Novel Bin Chapter 2: Garbage Star
The filthy and sultry atmosphere shrouded the ground and when you looked around, it was an endless pilling up mountain of rubbish. The invisible rotting waste squelched under their feet and mixed into an unpleasant, disgusting smell.
The voice rang in his ears again:
”Welcome Criminal No. 7098, Ge Xiu, now entering the compulsory punishment reform system. After testing, your sentence is 1156 years, which is equivalent to 1156 points of evil. You will be free after the evil value is completely reduced. Every year in the punishment world evil value can be reduced by a fixed amount. If the punishment level exceeds the threshold the corresponding evil value can be additionally reduced. The specific amount will be manually settled by the review team after the punishment world is over.”
The more miserable he is, the shorter his sentence will be.
It’s fair.
Ge Xiu pondered for a moment and raised the first question: “So, no matter what happens in this world, as long as you spend here a year, you can reduce a little bit of evil, right?”
”Yes.”
”Even if I’m here, but in fact, I am very happy?” The other side was silent for a while.
Ge Xiu blinked innocently, like an unthreatening, clever prisoner: “I’m just making a hypothesis.”
”…The reduction in the basic evil value is linked to the time in the virtual world only.”
That’s good.
Ge Xiu bent his eyes and his expression changed into a smiling face silently. The remains of stars floating in the distance reflected on his irises. His dark pupils were shining in the dim light, almost seeming evil:
”Okay. There are no more questions.”
It seems that the system was disturbed by Ge Xiu’s question. The voice paused for a moment and then continued: “Please serve your sentence criminal 7098. The difficulty of your virtual world will be determined according to the evaluation of the review team. The first punishment world is the initial difficulty. Later, the subsequent difficulty will be adjusted according to the progress of the criminal’s reformation and repentance attitude.”
Its voice is still cold, without the slightest fluctuation, and it is unknown whether it’s a threat or a warning.
Ge Xiu nodded casually, one couldn’t tell if he listened in his heart:
”Yeah, I understand.”
At this time, the young man running in front of Ge Xiu slowed down breathlessly, showing his physical condition. An ordinary noise appeared not far in front of them. Unlike the hum of mosquitoes and flies that have been occupying the entire planet for a long time, it’s more like a crowd gathered together, immersed in buzzing conversation.
The two struggled through the ankle-deep garbage dump.
After bypassing the huge garbage pile in front of them, Ge Xiu’s eyes instantly opened wide.
Unlike the hills formed by garbage dumps on the road, the ground here was flat and compact, like a huge artificially created square with obvious traces of civilization, which was particularly abrupt in this seemingly abandoned world.
At this moment, the square was very crowded.
Everyone squeezed in the square was ragged and skinny. Their cheeks, which were deeply sunken due to the hunger, were grayish color, but everyone’s eyes were illuminated by the same expression, glowing with a nearly crazy look.
It was like a creature crawling in the dark seeing the glimmer of hope for the first time and a soul that has fallen into the abyss who caught the spider silk started climbing outwards.
The same light gleamed in the eyes of the young man who was pulling Ge Xiu and running all the way.
He stood on tiptoe, passed the crowd of shoulders and looked forward hopefully and longingly, his thin fingers holding Ge Xiu’s cold hand with sweat and shaking lightly:
”It is said that this time the quota is more than the last time. If it’s double the amount, I think maybe we can…”
Before he finished speaking he heard a strange metal rubbing sound from above.
The people in the square fell silent in an instant, huge crowd fell into a deathly silence and everyone looked up where the sound was coming from at the same time.
A huge starship hovering in mid-air stopped right above the square and the protective cover under the starship slowly opened a gap. A small silver metal ball flew out of it and hovered directly above the crowd at a constant speed. A light blue holographic projection was projected from above the sphere, covering the entire crowd, a gentle and calm female voice sounded from all directions:
”According to the 36th article of the Union’s Humanitarian Act, to protect basic human rights of the residents of the marginal constellation the alliance will randomly select physically and spiritually qualified people of a marginal second-class galaxy to enter the high-level galaxy at a fixed time period. After the selected person completes the basic service period, the alliance will be responsible for post-retirement support…”
The huge holographic projection fluctuated like flowing water, with the female voice’s narration words are it’s transformed into scenes:
High-level interstellar city states, orderly and spacious sky channels, abundant supplies and clean residences.
Light blue light is flowing in the air, printed on people’s thin faces, reflected in their sunken eye sockets, endless longing seems to be about to pour out of their eyes, in the foul and dirty air of this abandoned planet hope was spreading out.
Gazing at the scene in front of him Ge Xiu squinted his eyes calmly.
His expression was cold and calm, almost indifferent, looking very out of place among fanatical faces in the crowd.
However, everyone was immersed in the beautiful vision outlined by the holographic projection and no one noticed his particularity.
The gloomy atmosphere was stagnant and silent, mosquitoes and flies flew in the garbage dump. There were no obstacles and no guards.
Ge Xiu retracted his gaze, looked at the thin monkey-like teenager beside him, suddenly lowered his voice, and said:
”If I were you, I would leave now.”
Xiao Yi seemed to be like a person who was suddenly awakened from a sleep. First he was dumbfounded for a second and then half astonished, he blankly looked at Xiao Qi who was standing next to him.
The other party had already turned away his gaze naturally, staring intensely at the silver sphere floating in the air, his eyes squinted lazily, his dark pupils stained with a weird blue hue from the holographic projection surrounding him. Although that dirty face still had the same facial features as before, he didn’t know why, but it gave Xiao Yi a particularly strange feeling.
Xiao Yi felt flustered inexplicably.
As if to conceal his uneasiness, he threw away the other party’s hand with some irritation and anger: “You… I was kind enough to go to the shed and call you, but you actually want me not to participate in the selection? I’m not worried about the quota being occupied, you, you, this is too immoral!”
He hugged his arms and turned away in anger, no longer looking at the young man who was half a head shorter than him.
But, he don’t know why, the feeling of coldness from behind has not disappeared for a long time. The flustered feeling made Xiao Yi feel very uncomfortable. Even the holographic projection that showed countless wonderful things around him can’t fascinate him anymore.
Ge Xiu’s gaze swept away from his back, corners of his lips curled up with a smile and then he moved his gaze lightly.
Peaceful and gentle female voice stopped the introduction, holographic image that enveloped the entire crowd was once again retracted into the silver sphere. They’d lost the illusion of the wonderful world and barrenness and filth of the garbage star appeared again. Everyone couldn’t help but utter a sigh of disappointment and regret.
”E535 spaceship participating in selection of 3356 people this time, the selection quota: 400 people.”
There was a buzzing voice in the crowd, the low volume could not conceal the overflowing excitement. Obviously, this time the quota was higher than before. A lot higher.
The bottom of the huge starship slowly cracked open a huge gap, like a big steel mouth, dense silver balls spit out of it, hovering above the crowd, casting invisible rays to scan the entire square. Ge Xiu subconsciously wanted to move away, but he restrained himself. Ge Xiu frowned but his feet did not move.
”The scan is over.”
The gentle female voice sounded again: “The unselected residents, please don’t give up hope. The alliance will not forget your hard work, perseverance, loyalty and obedience. The next lucky person might be you.”
As soon as the voice fell, Ge Xiu felt lighter under his feet, there was an attraction above his head that pulled him into the air.
He looked up and saw one of the spheres floating on the top of his head, a white beam of light projected down, enveloping him, leading him to the bottom of the starship.
Ge Xiu put fingers in his tattered pocket and looked around thoughtfully.
Above the trash-filled square, there are 399 other beams of light and below each sphere a person flies into the air.
Ge Xiu raised his eyelids and turned to look at the starship parked in mid-air.
His expression was so focused as if he couldn’t put anything in his eyes except that dark metal soleplate.
A faint smile passed over his closed lips, as if this was exactly what he expected to happen right now.
The rubbish star under his feet was getting farther and farther, people left on the square with thin faces were either lost or jealous and their expressions gradually blurred. The piles of rubbish gradually shrank into colorful hills and the stench like biochemical weapons was also gradually swept away, fresh and clean compressed air was continuously released from the sphere above, almost giving people an illusion of refreshing the body and mind. The starship covered the sky it was like a new sun when it opened the landing cabin. Opened steel mouth seemed to symbolize the hope for a new life and quietly accepted their entry.
For these abandoned people who have never left the garbage star since their birth what happened next seemed like a dream.
They washed their bodies with clean water for the first time, put on dry clothes, got the full amount of nutrient solution distributed and even had their own smart bracelet. Xiao Yi carefully touched the soft cloth on his body. With an expression of restlessness and trepidation on their faces other people whispered in amazement:
”The bracelet can shine!”
”…The clothes on my body are intact, without a hole in it…”
”I don’t feel hungry at all… It’s incredible!”
Xiao Yi raised his head and subconsciously searched for Xiao Qi’s figure in the crowd, but he couldn’t find the thin and short boy. He pursed his lips a little nervously and then lowered his head to touch the bracelet that was tightly wrapped around his wrist. The cold touch made him feel at ease.
Maybe Xiao Qi was just squeezed behind the crowd.
He was too rude before and he would apologize to Xiao Qi when he got off the boat, Xiao Yi secretly made up his mind.
At this moment, a few tall men in uniforms walked over and led them into the rest cabin. The rest cabin was not small, but it was very crowded. Narrow beds were placed closely to each other. There were four floors in total and the aisle in the middle could only accommodate one person. Each bed had a number. The entire four hundred beds were packed in a small space, making them feel almost suffocated.
After a period of confusion Xiao Yi finally found bed with his own number. He lay on the narrow and soft bed. The slight vibration of the starship flight came to his ears and his nerves were still in high tension due to excitement. He originally thought it would be difficult for him to fall asleep in that state, but when the light dimmed Xiao Yi felt a burst of unstoppable drowsiness, pulling him into a dark sleep.
In the dim light, he scratched his vaguely hurting wrist and turned over. The voice of a few men came from a distance. It seemed that someone was talking. The voice seemed to be coming from thousands of light-years away and it seemed to be separated by an impenetrable film.
”…Is the anaesthetic injected?”
”Of course.”
”Don’t worry, they all sleep like dead pigs.”
The author has something to say:
Those people still don’t know what kind of horror will befall them (pretending to be the ominous narrator)
Bamboo has something to say!