Feng Bujue was unfazed by the change in their surroundings and continued to talk on his own. "When you said that you voted not guilty for Billy and Aldan, that was already a clear sign for me." He scoffed. "The two were charged with 'spreading chaos' and for me, that was not at all unwarranted. It would much stranger if they were acquitted." He shrugged. "Billy likes to trap people to 'play a game' and Aldan will 'kill you if you don't tell him a good ghost story'. And well, Ravid and Bugs Bunny… Haha…"
The Prophet did not answer but the surrounding Lego shook even harder. Feng Bujue predicted, "Based on how I see it… on that day of court, other than the two rabbits, you weren't so free yourself. As Ravid's old friend, you were obviously on his side. Your stance toward the faction of chaos is the same, therefore…" He extended his arm and pointed at the crystal. "There can only be one truth!"
"How can you segue into that quote so seamlessly…" Xiao Tan said with his lips twitching.
Feng Bujue continued and told the Prophet, "Similar to Ravid, you are also detained due to contempt of the court… Humph… But the way you are detained, and your prison is different from his. Ravid, Billy, and Aldan were imprisoned by the jail created by the Master of Time, and you are imprisoned here."
As he finished, the Legos on the ground and wall stopped moving. The crystal collapsed, creating a clattering sound. It revealed a large (well, relative to Brother Jue and Xiao Tan who was in the size of a toy) head. Obviously, this was the Prophet's real identity. There was no projection. He was physically in this space.
"Woah…" Xiao Tan gasped when he saw the Prophet's real face. "So, you're a Wookie[1]?"
From the head, indeed the Prophet looked like a Wookie, but he replied with some annoyance. "I am not."
"Indeed, your intelligence is vastly different from a Wookie," Feng Bujue said. "But… seeing your real identity, I can't help but wonder, of the 'twelve juries' that you mentioned, are there really actual 'humans' among them?"
It was not unreasonable for him to ask him because of the three members he knew, none of them were human.
"Humph…" Prophet's floating head replied with a cold smile. "How many races do you think exist in the multiverse? You humans are just a very small part."
"Fine, we'll ignore that for now. Since you've given up on the disguise, then can we please be honest about what's going on now?" Feng Bujue asked. At this point, Prophet knew it was pointless to fake anything else, and actually, he was not going to reveal anything that would harm him anyway. "Since you insist on knowing everything, then you have to be mentally prepared to accept the truth."
"Don't worry, my mental strength is much stronger than you imagine," Feng Bujue said.
Prophet was silent for a few seconds before he sighed. "I am an inmate here, but I am also the warden."
"Oh… So, it was you who was behind the inmates' adjustment of consciousness?" Feng Bujue asked.
"Yes." Prophet replied, "Not only that, it was me who turned them into toys." He paused. "The night security are just several mindless puppets. They are also created and manipulated by me."
"Huh? Why would you do all that?" Xiao Tan asked.
"Let me… tell you a story…" The Prophet sighed like he was arranging his emotions. "A long time ago, there was a prison that looked like a large family mall. There are many products on sale inside, or should we say… 'resources'. They included food, clothes, fuel, luxury items, tools, weapons, and so on… This prison detained more than thousands of inmates, from all ages, groups, and gender. They are all human inmates from the forty-two main universes.
"Every day, everything inside this prison will be reset. The broken things will be repaired, the emptied racks will be filled, the bloodstains will be wiped away, and the dead bodies disintegrated. Only the items that record the passage of time will change. Things like calendars will automatically regress by one day and all the manufacturing dates on the food item will be pushed forward for one day. The doors and windows of the supermarket can be opened at any time but the city beyond the mall is just an illusion. If the inmates walk out from this building, they will fall into an endless abyss and die. Of course, staying inside this prison, survival is not an issue. No one will starve and in fact, there are many entertainments to while away the time. After all, the resource is endless.
"At least at the beginning, that was what the humans thought…
"But soon problem appeared… After every new daily reset, there would be new inmates that appeared. They would be placed randomly around the mall. Sometimes, there are less than 10, sometimes more than 100. Things went like that for a week. As the population increased, so did the conflict. Initially, the strongest inmates fought each other for the luxury items, expensive, and beautiful women. At the time, the inmates' basic needs weren't threatened, they had more than enough water and food, so most people were honest and obedient.
"But as the weeks kept on going, the population continued to increase. One month later, the few toilets were clogged. Two months later, a third of the mall reeked with the smell of refuse, and in the remaining two thirds, the humans squeezed together to eat. On the 10th day of the 3rd month… the inmates who ganged up together to dominate the women, good food, and entertainment were overturned and slaughtered by the other inmates. Because for the latter, they had to literally sh*t at the place where they eat, and they only had one meal per day.
"After that ruckus, the problem of resource got a bit of relief, but the fear had already been implanted. Therefore, a government-like organization was formed. They set up a rule and a rationing system. The luxury item had a rotation system and crimes like killing, raping, and stealing shan't go unpunished. They even set up a population registration system…"
"This might be the most ironic thing I've ever heard," Feng Bujue said, "A group of inmates trying to set up a system of law inside a prison."
"Perhaps that is the irony innate within humanity…" Xiao Tan commented. "When one lives in a civilized society, one yearns for freedom. But when one lives by the rules of the jungle, one will yearn for safety and the unbending nature of rules."
The Prophet sighed before continuing, "But politics is ultimately a dirty thing. With the rules in place, there must be executioners. And they would naturally demand for more resources. And the problem of the forever increasing number of inmates was not resolved at the base. Therefore, after a period of time… To be precise, two months and three days after the first massacre… the resource caused another crisis. People then realized the government had become another system that oppressed the other inmates and they were no different from the gangsters that they had overthrown and slaughtered."
[1] Wookies are a fictional race from Star Wars.
