The days in the cell bled together like ink in water, each one indistinguishable from the last.

Ishiki learned the mechanics of the work here. It was done systematically, without leaving any space for mistakes.

He woke up to sound of distant screaming or clatter of chains echoing through the stone corridors. Then wait in the darkness, illuminated only by a single torch which went out quite often.

He was interrogated twice a day... once in the morning and then in evening... of course he didn't knew the exact timings, those were just speculations.

Today was his third day in the underground prison and there were quite a few things that he had found out. Among them the most important was that There were more levels to this prison.

There were two more levels beneath him... buried deep into the ground.

The first level, where he currently was... is 100 meters below Aethelburg. So the lowest level must be 300 meters below ground. Another thing he noticed as that the place was built below some kind of a weird place.

Even during the day there were only a few people passing from here above ground... it was as if it was an isolated place from the rest of the city... built to maintain proper secrecy.

'Screw that... Even after living here for almost 1 and a half year... I still didn't know such a place existed.' It was not that simple either, he couldn't blame himself for it.

This place was definitely in the secondary ring. Ishiki's max perception could reach up to 500 meters around him in form of a sphere so he can see different prospects in his mind painted in grey, black and white.

From what he saw, he made a general layout of the whole prison.

It was a sprawling network of cells carved into the bedrock beneath the Secondary Ring. His cell was one of dozens lining a central corridor that stretched in both directions, but in the left it ended around 200 meters from his cell... and on the right, it stretched far beyond his ability to see.

The ceiling was lower than he had initially thought—it was barely seven feet in most places, with support beams of reinforced stone at regular intervals to prevent collapse.

The cells themselves were small, maybe eight feet by six, with iron bars set into stone frames. There were no windows and ventilation was from large pipes ingrained in the ground about every 100 meter,

This meant that the air was stale, heavy with the smell of unwashed bodies and human waste.

There was single bathroom which they were allowed to visit only twice a day.

The place was built like a maze... even if someone was to run, they would eventually get lost somewhere until you know the exact exit. Because from what Ishiki noticed in the movements above ground, there was only a single exit to this place.

The guards moved in shifts... every eight hours a new pair would come and check the cells.

'Could I escape?' he wondered, tracing potential routes in his mind. His skill certainly gave him huge advantages—invisibility, enhanced speed, the ability to slip through without being noticed.

But the corridors were a maze, and he had no idea which direction led to the surface. One wrong turn and he'd be lost in the dark.

He sighed... It was not time yet. First he needed to learn how the hell did he even come here.

He heard as footsteps approached, letting the world return to normal color and sound. The gruel arrived at noon, delivered by a guard who barely looked at them.

Ishiki forced himself to eat, gagging down the grey sludge that might have been oats or might have been something far less appetizing.

Beside him, Carver ate slowly and without wait... a result of long practice.

"You're quiet today," Carver observed, scraping his bowl clean.

"I am thinking something," Ishiki replied.

"About?"

"For my ways out."

Carver snorted. "Already planning an escape? You've been here three days, kid. Give it time. The walls grow on you and eventually, you stop thinking about leaving and start thinking about surviving."

"I'm not planning to be here long enough for that." Ishiki grimaced.

He said it without much thought... and indeed he was not planning to be here forever. He had somethings to find out.

And as he thought about them... He remembered something else too.

His mom... she would be looking for him right now, she would be so much worried.

Or would she be?

Ishiki shook his head violently at the sudden dark thought. And then he opened the Scenario details page.

========================

⌜Scenario Details⌟

Total Participants - 884

Objective - Kill the Emperor of Aethelburg

Rewards - 40,000 Data Fragments, 100,000 NC, New Skill Card.

========================

'Its below 900 now...' Ishiki gritted his teeth... it was 906 the last time he checked and it was just 4 days ago.

So, 12 more players died in just 4 days. What the hell was even happening out there?

He wanted to know the truth about what was happening here in Aethelburg so badly... and now he was trapped here, for no reason too. How worse could his luck get.

Time passed slowly. With nothing to do... he mostly stared at the admin chat and closed it. There was some beauty to the rage baiting those guys did.

Then he talked to his cell mate, Carver. Trying to gain information out of him.

"So," Carver suddenly asked between one such conversation. "You said you were here for murder. You gonna tell me the real story, or do I have to guess?"

"There's nothing to tell," Ishiki replied, his voice flat. "I didn't do it."

"Neither did I, remember? But we're both here, eating the same slop, breathing the same stale air, waiting for the same inevitable end." Carver leaned forward, elbows on his knees, eyes glinting in the dim torchlight. "Come on, kid. We've got nothing but time. Might as well tell me what were you really doing in the merchant district?"

Ishiki hesitated. Trust was a currency he couldn't afford to spend carelessly. But Carver was a prisoner, same as him. And if the man was telling the truth about being framed, he might be the closest thing to an ally Ishiki would find in this pit.

"Well," Ishiki said slowly. "I saw a carriage. It was expensive-looking, drawn by four people. It had crates strapped to the back, marked as 'perishable goods.' But when the carriage hit a bump, one of the crates moved from the inside."

Carver's expression darkened, shadows pooling in the hollows of his gaunt face. "And you followed it."

"Yeah. I thought... I don't know what I thought. That I could help, maybe. Or at least see where it was going." Ishiki ran a hand through his matted hair, frustration bubbling up. "I followed it to a warehouse. And then someone else showed up. That cloaked bastard freed the kids and made them escape into the sewers. But the merchants' guards saw me on a rooftop and thought I was involved."

"Were you?"

"No. I was just watching." Ishiki almost sapped.

Carver was silent for a long moment, staring at the wall as if he could see through it to some distant, better place. "The Velvet Market," he finally said, his voice barely above a whisper.

"What?"

"That's where those kids were going. The Velvet Market. It's an... establishment, mostly of high-end brothel for the nobles. Caters to people with very specific, very illegal tastes." Carver's voice was flat, emotionless, the tone of a man reciting facts he wished he didn't know.

"They need a steady supply of 'goods,' and orphans are easy to acquire. No family to ask questions. No one to report them missing. Just empty beds in overcrowded shelters that no one checks."

Ishiki's stomach turned, the gruel suddenly threatening to come back up. "And the guards don't stop it?"

"The guards are paid not to see it," Carver replied. "Generously. The customers include Council members, guild executives, even some Army officers. You don't shut down a business when it's servicing the people who write your paychecks."

"That's..." Ishiki struggled to find words adequate to the horror. "That's insane."

"That's the Secondary Ring." Carver leaned back against the wall, his chains clinking softly. "Everything's for sale here, kid. Food, shelter, justice, innocence. You just need the right amount of Coins and a willingness to not ask questions."

Before Ishiki could respond, a voice called out from outside his cell. The two soldiers were here as usual for his evening interrogation.

"Come on out, 447... Today, there is someone who wants to meet you."

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