You Are the Ones Who Should Leave

In the end, Nagu still took off his boots, revealing a pair of cute socks embroidered with golden lion cubs. He had no way of refusing this request. Hundreds of thousands of citizens were watching the live broadcast, every single one of them holding a vote in their hands. If Nagu wanted to leave the prison in the future and take a step further to become a city council member, he couldn't do anything to damage his public persona. He had specifically applied to the prison for this supervisor position to increase his public exposure, aiming to make himself familiar to the citizens and lay the groundwork for his future council run. If he couldn't even grant such a "humble wish," let alone becoming a council member, even the prison administration would deem his image poor and his reputation damaged, stripping him of his role as supervisor. Losing a position like supervisor—which was the easiest way to pad his resume—would mean Nagu was trapped in this prison as a guard until he advanced to Two-Winged Gold. Though he had weighed the pros and cons clearly, holding these new boots that he had anticipated for an entire year and worn for less than a month, Nagu still couldn't stop a bottomless sorrow from welling up in his heart. "Hurry up, hurry up, I'm in a rush!" Yaxiu urged. "Can you catch them?" "I can!" "When you put them on, slide your feet straight in vertically, or you'll wrinkle the grain on the outside." "I will, I will." "Actually, I have another decent pair of boots. How about I head back right now and get them for—" "Throw them over already!" One of the camera eyes let out a burst of lively laughter. Whenever the vast majority of live viewers had the same reaction at the same time, it fed back into the camera eyes, letting the host know the effect of their performance. Evidently, the interaction between Yaxiu and Nagu had made the audience burst into laughter. Viewers had watched hundreds of Blood Moon Trials, but they had never seen such a hilarious death row convict and supervisor duo. Steeling his heart, Nagu threw the boots across, unwilling to become a buffoon in the eyes of the citizens. Yaxiu caught the boots and inspected them closely. The quality was indeed superb, with a premium texture and a high-end, stylish look. No wonder Nagu looked as heartbroken as if he had lost his beloved consort. "Ah, don't cram it in like that! Are your feet too big? Don't be in such a rush, take it slow! Forcing it like that will leave crease marks! Could you be a little gentler?" Nagu's heart ached just watching. He was still counting on getting the boots back later—after all, Yaxiu wouldn't live much longer anyway. Yaxiu couldn't be bothered to entertain him. After putting on the boots, he activated the Substitute sorcery spirit once more, and a substitute identical to him appeared at his side. Even its footwear had changed into the steel-soled boots Yaxiu was now wearing. "Go stand on the steel wire for a few seconds and let's see." The Substitute walked onto the steel wire and stood steadily. This time, the wire could no longer slice through its boots. And without taking damage, the Substitute naturally wouldn't vanish. "Great!" Yaxiu said excitedly. "Come back." The Substitute returned. "Crouch down!" The Substitute crouched. Yaxiu mounted its shoulders. "Carry me across the steel wire to the main platform on the other side!" Yet this time, the Substitute didn't react. Yaxiu looked down and saw the Substitute calmly lifting its head to stare up at him. "Carry me across the steel wire to the main platform on the other side!" Thinking it hadn't heard, he repeated the command. After three seconds of silence, the Substitute seemed to finally understand what the words meant—or rather, it understood its destiny. *Creak.* *Screeech.* With every step the Substitute took, the steel wire groaned and whined, making Yaxiu's heart pound in terror. It had looked effortless when the other convicts walked across, but now that it was his turn, just looking down at the sea below made him feel like he was about to wet himself. Yet he made it—the Substitute was fully capable of carrying him across. Yaxiu vaguely discovered another wondrous aspect of the sorcerer system. If for ordinary people the rule was "you can't do anything that hasn't been permitted," then for sorcerers it was "you can do anything that hasn't been forbidden." The former was *nothing is permitted*; the latter was *everything is permitted*. The effect of the Substitute sorcery spirit was to create a duplicate identical to him that obeyed his every command and vanished upon taking damage. Therefore, so long as it did not exceed the parameters of its limitations, Yaxiu could command the Substitute to perform preposterous actions, even if those actions were things he himself could never pull off. Just like now: Yaxiu had no ability to walk a tightrope, nor did he have the ability to carry a person across one. Yet the Substitute could do it. Because it was Yaxiu's order; because, theoretically, it was a task the Substitute could accomplish; therefore, it could. A sorcery spirit was not a miracle because it could not bend the rules of reality. It was merely an infinite extension of knowledge, the standard theoretical answer, the optimal result permitted by reality. It was the limit. *If only I could take the Substitute sorcery spirit back to my original world... Then I could have the Substitute look after my parents at home...* On second thought, Yaxiu realized that would be a complete waste of its potential. Having a Substitute at his disposal, what had made his vision so narrow-minded? That's right—capitalism. So he should send the Substitute to work while he stayed home to lie flat and take care of his parents—though it would more likely end up with his parents taking care of him... Amid his wandering thoughts, the Substitute had already covered most of the distance. By now, the other convicts had basically scrambled onto the main platform on the far side. The only ones left on the steel wires were Yaxiu and Valkas. "Both of you, freeze! Don't come any closer!" A scarred death row convict raised a rifle, aiming it straight at Yaxiu. "If you dare take another step, don't blame me for feeding you to the fish!" The other convicts started slightly, but quickly caught on and stepped aside without uttering a sound. Yaxiu blinked and asked, "Why?" "Isn't it obvious?" Valkas chuckled from the distance. "A coward will always kick a man when he's down; scum will inevitably judge others by their own measure; and the weak can only drag out an ignoble existence." Though Valkas was being his usual cryptic self, Yaxiu noticed that the convicts weren't looking at him—they were looking at the Executioner behind him. He immediately understood their reasoning: they were terrified that he would rush over and use them as meat shields against the Executioner! *Oh, right!* *You can do that?!* As expected of death row convicts, their minds worked far faster than his when it came to harming others without benefiting themselves! Tonight's "redeemed" would undoubtedly be chosen between Yaxiu and Valkas. If the two of them reached the main platform, it meant the Executioner would pursue them there as well. From the Executioner's grotesque, terrifying appearance, one could tell at a glance that its attack wouldn't be some clean, harmless psychic strike. It would most likely be a wide-area physical cleave. In other words, when it carried out the execution, the bystanders would very likely get caught in the collateral damage! Thus, the convicts who had arrived at the main platform first had grown scheming. They couldn't let Yaxiu and Valkas reach the main platform! Otherwise, all eight of them would be wiped out! That was why Scarface was threatening Yaxiu and Valkas with a rifle to stop their advance. In his view, the ideal outcome was for the two of them to be executed by the Executioner right in the middle of the steel wires. "If you don't want to fall and feed the fish, behave yourselves!" Scarface roared. "I refuse!" Yaxiu declared with righteous indignation, "My favorite thing to do is say no whenever someone tries to threaten me! Step forward!" *Screeech—* The Substitute took a heavy step forward, stepping down on the wire and causing it to sway and whine erratically! *Bang!* Scarface fired a shot, the scar across his face contorted like a centipede from fear and rage. "I will shoot! Stop... stop right there!" "I—DON'T—BELIEVE—YOU—WILL—SHOOT—ME!" With every word Yaxiu spoke, the Substitute took a step forward, swaggering so insolently that he looked like an animated punching bag begging for a beating, making everyone's fists itch. *Bang!* "Don't push me, I really will shoot! I killed nineteen people before I was locked up here—check my profile if you don't believe me!" Yet Yaxiu had long seen through his bluff. Unhurried and calm, he said, "Thinking of threatening me so quickly proves you're a smart man. But precisely because you're a smart man, I'm certain you won't fire." "Why the hell not?!" "Because if I die here, the person the Executioner will execute next is you!" Yaxiu smiled. "If the two of us don't die, you can at least be certain that the person being executed is definitely one of us. But if we die, the audience will have to choose someone among the six of you to vote for!" Scarface's lip twitched. "S-so what? It won't necessarily be me!" "No, it will definitely be you," Yaxiu said with a grin. "Think about it. Right now, the viewers are eagerly waiting for the two of us to be executed. If you ruin their fun, how do you think they'll vent their fury? Through their votes, of course!" "Furthermore, haven't you noticed? Everyone else has backed away from you!" Scarface froze for a moment and glanced left and right. Only then did he realize he was standing dead center in the spotlight, while the others had retreated to the far edges, doing their best to stay out of the frame with him! "Why are they avoiding you? Because if you actually manage to pin us on the wire, they reap the rewards without lifting a finger; if you shoot us dead, you become the guaranteed target of the viewers' votes. Either way, they have nothing to lose." Yaxiu offered a refreshing smile. "Or could it be that you're a reformed, model prisoner of noble virtue who has cast aside petty interests—willing to sacrifice yourself just to protect your fellow inmates?" Scarface's hands trembled slightly, and the barrel of the gun quietly dipped downward. "And taking a step back, even if you aren't the one picked for execution, what then? It will still be drawn from among the six of you. Won't the Executioner attack this platform all the same? Or do you honestly believe your companions are polite, moral, upstanding citizens who will willingly jump into the sea the moment they realize they're being executed, just so they don't drag you down with them and cause trouble for everyone else?" While speaking, the Substitute had already carried Yaxiu across the steel wire. Yaxiu inwardly breathed a sigh of relief, his back completely drenched in sweat. He wasn't nearly as confident as he appeared. After all, who knew if Scarface might suddenly lose his temper and shoot him out of spite? Despite how composed and reasoned Yaxiu had sounded just now, his heart had almost leaped out of his chest. To avoid provoking Scarface, he had even signaled the Substitute to walk as slowly as possible, giving Scarface the illusion that he hadn't crossed yet and buying him more time to think. Thinking was the best iced drink to cool down rage. The more he thought, the more cautious he became; the more he reasoned, the more cowardly he grew; and the more he listened, the more sense Yaxiu seemed to make. Back in his old life, whenever a colleague on his team wanted to pack up and quit on the spot, Yaxiu had always used this rhetoric of "listen, feel, think" to change their minds—at least wait until the project wrapped up before running off, right? Yaxiu hopped down from the Substitute's shoulders and patted Scarface on the shoulder. "So, do you know where your path to survival lies?" As if clutching at a life-saving straw, Scarface asked urgently, "Where is it?" "Go back, or hang from the wire," Yaxiu smiled faintly. "Now that I'm standing here, if you don't want to die, the only way is to get away from me. "This is my turf. You're the ones who should leave!"