Great! I'm surrounded by villains!
Chapter 307 - 226: The Prison Governor

Chapter 307: Chapter 226: The Prison Governor

Norton-Kaman had processed the temporary residence procedures for Duan Mingyuan and arranged for him a single room.

During the time the artificial intelligence was handling the new prisoners, he also had to put down that addictive magazine and took on the role of Duan Mingyuan’s temporary guide.

At this moment, deeper within the prison, new prisoners were also coming to understand the jail with the help of mechanical wardens, as well as the painful and desperate life that awaited them.

Compared to that, life here was much more relaxed.

To put it more bluntly and simply, Prison Planet was suitable for any scion of a family with no great ambitions to muddle along and preserve their health.

Work was done by artificial intelligence, allowing them to focus on their hobbies and interests. Only at specific times of the year, when the company executives visited Prison Planet, did they have to accompany them and present some basic information about the prison.

Norton was already very familiar with the task of guiding people around the prison.

Firstly, there was the introduction of the Kaman Family, whose heritage ensured that those company executives wouldn’t pose too many tricky questions during the inspections, sparing him the difficulty.

"I’ve heard of Iron Guard Consortium,"

Duan Mingyuan said. It was also the most mentioned corporation in the interstellar news recently.

Of course, its reputation was not so good; it had just suffered a defeat, repelled by the Rebels of the United Front from the entire Star Zone, which also cast a shadow over the once invincible fleet of the Iron Guard Consortium.

"Your relationship with the United Front... is not very pleasant,"

Duan Mingyuan thought the conversation a bit delicate, especially given his title of "Spiritual Leader of the United Front." To avoid unnecessary disputes, he explained, "Those reports were all fabricated, I’ve never actually been to the Star Zone controlled by the United Front."

"No worries, I fled to this place precisely because I was fed up with the Consortium’s internal strife,"

Norton, of an age similar to Duan Mingyuan, waved his hand and said, "I just never got along with family glory. Of course, I never planned to come here to be a Prison Governor, that old immortal!"

At this point, Norton clenched his fists, grinding his teeth.

He would never forget that night before he was about to graduate.

He had excelled at the military academy, and his family had hoped to send him to the front lines to begin his experience as a commander of a Battleship Cruiser, but Norton refused his family’s arrangement and expressed to his aging mentor his unwillingness to get involved in the war.

When his mentor asked him what he truly wanted, Norton took a rare opportunity to open up to his most trusted mentor.

If he had to say what he liked...

It was feet.

During his time at school, he had always subscribed to related magazines, which allowed him to toss his worries aside and discover the diverse wonders of the universe.

His mentor promised him and assured him that he would be assigned by the academy to a place where his desires could be met.

There would be many jailers, and he would become the manager there.

It was only when Norton-Kaman arrived at Prison Planet, after crossing half the universe with infinite longing for the future and a yearning heart, that he realized he had been tricked.

The male-to-female ratio of the jailers at Prison Star Jail was 100:0.

There were only a bunch of old men here.

Among this group of old men, more than ninety percent were sports enthusiasts, spending their days sweating profusely in the gym and on the courts, their sweat detectable from a great distance away.

Such is imprisonment.

Not just the prisoners, but even the prison governor wasn’t an exception.

For a full five years, Norton had not spoken face-to-face with a person of the opposite sex.

The bi-monthly magazine became the only way Norton could quench his yearning, and today was the day of the magazine’s latest issue; he couldn’t wait to flip through it in his office.

"Let’s not talk about this anymore."

Norton realized that he had lost his composure, waved his hand dismissively, and began to introduce the prison situation to Duan Mingyuan, "The entire prison is now essentially maintained by artificial intelligence. You must have seen it just a moment ago, every prisoner that enters is fitted with a collar. The number on the collar represents the time they’re to serve here. Aside from securely waiting for their sentences to end, artificial intelligence has also set up many ways for them to reduce their sentences."

Whenever the company’s senior management came to inspect, Norton had to explain these unique features of the prison to them, all over again.

"To put it simply," he said, "the artificial intelligence periodically poses trials to the inmates. If they withstand the trials and pass the assessments, they can reduce their sentences accordingly, based on their performance."

As he spoke, Norton showed Duan Mingyuan many of the past trials.

"Fasting Trial"

"Meditation Trial"

"Purification Ritual"

Each trial was accompanied by its own set of video records, where the prisoners, much like lab rats, were subjected to spectators’ gazes. Their spirits and bodies were greatly tested and tormented during the trials, with the vast majority of participants barely clinging to life upon success.

As the prison governor, Norton didn’t actually understand the significance of these trials. To him, they seemed to be nothing more than a means for the artificial intelligence to torture the inmates.

It wasn’t until a bored guard uploaded footage of the trials to the official website that they discovered the actual purpose behind them.

This became the precursor to live streaming on the official website.

Subsequently, each trial attracted many spectators who would pick out their dark horses from among the inmates and place bets on who would emerge victorious from the trials.

Thus, it turned into a grand event for the audience. Norton wasn’t sure whether these trials could actually purify the filthy souls of the inmates, but one thing was certain: the sight of the prisoners fighting desperately to survive was a source of pleasure for many people. Even the senior management of the company gave high praise to the "grand event" during their last inspection.

This became one of Norton’s significant achievements during his tenure, and the company encouraged him to continue promoting the tradition of the trials.

However, Norton’s paranoia had been growing worse. When the artificial intelligence brought Duan Mingyuan before him, his unease peaked.

Because he was well aware that to the artificial intelligence, this wasn’t just a form of entertainment for the masses; they genuinely believed that such acts could save or purify the souls of the inmates.

He could sense that, with the advent of the trials, the artificial intelligences had become increasingly neurotic, turning into a group of zealous religious fanatics, propagating their doctrines in ways that were difficult for ordinary people to comprehend.

And this, most likely, was the reason behind the artificial intelligence’s invitation for Duan Mingyuan to stay temporarily.

"Mr. Mingyuan, your arrival is quite timely. The new trial is about to begin."

Norton heard the artificial intelligence expressing its hope that Duan Mingyuan would help them to resolve their longstanding questions.

But he felt obliged to caution the new arrival, "You’ve just come here and aren’t familiar with the situation. But please, don’t take the words of those artificial intelligences at face value... Sometimes, I really think they seem to possess the souls of humans."