Punishment

[-10 exp for breaking the rule.

-10 exp for breaking the rule.]

Cyril was shocked when he heard the familiar ding and raised his head to find those words above Tibbath's head.

He looked at Tibbath, who looked calm as if nothing had happened.

If his senses weren't keen, he would have missed the light flinch in Tibbath's brows, which lasted for less than two seconds.

Cyril narrowed his eyes and observed Rian's expression from the corner of his eyes to find nothing special. This confirmed that Rian couldn't see the system announcement, but only he could, other than Tibbath himself.

Since Tibbath looked like he didn't want to reveal his loss of points to them, Cyril did not know how to broach the subject openly.

But this got him to start thinking seriously. He doesn't remember to see any rules that make one lose points.

So what exactly happened, and what rule did Tibbath break?

Most importantly, Tibbath still had the excitement written all over his face even after losing those points.

Cyril pondered for a while but did not understand why Tibbath looked so excited after 'breaking the rules' and losing points.

He hesitantly asked him, "Do you mind if I ask you a question?"

Tibbath looked at him with a smile, "What is it? Ask away."

Rian, too, stopped eating and looked at him with curiosity.

"Umm, why do you look so excited? Since you are a cook, I am sure you have fed many people before, right? Then why? I don't understand," Cyril asked.

Rian blinked his eyes and looked at Tibbath, before craning his head away from him as if he was scared of him.

Tibbath's lips twitched at Rian's exaggerated reaction, but he smiled at Cyril as he answered, "It has been years since I served someone the food I cooked with my hands. As a chef, the most enjoyment in my life is to see people enjoying the food I make, but since coming to this place, it has remained a dream that could never be achieved.

"I am sorry for startling you with my reaction. But I am really excited to see you two enjoy my dishes."

Cyril seemed to understand something, but he softly asked again to make sure, "Why couldn't you serve your food to others?"

As he expected, Tibbath answered, "If I do that, I will lose my points."

Cyril understood why he lost points twice from his words. Once was for serving food to him and the second one was for serving it to Rian.

He apologized immediately, "I am so sorry. I didn't know about this. So, did you lose points now because of us?"

Tibbath continued to smile and shook his head, "Don't mind that. I don't care about those couple of points anyway. I am more than excited to present you with my food. As long as you are satisfied with the taste, I don't mind anything else. So, don't fret over it anymore and continue eating."

Cyril continued to eat while his mind was full of so much information. He slowly started to realize the ins and outs of the system in this prison.

At first, he thought the 'punishment' for the prisoners here was just to stay away from the rest of the world on a faraway island. After finding out about the system, he felt it was just a way to keep the prisoner's life going as they had to work hard to continue living. Except for that, he did not see anything difficult there. Of course, living with a bunch of criminals is scary in itself.

Only after listening to Tibbath's words, did he understand that the matter was not as simple as that. There was more to it than what was on the surface.

The system actually detected what the prisoner cares about the most and used it as a weakness against them.

In Tibbath's case, he enjoyed watching others eating his food and the system made sure that it wouldn't happen. This is his punishment.

In Rian's case, he loved a couple of sports, but at the same time, he also hated a lot of sports. The system made sure to make him play the sports he hated the most. There could actually be something deeper which Cyril had yet to notice, but it was already clear that he was being punished according to his likes and hates.

So, the chip in their brain would be able to sense their likes and dislikes and even assign their classes and tasks to them accordingly. This thought actually scared Cyril. 

How advanced was the technology on this island?

He subconsciously looked at his own stats once again. His identity was still blank.

So the chip had to understand what was going on with him? Why was it taking so long to analyze him?

He wasn't a narcissist who would think that he was so great and had special powers to deflect this chip's analyzing process.

He wondered what his likes and dislikes were.

As soon as this thought came to his mind, he slapped his face as hard as he could at once.

"Brother, Cyril? What happened?"

"Why did you do that?" Rian and Cyril asked him respectively, in shock at his sudden actions.

Cyril looked at them and shook his head, smiling awkwardly. He did not know what to say.

His mind was in a fuzzy state as he scolded himself. 'Are you crazy? What were you thinking? If the chip has not found the things yet, are you going to hand the information to it with your own hands as a gift? You crazy bast…' He stopped himself from cursing himself.

'Did the chip lure me to confess? Or is it just me who thought of it casually?' Cyril suddenly questioned everything he was thinking of.

Since he had an alien object inside his brain, he couldn't trust anything, including his own thoughts.

Even though the system seemed helpful on the surface, he now understood that the system was there to actually punish the inmates in this prison. This discovery made him question everything that had happened since he got the chip in his head.