Chameleon: My True Face 1 Chameleon

The Chief Warden, the highest-ranking official of the high-security prison on Badu Island, the Devils' Den, could be seen talking to a poker-faced handcuffed young man as he grimly delivered him to his cell in the Alpha Sector, the most dangerous sector of this prison.

"Remember, Li Wuxing, you are no longer an officer of the Seven Stars Special Forces. From now on, you are Prisoner Number 42960."

The prison guard accompanying them, seeing that the new inmate called Li Wuxing was not responding to the Chief Warden, grabbed the baton by his waist and was prepared to give him a lesson. However, he was timely stopped by the Chief Warden.

"Don't. It's fine. I would also be down if I lost everything I had in the span of a single night." The Chief Warden then patted Li Wuxing on the shoulder with a compassionate look in his eyes. "Prisoner 42960, please don't make too much trouble for us during your time spent here. As long as you behave, we will stay as friends, and your life here will be just as good as if you were living on the mainland."

He stared at his new inmate for a couple more seconds and seeing no reaction from him, he gave the signal to close the bars.

Wuxing was left alone in his cell, which was nothing but a small room with a surface area of eight square meters. There were only a single bed, a toilet and a sink inside the cell. There was barely enough space to move around.

Wuxing silently placed his things on the bed and approached the sink.

A young, haggard face with bags under his narrow-set of azure eyes appeared in the mirror above the sink. He had a square-shaped face with a pointed chin, a narrow nose, well-defined cheekbones and elegant thin lips. His cleanly cut coal-black hair and well-groomed eyebrows were quite distinctive in comparison to his three-day-long facial hair. Although he did not sleep for over thirty hours, he still looked sharp and spirited, befitting of the rank that was stripped off him.

He took off his new prison shirt, showing off his abundant muscles and broad shoulders.

Despite the nonchalant expression on his face, Wuxing felt powerless inside.

"Fuck… Is this how my life will end? Sentenced for life in a high-security prison? Is this all you are going to give me?" he cursed under his breath as he looked at the ceiling, complaining to no one in particular.

He sat on the bed and recalled the scenes from the last two days, remembering the circumstances that landed him in this place.

Everything started on his 22nd birthday, exactly two days ago. Normally, Wuxing was not the type to celebrate, but because his squad completed a well-paid mission that day, he decided to throw a party using that excuse as their reward.

That day, he was in a good mood because he would finally become a one-star Captain as soon as he returned to the Seven Stars headquarters. He would be able to take on more dangerous missions, which in turn, would make him earn a greater number of contribution points, allowing him to advance faster in the ranks.

Wuxing had never drank alcohol and that time was not an exception. His teammates continuously tried to get him drunk that night, which for him did not come as a surprise as they had always pulled that stunt many times before. There was nothing suspicious about their merrymaking.

Who would have thought that they would decide to drug his soft drink instead?

As normal sleeping pills would not work on him because he had been trained to detect them, his teammates had used an odourless and tasteless sleeping powder to trick him. After they had successfully made him down the entire glass and were certain that the effects were kicking, only then did they finally show their true colours.

"W-Why?"

Wuxing was fighting a losing battle against drowsiness, but he gritted his teeth to ask that question.

Rui Feng, his right hand in the group, sighed as he looked with pity at Wuxing.

"Boss, you should blame yourself for being so perfect. You are only twenty-two and already becoming a one-star Captain. Don't you think that it's too fast? Also, this is an order from above. Everyone in the team will have our ranks upgraded to Officer after this job. I hope you understand our reasoning for doing this to you—it's easy, yet the benefit is extraordinary. We would be stupid not to accept it."

"Who…?" Wuxing asked with difficulty as he collapsed to the ground.

"Well, to repay you for what you have done for us, I guess we can tell you this much." Rui Feng ruefully gazed at the young man. "It was General Long's secret order. If you were to advance in rank, his son would be demoted to Officer rank and that's what he didn't want to see. Many others were also involved as they were scared of your future achievements. There was Major Mu, Major Gong…"

Before Wuxing could listen till the end, his consciousness entered into a deep sleep.

Later on, he was woken up by the coldness of the water poured over his head. His teammates were already gone and he found himself tied to a chair inside what appeared to be an interrogation room. A bright light was pointed at his face, disorienting him further.

He now realized that this must be how criminals felt at first—there was confusion, and then, there was anger.

He was interrogated in extreme conditions for over twenty hours with only small breaks to give him water, just enough to sustain his life. They tried to make him plead guilty for a crime he did not commit, but after a long time of fruitless effort, they had to give up seeing the torture had no effect.

They showed him photos of him lying drunk with a bottle of whiskey on the ground next to the dead body of a young lady. They claimed that she was killed with a bullet that matched his personal gun. They said that when he was captured, it was found that his fingerprints were on the pistol and he had traces of gunpowder all over his hand.

Even if he were to claim that he was innocent, he knew that the collected evidence was solid enough to find him guilty in every court.

Without any surprises, Wuxing was accused of murder and later convicted by a private judge without any witnesses. The next day, he was delivered to the highest-security prison in the United Nations' Confederation territory, the Badu Island Prison, called by many the "Devils' Den". Only devils—criminals with life sentences—were sent there.

"Fuck! To think I was done in by them so easily…" Wuxing could only curse and blame his stupidity. If he was like his idol and dream girlfriend, General Leng Xue, he wouldn't be placed in a situation like that. She was cold to others and a lone wolf. Even though she was only twenty-five years old, she already climbed to the rank of General.

She didn't even have any team and cleared her missions all by herself. Astoundingly, she did her jobs with a 100 percent success rate and with perfect marks. In comparison, he had only 95 percent success rate while working together with his team.

"Ai…" Wuxing sighed.

Thinking about it, he finally understood why she always opted to act alone. Since she only depended on herself, then there were zero chances that she would get betrayed.

If only realized this sooner, he wouldn't end up like this, caged inside a cold cell, surrounded by the most heinous criminals—hundreds of them with a grudge against him as he had personally captured them. Many inmates here would love to bleed his life out of him.

"When I manage to leave this place, I swear to god, I will hunt you bitches down and make you pay a hundred times over!" Wuxing vowed under his breath, determined to get revenge.

He knew it would be extremely difficult, but he had been in a lot of dead-end situations and so far, he had always managed to find a way out.

Wuxing lay down on the bed and fell asleep the moment he closed his eyes. It was part of his training; he had reached that point where he could will himself to sleep and didn't need extra time to drift off. When doing field missions outside, each second counts. Even the duration of rest had to be calculated into each plan. The lack of sleep certainly was a big part of it too.

He was surprised that the moment he appeared in his dream world, instead of the usual darkness, he was greeted by brightness all around.

"Hello?" Wuxing asked and his voice echoed into the distance. "Is it a lucid dream? Weird."

He was sure that this wasn't supposed to happen as he had only entered a half-sleep mode. With this kind of shallow sleep, if he were to hear movement around him, he would instantly wake up.

"Don't worry. Nothing is going to happen to you." A croaky male voice sounded behind him causing him to rapidly turn around and take a defensive stance.

"Who are you?" Wuxing asked as soon as he saw a tall man in a full black suit, wearing a devil mask on his face.

"I'm your saviour!" the man said righteously, raising a hand into the air. "Didn't you just ask for help to get your revenge? I heard your plea and came to help you."

"Why do I get the feeling that you cannot be trusted?"

Wuxing had a hard time believing, and it did not come as a surprise, seeing that the man donned a devil mask on his face. Who would trust such a suspicious person?

"Heh, do you want to spend the rest of your life in prison or are you going to get your sweet revenge?" The devil-masked man didn't care about Wuxing's distrust and got straight to the point.

"What do I have to do in return?" Wuxing did not know if this was just his imagination or the real deal, but either way, he was not losing anything by playing along. He knew that there were no free meals in this world, so there had to be a catch somewhere.

"Oh, nothing much. Sometimes, when I'm bored, I might ask you to do stuff for me, like killing someone or stealing something. Only some trivial things." The devil-masked man waved his hand indifferently as if his 'stuff' was indeed nothing.

Wuxing realized where the catch is. "And I suppose, I can't say 'no' to your requests?"

"You are a smart boy, but don't worry. I can assure you that I will never ask you to kill your loved ones or friends." Wuxing was almost sure that the man in the suit was smiling right now as he said that. "Do we have a deal?"

"How are you going to help me? Are you going to take me away from here?" Wuxing didn't want to agree to anything until he knew all the details.

"Even better… I will give you magical power… the ability to change yourself into anyone you want."

The man in the devil mask suddenly appeared in front of Wuxing and poked him on the forehead.

"Test it out and if you agree, yell out in your mind, 'I, Li Wuxing, sign the contract!'"

Instantly, Wuxing woke up from the dream. He was back inside his prison cell and he realized that he had been soundly asleep the entire night—it was morning already since the light was coming through the narrow opening on the wall, which functioned as a window.

He felt weird recalling the scene that just happened, but just to be sure, he still decided to check it out. It's not like he had anything to lose.

Wuxing stood up and approached the mirror above the sink. He saw his face that still had bags under his eyes, but he looked much better compared to yesterday's mess.

'What should I do?' He mused for a moment, not really expecting anything to happen. 'Hmm… change the colour of my hair to white!'

When nothing changed after several seconds, a wry smile appeared on his face that was clearly saying, "I knew it". However, after ten seconds, his smile froze. His hair suddenly turned white, making him jump away from the mirror. He touched the silvery strands to make sure it was real.

His hair really turned white!

'Turn it back!' Wuxing cried happily in his mind.

This time the process was much faster, and his hair turned back into his natural colour almost instantly.

"It works!" Wuxing shouted out loud, gaining the attention of the prison guard who was patrolling nearby.

"Shut up or I will shut—!" The guard yelled at Wuxing, banging his baton on the bars, but when he recognized the prisoner making trouble, he stopped and decisively walked away. He recalled that the Chief Warden ordered everyone to not piss off this particular criminal, saying that he didn't want to see any of his subordinates dead from his hands.

Wuxing didn't care about the guard as his mind was filled with ecstasy. He imagined endless possibilities for his new ability, both for his escape and revenge. He no longer hesitated and yelled in his mind, 'I, Li Wuxing, sign the contract!'

The moment he finished saying that sentence, he suddenly felt pain in his chest area.

"Aaaargh!"

He did not have a shirt so could see clearly the cause of it. A black chameleon tattoo, the size of a fist, was being engraved on his skin. The pain was tolerable for him, but it burned like hell.

The devil-masked man's voice sounded in his mind. "Good choice, boy. We will have lots of fun together. From now on, I will call you Chameleon. Good luck with your escape!"

Wuxing laughed maniacally as he took his first step to exacting his sweet revenge.

"You thought you have done me for good? I will see you all soon…"

...

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