Chapter 248: Chapter 248: Getting Involved and Being Fed

"Do you get it now?"

Xie Antong had launched her own brand of b******t, and he wasn’t even sure what he was supposed to understand at this point—but might as well let the other person fill in the blanks themselves.

"I... what should I be understanding..."

Cutter looked a little lost as he spoke, his eyes empty, like his mind was somewhere else.

"Tsk." Xie Antong found this kind of troublesome. This guy clearly didn’t know how to fill in the blanks on his own. Judging by his face, she’d have to give him a little push.

So her brain kicked into high gear, quickly cobbling together a line of reasoning.

"This person, he’s one of us. Do you remember what he said at the end?"

"He was tortured to death in front of everyone, but he still said he was a spirit, that he would appear again."

"That was all to build momentum—for you! When you show up again, you’ll be a living legend!"

Cutter’s face had already been hidden in his clothes. Ever since Lu Ce started speaking near the end, he had pulled his features inward and concealed them.

"I know, I know. But me...?..."

Cutter's voice sounded timid and uncertain. He didn’t really dare to think about this kind of thing.

Breaking out of prison was supposed to be a team effort, and those two words sounded like they should involve stealth and secrecy!

But from the look of things… that guy... seemed to want him to charge in head-on.

Huh?

Could he really do that? Was that even normal? He’d never encountered this kind of thing in any game before.

But this time it was Hell Mode. Maybe Hell Mode just worked differently…

Still, something about it didn’t feel right.

His plan, his preparations, had all been hijacked and then made public. Now it felt like he owed something, like he had to follow the other guy’s lead.

Was that fair?

Instinctively, he looked down at the floor in front of him—only for Xie Antong’s next words to land.

"We’re counting on you. After observing you for a few days, we believe you’ve got the potential to become the key to this game."

"We sacrificed a teammate just to help build you up."

"We hope you won’t let us down."

Cutter: ......

He didn’t know why, but he felt a massive pressure suddenly land on his shoulders. It almost made him buckle.

Was this emotional manipulation or what…

But that guy really did seem to be dead...

"Alright then. Looks like your organization’s got quite a few people in this game."

"Any follow-up plans?"

Plans? Of course there weren’t any yet!

Even though Xie Antong instinctively believed "Sin" couldn’t really die, this kind of thing still needed confirmation and coordination.

Whether he was still alive was a critical variable.

"Wait for our message. No rush."

She casually tossed out a stalling tactic, smoothing over everything again.

"Hey, can you still talk?" She didn’t expect much, but she still tried to contact “Sin.”

Her All-Knowing Eye had clearly seen the prison guard dragging the nearly dead “Sin” toward a room she had never been able to probe before.

The way that door opened was weird. The guard did something to it, then just slammed right into it.

And then—he was gone...

Obviously, the All-Knowing Eye couldn’t get in that way.

......

There was no response from the other side, of course, since the headset had already been stuffed into the backpack.

After all, no one could guarantee their headphones would stay on while getting every bone in their body broken.

You’d have to be superhuman.

Right now, Lu Ce was using sheer logic to suppress the effects of the Jealousy Mask, stopping himself from blurting out anything that might provoke the guard.

At this point, the key was to observe the “feeding.” That might be the prison’s biggest secret.

So he decided to keep playing dead.

After lying quietly for a few minutes, the prison guard didn’t say a word, just twisted and turned through a maze of hallways and headed to some unknown basement.

Then, without a second thought, he casually tossed the nearly dismembered Lu Ce aside.

The moment he hit the floor, a green glow flared up. Lu Ce felt his body being lifted again.

From all directions, some less-than-one-meter-tall creatures came running over, holding him up.

"Take good care of him. Don’t let him die so easily!"

"Keep him alive a bit longer. How you do it is up to you."

Then came the sound of leather shoes walking away, growing more distant. Lu Ce figured the guard had left.

Heh.

Still hasn’t learned.

Leaving me alone again—just like yesterday.

Right now, Lu Ce’s body could barely move, but since he wasn’t feeling any pain, he could still try to activate any muscle that was technically usable.

A bottle of high-grade potion rolled out of his backpack. Lu Ce nudged it up with his chest, flipped it in the air, and bit the cap off.

Since the guard had been waiting for his begging and screaming, his mouth had been left completely unharmed.

With just one high-grade potion, his injuries began healing rapidly. Bones fused back together, muscles reconnected.

His twisted limbs straightened with a snap and started wriggling and stretching involuntarily, like a puppet.

That sensation—of his limbs moving on their own—he’d only experienced once before, during Greed Overload.

Now it didn’t even feel new.

During all this, the short little creatures kept carrying him forward.

As they progressed, the light grew brighter and brighter, like stepping into an elven forest. Everything was bathed in green light.

At the same time, a strange smell started assaulting his nose. The stench was so overwhelming that even Lu Ce—who’d never felt pain—found himself nauseated.

It wasn’t a rotting smell, but something indescribable. Like every scent in existence had been mixed together and amplified.

The sensation made Lu Ce want to puke. And that was saying something, given his tolerance. Anyone else might’ve passed out already.

The dim green light revealed a terrifying sight.

Hanging on the surrounding walls were human-shaped things—no longer recognizable as people, but still vaguely human. Tubes pierced their bodies everywhere. Some of them... were even still alive?

Their bones had all been crushed. Adult bodies had been forcefully crammed into containers barely holding ten liters!

Stretching on as far as the eye could see, these “people” dangled from the walls. Some even had flickers in their eyes—clearly still alive!

All the tubes were connected to the walls. Who knows what was being pumped in or out.

"So this... this is the feeding, huh..."