Mage Manual

Chapter 55: Chapter 53 Purification Flame

Red Mist Café.

“Huh? Snake boss, why are the odds for him so high, and there’s no ceiling cap? Aren’t you afraid of losing big time?”

The customers, looking at the ‘execution gambling’ on the local channel, found that the ‘popular contestant’ actually had odds of 1.65 and couldn’t help feeling puzzled—according to past experience, the odds for popular contestants were at most 1.0001 or even lower, and there was a ceiling cap with a limit per person.

Because after each Judgement, they could nearly determine who would die after reviewing the convict’s information, Snake boss naturally wouldn’t just give away money.

The popular bets in gambling often involved highly unpredictable categories, such as ‘how much difference will there be between the highest and lowest votes’, ‘will the highest votes break 150,000 within 15 minutes’, or ‘will prisoners fight each other within 5 minutes’.

Leaning on the bar, Snake boss stuck out his tongue, hissing, “Yeah, I’m losing big time. If all of you bet on him, I’ll be in trouble, hiss~”

A customer laughed, “Hey, I don’t want to profit from the Snake boss. I’m just playing to lose, oh~ I’m going to bet on the one with the lowest odds and a limit.”

Lorenz looked at the gambling bouts on the Light Screen, wondering whether he should place a couple of wagers. He had been in Shattered Lake Prison for over a year and hadn’t touched gambling in a long time.

Almost everyone could initiate a local bet like this without any restrictions, but there was one condition: the bookie had to deposit a large sum of advance money into Kaimon Commercial Bank; otherwise, the bank wouldn’t provide the money betting services for the bet, and it also effectively prevented bookies from running massive losses and evading debts.

After browsing through the ‘highest votes’ odds for the eight convicts, Lorenz knew who would likely be the redeemer of this Blood Moon Judgement.

The lowest odds, naturally, were for the one everyone believed was certain to die. @@novelbin@@

Generally speaking, the one with the lowest odds is often the ‘popular contestant’ who could be identified from their information. But this time…

“Interesting…”

Lorenz smiled, placing his bets to the max under the contestant with the lowest odds.

…

…

Ash finally understood.

Why Harvey was certain that tonight’s draw would ‘randomly’ pick him—with the so-called draw being the audience voting!

The convict with the most votes would win a first-class trip to the Heavenly Kingdom!

The Executioner would send you straight to the Heavenly Kingdom!

So why was it that as long as it was audience voting, Ash was doomed?

Because Ash had been the hot news topic for the past few days!

He was the ‘popular contestant for this month’, the ‘cover figure of the news’!

The recent news was full of Ash Heath’s story of his sinister cult’s rise to power, explained in a way that was both detailed and easy to understand. Ash himself watched with great interest. It wasn’t hard to imagine that most of the audience was now familiar with Ash.

What is audience appeal?

This is audience appeal!

Since you are so well-known, let’s choose you!

Watching his vote count rapidly increase, the crimson ‘Executioner’ in front of him grew increasingly gigantic and fierce, taking up most of the platform’s space, pushing Ash to the edge, both heels already off the platform.

Every cell in his body was roaring, screaming at him to run away!

Just when Ash could hardly hold on, a cry of alarm suddenly rang out next to him!

“Ahhhh!”

The ogre prisoner beside him screamed like a little girl when touched by a hot iron!

The ogre was grazed by the pale blue flame from the slim Executioner, trembling as he stepped back to the edge, clutching the steel wire, looking pitiable, weak, and helpless!

At this moment, the other prisoners were also screaming in agony, every one of them in excruciating pain.

He looked completely unscathed on the outside, but the pain seemed as if his fingernails had shattered and were embedded in his flesh.

Even a goblin on death row, taking advantage of his light body, strutted directly on the steel wire.

They would rather risk falling into the sea than stand with the Executioner!

Is it really that painful?

Although Ash knew they were on death row, because of the chip’s restriction on the prisoners’ behaviors, his understanding wasn’t very clear.

It was only now that he suddenly felt a sense of superiority.

Oh my, how mournful you all scream, how terrifying, death row inmates, unlike me, I’m not in pain at all~

“Violation… violation!”

A death row inmate whose lips were burnt and bleeding by the Purification Flame bellowed loudly, “This is a violation of human rights; the Blood Moon Judgement can’t harm us during the voting phase!”

“You’re torturing us, trampling on our dignity, using torture as a means!”

“Human rights organizations, City Council members are also watching the Blood Moon Judgement, right? Quickly complain to them, stop them!”

“Right, we’re supposed to be safe during the voting phase, aren’t we?! Shattered Lake Prison is breaking the rules of the Blood Moon Judgement!”

“Stop the trial, quickly! Hurry!”

Ash also found it strange, because from all the information he gathered, the Blood Moon Judgement usually only resulted in one death, with the remaining seven safely returning to prison.

In fact, Ash had met mostly survivors from the Blood Moon Judgement, some of whom had even repeatedly tested the dangerous brink as regulars of the trial.

Moreover, the Kingdom of Blood Moon paid great attention to racial rights and human rights (seemingly), and would never allow any torture-driven punishments or human-induced sentences.

Even interrogations were uniformly changed to ‘memory extraction’.

From arrest to imprisonment, criminals would not suffer any interrogation under duress.

Speak or don’t, your human rights won’t be infringed upon.

Of course, whether ‘memory extraction’ counts as a human rights violation is another matter.

So the death row inmates’ doubts about Shattered Lake Prison had some legal basis—their current situation was undoubtedly pure torture, incompatible with the spirit of redemption of the Blood Moon Judgement, a sacrilege to the Extreme Master of Blood Moon, and a reversal of universal equality!

“Not at all.”

Nagu shook his head, “The rules of this Blood Moon Judgement have been approved by the council, human rights organizations, and various racial advocacy groups, with no inhumane arrangements. Although your current situation seems very risky, as long as you stay still and do nothing, you will not suffer any harm.”

“Ah! Ah!” Just then, the beastman on death row’s Executioner suddenly intensified slightly, and the flames of the Purification Flame licked at the beastman’s skin, making this burly figure, who appeared as tough as iron, emit a scream like a little girl.

“This is called not suffering harm!?” The inmates trembled with rage, “You… you ogre-goblin hybrid abomination, are you just like those pig-toothed green-skinned trash that only spews filth!?”

“Low-life scum bred from the slums’ refuse!”

“Whorelings deflowered by goblin gigolos!”

It was then that the inmates remembered that they had unlocked all their shackles and were no longer bound by rules of racial equality or language etiquette. They erupted with tremendous combativeness, as if they wanted to spew out all the swear words they had held in their throats all at once. In a single utterance, they managed to cover regional discrimination, racial discrimination, and gender discrimination, making Ash unable to help but listen intently.

Until he heard Harvey shout from beside him—

“Idiots who believe in The Gods of Four Pillars!”

Ash looked at Harvey. Even though he wasn’t one of them, he felt as if he had been insulted and shouted back, “Necromancers who love to sleep with corpses!”

Harvey glared at him. Ash glared back defiantly and then heard him ask in a suppressed voice:

“How did you know?”

“Huh?”

The Executioner didn’t shove Ash into the sea, but those words almost scared him enough to take three steps back and fall off himself.