Counterfeit Hero

Fatty imagined it for a moment and exclaimed, "Damn, that harsh?"

The Doctor interjected, "Yeah, last time a guy from our prison who argued with the guards got locked up. By the time he was let out, he had already gone mad. That place, the longer you lie down, the more you want to stand up, but the ceiling is sealed tight, there’s no light or sound around, it’s no wonder people go crazy!"

Fatty shook his head. This is the difference between the Imperial Countries and the Federation. The benefits of democracy shine through even in these places. Although Federation Prisons also have their share of the strong preying on the weak or severe punishments, if there was ever such solitary confinement, it would have been exposed long ago. At that point, no one could resist public opinion. The officials in charge of the judicial department and the prison system would have no choice but to resign.

After chatting for a bit, the few of them grew a bit closer, and the Doctor and others grew bolder. They discovered that Fatty, as long as he wasn’t provoked, wasn’t as terrifying as they had imagined. Maybe having someone like him in the cell could even be beneficial for them! Fatty was probably already famous after that brawl yesterday. Even Andre suffered at his hands. After today, if Andre didn’t try to undermine Fatty, he might try to recruit him. At that point, Rex’s status might not be higher than Fatty’s.

The signal light for work lit up, and a sharp bell rang. With countless sounds of "clang, clang," all the cell doors in the massive dungeon area automatically opened! Inmates walked out of their cells in twos and threes and headed toward the main gate through the corridors. Guards, holding electric batons, stood at the stairs and corridor entrances, coldly staring at the inmates passing by. The guards didn’t carry guns at this time for fear that if an inmate suddenly rioted and snatched a gun, it would create an uncontrollable situation.

Fatty followed Tou’er and others out of the cell. The Doctor and Big Plane were workers in the laundry room, while Tou’er worked in the mechanical workshop, which was the same place as Fatty. Little Lingtong’s job was the easiest; he was responsible for cleaning in the prison administration building and often picked up some information. Hence, everyone called him Little Lingtong. Maybe it was a long-standing habit, but in the prison, any inmate with a nickname usually had their real name forgotten. Fatty walked out of the cell door, watching the dense crowd of inmates moving silently in one direction and thought, "I wonder what nickname I’d get for my sleepwalking habit. Crazy? Sleepwalker? Damn, as long as it’s not ’wet dream’."

Following the crowd, crossing the D2 cell area’s boundary and merging into an even larger crowd, Fatty went downstairs to the ground floor, walked through a hall the size of a football field, and out the main gate of the cell area. The 9 AM sunlight wasn’t too glaring, but Fatty still squinted his eyes. Since he was brought in the night before last, he hadn’t seen sunlight again or thoroughly observed the massive prison’s layout.

Outside the square-shaped prison cells were ten circles of wire fences, each over ten meters high. Some of them were evidently electrified. Around the prison cells stood eight tall towers at the eight corners, each manned by guards armed with live ammunition. Although he couldn’t see it, Fatty knew that in the central circular room of each tower were surveillance systems. Besides the mobile monitors that covered the entire prison, these systems included biological and electronic radars covering a five-kilometer radius around the prison area.

In this prison built in the western suburb of Tanville, a five-kilometer radius around the perimeter was a military restricted zone. Outside this enormous area were several security lines and mobile patrol posts. Anyone entering without permission would be detected and shot on sight. If an energy scanner detected someone carrying an Energy Burst Device entering the area, it would issue a warning. Electronic radars, along with Tanville’s anti-air radar and space vehicle management system, would also issue warnings to any aircraft approaching this area. The Anti-detection Interference Devices around the prison would blind any unauthorized aircraft entering the airspace. Moreover, there was an Armored Group’s worth of mechas, an anti-air missile unit, and a garrison stationed less than forty kilometers from the prison. This prison was, without a doubt, highly secure.