Chapter 73
The Sea of Knowledge, the virtual world.
"You couldn't find anyone willing to escape with you after a whole day?"
Sonya slashed forcefully, splitting her sword energy into several spinning ripple rings that gnawed at the earth barrier like electric saws. It was the new miracle she had just learned, 'Ripple Slash'.
"Yeah."
Ashe sighed. He pointed his imaginary sword and guided his sword heart to pierce through the barrier. But as soon as his sword pierced one layer, the barrier grew another. It seemed endless.
"Not a single one?"
"Well, not no one. Other than Igor whom I have a contract with, no one else was willing...or rather, they don't believe it's possible."
"If Shattered Lake Prison has never had a successful prison break before, they do have reason not to believe you."
"It's not just that," Ashe sighed again. "More than saying they don't believe me for objective reasons, it's more accurate to say they subjectively refuse to believe."
Ashe had spent the entire day today following Igor to persuade other powerful inmates, like 'Diamond' Taig, 'Black Beast' Took, and 'Hundred Spirit Bird' Joell. Each of them were vicious and wicked sorcerers before being imprisoned. Their criminal records could each be made into a thrilling novel.
But they all refused to participate in the prison break.
To be honest, Ashe wasn't surprised by this. Given Shattered Lake Prison's high-pressure rule and its near absolute isolation on an island, it would be abnormal if the death row inmates immediately believed they could escape. Skepticism was reasonable.
But the problem was, the inmates didn't show skepticism, but refusal.
They refused to escape.
And the one negotiating wasn't even Ashe, but Igor the 'Beautiful Beast', who was quite famous in prison. Although Igor was a conman, he had a good reputation and rarely lied. He was even one of the rare intelligence dealers in prison, so he was quite popular.
In his own words, 'Lying is a taboo for conmen. Reputation is a conman's face. Honesty is the most important quality for a conman. The biggest failure for a conman is when others are unwilling to interact with him.'
Therefore, Igor's words carried considerable weight. Even if the inmates didn't believe him, they should have at least asked Igor for more details to make a better judgement.
But they didn't.
Even when Igor said he 'might have a way to remove the restrictions of the control chip', no one asked further questions like 'how?' or 'really?'. They simply showed expressions like 'that's enough' and switched topics or walked away.
In this entire huge prison, they couldn't even find a single ally who wanted to escape. Ashe felt like this was the worst batch of criminals he had ever seen.
But Igor had already expected this reaction.
During dinner, he resolved Ashe's confusion with one sentence:
"They aren't who they used to be anymore. Even shit will become fertilizer if you let it sit long enough."
If time was the best poison, then Shattered Lake Prison was undoubtedly the best compost heap. Whether you were harmful or poisonous, once you enter, you'll become nutrients for me.
Even ordinary people could change a lot after a few years. After being imprisoned for so long, how could these death row inmates possibly still be their former vicious and wicked selves?
In fact, many of the death row inmates would sincerely regret their past crimes when looking back, feeling that their past selves were so immature and impulsive. Even if they didn't regret it, they would gradually lose hope for the outside world over time, finding their place of belonging in Shattered Lake Prison.
Igor said something very true - Shattered Lake Prison was a utopia. Crime was forbidden here. There was no racial discrimination, cursing, fights, or even cutting in line or public urination/defecation.
As long as you followed the rules, everyone could live very freely. You didn't need to watch other's faces, because no one could harm or affect your interests. It was true equality.
The death row inmates committed heinous crimes out of greed, depravity, impulse and other reasons ultimately because they were accustomed to a criminal lifestyle - only that way of life made them feel secure.
The Shattered Lake Prison forcibly changed their lifestyle, yet was still able to make them feel secure.
Feeling secure can be addictive. When someone is in this environment long-term, free of complex social relationships and the competitive external world, even if the inmates outwardly scorn the prison's restrictions, being released into society would actually leave them feeling lost, especially if they were able to live a tranquil life in prison.
Many death row inmates can't even get up early, let alone voluntarily leave their comfort zone. Looking at it this way, the Shattered Lake Prison was quite successful in reforming the death row inmates.
Without any hard labor or punishment, just with various restrictions, KPI assessments and elimination of the lowest performers, the inmates were transformed into compliant workers who voluntarily work overtime, obediently contributing their residual value in prison.
If they had no residual value, they could earn money by participating in trial livestreams - there was always suitable work for the death row inmates.
What Ashe and Igor were inviting them to do was like asking them to start their own business with unknown prospects, insufficient funds, and the need for them to pay out of their own pockets.
Most importantly, even if the business failed, what if it succeeded? Wouldn't they have to return to that society where they'd have to struggle and rely on themselves? Just thinking about it was terrifying. It'd be better to just buy a toy gun, rob a bank, and wait for the Heresy Court to bring them home.
Even Igor probably wouldn't be willing to participate in the escape if not for Ashe binding him with the rebound contract. Admittedly, he could live better outside, but he would also live in constant fear and paranoia of the Heresy Court.
Here, even conmen could feel at ease.
If not for Professor Bessel and the Blood Moon Tribunal, Ashe felt Shattered Lake Prison could be a nice vacation spot. Not only could you enjoy the scenery here, you'd also be forced to cleanse your soul. Once you leave, you'd never be able to fart freely in bed again and would have to run to the bathroom.
As such, Ashe felt like he was an evil villain forcing chaste reformed criminals back into a life of sin. Igor was like an innocent maiden whom he had blackmailed, who was just trying to live a peaceful life, but now had to become the head courtesan in Ashe's employ...
Slam!
With a muffled bang, the earth barrier that Ashe and Sonya had been attacking for over 10 minutes finally exploded, revealing the elderly sorcerer hiding within. Before he could speak, Sonya's 'Wicked Light Slash' and Ashe's 'Sword Heart' directly tore him apart, bursting into three spirit familiars and a sorcerer's handbook.
This was the best sorcerer inheritance Ashe had encountered since entering the virtual world.
Because this sorcerer did not use combat abilities.
He couldn't fight at all. All he did was continuously create earth barriers for defense. At first, Ashe was a little worried the ground might suddenly sprout spikes to give him an acupuncture massage. But nothing happened. The projection just cowered behind the earth barriers, as if this inheritance was to test their damage output efficiency.
"Sorcerers like him are actually the mainstream," Sonya said. "Or rather, dedicated combat sorcerers are the minority. Most learn production schools that can find them good jobs, and just pick up a little combat on the side. Many sorcerers go through life without ever having a combat spirit familiar, and rarely have opportunities to fight others. Like medical mages, meteorologists, architects, agriculturalists..."
She grumbled, "If not for you insisting, I learn swordsmanship, I could have been a non-combat water mage medic now."
Ashe was puzzled. "But they can't be completely non-combat, right? Even if they don't need to fight in reality, the knowledge creatures in the virtual world aren't going to check their ID and let them go right?"
"There are more ways to deal with knowledge creatures than just fighting. Sorcerers have many methods, like running, defending, etc."
"But without ever fighting, how do they obtain new spirit familiars?"
Sonya laughed. She picked up the slumbering spirit on the ground and casually said, "Study! Cultivate! Research!"
"People like us who can gain something in the virtual world every day are truly rare. For most sorcerers, the main way to obtain spirit familiars is to trigger resonance in the virtual world by improving their mastery of their school of magic, thus giving birth to new spirit familiars."
"A sorcerer's foundation is their knowledge. Diligent study is the proper path for a sorcerer. What we're doing now, fighting and adventuring, is actually the crooked path. Academy-trained sorcerers who grow step-by-step have complete spirit familiar systems. Us adventurer sorcerers have messy, unclear systems, far inferior compared to academy sorcerers."
"And we can't skip lessons either. Once our Silver Wings fully condense, we'll have to double back to take classes, raise our mastery of our schools of magic. Without golden-grade mastery, we won't be able to summon dual-winged spirit familiars. We'd be stuck swimming in place in the Sea of Knowledge forever, never reaching the Timelands!"
Production is the orthodox path; combat is the heterodox path?
Ashe secretly sighed. Comprehensive superhuman systems that required moral, intellectual, physical, and artistic development were what he feared most. He knew himself well - he was just an ordinary person, with neither sports talent nor academic ability. Other than paid toilet breaks, he had no special skills. If not for clutching the sorcerer handbook Aurora's Guide for Sorcerers, he wouldn't have had the chance to become a sorcerer at all.
Why weren't there any superhuman systems where you just drank a magic potion, digested it, and leveled up?
"Speaking of which, didn't you mention before there's a golden fish in the virtual world? Reaching it would let us get to the Timelands?"
"Just a rumor. And even the Observer doesn't know where the golden fish is, how could I possibly know?" Sonya quickly skimmed through the sorcerer's handbook, joking, "Don't tell me you're pinning your hopes on the golden fish? You might as well hope the prison suddenly riots tomorrow and you can escape in the chaos..."
Seeing Sonya make a strange noise, Ashe asked, "What's up? Another handbook that clashes with your values?"
"How to put it...I feel you should prepare yourself a bit before leaving the virtual world."
"What do you mean?"
"Because the prison might really riot!"
Sonya squeezed next to Ashe excitedly and flipped the handbook open to a page in the middle, showing it to him.
Written on it were the words:
"I've found the golden fish."
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