Chapter 75
Shattered Lake Prison.
"If hurt enough, slash open with a pair of hands, curse yesterday..."
Ashe looked at the recharge page on the light screen, lost in thought.
Yesterday's virtual world exploration didn't yield much. Ashe barely found an "worth a visit" area, but discovered there was a Slicing Fish Dragon inside.
He and the Swordswoman fought hard against it, but still couldn't kill the Slicing Fish Dragon in the end. That Slicing Fish Dragon cunningly pretended it would die with them, then dove into the water and escaped after farting out two spells - spells in the bubbly diarrhea.
So Ashe and the Swordswoman could only very humiliatingly catch the Slicing Fish Dragon's farts, watching it disappear into the white fog.
The damage was low, but the insult was extremely strong.
Ashe was taught another good lesson by the virtual world - the survival environment of sorcerers was so harsh, no wonder the death row inmates didn't feel anything about not being able to enter or leave the virtual world - the virtual world was a place where you might not succeed even if you tried hard, but would definitely feel very relaxed if you gave up.
The difference between reality and the virtual world was that reality was a garbage game dominated by pay-to-win players, while the virtual world was a garbage game dominated by lucky players. The average sorcerer's gaming experience was to first get beaten up badly in reality, then get ravaged in the virtual world, fully experiencing the disparity of the world.
The two spells farted out by the Slicing Fish Dragon were not great either, so they were naturally taken by Ashe to recharge, as a tortured player like him who started out in hell difficulty in reality could only change his fate by recharging.
The problem came when Ashe was recharging the Sorcerer's Handbook - he suddenly realized the price of a single-wing spell was only 8 points!
It was clearly still worth 10 points a few days ago!
What was going on, game system, did you fix the Apple payment channel and are now charging me Apple tax?
The five spells only recharged 40 points, a full 20% less!
However, Ashe had no way to complain or inquire, not because the game system hadn't fixed the complaint module, but because their company's game simply didn't have a complaint module...
But Ashe also had some vague guesses - it was probably related to his own strength.
After crossing the vortex, his Silver Wings were also more than halfway condensed. As his arcane energy grew, the power of his spells naturally also increased. For him and the Swordswoman, the difficulty of exploring the virtual world decreased linearly - the most obvious manifestation was that the number of "worth a visit" and "a bit troublesome" areas increased a lot on the virtual world map, and "suicide zones" only occasionally appeared once.
When the Silver Wings spread open, Ashe was afraid he could achieve spell freedom, harvesting seven or eight spells every night, bursting the game system, and the first thing he did every morning was a ten pull to test his luck.
But this was obviously impossible.
Even if Ashe's brain lost imagination after working as a corporate slave for a few years, with his daily computing power only used on lunch choices, he also knew the game system must have problems and would not leave such an obvious loophole for himself.
Clearly, in order to prevent value collapse, the game system's method was: reduce returns.
Or rather, taxation mechanisms.
Ashe guessed that after advancing to two wings, the price of single-wing spells would drop to 5 points or even lower. When he spread three wings open, the price of single-wing spells would even drop so low that he would be too lazy to pick them up off the ground.
Ashe strongly suspected that the selling point of this game might be "free spells for all", with all harvested spells directly recharged as money, giving players a feeling that "this game is so generous".
But as the player's strength increased, the price of the low-level spells they defeated would decrease. To improve their gold efficiency, they would have to obtain higher-level spells... In the end, all players' daily income would be about the same. As everyone knows, giving everyone money is equal to giving no one money, so this taxation mechanism was an additional supplement to the check-in system that could effectively increase players' online time.
"So the greater the ability, the more tax you pay..." Ashe sighed and went out for breakfast.
As for the newly obtained 40 points, he would naturally let them be for now. He had already bought the Source Crystal Pack worth 30 points, and without the first recharge double reward, Ashe's next small goal was the 'Pile of Source Crystal Packs' worth 98 points.
Arriving at the central hall, Ashe was surprised to find many people gathered here, with people even arguing with the prison guards in front - Ashe was overjoyed to see this - could a prison riot really happen?
He squeezed to the front and saw that the light screen in the hall was broadcasting news:
"A warm celebration of Caimon City being rated as the region with the best public security nationwide. Mayor Fernand Snow attended a press conference, where he thanked everyone for their indelible contributions..."
Damn, this news was so mocking! Which death row inmate would watch this kind of news!
Ashe looked closely and saw a notice posted next to the light screen:
"Special Task Volunteer Recruitment"
"Requirements: Two-wing combat sorcerer or above"
"Reward: After completing the special task, the inmate's sentence will be commuted from 'Salvation' to 'Probation for 5 Years', and will be awarded a government job, a house in Caimon City, and a one-time subsidy of eight hundred gold coins."
"Number of Personnel: No Limit"
"I, I'm a two-wing hybrid sorcerer, golden wings fully spread, fire element and wind element fully mastered, I even know the miracle spell 'Dragon Poetry Vanquisher'! Why don't you choose me?"
"And I, I'm a two-wing gunmage, former Blood Mad Hunter member, outstanding battle record and good family background, just accidentally crossed the line and ended up in Shattered Lake, I'm clearly the kind of former Hunter sorcerer who should be chosen!"
"You have to at least give a reason for rejection, there's no limit on the number of people, why not allow me to be a volunteer?"
"I actually don't care about getting out of prison, I just want to do something to contribute to society, so why stop me from serving the country?"
The prison guard sitting at the front registration desk looked aloof, completely ignoring the cries of these job seekers, and coldly said, "Next."
Ashe also wanted to sign up, but unfortunately he wasn't even a two-wing sorcerer, so he didn't have the qualifications to submit his resume. But he was also unwilling to leave, so he could only stand aside and watch eagerly, not knowing what he was waiting for.
"What a great opportunity, unfortunately you can't grasp it. You look like a vulgar man who knows he has no right to make advances, but still hopes a beautiful lady will suddenly go blind and be willing to spend a wonderful night with you."
Ashe glanced at Igor and asked, "Aren't you going to sign up?"
"I signed up, but unfortunately wasn't chosen." Igor looked at the surging registration point and shook his head, "Fortunately I wasn't chosen, I'm not confident I could survive in this kind of special task."
"Do you know what the special task is?"
"I don't, but can guess. I observed that the selected death row inmates basically all specialized in water, earth, wind and light elements."
"What's special about these spell elements?"
"Let me put it clearer - the selected death row inmates basically all had these charges in their crimes: multiple resist arrests, long-term escapee, rich criminal experience, committed crimes across multiple cities."
Multiple resist arrests, long-term escapee? Recalling the formidable Blood Mad Hunters in the Heresy Court, Ashe immediately realized: "They are very good at escaping?"
"That's right." Igor nodded, "This special task probably doesn't require combat or social skills, but needs volunteers to have sufficient escape experience and survival skills. No matter how you think about it, it must be an extremely dangerous reconnaissance mission. I have to say, in Caimon City, the people who meet these two requirements are indeed all in Shattered Lake Prison."
"I didn't know these kinds of tasks that pardon death row inmates would appear." Ashe said, "Do these tasks happen often? Have death row inmates openly left through these tasks before?"
"Of course not. I've been here for over a year and this is the first time I've seen it. I asked some other old inmates earlier and they also saw this kind of task that could pardon death row inmates for the first time. At most, previous special tasks just rewarded some contribution points to death row inmates."
Igor narrowed his eyes slightly: "Speaking of which, for a proposal like pardoning death row inmates, the Order Faction would definitely not approve it, and the parliament would also quarrel over it for a long time... Exactly what kind of huge benefits could make even the Order Faction agree to such a dangerous proposal?"
"Order Faction?" Ashe heard a new term.
"You don't know? It's one of the factions in parliament, opposed to the Human Rights Association. The Human Rights Association advocates people-oriented goals, that all laws should aim to protect people, and people cannot be treated as consumables; while the Order Faction advocates pursuing absolute order, laws must be strictly enforced, and people's appeals and emotions need not be considered."
"Most bills need to reach a balance point between the two factions to pass. Things like the Blood Moon Tribunal are the result of the Order Faction and Human Rights Association debating for many years. The Order Faction hopes death row inmates die as quickly as possible, while the Human Rights Association believes death row inmates still have the chance to repent and reform themselves, and the Blood Moon Tribunal allows some death row inmates to contribute value to society while giving the people the power to judge, thus obtaining unanimous approval from parliament members."
Igor looked at Ashe, "Things like your 'extra dosage' Blood Moon Tribunal the day before yesterday, the Order Faction must have exerted quite some effort... Forgot to mention, Professor Sylin, the city councilor, is a member of the Order Faction."
Hearing this news, Ashe's desire to escape prison grew even more intense - having such a political villain like him inciting outside, the law could no longer be Ashe's shield.
"So what exactly is the special task?"
"Benefits substantial enough to silence the Order Faction, recruiting volunteers skilled in escape and survival, plus the approaching spring-summer transition... Thinking it through, there's likely only one possibility."
Igor said, "Caimon City has appeared stable virtual world rifts, and there may be a virtual world passage inside leading to other nations."
"If a stable virtual world passage can be found, that would be a feat to please the Blood Moon."
Cailleach, Swordflower College.
Other than Ingritt who went running in the morning, the other three were still in the dorm.
Seeing Adele hugging her doll asleep, Iris got out of bed, grabbed the ice spring water spray and angrily sprayed a face full, instantly becoming fully awake - truly cruel morning skincare torture.
At this time, Sonya was already showering in the bathroom, so Iris could only wash her face first then apply a thick layer of jelly mask, squeezing time to read a book - she couldn't use sheet masks or the essence would drip down to her chin.
To quickly become a watermage and get the Flow spell back from Sonya, Iris could only compress her own skincare and makeup time to squeeze out time to learn and cultivate.
At times like this, Iris was always both resentful and admiring of Sonya - how could this world have such a girl who still had time to dress up and learn quickly?
Suddenly, the Miracle Bracelet vibrated slightly, and Iris tapped it to check the message, which was from the Meteorological Institute.
"Meteorological sorcerers announce this week is Virtual Rift Week, with increased probability of virtual passages appearing around Cailleach."
"Please report immediately to the Police Department if you discover virtual passages or suspicious persons."
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