebei Supermax Prison jailers used were the most advanced, high-tech products. On the ankles of every prisoner, there was a foot chain-style signal emission device. That thing’s exterior was made of titanium alloy and it tightly locked onto the ankle with a magnetic combination lock. Unless they had the password or if they cut off their foot, there was no way of taking it off.
Every corridor and corner of the prison was filled with monitoring devices. There were even tiny spider machines that patrolled the ventilation ducts and the sewage drainage systems. It could be said to be an inescapable net. From the creation of the Hebei Supermax Prison until now, in the near hundred or so years of prison history, there was not a single person that successfully escape from prison.
The fluorescent lights were constantly flickering, and it made the utterly silent corridor a bit eerie. Even the jailers that worked there for a long time was slightly unable to bear the deathly and strange atmosphere of section E.
The seven jailers did not stop in the corridors of section E. Very quickly, they passed through multiple iron doors, and the arrived in the middle of section E. The heavy-sentenced criminals’ “luxurious box” for one—the death row section.
After entering the death row section, it was clear that the expressions of the seven jailers became strict. A grave atmosphere filled the group. They passed through corridors in the death row section, and the seven people arrived in the final forbidden area in section E.
The so-called forbidden area of section E had a minimal surface area. There were only three confinement rooms in the entire area. The terrain of the forbidden area was a bit lower than the other prison rooms. The pipes for the sewage drainage system gathered there, and the fluorescent lights changed into a dusky, saffron color.
The entire environment there was dark, cold, and moist and it emitted a faint stench. When the sewage drainage system was under the dusky light, it obstructed a large area and created eerie and frightening shadows. The deathly calmness around made everyone fearful, and uneasiness filled their hearts.
The three confinement rooms were used to discipline prisoners that did not follow the prison rules. Prisoners would walk in the dark corridors from the heavy-sentenced and death row prisoner rooms straight to the forbidden section. Even prisoners that did all sorts of criminal activities would be filled with fear. The hearts of those who were slightly worse psychologically would crumble, and they would not dare to break the rules of the prison.
In reality, the confinement rooms were not cells that were frequently used. Most of the time, they would be empty. However, by the third year that the serial killer Qin Lun entered the Hebei Supermax Prison, and after he killed five of his jail mates and two jailers, he was the first person who was on death row that stayed in a confinement room regularly in the near hundred years of history of the Hebei Supermax Prison.
As they approached the last confinement room, a trace of nervousness appeared on the seven jailers’ faces. They diligently pulled out the electrical police truncheon from their waists.
There was no modernized high-tech password lock on the confinement room. The jailer who led lightly pulled upon the palm-sized window on the iron door and looked into the confinement room.
The section E confinement room was different from other jail cells. It did not have any windows, and the only hole for air was as big as a fist that connected to the jail cell’s ventilation ducts. The unexpected thing was that not only did the confinement room not have the dump stench as how the corridor outside smelled like, instead, it seemed warm and dry. There was even a fresh and clean dose of fragrance.
On the ceiling of the cell room, there was an embedded, bullet-proof fluorescent light. There were two old-styled rows of bookshelves and paper books were filled on top of them. A desk, a bed, a flush toilet. Not one of those were lacking, and other than the few books on the counter, there was even a wooden Chinese chess set.
A young man who looked thin was sitting in front of the desk with his back against the cell door. He was currently flipping through a thick book in his hand.
The jailer hiddenly breathed a sigh of relief. He took the key on his military belt and inserted it into the keyhole. The heavy cell door was suddenly pulled open, and four heavy-armed jailers carefully bent their waists, held their shields, and entered the confinement room.
“Qin Lun, time’s up!” The jailer who led tightly clenched his police truncheon as he yelled in a heavy voice while standing a good three meters away from the young man.
The young man lightly closed his book, and under the bright light, the two big words “Psychological Behavior” appeared on the cover of the book. After carefully looking at the books on the desk and the bookshelves, within the special confinement room, there seemed to be a booking system about clinical medical science and psychology.
After closing the book, the young man stood up, put his hands behind his head, and turned around. Under the shine of the light, a young man with an ordinary appearance and thin body showed himself in front of the crowd.
The unexpected thing about the serial killer Qin Lun was that he had a pair of clear and pure eyes. However, perhaps because he did not regularly meet with sunlight, his skin was white. His hands were exceptional; his fingers were long and pure-white, just like jade. As they looked at him, the murdering demon just seemed like an ordinary young man who appeared malnourished.
After Qin Lun entered the Hebei Supermax Prison, he made new records by breaking many of the unwritten rules of the prison. He even continuously killed the heavy-sentenced and death row prisoners that shared a cell with him. There were even two jailers that unluckily died in the line of duty.
Qin Lun had a severe psychological injury, and he suffered from schizophrenia. The confinement room that scared other prisoners to the point in which they wet themselves had no use to the murdering demon. After paying the price of many lives, the psychological doctor for the Hebei Supermax Prison suggested giving him a “friendly” environment.
The confinement room that locked Qin Lun had electric heating pipes installed underground. It was used to eliminate moisture, and occasionally, air fresheners would be added in the air vents. The jailers even provided books and Chinese chess to Qin Lun to stabilize his mental condition.
In fact, unless Qin Lun was violently agitated by the outside world, under normal circûmstances, his intelligence was even higher than ordinary people. Starting from the time when the Hebei jailers gave him books to read, after only five years, Qin Lun finished the standard curriculum from primary school to university.
However, when he was eighteen years old and started to learn clinical medical science and psychology, it also gave the jailers an adverse effect. It was that no psychological doctor could accurately determine his mental condition.
The jailer who led looked at the murdering demon’s clear eyes and he secretly sighed to himself. He raised the black-framed screen that was as thick as paper and started reading out loud.
The cardboard-like black-framed screen had a photonic computer within it, and it stored detailed information about Qin Lun. Typically, after the death sentence decision was passed down from the federation’s court, the jailers would use the flat photonic computer to announce their judgment order down to the death row prisoners. That was why it was jokingly named as the “Death Notice” by prisoners.
“Qin Lun. Male. Twenty years old. Original name, Joey Foster. The supreme federation court has decided to overrule the death sentence appeal and affirmed with the original sentence. You are charged with the murder of multiple people, and you are forever stripped of your civil rights. Today, at 7 p.m., you will be executed!”
Following the clear announcement, two jailers who carried the rectangular cabinet opened it and revealed a set of steel devices. Several jailers took out the steel parts that were like components of a mecha in succession. They put them on Qin Lun, and after a while, an “armored knight” that only revealed its eyes to the world appeared in front of the jailers.
It was a confinement device equipped with steam power. The prisoner could only rely on the steam power to slowly walk forward. Even the simple standing required a slow three seconds.
Puchi! As the steel monster bent its knees, it sprayed out a tiny bit of white steam. Qin Lun who wore an iron mask slowly opened his feet apart and walked out of the cell room.
The murdering demon who wore the steam confinement equipment looked just like an amusing, clumsy bear. With four jailers in front of him and behind him, they slowly walked on the corridor of section E.
The heavy footsteps attracted the attention of the people in section E. As the group of people walked, quite a few prisoners tightly stuck on the cell door and coldly stared at Qin Lun and the others.
Was that the boss of the Hebei Supermax Prison? The eyes of the prisoners glittered with complicated light.
“Put the black cloth hood on!” The jailer who led ordered when he saw the last iron door of section E.
……
The Hebei Supermax Prison was a group of towers that were several hundred feet away from the ground. In between the section E tower and the section E tower, there was a vast steel railway that entered the clouds.
The railway looked a bit like a track of a roller coaster going upwards. The higher it went, the steeper the track would be. On the peak of the railway, the slope even reached ninety degrees, and it formed a right angle from the bottom. It was one of the core technologies of humans in the new era, the Sky Rail!
The Sky Rail was a type of long-distance delivery device, divided into province level, district level, and planet level. Also, there was the legendary interstellar Sky Rail. There was a sealed delivery cabin underneath the Sky Rail. As the cabin traveled along the Sky Rail, it would accelerate and at the end, it would enter an Ionizing Light State. It would be sent to the layer between the materialistic space and the antimatter space—space warp, and the long-distance delivery of matter would be completed.
There was also a Sky Rail on the other side of the delivery cabin, and it was used to accept the cabins. Other than using magnetic floating devices, the humans in the new era would use the Sky Rail for normal cross-province traveling and transportation. Electric trains and passenger planes were already put up for display in museums.
Chii! The doors to the Sky Rail slide open and a wide and bright modernized tunnel appeared in front of the crowd. When compared to the corridors in the section E cell rooms, it seemed as damp and foul-smelling as sewage.
The jailers led the steam confinement equipment with Qin Lun in it into the delivery cabin for the Sky Rail. At the same time, the black cloth hood was taken off the murdering demon.
The bright eyes revealed in the steel mask slightly moved as they accessed the situation beside them. It was a circular hall, and next to the hall were touch-styled workstations. There was a huge LCD.
“The delivery target has entered. Activate the particle analysis engine!”
As the group entered the delivery cabin, a soft voice of a female rang out in the hall. It was the synthetic voice of the Sky Rail’s photonic computer.
“Particle scan has completed. Confirming the long-distance guiding signal. Thirty-second countdown beginning…”
“…3, 2, 1! Start delivery!”
After the soft female voice spoke, suddenly, the delivery cabin started to shake violently. A beautiful spiral lit up on the peak of the Hebei Supermax Prison Sky Rail, and the delivery cabin that flew up into the air became a shooting star. Instantly, it disappeared in the air, and it entered the mysterious space warp.
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