Even in prison, with no knowledge of the outside world, Huai Shi could guess what had happened.
When strategic weapons like Abnormal Hell· Teralocan and Dome Giant· Astra appeared, it signaled that the conflict between the Iron Crystal Throne and the Ivy League had entered another phase.
The two sides began to engage in substantial confrontations, striving for control over every inch of territory and doing everything in their power to delay each other's operational efficiency.
With advanced technical abilities, both had decrypted the outer defenses of the Town of Dusk, firmly rooting themselves into its system as if they were tenacious squatters.
Having such access, even without entering the high tower's core, locating the remaining sub-control centers posed no problem.
Each sub-control center represented further control over the Town of Dusk, and also implied that a new Curse would be injected into this Hell...
Such cunningly laid traps were designed to maximally weaken the enemy while keeping the limits within a range their own people could withstand.
Reduced sanity, toxic air, halved physical strength, weakened state, incessant bleeding, accelerated decay, aging rain, Burning Wind, sediment tide...
To this day, Huai Shi couldn't imagine what the outside world had become; it was simply filled with countless debuffs—nightmarish even to contemplate.
In fact, this level of restraint would move even a war history teacher to tears.
Whether it was the Iron Crystal Throne or the Ivy League, both possessed the technological capability to easily destroy this part of Hell—even if only through Curses, there were a hundred thousand options more vicious than the current ones.
But neither the Iron Crystal Throne nor the Ivy League would cause significant destruction to this Hell before thoroughly investigating the Central District.
This wasn't just because the Town of Dusk possessed immense productive capacity, but also because of what this capacity represented.
Even though the Town of Dusk had once brought disaster upon itself, one fact remained undeniable.
The miracles they created were real, not fictitious.
This wasn't limited to the insane history recorded in the ruins—tales of recreating worlds, suns, moons, the heavens and earth, and all living things—nor just dangerous experiments like the Eternal Life Machine. It referred to actual Divine Artifacts, truly unique and magnificent creations!
—Eternal Frozen Heart!
This supreme achievement left by the Forgers was unknown and uncelebrated until just before the last war of worlds.
It made only a single appearance, during the Hell Workshop Master's decisive battle against the Sea of Titans, yet it had once shattered the equilibrium of the Depth Area and dictated the war's trajectory.
Its function was brutishly simple.
In a nutshell, it was a 'Super Gigantic Perpetual Motion Machine'.
According to records from the Iron Crystal Throne, its power output was sufficient to drive an entire Hell indefinitely, supply the energy consumption of numerous Authority Relics, and continue until the end of time...
To think that, possessing such power, they still lost to the Sea of Titans—one can only wonder what kind of incompetent fools the Hell Workshop Masters of that era truly were.
Such a treasure, with even the mere possibility of its existence within the Town of Dusk, was enough to make both sides wary, compelling them to restrain each other and avoid irreversible damage and losses.
Now, while Huai Shi was comfortably slacking off in solitary confinement, there was undoubtedly a fierce battle raging outside.
Meanwhile, Huai Shi was enjoying meticulously cooked three meals a day, thorough physical examinations and care, and an unlimited supply of happy water... He even began a new business in prison, becoming the soothing Soloist Huai Shi, making an indelible contribution to the mental health of Ivy League members.
If it were anyone else in this position, accused of not having defected, Huai Shi himself wouldn't believe their innocence!
He had unwittingly become the 'Second fifth'.
And he hadn't even found an opportunity to betray the organization...
In reality, neither Huai Shi nor the Ivy League had intended for things to turn out this way.
Initially, they had wanted Huai Shi to perform hard labor, to serve as a sort of warm-up, and they planned to record it and send it to the Great Grandmaster to humiliate the Ivory Tower.
But after all the hassle, they found that Huai Shi was utterly useless—good for nothing but eating.
He couldn't do any work, was of no help, and even picking vegetables from the kitchen could cause collective diarrhea the next day, yet all evidence showed it had absolutely nothing to do with Huai Shi...
He couldn't be beaten, couldn't be scolded, couldn't be released—what the hell were they supposed to do with him?
While others worked, he watched. While others stood, he sat. This wasn't a captive; this was a lordly supervisor!
With no other choice, the Colonel kicked him into solitary confinement. 'Just stay there quietly,' he must have thought. 'Don't come out and be an eyesore, getting in everyone's way.'
As a result, it became Liz's turn to have a headache, as she was in charge of internal security.
She was so frustrated she lost several strands of hair.
Liz was startled to discover for the first time that Sublimators could also lose hair! Could the rumor of the 'bald agent' from the Astronomical Society be true?
After the routine tranquilizer injection, Huai Shi's tracking Bracelet and the miniaturized bomb collar around his neck were reattached.
Huai Shi lay in bed until three o'clock in the afternoon before he finally recovered his breath. Suddenly, his fingers twitched.
But amidst the drowsiness and stupor, darkness suddenly fell before his eyes.
Curse.
He felt someone cursing him.
Even using something closely associated with him as a medium... In the irregularity of his heartbeat, he could discern the trend of his blood running out of control.
But unfortunately, it was useless.
Even during his confinement, Huai Shi's Soul resistance remained abnormally high. Otherwise, the Ivy League wouldn't have needed such extensive security measures. A simple Idiotic Curse would have been enough to leave Huai Shi drooling peacefully until the war ended. However, a curse that was too powerful, while potentially effective, risked turning him into a genuine idiot, making it difficult to provide an explanation to the various parties involved.
In the encroaching darkness before his eyes, he felt as if he were being dragged into a shadowy forest. But he quickly broke free.
On one hand, it was due to his astonishing resistance; on the other hand, it was because... the other party didn't seem to actually want to harm him.
In a fleeting moment of daze, he saw a familiar figure.