December 4, morning.

Accompanied by prison guards, Lieutenant Colonel Srikova and two of her men walked out of the gates of Prison No. 9.

That was the end of her escort mission.

Little did she know at the time that an uninvited guest had actually walked out of the prison with them and boarded the shuttle on the way back......

After that, the trip was very smooth.

After rendezvous with the other two shuttles outside the wall of the abyss, the lieutenant colonel and the others first drove southeast along the Pripyat River, and quickly entered the Dnieper River valley; When they reached the wider river, they started the "water sprint" mode of the shuttle and went full speed ahead, and in less than half an hour, they arrived at the city of Vishgorod on the north bank of Kyiv.

At the local supply point, they refueled the shuttle and replaced the amphibious module with a flying module, and then flew straight into the air and continued to sail south.

By 12 o'clock in the afternoon, the shuttle had reached the skies over Sevastopol (a port city on the southwestern coast of the Crimean peninsula).

It must be complained about that in the 23rd century of this parallel universe, such a journey of nearly 800 kilometers (only 780 kilometers in a straight line, but the actual driving distance is even farther than that when traveling by water), the military only needs to use three small conventional vehicles to complete it in about two hours; However, the situation of civilian traffic is still at the level of the beginning of the 21st century......

Due to various reasons (mainly population density, traffic pressure and geological problems), there are still many areas of the earth in this era that have not even built subways; The three-dimensional urban transportation network depicted in those science fiction movies...... It's no drama at all; What hovercars, stepped interchanges, capsule cabins, vacuum transmission pipes, portals...... Even the military does not have all of these technologies, because some of them are really poor in practicality, and they are killed in the research and development stage.

Straight to the point......

In the afternoon, when Lilia stepped off the shuttle, she was in the middle of a military facility built underwater.

This place, known as the "Heart of the Black Sea", is one of the largest submarine bases in the inland sea set up by the Federal Army.

Zilin told Lilia from the beginning that infiltrating this base and stealing something was the main condition for Zilin to help him escape from prison; And with Lilia's character, she naturally agreed without much thought - she would rather gamble her life to fight than slowly decay in prison.

Besides, Lilia also thinks it's fair and normal...... To fish a person out of a place like Nine Prisons and instruct her on the use of her abilities, there must be some conditions, and it's strange if there are no conditions.

"First of all, I have to thank you for not trying to escape before the shuttle arrived." Before Lilia could finish observing the situation around her, a message from Zilin had already surfaced on the paper.

"Nonsense, as long as you talk to yourself in your heart, you will hear you, can I escape?" Lilia is also very realistic, not telling the other party to be false, "Say it again...... In the process of escaping, I found out that you can use a certain method to guide the actions of the prison guards, which means...... Once you turn against me, you'll be able to sell me in minutes...... I had no choice but to keep my promise. ”

"It's great that you understand." Zilin didn't beat around the bush either, and replied directly, "Then please don't waste time and move on to the next step." ”

After replying to this, he sent several very precise instructions in a row, directing Lilia's infiltration in the "Heart of the Black Sea".

Lilia had no choice but to follow Zilin's instructions all the way, and after a large circle and a series of chain events, she finally succeeded in coming to a high-security room in this base.

"What exactly do you want me to steal? Launch key for nuclear weapons? Thinking back to the various guards she had seen along the way, Lilia couldn't help but feel suspicious.

"Pretty much." Unexpectedly, Zilin actually replied, "I did want you to find a 'key', and that 'key' is indeed used to unlock some dangerous thing. ”

As he was able to do so, Lilia had reached the center of the room; Here, there is a metal stand, and above the stand is a square glass cover, and inside the cover is something - a pocket watch that has stopped moving.

"The 'key' you are talking about, is this pocket watch?" Lilia looked at the watch for a few seconds and asked in her mind.

"Its name is 'Moment of the Underworld.'" Zilin replied, "Now, please read the rest carefully—

"There is undoubtedly a reason why the room you are in is only deployed with a large number of vigilant forces outside, but there is not even a person or a monitoring probe inside.

"The 'Moment of the Underworld' is not a mere 'object', it is sentient, and it exerts some kind of influence on those who 'observe it'...... Whether the person is looking at it through the naked eye or a surveillance probe.

"However, you are an exception, as long as you allow yourself to be in a state of 'nothing', you are immune to this effect."

At this point in his writing, Lilia suddenly interrupted in her heart: "The surname, you tell the truth...... The cause and effect of my imprisonment in Nine Prisons...... Isn't it all designed by you? ”

Zilin was silent for a few seconds, and replied: "Since you have seen through it, then I will no longer hide it." That's right, that night, from the moment you were accosted, I controlled the whole thing behind the scenes, and everything that happened after that was also a foreshadowing to push you into the Nine Prisons. ”

"So......" Lilia said in her heart, "I've been busy for a long time, just to regain the freedom that I lost because of you. ”

"Providing 'chips' for the transaction between us is only one of the purposes for which I sent you to the Nine Prisons." Zilin continued, "Second, it is to familiarize you with the route to and from the Nine Prisons, as well as some situations in the prison; And three more ......"

"Needless to say, I've already guessed ......," Lilia said to herself, "all the 'factors' that made me 'here at this moment' are not coincidences—the prisoner who was brought to prison this morning, the timing of her escort, the number of escort personnel, the destination of the shuttle after her return...... All these threads that weave together the 'ropes' of events are also under your control. ”

"You...... It's a lot smarter than I expected. Zilin's answer was equivalent to acquiescing to the other party's statement.

"Hmph, it's over." Lilia sneered and said, "It's only because in this half a day, I witnessed your method of 'manipulating people' and then 'manipulating things', so I figured out a lot of things......"

She paused, and then said, "For example, I just practiced my ability to a level that can steadily eliminate my sense of existence, and it has only been less than three days before I have this 'opportunity to be lost, and the time will never come' prison escape operation is now ...... It's definitely something you set up for the day.

"For example, this thing in front of me called 'Moment of the Underworld' can only be stolen by me, can it be a coincidence? How the hell did you find me? How do you know that there is such a capable person as me in the Nine Prisons? How did I know about abilities that I didn't even know about?

"With a little scrutiny, you can come to an obvious conclusion - I was calculated by you from the beginning."

Zilin saw what Lilia said in her heart, chuckled, and continued her previous sentence, and said in her heart: "But, why is a smart person like you so impulsive when he encounters unexpected events? If you had handled it in a calmer way that night, I might not have framed you in prison so smoothly. ”

"Oh, I'm sorry to disappoint you." Lilia replied with a cold face, "But don't worry, when we meet, I will definitely try to control my emotions." ”

That said, but her real thoughts were clearly ...... As long as they met, they would unload a thousand pieces of Zilin and take them to paste the wall.

"Don't worry, I'll definitely let you see me, so you don't have to be in such a hurry." Zilin replied, "Let's talk about the situation in front of us...... he brought the conversation back to business, "Although there are no people in this room and no probes, this shelf is a ...... with a pressure sensing device"

"Is it the kind of thing that rings when I pick it up?" Lilia continued, "That's right, as soon as the alarm bell rings, I'll take advantage of the chaos, and then go to the hangar to get a small device that can return to the surface, and I can escape." ”

There was nothing wrong with her assumption, as it wasn't a labyrinth of Nine Prisons (the military base was also large, but there were signs and maps everywhere), and it wasn't like the Nine Prisons, which would activate a bunch of "inward" defensive weapons with an alarm, and automatically block almost all security entrances and exits based on the alert level...... Therefore, it is not very difficult to slip away from the chaos in the heart of the Black Sea by relying on the ability of "nothing".

It's just that......

"It's a pity." Zilin's reply immediately poured a basin of cold water on Lilia, "This pressure-sensing device will not only trigger an alarm, but also activate a set of special air pumps hidden in the walls, these pumps can drain the air in this room in twelve seconds, and then your blood vessels and eyeballs will ......"

“…… It's going to blow out, okay, okay, I know, tell me what you have in mind. Lilia finished picking up the part that Zilin hadn't read out yet, and asked.

"You take off your clothes first." Zilin replied.

"Huh?" When Lilia said "ha", she instinctively looked around, "What are you doing?" Can you see me? ”

"I can see you...... Did you take it off? Zilin teased (joked).

"That depends...... If you have enough banknotes, I'll give you a knee dance." After all, she is a pioneer of hardcore feminism, and she has not been to a strip club, and she is still there to consume......

Zilin was a little overwhelmed: "OKOK, we can talk about this when we meet." Again, he struggled to pull the subject back, "Let's talk about clothes...... I asked you to take as many pieces of clothing as you could, and in addition to protecting yourself from the cold in the snow, another purpose is to use it here. ”

"I knew you kid wasn't so kind to care about my well-being." Lilia answered as she took off her coat.

"Yes, I'm not that kind." Zilin didn't plan to continue to raise the bar with her, so as not to fall into an endless rhythm, "Now, please take off four pieces of clothing and come down." ”

Since Lilia had taken all of the guard's civilian clothes, she had already put several woolen sweaters, three pairs of pants, and two coats, one thin and one thick, over her prison uniform...... This made her whole body wrapped like a ball; Not to mention taking off four pieces at this time, if you count the pants, she can take off all eight.

"Alright." Lilia reported in her mind after taking off her two coats and two wool sweaters.

"Hmm." Zilin groaned and said, "As a woman, you should have noticed a long time ago that all the clothes of that prison guard, inside and out, are all of the same brand. ”

"What do you mean? What do you mean by 'as a woman I should have noticed a long time ago'? Can't a woman not know what brand of clothes she is wearing? Lilia was already quite popular, and Zilin's last sentence touched her scales.

"Did you notice?" Zilin asked.

"Cut...... It has nothing to do with gender, it's because I'm an observant person...... Noted. Lilia replied.

"Okay ~ then...... As a very observant person, you should have also noticed that each piece of clothing of this brand has an oval, slightly convex LOGO; The surface of the logo is made of plastic, and the inside is mixed with metal to add weight and texture...... "Zilin said halfway through.

Lilia understood again: "The weight of the four logos is equal to the weight of the pocket watch in front of me?" ”

Zilin knew what he meant, so he said directly: "Please use the knife you just got from the soldiers to cut them off their clothes along the edges of those LOGO cards...... Try to be as precise as possible, although the sensor device also allows for error, but too much fabric will still ......"

"Got it, you wait." Lilia replied impatiently and began to operate.

In less than ten minutes, she successfully removed the four logos and held them in her hands.

"Don't forget to erase the fingerprints on the LOGO first, as well as ...... After the exchange, you'll have to put the four pieces back on, and you can't leave them on site. Before implementing that last step, Zilin did not forget to remind her of these details.

"I'm wondering...... "isn't it wiser to ignore your orders and turn around and run away than this kind of life-threatening operation?" ”

"You don't have to think about it, I can tell you for sure that the latter has a higher success rate." Zilin replied, "Anyway, we've already made it clear now, so I might as well say it directly...... If you give up and turn and run away, I will let you go; Because exposing your whereabouts in such a place will kill you on the spot, and I ...... You need to stay alive. ”

"Then, when I escape, you will design me again, go around in circles, coerce and lure...... Get me back here and do it again...... Right? Lilia asked.

"Yes." Zilin was not ambiguous, and immediately admitted it.

In the next second, Lilia scolded "Fake" in her heart, and then, she obediently opened the glass cover in front of her, grabbed the four logos cut from her clothes with her right hand, and gently clamped the pocket watch with her left hand with two fingers.

Pump, release...... Her exchange took less than 0.5 seconds, and the result was ......