Death Notice Prologue

Chapter 0.2 – Area 91

After exiting the transport, Qin Lun was transferred to a brightly-lit, yet sealed, room. The walls were pieced together from steel plates, which stood out all the more, as there was nothing else in the room aside from several thumb-sized holes in the corners.

Sssssssshhh~

Not long after Qin Lun had entered the room, a faint white gas puffed out of those holes and slowly filled the room.

Poisonous gas? Am I going to die?

A dizzy spell hit Qin Lun as a sliver of movement dashed through his crystal clear pupils.

Bang!

The sound of a heavy steam prohibition suit cras.h.i.+ng onto the floor soon sounded out from the room.

……

Federation Military Area 91, Daxing Mountain, Northeast Way of Cathay District.

Before the Federation united the world, there were many unsolved mysteries and mysterious wonders in the past, examples being the Bermuda Triangle, the Tunguska Explosion, and Mohenjo-daro.

However, with the progress of human technological advancement, many of these mysteries obtained new explanations. Currently, there was only a handful of unsolved mysteries still remaining in the Human Federation. The Federation’s Military Area 91 was one such mysterious place.

Hundreds of years ago, in the super nation of China, a moderate sized explosion occurred in the northeastern jungles of Daxing Mountains. After the event, the Chinese military had sealed off this area, claiming that it had been an earthquake disaster.

After the Human Federation had united the world, the Federation military established Area 91 at this area, and began to secretly gather the elite scientists within its facility.

That explosion several hundred years ago actually had a small effective radius of only several hundred meters. A spherical area was marked off by the explosion. In the crevice, both of the hanging cliffs on the side and the ground had turned into mirror-like crystals. Rocks and soil had been transformed into crystalline structures. The most astonis.h.i.+ng aspect was that unstable s.p.a.ce-time ruptures had appeared within this spherical explosion area.

These s.p.a.ce-time ruptures are of various sizes. Small ruptures appear very often, but their existence is inversely very short, usually lasting about several hundred-thousandths of a second. Larger s.p.a.ce-time ruptures take up to at least several years to several decades before they appear. Each time, these large ruptures are able to remain from several seconds to a few minutes of time.

Hundreds of years ago, limited by the technology and knowledge of that time period, China was unable to obtain much in terms of practical gains from Area 91. In contrast, following the unification, the Human Federation had enough scientific prowess to research the physical phenomenon of s.p.a.ce-time ruptures. In a chance investigation, Federation scientists had used magnetic light rays on the ruptures and were able to obtain a small piece of a mysterious metal.

This piece of metal was constructed from unknown elements. Not only was it weightless, it performed even better than the Federation’s best s.p.a.ce flight material under both super high and super low temperatures. At the same time, it was a memory metal, so it was able to restore itself to a fixed extent. Using this piece of metal, Human Federation was able to obtain countless breakthroughs in the fields of s.p.a.cefaring and military technology.

Once they got their first taste of the mysterious technology, the Federation began to heavily invest in Area 91, to the extent that they even wanted to send military personnel into the s.p.a.ce-time ruptures. The scientists first sent a husky through the rupture, but the expectations of an animal show turned into an episode of murder. The head that the little dog stuck investigatively into the rupture disappeared without a trace and left the neck stump cleanly sliced as if by a guillotine.

That said, the failure of the experiment did not scare those Federation scientists who were determined to dedicate their lives to the research. Finally, they were able to send a team of Federation soldiers and scientist into a rupture considered most stable to this day. They were also successful in retrieving the sole survivor of the research team.

This scientist brought back three items from the s.p.a.ce-time rupture: A medieval teapot, a extraterrestrial organism’s skeletal remains, and a small spatial transporter.

Leaving aside that medieval teapot, the extraterrestrial organism’s skeletal remains great boosted the Human Federation’s Biotechnology research. It helped mankind to finally realize a true regeneration of limbs. In a similar vein, the small size spatial transporter was the core of the Federation’s Sky Rail transportation technology.

As one can well imagine, Area 91’s value to the Human Federation was immense. Sadly, the Federation hero that returned from the s.p.a.ce-time rupture became brain dead instantly upon returning, and turned into a vegetative state. In the most stringent sense of speaking, the whole team of 32 Federation elites had been completely wiped out. None were able to return to human world in a conscious state.

In the following two hundred years, a second rupture with a similar size and stability was never seen again in Area 91. Furthermore, Federation scientist found out that the explosion region’s s.p.a.ce-time phenomenon was gradually receding. Large s.p.a.ce-time rupture’s appearance periods began to take longer and longer. As of currently, they would need at least a decade before appearing again, not to mention with shorter existence timeframes.

In other words, the spherical region’s s.p.a.ce-time phenomenon could very well completely disappear at some point. At the same time, it meant that the danger level of sending humans into the ruptures would also accordingly become riskier as the waiting periods become longer.

Majority of the human that enter s.p.a.ce-time ruptures would be torn into dust by the chaotic time flow. The small minority of successful entrees would mostly be lost on the other side due to the short duration of the s.p.a.ce-time rupture.

There was only an extremely small number of lucky survivors that were able to return in time through the rupture. However, these people all became brain dead upon their return. They brought back a fantastic variety of objects, but truly useful things were few and far between.

Nowadays, Area 91 no long sends scientists and Federation soldiers through s.p.a.ce-time ruptures. Instead, they operate as the execution grounds for the death row prisoners from every jail in the world. These prisoners would all be told a beautiful fairy tale before they were made to enter the ruptures:

If they were able to successfully return from the ruptures, then they would receive a special pardon from the Federation that removed the death penalty and forced labor. They would be able to begin a new life with a new ident.i.ty.

Of course, the Federation neglected to explain the part that they would enjoy their new life in permanent vegetative states on hospital beds.

The whole Area 91 was half buried underground. It was a shrine-shaped large scale structure. The shrine-type construction’s box-shape roof just happened to connect to the spherical region created in the explosion from several hundreds of years earlier.

This spherical region’s diameter reached several hundred meters with wave-like ripples spontaneously appearing in the air. Miniscule disa.s.sociated elementary particles sparked and dimmed at will, and danced wildly through the air like electric arcs.

“Professor, how is the preparation?”

At this time, in Area 91’s control center, a Federation soldier in a general’s attire observed the large display and asked the base’s chief engineer.

“According the the supercomputer, this s.p.a.ce-time rupture appears once in 17 years. At this point, we are unable to verify the size, but it should be big enough to allow an adult to pa.s.s through.” The grizzled-hair professor nervously explained, “The free particles sped up their movement orbit three days ago. If it continues at this rate, the s.p.a.ce-time rupture could possibly appear in the next few days!”

……

In a certain infirmary of the base, Qin Lun’s eyelids shook slightly before they slowly opened. The bright light caused the serial killer to squint his eyes involuntarily. As his pupils contracted, his view gradually became clear.

Right as Qin Lin wanted to sit up, heavy restricted sensations came from his limbs and his back. He tilted his head slightly and saw that he was lying on a simple-looking stretcher. From the corner of his eye, he saw that a roll of st.u.r.dy leather rope bound his wrists to the railing. Qin Lun was quite familiar with this type of binding, as he was bound countless times in this fas.h.i.+on when he was at the mental hospital.

“You’re awake!” A gentle voice came from his side.

Qin Lun turned his face and found a young girl in nurse attire walking towards him.

This young girl seemed to be a minor. Her rosy cheeks had tiny bit of baby fat. Her skin was pink and tender-looking, with a pale blush showing through the white skin. The pair of large eyes were crystal clear. The specks of faint freckles on her face gave her a bit of charming cuteness.

In terms of appearance, this girl was probably just average, but that pair of G cup spheres that lifted the front of her nurse garb added several points to her rating. Childlike countenance matched with large b.r.e.a.s.t.s! Qin Lun suddenly understood everything. With a pair of lethal weapons (pun on breast) like this, this girl was clearly of age. It’s just that she had a childish face.

“Xiao Lian, don’t talk to him. This person is very dangerous!” A cold female voice came from behind the little nurse.

“Sorry, Sister Hu Fei!” Xiao Lian made a face at the prisoner and softly said, “Don’t be scared. We’re just going to give you a physical examination!”

Du, du, du!

The sound of high-heels came from behind Xiao Lian. An expressionless exotic beauty appeared before the prisoner’s field of view.

Qin Lun had been moved into a mental hospital at age 12, transferred into a juvenile detention facility at age 15, then locked into Handan High Security at age 16. His interactions with the outside world was especially scarce. The concept of esthetics and knowledge were only those from books. But even with his limited understanding of beauty, the murderer still became aware instantly that the woman before him was an otherworldly beauty.

The woman had a delicate oval face with skin as smooth-looking as silk. Her pair of red phoenix eyes were not as big as Xiao Lian’s eyes, but the long lashes shades her jade-like eyes that inadvertently would display a hint of seductive charm. It was only because of her slightly raised willow-like brows and her frigid charming face that gave her a kind of cool elegant and magnificent quality.

This exotic beauty who  was called Hu Fei by Xiao Lian was probably a female doctor. Following the crisp clicks of her heels, she quickly arrived to the side of the stretcher. Although the mask obstructed his view and he was unable to see the bottom half of the beautiful woman, Qin Lun noticed that she was at least half a head taller than adjacent Xiao Lian. Her figure was probably one of those tall and slender types.

Qin Lun’s sight was suddenly darkened as the beautiful doctor leaned over and blocked the light. A single flexible stick pushed his eyelid up as a faint fragrance wafted into his nose. The prisoner’s eyeb.a.l.l.s slowly looked downwards and noticed the name tag on the white gown. The two characters “Hu Fei” were inscribed on the tag, so it was probably this beauty’s name.

Qin Lun’s eyes turned again and peeked through the garb’s collar. He faintly saw a pair of raised peaks as well as that strip of pink white cleavage.

Hu Fei very quickly noticed the prisoner’s gawking as a sliver of anger dashed through her cold and elegant eyes.

“Xiao Lian, sedate him!”

“But… Sister Hu Fei, the sedative will give the exam result a slight deviation!” Xiao Lian looked worriedly at the prisoner on the stretcher.

“It will be alright as long as he doesn’t have any infectious disease or terminal illness!” Hu Fei cold;y waved her hand to disregard Xiao Lian’s input.

“That’s too bad. Looks like you had angered Hu Fei onee-chan!” Xiao Lian apologetically said as she injected a dose of sedatives into the prisoner’s arm.

Qin Lun felt as if he was falling into a cold lake as the surrounding started to blur. The voices nearby became indistinct as a wave of sleepiness washed over him…

rologue Chapter 3 – s.p.a.ce-Time Teleportation

Qin Lun leaned against the wall and observed the outside through the air shutter. He was in a ten-squared-meter room with a fist-sized air shutter on the heavy steel door. The walls were all constructed with alloy steel plates. One side of the wall was adorned with a fold-able hanging-bed along with a flush toilet made from composite materials.

Through the shutter, Qin Lun saw that there were rows of similar cells in the distance, but only some of the cells were inhabited with prisoners. He quickly found that many of these prisoners were reticent like him, so the whole prison cell sector was covered in a deathly stillness.

Guards occasionally patrol through the hallways of the prison sector, sometimes bringing along new inmates into the facility. Qin Lun originally thought that his death penalty decision had received an unexpected delay since he was transferred to this prison. However, he very quickly changed his hypothesis, because those occasional guards patrolling the halls do not like like prison officers.

These guards were suited in Federation military attire and carried the standard-issue particle laser rifle. Their movements revealed their hard to conceal their capable and vigorous physiques. Clearly, these were not normal prison officers, they looked more like standard Federation soldiers instead.

Puuch, puuch!

A strange noise reverberated through the hallway.

Qin Lun’s expression moved slightly when he recognized this sound. He was quite familiar with it, as it was the sound of the steam prohibition suit.

Looks like another heavyweight guest has entered this humble abode.

It has been about a week after Xiao Lian had injected him with the sedative. In the last week, Qin Lun had seen several steam-suit-encased prisoners walking past in the jailhouse hallway. In other words, there could possibly be other serial killers imprisoned in this Federation military “prison”.

……

“I’ve finally got to see you, homicidal demon Qin Lun!”

In a s.p.a.cious control room, several white-robed scientists surrounded a handsome youth as they viewed Qin Lun’s holographic projection. The youth was adorned in a gorgeous suit and had a domineering manner that complimented his taunting smile. He stood up greatly in comparison to the researchers in the room.

Looking at the hologram, a hint of fanaticism exuded from the young man’s eyes.

“I want to personally see him!”

“Young Master Lin, this… is too dangerous!” The gold-spectacle scientist adjusted his gold-thread gla.s.ses and awkwardly said, “Don’t judge him by how he looks right now. He has a split personality disorder, so there is a another serial killer personality inside of him…”

“Whatever. I don’t know about Qin Lun than you do!” The youth impatiently waves his arm and interrupted the middle-aged man’s speech, “Quickly arrange a meeting for me. I can’t want to meet him!”

As he spoke, the youth grabbed Qin Lun’s “Death Notice” and walked out of the room towards the prison sector. Behind him, two bodyguards in black suits silently followed.

“Professor, should we really do this?” A research student moved closer to the middle-aged scientist and softly whispered, “Qin Lun is a Level S felon. This is against the regulations!”

“It’s already against regulations to allow Lin Feng enter Area 91!” The middle-aged professor adjusted his gla.s.ses again and helplessly sighed, “But what could we do when he is the only son of General Lin! General Lin is the military representative of Area 91 and controls the funding of the base. We can’t afford to offend him. Let the prison sector’s guards know that after sedating Qin Lun, they need to put a steam inhibition suit on him.

“Lin Feng normally isn’t this stubborn when he visits the base, so what happened this time?” The young research student asked with a puzzled look.

“What do you know! I heard that he is a Qin Lun fanatic and collected a lot of case materials related to Qin Lun. He also bribed the police to extract several pieces of Qin Lun’s murdering tools out of the evidence vault from Handan Police Department.”

The middle-aged professor scanned around the room and softly whisper to his most valued student, “I also heard that Lin Feng, along with several other sons of influential families organized a Death Champions.h.i.+p for the rich and powerful crowd. Serial killers like Qin Lun all are the champions.h.i.+p’s ace players.”

“What?” The research student shuddered as his eyes looked with disbelief. “Do you mean that all those prisoners who died suddenly when Lin Feng visit are all…”

“Shut your mouth. If you understand, then know you should keep your mouth shut. Or else your research career here will soon meet its end!” The middle-aged professor sternly scolded his student.

……

Qin Lun confusedly awoke with a hint of dizziness still drifting in his mind. Moving his arms and legs, he found that his limbs were abnormally heavy. It looked like he had been suited in a steam inhibition suit again. It was set to restrict his movement so he could do nothing but stand still silently.

“Homicidal Demon Qin Lun!” A handsome face appeared before the prisoner.

Lin Feng looked at the pair of crystal clear eyes within the steel mask with a fanatic craze on his face. He slowly walked towards the steam inhibition unit with the “Death Notice” that contained Qin Lun’s information..

“Young master!” The two bodyguards looked at each other and stood between the metal monster and Lin Feng.

“f.u.c.k off!” Lin Feng angrily pushed aside the guards before him. Stretching out his arms, he hugged the steam contraption and rubbed his face on the steel mask as he grumbled softly.

“Your existence is too wonderful. You’re practically a natural star. I’ve collect everything about you: news clippings, presentations, non-public information… I’ve even bribed the police so that they would make copies of the crime scene photos. They are all of my greatest treasures!”

The two bodyguards awkwardly turned their heads to look elsewhere. After spending a great deal of time with this young master, they had gotten very familiar with the master’s perverse quirks. After all, the serial killer was locked inside the steam inhibition suit, so he wouldn’t be able to cause any substantial amount of harm.

A sinister smile gradually appeared on Lin Feng’s face.

“Those guys in the Club knows sh*t all! They all think that you’re just a crazed serial killer. Only I know to appreciate your artistic pieces. You will become my ace and bring me the glory of the victory in the Death Champions.h.i.+p.”

“Oh, that’s right. I brought you a gift!” Lin Feng smacked his own head and took out a small cloth pouch from his suit’s breast pocket. Slowly opening up the wrapped layers, he said, “Look at this. I’ve switched out the tools that you once used in your murders and taken it from Handan Police Department’s evidence vault. This thing is made from forging together a meteor shard with those weapons! Isn’t this a piece of art? Isn’t this beautiful?”

A crescent-shaped black dagger laid in the middle of the cloth bundle. It looked like a half of a scissor, with a blade as thin as that of a paper knife. The rows of sharp teeth on the blade spine looked as if they were the sharp teeth of deadly piranhas. Though it lacked a standard leather grip, the tip of the handle was marked with a steel ring just large enough to fit a thumb. In this fas.h.i.+on, the dagger didn’t look too different from a ninja’s kunai.

Qin Lun’s murder methods were extremely b.l.o.o.d.y and merciless. He had also used many different weapons for his murderous acts, many of which were used to dissect and dismember the victims’ corpses. Between all of the tools he’s used for dismemberment, the serial killer’s favorite weapon was still various kinds of separated halves of scissors.

From the a.n.a.lysis by psychologists, the police were told that it likely originated from his parents. Even when he killed the male nurse at Children’s Welfare Agency, Qin Lun had a sharp scissor half in his hand. The trauma from childhood turned the scissor halves into the serial killer’s tool of protection and murder weapon.

After seeing the crescent dagger, these was a sliver of movement in the crystal clear eyes behind the heavy steel mask. A mysterious and complicated radiance flickered in the jet black pupils.

“No need to be anxious, Qin Lun. This will definitely belong to you!” Lin Feng confidently nodded. Once again, he wrapped the dagger back in its cloth bundle and stuffed the bundle back into his breast pocket.

……

At the same time, on the control room’s large display, the spherical region was suddenly lit up with large patches of free particles and those particles started to gather towards the middle. A small sun formed in the core as a clear s.p.a.ce-time rupture appeared in the spherical region.

“General, the s.p.a.ce-time rupture is appearing..” A programmer frantically yelled from the control desk.

“How is that possible? The free particles have all been in their hibernation state for the last week, so why did they suddenly become excited?” The white-haired Chief Engineer opened his eyes wide as he stared at the display in shock.

“Professor, how much time do we have for sending prisoners into the ruptures?” The general’s expression s.h.i.+fted as he turned and asked.

“It’s too late. It’s too late…” The elderly Chief Engineer mumbled to himself as he continued to look at the screen.

“Professor, when the free particles had broken the highest record of excitement rate. It seems like the s.p.a.ce-time field is expanding!”

“What?!” The old professor and the general simultaneously shouted in alarm.

The spherical s.p.a.ce-time field was right above the Area 91 base, so if the field started to expand, then the whole base might be in danger.

Chiiiiaa!

Without waiting for the two high ranking officials to give out their orders, a pitch black crack appeared on the control center’s large display screen. Looking like a monster’s eye, the crack appeared in the spherical region and began to slowly pull on both sides. An orange-colored oval transportation door appeared before everyone’s eyes.

“What in the world is this?” The white-haired professor cried out alarmingly, but could not hide the hint of excitement in his eyes. For a scientist like him, the pa.s.sion for the investigation into the secrets of the universe was much more important than his own life.

Following the appearance of the transportation portal, the spherical s.p.a.ce-time field shrunk then expanded. The originally several hundred meter long diameter expanded more than ten fold and enveloped the whole Area 91 within its influence.

Whoos.h.!.+

The shrine-like structure of the Area 91 Federation Experiment Base shrunk into the size of a toy and was quickly sucked into the portal. Even the deep foundation of the building was pulled up by the roots and was too sucked into the portal along with a huge pile of soil and rocks.

After engulfing everything in the surrounding, the eye-like s.p.a.ce-time portal slowly closed itself and disappeared. The expanded s.p.a.ce-time field shrunk once more into a tiny point and finally disappeared.

A cool breeze swept past the empty grounds. The hundreds-years-old s.p.a.ce-time domain finally disappeared from Hua Xia District’s primitive forest. There was only a many kilometer wide spherical pit where the military base used to stand.