『The 'Faceless Head' abilities have been activated.』

Leon pondered: "The head possesses two abilities - 'Mimicry' and 'Pocket Prison'... The first one is straightforward, essentially like shapeshifting."

Earlier, after obtaining the head, it had automatically transformed according to his subconscious into Leon's former appearance. After possessing the body, it perfectly mimicked the young man's features.

"The second ability... a combination of quantum technology and some form of magic?"

Upon successful body possession, an iron door appeared in Leon's consciousness.

When he attempted to touch this door through his consciousness...

A ringing in his ears accompanied a brief mental blank.

When he opened his eyes again, Leon found himself in a small, gloomy, and dark prison.

This was a tangible prison, not merely a consciousness image.

The prison was relatively small, consisting of just one corridor, one cell, and one sealed room... completely different from the prison where he'd searched for bodies.

Excluding the sealed room, the total area was less than thirty square meters.

"So this is the 'subspace containment technology'? An internal space formed through subjective brain intervention... fascinating."

The corridor was ordinary, with nothing noteworthy.

Leon first stepped into the cell blocked by iron bars, immediately discovering something 'strange.'

At first glance, the cell appeared to be made of ordinary black stone.

Upon closer inspection, there were faint, wavering tendrils in the cracks between these black stone blocks.

"Earlier, when moving with just the head, similar tendrils grew from the neck area, they were more like fungal hyphae... but those inside the cell walls were different."

Wherever there were cracks, dark tendrils could be seen writhing back and forth... staring at them for too long made Leon uncomfortable.

Just then, a prompt appeared:

【The Faceless Prison】

Individual Compatibility: Perfect (Individual can perfectly control the prison without risk of harmful feedback from overuse)

Scale: Extremely Small, Containable Life Forms: 1 (Upgrade 【Faceless Head】 to increase prison capacity)

Usage Method: When target life form is in a weakened state, come into contact with it and activate the pocket prison to initiate containment.

Notes:

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

①. After upgrading the 【Faceless Head】, load capacity requirements will increase. Please reserve at least 50 points of load value in advance, otherwise upgrade will fail.

②. Do not attempt to contain organisms in good condition. Failed containment will cause severe damage to the host and some damage to the prison.

③. The host cannot transfer themselves to the "Pocket Prison" in special environments or while under attack from other organisms.』

...

"The Faceless Prison? It can contain life forms?"

Leon's first thought was of the 'mutants' that had chased the metal carriage in this world.

As for containing normal humans, Leon wouldn't consider it... not only would that be criminal, it would also cross his moral boundaries.

If he could contain a mutant or some magical creature, he could conduct biological research.

Leon temporarily left this cell that gave him the creeps and headed to the adjacent 【Sealed Room】.

It was a completely sealed room - through the cracks in the outer black stone, even glimpses of white metal walls could be seen within.

The sealed room's entrance was locked by a heavy iron door that required turning a hydraulic valve to open.

Leon had thought his weak body wouldn't be able to turn such a valve.

However, when his palm touched the disc-shaped valve, it seemed to recognize his biological information and turned automatically.

The heavy metal door swung outward.

The moment he stepped into the sealed room, the sense of danger and oppression from the prison instantly vanished.

Lifting a thin anti-bacterial film and passing through a narrow buffer zone...

A sterile laboratory that Leon was intimately familiar with appeared before him... clean white walls, appropriate temperature and humidity, adjustable light intensity.

This formed a stark contrast with the prison outside.

However, compared to the laboratory Leon had used in his previous life... this sterile room was relatively small and not as well-equipped.

Inside there was only one ultra-clean workbench against the wall and a display stand in the center of the room.

The former was for fungal inoculation experiments.

The latter's glass display case contained a special syringe.

"This... why is there a sterile laboratory inside the prison? Could it be related to the 'cell cluster'?"

Walking past the display stand, Leon first approached the ultra-clean workbench.

He unexpectedly found the cell cluster residing in a petri dish, about the size of a fingertip - the physical manifestation from when Leon was reborn.

His instincts told him that if this cell cluster died, he would perish along with it.

Just as Leon touched the operating table, a prompt sounded:

『When killing certain life forms, 'cellular essence' can be extracted using the 'Corpse Syringe.'

Collected 'cellular essence' can be injected into the 'cellular main body' through sterile operation, increasing the load limit based on the quality and quantity of cellular essence.

Please note:

1. The 'Corpse Syringe' can be freely used and it doesn't matter if it gets damaged.

2. The 'Corpse Syringe' can only be used on special creatures that have been dead for less than five minutes. It cannot extract 'cellular essence' from living things or corpses that have been dead too long.

3. Each corpse can only be extracted once.』

Upon hearing this prompt, Leon quickly turned to look at the elegant syringe in the display case.

Transparent crystal tube, brass needle, with metal trim.

"So this is how to increase the cellular load limit!!"

Leon was very excited.

A problem that had been troubling him was solved. Now he just needed to determine what qualified as a 'special life form'.

As long as he could increase the load limit, Leon would be able to control stronger bodies.

"My understanding of this world is still too limited... I've learned enough about the pocket prison for now."

Leon returned to the corridor, and when he pushed open the prison exit door, he instantly found himself back under the giant oak tree.

No one was around, and Leon attempted to take out the syringe.

Sure enough, as he mentally conveyed the thought of 'retrieve,' a precision brass-shelled syringe appeared directly in his palm... when he mentally conveyed 'return,' the syringe automatically sank beneath his skin.

This process left Leon's palm feeling slightly numb.

"There are still many secrets in the prison... but this will do for now. First, I need to deal with this young man's situation.

I must understand his basic family relationships.

As well as the reason for his suicide and this clockwork device counting down on his wrist."

Leon's thinking was very clear.

Obtaining a body was just the simplest step. Next, he needed to familiarize himself with and adapt to his life environment, ensuring no one discovered that Nicolas Varen had been replaced by someone else.

Moreover, the clockwork bracelet's countdown made Leon very uneasy.