5: Dimension Messenger

"Go back?" Chen Feng asked himself mockingly in his heart.

Outside the door, the heavy, rhythmic thud of metal boots from the night patrol Guard Team was approaching from a distance, clearly audible.

"Going back is walking straight into a trap."

He turned around without hesitation, forcing his lead-heavy legs toward the darker end of the corridor, away from the dormitory.

"System, does the presence of surveillance at the receiving location affect the success rate of the transaction?" he asked silently, though he knew the system wouldn't answer such strategic questions.

[Warning: Cross-dimensional item transmission will trigger slight spatial energy fluctuations. Please select an absolutely secluded location to receive it within 30 minutes. Countdown starting: 29:58...]

The cold countdown hung over his head like the Sword of Damocles.

Every step Chen Feng took felt like treading on cotton, and his brain pulsed with darkness due to lack of oxygen. A strong will to survive drove him forward, while his body, on the verge of collapse, let out one powerless wail after another.

"Hold on..." he told himself; this had become almost his only conversation partner at this moment. "Just one last step."

He saw an abandoned tool room ahead and felt a surge of joy, staggering toward it. The door was locked, but it didn't seem very sturdy.

Just as he was about to use force, a suppressed, angry curse came from inside.

"Who's out there?" a raspy voice growled.

Chen Feng froze and stopped his movements.

"Get lost!" The voice inside was full of venom. "If you want to die, don't fucking drag me down with you! Get away!"

Chen Feng's heart sank. He understood that inside was a poor soul just like him, searching for a sliver of breathing room in the darkness.

"I just... wanted to find a place," he said weakly toward the crack in the door.

"Go find a place in the toilet!" the voice inside interrupted rudely. "Don't bother me! If you don't get lost, I'll call the Guards!"

Chen Feng backed away in silence. He didn't have the strength to argue, much less the time.

The toilet... He glanced at that filthy corner at the end of the corridor, his stomach churning.

That was an absolute blind spot for the entire mining area's surveillance, but it was also the most humiliating and foul-smelling place.

"No other choice," he told himself.

He slipped into the public toilet, which was thick with the pungent smell of ammonia and excrement. The light here was even dimmer than in the corridor, and the sticky floor made him feel like he was being glued down with every step.

[Countdown: 05:12...]

"Almost there, just almost there..." Chen Feng huddled in a stall, his back pressed tight against the cold, filthy wall, listening tensely to the sounds outside.

Just then, another Mine Slave walked in, grumbling and cursing.

"Damn it, this hellhole..." the man muttered as he entered the stall next to Chen Feng's. "Not even a place to sleep."

Chen Feng held his breath.

"Shh..." Using all his strength, he squeezed a syllable through his teeth.

"Who's there?" the Mine Slave asked warily.

"Keep quiet," Chen Feng whispered. "The patrol is coming."

The man indeed quieted down, leaving only the sound of two people's heavy breathing in the stalls.

[Countdown: 00:03...]

[00:02...]

[00:01...]

"It's here." Chen Feng's heart leaped into his throat.

A nearly imperceptible distortion appeared in the air before him, like a water surface ripples when a stone is thrown, spreading an invisible wave.

A fist-sized package, tightly wrapped in a silver-gray metal film, appeared out of thin air and fell silently into his already outstretched palm.

A chill remaining from the high-dimensional space transmission instantly spread from his palm to his entire body.

Success!

Just as he gripped the package tight, a violent, heart-wrenching sound of vomiting suddenly erupted from the neighboring stall!

"Blegh—urgh..."

"What's wrong with you?" Chen Feng asked urgently in a low voice.

He was answered by the sound of a heavy object crashing to the floor. The Mine Slave seemed to have suffered a sudden acute illness; the loud noise sounded exceptionally piercing in the silent night.

"Hey! Hey!" Chen Feng called out several times, but there was no further response.

He cursed inwardly, knowing this commotion would definitely attract the Guards.

"No time!"

He no longer hesitated and quickly tore open the package.

A syringe filled with a clear, light green liquid and three energy blocks, deep as obsidian with what looked like billions of stars swirling inside, lay quietly in the package.

This was his life!

He quickly stuffed the three energy blocks into the inner pocket of his clothes, then carefully hid the life-saving syringe on the other side.

Having done all this, he immediately pushed open the stall door.

Just as he stepped out of the toilet, he ran straight into two Guards who had come to investigate the noise. A cold searchlight beam instantly locked onto him.

"Halt!" the leading Guard barked sternly. "734? What are you doing here?"

"Reporting, sir," Chen Feng said with his head lowered, making his voice sound sickly and weak. "My stomach... I came to the toilet."

"Unwell?" The other Guard poked his chest with the tip of an electric baton, his gaze contemptuous. "I think you're just trying to slack off! What's going on in the toilet? What was that noise?"

At that moment, from a corner where waste was piled not far away, a thin figure poked his head out—it was the old Mine Slave, Old Fourth Tu. His gaze swept back and forth between Chen Feng and the noisy toilet, his eyes filled with a subtle suspicion.

"Answering the officer, I don't know," Chen Feng's voice carried a perfectly measured trace of fear. "When I came out, someone was inside... they seemed very sick, vomited, and then collapsed."

"Sick?" The leading Guard frowned and waved his hand impatiently. "Another piece of trash to be scrapped. Get back to your kennel! Don't let me see you wandering around again!"

"Yes, yes, sir." Chen Feng felt as if he had been granted a great pardon. He hunched his back and walked quickly past them.

The moment his eyes met Old Fourth Tu's, he saw scrutiny in the other's gaze. But he didn't pause, disappearing into the dark corridor of the dormitory area without looking back.

After safely returning to his filthy bunk corner, Chen Feng felt as if all his strength had been drained. He knew that using this gene repair fluid, which would trigger massive physical changes, in the crowded dormitory would be equivalent to suicide.

He had to find an absolute forbidden zone where he could undergo his 'transformation'—a place no one would think of before his execution.

His gaze slowly shifted toward a corner of the mining area map in his memory, a name marked in blood-red that represented the final destination of all waste.

The Decomposition Pit.