When Genji opened his eyes, he realized that something was terribly amiss. Firstly, he found himself in a dark place. It wasn't the darkness that troubled him, but rather the condition of his surroundings. The air carried a musty odor, and he could faintly discern the glint of light reflecting off the rusty bars before him.
Secondly, his equipment was missing. The gear he had meticulously prepared had vanished from his body. Now, all he wore was a tattered shirt and baggy, thin pants ill-suited for the current cold temperature. An acrid smell emanated from them, and he could feel the dampness against his skin.
Then there were the handcuffs on his arms. He gave them a slight tug, but their unyielding response indicated that breaking them by force would be an insurmountable task. Given the conditions, Genji deduced that he was inside a prison cell—a torturous one that showed no mercy to its inmates.
The next anomaly was the absence of a barrier, a departure from his previous experiences in other worlds. In the absence of this semi-opaque barrier, there were also no teammates in sight. It was an unusual and unsettling beginning compared to what he was accustomed to.
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Cursed Sea
Background:
Pirates of the previous era had plundered the seas and amassed numerous treasures. With the rise of this turmoil, a new order emerged and began hunting down these vicious criminals. Many people perished during this era, taking their prized possessions with them. Sailors now venture to the seas in the hopes of discovering one of these treasure troves and accumulating a fortune. However, as piracy became more rampant, the resentment of the deceased accumulated and transformed the sea. Now, the sea curses all who dare to sail these treacherous waters, marking them for eternity and binding their souls for its own purposes.
Mission: Escape prison. This is the first part in a series of chain missions
Penalty for failure: None. You cannot leave this world until the last mission is completed
Restrictions:
1. Technology beyond simple gunpowder weapons is banned. This is the pirate era after all.
2. All items are returned to your storage
3. You cannot access your storage until you are free of the empire's pursuit.
4. As a large number of teammates have been detected, the difficulty at the start has increased. All members had been separated.
Identity: You are an infamous pirate who has been caught by the navy. Now you and your crew are thrown into prison to await your execution day.
Note: Failure to escape in 24 hours will result in death.
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It was a brutal start. Setting aside the many restrictions he was seeing for the first time, just the situation he found himself in was less than ideal. Not to mention that he would be stuck in this world if he failed to complete the mission. This was the second time he had seen this punishment, and in both cases, it was a scary concept. While people can adjust to their new world, things can never be the same.
A small crease of light illuminated the hallway floors as the clacking of boots on the stone floors echoed down the pathway. Genji looked up to see an approaching woman flanked by two guards. As the indifferent woman passed Genji's cell, he called out to her.
"What's a beauty like you doing in here? Maybe to send me off? I always knew I was good-looking, but I prefer my women to show emotions."
This vulgar greeting caused the group to pause in front of his cell. She glanced at him before turning away.
"Oh, come on. After everything we've been through, you treat me like this? I should have known you were a gold digger."
Genji's taunt angered the left guard, causing him to yell back at him. "Shut your mouth, you vermin! I will not tolerate you insulting the lady."
"Or what? I'm going to die anyway, so what does it matter?"
Genji leaned back and brought his handcuffed arms behind his head. Then he put one leg above the other, giving them an infuriating smirk.
"But if you were going to sell your body, I would recommend lowering your price. You would have way more customers and earn more overall."
He wiggled his eyebrows and gave the guards a suggestive look. It was a degenerate look, causing the woman to frown at his comments.
"You know what? I will show you what it means to wish for death!" The guards became enraged and walked back to find some torture tools.
"Hey, pretty girl. It seems like your customer became embarrassed by me putting everything out in the open. Maybe you want to entertain me like the old times? I promise it will feel good."
The unnamed woman's eyes grew colder, but she refused to speak to the hooligan.
"Don't tell me the cat got your tongue? Tsk tsk. I knew frigid women were no fun. Well, that is until their face distorts in pleasure, but they try to hold it back. Heh heh."
"Do you know why the other prisoners are staying quiet right now?" She finally couldn't bear the degrading comments anymore and asked.
"Who cares about those wimps? I bet they have accepted their miserable lives, content with living the rest of their lives in this depressing place. But unlike them, I still have my valor. Plus, it's a lot easier to talk to a bed partner than a random stranger."
"It's because they know better than to mess with me," she ignored his answer and continued talking.
"Really? It's been so long, and the first thing you say is a rhetorical question? No wonder you need to sell your body to find a partner."
After Genji made a few more degrading comments, the guard came back with a heavy ring of keys and his preferred torture instruments. Walking over to the woman, he showed his choices, earning himself a satisfied nod from her.
"Make sure he lives. I want him to endure unimaginable pain," she said as a glint of cruelty flashed through her eyes.
Genji chuckled when he heard this.
"Unimaginable pain? Pfffttt. Girl, I've been through pain that would have broken most men. Whatever you can dish out, I can handle it for breakfast. On that topic, why don't you make me breakfast? Go do your job in the kitchen instead of this stinky place."
"You just refuse to repent until you see the coffin, don't you?" The guard sneered as he found the correct key to his cell.
Walking over, a sadistic grin had appeared on his lips as he thought about how he would make this prisoner beg for death. A few seconds later, a dull click sounded, and the creaking doors slid roughly over the ground. Then he picked up his tools and entered the dirty cell.
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"Coffin? I think I should be glad if I can even have a coffin for my burial," Genji said, purposely raising his voice to cover the dislocating sounds coming from his wrist.
Genji wriggled his dislocated hand out of the cuff and quickly snapped it back into place.
"At least you know your place," the guard scoffed at him.
"Of course. But the question is, do you?"
"Small talk won't save you because I will-"
At this moment, Genji suddenly sprang up and lunged at the guard. He quickly wrapped the shackles around the guard's neck and twisted hard.
*Snap*
The guard's head had spun a complete 180 as Genji reached down to grab the small flying knife from his hand. Then Genji dashed at the other guard and slashed his throat before he could react. The woman he'd been harassing drew her sword, but Genji gave her no chance as he threw the knife at her arm. He reached down and pried the spear from the falling body before impaling the woman through the stomach.
"How?" Blood ran down the side of her mouth as she asked the only question on her mind.
"You should never have opened the door," Genji responded as he finished her. Then he walked back to the first guard to take the ring of keys before throwing it to a prisoner.
"Free yourself if you can." Then Genji faded into the darkness.
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7156 got up from his hard bed and looked around. Another prison. This time, all his equipment was gone, just like in his trial world. However, he had prepared for this. Reaching up to his face, he opened his mouth wide and dug into his throat, triggering his gag reflex.
*Huuuurrrrr cough cough*
After a few gagging fits, 7156 felt a small piece of metal on the back of his tongue. He reached into his mouth again, grabbed hold of it, and slowly pulled, taking care not to trigger his gag reflex or damage his throat. A few seconds later, he had a long metal wire in his hands. Bending it into a loop, he slipped it into his handcuffs.
After a few twists and getting the wire into all the crevices, the lock clicked, allowing him to free his hands easily.
'I needed to thank Celine for the warning. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known how to deal with this.'
7156 pulled the wire out and used it to pick the lock on the cell door. Once he got out, he looked around for his teammates, but the only person he saw was a wide-eyed fellow prisoner.
"You! How?"
7156 ignored the question and prepared to check the other cells.
"Hey, wait. If you're going to leave, can you at least leave the wire for me?" The man shouted before 7156 could leave.
7156 threw the tool into the cell and dashed off. He ran by many cells but they were either empty or filled with strangers. He kept running until he reached the end of the hallway. He opened the door and saw stairs leading up. Adding to the lack of light in this area, 7156 judged he was underground.
There was also a chance he was in a building with no windows or lighting, but he found that unlikely as that hindered the guards more than the prisoners. Coming to this conclusion, 7156 decided to go upwards as his mission was to escape.
If he could find the others, that would be ideal, but otherwise, he only cared about River Stream due to the contract he'd signed.
7156 ran up the stairs and came to a floor with the same layout as before. The only difference was that there were three bodies on the ground, and a prisoner was messing with a ring of keys, trying to unlock his door.
The other prisoners looked at this scene with hope in their eyes as they prayed for their turn.
When he stepped onto the floor, everyone looked at him with amazement. Just what was with these people casually breaking out?
7156 ignored their looks and continued running toward the other side of the hallway. The way they built this place was very interesting. The prison consisted of many layers of two-sided cells stacked on top of each other with stairs on both sides of the hallway. The only nuance about this layout was that the stairs only connected two layers.
On one side, the stairs connected to the floor above, while on the other, they connected to the layer below. And the side that determined which alternated with each floor, making it impossible to go straight up.
To do so, a person would have to run across the entire hallway if they wanted to change floors. It was a very dumb layout, but unless the prisoner could blast through the ceiling, they would have to run a marathon. But the walls of the place seemed very sturdy from what 7156 could tell.
It appeared to be made out of some unknown material native to this world that dispersed the impact across all connecting parts, requiring a tremendous amount of force to damage it. As 7156 reached the other side, he saw Genji walk down from the floor above. In his hand was a short sword dripping with blood.
"You're here," Genji said, swinging his sword to clean the blood.
"Hmmm."
"I have a piece of good news and a piece of bad news. Which do you want to hear first?"
"Bad."
"Pessimistic, huh? Well, I think our teammates are below us, or they might be in another prison."
"Why?"
"That has to do with the good news. The floor above is the ground floor, and there's no second floor."
7156 nodded, finding the reasoning sound.
"How confident are you about unarmed combat?" Genji asked, causing 7156 to shake his head.
"Understood. Then take this sword and go downwards. Find as many as you can while I hold the guards off. Think you can do that?"
"Will you be okay?"
"Don't worry about me. The way they built this place, it will be very hard to get past me."
Genji handed the blade over and picked up a spear.
*Clank*
At this moment, the prisoner found the correct key and unlocked his door.
"Will you help me out, or will I have to kill you?"
Genji pointed the spear at him. The man shivered at the cold gaze he received. Why wouldn't he? He had just watched as this guy baited the special guest to open his cell door and then slaughtered them in seconds. And the way he switched faces was scary. It was hard to believe that everything was an act when he felt so natural.
"I-I'll help," he stuttered, afraid of saying otherwise.
"Good. Now free the other prisoners. When everyone is out, go downstairs and try to free others. Understood?"
The other prisoners nodded their heads like obedient ducks pecking at food.
"7156. I will have to trouble you to take out any guards you find."
"What are you planning?"
Genji let out a crazy smile before replying, "You'll see."
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When 7156 returned to his initial floor, he realized the person with the metal wire had already freed himself. Along with him, three other prisoners were out of their cages. Hearing the footsteps, they tensed up and prepared to jump the person. When they realized it was 7156, they relaxed their bodies but kept their distance.
7156 ran past them and headed downstairs. A few minutes later, all the prisoners were out, and they headed up. It was time to break out of this place. That's what they thought until Genji "persuaded" them to go back down to help. As for how let's just say there are now more obstacles that need to be moved.
After descending a few floors, 7156 finally found a familiar face. He wasn't anyone too close, but he was one of the hired helpers. At this moment, the person was looking around with an ugly expression.
"Hey. Can you help me out?"
Seeing the tattered rags for clothes, the person judged him to be a fellow prisoner. 7156 ignored him and continued running. That's not his concern as other people will come down to help.
"Fine. I didn't want to get out anyway," he muttered begrudgingly.
As 7156 reached the stairs, he heard voices coming from below. He halted his movement and listened closely.
"Bastards! You scum pirates. How dare you talk back to us. Hmph. That'll teach you a lesson."
From the narrow hallway, 7156 was able to hear the sounds of flesh being scorched by a whip. The prisoner that was tortured, though, barely made a sound.
'Whoever he is, he's a tough fellow.'
7156 slowly crept his way down as more cracking sounds came up. It was a painful sound, but 7156 paid no heed to it. When he got down to the bottom floor, he noticed an open cell where all the abusive sounds were coming from. Taking the opportunity as they were distracted, 7156 snuck up behind the guard who had his back to the door. He reached his hand up, covered his mouth, and slit the throat.
The guard's eyes widened at the sudden pain and tried to struggle, but the grip was too strong. Eventually, the person bled to death. 7156 picked up the body and slowly approached the guard who was too distracted by his sadistic tendencies. 7156 threw the body on him and chopped at the head.
"What-"
Before he could react to the sudden force from behind, 7156 buried his sword into the guard's skull. As he pulled out the sword, 7156 finally noticed who was being tortured.
"L-Logan?"
The tied-up Logan looked up and smiled at 7156.
"Yo. Fancy seeing you here."
Logan flashed his signature toothy smile that 7156 was so familiar with. Seeing this, 7156 hurried over to cut the ropes binding his friend.
"Why did you endure that? You could have killed them easily."
"Not with my current stats. Because I had experienced more worlds, there were more restrictions placed on me. And one of them happens to be weakened stats."
"No way! But why did you provoke the guards?"
"Haha. Look how worried you are. I've never seen you talk this much."
7156 unlocked his handcuffs and gave him the keys.
"Unlock one and head up. My friend will take care of the rest."
Logan took the keys and obliged because he knew in his current state, he was only a hindrance. As 7156 was about to enter the stairs to the next floor, Logan asked a question.
"Did you find the others?"
It was a quiet question, but 7156 managed to hear it due to his enhanced senses.
"One other. No keys. I'm still looking."
Logan understood the response, but it only made his mood more somber. He's sincerely hoping that everyone is in this prison as he can't imagine how hard it will be otherwise. A bad feeling started to form in his gut, but he showed none of it.
"Is that so? Then I wish you luck."