Chapter 22: The Horrifying Sin 2 - The Isolated Island Prison
Next, Ling Yuanshan gave Wu Wangwang a brief introduction to the mechanism of the Night of Return of Souls, and Wu Wangwang nodded obediently.
After repeatedly urging her to be careful and never leave his side unless forced to separate, Ling Yuanshan took Wu Wangwang to observe other parts of the ship.
They were originally in a corner at the edge of the ship, with few people around and limited visibility. Only when they got closer to the deck did they see other people in prison uniforms, each with a different number and name, who seemed to have been driven onto the deck to sunbathe.
Ling Yuanshan frowned slightly: "Being exposed to the sun like this at sea for so long will cause dehydration."
Wu Wangwang pondered for a moment: "It's punishment, isn't it? We're wearing prison uniforms, which means we're sinners, and sinners should be punished."
"Perhaps. The problem now is that we can't distinguish between players and NPCs, and we don't know where the boss is." Ling Yuanshan was even more uncertain. Obviously, this dungeon had all the elements of a Category III horror movie, such as escape, eeriness, murder, and imprisonment. It was strange that the crew members were now showing up carrying chainsaws.
Unlike the previous two instances, this instance had too many players, and the referee didn't appear immediately, making it impossible to determine the number of players, cooperate, or use the process of elimination.
Ling Yuanshan carefully pulled Wu Wangwang into the group of prisoners. The nearest prisoners only glanced at the two of them, said nothing, and continued to sit and sunbathe.
When entering a dungeon, the game will heal all the player's injuries, whether it's cancer or an open wound. As long as it's fatal, it will be healed first, giving the player the ability to escape. Now, Ling Yuanshan's condition is even better than when he was at school. He was obviously weak and pale at school.
Wu Wangwang was small, so she hid next to Ling Yuanshan and was protected from the sun. There was still some time before they actually entered the dungeon, so she closed her eyes to rest.
The sea voyage was very calm. As the sun gradually set, some prisoners were so exposed to the heat that they collapsed, but no crew members came to check on them. It was as if the prisoners were the only ones on board heading to prison.
The ship slowly docked at the island's harbor, where rows of prison guards stood, each one serious and tense. The warden, who was leading the group, was the referee for this trip. She was an ordinary-looking woman who was surprisingly stunning and had a very powerful aura.
After docking with the ground, crew members finally appeared. They were carrying whips, and with a single swing, the sound of whips cutting through the air startled all the prisoners, who stood up and hid on the other side of the deck.
Faced with the group of prisoners trying to evade them, the crew member sneered: "You are all death row inmates, villains who deserve to be shot on sight. This is your last stop in life, remember to be good people."
After saying that, the crew lowered the planks and let them walk onto the island one by one.
The prisoners, both men and women, mingled together at the port, but the prison guards did not stop them. Instead, they watched indifferently as the prisoners began to form small, chaotic groups.
Time passed slowly, and each prisoner found a suitable collaborator for the time being, the number of whom was uncertain, and the sun was getting closer to the sea level.
Once the prisoners had quieted down, the warden spoke: "I am the judge of your case. This prison will be arranged according to the severity of your crimes. You will also have to atone for your sins every day. When your sins are completely cleansed, you will be released after serving your full sentence."
Upon hearing this, the prisoners immediately became excited, wondering how long it would take for them to cleanse themselves of their sins, and what it would take to be considered cleansed.
Are you doing something for the country?
Ling Yuanshan and Wu Wangwang exchanged a glance and finally understood why the information given upon entering the dungeon was a number and a name; whether they could get out depended entirely on what crime the prisoner they were impersonating had committed.
The port was too noisy, so the warden shouted, "Silence! I haven't finished speaking yet. Behind me are the directors of all the prison's districts. You will be assigned to them according to the severity of your crimes. They will determine your daily performance evaluations, and the prisoners with the highest evaluations will receive rewards in addition to sentence reductions and release from prison."
After he finished speaking, one of the prisoners suddenly grinned lewdly: "Does the reward include sleeping with you?"
The warden, with his hands behind his back, calmly glanced at the man and said, "Sure, but only if you dare."
When the warden said those words, Wu Wangwang noticed a fleeting moment of joy in her. It wasn't the joy of being liked, but the joy of seeing food. Anyone who has eaten knows that once you've tasted it, it's hard to control your cravings.
The words were meant to be lighthearted, but they inexplicably silenced all the prisoners, creating a chilling feeling of being watched by a wild beast.
The prisoners are behaving in different ways, making it impossible to tell which one is a player; everyone is currently trying to remain cautious.
After waiting a while and seeing that no one spoke, the warden said, "Now, line up by height. Look to your left, there's a scale over there. Stand on it and we'll weigh your sins."
Some people disagreed: "What's the big deal? It's clearly about weight. Don't short, thin people and dwarfs get the most out of this?"
"Don't speak too soon. The shortest one, you stand up there," the warden ordered directly.
There was indeed a dwarf on this trip. He looked only one meter tall and was very thin with little muscle. At first glance, he looked almost like a monkey, except that he had less hair.
The dwarf looked a bit timid. He slowly walked out of the crowd, went to the huge scale, and struggled to climb up.
After the tray was firmly planted, the dwarf looked up and saw that it read: "Two hundred pounds of sinful bones."
"Why? You did this on purpose!" The dwarf suddenly erupted, turning sharply to glare at the warden, his cowering expression vanishing, replaced by a ferocious and terrifying one.
The warden remained unmoved, waved his hand, and one of the directors behind him strode out. Without anyone knowing how he did it, he appeared next to the scale, lifted the dwarf off the scale, and threw him into the prison van numbered fifteen.
The prisoners barely saw how the warden moved, but it was clearly meant to intimidate them and make them understand that the purpose of a prison guard is to ensure that they have no chance of escaping.
Having learned from past mistakes, and since they had already been caught anyway, they might as well obediently step on the scale. After the selection process by the short men, everyone gradually discovered that the scale really didn't seem to have anything to do with weight. Some short and fat men were clearly very heavy, but their sinful weight was less than 100 pounds.
Soon it was Wu Wangwang's turn, who wasn't very tall. Because of her height, she was quite a distance away from Ling Yuanshan, who was nearly 1.9 meters tall. Ling Yuanshan watched her nervously from a distance.
As Wu Wangwang slowly walked over, preparing to climb onto the scale, the warden suddenly spoke up: "Wait."
Everyone looked over in surprise, wondering why the warden had called a halt.
The warden strode up to Wu Wangwang. She was tall and looked down at Wu Wangwang.
After a long silence, the warden said, "This scale won't weigh you. Someone, bring me the list document that was sent from above."
Wu Wangwang's heart skipped a beat. Had she been discovered?
Soon, a warden arrived with a booklet. After flipping through it, the warden read aloud: "Number 0058, Hu He, criminal cleaner, using killing to stop killing, serial killer, has sixty-four lives on his hands, including human traffickers, domestic abusers, drug addicts, etc. We say your sins are immeasurable. You will have to wait and let others go first."
Unexpectedly, the most difficult crime to investigate was read out by the judge, which seems to be due to the advantage of his position.
Criminals have been roaming freely for too long. Faced with such a ruthless person who uses killing to stop killing, everyone, whether criminal or not, will admire him to some extent. In other words, Wu Wangwang has once again obtained a protected identity at the start of this game.
Wu Wangwang nodded slightly and walked to the side to wait.
The other prisoners continued, but they were much faster: weighed, taken down, grabbed by the director, and assigned to their respective prison vans.
The island has a total of twenty-one zones, but it seems that people of the same weight will not be assigned to the same zone. There may also be standards for crime types, but the warden did not mention the standards.
Soon it was Ling Yuanshan's turn. When he stood on it, he weighed a thousand pounds. What a terrible crime he must have committed! He's currently the heaviest one.
The head of Area One walked over and threw him into the prison van.
It's obvious that Zone One is for serious criminals, and right now Ling Yuanshan is the only one there.
Because Ling Yuanshan was tall, there weren't many people behind him. The tallest one was 2.3 meters tall, with huge muscles all over his body. When he walked, you could feel the ground shaking. But Zui Nie only weighed 400 pounds. In the end, he went to Zone 8.
Everyone had finished weighing, leaving behind Wu Wangwang, whose conscience was hard to categorize as good or evil. The warden scrutinized her for a long time before saying, "Put her in District 21."
The director of District 21, who was standing at the very end, came out. He was a handsome, short young man. He walked over with a smile and said, "Let's go, Miss Hu He."
From the beginning to the end of the weighing process, only the closest of the two, Ling Yuanshan and Wu Wangwang, were separated. They went to the beginning and end of the two areas by themselves, and there were no companions in these two areas.
The prison van was locked with railings. Wu Wangwang lay behind the railings, looking at the number one prison van from a distance. Ling Yuanshan also looked at her and mouthed, "Be careful."
Wu Wangwang nodded, and then the car drove away.
The island's prison was heavily guarded, consisting entirely of square buildings in gray, white, and black, with extremely narrow doors and windows, presumably to prevent prisoners from escaping. There were no prison guards on the streets, and it was so desolate that it felt like stepping into a wasteland.
But at each street crossing, the car had to be inspected and registered. A prison guard would appear out of nowhere, stamp the document, and check Wu Wangwang's appearance before letting the car pass.
By the time they entered District 21, it was already dark. The prison guards brought Wu Wangwang down, and when they reached the district gate, the director was already there, even though he had left much later.
"Welcome to District 21. We haven't had a newcomer here for many years," the director said with a smile and applause.
Wu Wangwang didn't bother to investigate the age of the NPCs in the dungeon; she was more concerned with the dungeon's content: "Am I the only one in that prison?"
The director nodded: "Yes, in other words, even if you do nothing all day, you'll still get the highest score."
Hearing this, Wu Wangwang felt strange: "That's not right. My situation is special, so it's understandable that I was assigned to District 21 and got the highest score. But he's the one with the heaviest crime in District 1. Doesn't that mean he committed the most serious crime but received the lightest punishment?"
They were walking towards the prison, with the director leading the way. Upon hearing this question, he stopped and slowly turned around: "Ms. Hu He, you seem to have misunderstood something. Getting the highest score and receiving a reward is two different things from clearing your name of your sins. Even if you get the highest score, it won't get you a reduced sentence or release from prison. It will only make your life more comfortable."
The warden only said that one cannot use the rating reward to reduce the weight of one's sins, but according to the director, the daily rating and atonement are two completely independent calculation systems. In other words, if players want to pass the game safely, they have to do at least two jobs.
Wu Wangwang indicated that she understood and thanked the director.
They soon arrived at the prison building. The director told Wu Wangwang to choose any room she liked. Anyway, no one came to this District 21 all year round, and every room was empty. She could stay wherever she wanted, and it wouldn't affect the subsequent evaluation.
The prison building is designed in the shape of an atrium, with a huge open space in the middle and bulletproof glass on the top. It is surrounded by prison rooms on all four sides, a densely packed area, but now it is all empty.
Wu Wangwang was too lazy to walk, so she just pointed to the room on the left side of the first floor.
Before moving in, the director took Wu Wangwang to collect daily necessities, such as a toothbrush, water basin, and towel. When they locked the room, the director said from outside the bars, "There is only one guard on duty at night. If you need anything, remember to call for help. Also, tomorrow will be the official start of prison life. Get a good night's sleep tonight."
Generally speaking, in a dungeon, such a statement is considered a flag, so it looks like I won't be sleeping well tonight.
Fortunately, Wu Wangwang doesn't need to sleep anyway.
Sitting on the bed to rest, Wu Wangwang began to sort out the information of this instance. The referee said that if she wanted to leave, she had to cleanse herself of her sins. Once she had completed her atonement, she could be released after serving her sentence. This should be the requirement for passing the instance.
Neither the referee nor the director mentioned how to clear their names of the sins.
Another question is whether sins accumulate in prison.
What happens if a player breaks the law again after entering a dungeon due to a conflict with an NPC?
Once sins can be increased, the difficulty of completing the game increases significantly.
Wu Wangwang was a little worried about Ling Yuanshan, who was alone in Zone 1. The young master should have come to play Return of the Soul after his illness. He may have accumulated a lot of items in three years of experience, but this dungeon was essentially created by him alone. She didn't know how strict Zone 1 was.
The prison provides a simple dinner in the evening, and the prison guard who delivers the food also puts a schedule on the head of Wu Wangwang's bed.
The prison guard who delivered the food was a girl. After she finished posting the notice, she said shyly, "Miss Hu He, you must remember to follow this. This is your time rule. If you don't follow it, you will be punished."
Prison life isn't easy either, but Wu Wangwang glanced at it and figured it shouldn't be too difficult to comply.
I get up at 7:00 AM, have breakfast at 7:20 AM, attend morning class at 7:50 AM, start work at 8:30 AM, eat lunch at 12:00 PM, take a nap at 12:30 PM, get up at 1:30 PM, eat lunch at 5:30 PM, take a shower at 6:00 PM, attend evening class at 6:30 PM, the director announces the day's scores at 8:30 PM, and go to bed at 9:00 PM. It's a very healthy schedule.
"Oh, by the way, this is just the time rule. A more detailed prison rule will be sent over after you officially start your sentence tomorrow. Miss Hu He, remember to memorize it; that's very important too," the prison guard reminded her as he left.
Wu Wangwang thanked her and lay back down on the bed. Today wasn't the start of his sentence yet, so he didn't have to strictly follow the schedule, and he could skip the shower and go to bed early.
After 8:30, the prison guards left one after another, and soon only one guard was left outside inspecting the building with a flashlight. Even though there was only one prisoner, he went from room to room looking at each one, and it was unclear what he was looking at.
The strange occurrences began at nine o'clock at night. Wu Wangwang couldn't sleep; he just lay on the bed with his eyes closed, pretending to be a corpse. As soon as nine o'clock passed, the entire prison building went dark instantly, and the flashlights that the prison guards had been waving around disappeared.
Moreover, Wu Wangwang heard a rustling sound. She wanted to get up to check, but when she turned her head, she saw the timetable posted on the opposite side of the bed, which clearly stated that she should go to bed at nine o'clock.
The daily schedule ends at 9 p.m., and the cycle begins at 7 a.m.
The sound grew closer, and it seemed as if something was slowly crawling in the hallway outside.
The prison cells have no doors that can be shielded; they are all made of bars, so you can see everything from the outside.
Wu Wangwang thought it was fine not to get up, so she turned over to look. As soon as she turned over, she made eye contact with the monster outside the railing who was trying to unlock it.
A humanoid creature with elongated limbs was crawling outside the railing, with a long centipede scar between its head and body, as if it had been stapled together.
Its head was bald, with irregular scars on its scalp. Its eyes were huge and protruding, like a frog's. Its mouth had been cut open from the corner of its mouth all the way to its ears, and its nose had been shaved off.
The monster's limbs looked as if the bones had been broken and stretched out, limp and powerless. It kept scratching at the lock on the railing, having already torn off two fingernails, with drops of blood flowing down its face.
After making eye contact with Wu Wangwang, the monster grinned, revealing two rows of irregularly sharpened teeth. It then desperately tried to squeeze its head into the bars, but the bars were too narrow, and even after tearing its scalp apart, it still couldn't get in.
But the monster didn't give up at all; instead, it exerted even more force, and Wu Wangwang could even hear the sound of its skull being crushed.
Wu Wangwang touched his head, somewhat speechless. If you can't squeeze into a certain circle, don't force it. Even if you do, you'll just be an outsider.
Out of kindness, Wu Wangwang lifted the thin blanket and walked over, kicking the monster's head and sending it flying.
After finally managing to squeeze in halfway, he was suddenly kicked out, the railing and the wire mesh at the edge of the corridor making a loud noise.
The next second, an alarm suddenly sounded in the prison building, and lights appeared.
Wu Wangwang sensed something was wrong and quickly lay back down on the bed, pretending she had never gotten up.
Immediately afterward, amidst the frantic blaring of alarms, Wu Wangwang heard the sound of chains. Someone was slowly dragging chains past. With her eyes closed, Wu Wangwang sensed a prison guard approaching her room and shining a bright flashlight directly at her.
The bright light lasted for a full half hour. A normal person would have been unable to withstand it long ago, but Wu Wangwang was not human. She remained motionless, seeing who could endure it.
The prison guard eventually moved the flashlight away, dragging the chain as he continued to check the next room. Even though there was only one prisoner, the guard acted as if Wu Wangwang wasn't the only one in the prison building. After checking her, he still had to follow the procedure to check other places.
The alarm blared for half the night. The monster that Wu Wangwang had kicked out was not taken away by the prison guards. Instead, it slowly crawled back after the guards left, trying to squeeze its head back in.
This foolish behavior annoyed Wu Wangwang, so she simply placed a curse on the railing to prevent it from entering. As a result, it got stuck at the railing all night and disappeared at dawn. When Wu Wangwang woke up, it saw blood and fingernails all over the ground.
Well, this monster is even more persistent than Du Luo.
At 7:00 sharp, the prison guard opened the door on time and told Wu Wangwang to go wash up. Her prison life had begun, and from then on, she would have to live in accordance with the prison rules.
Sure enough, the prison rules were delivered during breakfast. The content was not much, but it was roughly about where you can't go, what you can't do, and the weight of sins that Wu Wangwang was most concerned about.
The prison rules state that prisoners are weighed every night before bed, and they will gain weight if they do anything illegal or violate the rules that day. For example, if they steal food from the canteen or do not follow the schedule, the warden will judge how much weight they will be added.
If the weight exceeds the standard, the prisoner will be sent to another prison area. In other words, the prisoner classification in this prison is not fixed, but changes according to the weight.
District 21 is the lowest, and even if Wu Wangwang loses weight, she can't go to other places. But if she gains weight, she will go to other districts.
Once she moved to other areas, she would have to be scored alongside other prisoners, and she couldn't get first place without suffering any pain.
Looking at the rules, it seems like all you have to do is work hard to change them, but when Wu Wangwang thought about what happened last night, she felt it wasn't that simple.
Where did the monster come from? Why did it come into my room? What's the deal with the prison guards who appeared later? The warden clearly said to call the guards if needed, but the schedule says everyone must be asleep after 9 PM, so calling for help would be breaking the rules, wouldn't it?
All these questions reveal the strangeness of the prison. The dungeon will not be easily cleared by players. The Night of the Returning Souls never does charity; you have to survive by your own abilities.
Wu Wangwang carefully put away the rules and prepared to go to her morning class. The morning class was scheduled in another building, which was said to be the ideological education building, where prisoners would receive ideological reform.
The teacher, dressed in a prison guard uniform, began explaining the moral education course to Wu Wangwang from the first chapter. Unfortunately, she didn't understand much of it; she had learned it all from the internet and from Wu Wangwang's memories. Although her understanding allowed her to get high scores on the exam, she didn't actually grasp many of the concepts.
"It's great that I can still study while in prison," Wu Wangwang thought happily.
The forty-minute class ended quickly, and it was time to work. However, Wu Wangwang was taken to a prison van. She thought they were going to a building further away, but she soon realized that the van had left District 21 and was heading towards the center of the island.
The island center was completely different from the surrounding prisons. It was like a city district, with bustling areas and barren regions. Wu Wangwang was led to an auditorium where many prisoners were already standing. After a night, they all seemed to be in low spirits.
From a distance, Wu Wangwang saw Ling Yuanshan. He seemed fine, neither tired nor injured.
The prisoners were each placed under the supervision of a guard in a designated area. After a while, the warden walked onto the stage and said, "Your job today is to catch criminals."
After hearing this, the prisoners were somewhat shocked, and then they whispered among themselves. They were criminals themselves, and now they were being asked to catch other criminals? Wasn't that the same thing as the criminal sanitation worker Hu Hegan? Wasn't that a bit too strange?
The warden continued, “There is a restricted area on the island that the guards cannot enter. In other words, whether you can get out by noon depends entirely on yourselves. Also, remember that the weight of the sins of the criminals you catch can offset the weight of your own sins proportionally. So, please do your best to get out alive.”
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Author's Note: [End of Chapter]
Wu Wangwang: Weren't we here to make changes? How did it turn into PUBG?
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