My Cell Prison - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Chapter 4 – The Hung Youth

Translator: Exodus Tales

Editor: Exodus Tales

What Han Dong was unaware of was that even though those people in the carriage had successfully escaped into Holy City, their situation was not great.

That was because, in the process of making the escape, they had gotten near and caught sight of the monsters that were chasing after them… Even though they were wearing protective goggles, several weird-looking, deep-colored lines had appeared surrounding their eyes.

All of them were not even in the least bit concerned with the situation with the corpse sack right now, as they were going full speed toward the ‘Chapel’, to begin a week-long suppression ritual.

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Deep in the damp and gloomy alley. A lone human head was slowly moving forward.

“The construction style is similar to the 19th-century European architecture, yet the hundred meters tall city walls as well as the tall buildings in the city do not seem to complement the time period. Adding to that the strange magic that I have not been able to comprehend, as well as strange creatures that exist in this world… That would also be an important factor that impacts scientific development.”

Presently, what Han Dong had seen in this world was merely the tip of the iceberg, or maybe even less… His inference might not be exactly accurate.

It was just that Han Dong was excited about the strange new things he had come across thus far, even going to a certain extent of mania…. He could not wait to understand this world, to comprehend the scientific system here.

“First things first. I better search for a normal human body and try to slowly begin to understand everything from the base level… Of course, I have to explore ways to return to my original world as well.”

Actually, as far as Han Dong’s situation was concerned, regarding the world he originally inhabited, aside from several of his unfinished projects with the nation’s Natural Science Foundation, there was really nothing that he was too hung up over.

When he was a child, both his parents had died, so it was his grandfather who raised him to adulthood, and he had already passed away by the time Han Dong had completed his doctorate.

Furthermore, the research projects that accompanied him day and night, as well as the small circle of friends outside of the college meant that Han Dong did not have any ‘lover’ to speak of.

The flowers that filled his ward in the hospital might have all been sent from his students, but he did not enjoy fraternizing with his students. Were it not have been for the schools forcibly arranging the classes, he would have devoted all his time that was supposed to be spent in class toward his cytology research instead. 

Without any qualms or worry, Han Dong succumbed to the torture of the cancer demon and died.

After confirming that he had indeed been reborn, the first reaction Han Dong had was not to find a way back to his original world but to revel in the excitement he felt toward this unknown, new world. He wanted to explore and research.

At the moment, he was somewhere near the city walls.

He was in a residential area for citizens of the Holy City. In order to maximize the utilization of the land, the tightly packed buildings here were all styled like apartments, capable of providing housing for a large number of citizens. The materials used to build these were mainly red bricks that were matched with copper plating, a vaulted design that had plenty of diamond shaped glass mosaic windows.

Because of the adhesiveness of his mycelium tentacles, Han Dong’s head could very easily climb up vertical walls, peaking through the windows to observe the interior of the rooms inside.

After spending some time observing, a huge sense of suspicion came to him. 

“This is weird… Why are most of the people here middle-aged to old-aged men and women, or children under the age of 10? Why is there practically no youth at home?”

“Could it be that the youths in the city have been forced into mandatory conscription? According to what I currently know, the humans who are in Holy City seem to be under the threat of some ‘monster’, and can only hole up behind the city walls… The likelihood for the citizen’s youths to be subjected to forced conscription is high. So what about the rich elites?”

Han Dong planned to use the cover of the night and head into the city’s inner areas, heading toward the luxuriously decorated houses to find his ‘target’. He would be sparing himself a lot of trouble if he could directly become a child of a rich household by assimilating a physical body. 

But there was a certain amount of risk with this plan.

The soldiers that he had met that were on their way back to the city had been able to spot Han Dong hiding amidst the underbrush while traveling at high speeds… If he were to meet any such people while he was inside the city, there could be a very high chance that he would be discovered once more.

He needed to find a physical body as soon as possible.

Just as Han Dong was leaving the dark alley, trying to covertly move away, he suddenly made a discovery.

Between the buildings that were aligned row by row, due to a problem with the design, there appeared to be a piece of empty space ‘in excess’.

This piece of empty ground just happened to be behind the surrounding buildings, and it was only accessible if someone went through that dark alley that was wet with dirty water with rats and bugs running rampant… As a result, practically nobody would ever come here.

There was a patch of overgrown grass in the middle, where a huge oak tree with plenty of strong and sturdy branches grew.

Unfortunately, there happened to be a youth that was hung right under one of the thick branches on the oak tree.

Sticking to the shadows, Han Dong’s head slowly moved till it was just under the corpse, closely observing it.

The youth no longer had any trace of life. He had a puffy brown hair that complemented well with a pair of beautiful ocean blue eyes, which were now bulging out slightly due to the pain of the suffocation. 

He was dressed in a coarse and simple linen shirt, as well as a pair of linen trousers that were slightly too big for him. His leather shoes were caked with mud, with one of them already on the ground due to his crazed kicking as he struggled from the pain, while the other was still on his foot.

Han Dong had even noticed that there was some kind of black bracelet on the youth’s right hand.

“This youth was probably around 16 to 20 years of age. His hands have no calluses, which at least means that he should not have done any hard labor in his life… the sallow and skinny body, it’s apparent that he suffers from a lack of amino acids from external sources… It’s probably an indication of coming from a poor family background that isn’t able to attain basic food or clothing for survival? Taking such a physical body would definitely mean that there’s going to be quite a bit of trouble in the future, but it is the safest approach.”

Han Dong promptly closed his eyes. After doing a thorough analysis of all the information he had gathered, and considering from the perspective of security and his fundamental interests, he made his final decision.

In this world filled with unknown dangers, the safest and most reliable approach was the best way to go about doing things.

Having been granted with such a precious opportunity like being reborn, and also, Han Dong had spent a total of seven years prior inside that Prison searching for that perfect head. Without knowing how the soldiers in this unfamiliar Holy City would react to a situation that was beyond the ordinary, it was not worth him taking the risk.

“Going by the load value design, there should be some methods to increase this upper limit. By that time, I’ll go about searching for a better body. Right now, I’ll be temporarily borrowing this commoner’s body and save myself the trouble of being exposed to some degree.”

Han Dong climbed up to the corpse.

The instant his head came into contact with the skin of the corpse, just like the situation when he was in the Prison, the general information pertaining to the body appeared in his sea of consciousness.

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Nicholas Valen. Deceased. No presence of disease detected. The quality of this body is lower than that of ordinary people. Do you wish to proceed with fusing with this body?

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Han Dong confirmed the request.

The skin began to bind. The tentacles that grew from Han Dong’s neck stretched out and entered into all the open orifices of the youth’s corpse, as he began his complete assimilation with the body.

His vital signs were started up!

Han Dong removed the rope that was wound around his neck and landed on the muddy ground below with a splat. He had only been one meter off the ground.

Nevertheless, landing from that height was enough to cause Han Dong to lose his balance, nearly collapsing down to the ground.

“Isn’t the quality of this body a bit too low?”

This sort of body was completely incomparable to those that he found in the Prison… Han Dong recalled the first body he had taken over. Though mentally handicapped, the speed and force of the punches he could pull was very satisfying.

In contrast, the punches that this youth was soft and completely without any strength to speak of. It was completely possible for him to end up shattering his entire arm if he were to even hit a slightly hard object.

*Beep beep beep beep…*

All of a sudden, Han Dong could feel the slightest vibration coming from the bracelet he had on his wrist. The sophistically crafted clockwork timer displayed a digital message.

“A one hour countdown timer?”

Intuition told Han Dong that the youth’s suicide might not have been due to his familial background or any personal reasons, but it had something to do with the countdown timer that the black bracelet was showing.