My Cell Prison - Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Chapter 22 – Edward Murray

Translator: Exodus Tales

Editor: Exodus Tales

Time remaining: [3 hours and 50 minutes]

The red lanterns in the bungalow were once again hung up and lit.

With the dark night and the stormy weather, the light from these large red lanterns could only penetrate just a few dozen meters away from the source.

Han Dong was currently watching and waiting from the second floor of the bungalow.

He was waiting for Edward Murray to be killed by the evil spirit… And that would lead to the final step of his plan.

However, his plan did not proceed smoothly according to his wishes.

Amid the downpour outside, a youth all covered in oil had limped his way back to the front of the bungalow.

This person was none other than Edward Murray.

Furthermore, the steam prosthetic arm that he had spent an exorbitant amount forging and fitting to his arm seemed to have suffered some damage; it was not operating as nimble as before.

“Ackmann was the evil spirit, the key character is also an evil spirit… No! Why would there be two evil spirits? The information that we were provided with clearly did not state that.”

It was gross negligence that had led Edward to be in such a desperate predicament.

Edward had mistakenly believed that the ‘Accursed Chenli’ had been hosting the evil spirit within her, which was why he did not even suspect the members of his team.

Of course, his mistake was also related to Han Dong to a certain extent.

When the team split up into their pairs, it was Han Dong who gave Chenli instructions to dress up in red and carry her kitchen knife to stalk after Edward. This reinforced Edward’s belief that ‘Chenli was the evil spirit’ to the point that he no longer had any doubts, thus when he later met Ackmann, he had completely let his guard down.

The fact that he was still alive was already an inexplicable outcome on its own.

After all, even someone like the baldy Darren who wielded a heavy sledgehammer regularly in the factory had instantly disappeared without a sound when he came upon the evil spirit while being completely vigilant.

While Edward Murray had used a certain method to escape from certain death and had fled all the way back to the bungalow.

He was now staring at the bungalow with the red lanterns all lit up once again.

Adding to the fact that he received the system’s prompt that ‘the number of members still alive: [3]’, which included the evil spirit Ackmann… That also meant that Edward and another person were still alive.

Edward was considered a fairly careful person, and with his brain firing on all cylinders, he very quickly recalled a few problematic details that he came across in these last few days.

That was when someone’s voice reverberated in his mind.

‘I’m Nicholas Valen… My body is physically weak, and I stay at home doing nothing. But whenever I was bored, I would study linguistics, so I should be able to help translate.”

“Leader… I’m not feeling too great…”

“Leader, I need to rest for a bit.”

“Then let us group ourselves accordingly… Miss Ackmann and I will be a team.”

That physically frail youth that would need to stop and take a breather after a short trek up the mountain, Nicholas Valen, appeared in Edward’s mind.

Regarding Nicholas’ position in the group, Edward had treated him as the ‘least worrying translation tool’ from the very beginning. He did not think there was any way that Nicholas would be able to survive with his weak constitution. Leaving him as the last tool to be used to buy him time was Edward’s plan.

But Edward had been completely mistaken… Just because he was weak did not mean he no longer had the chance to survive.

Monica had died while Ackmann had been hiding her identity as the evil spirit.

Looking up at the bungalow with the large red lanterns hung up high, Edward’s ‘optimistic’ and ‘friendly’ facade melted away with the rain. With a fierce look, he grinned maniacally as he shouted, “Nicholas my friend, you’re not very good natured! I had taken into account your weak and frail body and had allowed you to stay in your room and rest. I had basically been leading everyone in our team, doing all the preparation work… Yet you actually stabbed me in the back at the last minute. How can you be a ‘returnee’ with that body of yours? It’s only a matter of time before you die… Why don’t you become my stepping stone instead?”

Despite facing Edward’s angry yelling and ridicule, Han Dong did not show himself.

At the same time, a woman in red, carrying a baby doll in one arm and a kitchen knife in the other hand. slowly walked along the second floor corridor, returning back to her room 6.

Such a weird scene had left Edward sweating profusely. Till now, he had yet to confirm that Chenli was actually a human or spirit.

At the same time everything was transpiring, an evil spirit in a crawling state was following along the muddy mountain trail slowly approaching the bungalow. It was just that the evil spirit was a little off, and her movement looked to be quite a bit slower than before. Her face bore injuries as if she had been cut by some sort of sharp weapon and suffered severe burns caused by coming into contact with something of high temperature. Plus, the corners of her mouth were completely cracked and charred black, no longer looking human.

A slender tongue was sticking out from her burnt mouth, vaguely making out a less than standard British pronunciation, “That guy… He’s indeed quite capable! How painful, just like when my father would use a branding iron to treat me back then. Ah, this sensation really takes me back.”

—————————————–

His death had not necessarily been set in stone.

Edward Murray had learned from the senior who had previously survived a Space of Destiny that no matter how dangerous every corresponding event in the Space of Destiny was, the path of survival could still be found.

One such path was by mastering the restrictions. 

And another path was to grasp the weakness of the dangerous creature within. The moment the weakness was revealed, or insight toward said weakness was obtained, it would then be possible to force the enemy back to a certain extent and fight for the opportunity to escape.

Most evil spirit types were afraid of fire, and that was also a piece of information that Edward had bought and learned… But there was a minority that was not only not afraid of fire but would even have the special ability to absorb the flames.

Edward would most definitely have died if he had come across the latter, but normally speaking, no one would have such bad luck. 

Aside from the usual steam power that Edward’s steam prosthetic possessed, his arm was also able to tremendously increase his strength and punch speed at will. It even had a miniature nozzle fitted to an internal combustion device secreted in its internal machinery.

That’s right…. Edward’s trump card was his flamethrower.

This was supposed to be his ace in the hole the moment he was unable to maintain control over the time restriction that resulted in the evil spirit to come looking for him.

But because this ‘flamethrower’ retrofit was pricey, Edward could only embed a smaller version of the common model into his prosthetic arm, and he had already used up all his fuel in that confrontation with the evil spirit just now.

Standing in front of the bungalow, Edward did his best to remain calm… thinking of a way to come up with the solution that could break the quandary he was in.

“I only have one solution to ensure my survival… And that is to locate that scoundrel Nicholas and kill him! I am already 100% certain that the evil spirit is Ackmann, but I still cannot be completely certain whether the ‘Cursed woman, Chenli’ is an evil spirit or otherwise. It is definitely impossible for a novice scenario to have two evil spirits, even if it is 4 stars! The latter should most likely be under Nicholas’ instructions and was pretending to be the evil spirit so as to mislead me. That must definitely be the case! Everything has been Nicholas’ scheme from the start! That dirty and conniving rat… Just where the hell is he hiding?”

Edward was truly talented, and he had the qualifications to live on… To be able to analyze everything so calmly at such a crucial juncture showed his excellence and how sufficiently prepared he was. 

Unfortunately for him, he had already made a huge mistake.

——————————

Just as Edward began searching through the bungalow, Han Dong was lying on a bed on the second floor, his fingers steepled to form a triangle as he pondered over the problem.

“Edward actually managed to survive after clashing head on with the evil spirit… Indeed, running into the evil spirit did not necessarily mean certain death. I don’t have a choice. Since Edward isn’t dead, I’ll have to make some last minute adjustments to my plan.”