Chapter 248: 43rd Floor: Do-hee's Prison
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 248: 43rd Floor: Do-hee's Prison
The surroundings were a wasteland, nearly a desert. Behind a man in what looked like a guard’s uniform stood a large, gray, dome-shaped building.
Looking down, I saw that I was dressed in a rather impressive-looking uniform myself.
‘Okay, not a bad start.’
“Here, this is my ID.”
I took the identification card from my breast pocket and handed it to him.
‘If I’m the Warden, I’m the boss here, right? I can drop the formalities.’
I was in charge.
This Trial, I wouldn’t be pushed around. I would do as I pleased.
From now on, I was running this place.
‘I don’t know what’s inside, but I’m sure a good beating will straighten them all out.’
The guard in front of me finished checking my ID and handed it back as he introduced himself.
“My name is Malcolm. Welcome, new Warden. First, let’s head inside together.”
He gave a slight bow, his eyes crinkling into a smile.
He seemed like a sociable type.
‘But setting aside the fact that he’s the only one who came to greet me, is it okay for the guard on duty to go inside with me?’
Something felt off, but I followed him for the time being.
The prison’s exterior was a massive, arched wall, topped with a dome.
The hemispherical dome was constructed to block out all sunlight from the interior.
The whole thing looked like one giant prison.
‘I could probably break it if I put my mind to it, but an ordinary person wouldn’t even dream of it.’
When he held his ID up to the authentication panel at the entrance, the door rumbled open with a deafening noise.
“It’s always like this here. Ah, for your reference, opening it from the inside requires approval from Headquarters for security reasons. Strange, isn’t it? From the outside, it opens with just an ID, but they say you can’t open it from the inside because of the risk of having your ID stolen. What kind of system is that…?”
‘Doesn’t that mean I’m trapped too…? What a weird prison.’
As soon as we stepped inside, the sunlight was completely cut off, with only the faint lights on the walls providing illumination.
I looked around at the interior facilities.
I could see various unidentifiable structures, as well as power and plumbing systems.
It certainly didn’t have a medieval feel, but it was hard to place the era.
It seemed to be from an ambiguous age where magical engineering was advanced. It didn’t feel modern, as the digital side seemed undeveloped. Judging by the mana I’d felt from the device that opened the door with the ID card, all the equipment was based on magical engineering.
“Warden. Where should I guide you first? The Warden’s office? The regular guards? Or perhaps the prisoners?”
“Hmm… Let’s go to the Warden’s office first. I need to get a general grasp of this prison.”
“Yep! To be honest, we’re all headed there anyway, haha…”
In the center of the facility, I saw a single-story building.
“The first floor?”
“Ah, all our facilities are underground. The prisoner cells, labs, and guard rooms are arranged in that order, from the bottom up.”
“I see.”
For this Trial, I would play the role of a somewhat cold and ruthless Warden.
‘I am serious. I am the Warden. I am their boss.’
Mind control, self-hypnosis—it’s important wherever you go.
“By the way, did you come alone? I thought we requested a large number of reinforcements for the other guards as well.”
Malcolm asked, cautiously watching my expression.
“Ahem… The situation isn’t great right now, is it? You understand. They’ll arrive in a month.”
In reality, I was the temporary Warden, and the real one was set to arrive in a month. All I had to do was prevent a riot from breaking out in the meantime.
“Ah… but, will that be okay…? The situation is pretty bad right now.”
“How bad is it?”
“Uh… we’re here. Why don’t you see for yourself.”
The first floor of the building was an empty space, with a large staircase spiraling downward like a snail’s shell. The stairs, however, grew wider as they descended.
Basements are usually shaped like inverted triangles, but this underground prison felt like a regular triangle had been driven into the ground. Of course, the cross-section was a triangle, but the actual three-dimensional shape was a cone.
‘Definitely a good structure for dealing with internal enemies rather than intruders.’
“Are the stairs the only way? Is there no elevator or anything?”
“Haha… It’s a relic of a bygone era, so unfortunately, we don’t have anything like that.”
‘A relic of a bygone era…?’
After a long descent down the stairs, we finally reached a proper facility.
The underground prison facility had a large pillar in the center, with rooms arranged in a circle around it.
“These are the personal rooms for the guards. We usually call this the first basement floor. The total number of guards was originally twenty-five, but…”
“Hmm… Were they taken out?”
“Yes. There are only six of us left now.”
“Understood. Assemble them so I can check their condition.”
I had expected to run into someone in the guard quarters, but it was completely silent. Eerily so.
Noticing this, Malcolm spoke up, as if making an excuse.
“Ah, uh… it’s their break time after lunch, so they’re probably sleeping in the lounge.”
‘Looks like they’re just slacking off.’
When I spread my senses, I detected figures sprawled out here and there.
I let it slide for now and headed down another level.
The distance between floors was quite large.
Basement two.
This was the floor with the Warden’s office. The rest of the floor was a mix of various rooms, including an armory, a power room, and storage.
“This is where you’ll be working, Warden. I’ll go gather the guards while you get settled.”
“Alright, I’ll see you in a bit.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll be right back!”
Click.
Malcolm quietly closed the door and left.
“Alright, let’s take this one step at a time.”
This wasn’t a possession-type Trial, so I had no knowledge of this body.
It was probably useless, but I decided to figure everything out anyway.
“There’s no computer, it’s all manual paperwork… Does anyone know anything about this Trial?”
As far as I knew, the 43rd Floor was mostly a Trial about managing human criminals. What was this about demi-humans?
“You useless bastards…”
I turned off the Chat Window, which was just spouting nonsense about fucking demi-humans and how orcs have a shit-ton of semen, and decided to find the information myself.
The Warden’s office was a bit unusual.
It was structured with a shower, a toilet, and a bedroom all connected.
And while it wasn’t exactly a replacement for a computer, there was a magic communication device for exchanging messages with Headquarters.
There was a message that had already arrived, so I opened it.
[Headquarters Directive Order]
[Special Order]
Two directives had arrived.
‘Directives… Right. I knew just stopping a riot would be too easy. I could just kill them all, couldn’t I?’
First, I opened the details of the Headquarters Directive Order.
------
☆ Headquarters Directive.
#Barring unavoidable circumstances, you will be dismissed if you violate rules 1, 2, or 3 more than once.
------
‘Nothing special.’
I was a little nervous opening it, but it was less of a big deal than I expected.
It seemed all I had to do was stay in touch and not let the prisoners die.
‘The important one is the Special Order.’
---
☆ Special Order.
---
‘Is it because this is just the beginning? Still nothing special.’
I sent a reply confirming I had received the directives.
Then, I opened the desk drawers and found several documents.
“This is information on the guards, this is on the prisoners, and this is on the research team. The person who recommended me as their successor was the previous Warden.”
The former Warden must have been a fairly diligent person, as they had recorded all sorts of information.
Subjective comments were attached next to the objective data.
First, I read the documents on the remaining guards.
“Malcolm. Talks a lot of useless nonsense and has sticky fingers, but he’s the only relatively normal person you can reason with. Do not befriend…”
That was the guy who had guided me. Just from reading this, I couldn’t tell if it was a good or bad evaluation.
So I looked at the next person…
“A drunkard, a monstrous cook, a bloodthirsty madman, a sex maniac who gets a hard-on the moment he sees a woman, a monster fucker… Seriously, is there not a single normal person here? These are the guards, not the prisoners? Is this some kind of penal colony for criminals?”
Was this a place where you couldn’t survive unless you were crazy? It seemed like every single one of them had some kind of mental illness.
Their mental illnesses varied, but they also had something in common.
They all had a reason they had to work here, even if it killed them—a sick family member, revenge against someone, and so on.
Just as I was about to look at the documents for the research lab, it got a little noisy outside.
Knock, knock.
“Warden, I’ve brought all the guards!”
“Come in.”
Click.
The door opened, and one of them had his uniform completely unbuttoned, his face bright red as he held a bottle of liquor.
“W-We brought them, Warden.”
“Let go of me, you bastard! You wanna die?”
The men on either side tried to restrain the drunkard by grabbing his arms, but he thrashed about wildly, throwing them off.
“Hey, hey, we’re in front of the Warden!”
“So fucking what!”
‘So that must be Reis, the drunkard.’
The rest of them, at least, looked human.
“Well now~ where the hell did they find such a fuckable whore?”
I was wrong.
The last one to enter, a guy who looked like a homeless man, saw me, and his eyes went wide as he started to take off his pants.
‘That must be Berto, the sex maniac.’
“Berto, that’s the Warden!”
“Warden? Nice. Doesn’t that mean we can fucking pass her around ourselves?”
The man called Berto grabbed his hips and began thrusting them back and forth in the air, happily humping his way toward me.
“Present that pussy, you bitch!”
His already fully erect cock dangled as he reached out with both hands to grab my breasts.
“Hoo…”
‘Right now, I am a cold, ruthless, and domineering Warden…’
Under normal circumstances, maybe, but…
The Iron-Blooded Warden, Lee Do-hee, will never tolerate insubordination!
Thwack!
“Ugh!!”
I punched him in the solar plexus.
He didn’t even have time to react before he folded in half and went rolling backward.
“Show some respect for your superior officer!”
Thwack!! Thwack-thwack-thwack!!
I’m not a fan of violence, but for lunatics like these, a good beating is the only answer. Especially in a closed-off group like this.
I dragged not only him but also the drunkard over and gave them a few good hits, and they turned into normal people.
“S-Sorry…”
“P-Please, just this once…”
The moment they saw me break his leg bones, heal them, and then break them again, their will to resist was shattered.
“Defy me again, and I’ll use you as my personal punching bag for the rest of your life. Any objections?”
“N-No, ma’am!!”
Even the other guards, who had been staring blankly with dead-fish eyes, snapped to attention.
“Good, gentlemen. Maintain this state. Understood?”
“”Yes, ma’am!! We understand!!””
Their voices were now filled with military discipline.
See? Violence cures mental illness.
No? They’re resisting more?
In that case, maybe you just haven’t used enough violence. Try hitting them more. An ordinary person is powerless before overwhelming pain.
In just one day, I had perfectly established discipline among the guards.
They might be grinding their teeth, secretly planning to rape me someday, but for now, they would follow my orders without any problems.
“The rest of you, get back to what you were doing. Malcolm, you’re coming with me. We’re heading down.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
I grabbed the documents I was reading and went down with him. This was the kind of thing I needed to see with my own eyes anyway.
Basement three.
It was clearly much larger than the second floor.
I could also see a few people walking around in white hazmat suits that covered their entire bodies.
“This is the research lab.”
“What do they research? How many people are there?”
“There are a total of twelve researchers and four security guards. They’re in a sort of collaborative relationship with us. As for their research… the prisoners are a bit unusual, so they’re doing something with them, but I don’t know the details. Breeding research? I think I heard them say they were doing something like that…”
‘Breeding…?’
A strange image flashed through my mind, but I quickly erased it. Right now, I am the Iron-Blooded Warden, Lee Do-hee!
“Ahem. Right, this place is also under my control, I presume?”
“Ah… no, ma’am. This is an independent research institution. If you mess with these guys, you’ll be summoned by the kingdom immediately. Besides, their four security guards are quite strong, so even the regular guards just cooperate with them.”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
Independent research, and we can’t interfere but have to cooperate? Doesn’t that just make the researchers the ones in charge?
“Is there anything else?”
Malcolm’s expression soured as he answered.
“Hoo… To be honest, the reason we’re in this state and why you’re here, Warden, is because of them. They were doing some kind of experiment on a prisoner, and it escaped, killing a number of guards. The former Warden was injured and had to retire.”
‘So these are the troublemakers for this Trial. I’ll have to teach them a lesson later.’
“Understood. Now, let’s go see the prisoners.”
I decided to deal with the insolent research lab later and headed down another floor.
“The prisoners are separated from the fourth to the tenth basement floors according to their danger level. Except for the ones we can’t control, they’re all quietly locked up in solitary confinement.”
“Can’t control?”
“Yes. When the prisoner from the lab escaped, the first thing it did was release the other prisoners. In an instant, all the prisoners were out, and it was chaos. That’s why from the sixth floor down, the prisoners are still roaming outside their cells.”
“What, roaming around? Is it okay to just leave them like that?”
“Well, some of them are docile… and there are some beings that we can’t do anything about.”
‘Things I’ll have to take care of.’
Come to think of it, the smell of blood still lingered in the dimly lit corridor.
Something terrible had clearly happened here.
“We’ll talk more about that later. Let’s see the prisoners first.”
“Yes. There’s one just over there.”
A great number of the cells were empty.
Broken bars, bloodstains on the walls—the cleanup wasn’t finished yet.
As we walked on, I saw a large figure inside a cell with thick iron bars.
He was sitting on the floor, meditating quietly, and wearing a restraint device similar to the necklace I wore on the 11th Floor.
“An orc?”
“Yes. This isn’t just any orc. He’s the Orc Lord who started the great war with the humans ten years ago. But as you can see, he’s a bit decrepit now, and he’s wearing a mana restraint device, so he’s docile.”
‘Orc Lord Grunbar Urunak, once known as the Butcher of the Land… it says here he’s quite cooperative now.’
As I nodded, comparing the information with the former Warden’s records…
“Who are you calling decrepit…”
A thick, low voice echoed through the hall.
“Hm? It speaks human language well.”
“Ah, he strikes up a conversation like this sometimes. He’s quite the gentleman, though. Mr. Grun? Everything alright today?”
Malcolm spoke to the prisoner with practiced ease.
“When are they going to serve some meat? I’m hungry.”
“Yes. He asks for meat like this, but he actually eats anything just fine.”
“Malcolm, you little… you’ll say anything right to my face, won’t you… You there, are you the new Warden?”
‘Why is this prisoner acting like he’s my superior…’
There was something in his deep, dignified voice that made me feel like I should respect him and speak formally.
But I controlled my mind once more.
‘I am a domineering, cold, and Iron-Blooded Warden…’
“That is correct, prisoner.”
“Ahh… a strong and beautiful woman… Be careful. I have no such intentions, but there are those below who capture women for breeding.”
It seemed he had recognized my strength at a glance.
“Thank you for the advice. But that won’t be happening, so don’t you worry.”
There was nothing else of note on the fourth floor besides the old Orc Lord.
The rest of the cells were empty. Including the Orc Lord, only three were incarcerated here. One was an orc warrior captured with him, and the other was an orc shaman, also captured at the same time.
“But, did they not try to escape?”
“That’s right. When the others swarmed out, they apparently just stayed in their cells. Mr. Grun told them not to leave. Well, there were some who left anyway… but they all ended up dead.”
‘Still, isn’t it stranger that they just stayed put? Something’s suspicious.’
I decided to move on from them for now.
Basement five.
We descended one more level.
As we went down, I checked the documents.
‘Augusper?’
A picture of a strange tentacle monster was attached.