The Fourth District is divided into several zones, with the outer zone being the twisted and absurd urban space entered initially, resembling an abandoned city straight out of a hastily made horror film. Looking from the outer zone into the distance reveals a vast array of black giant buildings. They appear like a range of mountains shrouded in shadow; this is the most crucial facility in the Fourth District: the Prison Zone. However, one cannot directly access the Prison Zone from the outer zone; a twisted mathematical barrier separates the two areas. Without space transmission, you can never reach those black buildings: the distance between them is infinitely far, reducing your displacent to zero. That’s why personnel reception is required to enter the Prison Zone; they are responsible for opening the Space Gate.
Inside the Prison Zone, ninety percent of the area is a lawless zone. Prisoners are arbitrarily piled up in cages, and apart from identification and tracking to ensure they can be found at any ti, they are not managed in any way. Nothing is prohibited here; not fighting between prisoners, not killing each other, not forming gangs, not even prison breaks are forbidden, as no one can escape, and no one can truly be killed. All prisoners are controlled by a continuous resurrection effect; they will never die until they pay off the sins committed before coming here—this asure of sin is judged by the Imperial Supre Court, and only that court can determine who is sent to the Fourth District. The Emperor can only propose to repeal their judgnt. The Fourth District has very few supervisory officers, mostly working in minor roles in the outer zone. Direct contact with the prisoners is managed by War Puppets without souls and various Elental Servants because only such Prison Wardens won’t be driven mad by the atmosphere of the Fourth District. Formally registered advanced personnel are only four: Lilina as the Prison Director, Qianqian’s inner persona as the honorary Prison Director, Sandora, and myself—since the Imperial Leader is by default the highest Commander of all Empire’s violent agencies. Yet, the only person truly running the Fourth District and handling daily affairs here is Lilina alone. Qianqian’s inner persona was rely impulsive enough to co here for a na, while Sandora and I are not keen on the Fourth District.
The only "peaceful" area in the Fourth District is the so-called office area, with Lilina’s peculiar office located at its center. Here, there is monitoring equipnt that oversees the entire Fourth District, enabling one to understand the current status of the prisoners at any ti. Lilina is currently checking each monitoring window, running from one end of the projection wall to the other, muttering continuously. I’ve been watching for over ten minutes now, unable to resist the urge to comnt: "I say, isn’t this place a bit too chaotic?"
"Don’t worry, Boss," Lilina said while running back and forth without a care. "I am an expert; managing different groups requires different thods. The prisoners here are the most extre criminals captured from the Macro World; once you know why they were caught, you’ll have no sympathy for them. Soone like Tojo Hideki starts as a moral exemplar here, and even if King of Shang were twenty tis more tyrannical, it wouldn’t suffice him to last one night here. Sotis, not even four or five Universes can produce a scumbag worthy of punishnt in the Fourth District. The ones here are the kind of things that shouldn’t trouble you even after shooting them for twenty minutes... Besides, the judgnt is carried out by the Imperial Court organized by Big Sister Sandora. I’m just a warden; if the court decides they should be thrown into the Fourth District, then there should be no doubts, right? Oh, prison number three is fighting again."
I find it hard to argue with her; she’s right. The existence of the Fourth District is necessary, and this place isn’t chaotic rely because of Lilina’s wicked interest—in fact, Sandora initially established the Fourth District, intended to punish extre cris occurring in the Macro World. It’s just a prison and execution ground corresponding to the Fourth District. The tribunal operates independently; the entire system was set up with hardly any involvent from Lilina. Only when the place was established and we began inspecting the Macro World did we realize that sotis evil seems to have no limits. So acts of malice inflict deep wounds on the entire world, worse even than Doomsday. Faced with this, we felt imnse pressure; even Sandora was perplexed—since the Old Empire never cared about the legal construction for the "low-class Race," only the New Empire would consider maintaining order for them.
It was under such circumstances that Lilina volunteered to take over the managent task here, turning this place into a genuine haven full of "evil of this world."
Even knowing the existence of darkness is essential, truly dealing with things this bone-deep in evil... I guess only a quirky person like Lilina can tolerate it.
"Soone has to do the dirty work," Lilina moved a chair to sit in front of the monitor images. "I know what I’m here for. Such a special institution as the Fourth District cannot fall into unreliable hands, right? Every convicted person here is not only guilty but also extrely dangerous, so I have to personally manage it... After all, neither you, Boss nor anyone else at ho would want to co in contact with these things..."
I glanced at Lilina, her eyes focused on the monitors in front of her. The words she casually spoke just now touched deeply. Dirty work... Indeed, from the beginning, Lilina defined herself as the one who does the dirty work. So things must be done, so can’t go out of control, so filth can only be entrusted to the most reliable people around . Lilina once looked around and didn’t find anyone within the First Family who could shoulder these shadows; thus, she willingly embraced everything, becoming the person responsible for the Fourth District and even all the extre and shadow institutions of the Empire. She has split into three personalities now: one spreading the Goddess’ gospel, benevolent and rciful; one acting as a mascot at ho, being playfully mischievous; and one sitting alone in the darkest corner of the Empire, hands stained with blood, cleaning filth that normal people wouldn’t dare even glance at. She has long been fragnted, yet seems more carefree than anyone else... Yet I’m no fool; if I haven’t thought this through, then life would have been a waste.
Even the eighteen layers of Hell require a manager... And Lilina, to guard against the loss of control over this managerial power, assus the role. She understands her own ntal state very well; such a twisted place can only be commanded by soone who won’t beco even more twisted.
I patted Lilina’s head and casually pulled her shoulder beside my leg. This curious Loli rubbed against hard a couple of tis, muttering: "As long as the boss is still willing to give an occasional hug, I can keep going forever... Alright, boss, head back, this place isn’t suitable for soone as sane as you. It’s a madman’s paradise; I still need to work here for a while."
"Speaking of which, those two lowa people shouldn’t be heinous enough to warrant being in the Fourth District, right?" I said casually.
Lilina nodded: "Of course, though treason is serious, the Fourth District is not such a simple place. Those two prisoners aren’t qualified for it. But I heard from them that extracting the Key through interrogation is urgent, so using so extre thods is acceptable. Scaring them here for a few days is fine too. Oh, the fifth slaughterhouse is about to start, boss, do you want to take a look?"
: "...I’ll just retreat. This place is too heavy on the taste."
After coming out of the Fourth District, I felt the whole world refreshing itself—of course, the main reason is that the outside world is much fresher than the bizarre and eerie atmosphere of the Fourth District, but it cannot be denied that a kind of atmosphere known as "living hell" indeed exists in that space, and it can oppress even soone like who dares to say he’s been through tough battles. I really don’t know how to describe Lilina... Certainly, she’s a little ntally unbalanced, but she can manage to keep her abnormality within a proper range in such an environnt, which is indeed a psychological miracle. To this, I can only say: nothing is harder than driving a madman even more mad. Such a place as the Fourth District is probably only manageable by Lilina.
I took a deep breath of the fresh air outside, looking at the bustling market streets of Shadow City in the distance. Ordinary civilians don’t know exactly what happens inside the Fourth District, but everyone instinctively keeps a distance from this military checkpoint—even though they will never be caught in the Fourth District—so it’s pretty quiet within a few hundred ters around. The soldiers in front of the checkpoint saluted this way, and I waved back, and directly transmitted ho.
Sandora returned before and was lying on the coffee table, still ssing with the data terminal that Sister used back in the day. She had almost gone through all the material in it. After using my identification code to unlock all the data terminal’s locks, Sandora’s gossip power surged, and what was usually a solemn and serious Queen now made suspicious "Oh ho ho" laughs while fiddling with her forr colleagues’ private diaries. This constantly made Big Sister’s expression awkward; I guess she feels weird—after all, in her past life, she was a narcissist who used her armor as a boot screen, which was enough to make the low-key Sister’s head spin like a drum.
Sandora looked up at with a smile when she heard the teleportation gate open: "Oh, Ah Jun... Hmm? You don’t look so good, like you’ve just finished watching eighty episodes of Korean drama non-stop."
"Worse than that," I waved, hoping to get my mood right before alti, "I just ca back from the Fourth District."
"Ah, you really went to see it yourself?" Sandora said in surprise, "Is Lilina interrogating those two prisoners?"
"They don’t need Fourth District penalties, but these days it’s probably not going well for them," I flopped onto the sofa, and Little Baobao, who was talking to toys nearby, imdiately clambered over the edge to snuggle into my arms. This little one seems to understand nothing—or perhaps she knows everything but insists on not growing up like Cynthia. I picked up this little girl who appears never to grow up, turned to Sandora, "You know what kind of place the Fourth District is; once inside, you die seven or eight tis a day without a person executing you. Those two lowa seem to have undergone modifications, ntally obsessed, reduced pain sensitivity, and it appears fear and similar negative emotions are suppressed, so typical interrogation thods won’t work. Lilina plans to go the psychological horror route."
Sandora didn’t even lift her head: "Hmm, her usual trick, but it always works. However, the transformation you ntioned... did it strike you as sowhat familiar?"
"What?"
"ntal obsession, decreased pain sensation, automatic suppression of negative emotions, and if it goes further, it becos absolute goal logic, autonomously shutting off certain senses, and absolute rational thinking. These are all abilities of the Xyrin Apostle," Sandora finally set the data terminal aside, "It seems that in those days serving the Empire, they learned quite a bit... They aim to transform into a life form similar to the Xyrin Apostle, and now it seems this possibility is growing. They just don’t have the key original body technology, so they can’t create artificial souls, nor do they know how to infuse souls. Modifying on the basis of their existing life form eventually has its limits... Those two prisoners couldn’t withstand Lilina’s interrogation, now it’s just a matter of when that girl can produce results."
"The difficulty of cracking the navigation computer must be considerable."
"It’s more troubleso than expected, the self-destruct device is extrely sensitive and highly intelligent," Sandora curled her lip, "that thing has vaguely sensed sothing’s amiss from the surrounding environnt, it’s now started checking every part of the entire aircraft. Fortunately, the Asida Sisters brought it back with the condition of having the aircraft intact, otherwise, the navigation computer would definitely have realized it had been captured. Experts have now paused reading its core to prevent any issues."
I understood, these matters can’t be rushed. It seems there’s nothing more I can help with, all that’s left is waiting. In my boredom, I began pondering the Empire’s future, the balance of the Void, and the Empire’s ultimate setup—at least, I initially thought I was pondering these matters, but soon I started considering what to eat tonight... It appears I’m really not cut out for worrying about the nation and people.
Heavy footsteps ca from the entrance, I turned my head to see a nearly two-ter-tall golden fox, as big as a jeep, leisurely swaying its head, nine tails listlessly swaying in the air, each tail ending with a small Little dwen. On the giant fox’s head lay a little black kitten. The fox swaggered to the sofa where I was sitting, rolled over to transform into a girl, ritualistically swept her tail across my face, then nosed towards the coffee table, wrapped two apples with her tail, and ran to the corner to have a little private treat. The behavior seed more and more like a Husky. The little black cat lightly jumped twice, lying on the sofa back, emitting a soft, little girl voice: "ow—oh no, uncle, I want to go ho..."
Ah, this is Cynthia... Speaking of which, when did she and that nine-tailed Husky form an Animal World duo?
"Going ho so soon?" I was sowhat surprised, raised my hand to scratch the little black cat’s chin, and its reaction was just as obedient as a cat’s: raised its paw and smacked my hand backhand, "Sss—this kid. What, bored here?"
"No," the little black cat rolled off the sofa back, transforming into a black-skirted Little Loli upon landing on the cushion, Cynthia reached for the snacks on the coffee table, muttering with resentnt, "My mom wants to go ho and practice the harp... Ugh, parents around the world are equally awful, why must a princess practice the harp! My mom herself can’t sing a single note on key!"
: "...So the Divine Race also has the custom of enrolling children in extracurricular classes?"
Cynthia imdiately glared at filled with resentnt: "Don’t ntion that terrible word!"
Then the little girl rolled around on the sofa clutching a pack of chips: "Don’t want to go back, don’t want to go back! There’s so much delicious food and fun here, and a big fox, there’s nothing at ho and I have to study every day... Uncle, how about you write a letter to my dad saying I’m defecting from the Divine Race to join the Empire military?"
: "...Your dad must have a very optimistic view on life."
Cynthia pulled a mouth in a very adult-like helpless manner: "Alright, fine, I’ll go ho. Otherwise, dad will definitely dispatch a large army to escort back for howork. By the way, Uncle, can I take Sister Anwina back ho for a few days? I love her snacks! Jia Di will surely love them too!"
I hadn’t even replied when Little Ghost suddenly popped out from a nearby mirror, then flew towards the corner to cling tightly to a large cabinet: "No way, no way, I’m the earth-bound spirit here! No renting, no lending!"
The whole family: "..."
This is the first ti I’ve heard of using an earth-bound spirit like this!
Because Cynthia was going ho, the few little ones in the family seed quite disappointed, though it was only a few days, these little girls had beco close. After all, royal children can be quite lonely—even though I feel that my bunch of eccentrics and Father God’s two naughty kids don’t really fit the conventional traits of royal children, loneliness is still an issue here. These kids, for various reasons, find it hard to make ordinary friends; their playmates are always just a few, often their own sisters, and now finally having made a new friend, suddenly having to part seed quite sad. In the evening, to bid farewell to Cynthia, we prepared the most sumptuous dinner: after a few days of interaction, I discovered that besides being quirky, this child’s biggest trait is being a little glutton, although her appetite can’t compare to Sandora, her enthusiasm for good food is definitely at a glutton’s level.
A bountiful al was prepared as a farewell, and then Anwina busied herself in the kitchen for half a day, preparing a mountain of snacks and all kinds of cuisines, sothing Cynthia requested as she wanted to bring Jia Di so nice food: From this aspect, she is quite a thoughtful child.
And so, it’s ti to send this little ancestor ho tomorrow... (To be continued. If you like this piece, welco to QiDian to vote for recomndation and monthly tickets, your support is my greatest motivation.)
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