Xiang Yi's ears perked up instantly, but he couldn't make out He Dong's voice through Zhang Lang's earpiece. He could only hear Zhang Lang's replies.
"Yeah, that's right. Xiang Yi and I are heading down into the mine tunnels."
"Mhm, yes. He took on a task voluntarily. I was worried he didn't have much experience, so I came out with him."
"Okay, got it. I understand."
Zhang Lang put away his tablet and looked at Xiang Yi, the tension from before gone.
"Director He called. He said he originally planned to give you a few easy days to get familiar with the environment, but since you're willing to work, he has nothing to say about it. Just do as you see fit, but don't forget that the thing he gave you is your most important mission."
"Understood."
Xiang Yi responded in a somewhat muted tone.
He grew even more wary of He Dong.
'It's obvious. He Dong must have used the tracking bracelet on my wrist to see that I'd left the middle level of the prison. That's why he called Zhang Lang.'
'He Dong has been secretly monitoring me. My suspicions from the hospital entrance were probably all correct.'
'I really have to speed things up.'
Xiang Yi followed Zhang Lang, changed into a protective suit, and passed through a decontamination chamber into the mine tunnels.
Following the requirements in the maintenance manual, they began inspecting the circuitry and lighting equipment at a certain depth within the tunnels.
Beyond that, there weren't many requirements.
Zhang Lang seemed agitated while working in the tunnels. It looked like he also knew that hordes of vicious, bloodthirsty monsters lurked in the deepest parts.
Xiang Yi, on the other hand, was in no hurry. After all, he had the Mind Pulse Generator. If anyone was going to die, it would surely be Zhang Lang.
Besides, he hadn't taken this mission and come down to the mines just to do actual work. He was merely planning to do a few things for his future.
While inspecting a circuit line near the deepest point of the area specified by the maintenance manual, Xiang Yi deliberately left a small tear on it.
The mark was inconspicuous, but it would definitely cause the line to malfunction in a very short time—as soon as tomorrow, for instance.
Zhang Lang had originally planned to double-check the areas Xiang Yi had maintained, just in case Xiang Yi had missed anything.
But this location was just too close to the deepest part of the mine. In the end, he only gave it a few hurried, careless glances before quickly leaving the tunnels and returning to the workshop with Xiang Yi.
After that, Xiang Yi didn't do anything else out of the ordinary. He just sat at his computer, reading technical manuals to fill the gaps in his knowledge.
When it was time to get off work in the evening, Xiang Yi arrived at the hospital as scheduled.
He met with the doctor, underwent some simple medical procedures, and had a vial of blood drawn.
Then, when no one was paying attention, Xiang Yi slipped away to a corner of the hospital that had a view of the area behind the building.
It wasn't really a corner, just a turn in the hallway next to the second-floor lobby.
Through the window there, Xiang Yi saw the medical waste containers—the same ones the doctor had pushed out earlier—stacked neatly in a corner behind the hospital.
Next to this corner was a passageway.
The passage door was open, and two robots were loading the waste-filled containers one by one onto a transport rail inside, sending them off to an unknown location within the asteroid.
At that moment, a memory in Xiang Yi's mind was suddenly triggered, resurfacing once again.
This time, however, it wasn't a new memory that appeared in his mind, but a detail from the scene he had witnessed through the viewport of the prison transport ship as it first approached the asteroid.
A medical waste transport ship, marked with a conspicuous biohazard symbol, had been departing from a different port—not the one the prison transport had landed at.
The corners of Xiang Yi's mouth lifted into a slight smile.
'The opportunity I've been looking for... to think it was in such an obvious place all along.'
'If it can transport containers, then of course a person can also travel through that transport channel.'
'That means I actually have another path. The ore the miners collect is also gathered for transport, so there must be a mineral transport channel inside the prison as well.'
'It would also lead directly to the outer layer of the prison, giving me access to the only way to escape this place: a ship.'
Three paths.
One path, if it failed, would lead to being crushed by engineering machinery. Another, even if successful, could leave him riddled with disease.
And the third, a violent prison break, would most likely end in being shot dead on the spot. Every path was a potential road to ruin from which there was no return.
'But so what?'
'Compared to being trapped in this prison for a lifetime, he would rather choose one of those three dangerous paths that, at the very least, offered a sliver of hope.'
He could even try to go through the transport channel to the port right now, hijack or sneak onto a ship, and just leave.
But Xiang Yi suppressed the thought.
He was willing to take risks, but he wasn't going to be a fool and charge straight to his death. He still needed to make his final preparations.
「The night passed without incident.」
After his morning visit to the hospital, Xiang Yi arrived at the workshop on time.
About an hour into his reading, a message popped up on his computer.
The lighting system in Mine Tunnel 21 was malfunctioning.
Fully prepared, Xiang Yi accepted the mission immediately and began gathering his tools.
Seeing the location of the equipment failure on the mission brief, Zhang Lang immediately thought of what happened yesterday.
He considered it for a moment and decided to pretend he hadn't seen anything.
After all, Director He already knew about Xiang Yi yesterday and had told him to do as he pleased. There was no need for him to get involved.
Besides, Xiang Yi was going to the very center and lowest level of the entire Asteroid Prison. There was no need for him to be suspicious. He'd just assume Xiang Yi's skills were lacking and that he'd failed to spot the problem yesterday.
Among the others in the workshop, some also realized the connection between what Xiang Yi did yesterday and the tunnel's malfunction today.
But since Zhang Lang didn't say anything, they naturally kept their mouths shut as well.
And so, Xiang Yi, dressed in his work uniform, left the workshop alone.
He wore a protective suit and carried a toolbox, looking no different from a regular repair technician. However, the face beneath the helmet's visor was incredibly conspicuous.
The prison was only so big; news of someone dying would spread throughout the entire facility in less than two days.
The story of Xiang Yi turning the tables and killing three people, then being recognized and promoted for it, had long since become common knowledge among the inmates, spread by word of mouth and actively pushed by the prison administration for internal propaganda.
Even those who didn't know him personally had likely heard his name, to say nothing of his former fellow inmates.
After Xiang Yi passed through the decontamination chamber and entered Mine Tunnel 21, people gradually began to notice him. In a very short time, an eerie situation developed where everyone he passed stared at him.
He wasn't carrying any weapons. With just a small backpack and a toolbox stuffed with tools, he ventured deep into the mine tunnel alone.
Xiang Yi had not been standing by the malfunctioning circuit equipment mentioned in the report for long when the sound of footsteps echoed from the direction of the tunnel entrance.