I Became a Leader in a Wretched Prison - Chapter 104

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 104

What kind of crazy scheme was she planning now? Just hearing the beginning filled him with unease.

Right, Master was still Master.

“Are you finally planning to let me die? Telling me to experience death once too?”

“What are you saying? How hurtful between us. Master is going to cry.”

“…”

…He was a bastard for briefly imagining Master crying at this moment. Helios grabbed his head.

Little did he know that Mint already casually thought things like ‘he’d be even prettier if he cried’ whenever she was bored.

Mint smiled slightly.

“Don’t you want to go outside?”

“You mean the Recreation Area?”

Mint shook her head.

“No, not that.”

Her hand stretched out. Surprisingly, toward the only bridge leading to the Continent.

And toward the Continent that lay beyond the wall.

“The real outside, I mean.”

For Helios, this was naturally a puzzling statement.

Outside? This was a prison. Of course they had to be confined here.

“Outside… you don’t mean beyond that wall, do you?”

“Where else would outside be besides that outside.”

It was truly an out-of-the-blue topic.

Did he want to go outside? Of course he did. He wanted to be released, to go out and meet his Father once more.

That would be the time for revenge against the one who had forcibly thrown him into this place.

“Prison Break? Are you suggesting we climb over the wall?”

This prison was surrounded by massive walls.

“Helios, do you know why Niflheim has never had a single escapee in all of history?”

He didn’t know. He had no interest in the history of prisons.

Of course, escaping would be nice, but since Mint had hinted there was a way to reach the Summit, it had long become an option he wouldn’t choose.

“…Because of Kia?”

Even as he answered, he lacked confidence.

“Right. If you were to escape by climbing over that wall, how would you climb it with just your bare body? You’d naturally need Kia. But this prison itself is a giant Kia Mass.”

Manpower, Physical Force, Kia, and so on. No attempt of any kind would work. That’s why it became a perfect living Hell that no one in history could escape from.

“And the Kia center of this prison is precisely that ‘Tower’.”

It wasn’t a strange story.

Of course, for Mint, since her gender had been discovered, she was revealing quite a big secret, but Helios had no way of knowing this.

Mint thought Helios, who was frowning but nodding his head, looked quite cute.

“…So what’s the relationship between the outside Master mentioned, Prison Break, and the impossibility of escape?”

“What a diligent student you are.”

“…Didn’t Master ask the question?”

“Ah, so you’d be sincere if someone else asked too?”

Helios hesitated for a moment. He pondered before shaking his head.

“Is there anyone here worth having a long conversation with?”

If anyone, there would be Ged’s Group, but when they entered the Tower together, they didn’t have conversations as long as expected.

After coming out, they were busy recovering from mental fatigue, and recently they’d been even busier climbing up to the 50th Floor in one go.

Even as Helios answered, he felt puzzled and strange. Someone else, this was just like…

He rubbed his face. Without realizing it, it turned helplessly red.

“Anyway, if it’s outside, I’d want to go out.”

“Really? Then you’d be fine with dying?”

“…Now that I think about it, it seems like this nonsense started after you brought up the 70th Floor. What’s the connection?”

Mint shrugged her shoulders slightly.

It was time to stop the riddles and get to the main point.

A truly interesting fact.

This prison gave prisoners external duties.

Duties that involved going outside.

“This Tower has something called a ‘Special Review.'”

Mint slowly began her explanation.

This prison that collected vicious criminals indiscriminately sometimes received exceptional individuals.

Monsters beyond specifications who exceeded prisoners of the same grade.

Or prisoners who would do anything if it meant reducing their sentence.

Prisoners passing through the section from the 51st Floor to the 60th Floor are given opportunities to skip floors or reduce their sentences.

True to its name, through a special review.

“In that review, they send prisoners outside to perform specific missions.”

“Did I mishear? A prison that’s supposed to keep people locked up actually sends prisoners outside? Then there wouldn’t be anyone who wouldn’t go.”

Mint was still smiling.

Because Mint herself had once thought the same way.

“Right? But think about it, Disciple. A place that doesn’t give a damn about prisoners’ human rights is offering to let them outside!”

“…”

“Wow, exciting, right? Feels like you absolutely must seize the opportunity?”

Mint, who was rarely this talkative, was suspicious beyond measure. Helios would normally never choose this under any circumstances.

“Let’s do it.”

But Mint recommended it. Or was it coercion?

“During the process, grades are usually assigned based on performance. While going to the 60th Floor is typical for success, let’s aim for the 70th Floor. Make it big and spectacular. Fighting.”

“…It still sounds absurd.”

In fact, this Special Review wasn’t offered to just anyone. Guards would select or screen candidates to inform them.

With Mint by his side, it seemed the Warden wouldn’t oppose it.

To Helios, it still seemed to sound like chasing clouds.

“What exactly do we have to do outside?”

“We’ll probably be assigned to the Empire’s Extreme Edge.”

“….”

At the extreme edge of the Empire, there are ‘rifts’ that give the Empire quite a headache.

They were dangerous natural phenomena where Kia had accumulated and become contaminated to the point of explosion at any moment.

The problem was that these didn’t just explode in the uninhabited extreme edge, but could move after forming and explode in populated areas.

After arduous research, the Empire discovered that rifts could be eliminated by sacrificing a Kia ability user or gathering massive amounts of Kia.

Thus, the chosen ones were the trash-like prisoners who could be used and discarded.

“Usually, prisoners who receive this proposal here don’t hear the detailed circumstances, only that it’s labor work.”

Since they’d likely become trash again if released into society anyway, they carried out this righteous malice of using them this way.

Deal with troublesome prisoners and save social costs too!

This was truly a cost-free creative economy!

The fact that the prison used and discarded prisoners like this was known to most prisoners who had passed the 70th Floor.

This also included prisoners who received special examination proposals between the 51st and 60th Floors.

“The Empire is a very frugal country.”

When the explanation ended, Helios couldn’t hide his shock and complexity.

Was this the right thing to do?

But were the heinous crimes committed by the criminals here the right thing?

He couldn’t hide the thought that they were using evil against evil, making efficient use of it.

Of course, it was certain that if Helios himself were Emperor, he wouldn’t choose to do this.

“Instead, if you do this, you can climb the Tower faster.”

“….”

“Don’t you want to reach the summit faster?”

His Master’s words were tempting. Helios didn’t want to stay here long either.

Except for his Master beside him, everything about this space was a disadvantage.

On one hand, he became anxious about having to part with Mint.

Since Mint was a guard, it would be easier to meet if he became a civilian.

There were too many restrictions while being a prisoner.

At this rate, even if she disappeared or left someday.

He couldn’t escape from here.

“…Can I really go to the 70th Floor if I succeed at this?”

Mint’s lips curved up even more.

“Have you ever seen Master speak empty words?”

Helios felt as if he sensed a faint heat from her usually detached face.

“You do lie though.”

“Ah. That’s true. Then should I follow our disciple’s example and make a vow?”

“…Never mind. Instead, there’s just one thing I’d like to ask.”

Mint had said this special examination was difficult. She’d also said there might be life-threatening crises.

If that was the case.

“I’ll try my best to succeed somehow. Could you show me Master’s ‘real’ appearance just once?”

The smile disappeared from Mint’s face.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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