Blood Moon Kingdom, Shattered Lake Prison, Restaurant.
Asho looked at the lotus crab, lemonberry milk cake, Extreme God Lalafell, and golden pineapple juice in front of him, his nose filled with the aroma of delicious food. However, he had no appetite in his heart.
These dishes were not simple. They only existed in the hidden menu of the restaurant and couldn’t be ordered by prisoners even if they consumed their contribution points.
It was said that these dishes were considered rare delicacies outside, such as the Extreme God Lalafell, which was worth one-third of an ordinary person’s monthly salary just for the ingredients.
And their taste was worth the price. Asho suspected that the chef used sorcery to make them. As someone who had been tested by MSG and chicken powder, he almost swallowed his tongue after the first bite. It was so delicious that he felt it was worth dying for.
But thinking that he would really die later, he lost his appetite.
The other death row inmates had similar thoughts. Some ate with hesitation, some ate while crying, and some even used the knife and fork in reverse. Fortunately, the utensils were not sharp, otherwise it would trigger the “suicide prevention warning” in the back of their necks.
There were only two death row inmates who could eat normally. One was a blue-skinned ogre, and the other was the elf Wakas.
They seemed to really not care about the upcoming Blood Moon trial. The ogre ate with his hands, ordering one serving after another. Wakas demonstrated ten different ways to use a knife and fork, dining elegantly as if in a revolving restaurant in a skyscraper.
“Having difficulty eating? Need help?”
The friendly voice of the prison guard Nagu was like a whip soaked in saltwater, causing all the death row inmates to shudder and lower their heads to eat.
Even Asho was no exception.
The reason why the death row inmates were so afraid was that the afternoon “supervision” had already crushed their arrogance. Faced with Nagu, who could control the back-of-the-neck chips, even the most rebellious person had to behave obediently. If you didn’t behave, your head would be pressed down.
To be honest, Nagu didn’t do anything excessive to them.
He didn’t even touch a single hair of theirs.
He didn’t harm them at all.
He just made all the death row inmates follow his schedule.
For example, during meals, if someone didn’t eat, Nagu would activate the chip control system and use voice commands to make the inmates eat:
“Open your mouth, put the food in, chew once, twice, three times, then swallow…”
For watching movies, if someone didn’t watch or moved around, Nagu would make them a model audience in the cinema:
“Sit properly, hands on your knees, watch the big screen, remember to blink every five seconds.”
And when they were on the observation deck to breathe fresh air, Nagu said that the superiors required all inmates to take photos as a souvenir, with the following requirements: neat appearance, smiling faces, reflecting a good mental state, and the harmonious atmosphere of the Shattered Lake Prison…
Undoubtedly, the death row inmates couldn’t meet these requirements. Therefore, Nagu “helped” them a little.
Asho was fine, just lying on the ground with a smile on his face. But Wakas was impressive – he sat on the ogre’s shoulder, hands on his head pretending to be cat ears, his thin and cold face showing a sweet smile to the camera.
And one photo was not enough, they had to take several. They went from being cool to hugging each other, displaying various mental states.
The death row inmates who were posed in various positions by Nagu were completely numb, just wanting to quickly satisfy Nagu’s requirements and even feeling that they would rather be in the Blood Moon trial.
Destroy, hurry up, I’m tired.
Therefore, when Nagu spoke, they immediately abandoned their boring thoughts and started to eat.
At this moment, the pressure that Nagu, the supervisor, gave them exceeded that of the Blood Moon trial.
After all, they hadn’t seen “death” yet.
But “life is worse than death” was right in front of them.
Asho glanced at the empty restaurant and asked the person next to him in a low voice, “Why isn’t anyone coming to eat now? It’s understandable that they didn’t come for lunch, but shouldn’t they come for dinner?”
The person next to him was Aqiborde Harvey, with dark skin and curly hair, looking like someone who did heavy work during the day, but he actually worked at night: he was a janitor who specialized in handling corpses.
Some people might be surprised that handling corpses would at most be a crime of damaging a corpse, so how did it end up as a death row sentence? This naturally had to do with the criteria for death: in the Blood Moon Kingdom, only corpses pronounced by licensed physicians were considered corpses.
Without a physician’s pronouncement, even if your head was cut off, legally, you were still alive.
Because physicians could actually revive people whose heads were cut off, many corpses, although they had stopped breathing, could still be saved.
So someone like Harvey, who specialized in handling corpses for underground organizations, naturally couldn’t enjoy the same treatment as “accomplices,” but was regarded as an “extremely heinous serial killer”: he had handled over a hundred corpses, and if each corpse was treated as a living person, there were not many people in the entire prison who could compare to Harvey’s crimes.
But this didn’t mean that Harvey was a good person who had been wronged.
Although he didn’t have much time to reveal his dark side during their afternoon chat, the fact that he was a necromancer and his comment “what’s so good about a hot woman” was enough to judge that his sexual preferences were too early for the current human society.
But whether a person is good or not has nothing to do with being a friendly netizen. In this afternoon of shared suffering, Asho quickly became acquainted with him.
Harvey answered, “They came to the restaurant before 5 o’clock to avoid us. Except for the eight of us who were selected, the other inmates will try their best not to leave the dormitory today. Those who have enough contribution points can directly order, and those who don’t will try to avoid our dining time.”
“I know, but why do they want to avoid us?”
“Traditional virtue.”
Asho blinked his eyes.
He didn’t not understand this term, but it felt strange to use it to describe the death row inmates here.
Harvey said, “First of all, the eight selected individuals will be summoned to the restaurant by the supervisors at noon, so no one will come out in the morning. Although the selection is based on the order of the trial, who knows if they will encounter a supervisor on the way and the supervisor thinks your walking posture is too arrogant and puts you on the trial list?”
“Do the supervisors have that power?”
“I don’t know, do you dare to bet?”
“I don’t dare.”
“Well then.” Harvey shrugged. “After the eight people were selected in the afternoon, no one dared to walk around. The first reason is naturally because of the supervisors. In case the supervisor doesn’t like your appearance and swaps you with a lucky person, wouldn’t you regret it to the point of bursting your blood vessels?”
Asho nodded.
That’s true.
What’s more infuriating than being unlucky yourself is seeing others benefit from your misfortune. Just thinking about it makes you burn with anger.
“The second reason is a bit superstitious. The inmates believe that those who are seen by us, this group of unlucky people, have a high probability of becoming the next Blood Moon trial candidates.”
It’s understandable. Everyone is afraid of being infected with bad luck. If you are seen by an unlucky person in the afternoon, and you can’t even take a shit at night, it’s definitely not a physical problem, but the unlucky person causing gravity abnormalities.
“And the third reason is that they don’t know how to face us.”
“Hmm?”
“Greetings? Encouragement? Comfort?” Harvey wiped his mouth with a napkin. “If it were you… oh no, Asho, you are the one being judged now. At this moment, if you see other inmates who have escaped the Blood Moon, do you feel that every punctuation mark they say is filled with a sense of superiority?”
Asho opened his mouth and thought about it. It was indeed the case.
Since I know that I am going to die next, and you don’t have to die, I definitely feel that you are emitting a disgusting stench from head to toe.
Not just in words.
Just seeing that you can still breathe is enough to make me feel that you are mocking me.
Encouragement? Irony!
Comfort? Ridicule!
Pity? Contempt!
No matter what kind words they say, to the eight of us, they are all dirty words.
Because of the fear of death, a pitiful thick wall has formed between the eight death row inmates and all the other inmates.
“So on the day of the Blood Moon trial, all inmates consciously stay in the dormitory and don’t go out. It is to protect themselves and the person being judged.”
Harvey looked at Asho. “If you survive and the next Blood Moon comes, you must also follow this traditional virtue. This is the only kindness we can insist on and must insist on. However…”
“However, what?”
“I have seen your news reports.” Harvey shrugged. “Honestly, the person who dies tonight is very likely to be you.”
“Isn’t it random to kill one person?”
Asho was a bit nervous. When he learned that the Blood Moon trial was drawing one person from the eight, he guessed that it must be a random ritual. If it wasn’t random, there would be no need to draw one from eight.
“It is random, but not so random, and sometimes several people die… Haven’t you really seen the Blood Moon trial before?”
“I really haven’t! I don’t know the rules of the Blood Moon trial at all!”
Harvey laughed. “Then you will know later… When I first watched the Blood Moon trial as a child, I was deeply shocked by this program. I didn’t expect that there would be such a wonderful entertainment in this world. I won’t tell you the truth. The most contemptible behavior of a necromancer is prophecy. Exploring the unknown is the most enjoyable experience for a sorcerer, and death is the greatest mystery.”
Asho clicked his tongue, feeling a bit puzzled. “Since it is certain that I will die, why are you all nervous?”
Harvey shrugged. “Because the Blood Moon trial is not fixed, sometimes there will be some changes that make the inmates nervous and accidentally play themselves to death… You’re right, when I arrive at the scene, I will just close my eyes and lie down to sleep as long as I’m sure I won’t be the one chosen from the eight. Then I won’t do anything and I won’t die for sure.”
After Harvey said this, Asho ate the Lalafell very nervously.
No way, am I really done for?
Do I really have no chance at all?
Clearly, the exploration of the Virtual Realm has been going so smoothly. I even drew the Virtual Telescope in the morning. Maybe I can collect all the Artisans who can kill me tonight…
Clearly, Sword Girl and I are getting stronger and stronger. The world of sorcerers has just revealed its mysterious veil to me…
Clearly, I just defeated Wakas and thwarted Xilin’s conspiracy…
I’m still in the developmental stage, can’t you give me a little more time!
Asho felt like a marksman who was saving money to buy big equipment, but was suddenly dragged into a team fight.
Just as victory was within reach, it was snatched away.
He suddenly remembered a post his boss had posted before: Life is not like cooking, you don’t have to prepare all the ingredients before cooking. When you see yourself being sprinkled with cumin, you should realize that you have become an ingredient – who could have guessed that the day after he posted this, the company announced that the whole company would switch from a two-day weekend to a six-day workweek?
“Dinner time is over, wipe your mouth, go to the restroom for personal hygiene, and gather in the central hall within half an hour.”
Note that Nagu, the supervisor, was not “ordering,” but “inputting commands” – everyone wiped their mouths with napkins at the same time, then stood up and went to the restroom.
When Asho walked into the restroom, he heard Nagu’s last command:
“Be at the Blood Moon site at 7:45 PM sharp, waiting for the start of the show.”