The Breakout Begins (1)
Honestly, whether Kiara was the Warden's former comrade or not wasn't my problem. Just an intriguing bit of backstory, at best? If this were just a game and not reality, I'd have dug deep into it! But right now, I didn't have that kind of luxury. I was too busy trying to keep myself breathing to stick my nose into someone else's dirty secrets. Kiara seemed to have only brought it up because she had no other choice.
What mattered far more was the whole reason we'd gathered in secret to conspire like this: a prison break. So, how exactly were we getting out?
"Ian, hasn't something struck you as odd?" Kiara asked.
"Like what?"
"This is an isolated island. Completely cut off from the outside world. Aside from the ship that occasionally hauls in fresh prisoners, there's no link to civilization whatsoever."
I already knew that much. Thanks to that, I was currently suffering through a tutorial truly worthy of Despair Difficulty—a bitter reality I'd chewed on more times than I could count.
Kiara continued, "With so few supply runs, there's no way they could bring enough provisions to feed this many inmates. So how have they been keeping us supplied all this time?"
"If it's just protein bars, seems like they could make it work somehow."
"They don't hand out protein bars every day. Do that, and everyone would collapse from malnutrition. The mess hall menu here is actually pretty decent—barring the end of the month, that is."
"Then wouldn't they just have a separate cargo ship for provisions? At this scale, you'd expect at least that much. On the way here, I caught a glimpse of a massive city on the horizon. Must be running back and forth from there, right?"
As the words left my mouth, a sudden sense of dissonance washed over me. Something didn't add up. Kiara was unconditionally convinced that the convict transport was the only ship making the voyage. Why?
"You really do have amnesia, don't you..." Karen chimed in from the side, eyeing me like some rare specimen.
What! What was that supposed to mean?!
"Berdal Prison is an illegal facility just by existing! Nowhere on the continent builds such an absurdly inefficient prison, you know?! That's why inmates are so valuable. It's tough to smuggle them out in secret."
If we were so damn valuable, why'd they slaughter that runner on day one?
This time, Kiara answered. "The Warden probably planted a shill beforehand. Lured the guy in with a promise of quick cash if he just pretended to make a run for it on arrival. Then he butchered him right in front of everyone to set an example."
"Ah."
I got it instantly. A classic Tutorial Fairy gimmick. An outdated trope, sure, but effective nonetheless. It certainly scared the shit out of everyone, forcing them to dig their hearts out just like they were told. Still, if bodies were so scarce, wouldn't it be more profitable to just kidnap the shill and use him as manual labor too?
"Criminals with magic circuits aren't common," Kiara explained. "To withstand the waves pulsing from the ruins, they need laborers with implanted magic circuits."
"Wait..."
Then what about me? I knew my own body better than anyone; I didn't have thick, bulging, vein-like magic circuits like the Warden. Then again, when it came to resisting whatever waves radiated from the ruins, I fit the bill just fine. Was that thanks to Madness too? Am I unaffected because I'm already batshit insane?
While I was having my little existential crisis, Kiara crossed her arms and nodded firmly. "Anyway, that's why breaking out won't get us hunted down by regular law enforcement. To the rest of the world, this entire operation is illegal. Of course, the Warden couldn't have set up a black site like this alone—he definitely has backing—but officially, no legal authority can put a bounty on our heads."
...Fair enough. I let it slide for now. I could worry about that headache later. But if Kiara was right, it raised a glaring question: how was the Warden procuring his supplies?
"There's another way off this rock besides ships," Kiara said. "And there's a good chance that path is in the Warden's office."
Hearing that jogged my memory. The moment I'd hit the Warden with my spell, Kiara had been frantically scouring his office. What she'd been hunting for back then was an escape route to the outside. "Wait, but you didn't find anything back then, did you?"
"No, I found it."
"You did?"
"I originally planned to take my time and search methodically. But thanks to you buying me extra time, Ian, I found it right away."
"Methodically? Search? ...Ah."
It all clicked. As the Warden's former comrade, she knew exactly which buttons to push to piss him off. If Kiara, who had stayed docile all this time, suddenly flew off the handle, he'd wonder what had gotten into her and drag her off somewhere private to talk one-on-one. If she kept at it, she'd eventually gain access to his office. A brutally blunt method, but as an inmate, it was pretty much the only viable route into the Warden's private quarters. Still, wasn't that a little too reckless?
Kiara spoke as if it were no big deal. "There was a locked chamber inside his office. If there's an exit, that's where it'll be. That bastard is paranoid to a fault—he keeps anything truly vital right by his side."
In other words, she didn't know for certain. Still, even by my estimation, the odds seemed high. That was how every scenario in the game played out, after all. No matter how twisted or convoluted the dungeon, search hard enough and you'd always find a way forward. That was what hooked me in the first place. I used to curse the devs as sadomasochistic perverts while sinking hundreds of hours into it.
Kiara glanced over at Brun. "I'll lay out the plan once Brun wakes up. I originally meant to take this slow, but..." She turned her head to look at me. "...doesn't seem like there's any need for that now."
Well, can't blame her. I'd change plans too. When you've got an insanely broken, one-click cheat spell on your side, why take the scenic route through hell?
About an hour later, Brun returned to his senses.
"We're going back to the Warden's office."
Kiara's breakout plan was straightforward:
1. Kiara and I breach the Warden's office head-on.
2. Meanwhile, Brun and Karen draw massive aggro outside.
3. Once the guards in the watchtower take the bait and security thins out, Brun and Karen rendezvous with us.
4. I blast the Warden with magic—bam!
5. Karen uses her expert touch to pick the locked door with a makeshift lockpick crafted by Brun.
"Hmm."
It sounded plausible on paper, but glaring holes poked through all over the place. How exactly were Brun and Karen going to draw aggro? And would the guards really fail to notice them slipping away to regroup with us?
Brun was the one who countered my doubts. "I've been preparing months for this one disturbance. You don't need to worry about that. And watchtower security won't be an issue either. Last time we ran a dry run, every bastard except the Warden charged out. They place way too much blind faith in these collars."
So they'd already done a rehearsal.
"And if push comes to shove, you can just use your magic," Brun added gruffly. "Honestly, Ian, we scrambled to overhaul the plan specifically because of you. Having been on the receiving end of that spell myself, I know for a fact that nobody can resist it."
I was the linchpin of Prison Break Plan Revision 2. With the Petal of Ambrosia, I could spam Mental Collapse with a mere two-second cooldown between casts. The only concern was the penalty. Once for the initial test. Once on the Warden. Once on Brun. Having cast it three times, the reality had set in: the mental strain was escalating.
Pop!
Hssss—huff.
This was already the fourth time today I'd unstoppered the glass vial. It seemed the penalty grew progressively harsher with consecutive uses. I was still holding together for now. If I just pushed through this operation and got some rest, I should bounce back.
Brun handed the makeshift lockpick over to Karen. Kiara clapped her hands to gather everyone's attention, looking around at us. "We move tonight. Everyone, get ready."
With those parting words, we headed back to our cell. Kiara mentioned she had a bit of business left to attend to and sent me ahead. Since it was a two-person cell, I had the place all to myself. A precious window of quiet before the storm.
All right, time to organize my thoughts. The escape plan seemed solid enough, and the Petal of Ambrosia was still holding up, so that was covered.
"What should I do?"
A thought had been gnawing at me ever since I joined this breakout crew. Right now, two distinct paths lay before me.
Option One: Keep working together like good little comrades and bust out of here.
Option Two: Spill every last detail to the Warden, turn him into an ally, and stroll right out the front door in broad daylight.
Just like the game. A branching narrative framework where minute choices fractured the storyline. Personally, that had been my favorite feature. Without it, the game would've been too damn boring to grind all the way through Phase 20. It made replay value obscenely addictive. Backstabbing the companion you'd trusted with your back in Playthrough 1 to side with the enemy faction in Playthrough 2 was a playstyle I'd run into the ground.
This wasn't any different. In the end, my only objective was getting off this prison island. Looking purely at the probability of success, Option Two was undeniably tempting.
The sheer absurdity of the Affinity System had already been proven through Kiara. I'd barely done a damn thing, and her affection had skyrocketed through the roof. Could the Warden actually be added as a key figure in the Affinity System? I'd already checked that during our little encounter. Turns out, he could.
When you think about it, it made total sense. Kiara was the ultimate veteran among the inmates, so if there was a corresponding veteran on the guards' side, it had to be the Warden. Kiara's shocking revelation about her past also weighed on my mind. A nagging paranoia whispered that she might be hiding even more from me. Kiara might not be a purely innocent victim. Every NPC in this game was remarkably three-dimensional; they weren't cleanly divided into good and evil, and every single one harbored their own agenda. Hell, maybe the Warden was a warm, doting father to someone out there. Besides, aren't the people here all criminals anyway? By that logic, you could argue they were being treated reasonably well.
...Or maybe not. Life imprisonment without due process was still pretty messed up.
Regardless.
"...Tough call."
I had to tread carefully. Unlike a game, this reality had no save states or reload buttons. One choice, and that was it. Fail, and you die on the spot. Despair Difficulty really was no joke.
Sigh.
I made my decision.