The wharf for the Gatherers was not a wharf in the usual sense of the word. It was a platform of black porous stone, hanging over the abyss. Below, in the boiling purple mist, the outlines of other realities could be discerned—curved, pulsating, like rotting flesh. These were the lower circles: not a place, but a state of pure, undifferentiated suffering.
Two boats were moored to the platform. Not wooden. Made of compressed, frozen screams and fragments of reality. Their shape changed before our eyes, trying to take the form of a rook, a scorpion, or just a hole in space.
The crew was already loading into the first boat. Three Gatherers. They looked even scarier up close. Their armor didn't just absorb light, it distorted the space around them. The air was flowing like over hot asphalt. In their hands were not weapons, but tools: a long harpoon with hooks made of frozen darkness, a network woven from nerve endings, and something like a pump with a crystal reservoir.
They moved in complete silence, talking only with the light touches of their armor. An efficient, streamlined machine for extracting suffering.
Lin Wei, Xiao Bai, and Lao Jin were hiding behind a pile of empty containers twenty meters away. The noise of sewage masked their presence, but not for long.
"They're about to set sail," Lao Jin whispered in a trembling voice. — Route: direct dive to Sector 9-Delta. The space there is as viscous as resin. The boat will enter and scoop up the "raw materials", including hers... And he'll be back. The whole process will take half an hour."
"Half an hour to save her and come back?" — Xiao Bai looked into the abyss with animal horror.
"No,— said Lin. His brain was working at a cold, flawless speed. "To get on board while they're on their way."
The two gasped.
"You're crazy! They're Gatherers! They will immediately feel someone else's presence!"
"They won't feel it if we're part of the cargo," Lin Wei looked at the empty containers nearby. They were made of the same material as the boats, a repressed reality. "These containers are for samples, right? They are loaded on board and unloaded upon return."
Lao Jin nodded slowly, understanding what he was getting at.
"yeah... but before loading, they check the weight and energy signature. They won't take an empty container."
"So we need to fill them up," Lin Wei looked around at the three of them. "We are living beings... or former living ones. We radiate energy. Concentrated. If we get inside and seal ourselves up... for a short time, it can work as a disguise. Until they open the containers on site."
It was a suicide plan. But they had no other choice. Xiao Bai was already scanning his disk for data on container properties.
"Theoretically... The container material blocks 97% of energy emissions. But if there is panic inside, fear... He can break through. And then they will feel us. We need to... absolute calmness. Impossible calmness."
Absolute calm in the face of hell. Lin Wei closed his eyes. He remembered his first trial in the world of the living. Panic rose in his throat, but he forced himself to breathe evenly. He imagined a quiet office, a stack of papers, the monotonous sound of an air conditioner. He forced himself to calm down.
"Do as I say," he said through clenched teeth. — Think about the most boring, most routine thing you've done in your life. Count something. Remember the multiplication table."
One by one, they climbed into three empty containers. Cramped, cold, smelling of ozone and alien despair. Lao Jin snapped the magnetic locks from the inside. The last thing Lin saw before the lid slammed shut was the Collectors finishing checking their gear and heading for the containers.
Dark. Absolute, oppressive. And the silence, broken only by the loud pounding of his own heart. Lin Wei could feel his mind trying to panic. He began mentally repeating the articles of the Criminal Code. Article 105. Article 106...
Heavy footsteps sounded outside. The container swayed, and then it was lifted. A feeling of weightlessness, followed by a thud against something solid-the deck. Then a few more blows — other containers were loaded.
The boat's engines (if they were engines) hummed with a low, vibrating sound that made teeth grind. The movement began. Through the walls of the container, Lin felt the pressure change. They were sinking.
The journey didn't last long, but every second was torture. The temperature dropped, then rose sharply. The sounds outside turned into howls, then into silence, then into an obsessive whisper that penetrated directly into the brain. Lin's container shook violently several times, as if the boat was being tossed from side to side in the grip of conflicting realities.
And suddenly everything went quiet. The traffic stopped. The noise of the engines died down. They have arrived.
Soft hissing sounds could be heard outside, as the Gatherers communicated. Then there was the sound of the airlock opening... a new buzz. This time it's solid, illegible. Anger. Billions of tons of pure, unspent rage, concentrated in one place. Even through the wall of the container, it hit the mind like a hammer.
Lin Wei felt his own calmness coming apart at the seams. A retaliatory wave of anger rose inside. On the system. The injustice. To the Pit of the Moon. He gritted his teeth and dug his nails into his palms. The pain helped him focus.
Footsteps sounded. Someone was dragging a container. It was placed vertically. Then there was a click. The lock opened from the outside.
The light that hit my eyes was not light. It was the visual embodiment of hate—blinding purple, prickly. Lin Wei, blinded, fell out of the container onto his knees, almost falling into the purple viscous muck that covered everything around him.
He was on a small ledge of rock, floating in a vast crimson expanse. The Gathering boat hung above him like a blood moon. Two of them had already gone down and were methodically using harpoons and a net to scoop out clumps of dark red light from the thick liquid-concentrated rage. A third man stood nearby, his faceless helmet turned towards Lin Wei.
Xiao Bai and Lao Jin crawled out of the other containers. Both were pale as death, and they were shaking.
The Collector, who was watching them, did not make a single move. He was just watching. As if their presence had been planned. As if they were part of the "cargo".
And then Lin understood. It was a trap. They were lured here.
"Where is she?" he shouted over the roar of rage. His voice was hoarse.
The collector slowly raised his hand and pointed deep into the crimson sea. There, a few dozen meters away, a single rock jutted out of the thick liquid. And there was a figure crouched on it. Woman. Her contours flickered like a bad trick, a rock peeking through them. Lin Qiao. Her soul was almost dissolved, but her eyes—wide open, filled with horror and incomprehension—stared straight at them.
"She is... She sees everything," Lao Jin whispered. "She's conscious. All that anger... it flows through her. She feels every bit of it."
It was torture beyond any earthly concept of cruelty.
Lin Wei took a step towards the edge of the ledge. The viscous liquid below gurgled, and bubbles in the form of distorted faces burst out of it.
"How do I get to her?"
The collector finally moved. He handed Lin one of his tools, a long pole with a hook at the end.
"Take a sample," a mechanical, emotionless voice rang in Lin's head. — Your quota. Fill the container. We are waiting."
They won't be killed. They are being used. They will force themselves to commit an act of violence against the soul they came to save. To finally break them. So that they have no moral right to be witnesses.
Lin Wei looked at the pole in his hand. On the hook. Xiao Bai and Lao Jin, who were staring at him in horror. And then he looked at Lin Qiao. And he nodded.
He stepped to the very edge, swung the pole... and abruptly, with all his might, he thrust it not at the woman, but into the crimson slush right under their own ledge.
The pole created for the extraction of suffering roared. He stabbed into the substance of the lower circle like a red-hot knife into butter. And the rage concentrated here has found a way out.
The purple sea surged. A gigantic wave of pure, blind hatred rose up and crashed down on the Gatherers' boat and on them.
It wasn't a physical blow. It was a blow to the mind. Lin Wei saw everything in a red light. I heard a voice in my head that demanded to destroy, to break, to destroy. Nearby, Xiao Bai screamed, covering his ears. Lao Jin fell to his knees.
But the Collectors... they were created for this. They didn't flinch. They turned to the wave, picked up their instruments, and began... absorb it. Soak up the rage like sponges. It was their job.
And in that moment of chaos, when everyone's attention was focused on the wave, Lin Wei jumped. Not in the mud. He jumped onto the nearest ledge, then onto another one, clinging to the sharp rocks, and headed towards the cliff where Lin Qiao was.
"HOLD THEM!" the Collector's mental command cut through the hum.
One of them broke away from absorbing the wave and threw his net. Sticky nerve strands whistled through the air, aiming at Lin.
But Xiao Bai, overcoming his own horror, threw a service disk online. A disk full of data and codes exploded due to a short circuit. The network collapsed for a moment, startled by the alien signal.
Lin Wei reached the cliff without looking back. Lin Qiao was looking at him. There was no hope in her eyes. Just endless fatigue.
"Go away," her voice was barely audible. "I'm already a part of it. They won't let go."
"You're a witness," Lin said hoarsely, grabbing her hand. Her flesh was cold and slippery like mist. —And I'm subpoenaing you." Right now."
He didn't try to pull her out by force. He pressed his flaming protector seal against her forehead.
"The defense attorney is calling a witness in case No. 777! On the basis of article 88-G of the Procedural Code: "In case of an immediate threat of destruction of witness testimony, an urgent summons to the courtroom is allowed!" System! Confirm the call!"
The seal flashed dazzlingly. The energy of the challenge, mixed with the fury of the lower circle and Lin's desperate will, struck the very fabric of Diyu.
And the system, which always follows the rules, responded.
The space around them trembled. The crimson void swam, and another image began to appear through it. Strict lines, tiers, jade finish. The Hall of the Third Court. They summoned the court here, in the very heart of hell.
A giant translucent image of the judges' stand began to materialize above the platform. The figure of Yama Heng appeared on it. His parchment-like face contorted with rage, which he had never shown before. His plan was crumbling before his eyes.
The gatherers hesitated. To attack at the moment of the activation of the court protocol meant to attack the system itself.
Lin Wei, holding the almost weightless Lin Qiao by the hand, turned to the judge who had materialized.
"Your Honor! I'm calling a witness for the prosecution! Lin Qiao, the former official of the Destiny Department! She can testify about oath-breaking, ritual murder, and abuse of office!"
Yama Heng struck the ghostly platform with his wand. The sound reverberated through the crimson void and the courtroom.
"THIS IS ILLEGAL! The call was made in an area outside the jurisdiction!"
"But you see the witness! Lin retorted. — And the system has already accepted her testimony! Look at this!"
He was right. There was already a hologram next to Lin Qiao — her confession, her memories of the betrayal of the Pit of the Moon, torn out by the seal directly from her soul. The evidence was hanging in the air for all to see.
The judge realized that he had lost. Publicly, in front of witnesses (Collectors, Xiao Bae, Lao Jin) and, most importantly, in front of the System itself, which now recorded everything.
His face turned stony.
"The court session in case No. 777 resumes here and now," he announced in an icy voice. —Witness, give evidence."
Lin Qiao raised her head, still trembling. And she spoke. Quiet, but clear. About the oath. About betrayal. About how Yama Long, fearing that she would reveal his machinations with the quotas for reincarnation, sent her here.
When she finished, silence fell in the materialized courtroom. Even the roar of rage around them died down, as if listening.
Yama Heng closed his eyes. When he opened them, there was nothing in them. No anger, no irritation. Just emptiness.
"The testimony has been accepted. Based on witness statements and previously submitted evidence... Case No. 777 is being retrained. Zhang Mei was the victim of a ritual murder in order to divert a karmic debt. Her soul is subject to immediate rehabilitation and priority reincarnation."
He struck with his wand.
"Lin Wei's protector. You have won your first case."
The seal on Lin's wrist flashed and changed the numbers: 1/1000.
Relief, sweet and dizzying, overwhelmed him for a moment. But he saw Yama Heng's face. The referee was not defeated. He was... He's calm. Too calm.
"As for the accusations against the official of the Moon Pit... They will be considered in a separate order by a higher instance," the judge continued. — And you, Defender, have completed your task. Your contract continues."
The courtroom began to blur. The call was ending.
"What about her?" Lin pointed at Lin Qiao.
"The witness will be returned to the upper levels for recovery and further testimony," Yama Heng replied emotionlessly.
The Gathering boat, which had been silently hanging in the air all this time, suddenly came to life. A ray of light shot out from it and took Lin Qiao, Xiao Bai, and Lao Jin. Lin Wei was left alone on the crimson rock, staring at the disappearing image of the judge.
"Until the next thing, insect,— Yama Han's last mental whisper reached him. "There will be nine hundred and ninety—nine more. And I will be present at every one of them."
The images disappeared. Lin Wei was once again left alone in the container, which was now gently swaying on its way back. He won.
But he realized that he had only uncovered the tip of the iceberg. And that the real war with the Diyu system has just begun.