"Today's punishment is over. Thank you for your cooperation." Dr. Liu patted the prisoner's face.
Chapter 16
☪ True Plague Prison
"This Dr. Liu is a truly insane person."
Lu Shi could tell from the video that there was not a trace of pity in the man's eyes.
However, after watching the subsequent videos, Lu Shi realized that his previous views were too conservative.
If Dr. Liu's actions in the first video could be considered insane, then his actions in the subsequent videos can only be described as being possessed by a demon.
When he was no longer satisfied with taking "trophies" from these offending prisoners, Dr. Liu gradually grew tired of the game.
After all, there's a threshold to being happy when you see someone suffering terribly and feeling like they're living a life worse than death.
When their suffering no longer satisfied Dr. Liu, he finally began to want more.
For example, killing these prisoners.
Dr. Liu prepared the first murder video for a long time.
In the video, he repeatedly emphasized: "I took a special shower today and then used Lao He's treasured perfume."
After dressing up carefully, Dr. Liu was considered good-looking among middle-aged men.
"According to procedure, he should have left our prison tomorrow. This is absurd! Who gave him such a large reduction in his sentence?! The deceased's family's forgiveness? Bullshit! Why don't you ask the deceased if they have forgiven him?"
Dr. Liu swore loudly at the camera, and it was clear that he was very angry.
Lu Shi stared intently at Dr. Liu's pupils, noticing a small black dot had appeared on the whites of his eyes.
When Lu Shi turned back to look at the video, he discovered that Dr. Liu's sclera did not have any black spots.
"Could this be the mark left by the devil after he made a deal with him?"
Lu Shi was engrossed in watching when he suddenly heard an alarm sound.
His first thought was that the alarm was coming from the second floor. But when he looked up, he realized that the countdown above his head had unknowingly reduced to only 6 hours.
There was still enough time. Lu Shi calculated that as long as he read through all the information here, he would be close to clearing the game.
The goal is simply to find out why this prison has become what it is today. But what has Dr. Liu, the culprit, done?
Lu Shi's gaze returned to the video. After venting his anger, Dr. Liu finally pushed the trembling prisoner in front of the camera.
The prisoner was missing an ear, and Lu Shi remembered the punishment he had suffered in the previous video.
"Please, please let me go!"
Seeing that Dr. Liu didn't react, the prisoner finally gave up and said, "I'll get out tomorrow! I'll definitely take you to court then! Do you really think no one knows what you've done?!"
This time, Dr. Liu did not torture the victim repeatedly. Instead, he cleanly and decisively stabbed the prisoner in the neck, quickly ending the prisoner's life.
"I..." The prisoner died with his eyes wide open, probably unable to understand why Dr. Liu dared to kill him.
Half a minute passed.
However, the scene that Lu Shi expected—the prisoner coming back to life—did not occur.
Until the video ended, the prisoner lay motionless in a pool of blood, his eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling.
"You won't be resurrected after you die?" Lu Shi rested his hand on the computer desk.
This is different from the scene he saw and the memories he experienced while sitting in the chair.
Could it be that his analysis was wrong? Lu Shi shook his head. No, that couldn't be the case.
There is absolutely no doubt that prisoners here can be brought back to life.
Because Lu Shi had used his skill "Insight" on the group of prisoners on the first floor before.
At the time, Lu Shi didn't know that the dead here could come back to life. When his eyes swept over the group of prisoners, strange things happened.
The pupils of those prisoners reflected their life experiences, like a revolving lantern.
In those fleeting moments of life, Lu Shi did see that they had made some mistakes.
For example, teasing female classmates, copying homework, writing insults and curses against teachers and classmates on draft paper, etc.
Even if Lu Shi were to apply the strictest laws of the imperial court to these mistakes, they wouldn't be imprisoned.
As for the incriminating evidence the prison gave them, none of it occurred.
At that time, Lu Shi was very confused. Were these prisoners really innocent, just as they claimed?
Later, after Lu Shi discovered that prisoners could be resurrected after being killed here, Lu Shi made a bold guess.
This person who has come back to life must be a new person.
But in the video now, the prisoner is really dead, lying there quietly, and no new life has sprung from his body.
While everyone in the live stream was sending question marks and completely baffled by the plot, Lu Shi's expression suddenly changed as if he had remembered something.
Dr. Liu has a thoughtful habit: he marks the date at the end of each of his videos.
Lu Shi could understand why he did this. To him, every person he killed was like a trophy, something he could savor and flaunt repeatedly.
After memorizing the date, Lu Shi immediately opened Dr. Liu's "Research Log".
Something unexpected happened.
When Lu Shi first saw these videos, he, like the viewers, assumed that the first video and the first page of logs should be synchronized.
Date is often an easily overlooked factor.
Lu Shi even suspected that if the difficulty of this dungeon were any higher, the video wouldn't have included the date at all.
However, in fact, the first video was posted long before Dr. Liu's first blog post.
On the contrary, the date of the video of Dr. Liu committing murder matches the date of Dr. Liu's second blog post.
That is, after Dr. Liu cried out that he shouldn't have made a deal with the devil.
“This person is inherently unkind.” Lu Shi’s beautiful eyebrows furrowed slightly, and his bright eyes darted around quickly. “He didn’t even meet the devil when he was torturing those prisoners. It seems he really harbors a lot of resentment towards those prisoners.”
Even though Lu Shi couldn't forgive the criminals for the crimes they committed, he still couldn't forgive them.
But for the Demon Lord, he could probably destroy them with a flick of his finger. As for this kind of amusement-like torture, Lu Shi wouldn't even look at it.
“Our Dr. Liu will soon be dissatisfied with just disciplining these prisoners.” Lu Shi was reconstructing the scene from back then, based on the information he had read. “After all, these prisoners can be released. Once they get out, they certainly won’t let Dr. Liu, who committed the violence, off the hook.”
"As for Dr. Liu, who hates evil as much as he does, he absolutely disagrees with the idea that these prisoners can start a new life."
Lu Shi, dressed in ancient costume, leaned against the computer, his long, pure black hair smooth and silky.
This scene, with its striking contrast between different eras, was a feast for the eyes, prompting viewers in the live stream to take screenshots to cherish the moment.
Coupled with his clear and logical analysis, it made these ordinary players even more willing to open their wallets and send gifts to their favorite streamers.
The man in black stopped questioning Red Spider and said enviously, "When will I be able to beat the game by relying on the storyline, just like him?"
...
Lu Shi heard the audience's reminder about giving gifts, and a slight smile appeared on his usually aloof face.
It seems the audience really enjoyed his analysis, so let's elaborate: "So our Dr. Liu found the devil and made a deal."
“I think many viewers will say, is this deal to prevent the prisoner from dying? No, no, no, given Dr. Liu’s hatred for prisoners, he would never make such a wish.”
Lu Shi chuckled softly, running his hand through his hair. His enigmatic smile resembled that of the demon lurking behind the scenes.
"Aren't you all curious why the imperial court turns a blind eye to so many tragedies that have occurred in this prison?"
"Why are there so many wronged souls in the first-floor corridor? It's one thing for the dead to be here, but why are the victims' families also here?"
Is it possible that they actually died of natural causes?
Every question Lu Shi asked left the audience staring wide-eyed at the screen, like struggling students who couldn't understand the teacher's lecture.
“A friend just reminded me,” Lu Shi said with the same confidence as when he talked about peeking at the comments: “I can use it to investigate this Baishuihe Prison.”
If Lu Shi were a modern person, the moment he saw the computer, he would probably immediately try out a search engine.
Unfortunately, our old-fashioned Demon Lord doesn't know how!
Fortunately, Lu Shi would turn on the bullet comments to calm his mind when he was at a loss, and he happened to see a bullet comment reminding him that he should use a browser to search for information.
This viewer is probably one of the few who believes Lu Shi is from ancient times, and even thoughtfully told him that the browser icon is the blue "e".
Lu Shi opened his browser and typed in Baishuihe Prison.
The search results did not contain any information related to Baishuihe Prison.
It's as if this prison doesn't even exist in the world.
“I’ve also noticed,” Lu Shi moved the mouse to the bottom of the screen: “This year is 2046.”
He took out the diary he had found in the prison guards' dormitory. On its title page was a line of small print:
"For my dearest love. Xiao Tang, purchased from Xinhua Bookstore in 1996."
"That's right, there's a 60-year gap. That's why the victims' families also appear as ghosts, because they're all dead."
"Only this prison, which should not exist, stands isolated from everything, a lonely island that has been exiled."
"It seems that our Dr. Liu made a wish to the devil that he could execute these prisoners without being held accountable by the outside world."
“But he didn’t know that the demon had twisted his wish.” Lu Shi shook his head. “Silly child, how could you believe in a demon?” “He wiped out this prison and everyone inside. From the day he made his wish, everyone here was no different from the dead.”
Lu Shi's words were so shocking that the audience was stunned.
Lu Shi, however, heard a reluctant system notification: "The streamer has successfully activated the story mode!"
"Pass condition: Find Elder He, the prison elder, and tell him the origin and history of the Plague Prison."
"Story progress: 50%. Note: This only relates to the completion reward and is unrelated to the completion conditions."
These three reminders greatly invigorated Lu Shi's spirits.
It seems his guess was correct.
Lu Shi now felt that he understood enough about Dr. Liu's actions, which was the origin of the Plague Prison.
The biggest problem, however, is where he should find Warden He.