Chapter 63: Crime and Punishment |
In this era, there were no refrigerators. Fishmongers either sold live fish directly or sold fish that had undergone smoking, drying, and other processing.
So finding live fish at the vegetable market was actually quite easy.
The live fish area was filled with a mix of fishy smells—the scent of fish blood and guts. If he were just going by sensation alone, Samuel would have felt that all of this was real.
Fish swimming back and forth in the tanks, the wet reflections on the stalls, the fishmongers' loud and rough shouts, and the customers fussily picking through the goods…
But Samuel simply passed through a fish stall without even raising his eyes, not sparing a single glance at the fish in the tanks.
Arriving at the vegetable market without buying anything, he left without stopping and headed toward the Notice Board at the center of the municipal square, wanting to see if any new rules had appeared today.
As for the "fish," there was no longer any need to buy them.
The "fish" here definitely didn't meet Celt's requirements. With this time, he felt he might as well try to catch an Enforcement Team member—someone like that would probably be more suited to Celt's needs.
The five fingers of his left hand flexed. Listening to the fading shouts of the vendors, which gradually became inaudible, Samuel quickly noticed that his Spirituality was being mildly suppressed. His body felt slightly heavier.
He had attempted to destroy the entire town and had taken action to do so.
At that moment, he had already completed the preliminary preparations on the level of Spirituality, only the final step of release remained.
This wasn't just idle thought. It was a concrete "preparatory move"—like having already pulled the trigger and begun tightening his finger.
His power, at that moment, had clearly shown explicit, substantial malice toward this fragile town.
In the human world, destroying a town was obviously a very clear and very serious violation of the law.
Under Liant Town's legal system, the "punishment" for such behavior was amplified.
Even though he had later chosen to give up, he had indeed caused an impact on the city for at least an instant. So this was attempted crime.
Although the sentencing might be lighter, it was still a type of crime.
According to the content written on the Notice Board in the center of the municipal square, Samuel should have received a "punishment."
Which led to the current situation—his Spirituality was being suppressed just a little bit.
"Hehe, why's the 'punishment' so light? Isn't it trying to crank it up a notch?" Samuel turned to face the Travel Guide. "Feels like this city's rules are even more pathetic than you were back then."
"This much force isn't even worth calling an OO lock, is it?"
"Might as well hit me with a couple of lightning bolts, right?"
The Travel Guide probably couldn't stand it anymore and shot back a sarcastic remark:
"Your personality is way too erratic."
"You don't have the feel of someone who's lived over a hundred years at all."
"If others see this, they'd call you out on it, you know?"
Samuel stared at the Travel Guide, a bit taken aback.
"Why should I have the vibe of someone over a hundred?"
"Isn't Frieren from 'Frieren: Beyond Journey's End' older than me? She doesn't seem that world-weary either."
"Not to mention the influence of physiological hormones on personality," Samuel recalled. "If I had to come here feeling like a hundred-year-old man…"
He pictured it.
Transmigrating to this world, opening his eyes, just sitting up from the bed…
Crack.
Twisted his waist.
Then folded himself into a three-layer pile right there.
"Hey, don't you think that'd actually be pretty entertaining?"
The Travel Guide was a bit speechless.
"Fine, just keep studying your OO lock."
With a nod and a smile, Samuel stopped paying attention to the speechless Travel Guide, put the matter out of his mind, and continued to think about the "punishment" he had just received.
Actually, this wasn't the first time he had felt this sensation in the past two days.
Samuel didn't stop walking. He continued heading toward the municipal square, but his thoughts jumped back and forth between yesterday and today.
Yesterday afternoon, when he first arrived at this town, he had already experienced a similar feeling once.
At that time, he had just forced his way into the town. He immediately felt his Spirituality being weakened.
It wasn't very obvious, but it definitely existed.
If it weren't for Samuel's senses being sharp enough, he might not even have noticed he was being "punished."
Samuel guessed it was because he had violated two rules respectively: "entry and exit are forbidden" and "outsiders themselves are forbidden from existing."
Oh, right, and the telephone booth.
Because he had personally seen a red telephone booth, not a gray one.
In the end, these weren't serious crimes. They were sins imposed by the rules of this place. In many other settings, they wouldn't count for much—they were pretty minor "crimes."
Therefore, even though the three "punishments" stacked on top of each other, one stronger than the last, he barely felt anything.
It was about as noticeable as changing into a slightly less comfortable piece of clothing.
After less than a second of adjustment, he was completely used to it.
As for the attempted city destruction just now—that was a particularly serious "crime," and that was the only thing that gave him even a slight sensation.
So, counting everything up, he was currently under four layers of restriction.
This should be the effect of that rule-covered Notice Board in the municipal square.
As Samuel violated more and more rules, the suppression on him would increase.
And the intensity of the "punishment" would grow stronger on top of what was originally intended, as the number of "crimes" increased.
Four invisible chains, entwined around his Spirituality. Each one represented a transgression against the town's rules.
Each chain was thicker than the last, each one more binding than the one before. They didn't exist independently—they tangled together, resonating with each other, forming a more complex "punishment."
If nothing went wrong, the Enforcement Team could probably now deal him a certain amount of bonus damage. When using their extraordinary abilities against him, they should gain a certain degree of enhancement.
A bit similar to the power of the "Judge" Law Mark he had given to Celt.
"How does this thing feel kind of useless?" Samuel pondered, chin in hand for a couple of seconds.
These so-called rules didn't seem to have much restraining power over those who were either too strong or too weak.
He was too strong—even with four layers of "punishment" stacked on him, the effect was minimal.
As for Falson…
Before arriving here, he was just a slightly special ordinary person. Though he was special in his own way, he didn't actually have much Spirituality.
Because he was too weak, the restrictions placed on him went completely unnoticed. He probably just felt a vague fatigue or pressure after entering the town, but he would never realize that this was the rules punishing him. He would just chalk it up to travel fatigue or not adjusting to the environment.
When someone's mana pool is essentially zero, anti-magic is meaningless.
Thinking about it like that, it was actually kind of pathetic.
Of course, it might also be because the "crimes" he had committed so far were all very small.
If he had vandalized property inside the telephone booth, or harmed someone after coming out, he would have probably slowly discovered that he was getting tired more and more easily. Just a little bit of movement would leave him exhausted, and his body would feel heavier and heavier.