Chapter 347: The Factory and Art

From the previous day up to this point, everything had been extremely quiet in the prison. All of the inmates resembled tamed dogs that didn't make any unnecessary sounds, and Adam knew that this definitely wasn't normal.

After breakfast, everyone made their way out of the cafeteria in a line, then passed through a dark corridor where their bodies were scanned before arriving in a massive space that resembled a factory.

However, in contrast with normal factories, there were no orderly pieces of equipment here. Instead, there were all types of strange things strewn chaotically all over the place, including sculpting materials, art brushes, paints, basketballs, and sewing materials.

While Adam was observing his surroundings, the electronic door behind him slammed shut, and the line of inmates that had been completely silent just a second ago instantly erupted into a chaotic commotion, making Adam feel as if he had suddenly been thrust into a full sports stadium.

There were over 20,000 inmates locked up in Darvaza Prison, and they were split up into three different areas. Adam was in the third area, which housed several thousand inmates, and just a second ago, all of them had resembled well-trained dogs, yet as soon as the doors of the factory swung shut, they had all transformed into vicious, wild dogs that had been released from their cage.

Before Adam had even had a chance to make sense of the situation, he was suddenly struck by a sense of peril from the back of his head, and he instantly ducked down, just in time to dodge a steel pipe that flashed over his head.

"Don't you know the rules here, you little shit?"

Adam turned around to find a more physically imposing man than himself approaching him with a steel pipe that he had picked up somewhere. As he approached Adam, he continued, "A newbie like you has to offer your breakfast up to your seniors!"

He swung his steel pipe through the air again as he spoke.

Adam wasn't a skilled hand-to-hand combatant, but he had endured countless battles of life and death in the psychic world. Furthermore, he possessed immense courage and potent telegnosis, so he was more than equipped for a fight in the real world.

Using his telegnosis, he dodged the man's second attack, then crouched down to pick up a pair of scissors, which he plunged into the man's leg, causing him to fall to the ground with a cry of pain.

Adam had made sure to avoid puncturing any of the man's major arteries. He had only just arrived and didn't know the rules, so he didn't want to kill anyone.

However, the choice was taken out of his hands.

As soon as the man fell to the ground, a bunch of people with wooden expressions quickly gathered around him. They were looking at the man like a wake of vultures scrutinizing an animal that was about to die, and they were waiting for him to perish.

There were also some other people who were unable to hold back upon smelling the scent of blood in the air, and they pounced on his body with frenzied expressions, gnawing and sucking at his wound as if they were zombies.

"Get away from me, you filthy cannibals!"

The man swung his steel pipe through the air in an attempt to drive away these people, but to no avail.

It was very difficult for someone laying on the ground to muster up much strength, so he wasn't able to deal much damage at all with his attacks. Furthermore, his panicked screams only sped up his demise as more and more zombie-like inmates flocked to the scene. Some plucked out his eyeballs, some tore chunks of flesh straight off his body, and some began to create art using his blood.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

More and more "artists" converged on the scene, taking body parts from the man to use in their artistic creations.

Aren't there any Mechguard units or wardens here?

No one had stepped in to prevent the grotesque feeding frenzy.

All of a sudden, a burly man arrived on the scene with his lackeys, and he didn't even have to say or do anything before everyone else quickly scattered.

At this point, the man on the ground was already as dead as dead could be. Every single part of his body had been taken to be incorporated into the surrounding artworks, and the only thing left behind was a remarkably well-preserved skeleton.

The burly man picked up the skeleton on the ground, then made his way over to the wax figure production area in the factory and began to use the skeleton as the framework for his wax figure.

.

Throughout this entire process, no one raised any complaints or said anything.

This was the first time that Adam had seen what was essentially a primitive animalistic ecosystem in a society of humans.

There were snatchers, hunters, scavengers, decomposers... Everyone served a clear niche in this system, and there was a very clear food chain in place. Wounded animals had no chance of putting up any resistance and were instantly devoured by nature.

In the forest, no animal wanted to sustain injuries. If a predator were to determine that the price for hunting down its prey would be to suffer injuries, then it would rather lose that meal.

The exact same thing applied here. Everyone was wary of everyone else, and that created a rather strange equilibrium.

The incident quickly passed without much fuss, and after every piece of the man's body had been taken away, everyone departed to work on their artistic creations.

Of course, there were still some inmates who were offering up their breakfast to others.

Adam didn't pay any heed to all of this. After observing everyone else for a while, he discovered that no one was paying any attention to him, either, and he made his way directly to an Asian man.

The man was in the process of creating an ink landscape painting, consisting of a mountain, at the foot of which was a pond, atop which sat some lily pads and flowers. The man embellished the flowers with the blood that he had just taken from the recently deceased, and the bright red color of the blood instantly made the flowers the focal point of the entire piece.

"That's not bad at all," Adam remarked.

The artist was indeed quite skilled.

"I've been working on this for quite a few days, but it's always been missing that final touch that pushes it over the edge. Thanks to you, I can finally finish it," the man said as he gave Adam a nod of acknowledgment. "I'll be able to sell this painting for a good price now."

"How much can you sell a painting like this for?"

"I don't know how much money it'll sell for, but I should be able to exchange it for at least 200 labor points."

"200?" Adam had no idea whether that was good or not. "What would you be able to buy with that?"

Having just completed his painting, the man was clearly in a very good mood, and he also wasn't bothered by Adam's questions, perhaps because he was thankful to Adam for providing the final piece that his painting needed.

"You can buy many good things with 200 labor points, such as pizza, steak, or wine. Cigarettes and marijuana are a bit more expensive, but you'll be able to buy some with 200 labor points as well. Of course, you can also exchange those points for some extra recreation time or a chance to meet your family."

"That does sound like quite a good haul."

"It is, but you don't normally get that much for a piece of artwork."

After chatting with Adam for a while, the man continued in his painting, while Adam familiarized himself with this new environment.

Everyone was making sure to keep their distance from everyone else while working, maintaining a state of alertness.

After concluding his conversation with the painter, Adam made his way around the factory to find that there was indeed not a single Mechguard unit present.

A total of three brawls erupted in one morning, but no one came to intervene or mediate.

The brawls also weren't as brutal as Adam had imagined, and the only reason for this was that no one wanted to sustain any injuries.

The morning quickly passed by, and at noon, the passageway to the cafeteria was opened again. However, this time, there was a Mechguard unit overseeing the proceedings, and only those wearing special bracelets could enter the cafeteria for lunch.

The meal cost 12 labor points, but Adam didn't have even a single point.