Although he had expected it, Asho couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy when he heard that the Blood Moon Judgment was indeed a death sentence.
He had some fantasies in his heart, perhaps the people here could recognize that he was not the leader of the heresy, perhaps he would have to go through a long trial phase, perhaps he could get a two-year reprieve…
These fantasies reached their peak after he entered prison, because in Asho’s eyes, how could a death row inmate have such a good room with a private bathroom?
How could a death row inmate have freedom of movement in prison?
How could a death row inmate receive so many privileges in prison?
Lana’s words completely shattered all of his naive expectations – it was precisely because they were going to die that the prison treated them so well.
“The prison is keeping us captive just to make us die more miserably?” Asho said with difficulty. “Isn’t that a waste of resources?”
“Do you complain that the fireworks are not brilliant enough?” Lana laughed. “I’m surprised, you really don’t understand the Blood Moon Judgment – it’s a live broadcast program that every city has. Most citizens will stay at home and watch the end of each sinner on the 1st and 15th of every month at 8 o’clock in the evening, and the audience rating is close to 70%.”
“By the way, compared to the advertising fees brought by the program ‘Blood Moon Judgment’, the cost of keeping us in prison is simply not worth mentioning.”
It’s incredible that ‘watching beheadings’ is a popular program in this world…
Asho pulled the corners of his mouth: “It’s ridiculous. How can 70% of people watch entertainment programs at 8 o’clock in the evening without working overtime? I think they just don’t have enough work to do…”
Lana was not surprised at Asho’s incompetence and anger.
He had seen too many death row inmates’ ugly behaviors when the Blood Moon Judgment was approaching, from denouncing the social system to cursing the ignorance of the world. As long as you stay in this prison long enough, you will naturally see everything.
“But if you want to escape the Blood Moon Judgment, there is a way.”
Asho immediately became interested: “What way?”
Lana didn’t hesitate and said bluntly: “Although someone will inevitably die in every Blood Moon Judgment, there will be eight people going, and the quota for these eight people is not fixed, but ranked according to ‘contribution’.”
“Each death row inmate starts with 50 contribution points, and 10 points will be deducted every month. But it doesn’t matter if it’s deducted to 0, the prison won’t do anything to the death row inmate because of this.”
“But the higher the contribution points, the later the trial sequence, and the lower the contribution points, the earlier the trial sequence. In theory, the first eight people in the trial sequence are the participants of the Blood Moon Judgment.””There are many ways to earn contribution points, and the easiest one is to create value. Although our intelligence was worthless after our memories were extracted by memory masters before we were sent to prison, we still have many ways to create contribution:
Some people came in for dereliction of duty and embezzlement, and they can provide a system improvement plan to reduce the possibility of future dereliction of duty and embezzlement;
Some people came in for illegal experiments, and they can continue to conduct legal experiments and write papers in prison;
Some people have various talents, and some even write best-selling books in prison, which naturally counts as creating value.”
“But in this prison, more people are killers who have no special creative talent – like me.”
Longna pointed to Asho, “Like you.”
“So how do we earn contribution points? The Death Battle Society is our answer.”
Asho realized something, “You just said that there is a price to pay for participating in death battles…”
“In addition to death and pain, the biggest price of death battles is the transfer of contribution points,” Longna said. “In each death battle, both sides must bet a certain amount of contribution points. The winner escapes the Blood Moon, and the loser faces judgment.”
“If the Blood Moon trial is a dead end, then the Death Battle Society is the blood sea along the way – almost all death row inmates will participate in death battles in the end, betting their last bit of contribution and shedding their last drop of blood, and then they will appear in the live broadcast room in the most desperate posture for everyone to watch.”
“This is our way of making contributions – eliminating the weak and maintaining bloodiness!”
“This is also the reason why the prison allows the Death Battle Society to exist.” Longna’s voice was as calm as discussing someone else’s business. “Before going on stage, actors always have to put on makeup.”
Actors always have to put on makeup, otherwise the audience won’t like it.
Even if Asho had never watched the Blood Moon trial, he understood Longna’s meaning.
Just like how they would create a beautiful character drawing for a mobile game, the so-called ‘death battle’ is the process of turning death row inmates into a drawing: gambling, fighting, despair, fear, pain…there is nothing more stimulating to one’s bloodiness than a ‘life-and-death battle.’
When a death row inmate becomes hysterical from pain and desperate from fear after multiple defeats in death battles, he becomes a ‘main course’ that can be served on the table. What will be presented to the audience is a ‘beast’ full of bloodiness, fighting spirit, despair, and fear.
Compared to a numb, decayed, and dull ‘human,’ a ‘beast’ that seems to still resist is naturally more entertaining to kill.
This is a conspiracy, a conspiracy that death row inmates cannot refuse.”Not only would the losers become products needed by the prison, being sold at a “good price” in the live broadcast, but the winners were also just drinking poison to quench their thirst. One day, they would appear in the live broadcast and meet the same end.
From the beginning, there was only one outcome for these death row inmates: to be drained of all value by the prison and then die. The private bathrooms, good food, and comprehensive facilities were all just meant to fatten them up.
The so-called trial sequence was actually a mechanism of internal competition, where everyone was engaged in a zero-sum game. Either you would face the trial or I would face the death penalty.
However, this was actually reasonable. Who asked them to break the law and become death row inmates?
Moreover, if the death row inmates didn’t want to be exploited, they could just lie down and wait for death. They would only compete internally if they wanted to live.
If Asho were outside the prison, he would definitely applaud this mechanism and enjoy the show.
Unfortunately, Heath, who was the leader of the heresy, was not only weak but also dragged Asho into the prison, forcing him to find another way to survive.
“Having heard all this, do you still want to participate in the death match club?”
“Of course!”
Langna wasn’t surprised, finishing his milk and belching, “Then follow me. If we’re lucky, we might be able to see a fresh, hot corpse right now.”
“Do people fight to the death this early in the morning?” Asho asked curiously.
“Although death matches require betting contribution points, you don’t have to bet a lot of points at the beginning. The first match only requires a bet of 1 point, and each subsequent match must have one more point than the previous one. The second match is 2 points, the third match is 3 points, and so on.”
“Although the stakes will gradually accumulate, there is still a chance to turn the tables if you lose all of the first five matches. So everyone tries to make the best use of the first five death matches to figure out the strengths and weaknesses of others and determine their own strength in the prison.”
“As a result, the frequency of death matches is quite high, and one match per day is a normal occurrence. There are only a few days left until the 15th, and those who are ranked lower in the sequence must be trying to escape the trial through death matches. I estimate that the bloodstains on the death match arena won’t dry up in the next few days.”
“By the way, do you want to buy some meat?”
Asho blinked, “Meat? What kind of meat?”
“The meat that falls on the arena. This is one of the few ways we can spend our contribution points. The meat that falls on the arena already belongs to the prison, and we can buy it back from the prison.”
Langna turned his head to look at Asho and showed two rows of pale, neat teeth, “If you’re lucky, you can buy some thigh meat. It’s excellent whether you make sashimi or cook it. I highly recommend it.”