Chapter 314: Chapter 233: Goes Well with Rice

Prisoners voluntarily offered up their souls.

The moment they entered their names into the device, their souls were extricated from their bodies.

Duan Mingyuan and Owl both believed that the Judge might have misunderstood the word "voluntarily," as depriving them of their souls without their knowledge should not be considered voluntary. However, the mechanical prison guard presented an irrefutable argument.

Even the prisoners themselves had no objections.

To demonstrate this, it specifically invited a prisoner who had registered, to tell Duan Mingyuan and Owl in front of them about the process of losing his soul, without any concealment.

The prisoner did not get angry; as the mechanical prison guard had said, he did not mind.

He even admitted he had never felt better; negative emotions like anger, hatred, and resentment had all left him, and even though he was in a cage, he could maintain inner peace.

He had obtained what he truly wanted.

"What happens to those who have been stripped of their souls?"

On the other side of the video, Jiuyue was about to press her chin against her phone, almost filling the entire screen with her face.

Before making the call, she had just finished taking care of her tail and smeared lotion on her face, then lay on her bed excited to listen to Mr. Mingyuan talking about the prison.

Even though they were physically separated by less than a few kilometers, it felt like they were in two different worlds.

She recalled some words written in books, "People say that once you lose your soul, you become an empty shell."

This was also the mainstream opinion at the moment, and many philosophers believed that the soul was much more important than life itself. All life is eroded by time, but only the soul can endure.

But in fact, no one really knows what humans will become after losing their souls.

Not even anyone can definitively confirm whether the soul exists.

"They become kind and peaceful, as if they turned into someone else," Duan Mingyuan said.

Having lost their souls, they also lost their desires. They no longer have the longing for victory, nor do they cling to the obsession with leaving prison.

He soon discovered where the real difficulty of the trial lay. It wasn’t about hiding the soul in a place that prisoners could never find but about completely extinguishing their competitive desires.

Just as the mechanical prison guard said, they would lift the prison restrictions for these criminals. They could go any place they wanted, do anything they wished, and were convinced that these miscreants would never embark on the path of crime again.

Suddenly, Duan Mingyuan thought of something and asked, "Have you watched the previous trials? The official website should have the recordings."

Most prisoners were fearful of the trial itself. Despite no restrictions on registration, only the "warriors" from each prison zone dared to muster the courage, step onto the platform, and input their names into the device.

"I’ve watched them, quite appetizing," Jiuyue blinked a few times. She was watching the Purification Trial, engrossed in it, and without realizing it, she ate six fried chicken legs, "During the finals, the robots wrapped the prisoners in white bandages soaked in some kind of solution, turning them into mummies, and then placed them inside the iron maiden. They lit the iron maiden from the outside."

It was just dinner time, and as she watched the pale blue flames on the video, she felt as though she could smell roasted chicken.

"The one who lasted the longest was the ’Debt Collector’ from D17 prison area. Bo, Bo... I forgot the name, but it’s said that before he was incarcerated, he worked for a debt collection company. He was adept in various ways to torment people; not only would he torture those who owed debts to the company, but he was also keen on applying these tortures to himself."

The reason for his imprisonment was that he had gone too far in a debt dispute, torturing the other party to death. The victim was a prince of a planet, and his father had some connections with the Sixteen Star Summit. In their combined grief and anger, they used their connections to blow the matter out of proportion. To appease the Summit, the Universe Company handed over the "debt collector" as a scapegoat.

"The records say that this person had suffered from a rare disease since childhood, where his body would transform pain into pleasure. When he was released from the Iron Maiden by the mechanical prison guards, he was almost roasted alive, yet he was still smiling,"

This spectacle brought a tremendous shock to the audience and made the "debt collector" the undisputed winner of the Purification Trial.

"I’ve downloaded the recordings of the other trials and plan to watch them slowly,"

Jiuyue thought this was quite the accompaniment to a meal.

This was high praise, as she normally only felt this hungry while watching gourmet food shows.

"So that’s it. In the trials of the past, Judges would torture the prisoners’ bodies, which is why they called it the game of the Warrior."

Duan Mingyuan suddenly understood, combining what Prison Governor Norton had said, he guessed that each trial held a deeper meaning.

Norton believed that over the years, the Judge had changed, becoming more and more like a zealous religious fanatic.

And the scenes described by Jiuyue were roughly those depicted in the scriptures, with the vilest of people placed in Hell to be burned by eternal flames.

This was one of the harshest punishments in the doctrine, yet it still failed to truly purify these prisoners.

The "debt collector" had become a hero and brought a bathroom to the D17 detention block. Not only did the inmates not reform their ways, but they also began to see each trial as a bridge for negotiation with the prison guards and the company.

Therefore, the Judge, disappointed, changed his method, planning to address the problem at its root.

"But speaking of which, aren’t those mechanical prison guards artificial intelligence? How did they become so thoughtful?"

Jiuyue asked curiously.

In her mind, artificial intelligence would only faithfully execute the commands they received. However, from Duan Mingyuan’s description, the Judge’s actions were no different from those of humans, resembling a true Prison Governor.

She then thought of something else, "And why is it able to extract people’s souls so easily?"

"These questions can only be answered after meeting Eisenberg-Adler,"

Duan Mingyuan said.

At least Norton was convinced that Eisenberg was behind it all; all changes in the Judge began after Eisenberg was imprisoned. They also found that the mechanical prison guards paid special attention to Eisenberg, who was usually difficult even for prison guards to approach.

Initially, Norton had thought it was a directive from Universe Company, but after spending a long time in prison, he detected through various details the special relationship between Eisenberg and artificial intelligence.

"You should rest earlier. If all goes well, we might meet this legendary scientist tomorrow,"

"Then, be careful not to get your soul stolen,"

Jiuyue joked half-seriously.

"Hmm."

"Also, don’t hang up the phone, just place it beside the bed, and let’s sleep together,"

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read