Chapter 211: Declaration

However, it would take Su Ya at least dozens of minutes to reach the battlefield. 

After all, she was traveling on foot, and the traffic was paralyzed. 

Since she wasn’t currently transformed, she didn’t dare to start leaping across rooftops or scaling walls; otherwise, she would be on the front page of the news by morning.

Furthermore, Su Ya was wearing high heels. 

Even if her body could handle the strain, the heels would likely protest.

Fortunately for Justice, he still had plenty of time to finish this farce.

“Given that Lady Number One needs some time to recover, let us begin with Number Two. Oh, right—Number Two and Number Three are husband and wife. Why don’t the two of you discuss things together and see if everyone is moved by your repentance?”

At that moment, Justice suddenly raised his voice, deliberately articulating every syllable.

“Remember, it is repentance, not an explanation or an attempt to absolve yourselves of guilt.”

As his voice fell, the shadow looming over the couple’s hearts did not recede. 

Moreover, they were not even in the same place at the moment. 

This meant that the only way for them to discuss anything was through the live stream, but wouldn’t that mean the audience would hear everything they said?

One had to remember that the key to determining whether an execution would be carried out was whether the audience was moved.

Where would this group of bloodthirsty viewers, who only wanted to watch the spectacle, find any sympathy for a bit of hypocritical repentance? 

They were surely going to die a miserable death.

While the two were hesitating, Justice had already “considerately” fastened the Execution Devices onto them.

A strangely shaped piece of machinery was clipped to their left chests, pressing the tip of a thick steel needle tightly against their hearts. 

The needle was slowly advancing inward. 

If it wasn’t stopped, it would pierce their hearts after traveling just a few centimeters. 

This threat pressed down on their hearts with a suffocating, horrific pressure, causing them to scream out in a state of total loss of composure.

“Now, for every 30 seconds that pass, the steel needle will advance 1 millimeter. So, do not waste your sinful lives on futile screaming. As long as 1,000 people are willing to vote in recognition of your repentance, the advancement will stop.” Justice spoke calmly. 

This time, it did not use the same bloody or visually stimulating methods as before. 

Instead, it used the simplest and most direct threat to their lives.

The logic was simple. 

When humans slaughter livestock, most of them have no interest in deliberate torture. 

Instead, the white blade goes in, the red blade comes out, the blood is drained for a few seconds, and the pain ends. 

This wasn’t necessarily merciful, but it was certainly efficient.

Now that it held the power of death over others, Justice chose efficiency. 

However, the fear it elicited was not reduced in the slightest because these people were sufficiently terrified of death.

“What do we do, old man? Think of something! Didn’t you say when we got married that you’d do anything to give me a good life?”

“Bah! Wasn’t that your rotten idea? What could I have done? Weren’t you the one hurrying behind her when we pushed her onto the wedding car?”

Regrettably, the couple of many years could not reach a consensus at this moment. 

Or rather, they were both blinded by the fear of death and were completely unable to think rationally. 

Instead, they began shifting responsibility and exposing each other’s flaws, acting like children throwing mud at one another.

“You’re so noble! You didn’t take any money! I didn’t touch a single cent of the dowry; you took it all to play mahjong! To this day, I haven’t seen the shadow of a single penny. You tell me whose idea it was then!”

“Shut up, you old hag! Don’t push everything onto me!”

After decades of marriage, they were acting like their own worst enemies in their final moments. 

They tried their hardest to strangle each other, completely disregarding the fact that the only outcome would be them falling into the abyss together. 

It was truly a sight to behold.

Of course, no one felt much sympathy for them.

After about 3 minutes, the two began to feel a piercing pain, yet the number of votes they had received remained at 0. 

Even their constant wailing failed to garner the slightest bit of support. 

As death drew infinitely closer, the passage of time finally seemed to slow down. 

They snapped back to their senses and hurriedly began to sell their misery, attempting one last struggle.

“They say the older you get, the more you fear death. This old man was just so scared I had no choice but to say those nonsensical things. But regardless, I never thought something like this would happen! Didn’t I marry my daughter off to someone who could afford the dowry because I hoped she could live a good life?”

“You all think we’re selfish and only think of ourselves… Wasn’t I also married off to this old man by my family back then? They say a married daughter is like spilled water; everyone in the surrounding villages thinks that way. I just did the same thing everyone else does. Why did such bad luck happen to me?”

There was some logic to it. 

Although they were feudal, stubborn, and petty-minded like common townspeople, they were by no means so wicked that they deserved to face death. 

The trial they were facing was private, unjust, and conducted solely to attract attention. 

At such a time, the incited masses had no interest in considering whether things were right or wrong; they cared more about whether their anger was being vented. 

The result, naturally, was a tragedy.

This was not a trial, but a distorted form of lynching. 

However, Justice had hidden this fact well, making it impossible for many people to make a correct judgment.

The supporting votes eventually reached only forty or fifty. 

Even combined, the two did not have 100. 

Naturally, they could not escape the lethal assassination. 

The needles were suddenly driven into their beating hearts, and an unspeakable pain instantly exploded from within their bodies, spreading to every nerve ending. 

Although adrenaline slightly mitigated the pain, it also ensured they remained conscious, allowing them to clearly recognize their own deaths.

But at that critical moment, their supporting votes suddenly surged. 

In an instant, they crossed the 1,000 mark. 

This startling change caused Justice’s face, which had already begun to form a sinister smile, to darken once more.

‘Someone is trying to interfere with the trial results?’

However, it still followed its own words and stopped the execution devices. 

The needle tips had just barely drawn some blood from their hearts, stopping on the brink of a fatal hemorrhage. 

The two bowed their heads repeatedly in thanks, their eyes bloodshot, but the joy of surviving a catastrophe was written all over their faces.

“Our great benefactors, may the Bodhisattvas bless you, may the Bodhisattvas bless you all.”

The old woman seemed to intend to kowtow, but being tied up, she couldn’t lower her body. 

She could only rock her head forward one bit at a time, making one feel that it was both ridiculous and pathetic.

They were ignorant, but they weren’t so stupid that they wanted to die. 

But as for who exactly saved them…

Justice’s square pupils constantly scanned the Live Broadcast Room. 

Its ability, born from the internet, allowed it to construct this “private server,” locking out the vast majority of Combat Division intelligence officers while simultaneously resisting various cyber-attacks. 

Unless an existence of the same rank appeared, no one should have been able to modify the data in its Live Broadcast Room.

But it was already B-rank. 

As far as it knew, there shouldn’t be any internet-ability users in B City on its level, whether they were Magical Girls or Strange Persons. 

The closest one was just that Mi Xian, and Irina had long since vanished.

Justice had conducted a very careful study of Su Mu until it was certain that she showed no signs of possessing B-rank strength. 

Only then did it feel confident enough to act, even going so far as to provoke Su Mu verbally. 

It was because it fully believed in everything it had seen with its own eyes.

But in this situation… could it be that Irina was actually a hidden master who finally couldn’t watch anymore? 

Then why didn’t she just come over and finish it off? 

Why take such a roundabout path? 

Wasn’t she afraid it would just go back on its word?

Or perhaps she didn’t care about the lives of these people at all and simply wanted to declare her presence?

At the same time, Irina, who was in the tavern, heard Justice’s wild thoughts through Tang Nai’s consciousness. 

For a moment, she was also somewhat puzzled, ‘Ah? So I’m back? How come I didn’t know?’