Mage Manual-Chapter 58 - 56: It’s Time for You to Leave

Chapter 58: Chapter 56: It’s Time for You to Leave

Nagu finally took off his boots, revealing a pair of adorable socks embroidered with tiny gold lion patterns.

He couldn’t possibly refuse this request.

Hundreds of thousands of city residents were watching the live broadcast, each of them clutching a ballot in their hands. If Nagu wanted to leave the prison and further aspire to become a member of the City Council, he couldn’t afford to do anything that would damage his public image.

This Supervisor role was one he had specifically applied for at the prison. It was a strategy to increase his exposure, to familiarize the citizens with his face — all to lay the groundwork for his future competition for a council seat.

If he couldn’t even satisfy this “tiny wish,” let alone becoming a councilman, even the prison would think poorly of his image and might remove him from his supervisor duties.

Without this role — the easiest way to rack up points on his resume — he would be stuck as a Prison Guard in this jail until advancing to the rank of Two-winged Gold.

Although the consideration of his interests was clear, when Nagu held his new boots that he had been looking forward to for a whole year and had barely worn for a month, he still couldn’t suppress the sorrow that welled up from his heart, relentless and unending.

“Hurry up, hurry up, I’m in a rush,” Ash urged.

“Can you catch?”

“I can catch!”

“When you’re putting them on, your foot has to go in vertically, otherwise you’ll wrinkle the surface pattern.”

“I know, I know.”

“I actually have another decent pair of boots. Maybe I should go get them for you now—”

“Just throw them here!”

A camera eye let out a hip-hop laugh. This was because if most of the audience watching the live broadcast reacted similarly at the same time, it would feed back to the camera eye, letting the live host know what effect their performance had achieved.

Clearly, the interaction between Ash and Nagu amused the audience. Having watched the Blood Moon Judgement hundreds of times, they had never seen such a comically absurd executioner and supervisor.

Nagu steeled his heart — he surely didn’t want to become the butt of the joke in the citizens’ eyes — and threw the boots at Ash.

Ash caught the boots and upon close inspection, realized they were indeed of good quality, with a high-class texture and upscale appearance — no wonder Nagu looked as grief-stricken as someone who had lost a cherished consort.

“Ah, don’t stuff them like that. Are those too big for you? Don’t be so hurried, take it slowly, you’ll leave marks if you apply too much force! Can’t you be a little gentler?”

Nagu watched, feeling pained, as he counted on getting his boots back afterward. Anyway, Ash wouldn’t survive much longer.

Ash ignored him and, having put on the boots, once again activated the Substitute Technique Spirit, and a Substitute identical to him appeared at his side.

Even the shoes were switched to the steel-toed long boots that Ash was now wearing.

“Stand on the steel wire for a few seconds and see.”

The Substitute stepped onto the steel wire and stood firm; this time, the wire could no longer cut through his boots.

And, unharmed, the Substitute naturally did not disappear.

“Good!” Ash said excitedly. “Come back.”

The Substitute came back.

“Squat down!”

The Substitute squatted down.

Ash got on the Substitute’s neck, “Carry me on the wire to the big platform on the other side!”

However, this time the Substitute did not respond. Ash looked down and saw the Substitute serenely lifting its head to look at him.

“Carry me on the wire to the big platform on the other side!” Thinking that the Substitute hadn’t heard, he repeated the command.

After three seconds of silence, the Substitute seemed to finally understand the meaning of the sentence, or rather, it understood its fate.

Ying.

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Ying.

With every step the Substitute took, the steel wire let out a ying-ying sound, causing Ash to tremble with trepidation. When he watched other condemned men walk, it had seemed so effortless, but when it was his turn, just the thought of looking down at the sea beneath filled him with the urge to urinate.

But he succeeded — the Substitute could indeed carry him across.

Ash vaguely discovered another marvel within the Mage system.

If ordinary people are “limited to what is said to be possible,” then Mages are “capable of anything not said to be impossible.”

The former operates under disbelief, the latter under allowance.

The effect of the Substitute Technique Spirit is to create a Substitute that is identical to him, disappears when harmed, and obeys his commands completely.

Therefore, within the bounds of the restrictions, Ash could command the Substitute to perform unthinkable actions, even those that he himself could not do.

Just like now, Ash had neither the ability to walk the wire nor the strength to carry someone across on it.

But the Substitute could do it.

Because Ash commanded it,

Because theoretically, it was a task the Substitute could accomplish,

So it could.

Technique Spirits are not miracles; they cannot twist the rules of reality.

They are but an Infinite Extension of knowledge, the theoretical correct answer, the best outcome allowed by reality.

They are the limit.

If only he could take the Substitute Technique Spirit back to his original world… Then I could let the Substitute take care of my parents at home…

Ash reconsidered. Using it that way was a bit of a waste, wasn’t it? Now that he had a Substitute, what was making his vision so shortsighted?

Correct, it was capitalism.

So I should have let the Substitute go to work while I stayed home to take care of my parents, but it’s also likely that they would end up taking care of me…

Lost in thought, the Substitute had already completed most of the journey. By this time, nearly all the other death row inmates had made it to the large platform on the other side, leaving only Ash and Valcas still on the steel cable.

“Don’t move, both of you! Don’t come any closer!”

A death row inmate with a scar on his face picked up a long gun and aimed it at Ash, “If you dare to take one more step forward, don’t blame me for sending you down to feed the fish!”

The other death row inmates were slightly stunned, but soon they realized something and all stood to the side without uttering a word.

Ash blinked and asked, “Why?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Valcas chuckled from a distance, “Cowards always take advantage of others’ vulnerability, scum will always measure others by their own standards, and weaklings can only live by stealing chances.”

Although Valcas was being cryptic as usual, Ash realized that the inmates weren’t looking at him but at the Executioner behind him — they were afraid he would rush towards them to use them as a Shield against the Executioner!

Oh, right!

There was such a strategy!

No wonder they were death row inmates, their minds were so much quicker than his own when it came to thinking of ways to hurt others without benefit to themselves!

The redeemer for tonight was undoubtedly either Ash or Valcas. If both of them reached the large platform, it meant that the Executioner would also come after them.

The Executioner’s fierce and terrifying appearance made it clear that its method of attack wasn’t a clean and residue-free mental assault but more likely a sweeping, wide-range AOE physical attack.

In other words, if it was executing someone, the other onlookers were likely to get implicated!

So the death row inmates who had arrived at the large platform first began to get lively thoughts.

They couldn’t let Ash and Valcas reach the large platform!

Otherwise, the end result would definitely be the annihilation of the group of eight!

That’s why the scar-faced inmate was holding the gun and threatening Ash not to advance. In his eyes, the best outcome was for Ash to be executed by the Executioner in the middle of the steel cable.

“If you don’t want to drop down and feed the fish, then stay put!” the scar-faced inmate roared.

“I refuse!”

Ash said righteously, “What I enjoy most is saying ‘no’ when others threaten me! One step forward!”

Ying ya~

The Substitute took a heavy step forward, stomping on the steel cable and causing a commotion!

Bang!

The scar-faced inmate fired a shot, his scarred face twisting with fear and anger into something resembling a centipede, “I will shoot, stand still… stand still!”

“I — don’t — believe — you — will — shoot — me!”

With each word Ash spoke, the Substitute took another step forward, arrogantly provoking like a sentient punching bag, hardening the onlookers’ fists.

Bang!

“Don’t push me, I will really shoot, I killed nineteen people before I came in, you don’t believe me, you can check my record!”

However, Ash had long seen through his bluster and calmly stated, “The fact that you thought of threatening me so quickly shows you’re smart. But because you’re smart, that’s exactly why I’m sure you won’t shoot.”

“Why not?”

“Because if I die here, then you will be the one executed by the Executioner!”

Ash laughed and said, “If we both survive, you can be sure the person to be executed will definitely be one of us. But if we die here, then the audience will choose one of you six to vote off!”

The corners of the scar-faced inmate’s mouth twitched, “So, what if it’s not me?”

“No, it will definitely be you.” Ash grinned, “Think about it, the audience is looking forward to our execution, and here you are ruining their fun. Guess if they’re going to take out their anger in their vote?”

“Secondly, haven’t you noticed all the others have moved away from you?”

The scar-faced inmate paused, looking around only to realize that he stood exposed in the center while everyone else had retreated to the edges, as far from the scar-faced inmate as possible!

“Why would they avoid you? Because if you could trap us on the steel cable, they’d have an easy time; if you shot us, you would undoubtedly become the audience’s target for voting. Either way, they won’t lose.”

Ash gave a refreshing smile, “Or are you saying that you’re a model inmate with noble morals who has turned over a new leaf? Wouldn’t you sacrifice yourself to protect your fellow inmates?”

The hands of the scar-faced inmate trembled slightly, but the gun muzzle gradually lowered.

“And even if it’s not you who is the execution target, so what? It’s still between the six of you, and the Executioner will still strike this platform. Or perhaps, you believe your companions will act politely and jump into the sea if they’re chosen, not causing any trouble for the rest by dragging you all down with them?”

During the conversation, the Substitute had already carried Ash across the steel cable.

Ash secretly let out a sigh of relief; his back was soaked with sweat.

He wasn’t as confident as he appeared; who knew if the scar-faced inmate would suddenly lose it and decide to shoot him in the face? Despite his rational talking, Ash’s heart was pounding out of his chest.

To avoid agitating the scar-faced inmate, he even signaled the Substitute to walk as slowly as possible, creating the illusion for the scar-faced inmate that ‘he hadn’t crossed yet,’ buying more time for the inmate to think.

Thinking is the best chiller for rage.

The more he thought, the more cautious he became;

The more he contemplated, the more fearful he became;

The more he listened, the more he realized that Ash was making sense.

When Ash’s colleagues considered abandoning the project before, he often used this method of ‘listening, feeling, thinking’ to talk them into changing their minds—at least they should wait until the project was over before fleeing.

Ash jumped down from the Substitute and patted the scar-faced inmate on the shoulder, “So, do you know where your path to survival is?”

The scar-faced inmate grabbed at that lifeline, asking eagerly, “Where is the path to survival?”

“Go back or hang on the steel cable.” Ash smiled, “Now that I’m here, the only way you won’t die is to keep your distance from me.”

“This is my place, and you should be the one to leave!”