Chapter 1408: 1408Adjudicator Game: Game Invasion 13
Although much of the knowledge here was outdated and primitive, Rita still spent five full years studying it, making sure to read through every obscure subject she had never encountered before.
Many players from her era made the same choice.
After all, learning something new was always worthwhile.
Perhaps the Prisoners sent here had once thought the same way.
Some people simply could not stop moving forward.
They seized every opportunity to improve themselves, to become stronger, wiser, better.
That was precisely what made them exceptional.
And perhaps it was also why they had ended up in prison.
Only after more than half of the sixth year had passed did Rita finally put down her books.
She brewed an extremely simple new potion and submitted it.
Unlike crafted items, only the formula was taken away.
The potion itself floated back before her, allowing her to keep it.
[Congratulations, Prisoner8017-BS-319365910. Game Complete.]
The walls of the cell reverted into their translucent barriers tinted with faint red light.
The room shrank back to its original size.
A metal supply crate descended from above.
At the same time, six directional options appeared before Rita.
Forward.
Backward.
Left.
Right.
Up.
Down.
She casually selected Right.
The choice felt deliberately vague.
Like a carrot hanging just out of reach.
It offered Prisoners a tiny spark of hope.
Maybe if they completed enough game objectives, they could eventually leave this place.
But the possibility seemed vanishingly small.
Imprisoning gifted individuals and extracting value from them was the same as cultivating future enemies.
Anyone willing to do such a thing would surely take it to the extreme.
Drain every ounce of value.
Destroy them afterward.
Leave behind no hope whatsoever.
How could such a prison ever grant freedom?
Only now did Rita truly understand the numbness and indifference she had seen on the faces of the veteran Prisoners.
She looked around at the neighboring rooms.
The prison’s occupancy remained roughly seventy percent.
Some familiar faces from earlier had disappeared.
New Prisoners had arrived.
Several rooms remained sealed, their occupants still trapped inside ongoing games.
Fortunately, none of the players from the Tenth Epoch had been eliminated yet.
Opening the group chat, Rita found everyone already discussing how to break the prison.
Most players had reached the same conclusion.
The prison would never willingly release Prisoners after exploiting them.
But games followed rules.
If there was a prison, there had to be a way out.
Most importantly...
They had come from the future.
The path ahead might be difficult.
The cost might be immense.
Some of them might even remain trapped here forever.
But the Prisoners of the Tenth Epoch must have escaped alongside the inhabitants of this place.
Otherwise, Starsea and Quiet Mountain would never have existed.
Neither would Order Clock.
Nivalis voiced exactly what everyone was thinking.
After watching Rita hand over her formula and seeing players discuss the skills they had surrendered, she sighed.
"There are actually places worse than Chaotic Starsea."
At least in Chaotic Starsea, players fought for themselves and their worlds.
The skills they learned belonged to them while they lived.
At worst, those skills were reclaimed after death to sustain the next epoch’s games.
Even then, Divine Game players still retained the right to refuse.
Even if the universe was one giant prison and all living beings were participating in a game, Chaotic Starsea offered almost unlimited freedom.
The inhabitants of Ash Prison, however, were genuine Prisoners.
Gradually, the players split into two camps.
One side wanted to move toward the outer layers of the cube.
Perhaps there they would discover how to restore it.
The other side wanted to move inward.
Perhaps the cube’s core lay at its center.
Both theories made sense.
Both had merit.
The problem was that the cube rotated every six hours.
The constant shifts introduced far too many variables.
Eventually the discussion drifted toward the miniature cube embedded in their handcuffs.
While reading the chat, Rita sorted through the contents of her reward crate.
Food that restored health and stamina.
Clean clothing with no attributes.
Basic potions for recovering health and mana.
The crate looked like standard military supplies.
Enough to maintain basic survival.
Enough to keep Prisoners functioning.
Not enough to let them thrive.
But not so little that they would collapse and become useless.
Rita ignored most of it.
Nivalis’s Gacha Machine contained more food and clothing than they could ever need.
After eating, Rita opened World Sigh.
Again and again she tested the boundaries of the prison’s rules.
She wanted to establish her own game rules.
To undermine the prison from within.
To carry out a true invasion.
Lines of glowing text continuously appeared across the pages of World Sigh, only to be erased moments later.
Then the cube rotated once more.
This time was different.
During the previous rotation, each column had turned independently.
Now every column rotated randomly.
Then every row followed suit.
Afterward, rows and columns alike spun through multiple chaotic sequences.
The entire process lasted nearly ten seconds.
As the room flipped and shifted around her, Rita’s eyes remained locked on several veteran Prisoners.
Their expressions revealed genuine shock and confusion.
There was no acting involved.
These Prisoners could not be bothered to pretend.
Had something like this never happened before?
The walls gradually solidified, blocking her view.
The cell expanded once more.
This time it transformed into a circular arena nearly a thousand meters in diameter.
[Detected Prisoner8017-BS-319365910.]
[Violet-Gold Talent Detected: Combat.]
[Prisoner8017-BS-319365910 has triggered a Five Star Inspector Game.]
[Inspector Game] ★★★★★
Survive against the Inspector for a minimum of 5 hours and comprehend at least one skill of S Rank or higher.
Failure to comprehend a qualifying skill before the next cube rotation will result in immediate elimination.
Survive for five hours?
Rita immediately sensed the game’s greed.
This game wanted far more than a single skill.
It forced players into combat for five straight hours.
If their skill slots were already full, then every skill learned during that period would be confiscated.
Five hours was the mandatory duration.
Comprehending an S Rank skill was merely the minimum requirement for survival.
A crimson countdown appeared in the center of the arena.
Even though her actual combat experience surpassed that of most gods, Rita remained cautious.
Her attributes had been suppressed to an average of only 1000.
Her health and mana had likewise fallen to levels where every point mattered.
World Sigh dissolved into starlight.
Flower Crown Murder reshaped itself into a slender rapier in her hand.
Using [For Her Perfection] to synchronize her attributes with Rita’s, Nivalis immediately flew to the opposite side of the arena, ready to assist whenever necessary.
[Inspector Descending!]
When the countdown reached 3, a humanoid figure clad entirely in black iron armor appeared soundlessly on the far side of the arena.
It stood motionless.
A slender armor-piercing spear, forged from the same black metal, rested diagonally against the ground.
The crimson cube embedded in its chest rotated slowly.
The heavy helmet revealed only two narrow eye slits.
Dark red light poured from within.
The glow flickered like living flames.
Large amounts of dark crimson matter drifted from the gaps in the armor.
They streamed backward in a single direction, forming a tattered cloak behind it.
That crimson cloak was the only color on its body.
The only thing about it that seemed alive.
A cold existence that embodied the aesthetics of the faceless warrior to absolute perfection.
