Chapter 1365: 123. Not Being Human

"......Huh?"

At that moment, Huffer even thought that what he'd heard wasn't human language.

Otherwise, why could he understand every single sound, yet once they were put together, he couldn't understand them at all?

What did he mean, the lock here hadn't even let him enjoy himself?

As a prison used by the Origin Tower to hold serious criminals, every component here was naturally crafted with meticulous care, and the locks were no exception.

As far as Huffer himself knew, the locks here were made using the most sophisticated alchemical techniques. Within their seemingly compact construction were more than a hundred compound interconnected alchemical matrices!

If the proper mana-frequency authorization wasn't verified, and even one of those hundred-plus compound interconnected alchemical matrices was touched during the process of opening the lock, the matrices would immediately connect with the entire Divine Sigh and crush the offender beneath unimaginable power!

When that happened, even a genuine Truth-Rank Grand Mage could potentially be directly suppressed and crushed to pieces!

Yet such an intricate and sophisticated design had been casually cracked by the man in front of him? As though, to him, it were nothing more than some flimsy door that could be kicked open at will, allowing him to come and go whenever he pleased?

Even easier than those ** in the red-light district?

What kind of joke was this!"

Even ** would play hard to get!

"Although this may be rather devastating for you, as far as I'm concerned, yes, I can come in whenever I want and leave whenever I want."

Perhaps to make Huffer give up even more thoroughly, Muen deliberately demonstrated it again.

He walked out of the cell, closed the door, and locked it.

Then he turned around and took out that cute hairpin......Less than three seconds.

The lock that Huffer had studied for several months without gaining even the slightest clue was picked just like that.

At that instant, Huffer distinctly felt his little brain shrink.

No......

Stupid brain, hurry up and grow back!

Now isn't the time to shrink!

Huffer's expression filled with terror.

Because after finishing his demonstration, Muen was already slowly walking toward him, a chilling smile hanging at the corner of his mouth.

"My lord, I was wrong." Huffer dropped directly to his knees.

Being mentally tormented by that sound for several months did have one advantage——no matter how incomprehensible something was, he could adapt to it extremely quickly.

"Only begging for mercy now? Isn't it a little late?"

Muen said:

"The special demonstration is over. Next, it's time for me to keep my word and 'repay you tenfold.'"

"M-My lord, haven't you made a mistake?"

Huffer wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go.

He could only shrink into the corner, trembling as he forced out a smile uglier than crying:

"I never actually did anything to you. Zero multiplied by ten is still zero, isn't it? So what is there to repay?"

"Is that so?"

Muen deliberately looked puzzled. "But I clearly remember that just now, you gave me something small, round, cute......"

As he spoke, Muen even gestured with both hands.

Yet the supposedly small, round, cute thing he was describing became thick and huge through his gestures.

Huffer's face grew even paler, his eyes filled with despair.

Something that big——how could he possibly withstand it?

"N-No......Don't......I can't take it......Stop......"

"Don't be afraid. Mine may be very big, but you only need to endure it for a moment......I believe you can do it!"

The corner of Muen's mouth curled into a wicked smile as he suddenly stepped toward Huffer, who was cowering in the corner.

"Ah——"

The instant those hands tightly gripped the icy bars, a miserable scream echoed throughout the prison.

Within the darkness, countless prisoners shrank their necks. Whether they had been wailing or cursing, every last one of them swallowed the sounds back down.

The one tonight......was especially insane.

......

......

After the "tenfold repayment" ended, Huffer was already sprawled in the corner like a dead dog.

Muen, meanwhile, still looked somewhat unsatisfied as he took out paper and a pen and rapidly began writing and drawing.

"The special cell holding Arman is directly above this place. You can reach it by taking the stairs at the end."

"Because of Divine Sigh, the suppression imposed on mages here is extremely powerful. Combined with the fear that possible Pollution from Arman might spread, no one except authorized personnel is allowed anywhere near this entire prison."

"There are no jailers or guards in this prison. Prisoners' daily necessities, such as food and water, are delivered by alchemical puppets three times a day."

"There may be no guards, but in their place are several hundred alarm magic arrays. Every single one is connected to Divine Sigh, and once triggered, the intruder will immediately be suppressed!"

"Thirteen alarm magic arrays have currently been identified. The rest are unknown. According to calculations, as long as half of them can be identified, there is a chance of analyzing a safe route......"

After recording this much, Muen raised an eyebrow and looked at Huffer beside him in surprise:

"I didn't expect that not only were you secretly planning to escape, you've already developed your escape plan this far? You've only been in here for a few months, yet you've already figured out the situation on every side this thoroughly?"

"You're too kind, too kind......"

Huffer shuddered, his twitching face barely managing to squeeze out a bitter smile. "Some things can be discovered as long as you observe carefully. But in a place like this, the things that leave no clues to discover are the truly troublesome ones."

For example, the cell lock.

Of course, that thing's value now wasn't even as high as his crotch.

Thinking of this, the glance Huffer secretly cast toward Muen carried a little more fear.

Who exactly was this man?

Why had he never heard of such a person in the Tower before?

Most importantly, he claimed to be a mage, yet up until now, not a single method he'd used......looked anything like something a mage would use!

He......

"Hm?"

"Sorry, sorry!"

Huffer immediately shrank back into the corner, no longer daring to entertain any thoughts of probing further.

"I'm going to take care of something next, but I can't leave any openings behind."

Muen glanced at him from the corner of his eye. "You know what to do?"

"I know, I know......I'm insane, I'm insane, I'm insane!"

Huffer muttered to himself, suddenly dropped onto all fours, and then violently used his head to assault the floor.

The poor floor trembled helplessly beneath the assault of his skull. Before long, after leaving the ground covered in a miserable mess of blood, Huffer, feeling that his little brain had finally grown back, contentedly lost consciousness altogether.

"Mm."

Muen nodded in satisfaction as well. "Not bad. That's very insane."

After resolving the problem with Huffer and obtaining the relevant intelligence, Muen left Huffer's cell, thoroughly erased every trace he'd left behind along the way, and thoughtfully locked the door again for him.

Only after finishing all that did he stand outside the cell and gaze down the dark, profound corridor.

As a place used to imprison serious criminals, it naturally had no need for illumination, but Muen still keenly detected the wisps of mana concealed within the darkness.

These were probably the alarm magic arrays Huffer had mentioned.

There were more than three hundred such alarm magic arrays packed into this narrow passage, arranged even more densely than landmines in a minefield. Once someone entered this place, there was simply no possibility of avoiding all of them.

Moreover, after calculating it himself, Muen discovered that Huffer's belief that identifying half of them would allow him to analyze a safe route was completely wrong.

The Grand Mages of the Origin Tower couldn't possibly be stupid enough to leave such an obvious weakness.

To pass through this place successfully, one would probably have to identify every single alarm array and make absolutely certain not to touch any of them.

That supposed halfway point......was itself just another trap.

With layer upon layer of mechanisms intertwined like this, combined with the suppression overhead, escaping from this place was an impossible task for anyone.

"But unfortunately......"

The corner of Muen's mouth curled upward:

"No matter how exquisite the arrangement, that's only true for 'humans.'"

The Grand Mages of the Origin Tower had calculated everything and constructed such an exquisitely designed prison, but in the end, there was still one thing they'd failed to account for.

"In this world, there are always some people......who don't act human!"

Muen raised his hand and silently recited within his heart.

And so, a Divine Kingdom on Earth......descended with a thunderous crash!