WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 2: Falling to the Bottom of the Abyss

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Pain wracked my entire body as if I had been beaten senseless. Frowning, I pushed myself up.

Nothing on me didn't hurt. My arms and legs ached as though they had been battered with clubs, and my parched mouth tasted of sand. I rubbed my gritty eyes a few times and looked around, but darkness still surrounded me. So it wasn't a problem with my eyes.

A faint light shone from far away, but it was nowhere near enough to illuminate the world.

I groaned and scratched my head for a moment before noticing something strange.

This was odd. Who took off my straitjacket? I had definitely been thrown deep into the Abyss while bound tight.

My limbs had been tied so thoroughly that I couldn't move an inch. I had been blindfolded and gagged as well. Deprived of all bodily freedom, I had been hurled to the bottom of the Abyss without so much as a safety measure.

I struggled desperately during the fall, trying to survive, but the military state's custom-made straitjacket was beyond anything an ordinary person like me could handle. Of course, it would have been strange if I could undo a straitjacket the military state had poured so much effort into making. I kept up my futile resistance inside it until I finally collapsed from exhaustion.

At least I had the satisfaction of knowing Mother Earth would finish me off in one painless blow.

But I was alive even after falling all the way down here? After falling for hours without any safety equipment?

No, before that.

This was clearly the Abyss, cursed by Mother Earth. A bottomless pit. So why was there a bottom?

It was a contradiction. The bottom of a bottomless pit should not exist by definition.

I thought about it for a moment, then came to a realization and muttered. This was it. Nothing else could explain it.

"Ah, I died and came to hell."

[No. This is not hell.]

"Argh!"

The voice came from directly behind me. Startled, I rolled across the floor. I steadied my trembling body, then shouted at the 'thing' in front of me.

"Who are you?!"

Two eyes glinted in the darkness. Something with a hazy presence, like a ghost, was glaring at me from where it stood.

It definitely wasn't human. If it had been, I would have read its thoughts. So what was it? A ghost? A beast? Or a messenger of hell?

As I waited fearfully for an answer, those eyes slowly drew closer. My eyes, now accustomed to the darkness, made out its outline.

Once I recognized what it was, I called to it in a trembling voice.

"A golem?"

It was neither a ghost nor a beast. A messenger of hell was probably the closest explanation.

The thing before me was a military arcane golem, created by the hellish nation known as the military state.

Was this what a human would look like if someone imitated one using nothing but cylinders and blocks? The golem watched me with glowing eyes made of crystal spheres. A mechanical voice emerged from the speaker near its mouth.

[I am Captain AB of the military state's communications corps. As of today, you have been transferred to the Re-education Facility and must carry out your assigned duties under my command.]

An arcane golem, a remote-controlled type that moved in synchronization with its user. It was military state equipment often used because it was convenient to operate.

I looked at the golem, nodded, and sighed.

"Did a golem fall into hell too? Tsk tsk. How many people did you have to cut down to end up here? Curse the fact that you were born a military state golem."

[This is not hell. If you find that difficult to believe, I recommend looking around you.]

Following the golem's words, I looked around.

The ground was concrete, the kind easily found in the military state. I didn't know what lay beneath it, but the concrete covering it supported the world with unyielding solidity. Naturally, there was no grass or trees in sight. Only colorless structures made by human hands stood in place of vegetation.

I looked up without thinking.

There was no sky, not even a glimmer of light. It was pure darkness, neither night nor anything else. Beyond us spread a pitch-black void that swallowed light, the kind only emptiness could reveal.

Then I slowly lowered my gaze and spotted a rather familiar building.

Searchlights swept from side to side, illuminating the darkness within the Abyss. Round patches of light thoroughly scanned the concrete ground. Then, the moment one struck my feet, every searchlight crawled across the ground like an enraged beast and turned toward me at once.

Blinding artificial light converged on me as if trying to burn through my body. Shielding my eyes with one hand, I took in the enormous structure I had failed to notice earlier.

A square, five-story building constructed for no purpose but practicality. Searchlights meant to detect escapees hung from thick concrete outer walls reinforced here and there with steel plates. Huge lamps shone over the area around the prison from high above, but they were far too feeble to replace the sun. This spot was only a few dozen meters away, yet without the searchlights reaching it, I could see nothing.

An island on the ground, built to completely separate the inside from the outside.

The prison I had only ever seen from a distance stood before my eyes. It was a prison that symbolized the military state itself, watching me beneath dozens of searchlights as though declaring that this would be where I lived from now on.

Bathed calmly in all that light, the golem spoke to me.

[Do you understand your situation now?]

I slowly nodded.

It seemed the great prison Tantalus truly was a place worthy of becoming a military state legend.

"What a crazy country. They built a prison in the miraculous land at the bottom of the Abyss."

Was that just typical of the military state? Only a country as insane as the military state could follow the deranged progression of building a prison first at the bottom of the Abyss.

The golem took issue with my muttering.

[I would like to caution you about your improper remarks.]

"Unbelievable. You lock an innocent person up in a place like this, then expect them to show loyalty?"

[Time is limited, so I will first brief you on your assigned duties. I recommend you listen carefully... if you do not wish to die.]

The golem warned me in a sinister voice. I had been about to mock it viciously, but that sharp tone made me keep my mouth shut for the moment.

Once I stopped talking, a flat voice emerged from the golem's microphone.

[This is Tantalus, the military state's Level 5 critical facility, a Re-education Facility.]

Re-education Facility was another name the military state used for prisons. Apparently, research had shown that words like prison and prisoner had unpleasant connotations and did not help social stability. That was why they called prisons Re-education Facilities and prisoners trainees.

Put nicely, it was military state wordplay. Put poorly, it was language control.

The military state would admit to neither.

[Tantalus was a facility prepared for trainees with high risk levels. They possessed highly dangerous abilities and violent dispositions, and because they lacked social skills, they were meant to receive socialization training in Tantalus, completely isolated from the world.]

"Meant to?"

[However, due to an unfortunate incident a week ago, most of the trainees escaped from Tantalus.]

"What?"

They escaped? They escaped the Abyss?

I put away my defiant attitude and focused all my attention on the golem's words. Since I couldn't read the golem's thoughts, I strained to extract information from its manner of speaking and tone.

The fact that Tantalus's countless vicious criminals had escaped and scattered throughout society did not matter at all. Why would I care whether that country fell into chaos or collapsed?

What mattered was the fact that they had escaped from prison. That information suggested it might be possible to escape from the bottom of the Abyss.

"How did they escape?"

The golem stared at me and answered.

[You are not authorized to receive that information.]

"Tch."

So that wasn't going to work. A military state communications officer wouldn't be that careless.

It was a shame I couldn't read its thoughts. I could only read people's thoughts. I couldn't read a voice transmitted as a signal and reproduced through a microphone.

I had no choice but to gather information in a more ordinary, less interesting way.

When I gestured for it to continue, the golem resumed its explanation.

[Most of the trainees started a riot, damaged the facility, and killed the management personnel. They seized Tantalus by force, then escaped en masse through an unknown method. The military authorities are pursuing them and plan to arrest and punish every one of them soon. Yet three exemplary trainees did not participate in those violent, barbaric acts and voluntarily remained here.]

In the military state, exemplary was an adjective attached to stupid suckers. So that meant only cowards were left in this prison.

It was ironic that the most famous prison in the world had become a shelter for cowards.

[However, the escapees left the facility half-destroyed and killed all management personnel. Cooperative trainees cannot be left unattended in an unmanaged Re-education Facility. Additional staff was required to manage Tantalus, and you have been assigned here.]

"Ah. So that's why."

Now I understood. Even if I had been framed, there was no reason to lock an ordinary petty criminal like me in Tantalus.

I had wondered why military police had suddenly started roaming the city. From the moment I was caught by the military police to the trial that ended in less than three days, I could plainly see how I had ended up here.

So, in short, they were short on personnel, rounded up petty criminals like me in large numbers, and threw us into the Abyss as laborers?

Using prisoners to attend to prisoners. That was a method the military state loved.

Using one enemy against another? No, more like plugging a hole with whatever was available. Since it didn't matter if we died, they were filling their personnel shortage with criminals.

In any case, I learned one thing. I was confined here, but I was free. No one existed here to stop me, no matter what I did.

If there were no instructors and I was the only laborer, how could they stop me whether I lazed around or made bombs?

Realizing that, I lifted my head and stepped forward confidently.

"What if I don't work? Are you going to come down here yourself and beat me into submission?"

[That will not be necessary. To survive, you will have to do something.]

Once it finished speaking, the golem turned toward the prison. Only a few searchlights dimly lit the darkness, and deep within it, black figures flickered near the closed doors.

The golem muttered.

[...They are coming.]

"They?"

Ignoring my question, the golem spoke faster.

[Those who remained in Tantalus... There is little time. I will now tell you what duties you must perform.]

Why would I listen closely? At most, it would be cleaning and laundry.

I laced my fingers behind my head. Let's see. Only three prisoners remained? I could handle waiting on three people. If they were easy enough to deal with, I could even coax them along with flattering words.

No matter how vicious the criminals locked in Tantalus might have been, if they were so frightened of military state orders that they threw away their own chance to escape, they had to be fairly passive and weak-willed.

I might have been a petty criminal, but I used to walk through back alleys with my head held high. On top of that, my mind-reading ability meant even fairly violent people couldn't act tough in front of me.

I might not have strength, but I had pride. If it came down to it, I would take this whole place over.

That was when I steeled myself.

[Survive.]

Footnotes:

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