Simultaneous Transmigration: We Share a Role-Playing System

Beneath the Elmira Adult Rehabilitation Center, the entire floor was filled with sevoflurane. Staff wearing gas masks worked separately, some handling corpses, others repairing damaged walls.

A maintenance technician looked at the unconscious Locke, and after confirming that the detached energy-blocking goggles were not damaged, prepared to put them back on him.

Just as the blindfold was about to be put on, no one noticed that Locke struggled to open his left eye a crack and looked at the technician.

The look in his eyes was filled with madness and coldness, which was transmitted through the technician's gas mask window. The technician instinctively shuddered, but quickly calmed down, afraid that the people around him would notice something was wrong.

Having achieved his goal, Locke closed his eyes and continued to feign unconsciousness, his disguise so perfect that even his heart rate remained completely unchanged.

The technician pretended not to see anything, carefully put on the goggles, and then took out an expensive full-coverage helmet from the briefcase, put it back on Locke, and locked it.

Once all the work was completed, all staff members left the secret room. The heavy hydraulic alloy door closed again, and the recessed lights on the walls lit up, leaving the entire secret room completely dark.

Seeing this, Locke finally gave up and truly fell into a deep sleep, his consciousness drifting away to another place in the dark abyss.

When Locke, who had been re-suppressed, opened his eyes again, he was already in his own dream.

He was dressed casually in flip-flops, holding a cup of coffee, sitting at a high table in the convenience store, with a copy of "An Actor Prepares" on the table in front of him.

A light drizzle was falling outside the window, the fine rain weaving a hazy curtain that softened and blurred the street scene. The dim streetlights shone through the rain, casting dappled light and shadow on the table. The sound of the rain was soft and gentle, carrying the cool breeze from the convenience store's air conditioning, which permeated the entire space.

He looked up at the rainy scene for a moment, then slowly took a deep breath. The air was filled with the dampness and sweetness after the rain, mixed with a faint aroma of convenience store sausages.

Or rather—the breath of freedom.

As a time traveler, he felt that his unlucky experiences should rank among the top few of the unluckiest time travelers.

An orphan who, without taking enhancement drugs, without being targeted by a priest, without being dragged down by student loans, and successfully escaped the clutches of death by starting from scratch, is honestly quite successful.

Logically speaking, aside from the system that has been garbled for decades and whose repair time is unknown, Locke, as a person living a normal life, is getting his life back on track.

Until that day, two of Walter's third-tier "heroes" were fighting in the street. He originally wanted to avoid them, but instead killed them, which triggered the last remaining host protection clause of the system.

That day, Locke learned for the first time that his system was actually a role-playing system. He then resurrected on the spot, transforming into [Yujiro Hanma], and letting those two third-tier "heroes" understand what it means to be a hero among heroes.

Unfortunately, perhaps because he became the freest man on Earth, Locke's freedom became unreliable. With no experience whatsoever, Locke was soon approached by Walter, who then surprised him by discovering that he was a natural-born superhuman.

What followed was a year of inhumane experimental imprisonment, which continues to this day.

He had tried many times over the past year. Although each time he was near death and transformed into a very strong character, even stronger and stronger, the time he could transform was getting shorter and shorter.

His most recent success was when he became the Joker, a famous villain in DC Comics.

Perhaps because he himself was on the verge of collapse at the time, he and the Joker inexplicably clicked, extending the transformation time to three days, and he almost managed to escape.

Unfortunately, he eventually ran into Homelander, and just then, the time came.

However, he had left many contingency plans behind. He bewitched many people and turned them into his loyal followers, waiting for the right opportunity to help him escape.

In his dream, Locke recalled all the details of his conversation with Cypher that day, and finally confirmed his guess: Cypher really did intend to kill him.

Although he didn't know if Locke had found a way to kill himself, Locke understood that he had to take action before they replenished their sevoflurane supply tomorrow.

Now, his only hope lies with the technician who relayed the signal earlier.

Locke's mood sank lower and lower, and the rain outside the window grew heavier, pattering down as if shaking out all the suffocating bitterness in his heart.

On a whim, he swapped his coffee for alcohol, drank half a cup, then threw the remaining half on the ground before leaving his dream without looking back.

However, after he left, his dream did not disappear. Instead, a large hole appeared, as if something had punched through it.

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Locke awoke from his coma and was put back on his helmet, his five senses almost completely shut down.

Now, all he can do is repeatedly retrieve the memories from his mind to keep himself thinking clearly.

He replayed the near-death experience over and over again, recalling every detail of each performance frame by frame, hoping to do a better job next time. Until a strange vibration came—the only external signal he could perceive.

In complete isolation, these tiny vibrations were exceptionally clear; he could even detect a trace of chaos—noise—within the irregular tremors.

"Fuck! How come there are so many superpowered people in this godforsaken place?!"

The butcher, who had temporarily killed number five, used a laser to cut the guard in half at the waist, while holding Hugh and having him teleport the two of them to the bottom of the elevator.

However, Xiu Yi's teleportation ability is limited; he can only reach places he has been to or seen before. In the end, the two of them did not land directly at the bottom floor, but instead landed at the top of the elevator car at the very bottom, and could only grope their way down the elevator shaft.

The guards above grew increasingly agitated upon seeing this, and through the elevator door that the two had torn open, they fired wildly downwards in an attempt to stop them.

But it was all in vain—the bullets all hit the metal walls of the elevator shaft, making a crackling sound but not even touching the hem of their clothes. At most, they could only prove to the people above that they had "tried their best to stop" them, but in reality, it was completely useless.

Taking advantage of this brief respite, the two were finally able to catch their breath. The height difference of forty-five meters was enough to keep the guards at bay for quite some time.

"Fuck, that damn madman won't finish his sentence before he dies. Now we'd better pray that his boss is really as powerful as he says."

The butcher tore open the elevator roof and walked into the twelfth basement level with Hugh.

Walter dug out twelve floors to imprison the "hope" underground, and this mysteriously imprisoned "hope" now represents their hope of escaping.

"Kyuuichi, can you let this get out of here?"

Hugh closed his eyes and tried it, then shook his head at the butcher, indicating that he couldn't do it. Ever since they arrived in this damned central area, something had been blocking his teleportation ability.

Cypher probably didn't expect that the magnetic field jammer he built to prevent Locke from randomly gaining teleportation abilities would come into play at this time.

"Fuck!" With no other choice, the butcher had to turn his attention to the super alloy door at the end of the twelfth-floor corridor, which was a full meter thick.

The butcher turned to look at Hugh, who nodded. The two walked towards the gate without saying a word, leaving the noise behind them.

The mad researcher died suddenly, but luckily he had mentioned it beforehand—the Butcher had gouged out his deputy's eyes and broken his fingers long ago, and only with these things did he gain access to the secret room.

The hydraulic alloy door opened with a dull, heavy thud, and at the same time, faint cries of despair could be heard from inside the sealed room.

"Fire!"

Upon seeing this, the four security guards inside the gate had their pupils shrink and their eyes filled with despair. They immediately picked up their guns loaded with specially made armor-piercing bullets and pulled the triggers at the two naked superpowered robbers.

Before the bullets had traveled far, two scorching laser beams suddenly burst from the butcher's eyes, instantly slicing the four men in half at the waist. Warm blood splattered onto the cold door panel, spreading out in a crimson hue.

After doing all this, the butcher felt a strange sense of annoyance.

But he didn't think much of it. He bent down and tore off the blood-stained clothes from the corpse, haphazardly put them on, and then his gaze fell on the thing in front of him, which he could only call an "alloy terracotta warrior".

The thing in front of them was suspended in mid-air by heavy chains, its entire body covered in airtight alloy armor, with only a few small vents. These few vents were the only evidence that there might be a living person hidden inside the armor.

The butcher stared at the alloy terracotta warrior in front of him, his eyes full of doubt: Could this thing be the "hope" they were looking for?

But he didn't have time to think it through. Suddenly, a steel cable fell down from the elevator shaft in the distance, followed by a piercing metallic scraping sound.

The thought of those damned Vikings (Vot's "Hero") made Hugh suddenly turn around and rush to the outside of the secret room. He smashed the control panel of the door with a punch, and the hydraulic alloy door instantly activated its safety mechanism, slowly closing with a heavy roar.

"What are you doing?" the butcher's voice followed closely behind.

"Save our lives!" Hugh roared, turning around, his voice filled with urgency and desperation. "We're trapped here! Our only chance now is this damn 'hope'!"

Startled by Hugh's shout, the Butcher didn't waste any words. He knew Hugh was right; their only hope for survival was that the terracotta warrior would serve its purpose. He immediately followed Hugh's lead, and the two of them began preparing to free the alloy terracotta warrior.

Just as the two were trying to pry off Locke's helmet, the loud sound of Vikings slamming their hammers against the door came from outside, along with other superpowered guards activating their abilities and attempting to break down the door, causing the entire secret chamber to tremble slightly.

Meanwhile, only the deputy's deputy remained, sweating profusely as he called Cypher, who had been summoned to the Water Tower by Stan, hurriedly explaining the current emergency.

Inside the secret room, Hugh and Butcher, who had temporarily gained superpowers, finally managed to pry open Locke's helmet after a great deal of effort.

Light suddenly flooded his vision, and his ears were instantly filled with a cacophony of sounds—the pounding on the door and the muffled thuds of colliding superpowers mingled together. Locke had just recovered from his long confinement and hadn't even had time to react when Hugh leaned in and quickly poured out his current predicament.

"Can you hear me? Do you understand English?" Hugh's voice was urgent, filled with a desperate anxiety. "We're counting on you now. What kind of superpower do you have?"

As soon as Hugh finished speaking, Locke remained silent for a few seconds before slowly opening his mouth, his authentic New York accent carrying a hint of inexplicable mockery and speechlessness:

"So I heard you right. You two didn't call Kimiko, Breast Milk, or the Frenchman, nor did you look for Starlight or Queen Maeve. You dared to break into Vought's superpowered prison, which he'd run for decades, with just two temporary Compound V doses? And knowing full well that they'd invested an astronomical sum here?"

These words were like a bucket of cold water, instantly leaving Hugh speechless.

He opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a word of explanation for a long time. He was filled with doubt: How could this person, who had been imprisoned for so long, know so much about their situation?

The butcher, who had been unable to contain himself any longer, shoved Hugh aside and rushed straight to Locke. Their eyes met, and he immediately launched into a tirade of classical Chinese poetry:

"Listen up! You damn squinty-eyed bastard, if you don't want to continue this BDSM nonsense, then you'd better use your superpowers and get us out of this hellhole! Otherwise, you can expect them to report your dermatitis!"

To the butcher's surprise, after he finished shouting angrily with spittle flying, Locke only sneered and looked up at him with disdain, saying, "Fine, then kill me."

The butcher froze on the spot, his face filled with disbelief and astonishment.

Could it be that they are all going to die here today?