“Hey. Want to break out of prison with me?”
To keep eavesdroppers from listening in, Ye Li kept her voice down to a bare whisper.
Yet to Qiao Bei’s ears, it struck like a bolt from the blue, jolting him upright in bed, any trace of sleepiness vanishing in an instant.
“Wh-what did you say?” he asked carefully, wondering if he was hallucinating.
Ye Li slowly stood up, speaking in an unhurried, measured tone. “I said, do you want to escape this research institute with me?”
As her words sank in one by one, Qiao Bei’s heart began to thud wildly against his ribs.
His eyes inadvertently ignited with a faint warmth. “Do you have a way out?”
Ye Li smiled faintly. “There’s always a way. You just need to tell me if you’re in or not.”
Qiao Bei didn't let the sudden proposal go to his head, gently countering, “And after escaping the research institute, where do we go?”
“Naturally, we find a way out of the base and head for the Exiled Lands!” Ye Li answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Qiao Bei frowned. “But the Exiled Lands are crawling with Aberrations and Abominations. It’s extremely dangerous.”
“Then it depends on whether you'd rather pursue freedom amidst danger, or live without a shred of dignity.” A scoff of mockery curved Ye Li’s lips. “Besides, trapped in this airtight cell, we aren't all that safe either!”
Two incidents of Abominations harming people in less than a month was the best proof of that!
“Let me think about it,” Qiao Bei hesitated.
“Then think it over carefully!”
Ye Li wasn't surprised by his reaction in the slightest, warning him in advance, “Though I’ll lay it out plainly right now: once you agree, there’s no backing out. I won't let you quit halfway!”
At least, not alive!
The undisguised, chilling glint in her dark eyes sent a shiver down Qiao Bei’s spine, filling him with dread.
Yet he was indeed tempted.
Nobody wanted to remain in this sunless, godforsaken hellhole, stripped of all freedom and without a glimmer of hope.
However, the consequences of a Mutant escaping custody without authorization were severe. They wouldn't just lose their current treatment; they might even be executed on the spot.
Qiao Bei weighed it back and forth, agonizing over it for a long while.
In the end, the lure of freedom won out.
He gritted his teeth and looked up at Ye Li, his expression hardening with resolve. “Fine, I’m in. But I have one condition—we have to take Duoduo with us!”
“Deal!” Ye Li agreed without a second thought.
She had never intended to leave the little brat behind in the first place.
“Can you tell me your plan now?” Qiao Bei urged impatiently.
“The plan, huh...” Ye Li gave a radiant smile, her sly eyes twinkling. “Aren't we discussing it right now?”
Qiao Bei: “...”
Why did he feel like he had just been swindled onto a pirate ship?
Was it too late to back out now?
Naturally, Ye Li didn't give him the chance. She climbed onto his bed and sat cross-legged, gesturing toward him. “Come on, let’s hurry up and hash out the details.”
From what she currently knew, although there were usually no guards posted in the underground cells, the security measures were exceptionally robust. The cell doors couldn't be forced open, the only exit to the surface was a single elevator, and the surveillance cameras both inside and outside the elevator were monitored around the clock.
Escaping directly from the underground holding cells was entirely out of the question.
Their only option was to look for vulnerabilities in the laboratory building on the surface.
However, Ye Li was only allowed into the building when she was brought up for experimental procedures.
Furthermore, every time she was taken up, a hood was placed over her head, only removed after she was inside the laboratory and strapped to the operating table.
As a result, she had no way of observing the layout or routes within the laboratory building.
This was precisely why Ye Li was bent on roping Qiao Bei in.
Because only he had daily access to the laboratories and understood the laboratory building’s layout!
Qiao Bei held nothing back, promptly sharing everything he knew.
The laboratory building had twelve floors in total, designed as a fully enclosed structure. Even the rooftop was sealed off, and moving between floors relied entirely on two elevators.
The building’s exits were on the first floor, split between a front and a back door, both guarded around the clock by shifts of fully armed guards.
Everyone entering or leaving the building had to pass through an identity scanner using an ID card.
Beyond the laboratory building, there were three more checkpoints outside, all requiring identity verification to pass.
While Qiao Bei did have a temporary ID card, its access was strictly limited to movement within the building.
Even if they managed to obtain an ID card, there was no way they could slip past in plain sight while dragging a child along.
If stealth wouldn't work, brute-forcing was even more out of the question.
The guard station was located right on the first floor.
The moment anyone attempted an unauthorized entry or exit, triggering the alarm, the guards would arrive on the scene immediately.
Empty-handed and saddled with useless abilities, how could the two of them possibly stand against a squad of fully armed guards? It would be nothing short of suicide.
“I can’t think of any way we could get out!”
Having laid out their current dilemma, Qiao Bei knitted his brows, unable to hide his discouragement.
In his eyes, not even wings would let them escape.
“Not necessarily.”
Not a hint of worry showed on Ye Li’s face. On the contrary, her thin lips curled into a wicked smirk.
“The living might have no way out, but the dead just might!”
Rate on N.U.
