ocean-life Chapter 341 The Redemption Contract
Chapter 341 The Redemption Contract
The air below the cliff was frozen like a stagnant pool.
The bald man squatted on the ground, fine beads of sweat glistening on his shiny head, sliding down his forehead, but he didn't even dare to wipe them away.
Xu Si's words fell lightly, but the giant ship hovering overhead felt even more oppressive.
He could come up with countless reasons, but he knew that wasn't what Xu Si wanted.
The bald man's brain was working frantically at that moment.
He had seen too many people in the apocalypse—murderers, the murdered, cannibals, and the cannibals.
He had witnessed countless acts of cruelty and bloodshed.
However, a small reason prevented him from speaking.
"Please give us a chance to atone for our sins. Who would want to eat people? If we don't eat them, we'll become the ones who get eaten!" the bald man said with difficulty, his voice hoarse.
The head of the gang, Zheng Lihu, is a ruthless official of Sequence 3.
The first requirement for joining is to be complicit in wrongdoing, so these people are inevitably complicit.
You either become a diner or you are placed on the dining table.
"My lord... my lord, I haven't eaten it! I haven't eaten it!" At this moment, a young man with a pointed mouth and monkey-like face suddenly stood up and said, as if he wanted to distance himself from these people.
"Monkey, you?!" The bald man was furious, his eyes seemingly about to burst out of their sockets.
"Sir, I saw him eat it with my own eyes. This child's arm is so long, and he just ate it without warning!" He gestured with his hand as he spoke.
The bald man seemed to recall something, and then suddenly vomited.
In the end, he collapsed to the ground, powerless, without offering any explanation or exposing the 'monkey's' lie.
It seems they have resigned themselves to their fate.
"You said you've never eaten it?" Xu Si looked at the man named Monkey in front of him with great interest. He looked to be in his twenties and his eyes gleamed.
"No! Sir, I really didn't!" The monkey nodded frantically, its eyes filled with a desperate desire to survive.
"I'm just a gofer. I do whatever Zheng Lihu tells me to do, but eating people... I really can't bring myself to do it!" He said earnestly, his eyes reddening.
His confident demeanor made others somewhat doubt whether what he said was true.
Xu Si remained silent.
The Sword of Punishment beneath his feet was drawn an inch from its sheath, a crimson light flashing across its blade.
"A Judgment of Justice—Cannibalism?"
The monkey's pupils suddenly contracted.
He wanted to say something more, but his lips had barely parted—
A strange, dark green pattern suddenly appeared between his eyebrows, like countless fine, venomous snakes, instantly crawling all over his face.
"you……!"
He only had time to utter that one word.
Immediately, he collapsed to the ground, powerless, and remained motionless for more than two breaths.
"Looks like you're not telling the truth!" Xu Si said indifferently.
The area below the cliff was so quiet that you could hear the wind whistling through the rocks.
The bald man lay on the ground, his body stiff, as if he could already see his fate.
The twenty-odd people behind him were all trembling at that moment.
Some people collapsed to the ground, some covered their mouths, and some closed their eyes, unable to watch any longer.
But many more people have terrifyingly empty eyes.
Xu Si sheathed his sword.
His gaze swept over the group of people, without any emotional fluctuation.
"Your name?"
The bald man paused for a moment, as if only then realizing that the question was directed at him.
"Zhou Huo, Sequence 2 - Pyromancer," he said in a desperate and wooden voice.
"Zhou Huo, right? I'll give you a chance. Sign a contract and become the fleet's consumables."
As soon as those two words were uttered, the twenty-odd people behind Zhou Huo trembled in unison.
Consumables.
They were familiar with this word; it was almost synonymous with slavery.
But Zhou Huo sensed something different in Xu Si's tone.
It's not cruelty, not trampling, but a kind of... forgiveness after trial?
"The contract is very simple," Xu Si continued.
"You will become the lowest-ranking laborers in the team, undertaking the most dangerous work and enduring the harshest conditions. Your lives no longer belong to yourselves, but to the team. There is no choice, no refusal, and no rights whatsoever."
He paused.
"but--"
"If you can save three lives with your actions someday in the future—not necessarily the lives of the team members, but any human life—your penal contract of atonement will be automatically terminated."
"At that time, you can choose to leave or you can choose to actually join the team."
This was actually Fu Xiaojian's idea, since anyone would have a psychological burden if they were to kill more than twenty people.
Killing is not about killing the supernatural.
A deathly silence fell over the area below the cliff.
Zhou Huo knelt on the ground, beads of sweat from his bald head sliding down his forehead and dripping onto the gravel in front of him, making an extremely faint sound.
He understood.
This is not charity, not pity, not even kindness.
This is punishment.
As long as they can survive in the apocalypse, and as long as they can truly save three lives, they can become "human" again.
"My lord..." Zhou Huo began with difficulty, his voice hoarse like sandpaper scraping.
"I'll sign."
Among the twenty-odd people behind him, some breathed a sigh of relief, some were still trembling, and some covered their faces and wept silently.
But no one refused.
It wasn't because of the cost of rejection, but because they had witnessed firsthand the opportunity to redeem themselves.
Xu Si nodded slightly.
Fu Xiaojian led Shao Bing down the mountain path, and Xu Si no longer needed to worry about what happened next.
Fu Xiaojian must have already discussed the specific terms of the contract with Shao Bing.
Fu Xiaojian glanced at the silent corpse on the ground, then at Zhou Huo and the others kneeling on the ground, his eyes showing no surprise.
I will explain the rules regarding consumables to you.
"You twenty-two people will be divided into two groups. Each group will be led by one person and will be responsible for the most basic physical labor of the convoy—moving things, digging bunkers, clearing obstacles, and disposing of corpses. There will be no weapons, no supplies, and only two meals a day, morning and evening."
"But—" Fu Xiaojian changed the subject.
"You can try to win it."
"For good behavior, saving one person will allow you to have an extra meal; saving two people will allow you to keep your own personal belongings; saving three people will allow you to join the caravan, and your penance of atonement will be automatically terminated. Only then will you be qualified and worthy to be called 'human'."
In the crowd behind Zhou Huo, someone looked up, a faint light flashing in their eyes.
The light was very faint, so faint that it was almost invisible.
Fu Xiaojian took out a brand-new contract from his pocket. It was a gift from Dou Dou, and Xu Si also had one.
The contract details above have been automatically displayed.
"Those who are willing to sign the contract, please come forward. Those who are not, please leave!"
This was the greatest act of leniency he could offer.
Xu Si stared at the scene with a somewhat stiff expression.
If it were during the time of the apocalypse, he would not hesitate to wipe these people out completely.
However, when the end times come, how many people will be able to retain their human conscience?
How many can he possibly kill?
But what he destroyed was either his extinguished conscience or his so-called spiritual fastidiousness.
Perhaps this is the reason why he agreed to Fu Xiaojian's plan.
In the end times, no one is clean.