novelraw Chapter 63 The Magician
Chapter 63 The Magician
“Do you know what’s the most important thing for a successful prison break?”
From the other side of the wall came a hoarse voice.
What?
Jiang Ran couldn’t help straightening up, pricking up his ears.
A prison break?
What was the man next door talking about?
As his five senses recovered from the dizziness, he finally had the presence of mind to look around.
Dim lighting.
A cramped room.
Damp air.A toilet and a narrow bed.
Steel bars.
This is—
Jiang Ran couldn’t believe it. He sucked in a sharp breath.
This is—
A prison?!
“It’s […] weapons.”
A voice spoke from a cell diagonally across the corridor.
Judging by the sound, it seemed to be a young man.
Jiang Ran looked out through the iron bars of his cell. That young voice had come from Cell No. 2.
Opposite Cell No. 2 was Cell No. 1—right next to him—and that was where the hoarse question at the beginning had come from.
“In modern prisons, digging tunnels or scaling walls isn’t realistic.”
The young man in Cell No. 2 continued calmly.
“If you want to break out successfully, you have to rely on weapons and force your way out head-on.”
Jiang Ran’s breathing quickened.
These people…
What on earth were these people talking about?
Why was he in a prison, locked in a cell?
He couldn’t understand it at all!
“It’s […] timing.”
Immediately after, someone spoke from Cell No. 4 on the opposite side.
Since the corridor was the only place with weak lighting, it was impossible to see what the inmates looked like.
“There’s no such thing as a wall that doesn’t leak. No matter how tight a system is, there are always moments of negligence.”
The voice sounded unhurried and measured. The inmate in Cell No. 4 seemed like an intellectual.
“Surveillance, security, tailing, alarms… all the same.”
The man in Cell No. 4 coughed lightly.
“As long as you can find the right timing—find the gaps, the blind spots in surveillance and security—you don’t need violent confrontation to break out successfully.”
“It’s […] luck.”
A sharp voice came from Cell No. 5 on the right.
Since it was on the same side as Jiang Ran’s Cell No. 3, he couldn’t see any details at all—only hear the voice.
“The only thing that matters for a successful prison break is luck.”
Cell No. 5 gave a dry laugh.
“If you’re not lucky enough, everything else is bullshit.”
“Wrong!!”
A furious roar erupted from Cell No. 1.
“Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!”
A thick hand thrust out, pointing at the speaking cells.
“You bastards keep spouting theory, armchair analysis—what the hell is that good for?!”
“I’ll tell you! The most important thing for a successful prison break is […] breaking out! You have to dare to do it to succeed! Every one of you is scared shitless! You don’t even dare to break out, and you still want success? Success my ass!”
After that, the big brother in Cell No. 1 launched into a full-on verbal tirade, listing each of the three speakers’ cowardice and uselessness, berating them nonstop for not even having the guts to attempt an escape.
Amid the endless stream of curses, Jiang Ran’s panic only grew.
【Why did the worldline still change when the time-traveling text clearly wasn’t sent? There was no trigger for any butterfly effect at all!】
【After the worldline transition, why did I end up in prison—becoming a criminal? What’s the historical logic behind this?】
Looking around at the tiny cell confining him, Jiang Ran truly felt like the sky was falling.
Who had he offended?
What crime had he committed?
And how long was he going to be locked up here?
“Hey!”
He grabbed the iron bars and shouted, interrupting the enraged rant from Cell No. 1.
“Excuse me—where is this? Which prison? Do you know what crime I committed?”
“Hmph.”
The big brother in Cell No. 1 was clearly taken aback. He tried to squeeze his fat face out between the bars to look over, but failed.
“Cell No. 3? When did someone come in there?”
He sounded surprised.
“Did they stuff you in here at dawn? Kid, what’s your name?”
“My name is Jiang Ran.”
Jiang Ran urgently needed to communicate.
Even though he didn’t know why the worldline had changed so drastically, things had already come to this—he had to figure out the situation first.
And right now, the only people who could give him information were these fellow inmates.
“Alright, Jiang Ran.”
The voice from Cell No. 1 turned serious.
“Are you willing to join my prison-break team and escape with me?”
Huh?
The sudden invitation caught Jiang Ran completely off guard.
How could he possibly agree to that?!
He had spoken up mainly to understand what was going on.
“Big brother, what crime did I actually commit?”
Jiang Ran pressed on.
“How many years was I sentenced to?”
“Who the hell knows you!”
The big brother roared.
“You don’t even know what crime you committed yourself?”
“Besides! How you got in doesn’t matter! What matters is how you’re getting out!”
“Decide now! Are you escaping with me or not? There’s no time left—we have to act immediately!”
I—
Jiang Ran was momentarily speechless.
“I’m not going.”
Was this a joke? It was 2025—who still dared to break out of prison? That was something out of movies and cartoons.
From the education he’d received growing up, Jiang Ran didn’t even dare think about committing crimes, let alone escaping from prison.
What’s more, he knew absolutely nothing about his current situation.
If his sentence was only a few months—or even a few years—he could grit his teeth and endure it. Why risk everything on a prison break?
“Can any of you tell me what crime I committed? When was I brought in?”
Jiang Ran looked around at the surrounding cells, desperate for information.
But there was no response at all.
Damn it.
Every time the worldline changed, he never had any memory of the current worldline. That feeling was awful—his mind completely blank, clueless about everything.
Thinking back to what had happened just minutes ago…
Outside the Film Camera Club at Donghai University.
When Chi Xiaoguo activated the Positron Cannon, he had been about to press the send key on the text message—then Nan Xiuxiu suddenly called, disrupting the entire plan. By all logic, this time-traveling text experiment should have failed. It shouldn’t have triggered any worldline change at all.
And yet the dizziness, the worldline transition, and the fact that he was now in prison were all right here in front of him. Who was he supposed to argue with about that?
Of course.
He was clear about priorities.
All matters related to the Positron Cannon and worldline transitions could be set aside for now. The most urgent task was to understand the present situation.
“Bunch of useless trash!”
The big brother in Cell No. 1 sighed, as if making up his mind.
“Fine. Since none of you have the guts to escape, I’ll go by myself!”
Clang!
No one knew what method he used, but the iron-barred cell door opened with a sound. A fat hand covered in coarse black hair pushed the bars aside… and under the dim light, a massive, hulking figure stepped out of the cell.
He raised his chubby right hand.
Between his index finger and thumb, he pinched a piece of silver wire.
“I’ll ask you one last time…”
His voice carried a hint of pleading as he looked from Cell No. 2 to Cell No. 5.
“Are you willing to escape with me?”
A brief silence followed.
“Forget it, Pi Biao.”
The young man in Cell No. 2 chuckled.
“You won’t get out. Accept your fate. A guard will shoot you dead with one bullet.”
The big brother from Cell No. 1—called Pi Biao—shook his head.
“Weapons—we can have those too.”
He displayed the wire in his hand again.
“This prison’s facilities are old. With this wire, I can open the guards’ equipment room. We can get weapons as well.”
A helpless dry laugh came from Cell No. 4.
The inmate slowly walked up to the bars, the light revealing his appearance.
He looked to be in his sixties or seventies, wearing glasses, with graying hair—like a retired teacher or researcher.
“You really listened to that ‘hotheaded kid,’ huh?”
The man looked at Pi Biao, sighed, and shook his head.
“If you don’t take a gun, and you’re caught escaping, at most they’ll just bring you back and punish you.”
“But if you listen to that hothead, take weapons and storm the prison… you’ll definitely be executed on the spot.”
“You’ve already spent so many years in prison—what’s a few more at the end? Listen to me, Pi Biao. Go back to your cell and give up on escaping. However—”
Pi Biao, fat as a mountain of flesh, seemed to have made up his mind completely.
He walked up to Cell No. 4 and locked eyes with him.
“‘Bookworm,’ didn’t you just say the most important thing for a successful prison break is timing?”
“I’m telling you—today is the best timing there will ever be. Miss this chance, and there won’t be another.”
Turning around.
Pi Biao raised his voice and addressed everyone.
“You all know that today, at the execution grounds outside, they’re executing the most evil criminal in human history—[…] the Magician.”
“This prison was built specifically to hold […] the Magician. The rest of us are just filler.”
“Right now, outside at the execution grounds, there must be seas of people—countless spectators here to watch […] the Magician. All the prison’s security, guards, police dogs… they’re all deployed outside at the execution.”
“So, get it now? Today! Today is the only perfect time to escape! The entire world’s attention is focused on […] the Magician. No one is paying attention to us at all!”
Jiang Ran stood inside his cell, listening silently.
He roughly understood.
The main purpose of this prison was to hold a criminal known as […] the Magician—described as the most evil being in human history. And today, that vicious criminal was to be publicly beheaded at the execution grounds, which would inevitably draw tens of thousands of onlookers and concentrate all prison personnel and security resources there.
That was why the man called Pi Biao said today was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to escape.
They all addressed each other by nicknames.
—
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Cell No. 1: a fat, burly man called “Pi Biao.”
Cell No. 2: a young man called “Hothead.”
Cell No. 3: himself.
Cell No. 4: an elderly scholar with glasses called “Bookworm.”
As for Cell No. 5… they hadn’t participated further. His appearance, name, or nickname were still unknown.
“Fine.”
Pi Biao looked at the unresponsive group and grit his teeth.
“Since it’s come to this, I’ll tell you one more secret.”
He paused.
Then continued.
“Just like I said earlier, this prison itself was built to hold […] the Magician.”
“Now think carefully—after […] the Magician is executed, this prison naturally loses its purpose. When that happens… what do you think will happen to us?”
Hothead laughed softly.
“We’ll be transferred somewhere else to keep serving time. What else? You think they’ll behead us too?”
“Not necessarily.”
Pi Biao sneered.
“Then tell me—where did the kid who used to be in Cell No. 3 go?”
At that, Hothead fell silent as well.
That made Jiang Ran anxious.
You guys could at least keep talking!
He was the only one completely in the dark here, reduced to eavesdropping for scraps of information.
“What happened to the kid from Cell No. 3?”
Jiang Ran quickly asked.
As the current occupant of Cell No. 3, he was very concerned.
“He was killed.”
Pi Biao scraped his teeth with the wire and sighed.
“The kid was the most obedient one here. The guards trusted him, let him go out to do cleaning and organizing chores.”
“But during that process, he came into contact with some information about […] the Magician—or heard something he shouldn’t have… so he was probably silenced.”
Jiang Ran frowned.
This criminal called […] the Magician—what kind of monster was he?
Or rather, what kind of demon?
Just hearing information related to him was enough to get someone killed?
That was outrageous.
It was even more terrifying than Voldemort in Harry Potter, whose name couldn’t be spoken.
But on second thought, it made sense.
As the most vicious criminal in the world, with a prison built specifically for him, […] the Magician might really be on the same level as Voldemort.
And—
Beheading.
He’d heard that word several times already. Jiang Ran swallowed.
It was 2025. Beheading was a brutal execution method long since abandoned.
In modern judicial systems, the death penalty was usually carried out by lethal injection.
Only in the most extreme cases would execution by gunshot be used.
Beheading was simply unimaginable.
It seemed that […] the Magician truly deserved universal hatred—only such an extreme public execution could satisfy the entire world.
“What does the kid’s death have to do with us?”
Bookworm pushed up his glasses.
“He could hear information about […] the Magician while working. We can’t.”
“.”
Pi Biao was unconvinced.
“You think they’ll believe that?”
“We’ve all lived here for so many years—who hasn’t heard bits and pieces from somewhere?”
“Besides, the kid really did keep his mouth shut. He never told us anything about […] the Magician. But do you think the guards would see it that way?”
“So don’t imagine a bright future.”
“Once […] the Magician is executed, next they’ll kill all of you to silence you! All of your lives put together aren’t worth a single fingernail’s worth of […] the Magician’s secrets!”
Jiang Ran couldn’t hold back anymore.
He banged on the bars, signaling Pi Biao to look over.
“Who exactly is […] the Magician?”
He was genuinely curious.
“What did he do? What crime did he commit?”
“[…] the Magician is […] the Magician.”
Pi Biao looked at Jiang Ran.
“Did you get hit on the head or not wake up properly? Do I really need to introduce […] the Magician?”
“Tell me about it.”
Jiang Ran urged him on.
From Pi Biao’s tone, the deeds of […] the Magician were common knowledge on this worldline.
But Jiang Ran had crossed worldlines—he knew nothing about this world’s worldview.
“Tch!”
Pi Biao waved him off.
“Who the hell has time for that! I’m busy breaking out! I’m not a kindergarten teacher!”
“Why is he called […] the Magician?”
Jiang Ran pressed on.
“Does he actually perform magic? Or use some kind of miraculous tricks to commit crimes?”
Everyone fell silent.
Even Hothead from Cell No. 2 walked up to the bars, craning his neck to look at Jiang Ran in Cell No. 3, his eyes filled with the look one reserved for an idiot.
The same expression appeared on Pi Biao’s and Bookworm’s faces.
“You…”
Pi Biao scratched his head.
“Are you seriously clueless, or just pretending?”
At this moment, even his thick, brutish brain began to lose confidence in the newcomer’s intelligence.
“[…] the Magician is obviously just a code name! Just a title!”
Bookworm nodded as well.
“This young man… really does seem not to know. That’s too strange. Is there really anyone in this world who doesn’t know […] the Magician?”
“I really don’t.”
Jiang Ran looked at Bookworm.
“[…] the Magician—who is he?”
Bookworm pushed up his glasses.
“[…] the Magician is the most evil criminal in human history. That’s written directly into textbooks.”
“Crimes against humanity, harm to civilization, destruction of Earth’s spatial structure, disruption of historical order… and many more. A lot of these charges were created specifically for […] the Magician.”
“Of course, if you’re asking about […] the Magician’s identity…”
He lifted his head. Across the faint corridor lighting, across two layers of iron bars, he looked straight into Jiang Ran’s eyes.
“The whole world knows that […] the Magician’s real name is”
“Qin Feng.”