When day finally arrived and the cells opened, instead of making a mess, they left their cells without making a sound. It looked like they were waiting for something.

Mike saw the guards on the upper floor, they could not make a move without being noticed by the guards.

The man beside him said "If you Follow the rules in the morning, the rest of the day is mostly free"

That was the one he talked to before, beside his cell.

One of the guards stayed behind an armored window beside one of the two exits and gave instructions.

"Those who want to eat, move up and remember to pay your share, not free meals here"

"What does that mean? Don't tell me I need to pay for my own food" He asked to no one.

But one of the prisoners answers him anyway.

"If you live enough to get your food that's it, haha!"

They talked in low voice, seemed like prisoners would not say things loud while in the cell block.

They must have a reason, but he decided to not find it for now, curiosity kills the cat.

With patience, the answer will arrive by itself, sometimes...

He had no need to eat food since no one would give him free food; and stayed in there.

The man from yesterday was waiting there too, it looked like he wanted to deal with Mike right away after the guards would leave.

Ability users have a great advantage over other's physical capabilities, more when their ability is from the Physical variants.

Even with the antiPhySEC wristbands, they still had the physical fitness to deal with problems.

The man waiting for Mike clearly had a physical emission ability variant.

Or maybe he was just naturally big and muscular.

"Physical appearance has no relation with strength but can tell hints sometimes" He convinced himself.

But he knew nothing about the other, anyway, there was no escape. Some problems were better dealt with quickly instead of waiting for the opportunity.

In the worst case, the guards would not let a prisoner kill another one, at least in the cell block.

But luck got on his side for a moment.

"Ignore the man waiting for you. Trust me, no matter the result, you will end up with problems"

The one from cell 12 told him while dragging him to the exit.

"Why are you helping? I mean, thanks, but it was me who placed you in a hard situation"

He was stunned, he thought that man would be the first one to kill him.

"I made the situation hard for you once, this is my payback. But after breakfast, you are on your own"

They waited in line for their turn and quickly left, the door led to a hallway after a hallway.

At the end, they reached an area with big windows. On the other side of the windows, the prison yard revealed high walls, and the sound of sea waves was barely audible beyond them.

The island was big enough, but they made the prison close to the sea.

They sat at a table, and there were some people around, Mike noticed some people had no wristbands.

The dining room where he was, was right beside the kitchen.

In the kitchen, the guards were patrolling taking a look at the ones cooking.

The chefs were, like him, prisoners.

"You new here? Not like there are a lot of people anyway, so I can tell"

One of the men talked to Mike, but he said so in a low voice, it seemed to him that they were still not a little bit free.

"The prisoners here take the role of chefs, and the guards leave after the food is on the tables"

The man was kind enough to explain him, and the one who saved him before handed Mike some money.

"What?"

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"You need it to get the food or you will be kicked, take it or leave it"

"Thanks, what's your name by the way?"

"...Oliver" He hesitated a moment but told him, without worries, his first name.

Then just as he received the money, the prisoners taking the role of chefs passed through a door with the food, no guards were accompanying them.

Instead, the guards were looking at them from the upper floor, following the travel of the food cart.

It looked like the breakfast price was 25 ethers in cash.

Very expensive for breakfast even in Aether.

And it was just the quantity he received from Oliver earlier.

The food was not really bad, it was bad yes, but not as bad as Mike imagined before.

He got the advice from the people at the table, the real instructions he needed.

Only during the morning and while serving the food, the guards would be a pain in the ass.

Other than those times, he can be mostly free, relatively speaking.

And he noted it, while the food cart left, most of the guards left too, and the noise was growing quickly.

There was only one guard left and they would take turns patrolling the upper floors of each place.

"How do you guys get money?" That was Mike's first objective since he had money but not able to get it in prison, banks don't work there.

He had to search for his survival.

"That's easy, from outside"

"Heh! Money comes from outside, how could I have ever guessed? so?"

"Family or friends outside, mostly, some get it through getting in debt, but I doubt there are good people outside giving money like that"

"Well, I'm fucked then"

"Living alone? No family?"

"Not even friends" Mike had no sadness in his eyes while answering.

"I see" said the man talking with him.

But he got up, like the others on the table.

Mike was suddenly surprised.

"Don't tell me..."

"I see you are alone and by yourself, that's why we are leaving, the one there looks like wanting to keep you company"

Even Oliver got up and wished Mike good luck.

The man from before was walking toward him and made hand moves to tell the others to leave.

From the conversation earlier, he got the name of the man wanting to kill him.

Joshua Perez. Joshua was known in the prison, very well known.

He was the newbie killer, worked for a big criminal group in the country, and got captured by bad luck.

He was getting close and beside him was another man.

They both sat at Mike's table.

Mike still had not finished eating and kept eating while the other two guys were staring at him.

"Enjoy your last food, man" Said Joshua.

"Thanks, but ain't sharing it with you"

The man placed his hand loudly on the table.

"I saw many people like you, but as long as I twist their legs or make them bleed, they stop laughing and cry"

Mike was not stupid (Just acted like one sometimes). While talking he was scanning the other two with his ability, he knew from the last hours he could still do so.

While trying to use it, he would need more energy and concentration than before and could only scan with it.

While trying to use it for any other thing, the result would be... nothing.

He cannot use his ability for other than scan around him.

The distance for the Bloody Hand was still almost the same, that was the good news, sadly he could not use this scan all day, not with the antiPhySEC on him all day.

Joshua made a weird nod and moved his other hand too.

Mike noticed the only guard left patrolling was leaving.

That was the signal.

"Now let's show you how dangerous is your situation, shall we?"

The man was overconfident.

That gave Mike the idea, that as soon as the guard left the door on the upper floor,

Without even looking since he was scanning with his ability...

*THUD*

He used the fork to pierce Joshua's hand.

Strike first, and face the consequences later.

But the man had enough physical resistance and reacted quickly too.

Mike could not finish stabbing the other's hand while the other moved the hand.

He was quick, too quick, clearly a physical emission variant as Mike thought before.

The other beside Joshua reacted quickly and jumped over the table, directly to Mike.

Mike was seated but he already felt the moves from the other, so made his move to the side while getting up.

The situation was getting hot in less than a second.

The nearby tables got away and surrounded them, the loud noise was about screaming for Joshua to break apart Mike.

"Savages... let's dance with death today, then"

The one before him, Joshua was already going towards him, launching a punch.

He could feel the move beforehand, he could think of the best way to evade it.

But still,

Joshua was too quick; he could barely evade the first one.

Just by the wind pressure, he felt that punch was dangerous.

The size of the man in front of him made no sense with the speed he had.

One might expect the speed would be less.

That's why people must think twice before fighting an ability user.

And even if Mike's physical capabilities were higher than normal humans and increased in each phase,

At the end of the day, he had invisible mind variant ability.

This fight was just the first one in the prison, where the real dangerous people were waiting for him.