Chapter 198: Abyssal Radiation

“Ah, here they are.” Kael brought his hand to his head and narrowed his eyes, seeing a big group of people standing in front of a large gate.

“I bought a new pickaxe. Watch me get all those sweet minerals!”

“You’re talking like a good slave to Uldor, aren’t you?”

“Who cares about a pickaxe if you can’t even protect your body? Always have a good outfit or even armor in case something wrong happens.”

“I don’t care… I just want enough points to cure myself. It’s becoming worse every day…”

The people in front of the gate were obviously prisoners, chatting casually in front of the gate.

They had various items, from weapons to backpacks and potions. But they all shared wearing masks or enchanted helmets and wielding a pickaxe or anything that could work in a similar way.

That was the base floor of the prison. It was where the gate to the outside was located.

It also had a guy at the side who sold items to prisoners, using a point system.

There were various floors upward, but neither Kael nor Braham could get access to them.

And there was a sixth floor underground, but the rumours said that it was a storage for some valuable resources or maybe some hidden farms, but nothing was confirmed except for its existence.

Kael and Braham stood with the people there, and after a few seconds, the gate opened mechanically.

What they saw in front of them was a second gate.

“Make sure not to go too close to them.” Braham whispered to Kael, and many other prisoners shared similar whispers.

When they stood in front of the second gate, the first one closed behind them.

Other than the gate, there were several backpacks placed in the walls. Braham and Kael casually took one each.

Suddenly, the second gate rose upward without anyone touching it, revealing a crowd of prisoners who stepped forward immediately.

However, they didn’t look good.

“Ah… some people didn’t have good luck this time.” Kael remarked as he examined the incoming prisoners, subconsciously taking a step backward.

The majority of them looked tired, their backs curved slightly as a hint of depression.

There were many broken handles and unrecognizable items, which were broken for reasons that Kael and Braham could already guess.

Some of them had their clothes and armors torn apart, but what they didn’t reveal wasn’t just skin, but bloody wounds that hadn’t recovered yet.

There were claw marks, bite marks, and even burns and some scars that hinted at using sharp items.

Some of them were even barely alive. A woman had a hole in her stomach, a man had two arms missing, and a woman was… holding her own head?

“Braham, am I hallucinating?”

Seeing the same sight of a headless woman holding a living head, Braham smiled wryly: “Did you fall in love seeing a woman with a similar ability to one of yours?”

Braham leaned closer to Kael’s ear and whispered: “I suggest proposing as fast as you can. I’m a married man myself, so I can recognize a good couple when I see one. You’re made for each other!”

Kael smirked: “No, I’m not in love. But I’m already imagining so many possibilities…”

Other than those depressed, sad people, there were some who were in a good mood.

Their backpacks were filled with herbs and minerals, which were all glowing in different colors.

The prisoners held those resources with intense pride and happiness, as though they were the most valuable thing in existence.

And maybe that wasn’t far from the truth, seeing the number of people who stared at them with jealousy, including Kael himself.

“How much do you think we’re going to get this time?” Kael asked, his gaze still lingering on the backpacks.

Braham thought for a few seconds before responding: “Eh… maybe enough to waste on meat again. You should really learn how to spend your points wisely.”

Kael slapped Braham’s back, causing him to grit his teeth in pain: “You call it a waste, but you begged me like a dog for a bite! Stop the hypocrisy!”

“It’s not hypocrisy…” Braham rubbed his back with a tear: “I mean, why would I care if it’s not my money? And you didn’t even let me smell it!”

BAM!

The second gate closed, leaving all prisoners together between two walls.

Tssss!

The next moment, a wave of steam burst out of the ceiling and the floor, cleaning everything in the room.

The blood and dust covering the prisoners vanished magically as if they never existed. Kael and Braham even felt the steam piercing their clothes to reach their skin without harming them.

It went so far that it cleaned their ears, noses, eyes, and mouths!

After a few minutes, the steam vanished, leaving some prisoners shining brightly like clean diamonds.

Afterwards, the prisoners went to the walls and dropped their bags into holes in the walls.

Ting!

Simultaneously, their collars rang softly, as though they got something from that process.

The next moment, the first gate opened behind them.

Most of the returning prisoners left the area and headed toward the staircase to return to their cells under the gazes of the guards, the few prisoners who had filled backpacks went to the store, and very few prisoners picked up new backpacks and stood with the others.

Finally, after some waiting, the first gate closed, and the second opened once again, allowing all the prisoners to leave the prison.

“Now run!”

No one knew who said that, but everyone listened and charged forward!

As fast as possible, as efficient as possible, they ran without even looking back.

They ran under the light of 7 moons in the same direction, but none of them cared about observing the outside.

That was the Abyss. There was nothing beautiful in it!

Just from leaving the prison for one second, they could already feel it.

The prisoners with bad masks felt their lungs melting only from breathing.

The prisoners with no good outfits felt their skin burning and the urge to vomit whatever they ate.

The poor Rank 2 prisoners struggled after the first few minutes of running. Even with their powers suppressed, they were supposed to be strong enough to run for hours before gasping for breath.

But that wasn’t the case in this world.

Here, in this hell, there was something harmful that invaded their bodies without their consent.

And once it did, it was hard to remove it.

It made everything harder, it made everything painful, it made everything dangerous.

It caused chaotic mutations, it caused hallucinations and intrusive thoughts.

And most importantly, it killed whatever it touched from the inside, starting from causing the veins to glow green.

It was called — Abyssal Radiation!

Not a single spot in the Abyss was safe from the radiation.

The trees, the herbs, the beasts, the corpses.

The minerals, the rocks, the food, the water.

They all simply adapted and evolved to live with the radiation instead of fighting it.

In other words, every single being in the Abyss and the process of adaptation and evolution itself thought that fighting the radiation was impossible!

That was just how dangerous it was.

Even the guards wore enchanted outfits and armors that helped in resisting the radiation in different ways. A lot of those guards were masters, yet even they couldn’t resist the radiation on their own.

Even with the barriers that protected the area, the radiation still passed through and affected the whole place.

That was why the prisoners who came from the outside had to be cleaned before entering the prison. The small particles with radiation clung to the skin, clothes, and even hair like parasites.

If they entered the prison without being cleaned, they’d affect everyone inside. That would slowly kill all of them.

There were ways to remove the radiation and heal it, even removing it from the food, but they were complex and needed resources.

The best thing that the prisoners could do was to just stay in their cells, but they couldn’t. This wouldn’t have been the worst possible prison in two worlds if they had a choice.

The prison followed the system of rewarding the prisoners with points upon accomplishing some missions.

Those points could be used to buy reliable food, clean water, and even luxurious items for their cells, such as beds and chairs.

They could even pay monthly points for special cells, like a one-person cell or two friends getting their own cell.

But the most important thing about that system was the quotas and daily missions.

Every single prisoner had to complete a single mission daily at the very least, no matter what it was.

Every single person had a monthly quota of points that they had to meet. If they didn’t, they’d be punished, and one of the punishments was getting hit with radiation.

And here was the problem.

Even with the walls of the prison, some tiny rays would still pass and affect all people. With the added punishment for not meeting the quota, the amount of radiation they had to endure would quickly be enough to cause problems.

It had to be healed, and the prison had the cure.

However, it was expensive to buy. The missions that were in the prison itself didn’t pay much, forcing the prisoners to do the hardest missions to survive despite the risks.

They needed points to meet the quota. With only the safe jobs, they’d slowly die from the radiation. If they bought the cure, they wouldn’t have enough points for the quota. If they got punished with radiation, all their hard work for the cure would mean nothing!

It was a brutal system that was made on purpose to make them desperate and endanger their lives, doing some jobs that were outside the safe walls of the prisons but still within the walls.

And here they were, running at their full speed to spend the least possible amount of time against the radiation in the open.

And their target was the place that had the highest paid job.

It was the mines!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep