Chapter 33: Crime and Punishment
He stood about 1.9 meters tall with standard Caucasian features, notable for his golden hair, eyebrows, and beard. His muscles were terrifyingly developed.
Particularly his arms, where bulging veins made the immense power contained within visible to the naked eye.
"Ahhh, it's been so long since I've torn fresh flesh!"
Johness walked forward, a ferocious and terrifying expression on his face.
The purple-haired girl Leroute suddenly felt a shadow fall over her. She turned sharply to see two large hands reaching for her.
Rip!
"Thump."
Johness casually tossed the torn-in-half Leroute to the ground, blood splattering everywhere.
This girl, who had been arrested for crimes including trafficking rare creatures and sentenced to 112 years in prison, maintained a look of terror on her face until her death.
"This feeling, this is the feeling!" Johness's eyes turned red, his expression maniacal as he stared fixedly at Mord.
"You're next. What's about to happen is your brutal murder scene. I'll tear you into as many pieces as possible, so feel free to scream as loud as you want."
Johness was exactly this kind of deranged serial killer. He had once torn an eleven-year-old boy into fifty pieces alive, relying solely on his terrifying finger strength.
Mord looked up toward the distant surveillance camera and said, "Why is trash like this still allowed to live in this world? Since you don't know how to deal with them, I'll handle it."
...
In the monitoring room, Lippo watched the scene on the surveillance feed, remaining silent for a long time.
As a Hunter and the warden of this prison, he had witnessed too many cruel things.
Yet even so, when he saw the completely emotionless eyes of that young man in the footage, he couldn't help but feel a chill.
Thick blood covered the entire room.
"Johness, serial murderer, sentence 968 years, deceased!"
Mord glanced with disgust at his own hands, then swung his spiked ball and continued forward.
Lippo watched Mord leave the room, the young man's earlier words still echoing in his mind.
"Why is trash like this still allowed to live in this world? Since you don't know how to deal with them, I'll handle it."
But the abolition of the death penalty—this law was jointly established by the world's five great nations, V5.
Therefore, they could only continuously accumulate prisoners' sentences. For psychopathic murderers like Johness, the sentence accumulated to nearly a thousand years.
It's important to understand that this was V5—even the Hunter Association appeared insignificant before such a colossal entity.
Just as Lippo was lost in thought,
The walkie-talkie beside him suddenly crackled to life.
"Warden, something terrible has happened! Someone has broken directly into the maximum-security prisoner area! They've stolen the maximum-security prisoner handbook!"
...
Swoosh!
The prison cell door swung open.
The several prisoners in the cell looked in surprise at Mord who had pushed open the door and entered. A completely unfamiliar face—was he a new guard?
"Zalpos, serial rapist and murderer, sentence 132 years."
"That's me..." Before the large black man could finish his sentence, he became like a chicken with its neck wrung, eyes wide, unable to utter a complete word.
The other prisoners nearby were about to approach, ready to confront this sudden intruder in their cell.
A massive spiked ball suddenly swung toward them.
Crimson blood splattered out, dyeing the entire cell red.
The sight of blood filling the room registered in Zalpos's eyes. To outsiders, he was a fearsome criminal, but the targets of his assaults had always been defenseless, unarmed women with no means to fight back.
The bloody scene before him was something he had never witnessed before, leaving him frozen in place.
Mord raised his right hand, shaping it like a blade, and pierced through his chest.
"Contestant 321, respond immediately if you hear this!"
"Contestant 321, respond immediately if you hear this!"
"Contestant 321, respond immediately if you hear this!"
Suddenly, Lippo's voice echoed through the broadcast in the prison cell.
Mord acted as if he hadn't heard it, turning to continue searching for his next target.
"Contestant 321, if you do not cease your actions immediately, I, as the chief examiner of this test, will disqualify you from the Hunter Exam!"
Thud!
Mord halted his steps.
In the monitoring room, Lippo breathed a sigh of relief as he watched Mord's reaction.
He had genuinely feared that Mord would continue his reckless rampage without regard.
Lippo admitted he had misjudged earlier. After reviewing the earliest surveillance footage from the top of the Trap Tower, he realized the spiked ball in Mord's hand had materialized out of thin air.
It hadn't come from his so-called "arsenal."
Thus, in Lippo's view, Mord was clearly a Conjurer-type Nen user. Currently, there were only three Nen users in the entire Trap Tower.
Besides himself, there were two assistants.
One of these assistants was the examiner who had been severely injured by Hisoka during last year's Hunter Exam. He was now stationed along Hisoka's inevitable path, waiting to settle the score.
If Mord continued to be obstinate, Lippo would have no choice but to dispatch his other assistant to deal with him.
This was a situation Lippo certainly did not want to see.
"Contestant 321, you have already passed the third test. From now on, there's no need for you to use that hammer for demolition. I will guide you directly to the bottom level."
Lippo's voice came through the broadcast again.
Mord remained silent for a moment, his icy expression vanishing instantly, replaced by his original slightly lazy demeanor.
"Then I'll trouble the examiner."
On the other end of the monitor.
Lippo felt a storm of curses raging in his heart. Damn it, an examiner personally escorting a candidate through the test—this was probably the first time in the entire history of the Hunter Exam.
...
After a tedious journey, Mord successfully reached the bottom level of the Trap Tower.
Boom!
As the stone door before him opened, Mord emerged from the long corridor.
"Contestant 321, Mord."
"First place to pass the third exam."
"Time taken: 4 hours and 5 minutes."
Gazing at the empty hall, Mord murmured softly, "First place, huh."
But that was to be expected, after all, he had taken the VIP route the entire way, unlike the other candidates who had to cautiously navigate the ever-present traps.
Now, however, another issue arose.
There were still a full 68 hours remaining in the third exam, meaning Mord would have to stay here for nearly three whole days.
"Can't I go out and move around?" Mord looked up at the distant surveillance camera and spoke.
"Don't push your luck. Stay right there until this exam is over."
Sensing the unfriendly tone in Lippo's words, Mord shrugged helplessly and said, "Fine."
With that, he leaned against a wall and sat down.
He opened his character status panel.
Noticing that the experience values for all categories hadn't increased at all, it meant these ordinary prisoners couldn't provide any energy to his Zanpakutō.
----------
For advance chapters join my Patreon.
[email protected]/Aarvan