I Became a Leader in a Wretched Prison - Chapter 85

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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 85

“Here.”

Helios felt bewildered.

“There, satisfied? Now you have one too. Stop being angry.”

And he was stunned.

“Master, I’m not a child…”

The anger he felt for daring to touch his Master had completely vanished. It was swept away by a waterfall of absurdity.

While he couldn’t help but rub his face, Mint quickly said they should go and carried him like luggage again.

Watching this scene, Haira from Ged’s Group muttered quietly.

“Sometimes I feel sorry for Boss.”

“…Me too.”

“Hahahaha.”

“What, what is it? Why? Ugh, are you all excluding this man Ged?”

They passed through the 41st Floor far too easily.

After that.

The commotion that occurred on the 41st Floor spread to all the Intermediate Prisoners.

It happened in just one hour.

* * *

“This place wasn’t originally like this?”

After clearing the 41st Floor and coming out, I began giving a brief explanation to Helios and Ged’s Group.

“That’s right. Currently, all the trials in the Tower have drastically increased in difficulty. All the Guards know this fact.”

I glanced toward the Prisoners’ Rest Area.

“And prisoner Fams with High-Rank members would be well aware of it too.”

“H-how so?”

Seth cautiously raised his hand and asked.

“Because the Boss has changed.”

The fact that the Tower’s difficulty could change when the King of Prisoners changed was actually something only High-Rank prisoners knew well.

The reactions of Helios and Ged’s Group after hearing this series of explanations were varied.

“Ooh, so we’ve been climbing with increased difficulty this whole time? Will it get even harder from now on? Kugh, as a man, I feel my fighting spirit burning.”

“Don’t get excited about weird things. It just means it’s easier to die.”

“Hik, s-sis, what you’re saying is scarier…”

“Haha. So we have to continue with the increased difficulty from now on.”

Since we were having this conversation in our Training Space, we could talk freely.

Amidst the noise, Helios, who had been silent alone, turned toward me.

“Is there a possibility that the Master of the 100th Floor might change again?”

Master of the 100th Floor. I paused briefly at the precise title.

It was because of what happened in the space created with Mental Realm Kia. I casually shrugged my shoulders.

“It could be, or it might not be.”

If they’re bold enough to mess with the Tower’s difficulty, they’re probably not ordinary. Their personality is arrogant and reckless.

In this ecosystem, the more selfish a person is, the stronger they are, so there’s a high chance they’ll remain Boss for quite a while.

‘Or they might die young from acting recklessly without valuing their life.’

I kept this fact hidden.

“I don’t know who the current Boss is either. Or what kind of personality they have.”

“There are things even Master doesn’t know?”

“Being a guard doesn’t mean I can know everything. Especially someone low-ranking like me.”

Before I knew it, Ged’s Group had closed their mouths and were staring at me.

What’s this about.

“…There are things even Boss doesn’t know?”

“So many they’re piled up like mountains.”

“You seem like you’d know everything…”

“I do have an intelligent-looking face.”

I yawned long and then continued explaining. I could feel gazes watching us from a distance, lurking around.

‘Two, and then three.’

Spying? Or an ambush?

Either way, they wouldn’t be able to hear our conversation.

I had already taken measures to prevent sound from carrying.

‘Nothing good would come from talk about the Boss spreading widely.’

I rested my chin on my hand and looked over the party.

“…So what about that 41st Floor story you mentioned at the very beginning?”

Ah. Originally we were talking about the 41st Floor we had passed through today, but it got lengthy.

“Good question, student.”

“What now…”

I continued the story while Helios grumbled behind me.

Originally, from the 41st to 50th Floor is ‘team battles’.

Despite the main theme, the detailed trials usually include… conspiracies, schemes, discord, fraud, and gambling.

“There’s one reason the Tower selects teams to serve as Floor Masters. To make prisoners dominate other prisoners.”

Floor Masters are granted the power to allow passage through their floor.

At the same time, by not climbing the Tower themselves and staying on their floor, they get to enjoy only the power.

“…Then tsk, being a Floor Master is only good?”

“That’s right. But in exchange, they must engage in at least one confrontation with prisoners who enter their floor.”

Using this, they propose ridiculously easy matches for those they back and just send them up.

The Tower turns a blind eye to this. So do the guards.

“And for those they dislike or who fall out of favor, they instigate violence.”

My finger pointed at one person.

Brett, who was targeted, widened his eyes for a moment then laughed his usual “ahaha.”

“They pick one from the challenger team and torment them to death. Both inside the Tower and outside the Tower.”

Humans are cunning. Especially Prisoners even more so.

When a scapegoat appears, naturally.

As long as it’s not me, it’s fine.

They advance with this mindset.

‘In normal Society, even under such harsh conditions, there would rarely be at least one Hero.’

But this is a space where Society’s Criminals, lowlifes, and those who’ve fallen to rock bottom are pooled together like trash.

They have no qualms about trampling scapegoats to achieve their own prosperity.

“Of course, the guys who’ve made it this far, as you all know. They’re the ones who’ve overcome Trials together up to the 40th Floor.”

“…Even so.”

That’s exactly why it’s such a filthy space.

The 40th Floor creates cracks in a Trial where you must kill your Colleagues to pass.

On the 41st Floor, betrayal brings about catastrophe.

Thinking ‘as long as it’s not me, it’s fine,’ they isolate Prisoners so they can’t unite and make them distrust each other.

“Um, so in the end, isn’t this a structure where only the Floor Master monopolizes all the good stuff?”

It’s not wrong. That’s actually how it is.

I smiled.

“What if the Floor Master changes?”

“…Hmm, but they seem like strong guys. Even if they’re defeated, wouldn’t it not matter, Boss?”

“If it were simply a matter between individuals, there’d be no problem.”

As Ged said, even if Floor Masters are defeated in team battles, their personal strength doesn’t go anywhere.

If they became the master through legitimate means, that is.

Light bloomed from my hand.

The picture I drew using the air as a blackboard was a pyramid.

“You all know well that this Prison is divided into countless large and small ‘Fams’ and Teams.”

Since they’ve gone through scouting competitions.

Moreover, Ged’s Group was all in the process of joining various Fams.

“Floor Masters aren’t determined by individual force alone. By now, the Major Fams have divided everything up among themselves.”

From the intermediate levels onwards, it’s truly a time when politics comes into play.

Long ago, there might have been guys who really took over floors through individual force.

But it’s become too stagnant and rotten.

“From the 41st Floor to the 50th Floor, the Floor Master positions are occupied by those who’ve grown up after being selected and supported by Major Fams from the intermediate levels, or rarely from the Lower Floors.”

For Fams too, holding as many floors as possible is good for their influence.

It’s a win-win situation.

“When Fams agonize over everything and place obedient dogs in positions, what happens when someone gets kicked out of the Floor Master position is this.”

“…”

I’ve seen cases of this.

“They get kicked out of their affiliated Fam. It doesn’t end there – they become an officially sanctioned sacrifice.”

Fams that lose a Floor Master position never just leave the loser alone.

The Fam captures them and announces publicly. That they can no longer receive their protection, and that punishment will begin instead.

The Floor Master receives back all the humiliation and violence they’ve inflicted on the Prisoners below them until now.

Moreover, they themselves fall to the ground floor where the prisoners they called ‘vermin’ can torment and kick them around.

“In the end, this completes a structure where everyone becomes unhappy eventually.”

I stared at the Tower visible in the distance. The Tower was probably laughing mockingly at all of this.

At the prisoners tangled up fighting and suffering eternally.

“I’m not sure about that. Anyway, as long as they don’t lose, a Floor Master could live well for a long time.”

When Haira said this, Helios rubbed his chin and asked me.

“…The positions are limited. Is there active competition between Fams by any chance?”

“Ah, if that’s the case, then Floor Masters might not be absolutely secure either?”

Following Helios’s question, Seth nodded as if he had realized something.

Haira’s words weren’t wrong either.

The section from the 41st Floor onwards is an unfair place where only someone can enjoy benefits for a long time.

‘Conversely, that means the Tower has no reason to let us enjoy fairness either.’

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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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