Biological Supercomputer System

Erik made his way through the prison's corridors. As he passed by many cells, his unsettlement grew because, if at first there were two or three prisoners around, this part of sector G was completely devoid of people. All the cells were empty.

<Cell 383.>

Erik walked further.

<Cell 384.>

He went further on.

<Cell 385. That's it.>

He finally arrived at cell 385, where Richard was meant to be held.

At least, that was what Van Dyke and Fischer told him.

The problem was that, unlike the other cells with their glowing aclaitrium ore bars and reinforced walls, this cell had a massive reinforced door that didn't allow to see what was inside.

That wasn't the only problem. What was worse was that contrary to the other cells, which were made of Aclaitrium, this one was made of Terphine, the dark ore two ranks stronger than Aclaitrium.

This made it much harder to break. Not that it was a problem for Erik, breaking it and go in wasn't. It was the noise that he would make to bring it down.

Until now, Erik sneaked into the prison alerting no one or being seen. But to break this door, he would need to do quite the noise.

The dark metal of the door looked impenetrable, with no visible handles or locks.

Erik ran his hands over the door, feeling the smoothness of the surface that gave away no hints of weakness.

Above the door, a circular metal plate had been set into the wall. 385 was the number engraved on it.

He pondered whether he might circumvent the locking system with the help of the biological supercomputer.

Based on the situation, it looked like he had to, because there was no handle, and the only way to open this door was seemingly to break it or having some key card.

<That's Terphine for you. I must be sure to get my hands on it and bring it to Liberty Watch as soon as I can. I wonder what Jabir and the others would say once I bring it there.>

Erik pressed his ear against the door but could hear nothing from within the cell.

<That's not a good sign.>

Richard could be simply asleep, but honestly, it was more likely he was already dead, like Emily predicted.

Straightening up, he stared at the door, deep in thought.

<The door is too different from the other ones. I bet this was made to keep the most dangerous or valuable of the prisoners confined.>

Aclaitrium could be broken easily by Erik when he got much less strength point. A dangerous prisoner might be able to do the same, and that was why they opted to use a much more resisting material to create this door, and most likely, the entire room behind it.

<This smells like a trap.>

He took a few steps back, gazing at the door as he weighed his options.

<Should I go in?> Richard might be there or not, dead or alive. The problem is that this is an obvious trap.>

The empty cells and the particularity of the door showed that there was more to this situation. <Let's see if there is someone nearby. Maybe I might glimpse into some thoughts that will give me an idea on how to move further from here.>

Erik channeled mana through his neural links and pumped his instability brain crystal power with it. Then the first people started entering his brain crystal power's range, and then more.

There were many people within the building-not as many as he expected, but they numbered the thousand, and that was just from his side of the building.

He couldn't fathom how many there were outside of his brain crystal power's range.

A mess of disjointed thoughts flooded his mind, swirling together in an incoherent mess. It had never been easy to read people's minds, especially not when there were this much around.

Snippets of conversations and dirty thoughts echoed across his consciousness. The latter were the most common ones.

Emotions flickered by anger, happiness, boredom, frustration, fear, even.

Memories blended with goals, hopes with regrets.

Ideas unfinished, desires unfulfilled, worries unresolved. It was a disorienting tangle of thoughts from dozens, maybe hundreds, of minds across the prison.

Who were thinking, unaware there was someone that was prying inside their minds.

This made it difficult for Erik to have proof that all of this was a trap or not, because he couldn't understand if someone was close or not, and individually checking all those in range was going to take a lot of time, and he didn't have it available.

Erik tried to make sense of the chaotic storm, to find a meaning, a pattern that could help him in this situation.

But the harder he focused, the more the cacophony grew. He caught glimpses of faces, names, and plans, but they slipped away before he could grasp them. There were simply too many.

<Better focus on the inside of the room.>

With that, Erik pushed his mana through the door, and in truth, he found something.

There was one person within the room; his thoughts were muddled and filled with pain. It was obvious who the person was.

<Richard!>

Judging by the state of the man's thoughts, his condition had to be bad.

Erik tried pushing more mana through the door to get a better sense of Richard's condition.

But the pain and confusion the man felt were making things hard.

Erik picked up fragments of memories centered around torture and interrogation, mixed with moments of hopelessness and despair.

There seemed to be a periodic pattern to Richard's thoughts, showing he had been subjected

to torture for an extended period. Basically, the entire period he had been kept a prisoner in

Volkov's care.

<Volkov... that fucker...>

Erik clenched his fists in anger as he continued tapping into Richard's mind.

He picked up flashes of Volkov's face, hovering over the old man with a twisted smile while

inflicting pain.

Richard's thoughts turned to his daughter Emily, imagining her face and then going to his wife, Lucy, his anchor, his column, his bastion.

However, these moments of joy were soon replaced with agony as Richard's pain pulled him

back to the present.

Erik seethed with rage as he sensed the depths of Richard's suffering.

Beyond physical pain, there was a toll on Richard's mental state from prolonged isolation, uncertainty, and violation.

<That's it... He did it again. But this time, I'm here, and healers are nearby. Richard won't

die.>

Erik then stopped for a moment.

<System... Open the door.>

There was no one inside the cell aside from Richard, so even if this was a trap, at least he

wouldn't have to fight, and he could bring Richard outside of the cell relatively quickly.

<Are you sure? You know I'm aware of your thoughts, right? Honestly, even I think this is a

trap.>

<Do it.>

<All right.> The system then connected to the door, or to whatever controlled it.

<Open.>

After a soft click, the door started opening alone. <It's automated. That's not good.>

Because that meant Volkov was likely going to trap him into the room. But if they thought that would be enough to keep him trapped, then they were mistaken.

Erik entered. It was only that what he had in front of him was much worse than he could have imagined, or that he could fathom by reading Richard's mind.

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