Heroes' Prison

Chapter 139: Smoking

In Huang Yi’s view, what the player said was just personal opinion and contained a significant bias. The threat of Thunder God was actually quite substantial.

Thunder God was also a rising star who had surged into the top 10 of the China Region’s level rankings. His growth rate was astounding, surely a result of numerous secret achievements. What outsiders see is always just the surface, and there are private secrets that remain unseen. Like Huang Yi’s "Eye of Time," an ability that, to this day, no one knows about—his own private secret. Thunder God must have similar secrets, definitely having accomplished feats unseen by anyone. These secrets may fool outsiders, but not the system. When selecting awardees, the system takes these secrets into account, directly affecting evaluation results. Huang Yi didn’t know how many secrets Thunder God had or how many feats he had accomplished in private, but the latter had spent much more time in The Second World and undoubtedly completed many impressive achievements, some perhaps not inferior to events like Cross-Continent. These were all uncertain factors. No one could predict the outcomes of the awards.

Afterward, Huang Yi exited and looked at other posts.

Suddenly, he saw a familiar name—"Poet"—the same Bard player he had encountered in that forest village. The Poet was one of the forum’s celebrities and had a loyal readership due to his unique perspectives on issues and his convincing eloquence. His posts often sparked many responses and wielded significant influence.

His current post was titled "The Harm of National Honor Points to a Country."

Just the title alone was enough to attract a barrage of criticism. National Honor Points represented the supreme honor of a country; one point could increase all players’ attributes by 1%, making the recipient a national hero. Yet, the Poet argued that National Honor Points were harmful—an almost irrational claim. Huang Yi clicked to read further.

"As we all know, National Honor Points are of utmost honor to a country, and many players would do anything for a point to become national heroes. But are National Honor Points really so beneficial? I personally believe that once a certain threshold is reached, they may bring hidden dangers! National Honor Points can enhance the strength of players in the country. The more points, the stronger the players, and the entire progress in The Second World accelerates. However, valuable resources on each continent are limited, like World Stone deposits, which only amount to roughly 1000 tons each. They are non-renewable—once used, they diminish. The stronger the players, the faster these valuable resources are depleted, leading to sooner exhaustion. Once consumed, the continent becomes exceedingly barren. To access more resources, the only option is to invade other continents. But invaders typically fare poorly, the first nation to start a war faces global condemnation, becoming the World’s Enemy and holds an awkward position ethically and strategically. Moreover, invading another continent means traversing dangerous territories, either treacherous oceans or inhospitable wastelands. How much power could the Expedition Army retain after overcoming these perils? It’s uncertain who would overthrow whom at that point..."

The post was lengthy, and Poet brought up several reasons. After reading it, Huang Yi also felt there was some truth to it. ’The nail that sticks out gets hammered down,’ and a country that exhausts its resources would inevitably have to invade others—it’s an urge they just can’t suppress. No one wants to remain on a barren continent; invasion is a must. But the role of an invader is ignoble, marking them as the World’s Enemy, not to mention that invasion is inherently dangerous.

However, despite this, National Honor Points remained something every player vied for—their benefits far outweighed the potential threats, after all, it was always better for a country’s overall strength to be as strong as possible.

Huang Yi browsed a few more posts before logging off.

At this moment, in the real world, it was deep into the night. The criminals in Rose Prison had all fallen asleep; the world was quiet, void of any sound, as if a forgotten space in time.

Huang Yi stood up, opened the door, and walked out. That was how it was in the common cell block; inmates had relative freedom to open their own cells and walk down the corridors.

From the corridor, Huang Yi leaned against the railing to look down at the first floor. It was hazy—without the powerful dark vision he had in The Second World, he could not see specifics, only rough outlines.

"Creak!" Just then, a door opened in a nearby cell. Huang Yi turned to look and was surprised to see Prison Overlord Lei Shen, his brow furrowed as if he were in a poor mood.

Lei Shen quickly noticed Huang Yi on the corridor as well, his expression flickering with surprise—he hadn’t expected anyone to be awake this late.

He cracked a slight smile and walked towards Huang Yi, pulling out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and handing it to him, saying, "Still not asleep at this hour?"

"Aren’t you the same?" Huang Yi took a cigarette from the pack and put it in his mouth.

"Click!" Lei Shen flicked open the lighter and lit Huang Yi’s cigarette, then lit one for himself.

"How is it? This communal cell must feel comfortable, compared to the solitary confinement cell you were in before, this place is like Heaven! At least there, you absolutely couldn’t get your hands on a cigarette." Lei Shen took a satisfying drag, then closed his eyes in enjoyment.

"Indeed much better. In solitary, I couldn’t even open the cell door; here, it’s relatively freer." Huang Yi also took a deep puff, and the cigarette tip immediately glowed brightly before quickly dimming down, casting a small circle of light around and flickering off his figure.

"What a pity that this freedom is barely worth mentioning, it’s just like this tiny cigarette tip; compared to the endless darkness, it’s almost negligible. The area it illuminates is far too limited and the time too short, gone once smoked." Lei Shen sighed, blowing out a smoke ring.

"You are the last death row inmate in the world, and you’ll be executed in two years. Have you thought about what lies ahead for you?" Huang Yi leaned against the wall and turned to ask.

"Heh, what can I think?" Lei Shen shook his head with a laugh, "This is Rose Prison, no one can escape from here. Even if one could get out, would there be a place for us out there? It might be even worse than Rose Prison, at least here no one discriminates against us. This is a place already forgotten by the world, where we’ll live, grow old, get sick, and die forever, not even able to enter that virtual ’The Second World.’" As he spoke, Lei Shen took a deep breath and continued somberly, "My only hope is for the brothers in Rose Prison to be able to enter that wondrous ’The Second World’ to have a look, to feel that entirely new world. I want every brother to have the right to enter ’The Second World.’ We’ve already lost one world; we can’t lose another. For this goal, I’ll spend the rest of my life fighting to the utmost."

"What makes you think you can fight for it?" Huang Yi posed a very realistic question. He was well aware of how difficult it was to smuggle a virtual device into Rose Prison. Their organization had strived for a long time, sacrificed many people, before finally getting the Golden Ring into Rose Prison. There were thousands of criminals here, and the idea that they could each have a virtual device was utterly impossible.

Upon hearing this question, Lei Shen went silent, continuing to smoke quietly.

Neither of them spoke again. White smoke filled the air, the glowing and dimming of their cigarettes illuminating the two most unique inmates in Rose Prison.

After finishing his cigarette, Lei Shen flicked the butt away, sending it in a red parabola to the ground, where it bounced a few times, sparked a few embers, and then went dark.

"Life is just like this cigarette, bright one moment, dark the next, rising and falling, and quickly smoked away. Such a pity that in the end, it can only produce a few sparks, struggle for a moment, and then die off forever!" Lei Shen lamented before turning around to go back to his room, leaving Huang Yi with a solitary figure.

Huang Yi looked down and took another drag of his cigarette, only to find it half smoked; his cigarette was still burning at its brightest moment.