It was already dark. Zhang Chi finished washing and sat on the bed.
Her eyes fell on the cover of the "Points Handout" book in front of her desk. For a long time, two words popped into her head -
genius.
She should have thought that ten prisons of this size would not be enough to hold all serious criminals in both countries.
After leaving the reform camp, all prisoners must be self-reliant, and the government does not need to provide any subsidies. The prison guard said that the main industry is hand-knitting. From another perspective, hand-knitting is not the only industry on the garbage island.
Without prisons, there would be no investment in construction and no management costs.
This group of people was exiled here, and the reform camp was their compulsory education.
Points control everything here. As long as you manipulate the points system, you can play with and applaud all the prisoners.
By adjusting variables, the internal production structure can be quickly adjusted. When resources are insufficient, the redundant population in the reform camp can be cleared out by simply increasing the weight of criminal points.
The manual states that only one-third of the prisoners in the reform camp are released from prison. However, if the work points are sufficient, green-badged prisoners will be released from prison in half a year, blue-badged prisoners will be released from prison in one year, and red-badged prisoners will be released in three years, why would two-thirds of them not be released from prison?
Will they stay in the reform camp forever? Or did it just disappear?
Killing people is the fastest way to gain points. Were they killed?
This guess seems reasonable, but a very important question is -
Even criminals, not everyone is a sociopath.
Whatever you do, the benefits must outweigh the risks.
Would anyone take the risk to kill someone when they only need to work for half a year to get out of prison? Everyone here is not a good person. If a hit is missed, who knows whether the dead person will become himself?
Zhang Chi pinched his eyebrows.
Something is wrong.
I always feel that some necessary conditions are missing.
what is it then?
***
During the self-study class the next day, everyone's expressions became very strange - obviously, many people had read the lecture notes in advance, but Zhou Ke still came to Zhang Chi's side.
"Hey, you are valuable now." Zhou Ke said.
It's obvious.
During dinner this morning, she felt like holes were being stared at all over her body.
Zhou Ke asked: "By the way, did you really get in by reselling the serum?"
Zhang Chi said: "What?"
The table in the study room is larger than that in the classroom. Two people can sit facing each other, and four people can sit when they are squeezed together. Zhou Ke and Zhang Chi are sitting at the table in the corner. Not far away, separated by an aisle, are several prisoners. If you get together, you have to squeeze in front of a table.
After getting to know each other over the past few days, the prisoners are no longer as cautious as before. Many of them have roommates and travel together.
Zhou Ke sat opposite Zhang Chi. The study room was very quiet. Zhou Ke lowered his voice and almost buried his head in front of the table.
"My roommate told me that if you resell serum, you won't be able to get a full sentence unless the amount is extremely huge."
“With an amount like this, there’s no way the news would be silent.”
"Besides, if you do it yourself, can you sell so much?"
Zhang Chi said: "Who said I did it myself?"
Zhou Ke was stunned: "You said you are like me..."
Zhang Chi said: "I did it for others. He ran away and I took the blame."
Zhou Ke looked at Zhang Chi with sympathetic eyes, and after a while, he suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.
"I just said, you don't look like this kind of person. It turns out that you are supporting others."
The two of them read quietly. After a while, the prison guard came in and recited the contents of yesterday's class. Prisoners who failed to recite all the contents were deducted 0.5 points.
After self-study, there is still cultural class in the afternoon, mainly about free activities.
The prison guard chattered on at the podium.
"Every Sunday is free time. During this period, there is no need to clock in according to normal working hours. Everyone must work for more than 3 hours, that is, the minimum labor points must be more than 1.5 points. If the activity time is not met, 2 points will be deducted. "
"The points will be settled at 9 o'clock on Sunday night. The last one will be eliminated. The prisoner with the lowest points——"
The prison guard waved his hand at the big screen and immediately jumped to the next picture. A flowerbed—much like the one near the mine.
The flower garden in the picture is a little different from what I saw in person. There is a big pit above it. In the pit is a fresh corpse with a bruised nose and swollen face. All its limbs are broken. It lies quietly in the pit and looks at the sky.
Blue sky and white clouds.
"Make flower fertilizer."
***
After the afternoon class, everyone looked bad, especially those who had not memorized the book.
Only one person will be eliminated if the last place is eliminated. If there is a tie for points, lots will be drawn from among them.
Compared with the elderly, their working hours are obviously not enough. Under normal circumstances, newcomers should have the lowest points.
In other words, one of their lot had to die on Sunday night.
The slightest difference is the boundary between life and death.
At this time, what would they choose?
A green badge is worth 100 points, a blue badge is worth 200 points, and a red badge is worth 1,000 points. The maximum weekly work points are only 35.
As long as you kill anyone, you can almost survive the few months of clearing points.
This is the missing requisite.
Zhang Chi sat at the table with the "Points Handout" in front of him, his fist lightly pressed against his chin.
Everything seemed to become very clear.
If you don't kill, you will die, which is the last straw that breaks human nature.
Points settlement starts at 9 o'clock, that is to say, before 9 o'clock, everyone needs to know whether their points are at the bottom.
The points ranking has not been announced and can only be guessed through observation.
Everyone will be eager to know other people's points.
They test each other and spy on each other—seeing every opportunity for someone else to add or take away points.
However, if the person at the bottom of the ranking gets someone else's recognition stamp at the last moment, his points will skyrocket, leaving the second to last person behind.
The second to last becomes the last to last and die for him.
No one dares to confirm that they are safe until the last moment.
At this time, no matter whether you are in last place or not, as long as you are not sure that you are ranked high, the safest way is to grab someone else's identification stamp.
This is a battle between trapped beasts.
Zhang Chi closed his eyes.
She is very dangerous.
Staying here, even if you accumulate points for an absolutely safe ranking, there is no guarantee that you will not die at the hands of others before the next point settlement.
Everyone is both a hunter and a prey.
In this precarious game of raising poison, the safest way is not to work honestly - you may have become someone else's prey before you can accumulate enough points, but to quickly earn enough points to get out of jail.
For green badges, it is necessary to kill 8 green badges and 4 blue badges to get out of prison, while only one red badge is needed. Without considering the strength, killing one is the most efficient.
What would she do if she was at the bottom of the rankings?
She is like a lottery ticket waiting to be scratched, and everyone will want to test her chances of winning.
***
After the cultural classes are over, all new prisoners will officially take up their posts.
The prison guards will call the names once a day at 6:30. The prisoners who have been called will be given a metal sign pinned to the chest. The sign is consistent with the number on the bracelet. At 10 o'clock every night, the prison guards will check the wards and collect the signs on time - every day. Each sign will be updated through the system in the evening.
In other words, if you are not in the room at 6 a.m., there will be no metal sign when you start work. If you are not in the room at 10 p.m., you will retain yesterday's sign without turning in the sign or passing the morning roll call. , nor would it pass validation with today's systems.
No one can escape work.
No matter how high your points are. Whether you need it or not.
On the first day of work, Zhang Chi chose mining.
She wasn't sure if she was a different blood person - after all, rubbing alloy with bare hands was really scary, and it was hard to tell what the structure of her body was.
As for hand knitting, unless you are very proficient, you will lose points on time.
There are lights on inside the mine tunnel, and there are no supervisors, but you need to punch in when you go to work. The time you stay in the mine tunnel is counted as working hours, and you punch in again when you get off work. It's okay to be lazy, as long as you don't get caught——
If you are reported, you may face the risk of deducting points.
But the mine is very deep and has many forks. If you want, you can always find a place where there is no one.
Except for those whose bodies have been mechanically modified, most newcomers chose mining.
This is the job with the highest hourly points.
The Lanming Sand Mine is a very special type of ore that can only be mined manually. All electronic equipment and instruments will malfunction within three meters of the ore.
Mining is a very physically demanding job, and many prisoners collapsed on the ground from exhaustion after digging for less than three hours.
The prison guards sent a doctor to pull the person away.
Prison guards said that inhaling the dust from the mine into the lungs can cause hypoxia. It is best not to stay in the mine for more than 3 hours a day.
After the prison guards left, one prisoner said, "This is not a lack of oxygen, this is poisoning."
"What poison?" someone asked.
The person who spoke at the beginning raised his head. Under the miner's lamp, his eyes were particularly cloudy.
"Very poisonous," he said. "It will shorten your life."
All the newcomers started to gather around him.
Zhang Chi asked: "How to say?"
He glanced at Zhang Chi: "The raw ore of Lan Mingsha will cause telomeres to become shorter. No one can work in the mine for more than five years."
Everyone gasped.
Zhang Chi said: "How do you know? You have been here for five years?"
He chuckled: "I used to be the mine owner in Lansha Town, Sanjin City. No one is more familiar with Lanmingsha Mine than me."
Someone asked: "Lansha Town, is that the mining town?"
Someone else asked: "Are you the mine owner? How did you get here?"
"Because of cutting corners," he spread his hands, "I purchased inferior protective clothing, and many miners died. They brought a lawsuit against me, and I was arrested."
Everyone: "..."
The "mine boss" shrugged: "I didn't expect there to be someone darker than me. They weren't even issued protective clothing."
"He's still a newcomer after all," the "mine boss" looked around at the prisoners, with a hint of ridicule in his cloudy eyes, "No one wants to work in the mine except to make up points."
392——Study committee member asked: “What are supplementary points?”
"What is supplementary points?" The "mine boss" grinned, "Punch in at 8 o'clock, eat at 12 o'clock, start work at 1 o'clock, and the canteen opens at 5 o'clock in the afternoon. You can only work 8 hours a day. This is the rule. "
You can only work eight hours a day, and the upper limit of work points you can earn every day is 5 points. For all work except mining, you only get 4 points for full working hours.
The "mine boss" looked at the newcomer who was bowing his head in thought and sneered.
"Do you understand? To get 5 points, you have to work in the mine."
Working in the mines will be life-threatening, but falling behind in points will also be life-threatening.
"My heart will stop just for a little score every day." The "mine boss" spat, "In five minutes, I will finish my work for today. You can just take your time here and have fun."
The "mine boss" pushed the wheelbarrow away.
The newcomers were scared to death by him. Anyway, they had been digging for three hours. As long as they completed the full working hours, their points would have already overflowed, so they all swarmed to get out.
There are also some who do not believe in evil and stay in the mine.
Zhang Chi is one of them.
It's not that she doesn't believe in evil, it's mainly that she is very curious about her current body - she desperately wants to know the instructions for using this body. She fainted in the cave and waited for the doctor to pull her over to examine her, and maybe he could find out something.
People were walking around, and Zhang Chi was thinking about something while mining -
People who have modified mechanical prosthetics cannot work in the mines. Aren’t they at least 1 less work point than others every day?
In other words, under the normal points system, they have a natural disadvantage.
But at the same time, they're the ones most likely to kill - and they need to make up for the disadvantage.
Suddenly, I felt a strong dull pain in the back of my head.
Zhang Chi's head was buzzing, and she turned around, only to see the "mine boss" holding a huge blue sand rough stone in his hand, hitting her head repeatedly.
Zhang Chi was stunned with pain. He was hit several times before he could react and kicked the "mine boss" away.
This is a branch road deep into the mine, and there is no one else in it.
The "mine boss" got up from the ground, picked up the stone that jumped out of his hand when he was kicked, and threw it at Zhang Chi's head like a flying pancake.
Zhang Chi dodged sideways, and suddenly her foot tripped over something. She reflexively bent her knees and put her other hand on the cave wall. She lowered her head and saw only one leg——
A very, very long leg.
The "mine boss" was only a little over 1.7 meters tall, and his legs stretched out in front of her, more than two meters.
The legs were covered with black down, long and thin, and sectioned in the middle. When the prison uniform pants were stretched open, they couldn't even cover the knees.
Zhang Chi yelled in his heart: "Fuck me."
