“We’ll explore the area ahead later (not).”
“Nothing at all…”
Raphael murmured.
Recalling the state of the three death row inmates, it was easy to guess that there might be some kind of spirit-disrupting power at play.
Fortunately, the shadow didn’t follow him. It probably didn’t want him to move the silver statue.
“Suppress the evil spirit?”
“Whatever, let’s execute the prisoners first.”
The five left Death Row and arrived at the gallows in the Outer Square.
Here, Raphael wanted to test the extent of Absolute Authority’s influence.
Driving his will, his Spiritual Perception rapidly swept through every corner of the prison.
The moment it passed by each person, a decree carried by his Spiritual Perception spread into their minds.
“Return to your cell.”
“Go back to your room.”
Instantly, everyone moved toward the buildings like zombies.
A few minutes later, the vast square was empty.
But Raphael had cold sweat on his forehead. A sharp pain pierced both his temples, forming a thorny crown of electricity across the front of his skull.
The next second, that guillotine appeared out of midair, then crashed heavily onto the ground, right next to the gallows.
The guillotine had two blades. One was a sharp iron blade, polished to a shine with a glint of cold light.
The blade was also extremely thick—the pitch-black spine was a full two finger-widths thick, engraved with silver-white lines depicting several strange images.
Those images resembled ancient cliff paintings, simple strokes filled with a strong religious aura:
The first picture showed a man kneeling on the ground, surrounded by many prostrating people enclosing him in the center.
The second picture showed a man lying on some sort of platform, with twelve people standing around him holding various weapons and tools: swords, blades, halberds, staves, bows, hammers, hoes, scythes, iron plows, iron picks, as well as a book and a bag.
The third picture seemed to continue the second. The man lying on the platform was divided into thirteen pieces.
His head hung in the center, his limbs were given to the four holding the sword, blade, halberd, and hammer.
One eye each went to the staff and the bow. His heart was given to the man with the hoe, his lungs to the man with the scythe, his stomach to the man with the iron plow, and his liver to the man with the iron pick.
The one holding a book took his intestines and wrapped them around his head. The one with an embroidered bag placed his kidneys in front of his mouth.
The remaining torso was carried away by a dog-like animal.
The fourth picture showed the head hanging from a rope placed inside an idol. Gushing springs overflowed from the idol.
Outside the idol knelt countless worshippers kowtowing.
“Could make an episode of a horror story.”
Religious sacrifices, dismemberment… none of this was rare in all of human history.
Even in the 21st century, superstitious cult fanatics would do such things, let alone in the ignorant and backward ancient times.
Raphael usually treated such religious fables as reading about the ten sins.
But having just encountered a ghost, he had to wonder if there was really some deeper meaning.
Was this just a simple religious ritual?
Common sense said no…
Forget it, let’s look at the other blade first.
Next to the iron blade was a pure silver guillotine blade. The edge was not sharpened—it was blunt. Considering the properties of silver, a blunt edge was indeed more durable.
This was probably the blade used to execute hybrids or Blood Race.
The blade was engraved with wheat-ear patterns, and the spine was as thick as the iron blade’s, but without any patterns.
Raphael looked at the three death row inmates:
[Individual Name: Zack]
[Sin Level: 61]
[Execution Reward: Full Set of Magic Silver Soft Armor *1]
[Individual Name: Colin]
[Sin Level: 60]
[Execution Reward: Smith & Wesson M500 (Fully loaded with 12.7mm full-power Magnum bullets) *1]
[Individual Name: Xia Xuelian]
[Sin Level: 78]
[Execution Reward: Armstrong Jet Revolving Armstrong Cannon *1]
“Whoa, a kid with 78 isn’t common!”
“And an Armstrong-whatever cannon. System, can I skip the reward and make his death more painful?”
[Ding!]
[Xia Xuelian’s Spinning Lantern of Memories has been tampered to: “A Man Stuck in a Washing Machine,” looped 100 million times.]
Raphael stroked his chin. “Wait, isn’t that letting him enjoy himself?”
[Special note: He’s the one acting as the washing machine.]
“Alas,” Raphael sighed.
“It’s not me who harmed you—it’s this system!”
With a single decree, the three climbed onto the guillotine one after another.
They knelt down and stuck their necks into the groove. Raphael pulled the blade, and heads rolled.
Blood spurted onto the gravel ground, quickly absorbed by the sand beneath, leaving only faint bloodstains on the stone surfaces.
[Ding!]
[Execution successful! Rewards distributed!]
…
Soon, two items appeared in the Heterospace: the Magic Silver Soft Armor and that revolver.
“Magic Silver Soft Armor…” Raphael remembered this was one of the highest-grade armors in the game.
Not legendary, but definitely tough.
“Give it to Tina. After all, I’m an old man who doesn’t know fistfighting.”
Then he looked at the revolver…
“Smith & Wesson M500, an ultra-large caliber revolver, known as a ‘hand cannon’ hunting pistol.”
“Though it only holds five rounds, each one is enough to kill an elephant.”
“Moreover…”
Anyone who’d played Resident Evil knew how broken Magnum bullets were.
Even ignoring game mechanics, the power of Magnum rounds shouldn’t be underestimated.
After all, it’s a general term for high-power ammunition.
Then several more notification sounds came:
[Ding!]
[The guillotine has sipped blood. Prison Riot Index decreased by 0.1 * 3.]
[Current Prison Riot Index: 19.7]
[The guillotine triggered a random execution reward. Detected cumulative reward count: 3. Merge into high-quality random reward?]
“High-quality random reward…”
Raphael thought for a moment, then shook his head.
“There are still many prisoners. Let’s see what the normal rewards are first.”
[Distributing random rewards…]
[Distributed: Refined Iron 1 ton 5, Timber 1 ton 10, Brass 1 ton *5]
Soon, these materials were neatly stacked in the Heterospace.
“All basic materials…”
“Looks like not merging was the right call. The prison is short on these basic supplies right now.”
Withdrawing his Spiritual Perception, the effect of Absolute Authority faded.
Estina suddenly snapped awake.
“Huh? How did I come back?”
In the dormitory, almost everyone was dumbfounded.
Same in the prison districts.
“There’s Lord Raphael’s aura…”
Although Tina had also been forced back to her cell, she quickly sensed the origin of that power.
Lofty, supreme…
Such irresistible intimidation and control could only be achieved by Raphael.
In the room on the second floor of the Administration Building, Sophia was truly in despair.
“Th-this… is he still human?!”
With Spirit Vision, she saw silver ripples flying all over the sky, carrying an unyielding authority that brooked no denial or defiance.
“It’s more absurd than the Pope… Raphael!”
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