(MC POV)
"B… Boss… The… The food is here… You... You want me to get it for you?"
I looked up to see one of the Boss Zhu's former lackeys stuttering at me. If I remember correctly, he was the guy that got a knee to the chin.
It's only been a day and it seems like the whole hierarchy of this place shifted completely.
There were also quite a number of people with shaved heads around the place now, most of them obviously not clean shaven since they didn't have any sharp objects to shave with. How they did it was anyone's guess.
The Boss Zhu guy hadn't shown his face since that incident either, and neither have I gone ahead to find him, at least not yet. I'll eventually get to him just to see what he knows about our current predicament without giving away my real identity, that's why I had tried to spend the rest of yesterday alone to think of a plan.
Tried being the key word here.
The moment I found a place to settle down, a number of people had approached me to 'pay respects'.
I didn't realise this, but apparently there were quite a lot of different factions within the Dark Sect itself. And here I had thought that they were united with a common goal or something, but I guess when you have an organization this big, it is to be expected.
When I asked, many of them seem to have varying reasons to break off from what they call the 'Main Branch'. The most common reason was of course, not wanting to be the sacrifice for whatever grand scheme the main branch people had.
There were also the few who weren't happy with the status quo on the management and were also sent here for their opinions apparently. Like one of them was sent here for saying that they should have 'Potluck gatherings every other day'.
Harsh.
No wonder the prisoners were so divided, most of them probably hate each other from the start. With the different factions being thrown together, they would naturally find their own group and stick to them, ostracizing everyone else.
I guess when this Boss Zhu came around, he became the biggest bad in the room with his minions, bullying everyone else into submission just because his lackeys could fight or something.
But now that I've beaten the toughest group around, the fear naturally transferred over to me.
Well, it works out for me so I ain't going to complain.
Though this 'boss' business is definitely not my cup of tea, not gonna lie.
Kind of makes me remember all those stupid 'bosses' that were in that Spiritual Family's prison, always so damn full of themselves even though they got themselves locked in there.
I'm already missing my disciples already…
"No, it's fine. Let's go," I grunted, pushing myself up to my feet. "What did they get us this time?"
He gaped at me for a moment before answering, "It… It's just… The usual bread… I… Should I go ask them for more?"
I raised an eyebrow, "Why? Would they even bother taking your request seriously? Aren't we meant to be their sacrifices?"
"Er… Ye… Yeah… But… But they would… Erm… Back then they used to make use of us to… To control the people here… So..."
Ah, I understand. They set the prisoners on each other so they don't have to police us themselves that much.
Probably just give the more obedient ones better living conditions or maybe even the promise of an exemption of being sacrificed if they gave results. Explains why they were so eager to screw over everyone else.
I waved my hand, "Don't bother. I'd rather not be beholden to the people who threw me in here the first place."
"Un… Understood, boss…"
We continued our way for a few moments before he spoke up again, "If… If you don't mind me asking Boss… How… How did they manage to put you in here?"
"Isn't it obvious?" I answered without turning around. "I let them."
"A… Ah... I see… May… May I ask why?"
"No, you may not."
That shut him up quickly.
It's good to give them some info to go on, but it's also good to at least keep some things to yourself and let them gossip about it. Usually that would create the most outlandish of results and I have no doubt by the end of the day, all of them will be trying to guess why I was here.
Prisoners have a lot of free time on their hands after all, so they are bound to talk among themselves if they get some really juicy info.
And once they start talking, their topics would naturally drift towards things they are most familiar with. It will then be a simple thing for me to listen in and find out more about what they know without even the need to ask them.
Yesterday I had already interrogated them as much as I could without being too suspicious, the only few things I learnt was that they were trying to summon something that would empower everyone in the Dark Sect.
They were pretty vague about what was going to be summoned, some of them referring to the summon as an 'it' while the others used 'her' so I'm still plenty confused.
If listening to these guys turn out to be a dead end, I might need to question someone of a higher authority that I can dispose of without suspicion.
I would rather not kill any of the sacrifices around here just in case I need them later, so maybe a guard or something?
Reaching the front of the hall, I saw a long queue of people lining up obediently in pairs, no doubt for the food distribution today.
I tried to join the back of the queue but all of them immediately parted way to let me through when they saw me, giving me respectful bows of greeting.
"Boss!"
"Morning Boss!"
"Good day Boss!"
I just nodded back in acknowledgement while I continued my way to the front. Since they let me through without any prompting from me, who am I to deny them?
Among the crowd were a number who threw grateful glances my way, it wasn't that hard to guess they were people that Zhu guy tormented before.
Not sure if I should feel glad about Dark Sect members feeling grateful towards me.
I reached the front of the queue just as the doors were swung open, letting a group of fully armed guards march in.
Each of them were wearing full plate armour with an open faced helmet of similar designs. Only one of them had a feathered plume stuck to the top of it.
There were six armed guards in total with two baskets full of bread. One basket was filled with clean, white bread while the other was filled with mouldy, dirty bread.
"Alright, listen up you traitors," The guard with the plumed helmet shouted. "We were feeling really generous today so here is a basket full of white bread instead of the slop you guys would get here. All we want is a very simple thing, heh heh heh."
Well, that laugh definitely suggested that it won't be simple.
"We just want you guys to pick a partner, anyone will do! Pair up!"
Everyone did so without question, taking the person that had been queuing beside them as their partner.
I looked to my left to see a rather small and scrawny kid, probably no older than sixteen years old, staring back at me with obvious fear in his eyes.
"Perfect!" The guard clapped. "Now, everyone start beating the hell out of your partner! The winner gets the white bread, losers eat the crap!"
I should have known.
This must be some sort of sick form of entertainment for the guards to make themselves feel superior. I wonder if their higher ups knew about this?
Though we may be sacrifices, it means we are probably still needed alive until the actual sacrifice right? They shouldn't want the sacrifices killing each other unnecessarily.
I actually half expected everyone to just devolve into an all out brawl, but they were just staring at me, waiting. I guess they were waiting for their 'boss' to decide for them.
I took another glance at the kid beside me, who was already shivering at where he stood.
If I am right, this kid was probably someone taken from the streets when he was really young and was either forced or coerced to be part of the Dark Sect.
Well, I wasn't planning on fighting him for a piece of bread in the first place.
I was thinking of just rejecting the idea or letting my fellow prisoners decide for themselves when I just had a great idea on getting someone I can interrogate to come straight to me. If this works, I wouldn't even need to sneak out of here!
I turned back to the guards, "I got a better idea. How about we don't fight for your entertainment, you give us the white bread here, plus another basket of it... And I don't shove your swords up your collective behinds?"
