I Became a Leader in a Wretched Prison - Chapter 43

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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 43

Meanwhile, Helios narrowed his eyes. Before him stood a man of massive build wearing a paper bag over his head.

Helios felt a sense of familiarity.

No, was it déjà vu?

“You…”

Before he could say anything more, the Serial Killer moved his hand.

Even though it was bare-handed, it was threatening because of the pitch-black light emanating from that hand.

It was powerful Kia.

Clang!

The moment fist and spear clashed once again, Helios felt a chill creeping up his spine.

‘It’s breaking…!’

It had been a spear made of Kia that was reliable on any floor. Crack. The impact created spider web-like fractures.

Clang!

The delayed sound rang dully in his ears.

But this wasn’t the time to be lost in thought. The opponent’s fist was coming at him!

Helios ducked his head to avoid the fist and reached out his hand. Blue Kia condensed.

“Urgh…!”

He needed a different weapon.

In that instant, what Helios thought of was Mint’s back.

The powerful strike that had cut down the giant snake. That was what he needed.

Yes, it was a sword.

The sword created in Helios’s hand went straight for the Serial Killer’s face.

Claaang!

The Serial Killer dodged, but the paper bag was torn to shreds.

“Haa, haa.”

The Sword Strike that the Serial Killer dodged differed in power, but was remarkably similar to the Sword Strike Mint had used.

Though the Serial Killer had dodged it.

Helios was breathing heavily but didn’t attack any further.

“I did it! I did it!”

He could hear Seth shouting loudly from behind. A Candlestick was held in his hands.

The space surrounding Helios and Ged’s Group began to melt away.

Even the Serial Killer who had been chasing the party all along was crying out and fading at the Basement entrance.

However, strangely, the Serial Killer before Helios’s eyes didn’t become blurry at all.

It was natural.

Because he wasn’t a figure belonging to This Floor.

Helios, who had been observing, opened his mouth with rough breathing.

“Master.”

The eyes inside the Paper Bag curved faintly. The Serial Killer’s pitch-black, glossy pupils slowly returned to the color he knew.

Teal. It was Garret’s eye color.

Moreover, his massive build had shrunk, becoming even smaller than Helios.

“Well, well, calling me so politely. I like it.”

When the paper bag was removed, the appearance of the Master that Helios knew was revealed.

Helios asked without being flustered.

“…What the hell are you doing?”

“Playing final boss?”

Helios frowned at the nonchalant answer.

“But how did you know? That it was me? When did you figure it out?”

For Mint, it was a natural question.

‘I didn’t think he’d notice.’

What had been in this underground area was indeed another Serial Killer. And like the snake on the 29th Floor, it was at a level that Helios’s party couldn’t handle.

Why on earth did out-of-spec beings only appear on floors that Helios entered?

When the same thing happens twice, it’s no longer a coincidence.

‘It’s probably because of me, with high probability.’

If they were created in proportion to Kia, it would be unavoidable.

Anyway, she had defeated the Serial Killer and used Kia to disguise herself as the defeated Serial Killer.

‘This is also a kind of training.’

Crisis makes people grow. That’s what she had thought, but.

“I knew from the beginning.”

Helios had realized the moment he saw the Serial Killer’s eyes. The fact that the being before him was Mint.

He had no choice but to know.

There was only his Master who had a woman’s silhouette overlapping like that.

The Long-haired Woman who had initially appeared flickering occasionally now appeared naturally.

At this rate, he would be able to recognize Mint no matter what form she took.

Helios hid this fact.

“Really? You must have good instincts.”

Mint brushed it off casually.

He was the owner of insane talent who could perfectly mimic an attack made with a sword that she had shown him just once.

“Why the hell did you do something like this?”

“Well, I was curious about how much my disciple had achieved?”

“You beat me up every day even without doing this…”

“Hey, is seeing it in real combat the same thing?”

Mint shrugged her shoulders.

“Congratulations. Clear.”

Helios slightly covered his face with his hands. He wanted to hide his burning cheeks.

“You did well leading your colleagues on your own.”

He didn’t want to show that he was foolishly pleased by just this kind of praise.

“Let’s go back. The red lighting hurts my eyes.”

Mint walked past him, regardless of what Helios was doing.

“Master.”

“Hm?”

Mint turned her head.

“I could tell because you’re my master. I knew right away when I saw you.”

“Really?”

Helios bit his lips tightly.

His snow-white cheeks turned red like camellias, then even redder.

Because you’re someone special.

He could never say such embarrassing words, even if it killed him.

* * *

Just like on the 29th Floor, the prisoners who came out from the 30th Floor were all making a commotion.

“Shit!! I’m never going again! I won’t go, I won’t go, you bastards! Kill me!!”

“Huff, gasp, haah!”

There were also those who had lost their minds.

From the conversations and mutterings of the prisoners I could hear, I could tell that the floor Helios and Ged’s Group had experienced was indeed more difficult.

It must be because of me. I was certain.

‘But still… if we don’t do something about this difficulty, all the prisoners really will end up in the Mental Ward again.’

If all the floors from the 30th to 39th Floor, where fear was the main theme, were like this, the mental damage to the prisoners would be tremendous.

“Sniff, s-sorry… Haira. S-sis. Sorry!”

I heard crying nearby and turned to see Seth sniffling while using Healing Kia on Haira.

And Haira had a resigned expression while offering her knee.

“What happened?”

“Oh, um. It’s nothing serious.”

After Seth recited the incantation at the altar and the floor was cleared, he was so happy that he jumped around and fell together with Haira, who was trying to hold him back.

Since he got hurt after the trial ended, the wound wouldn’t disappear, so she was treating it directly.

After the treatment was finished, Seth eagerly appealed to me that he had learned a new way to use telekinesis.

I nodded halfheartedly and let it go in one ear and out the other.

“Boss, that’s too much. How could you take on such a hideous appearance and beat me so severely…!”

“You should have dodged.”

“What?! What are you saying? This Ged must face attacks head-on like a man, how could I dodge?”

“Oh, really? Then do you want to not dodge now and get hit some more?”

“Ahem! Indeed, a true man must also know how to dodge!”

Ged appealed his hurt feelings about the attack in the final basement, then quietly slipped away.

“Everyone return to the Prison Block!”

Following the guard’s instructions, we moved, and I could see a group standing not far away.

Quite a number of the returning lower-grade prisoners ran toward that group to have conversations.

The guards who were with us had displeased expressions.

However, when some of those in the standing group smiled obsequiously and rubbed their hands together while handing over something, they quietly moved away from the area.

I realized as I watched this scene.

‘Ah, it’s already come to this. Is it scouting season?’

Niflheim, located in an independent space far from any nation.

In this prison, there were groups called ‘Families,’ shortened to ‘Fams.’

Simply put, they were factions.

‘Factions where like-minded people gather to pursue hobbies or engage in thuggish behavior.’

From the 30th Floor onward are low-level/1st grade prisoners. Their next grade is intermediate.

Since intermediate prisoners are treated as quite useful within the Tower.

Fams composed of intermediate and high-grade prisoners send people from the 30th Floor to loiter around like this.

They look for promising individuals to drag into their Fams.

‘Of course, it’s naturally not ordinary scouting in the literal sense.’

Once they set their sights on someone, they don’t hesitate to forcibly drag them in.

The guards? They naturally turn a blind eye.

Whether prisoners fight and beat each other, kill each other, or divide into factions—it wasn’t their concern.

And it was commonplace for them to torture or kill low-level prisoners who rejected their offers in retaliation.

‘I told them not to do that.’

Now that I’m no longer the boss, it must have revived.

No wonder the aura I feel from those groups is unsettling, like unleashed beasts.

Recruitment offers are made to prisoners on the 20th Floor and below, or those climbing to the 20th Floor. But such offers are usually from Fams of intermediates or of lower quality.

The scouting that takes place on this floor can be called the real deal.

Looking around, I noticed that Ged’s Group was already being questioned by some group.

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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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