LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 402 - 244: A Very Unique Thing (Second Update)_2
Chapter 402: Chapter 244: A Very Unique Thing (Second Update)_2
The two analyzed the situation carefully again and felt it was feasible.
After all, they couldn’t consume everything themselves, so by bringing in other people to work together, they could collectively put the prisoners on the road to reemployment, truly aligning with the spirit of the game.
Members of the Morals Aid Group were the first to come on board.
Once they had broken laws and regulations in various ways and ended up in Yifate Prison, they found Xiemen Waidao’s words were true: this place was indeed a leveling paradise for players.
Every prisoner was a big experience package, whose “righteous fall” could not only put them back on the right track but also grant experience to the helpers—it was undoubtedly the most moral act one could take.
Soon, the members of the Morals Aid Group stationed themselves here, with five hundred members swiftly taking over the area and starting to stimulate the prisoners to reform, transforming the prison into a joyful playground where everyone had work to do.
But just when everyone was happy, some were not.
The prison had become a place of high capitalization, with most of its functions privatized and even parcelled out to different groups.
One group handled the prison food, another the prison buildings, the prisoner’s medical treatment was another aspect, and naturally, the underground mine was no exception.
To land these cushy jobs, they had spared no expense in bribing the warden, securing these lucrative positions for themselves.
But now, the heads of most of these groups had arrived in the warden’s room for an emergency meeting.
“Our number of miners has dropped by thirty percent, and output has fallen by fifteen percent,” the mine owner pointed at the chart on the wall and complained, “The poor souls have dwindled recently, it seems they’ve found ways to earn money, which leads to their reluctance to work in the mines. Warden, do you have any clue what’s happening?”
“Revenue from drugs is down, too,” the hospital director sighed, “It looks like they have their own doctor inside, and I hear the fees aren’t high. It’s a shame I don’t know who they are, otherwise, I’d make sure to dissect that bunch of scumbags.”
“The cafeteria is still okay, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out how they manage to spend less money on food, maintaining or even improving its quality.”
“It’s been a long time since the buildings were renovated, and now the prisoners are actually building their own homes. What’s going on with them?”
“The psychologist is starting to complain about a lack of work lately, it seems the prisoners are… happy? How can they be happy! I live in a big house, eat steaks, have a wife and a mistress on rotation, and I’m not happy. What right do they have to be happy?”
The group leaders were quarreling non-stop in the warden’s office, but the warden himself was noncommittal.
As the manager of the prison, he was naturally most aware of the changes within it and understood that the prisoners seemed to be up to something.
But he didn’t care.
Gray Bear had already given him plenty of benefits. These were enough for him to turn a blind eye and occasionally allow the prisoners to send representatives out to trade some of the prison’s contraband, like alcohol and cigarettes.
The prisoners themselves made these high-quality goods, which were easily sold off and circulated among the upper-class nobility of Yifate.
As a result, the criminals had acquired a substantial amount of money, some of them even living better than the people outside, while he also comfortably pocketed a good share of kickbacks.
However, when some gain profit, others lose it.
The prison’s previous ecosystem was quite simple: the mine offered the job positions, the prisoners offered cheap labor, enabling the mine owner to amass vast resources.
The prisoners would then take their meager wages back to the prison and spend them at the hospital, the cafeteria, etc., to sustain a positive loop.
Their wages were meticulously calculated so that their daily income balanced their expenses, sometimes even necessitating them to run up debts, thus reducing their probability of leaving day by day.
The old prison was like a quicksand trap, once you were in, there was no way out.
But now, the quicksand trap had been broken, the prisoners were beginning to accumulate their own wealth, and these groups, once worry-free, were on the verge of collapse.
Taking advantage of their arguing, the warden pulled open a drawer and glanced inside.
It was a fist-sized gold nugget, a “gift” from a criminal who had returned from the outside recently.
Its value far exceeded previous ones, indicating the prisoners needed something special.
And seeing the list of items the criminals specifically requested, like food, water, and medicine, the warden understood what they wanted.
They were not seeking tangible items, they were after the corresponding powers within the prison.
“`
Watching the representatives of various small groups arguing noisily before him, the prison warden couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh in his heart.
They still didn’t know that they had already been targeted by those criminals, huh?
The warden didn’t know how much money the criminals had; he only knew that the gifts they gave him meant little to them.
Moreover, these criminals hinted that as long as they obtained these powers, the benefits for the warden would be much more than what they were currently.
So, the warden really couldn’t think of any excuse to turn these guys down.
Yifate had a large number of prisons, and he was just one of them. With this money, he might very well advance further before retirement and acquire a higher position.
After all, in Yifate, money could do anything.
He waited quietly for these people to continue their argument until they were hoarse; only then did he slowly say, “Gentlemen, I’m sorry, but I may not be able to solve your problems. After all, since my predecessor sold all his power to you for fifty years, I have no power left.”
Seeing the frustrated expressions on the group’s faces, the warden felt incredibly satisfied.
His predecessor had enjoyed fifty years of dividends but passed the most troublesome issues on to him, leaving him with no one to supervise his desire for kickbacks. The frustration had been pressing on his chest for a good ten years.
Letting the boomerang fly a little longer, the warden then slowly said, “However, I can buy back the rights previously transferred at half the price. What do you think?”
“Forget it!”
“Dream on!”
“Half price? We still have more than thirty years left!”
Facing the accusations from the crowd, the warden just shrugged his shoulders, leaned back in his chair, and slammed his legs onto the table.
Taking out his pipe, he struck a match against the sole of his shoe, lit his pipe, and calmly said, “Gentlemen, whether you sell or not is your business, I don’t care.”
“I will complain about you!”
“It doesn’t matter, I guarantee that you won’t find anything on me.”
Complaint letters fell on the Department of Justice like snowflakes, but after someone came to investigate, they regretfully announced that there was nothing wrong with the prison.
The warden did not instigate the criminals to do anything, and the city’s management committee even deployed a magician, but they also saw through nothing except that the warden seemed to have taken some kickbacks.
But in Yifate, that was not an issue at all, considering that the investigator had also taken some, and even the magician had received a share.
Furthermore, since the gifts from the warden were quite substantial, the investigator wrote down a lot of praise and then left with the gifts.
Before leaving, he even specifically warned the outsourcing companies:
Easy does it! Don’t upset my good brother!
In Yifate, this kind of thing really wasn’t a problem.
Realizing that the investigator wasn’t on their side, the outsourcing companies despaired.
They held on for a few difficult days, but as their business got worse and worse, they could only sell their rights to the warden and left the place with their funds, angrily taking everything with them as they went.
Though the prison became full of holes as a result, many prisoners had already mastered the skills to build houses.
In no time, a city belonging to the criminals would be born underneath the prison.
Since the city was theirs, the criminals worked eagerly, and their enthusiasm for labor was fully stimulated.
Watching these enthusiastic criminals, Xiemen Waidao couldn’t help saying, “The power of reformation is really great.”
“Really? But why do I feel something’s off?” Liuzi said, puzzled, “It always feels like we’re doing something very unique.”
“`