Chapter 556 (1/2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio  Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

It had to be admitted that living on grass was indeed a great advantage.

A few days later, when the vocational school announced its enrollment list, Hopes came back to the school again. He looked energetic with a ruddy face while wearing his worn clothes.

He felt the sufficient life energy of the Tree of God, so he just lived under it these days. He ate the grass on the ground and some leaves that were blown down by the wind. When he was full, he either practiced martial arts or sat there for meditation.

Although he was not good at martial arts or magic, Hopes knew something of them. In the past, he had been a coward and always kept a low profile in action, so he seldom practiced them. But now he was free, and he could practice as much as he wanted.

He didn’t know if it was because he was in the proper environment or because his mind had changed, but in short, he found that the effect of his practice had greatly improved—especially when he was meditating. He could clearly feel the existence of natural magic now, and those vague and unclear feelings in the past became very clear. He felt natural power flowing around him as if it went into his body with every breath, and that made him very energetic.

How wonderful it could be if I had been like this few years earlier! Hopes thought of that, but he knew it was just a dream.

The past was gone. What he had to do now was to be a good worker. He wanted to earn money to make a living, and he wanted to be a brave man with dignity so that he could live without relying on others.

These days, the life here made him think a lot. There were also poor people in the Republic of Northwest, and he had seen people with patched clothes passing by many times. However, although they were poor, they were still in good spirits. They were neither pale or haggard because of hunger, nor were they depressed because of poverty. Their eyes were bright, and they seemed very confident.

It was interesting when some poor men noticed Hopes camping under the Tree of God. They came to persuade him not to be so decadent and at least to find a temporary job to make a living. There were a lot of people in Void City, but because of its service industry, the working staff was always insufficient. As long as Hopes was diligent, it would be easy for him to find a job.

As for problems that had been normal to see in other places, such as being bullied by a boss or having difficulty getting paid on time after work—those things would never be seen here. The clergymen of the Void Mask Church patrolled around the city all day like vigilant hounds to search for clues of misconduct. They might not catch those thieves, but they surely would deal with matters such as a boss refusing to pay his employees.

The method they chose was quite simple and effective as well. They usually dragged the boss into the streets, erected some magic pillars in public as a temporary altar, and then held a public trial. In the face of the great Divine Power, His Majesty, the Void Mask, neither traitors nor deceivers could escape from punishment. It was even more impossible for them to resist it. As long as they were convicted, various devices of torture would be taken out on them.

The most common form of punishment was the tickling machine. It would not cause substantial damage to people, but nobody dared to take it as a mild and harmless punishment after they saw someone still laughing while being tickled to tears. He even peed and had a runny nose afterwards.

A fiercer form of punishment was the famous electroshock therapy char; it was a kind of chair with a rubber base and a metal frame. The one being punished would be firmly tied to it, and then as soon as the switch was on, a beeping sound could be heard. After a while, the blue and white light would appear on the metal frame, and that would cause terrible torture to the one in the chair.

It was said that the electroshock therapy chair was a very powerful magic prop. It could cure the prisoner while punishing him, and that could effectively avoid serious injury and death of the punished person. However, that might not be a good thing. Generally speaking, people who went through this punishment would be foolish for a few days, or even a week. It was said that the most tragic ones had been dumb for half a month. Not to mention the pain during the punishment, even the period of being dumb would make people extremely scared.

In recent days, Hopes had witnessed a public trial of the Void Mask Church. The punished man was a fraudster who had always traveled around and made up information about injuries or illnesses of other people’s children to take money from them.

In fact, that was nothing serious if he had just cheated others for money. But the most hateful part in him was that what he had made up was something too serious. That made many elders ill out of fright!

The trial of that man was quite simple because there was a conclusive witness and there was evidence. He could not deny it at all under the Divine Power. Finally, he was sentenced to reformation through working with the Dead Souls. As the priest chanted incantations and a dark green light fell on the temporary altar, the man screamed while his body turned into that of a zombie.