Warden of the Beast World: Everyone is a Hakimi

The main gate of Prison Zero was more heavily guarded than she had imagined.

The dark gray metal gate was over ten meters high, covered with a layer of dark alloy armor. On the left and right sides stood a watchtower, and the energy turrets on the top of the towers glowed with a ghostly blue light in the night.

Four fully armed guards stood in the sentry post in front of the gate. They were all dressed in black combat uniforms, with energy weapons at their waists. They stood upright, their eyes scanning every approaching target like those of hawks.

When Ye Tang slid off You Lie's back, her legs were still a little weak; her buttocks were numb from riding for so long.

She bent over and pounded her thigh, then limped to the guard post, followed by the giant silver-gray wolf.

"Halt." The lead guard raised his hand to stop her, his gaze sweeping over her faded old clothes before landing on the enormous silver wolf behind her. His expression changed slightly, but he didn't ask any further questions. "This is a military restricted area. Unauthorized personnel are prohibited from approaching."

"I'm not a nobody," Ye Tang said, pointing to the job posting that had been torn down from the bulletin board. "I'm here to apply."

The guards were taken aback, looking her up and down. Applying for a job? Coming to Zero Prison? This tiny female who looked like she could be blown away by a gust of wind?

He pressed the communicator in his ear, whispered a few words, then looked up, his attitude noticeably more respectful: "Colonel Lu Yu requests your presence. Go straight along the main road; it's the innermost office on the third floor of the main building."

The heavy metal door slowly opened a crack, just enough for one person to pass through. Ye Tang took a deep breath and stepped inside. You Lie followed silently beside her, his gray-blue eyes sharpening the moment they entered the prison, silently scanning the firing positions on the wall, the patrol changing routes, and the hidden surveillance cameras at the corners of the corridor.

The corridor was long, lit by a cold, white light that reflected a detached luster onto the metal walls. Wild Tang's footsteps echoed through the empty corridor, but Ghost Hunter's paw pads made no sound as they walked on them.

She found her way to the innermost office on the third floor of the main building. The nameplate on the door read: Lu Yu, Colonel of the Imperial Army, Acting Warden of Zero Prison.

The door wasn't closed completely, and a sliver of warm yellow light shone through.

Ye Tang knocked on the door.

"Come in." A male voice came out, neither too loud nor too soft, neither too fast nor too slow, like a glass of water at just the right temperature, which made people feel very comfortable.

Ye Tang pushed the door open and then paused for two seconds at the doorway.

A young man sat behind the desk—no, he should be called a young male orc.

He wore a well-tailored white military shirt, the collar buttoned up meticulously, and a dark blue military jacket draped over his shoulders, the stars on his epaulets gleaming coldly under the lights.

His flaxen hair fell softly across his forehead, making his fair and clean skin stand out. A pair of thin, gold-rimmed glasses sat on his high nose bridge, behind which were a pair of light amber eyes, the pupils as pale as diluted honey, gentle and serene.

But these are not the main points.

The key point is that he has a pair of horns on his head.

A pair of deer antlers.

Emerging from his flaxen, tousled hair, the horns possessed a warm, smooth texture, exhibiting a white hue somewhere between ivory and jade. The horns branched into three forks, their lines flowing and elegant, their surface bearing naturally formed, fine patterns that shimmered softly under the warm light. The horns, neither too large nor too small, complemented him perfectly, like an exquisite work of art adorning his head.

Ye Tang's gaze was fixed on the pair of antlers, unable to look away.

Her mind started racing uncontrollably—what would this horn feel like to the touch? Would it be smooth or rough? Warm or cold? Would the texture on the horn feel like the bumpy surface of a walnut?

Oh my god, he's so handsome! The gold-rimmed glasses make him look so refined. He looks amazing with those two guys. What an amazing combination of good looks... No, no, Wild Tang, wake up! You're here for a job interview, not to pet deer.

She struggled to pull her gaze away from the antlers, trying to make her expression look professional and serious, but her eyes couldn't help but glance at the top of Lu Yu's head every two seconds.

Lu Yu clearly noticed where her gaze was fixed, but he was already used to such looks. He simply pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses, swiped his fingers across the holographic computer in front of him, and pulled up a file. His movements were unhurried, his fingers long, slender, and white, with distinct knuckles, as handsome as his chin.

"Ye Tang, eighteen years old," Lu Yu's voice was flat and indifferent, as if he were reading an official document. But when he reached the next sentence, his fingertips paused, and a rare, almost imperceptible fluctuation appeared in his tone. "Mental strength... double F-level?"

He looked up, his light amber eyes peering through his glasses at the little female in the doorway. There was no mockery or contempt in his gaze, just a pure, almost doubtful, confirmation.

Ye Tang was already a bit overwhelmed by the mention of her mental strength level. Ye Rouyun's words at the Ye family's gate, "Double F level mental strength, the Ye family doesn't need trash like you," were still fresh in her mind, and now another one came along.

However, Colonel Lu's tone was a million times better than Ye Rouyun's; at least he wasn't cursing, he was genuinely confused.

"Does the job posting say that double F level applicants are not eligible?" Ye Tang asked rhetorically.

Lu Yu paused for a moment when asked the question, glancing at the recruitment notice he had drafted himself on his personal terminal. "No," he admitted, his speech still unhurried, "It's just that I've never seen a female with a double F rank."

Ye Tang's face darkened for a moment. What do you mean you've never seen a double F-rank? What kind of giant panda is a double F-rank? You people from the Beast World are ignorant, fine, but you have to say it to my face?

She took a deep breath, suppressing the barrage of complaints flooding her mind, and forced a standard, fake office smile: "So you saw it today."

Lu Yu looked at her through his gold-rimmed glasses, his lips seeming to twitch slightly, but then again, they didn't. He didn't dwell on the double F issue, but he clearly didn't intend to end the interview there. He leaned back in his chair, crossed his arms on the table, and changed the subject.

Do you know what Prison Zero is?

"Prison," Ye Tang blurted out.

You said this person is quite good-looking, but why are the questions she asks getting more and more pointless? She's standing right here, does she think this is a resort?

Lu Yu was silent for two seconds. Ye Tang felt as if she saw a hint of despair in those light amber eyes. But Lu Yu's composure was clearly excellent; he simply took a light breath and then spoke again, his tone more solemn than before:

"This is not an ordinary prison. Prison Zero holds only male orcs with a mental breakdown value of 85 or higher."

He paused, giving her a few seconds to process the information, before continuing, enunciating each word as if giving a safety training session to a new recruit: "Orcs with a mental breakdown value exceeding 85 are at risk of going berserk and rioting at any moment. Everyone working here, including logistics and clerical staff, needs at least a B-level mental strength qualification, because this environment itself presents immense mental pressure. Do you understand what I mean?"

"A prison for serious offenders," Ye Tang succinctly summarized for him.

Shikaha: "..."

He raised his hand and pinched the space between his eyebrows. His gold-rimmed glasses were pushed a little to the side, and a few strands of flaxen hair slipped down from his forehead and fell to the base of his antlers.

Looking at the confident, fearless little female before him, who seemed completely oblivious to her predicament, he felt a deep-seated headache.

Just as Lu Yu was about to speak again and try to explain the danger in a more straightforward way, his peripheral vision inadvertently caught sight of the doorway.

The giant silver-gray wolf crouched quietly half a step behind Ye Tang, its gray-blue eyes staring at him without flinching.

Lu Yu's fingers paused on the keyboard.

He certainly recognized the wolf. Major General of the Third Legion of the Empire, First Heir of the Azure Wolf Clan, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Northern Border Defense, Ghost Hunter.

Three days ago, the military's internal system issued an encrypted notification—Major General Ghost Hunter refused to accept the military's arranged coercive appeasement and went missing at the Northern Camp, his whereabouts unknown.

As the acting warden, he received the notification immediately, based on the calculation of the Ghost Hunter's mental collapse value curve.

If he goes berserk and loses control, his target is very likely to be Prison Zero. After all, the Marshal himself walked into Prison Zero at the critical point of collapse and asked to be imprisoned. Youlie is a soldier trained by the Marshal, so it is only natural for him to follow his old superior's path.

But now, the Ghost Hunter Major General, who had been missing for three days and whom the military had searched the world for, was crouching quietly behind a small female with a double F-rank body, as quiet as a guard.

When those grey-blue eyes looked at Lu Yu, there was an unmistakable warning in them—don't make things difficult for her.

Lu Yu's gaze lingered on You Lie for a second before he casually looked away and adjusted his glasses.

interesting.

A double F-rank female who was kicked out of her family made the Empire's youngest S-rank major general willing to follow her in beast form as her bodyguard.

"Colonel Lu," Ye Tang said, waving her hand in front of him as he seemed lost in thought. "Are you going to confess or not? If not, I'm leaving. It's getting dark outside, and I need to find a place to sleep."

Lu Yu snapped out of his reverie, looked into her clear, straightforward eyes, then glanced at the impassive "guard" behind her, remained silent for a moment, and then suddenly curved the corners of his mouth into a slight smile. The smile was faint, but it was undeniably there.