Hell's Tower

The hall to which all the prisoners were brought was as silent as a graveyard, and only the sounds of their heavy breathing, as well as the occasional drops of water from the ceiling, could be heard.

Ryuji did not dare raise his head up. Instead, he remained in his kneeling position, a sense of oppression engulfing his feeble body. Although he had just transmigrated into this world and wasn't the most knowledgeable person, he was sure of one thing—if he dared act out of place, then his head would roll before he even knew what happened.

Moreover, Ryuji did not need to glance around before he knew his fellow prisoners were also feeling the sense of oppression enveloping their bodies and preventing them from having any unnecessary thoughts. It wouldn't even be a surprise if they fainted on the spot!

Ryuji swallowed fearfully, his mind racing in dread and terror as he wondered the reason why the Shogun himself would come to such a lowly and filthy place and even go through the trouble of meeting with condemned prisoners like them. Whatever the Shogun wanted with them, Ryuji could not see any hope of freedom.

At that moment, a heavy thud suddenly echoed through the hall. Ryuji moved his eyes around nervously, his heartbeat quickening as he strode to pinpoint the source of the noise, but it was way too dark for him to see anything clearly.

While Ryuji was still looking around to place the source of the thud, the shadows created from the dull light of the flickering flames in the hall suddenly danced, and a figure emerged from the shadows!

It was a towering man clad in full armour, his presence ominous and menacing. There was a large greatsword strapped to his waist, and as the warrior stepped forward, the flickering torchlight revealed his hardened face, the malice in his eyes undisguised.

'What on earth is going on here?! First the Shogun himself personally appeared, and now this?! Are they preparing us for some kind of ritual?!' Ryuji cursed internally, feeling a cold sweat trickle down the back of his neck.

The warrior basked in the fear of the condemned prisoners, his cold eyes scanning through their pathetic appearances. His gaze made each of them feel like their life was already forfeit, even if they were death row prisoners.

Finally, after a few minutes of silence, the high-ranking warrior spoke.

"You all have been chosen." The warrior said, his voice gruff and emotionless.

He then unfolded a large scroll with a simple flick of his wrist and continued to speak.

"The Shogun, in his infinite wisdom, has decreed that all twenty of you condemned prisoners shall undertake a task."

"If you're able to complete this task, no matter how heinous your crimes are, you shall be pardoned without fail and be granted… freedom."

At the mention of the word freedom, Ryuji felt like a bolt of lightning had struck him.

'Freedom?'

'Freedom?!'

'That is exactly what I require the most right now!' Ryuji exclaimed internally!

Naturally, it wasn't just him who felt that way.

"Freedom?! Y-you are not j-joking right?" The prisoner who was closest to Ryuji, a gaunt man with deep sunken eyes, gasped audibly, his trembling lips betraying his shock.

"This has to be a joke! Freedom? Do you think we are fools?! There is no such thing as freedom for people like us!" another prisoner, a burly man with scars running down his face, spat on the floor and sneered, his fists turning white from how hard he clenched them.

A woman with a pale face and a blank expression let out a bitter laugh.

"Freedom? What is that? We're already dead." Her voice was hoarse and lifeless, and it was as though she had long given up any hope of redemption.

The hall quickly became lively and buzzed with tension as the word 'freedom' remained in the air. In that moment, the high-ranking warrior raised his hand, and the hall became silent once more.

"As expected of scums like you." The warrior sneered.

"A joke? Do you think that the shogun would come here personally just to joke with death row prisoners?" the warrior asked coldly, and the air surrounding him became even more oppressive.

"The Shogun will never lie! This is the decree here! As long as you can complete this task, freedom is yours!" The warrior declared loudly, and his fierce words forced the weary prisoners back into submission.

The hall became even more silent, and Ryuji could hear the quickened breathing of the prisoners around him. As expected, the prisoners who had been trapped here for so long would not be able to maintain their composure when faced with the temptation of freedom.

Still, Ryuji, who had only been in their shoes for less than a week, was more lucid and composed, and he easily figured out that there was one thing that they were all overlooking.

'If the Shogun himself wanted them, who were death row prisoners to undergo a task, then wouldn't that task be of exponential difficulty?'

'After all, he is the Shogun, and that means that all of Japan is under his rule. He would have so many armies to do his biddings, so why would he need the help of prisoners like us and even go so far as to promise us freedom?'

'It doesn't make sense at all.'

While the prisoners were excited at the prospect of freedom, Ryuji was more lucid and figured out something problematic. The Shogun was definitely not a fool, so he wouldn't give out freedom that easily as a reward.

As the murmurs of hope and the promise of freedom gradually filled the hall, Ryuji glanced around the poorly lit hall. Squinting his eyes to the best of his ability, he finally noticed one man who wasn't easily swayed by the promise of freedom.

He was a middle-aged prisoner, and his face was lined with years of hardship. He knelt silently at the edge of the group, bound in tight chains like the rest of them. His sharp eyes flicked back and forth between the warrior and the prisoners, a surprisingly calm expression on his face.

Before the murmurings in the hall could reach a new high, the middle-aged prisoner finally spoke up, his voice cutting through the loud din.

"What is the task we need to complete in order to gain our freedom?" the man asked, his voice extremely hoarse and dry, as if he hadn't drunk water in days, but the undertone of suspicion in his tone of speaking wasn't well hidden.

The other prisoners fell silent as a suffocating tension filled the air. Their murmurs instantly ceased as they turned to the warrior, expecting his answer.

The weight of the question settled on each of them heavily, and they finally realised the fundamental problem that they were facing.

'What was the task?' Ryuji thought to himself, and he couldn't help but feel the anticipation build up in his mind. He was extremely curious to know!

The prisoners, who had all been faced with hope, now held their breath as they realised that the promise of something precious would surely come at an enormous cost!

The high-ranking warrior, his eyes as cold as ever, allowed the silence to stretch. His expression didn't change, but the flicker of a faint, contemptuous smile crept into his gaze as he relished in the uncertainty of the prisoners.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally spoke, his voice sinister and bone-chilling.

"You will enter a portal to a place beyond this world, and there, you will search for the rumoured elixir of immortality."