Louis's act of brushing his shoulder was unpleasant to Mason.
The young man frowned, unable to fathom what the lord saw in this guy that was so interesting, even going so far as to tell him to keep an eye on him.
Louis merely noticed the young master's scowl before the latter, seemingly unwilling, handed him an invitation:
"A little entertainment. Go if you want, don't if you don't."
Louis took the ticket from Mason's hand and raised an eyebrow slightly at the remark.
But Mason had already turned and walked away, as if his sole purpose in coming was to stake a claim and keep anyone else from getting too close to Louis.
The female lead had quite the possessive streak.
Louis twirled the ticket idly between his fingers, thinking so in mild boredom.
Draining the rest of his wine in one gulp, he headed toward the underground passage, ticket in hand.
Thanks to Mason's earlier words, no one else bothered to approach Louis, though plenty of gazes still trailed after him, occasionally laced with flirtation.
Louis returned those looks with a polite smile, but never slowed his pace.
He handed the ticket to a waiter, who glanced at it before bowing respectfully.
"Honored guest, please follow me," the man said quickly before leading.
Louis already knew where this ticket would take him.
Just as Mason had said—an entertainment venue. Ha.
In the novel, this was where the disaster began.
A new kind of opiate had suddenly been introduced into high society.
At first, the dosage caused no side effects other than sending the user into euphoric bliss.
But once taken, addiction was inevitable—and once addicted, there was no stopping. Eventually, users would become soulless, puppet-like husks, entirely at the mercy of others.
Worse still, cases had already emerged where these hollow shells suddenly went berserk, their bodies detonating with terrifying force and wiping out their entire households.
In this world, nobility was a closed circle. They paid little mind to the source—if one family perished, another rose to take its place—so the system hadn't completely collapsed.
However, it became clear that the situation couldn't be allowed to continue. The consequences would be catastrophic.
Upon investigation, suspicion fell on the Silver Mansion.
Authorities moved to raid and arrest, only for an immense flood of the opiate to pour out like a tsunami. No one escaped.
The crowd went mad, tearing into one another, and in the end, only around fifty people survived.
And now, Louis had been led straight to where it all began—Silver Mansion's underground fighting pit.
After all, in places like these, if you didn't throw in an underground arena to give characters more opportunities to shine, you weren't much of an author.
And indeed, the author of Original Sin had proven themselves to be good.
The pit was not only massive but lavishly built. Viewing areas encircled the arena, while deeper down lay the fighting floor itself. Many spectators were already present, though most still preferred to watch online.
After all, this place was truly for the bloodthirsty. Some scenes were so brutal that even the boldest would flinch away.
At first, Louis didn't understand why Aboli had brought him here—
But after the drugged collar snapped shut around him, he understood.
She wanted him on stage—left to save himself.
Ha.
She might have some twisted scheme running through her head for all he knew, but he neither understood nor cared to.
A sharp ache throbbed in his skull after the sedation, and now he could begin to hear the voices outside.
"Fresh stock?"
"Won't be usable till tomorrow, hahaha—heard the sedative was overdosed."
"Overdosed? Planning to kill him outright?!"
"Just follow orders—it came from above."
"With a face like that, it'd be a shame to waste him."
The voices gradually faded, swept away like debris in a storm.
Louis used every ounce of strength to pry his eyes open, only to watch the cell door warp and swirl in time with his blinks. Eventually, he gave up, shutting them again to ease the pounding in his head and the dizzy churn in his vision.
He let himself be carried along for now, because he'd known he would end up here—
And only here could he see the Demonic Twins.
Clinging faintly to that thought, Louis finally slipped into complete unconsciousness.
Bang! Thud!
He had no idea what caused the sound, but it rattled the entire underground chamber.
Louis jolted awake on the cot, nearly rolling clean onto the floor. Eyes snapping open, he sat bolt upright—only for his head to fog over again, whether from the sedative still in his system or from moving too quickly.
He shook his head, pressing his lips into a thin line as he forced himself to his feet. Whatever Aboli's people had drugged him with was enough to make a grown man like him sway and stumble like some delicate Xi Shi.
The thought left him speechless, but he quickly scanned his surroundings.
The matches hadn't started yet; each cell was empty save for its current occupant.
Stepping to the door, Louis gripped the lock in both hands and began working it with a quick, deft clack-clack, all while muttering inwardly.
These cages were meant for the poor souls who'd already taken the banned drugs and gone mad or half-dead.
It wasn't like he was some dangerous lunatic—locking him here was overkill. They were giving him far too much credit.
He flicked the short piece of metal into his mouth without a second thought and eased the door open.
Now then… the Demonic Twins, the Demonic Twins… where were those two brats hiding?
The hallway stretched on endlessly, lined with barred cells. Each set of bars had been covered with cloth, so Louis couldn't peek inside—not that he dared, since he valued his life enough not to poke at whatever lay behind them.
BANG!
A sudden, deafening noise rang out, and Louis's instincts made him glance back—
Just in time to see a hand snaking out from between the bars of the cell he'd just passed.
A shriveled, pitch-black hand, its fingers long and razor-sharp—if it raked across someone, it would probably tear away a large chunk of flesh.
Every vein on that chunk of flesh bulged, writhing as if a nest of tiny snakes lived beneath the skin. The hand kept clenching and unclenching, as though searching for something.
Pitiful.
Louis thought to himself, then closed his fist, knocking it lightly against this nameless friend's before turning to leave.
Behind him, the sound of violent struggling rang out again, like a rabid cat endlessly clawing and biting at iron bars.
Seems this nameless friend is still quite excitable, Louis mused.
Suddenly, sensing something, he stopped and pressed close to the bars.
Ahead stood a massive mechanical door, and in front of it were two guards, each nearly two meters tall—one glance was enough to know they weren't to be trifled with.
And judging from the door's heavily fortified appearance, Louis was sure something was being kept inside.
The heroine was quite considerate—knowing what he needed, she had even arranged for him to be in the same sector as the Demonic Twins. Without much effort, he had found them. Louis even felt, for a moment, as though he were the story's protagonist.
Then suddenly, his eyes widened—he had sensed something. Swiftly, he dodged to the side, just as a human hand… at least, something vaguely resembling a human hand, shot out from behind the bars, stabbing straight toward him!
Even though Louis reacted quickly, he couldn't altogether avoid it—his sleeve was torn, and fresh blood spurted out, accompanied by a sharp sting of pain.
Louis bit his lip. The violent clanging of iron bars had already drawn the attention of the two guards.
"Who's there?!"
Footsteps approached. Louis's expression turned cold as he glanced at the hand before him, covered in pus, bubbles, and greenish slime. Heaven will help him if he finds something from that. Without missing a beat, he brushed the slime across his lips, moved to the lock, and got to work.
You want to catch me? Fine. Let's see you deal with this sick freak first.
"Hey, freeze! Hands up if you don't want a bullet in you!"
A hoarse voice barked from behind, startling Louis—his hands shot up at once.
One of the guards sneered. "Where'd this little rat come from?"
"Trying to stage a jailbreak?" the other said.
"Let's just take him back." The first one stepped forward, reaching to grab Louis.
But at that moment, Louis's body suddenly lurched backward violently, as if yanked by something unseen!
The guard's eyes went wide, and he was face-to-face with a grotesque monster before he could react.
"Graw!"