Heroes' Prison

Chapter 197 - 195 Mount

"Oh! Maxi, I listened to your live performance at the Vienna Golden Hall before I was imprisoned, your playing is amazing! I never expected to meet you here,"

"When I last won the Nobel Prize for Literature, I wanted to adapt my novel into a screenplay and work with you to make it into a movie. I really liked the movie you won the Oscar for Best Director five years ago,"

"Lan Wei, when you breached the Swiss Bank’s network systems, why didn’t you just change a few numbers in your own account?"

"The Olympics are in two years, and I really want to return to that Olympic field and win the men’s épée gold medal again."

"I developed a cure for AIDS, saving countless people, but I couldn’t save myself and am stuck in here for life."

"The European debt crisis had nothing to do with me, but the depreciation of the US dollar was indeed my fault."

In the cafeteria, every table, every corner, was filled with people chatting. If the topics of their conversations were overheard by someone outside, they would probably faint on the spot. Any criminal here was once a top figure in a certain field. From arts to sports, politics to science, talents of all types were present. If there was a country that could mobilize these people, its comprehensive national power would likely soar to a globally leading position in no time.

However, they were all imprisoned in Rose Prison, where their astounding talents had no outlet. Huang Yi had thought more than once about pulling these people into The Second World to expand the power of his organization, but virtual equipment was always a big challenge. It was simply impossible to equip thousands of criminals with a set of virtual gear.

To humanity, The Second World’s status was much like that of the internet a hundred years ago. A century back, humans couldn’t live without the internet; now, they couldn’t live without The Second World. If humans worked and studied in the real world during the day, then at night, upon falling asleep, they would roam in The Second World. These two worlds, one light, one dark, steered the trajectory of human development.

...

After breakfast, Huang Yi returned to his cell, locked the door, and entered that vast The Second World.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps between the leaves and into the little cabin, while the birds in the woods were still singing. At this moment, Teemo and Tristana were not in the cabin.

"Captain Teemo, on duty! One, two, three, four!" Teemo’s voice came from under the tree outside the window. Huang Yi turned his head to see Teemo strictly marching in place following military standards, as if he had truly become a real captain.

"I really want to shoot something," said Tristana, taking a bite of an apple, her big eyes slyly fixated on Teemo.

Suddenly, Tristana glanced at the apple in her hand, then at Teemo, a gleam sparked in her eye as if she had thought of something fun, immediately saying, "Teemo, want to play a game with me?"

"What game?" Teemo stopped his military posture, turned his head, and asked, bewildered.

"I’m going to put this apple on your head, then you stand still, and I’ll shoot it," Tristana raised the apple in her hand, waving the massive cannon she carried on her back.

"What if you miss?" Teemo gulped and asked, his expression showing some trepidation.

"If I miss, we’ll do it again! I have lots of apples here! I’ll hit it eventually," Tristana said cheerfully.

"But if you miss, I might not be alive," Teemo’s face started to tense up.

Tristana puffed out her cheeks, looking indignantly, and said, "So you don’t trust my aim? Fine, then I won’t help you pick mushrooms ever again."

"Ah! No, don’t do that...well, okay!" In a panic, Teemo agreed, gritting his teeth, before walking over dejectedly, allowing Tristana to place the apple on top of his head.

Tristana then took the cannon off her back and walked away to a distance. She turned around, lifted the cannon, and aimed it at Teemo.

Facing the massive cannon, Teemo closed his eyes, whimpering, "Captain Teemo, on duty, courting death!"

"You won’t die! Trust me!" said Tristana, and with that, she directly blasted a shot!

"Boom!" The apple and Teemo’s mushroom cap were blown away together!

It took a while before Teemo opened his eyes, trembling as he reached out to touch his smooth, bare scalp, relieved to find his head still intact.

"I told you! It’s all fine. Come on, let’s keep playing!" Tristana said as she brought out another apple...

Huang Yi quietly watched the two children’s horseplay, feeling an inner peace that settled his weary soul over the past days. He greedily savored this hard-won serenity.

"Hm? Our Spotted Deer have returned!" Just then, Teemo suddenly exclaimed with joy.

Huang Yi turned his head and, indeed, a group of small Spotted Deer emerged from the bushes of the forest, their lively big eyes blinking adorably.

Teemo and Tristana immediately approached and embraced the little deer, showing great affection.

"My little Spotty has gotten prettier too! Looks like it’s eaten lots of tasty things!" Tristana, now mounted on a doe, petted its head and said, "Grow up well, little Spotty, and one day you’ll be a hero’s mount!"

"Mount?" Huang Yi suddenly felt a stir in his heart.

He didn’t have a mount yet, and for that matter, he had barely seen other players on mounts. Riding mounts in towns was not permitted. While he was in the wilderness, he was always in desolate areas, hardly seeing people, let alone someone on a mount.

Once a player reached level fifty, they could buy mounts from stables outside of major cities, but the mounts available for purchase were mostly low-level, expensive, and slow, with no combat power. For a player like Huang Yi, who was already very fast, these mounts were of little use.

For those who sought better mounts, the most convenient method was to capture them oneself. However, ordinary mounts obviously wouldn’t catch his eye as he could run faster on his own. Only large Magical Beasts could achieve speeds faster than his, and some also possessed tremendous destructive power, enhancing combat capabilities when ridden. Regular forests would not have large Magical Beasts, only dangerous mountain ranges, where beasts were usually level seventy to eighty and beyond, a level of power unattainable by players at this stage.

Seeing that the day was getting late, Huang Yi left the cabin and decided to continue on his journey. Dragon City was his real target; the little wooden house was just a stopover discovered by chance along the way, a place to rest for one night only.

"Big brother, are you leaving?" After landing, Teemo rode a Spotted Deer over to him, gazing up at him with large eyes.

Huang Yi patted his head and said, "Yes, I was just passing through here. My friends are waiting for me far away. I look forward to the day when you’ve become great heroes. Perhaps many years from now, as I pass by some tavern at dusk, I might hear a Bard singing of your epic deeds."

Huang Yi nodded with a smile at them before immediately turning and striding toward the path ahead.

...

In the following days, Huang Yi traveled tirelessly, crossing mountains and jumping over countless babbling streams, stepping on dewdrops sparkling under the morning sun, and moving straight southward.

That evening, Huang Yi kindled a campfire in a sparse forest, with a wild deer roasting above it; the sizzling of the fat and the aroma of the meat spread through the air.

He added a few more logs to the fire and looked toward the south. The trees in this forest were beginning to thin out, and more drought-tolerant desert plants were appearing. It seemed he would soon reach the outskirts of the desert near Dragon City.

Removing his gaze, he saw that the roasted deer was just about done. He reached out to tear off a leg, starting to gnaw at it with big bites. The flavor filled his mouth, satisfying his hunger after a long day’s work.

After feasting on the roasted meat, Huang Yi rested for a while before taking out the "Book of Heroes" and summoning the entrance to Heroes’ Prison, stepping into it.

Now that he had learned the Corpse Refining Technique and memorized the steps detailed on the torn page, it was time to create his External Incarnation.

Following the map in the "Book of Heroes," Huang Yi arrived deep within Heroes’ Prison, where an old wooden door stood forebodingly in the gloomy dungeon.

Gently, Huang Yi stretched out his hand and touched the door’s grooves, as if reaching into the whorls of time itself. With a slight push of his arm, the door slowly opened.

Instantly, a chilling breath rushed forth, as if he had opened the door to another world.

What met his eyes was an endless dark space, filled with huge corpses piled up like mountains soaring within the darkness, endless as a mountain range of bodies.

Heroes’ Prison was a boundless space, capable of holding any amount, and over the long epochs, countless bodies had accumulated here. Within this special area, the corpses did not decay and were well-preserved. Previously, Huang Yi had not disturbed these bodies, as past Prison Wardens had left them here for a reason, and he dared not overstep that boundary.

Now, equipped with Lucifer’s legs and blood, as well as the Heart of the Sand Thief King, Huang Yi could find the rest of the needed materials here. He didn’t intentionally seek materials with specific abilities, merely hoping to refine a usable External Incarnation.

Although the bodies were dead, they still harbored the wills of their original owners. Now that he had learned the Corpse Refining Technique, he could easily Dispel the wills from weaker corpses.

He searched among the multitude of bodies for a long time until he finally found a level 101 Demonic Beast Ape corpse, the weakest being in Heroes’ Prison, captured by the underlings of Death God’s Temple. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Starting Point (qidian.com) to cast your Recommendation Tickets and Monthly Tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)