Chapter 10: Forest Prison (9) Senluo and the Resistance Army…

After finishing their washing up, everyone lined up to return to their cells. Yu Huan asked Gou Tu:

You wanted me to kill Zhang Wanjun, so you didn’t tell me about the snake? Where did Zhang Wanjun offend you, or rather, offend Yu Buwan?

Also, why take such a roundabout approach? If you want someone dead, you could just do it yourselves. Unless… Zhang Wanjun has backing from another faction, one that even the Yu Clan has to be cautious of.

Yu Huan quickly flipped through the files on the Zhang Wanjun sisters. They were a pair of famous thieves who had conflicts with multiple corporations. Three years ago, they fell into the hands of the Yu Clan, making Wei An’s security system famous.

She wove the information about multiple corporations into a network and said: Wen Ying Group? All the corporations they targeted were competitors of the Wen family. And since the Zhang Wanjun sisters were captured three years ago, two collateral members of the Wen family have disappeared from the news. Wen and Zhang – that pseudonym is quite fitting.

Gou Tu didn’t respond.

Yu Huan continued on her own: But even if they offended the Yu Corporation, they’ve been in prison for three years. Yu Buwan wouldn’t patiently wait three years until I showed up to scheme her death. Is there another reason?

Gou Tu: You should focus on your work.

Yu Huan knew this was a warning and said: I’m doing this for the mission. I believe Ms. Buwan won’t mind.

After all, someone as useful as her was hard for Yu Buwan to find.

An hour earlier, at Yu Huan’s request, Yu Buwan had a conversation with her.

Facing Yu Buwan’s question mark, Yu Huan replied: Whatever Fan Gui can do, I can do too. I’m inside among the prisoners, which is more convenient. Besides, I don’t have the unnecessary emotions that Fan Gui has for the people here.

Fan Gui’s feelings for Yu Huan had already affected how she treated her.

Yu Huan guessed that Yu Buwan’s intervention to make Fan Gui release her likely meant Yu Buwan had issues with Fan Gui.

Yu Buwan replied: If you fail, you’ll die here.

Yu Huan was used to game characters here casually talking about death and killing, and said: Okay. Who is the person you’re looking for?

Matching the information mentioned by Wu Zhi, Yu Buwan was searching for the Rebel Leader.

Afterwards, Yu Buwan granted Yu Huan permissions and had Gou Tu coordinate with her actions.

Yu Huan knew that Yu Buwan giving her permissions wasn’t because she thought Yu Huan would obediently help find the person, but because she wanted to use her as bait to trace clues to find the Rebel Leader.

Currently, the only known Resistance Army member in Forest Prison was her neighbor Yao Zhong, and the usually silent, withdrawn Yao Zhong had proactively helped Yu Huan earlier.

Yu Buwan didn’t think Yao Zhong was simply being kind.

Neither did Yu Huan.

Returning to her cell, it was time to sleep.

All lights were turned off, plunging the space into complete darkness.

Yu Huan sat on her bed, reviewing all the information.

She had gone through too much plot in these two days, with too much information flashing by. Factions and characters kept appearing one after another. She needed to sort out the characters’ goals and positions to more accurately find potential cooperative companions.

The night before the first day, meaning the night before yesterday, June 30th.

Yu Huan participated in Senluo’s self-awareness awakening experiment, resulting in bloodstains on her clothes.

Both Senluo and Wei An knew about this incident, and they were both observing Yu Huan, wanting to see the subsequent effects of the experiment.

Day One, Yesterday, Yu Huan awoke in the Rainbow Ruins.

Before lunch, she was sent to the Forest Prison on multiple charges: unauthorized absence from work, illegal flying, and assaulting peace officers.

During lunch, Yu Huan was placed in solitary confinement for counter-attacking Zhang Qianjin, increasing her sentence to fifty years.

In the afternoon, Wei An, believing Yu Huan intended to break free from his control, sent Fan Gui to visit her in prison. While lifting Yu Huan’s solitary confinement, Fan Gui arranged for more people to attack her, pressuring her to return to Wei An.

However, Yu Huan’s proactive assault on Shen Qin—the leader of Senluo, who had been observing from the sidelines—led Wei An to conclude that Yu Huan was trying to force a bidding war between Wei An and Senluo.

Recalling her conversation with Fan Gui in the solitary confinement cell, Yu Huan remembered the vibration frequency she had sensed from the wall.

She looked up the most widely known cipher table of the Rainbow Ruins online and translated the vibration frequency into a series of letters.

After consulting Gou Tu, Yu Huan deciphered the message:

Your people? Yes. Operation suspended.

Aside from Yu Huan, two other groups had been in solitary confinement at the time: members of Senluo retaliating against Yu Huan, and assassins from Spider Web.

This must have been their communication.

Yu Huan suddenly understood—no wonder the Spider Web assassins had stopped attacking her afterward.

She had assumed they were either intimidated, biding their time, or that Fan Gui had called off whatever kill order or mission was in place.

It turned out Spider Web had learned from Senluo that she was connected to them.

Spider Web wanted no part in the conflict between Senluo and Wei An—or perhaps they were waiting for Wei An to offer a higher price.

Having clarified this, Yu Huan returned to her analysis.

While confined with a group of inmates, Fan Gui had approached Yu Huan, offering information and further infiltrating her Chip to chat with her.

At the time, Fan Gui had acted entirely like a “good friend” on Yu Huan’s side.

But considering how he later extracted her memories and tried to interrogate her about her origins, Fan Gui was clearly acting under Yu Buwan’s orders—or on his own initiative—to test whether Yu Huan still retained her memories.

If Fan Gui truly had Yu Huan’s best interests at heart, it was unlikely he would have extracted her memories immediately after such a conversation.

Yu Huan pondered Fan Gui’s role and position.

Fan Gui was a significant character in the game—not only because, like the player’s character, he was a double agent caught between Wei An and Senluo, but also because of his deep connection to the player’s character. This meant Fan Gui would pay close attention to the player and was highly likely to cause trouble.

Realizing this, Yu Huan bypassed Fan Gui and contacted Yu Buwan, the one pulling his strings.

Yu Buwan had no interest in whether Yu Huan was real or fake; she only cared about her own goals. As long as Yu Huan demonstrated her usefulness, Yu Buwan was willing to make use of her.

There weren’t many usable people in the Forest Prison, and even fewer with Yu Huan’s unique identity and position.

With Fan Gui’s superior now backing her, Fan Gui was temporarily unable to act against Yu Huan. Still, she needed to figure out how to deal with him—a ticking time bomb.

For now, without a good solution, Yu Huan set the issue aside.

Thinking was mentally draining, so Yu Huan paused her reflections. She injected the snake with the serum Wu Zhi had provided and placed it into the specialized bag for carrying Weiya Snakes.

After tying the bag shut, Yu Huan turned her thoughts to the most critical matter at hand: the Resistance Army.

The Resistance Army’s goal aligned with her mission after escaping the Forest Prison—to overthrow the Federal Government.

This was likely prepared by the game developers as a faction players could cooperate with if they chose this mission path.

Yao Zhong was the key figure who initiated this line of cooperation.

As the only known member of the Resistance Army in Forest Prison, Yao Zhong had always kept to herself. Apart from eating, sleeping, and exercising, she remained silent, neither particularly helpful nor holding any grudges against the Research Institute.

Therefore, when Yao Zhong actively joined the conversation between Yu Huan and Wu Zhi, Gou Tu’s behavior detection system immediately flagged this anomaly.

Yao Zhong seemed to treat Yu Huan differently.

But why?

Yu Huan contemplated the three sentences Yao Zhong had spoken.

The first was during soil work, when Yao Zhong replied to Yu Huan that digging soil was meant to keep prisoners occupied and that contact with nature was beneficial for them.

The second sentence was directed at Wu Zhi—she slapped away his outstretched hand and told the Research Institute to get lost.

The third was after the evening gathering, when Yao Zhong responded to Yu Huan’s joking remark about throwing a knife.

Records showed that Yao Zhong’s favorite task was soil work, so her first reply might have been about a topic she was interested in. But the second time, it was clearly an act of helping Yu Huan.

If forced to analyze the first two instances, one could argue Yao Zhong was hinting that Senluo was preferable to the Research Institute.

The third time, however, was an outright gesture of goodwill.

When Wu Zhi tried to discuss the Resistance Army’s Boss with Yao Zhong, she hadn’t uttered a word. Yet Yu Huan merely cracked a casual joke, and Yao Zhong actually responded.

Why would a Resistance Army member show Yu Huan special treatment?

Yu Huan’s first thought was that she might have a hidden identity as a Resistance Army member.

But Senluo had taken Yu Huan from the Research Institute, and she was already a double agent caught between Wei An and Senluo. As an Android, she also faced the risk of memory extraction—would the Resistance Army go to such lengths to recruit her?

There was another possibility. Considering Yao Zhong’s preference for nature in her first statement, perhaps the Resistance Army and Senluo had some covert dealings, prompting Yao Zhong to lend Yu Huan a hand.

But that seemed highly unlikely.

As a Resistance Army member, Yao Zhong’s identity was sensitive and under close scrutiny. If she truly had ties with Senluo, ignoring Yu Huan would have been the more helpful approach, reducing unnecessary attention.

While lost in thought, Yu Huan felt the cloth bag in her hand twitch.

The snake had awakened.

Yu Huan gripped Weiya Snake’s head through the bag and said, Can you not bite me?

Weiya Snake fell silent for a moment, then began thrashing wildly.

It stretched its body, twisting and turning in attempts to bite Yu Huan, but the cloth bag prevented it from reaching her.

Her hand growing numb from the snake’s headbutting, Yu Huan felt a headache coming on. If you keep this up, I’ll have no choice but to kill you or toss you out for someone else to kill. I don’t want to do that.

When I spoke to you earlier, you paused—you can understand me, right? Can’t we coexist peacefully? You were wrongfully brought here, and I don’t belong here either.

Conveniently ignoring the fact that she had entered voluntarily, Yu Huan appealed to reason and emotion: How about I take you with me when I get out?

Weiya Snake paused, as if pondering for two seconds, then shortened its body. Yu Huan felt the snake nod under her hand.

I’m going to open the bag now. Don’t bite me, okay? This is the first step toward building a friendly relationship.

Slowly, Yu Huan untied the bag, revealing a coiled snake in the darkness.

Her Android night vision allowed her to see clearly in the dark, and she watched the snake’s every move intently.

The snake flicked its tongue, glanced around, slithered off the bed, and retreated to a corner.

Yu Huan breathed a sigh of relief.

After obtaining the potion from Wu Zhi, she was certain the snake must have other plotlines to unfold and could likely be saved for cooperation, though nothing could be confirmed until the very end.

Gou Tu suddenly popped up: I thought you were quite confident.

Yu Huan replied: I thought you were very busy.

Gou Tu: I can multitask a hundred things at once.

Yu Huan directly assigned it a task: Then investigate whether Senluo has any connection with the Resistance Army.

Data instantly popped up.

Gou Tu summarized briefly: Senluo has had some intersections with the Resistance Army, but it’s impossible to locate the Resistance Army based on these intersections.

Yu Huan offered no opinion, leaning against the wall as she browsed through the materials.

When Shen Qin was captured, all the base’s data fell into the hands of the federal government, including the correspondence between Senluo and the Resistance Army.

Author’s note:

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