Universal Power System
Chapter 58 Night Duty

The basement was just a formal way of saying prison cells as this was where all the prisoners or "workers" were kept. Mako had some idea of what to expect from the stories he had heard from Bill, but once he made his way down to the basement after almost getting lost two times, he held his mouth with his hands to stop himself from puking.

The smell that was coming from the entrance to the sleeping area was so horrendous that Mako had to force himself not to vomit right there on the spot. He couldn't believe that this was where all these people were kept as he couldn't imagine being stuck here for life.

It took him a couple of moments to compose himself before he entered the main area. The room was quite massive with no walls and only pillars supporting the entire structure. There were a large number of bunk beds that were lined neatly in rows throughout the room and then there was a massive rebar metal wall shaped like a cell door.

The room was separated into two compartments, The majority of the area was the prisoner's sleeping area but a small space right next to the entrance was a small area that was meant for the guard. The area of the guard and the entrance were walled off by the barred rebar wall so that the prisoners couldn't get to them.

It was currently night so all the prisoners were in the sleeping area, but not all of them had gone to bed. Some were still awake and conversing with one another. Some of the prisoners had the Fire ability and had made small campfires that 10-15 cuddled around since it was very cold down there with no heater or anything else to make them warm.

Mako used Analyze on one group and could see that all the people who had an ability were all level 1's and 2's and with being so malnourished, they hardly had any energy to cast anything. Mako watched with pity and sadness as some of the prisoners were fighting each other so that they can be closer to the campfire.

The prisoners here were all those people who were part of El-Diablo's gang and failed to do something. Others were prisoners who were captured by other gangs and were thrown here as punishment for going against them, while some of them were just captured and brought here against their will.

Bill had told him that gangs like these had info on pretty much everyone who was within their territory and they would use this information to replace those who didn't have strong relations with anyone and force them to either work for them or throw them in one of these warehouses to increase the man force for their factories so that they can produce more products.

This whole situation was making Mako angrier by the minute and he got enraged even more when he looked over at the small room that was meant for the guard to replace a woman wearing the same uniform as him who was sitting in a leather chair while her feet were on the desk in front of her. She had headphones on and was casually vibing to the music while keeping her eyes closed.

'How could she be this relaxed while people in front of her are fighting over some heat?!' Mako thought as he walked over to the small room.

As he arrived, the woman took notice and slowly stood up from the chair and started to stretch her arms and back. This indicated that she had been relaxing on the chair for quite some time while the prisoners were fighting to keep warm. The room had air conditioning and it was currently keeping the room warm and smelling nice.

Veins started to pop on Mako's forehead as he was on the verge of letting his anger overwhelm him, but he quickly composed himself before Angela noticed. He was here on a mission and he was now going to use this rage to fuel his motivation to succeed and teach these dirtbags a lesson.

'All of you will be having a taste of your own medicine very soon.' Mako said in his thoughts while Angela continued to stretch.

"Took you long enough. Alec can sure be a handful sometimes, can't he?" She said.

Mako knew who she was talking about. It was the person who they had met as soon as they had gotten out of the van; the one who had yelled out orders to them. Mako had used Analyze on him and he got to know his name and that he was a Level 3 Wind ability user.

Angela finished her stretching and grabbed her coat before making her way toward the entrance. As she was making her way past Mako, she slapped his back lightly and said, "Don't Worry about Alec, he just wants to make sure everything is up to code so that the big boss remains happy. I can see you're new here, don't sweat about it too much, and loosen up a bit. Your shift will be over before you know it."

"Oh yeah, I believe it will be," Mako replied as he took a seat on the leather chair. Angela didn't take much notice of the comment and proceeded to leave the basement.

Mako was now alone with the prisoners. He first scanned his surroundings and noticed a couple of things in the room. There was a red button on the wall that Mako assumed to be an alarm to alert everyone if something were to happen down here such as the prisoners escaping.

There were two cameras in total, one was monitoring the guard's room while the other was monitoring the prisoners. The camera within the guard's room wasn't online which was probably Angela's doing so that she could have a lovely time down here. This only left one camera that was monitoring the guards and it was obvious to him that someone was definitely watching through it.

There was also some sort of stick in the drawer that didn't look ordinary at all so Mako decided to inspect it by using Analyze.

[Medium Tier Terra Bat's Baton] ⓘ

[A 25-inch long baton forged from the crystal and flesh of a Terra Bat found in (Unknown). A poor quality baton forged by (Unknown)]

[Strength +10]

[Agility +5]

[Attack: 30]

[Passive skill: Electrocute] ⓘ

[Electrocute: After hitting an opponent twice with a baton, the baton becomes charged and the next strike will deal 50% more damage and give the opponent a mild electric shock that may paralyze them for a couple of seconds.]

It was an upgraded version of the low-tier batons that Mako had seen the police carry around and even though it wasn't that great of a weapon it was plenty for the purpose at hand. Mako decided to take the baton and store it in his inventory for now.

After getting to know his surroundings, Mako decided that the first thing he would do was to talk to the prisoners, but he couldn't walk up and talk to them because the camera would see him talking to them and the prisoners themselves wouldn't be open to talking to a guard.

Mako walked out towards the entrance just outside the range of the camera. He took out his holo phone and proceeded to make a small recording of the prison. After he had gotten a sufficient video, he proceeded to climb up to the camera using the metal bars while still remaining hidden from view.

Once there, Mako attached his phone right in front of the lens of the camera and proceeded to play the video on a loop so that the person who was looking through the camera wouldn't be able to notice anything.

"It is a very primitive setup but it would have to do for now," Mako said as he climbed back down.

By this time, some of the prisoners had noticed Mako setting up the camera and were wondering why a guard would be doing such a thing. Their confusion increased as they saw the guard use the key that was hanging on the wall to open the jail door and enter.

The guard didn't say anything, he just locked the door again behind him and started walking around the different groups of prisoners. The people were genuinely confused because this wasn't something they had seen someone do before, but they could say anything out of fear because sometimes even speaking with a guard might anger them and they would hit them with their batons.

As Mako made his way around the area, he kept using Analyze on every single person because he was searching for someone in particular. He kept looking for 15 minutes before he arrived in front of a prisoner who was fake sleeping in one of the corners of the room all alone.

[Analyze]

[Profile: Nikhil Kent]

[Ability: Auditory Perception (Level 3)] ⓘ

[Health: 180/180] ⓘ

[Energy: 140/200] ⓘ

[Strength: 12] ⓘ

[Agility: 10] ⓘ

[Perception: 18] ⓘ

[Intelligence: 8] ⓘ

[Mentality: 8] ⓘ

[Stamina: 10] ⓘ

[Charisma: 6] ⓘ

[Fortitude: 10] ⓘ

"Found you," Mako said in a threatening yet playful voice.