Corruption

As Yue Jingxui approached the central tent, the large head of the monster became more and more clear under the dim light. It hung precariously over the entrance of the tent and looked like it could fall off any second.

Zhang Yin stared at the head dubiously.

'I'm pretty sure that this is a hazard.'

Not knowing what both Zhang Yin thought of the monster head, the person leading the way nonchalantly entered the tent. After a second of hesitation, Yue Jingxui followed.

Once again using his ability, he peered three seconds into the future and took a look at his surroundings.

[The inside of the tent was as expected from a place with limited materials.

The tent was held up by large, sturdy bones and together by tendons from monsters of unknown species. The floor of the tent was covered in the skins of monsters, and at the center of the tent was a crude stone table surrounded by five similarly crude stone chairs.

A few small glowing crystals were embedded in the bones that held up the tent, providing the inside of the tent with the same dim light as outside. Like the monster head mounted above the entrance, many monster heads occupied the space along the walls of the tent. Though the monster heads within the tent were not as impressive as the one outside, the combination of dim, ominous light and dead eyes created an eerie atmosphere.

A few racks made from long and thin bones lined the only space that was unoccupied by the monster heads. On the racks were some crude bone tools and other miscellaneous objects, including more monster skin, glowing crystals, a bone bowl containing suspicious-looking goo, rusty chains, and a large horn that seemed to be from a freshly slain monster.

At that moment, the person who had been patiently waiting at the head seat of the table calmly gestured at the empty chairs in front of him.]

The vision broke and Yue Jingxui returned to the present.

Ignoring the headache that made a reappearance due to the overuse of his ability, he thought about all the new information he learned.

'Everything else is relatively unimportant, however, from the number of chairs, it seems like there are only five people in this camp. It's possible that there are more people and that the chairs only represent the people with important positions, or that these chairs have been left here on purpose, but these are unlikely. After all, Smoke Without Fire and I are so weak that they don't need to pretend in front of us. Plus, the amount of people who are able to survive in [Black Abyss Prison] shouldn't be too great.'

He silently stepped forwards, feeling the strange leathery texture of the monster skin beneath him, and stood before one of the available chairs around the table.

Unwinding the chains that bound Smoke Without Fire to him, as the chains fell and clinked against each other, he transported her onto another chair before sitting on a chair himself.

Silence reigned for a few moments before the person at the head of the table spoke up. "Well, you don't have to be so nervous. I'm sure that Pride has already told you about the situation, so we'll be working together from now on. How about we start with introductions? You can call me Messiah."

Yue Jingxui and Zhang Yin blanked.

Yue Jingxui searched through his memory and seemed to remember that the first figure had said something before Smoke Without Fire had been discovered.

'Hadn't it been: "Right. Come here kid, I'll get you up to date while we're walking"?'

'Additionally, hadn't the first figure tried again with, "So, aren't you curious about why we kidnapped you?", but ended up saying, "How should I know?", to tease Smoke Without Fire?'

'Then the first figure should be Pride, right?

"..."

Slapping on the label of 'unreliable' onto Pride in his mind, Yue Jingxui remained quiet for a second before sheepishly smiling. "Actually, unfortunately, Pride has not told us the reason why we have been brought here. I'm afraid that, before he was able to, he had gotten... distracted."

Somewhere on the outskirts of the camp, Pride let out a loud sneeze.

Messiah was surprised. "Really? Even though Pride could look crude, it is very unlike him."

Around the friendly Messiah and the general unhostile attitude of the people within the camp, Zhang Yin seemed to have relaxed a lot. He first looked at Messiah disbelievingly before shrugging. "Whether it was like him or not, it doesn't change the fact that we still don't know what's going on."

Sighing, Messiah palmed his face. "What is happening with them today? I'm terribly sorry for all of this. No wonder you guys were so on guard when you arrived."

Yue Jingxui asked, "Since this is the case, could you explain to us what's happening?"

Messiah nodded. "Of course. Let me get something first."

From the sound of stone scraping against stone, it seemed that Messiah stood up from the table. To make sure that he didn't miss anything, Yue Jingxui grit his teeth and activated his foresight, directly peering five seconds into the future. He watched as Messiah walked to a seemingly random point in the room that was neither close to the racks lining the walls nor any items that could seem useful.

'What is he doing?'

To Yue Jingxui's astonishment, Messiah bent down and grabbed the seam where one monster skin met another. Without any effort, he lifted the skin, which turned out to be attached to a large piece of stone that made the floor.

That piece of skin had looked the same as all the others which lined the floor. It was questionable whether Yue Jingxui could have found the hiding spot if he had needed to search this entire place. At this time, the vision ended without his permission and he was hit was sudden intense nausea. Taking the time that reality took to sync up with his vision, he pressed his feet to the floor to ground and steady himself.

A thought flashed through his mind. 'Interesting. Usually, the vision lasts for several seconds after the activation, but this time the vision ended when my ability deemed that I had used too much energy and will start experiencing relatively severe after affects.'

In reality, Zhang Yin let out a sound of surprise after five seconds had passed.

Propping the stone up with an arm, Messiah reached into the hole and brought out a large, rolled up monster skin.

Gently putting the stone back in its place, Messiah returned to the table and unrolled the monster skin.

Knowing that he absolutely must know what Messiah is showing them, Yue Jingxui resolutely used his ability once more to peer one second into the future.

The rolled out monster skin was very large and its surface was completely covered in what looked like a giant, dense mess of lines. The lines were likely drawn with blood and looked dark red, almost black. Some zig-zagged nonsensically and circled around themselves uselessly, others intersected and created knots that were hardly distinguishable. The lines were sometimes thick, sometimes thin, and sometimes dotted.

The entire piece was completely incomprehensible.

However, there were some indicators of what it was supposed to be.

A circle was drawn around one specific cluster near where many lines intersected and a larger dotted circle was drawn with the intersection at the center. Additionally, if up, down, right, and left corresponded with North, South, East, and West, there was a circle drawn on the east-most point that said "Entrance". At the top of the skin were the words "V. 26".

At this time, the vision ended and Yue Jingxui's nausea he just managed to suppress was amplified tenfold. In addition, a new migraine was also added to his suffering. However, this combination and intensity was still less than what he had to endure before.

'In the future, I should try not to use the ability to peer "far" into the future consecutively. Even though the pain is tolerable, I don't know how it would affect me in the long run. Giving myself sufficient time to rest is also reducing how vulnerable I will be.'

More importantly, when Yue Jingxui saw this mess of lines worthy of being called abstract art, he was struck with a strong sense of familiarity. Comparing it to the mini-map of [Black Abyss Prison] in his mind, he was surprised.

'Wait. Even thought there are some changes and missing places, isn't this...?

In front of him, Messiah spoke and unwittingly finished his thought. "This is a map of [Black Abyss Prison]."

Beside Yue Jingxui, Zhang Yin stared dumbfoundedly at the mess in front of him and blurted, "This is a map?!"

Hearing Zhang Yin's comment, Messiah chuckled. "Well, to be more precise, this is still an incomplete map."

Messiah shifted to hover over the giant map and pointed to the entrance. "This map is the cumulation of my explorations and it has been revised 25 times so far. I've explored every region I could find and, except for the entrance that's heavily guarded, I've found no other exits."

Zhang Yin blinked. "Then, what do you want us to do? I doubt we can be of help to you if you guys can't break through the entrance."

Messiah looked at Zhang Yin as if he was stupid. "What are you talking about? Of course I'm not going to ask that. Going there would just be suicide."

"..."

'Shit, why are all the NPCs in this game so infuriating?!'

Turning back to the map, Messiah dragged his clawed finger towards the Northwest and tapped a space that was strangely unoccupied in the dense, line-filled map. "The only place I've yet to explore is here."

"You have to understand that the [Black Abyss Prison] is massive." Sighing, Messiah sat back on his seat. "It took me over six hundred years just to create this map and find a suitable enough place to make a rudimentary base. I spent a lot of effort and time trying to find a way out, and I wouldn't have left a place alone if there weren't something stopping me."

Zhang Yin sucked in a cold breath. "S-six hundred years?!?"

Messiah nodded and turned towards Yue Jingxui. "That's right, so it's even more important to me that you are here."

Hearing what Messiah said, Yue Jingxui finally understood the situation.

"I suppose you don't have much time left?"

"That's right. To be honest, I'm surprised that I even lasted six hundred years."

"You must have a innate skill."

"Yes."

Zhang Yin looked at Yue Jingxui and Messiah throughout their exchange. He was confused and raised his hand to stop them. "Wait, wait. I don't understand what you guys are talking about. How about you start from the beginning?"

"You don't know?" Messiah was surprised. "Don't tell me that you truly don't know the [Corruption]?"

Yue Jingxui coughed awkwardly. "She's suffering from... amnesia."

Messiah seemed doubtful, but he chose to let it go for now. "Well, I suppose... Would you like a general explanation of [Black Abyss Prison]?"

Zhang Yin made himself as comfortable as he could on a stone chair. "Hit me with it."

Yue Jingxui also made himself comfortable when he realized that this might take a long time.

'This is why you should have just read the character backstory.'

Messiah started talking. "In the entire world of [Imagination], the [Black Abyss Prison] is the place where the worst criminals are gathered. Every inmate here is a terrible criminal who has either committed genocide on a continental level, killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused disasters of catastrophic proportions, plotted horrible schemes which affected millions of lives, or any combination of the above and more."

Zhang Yin choked. For the first time since he entered this game, he finally realized his situation. In his mind, he was screaming uncontrollably.

'Just where the hell did I end up spawning? Game developers, isn't this too hardcore?!'

"Of course, there must be a reason that the world's worst criminals are put here." Not knowing Zhang Yin's internal breakdown, Messiah continued. "On one hand, the caverns possess a strange energy suppressing property that makes any technique that requires external energy manipulation ineffective. This effectively restricted the strength of everyone by 80-90 percent, severely limiting the amount of destruction we can cause within the prison. I'm sure that you've experienced this even though you may not... remember the reason why."

Zhang Yin finally knew why he wasn't able to use any of his skills.

However, he had a question. He raised a hand like he was a student in high school. "If this is a prison, then why are we so... free? I haven't seen a guard the entire time I've been here and, from what I can tell, we are free to roam anywhere within the prison."

Yue Jingxui stared at Messiah for a second before looking away.

When Messiah processed Zhang Yin's words, he froze. Suddenly, his shoulders started trembling and a terrible pressure descended.

"Free... Haha. Free, you say?"

Zhang Yin was surprised at Messiah's violent reaction and retreated slightly. He spoke shakingly. "W-what?"

"What do you know, you punk? You..." Messiah's hands, which were on the table, clenched and unclenched. He breathed a deep breath and exhaled, visibly calming himself and the pressure disappeared. "Sorry, I lost control for a second."

Zhang Yin was still trembling a little. He hastily shook his hands in front of him and apologized. "No, no. I must have said something insensitive. You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"No." Messiah shook his head. "This is something you need to know if you're going to help us and, more importantly, survive here."

"As I was saying, there are reasons why we, the most terrible murders and criminals in history, are gathered here. As powerful people who killed, stole, raped, pillaged, and tricked, we are people who walk with death every single day. Not one of us is afraid of death, yet, we are also stubborn to survive and thrive. However, there is a reason that we would rather die than go to [Black Abyss Prison]."

Messiah pointed to himself. "What do you see?"

Looking at the figure covered in monster skins and wearing a monster's head, Zhang Yin, who was still recovering from Messiah's outburst, replied timidly. "A... person wearing a monster pelt?"

Hearing Zhang Yin's answer, Messiah chuckled. His distorted voice was slightly crazed. "That's right, a person wearing a monster's skin. A monster's pelt. A monster. Ahahahaha!"

Zhang Yin suddenly didn't want to continue this talk anymore. He glanced at Yue Jingxui for assistance, but saw that Yue Jingxui wasn't even looking in their direction. "Are... are you okay? We can stop talking about this if you want."

At the sign that Zhang Yin wished to change the subject, Messiah exploded again.

"No!" Messiah shouted and slammed the stone table, causing a crack to form down the center. Zhang Yin jumped at the action. "You have to listen! You have to understand! You-"

"Messiah, calm down."

Finally, when things were going out of control again, Yue Jingxui spoke.

At Yue Jingxui's reminder, it was like a switch was flipped in Messiah. The exploding emotions that seemed to over-run Messiah's rationality disappeared and Messiah immediately put his hands in his lap like a scolded child.

"S-sorry."

At this point, Zhang Yin was getting whiplash at how fast Messiah's moods change.

'Is there anybody here that's even remotely sane? Oh right, me.'

Messiah apologized awkwardly. "I-I suppose there's really something going on today. I'm terribly sorry, I'm not usually like this. Would you let me try again? I promise that I won't lose control of my emotions a third time."

Zhang Yin squinted his eyes at Messiah dubiously.

At Zhang Yin's reaction, Messiah could only cough and look properly chastised.

It was strange seeing how much 'kicked puppy' energy could be exuded by a man in a... monster's skin? Zhang Yin didn't even know anymore.

"... As long as you don't go crazy again."

"Right, right." Messiah lit back up, once again flipping his mood in a second. "Well, the point of all this is the second reason why these caverns were picked as a place to gather criminals: [Corruption]."

"As per usual of the geography of the [Dark Abyss], nothing grows within these caverns and no supplies are given by those outside of the prison. So, how do you think life is supported in this place with no food or water, and no way to use energy to sate yourself artificially?"

Zhang Yin thought of the various monster corpses that were hung and piled around the camp. "The... monsters?"

This time, Messiah didn't seem to go out of control again. "That's right, we sustain ourselves through consuming the flesh and blood of the monsters. The bones of the monster can be used to make tools and tents, the skin for clothes and covers, tendons for ropes and string, and the blood for ink. Useful, right?"

Zhang Yin nodded.

"However, it is exact this which is the ultimate nightmare for everyone within these caverns. After all... these monsters used to be people."

Zhang Yin was shocked. He looked at the various monster parts on the shelves and the tent they were in, all made from monsters, and felt sick.

"No one knows when it started or it's origin, but everything in these caverns eventually becomes corrupted. The corruption is unstoppable and infects you the fastest via eating and drinking the flesh and blood of the monsters, people who are completely corrupted. It's in the blood that stains the ground, the chains that line the walls, the air you breathe, and every prisoner here."

Messiah down at his hands, which were covered by the monster skin. "We starve ourselves until we eat in uncontrollable hunger or we are eaten, and we drink the blood of our fellow people to quench our thirst. We're not bothered by the cannibalism, it's not nearly the worst thing we've done, but the fact that our stubbornness for life won't allow us to die without struggle. Everything we do to preserve our lives merely dig the hole deeper, until the corruption completely swallows everything that made us human."

"With every bite, drink, step, breath, we are slowly changing into the monsters that we hunt and kill, slowly losing our logical thinking and rationality, slowly losing our identity. We'll become another faceless monster which roams these caverns, our histories forever lost and lives never told, a slave to an instinct to devour. Even if we die before that, we'll just be eaten by a passing monster or prisoner."

Messiah spat hatefully. "A cog in a never-ending, perpetuating cycle."

Zhang Yin gulped.

Looking up back up at Zhang Yin, Messiah said. "Do you understand now?"

"There's a reason why [Black Abyss Prison] is referred to as the 'Living Nightmare' of [Imagination]."

"I want to escape."

"I want to live, just so that I die human."