Chapter 182 - The Stanford's Prison Effect

Tom waited for every possible group to appear for exactly two more hours since the arrival of the first group. Yet, even when that time passed, rather than hurrying everyone up to the next floor, he stood up and released a deep sigh. 

"Seven groups joined us in total," Markus reported, noticing that his friend was up to something. "Do you want to shuffle them or what?" he asked.

"No," Tom shook his head, a sad expression appearing on his face. "As much as I hate this time to come, this is the right moment to do the important thing," he said as he walked to the central point of the boss room. 

By the time Tom arrived at his spot, his face lips had turned into a small smile while his eyes turned serious. 

"Everyone!" he shouted, gathering the attention of all the people in the room. "For the organization's sake, I need you all to join in the groups you were in while conquering the dungeon!" he ordered, keeping silent about the purpose of the exercise. 

"I have a bad feeling about this," Cleo muttered, standing up and moving closer to Tom's side. 

"What's the plan?" Marvin asked, following after his sister. Yet, even when questioned about his purpose, Tom opted to remain silent.

The reorganization of all the groups took a while. Even though there were thirty-eight people in total in the boss room, having everyone reunite with those who they traveled with before still took a while. 

"It seems like everyone is ready," Tom muttered after a few more moments, watching how the chaotic movements of his people finally ground to a halt. 

"Tom, what's going on?" Marvin asked again, unsettled by Tom's unnatural behavior. 

"Do you remember that experiment when some scientists divided the group of volunteers into wardens and prisoners?" Tom asked, his face turning grim. 

"Yeah," Marvin nodded his head. It was one of the experiments that were the most known in the wide public, something that even those disinterested in social science were likely to be aware of. "Wait, do you mean..." Marvin was about to say something, only to end up stopped by a sharp wave of Tom's hand. 

"Shush," Tom silenced his friend before casting a sad look into his face. "Hopefully, I'm wrong. But I can't ignore the possibility," he explained his concerns before walking off towards the first group. 

It was the company consisting of the young girl as a fighting leader, Rufus' mother, and two adult men.

Right off the bat, Tom noticed that given the standard size of everyone's group being five, there was one person lacking in them. 

"I'm sorry in advance," he said to the girl, causing her to lean her head and look at Tom with curiosity. 

"What do you mean?" the girl asked, her face relaxed despite the curiosity running through her eyes. 

"I just need you to know that it's not something I do because of you, but because of the situation," Tom said as he reached out and patted the girl's arm only to turn his face towards the rest of her group. 

"Right now, you guys have a chance to voice all and any complaints about what happened during the first phase of the migration," Tom said with a deadpan expression on his face. "If there were any threats involved, any promises or any blackmails, I now free you from that kind of obligations," he said, looking over the faces of the people. 

For the first time since the people started to reunite on the floor, a look of concern started to appear on their faces. 

They were all family. Even though not all of them shared the same blood, they all ultimately grew up together, went to the same schools, spent their time in the same cliches, and generally knew each other from the crib. 

Still, Tom wasn't all that positive that this kind of relationship would prevent some bad seeds from taking advantage of how the dungeon was a place where the strength reigned supreme. 

"I have no complaints," Rufus' mother was the first to speak up as she shook her head. While there was a hint of sadness in her eyes, it wasn't anywhere close to being a hidden rage that Tom was pretty familiar with. 

Something happened, but she clearly wasn't able to point anyone in her group to be at fault. 

She wasn't able to, or simply wasn't willing. 

"That's not true," the leading girl muttered silently, catching Tom's attention. But instead of instantly turning around to ask her, he only sent her a quick glance before moving his eyes at the two other men in the group. 

"I have no complaints," one said, averting his eyes. 

"It was tough, but that's how life generally tends to be," the other answered in a more roundabout manner. 

"Now then, you," Tom took a few steps to the back, looking at the leader of the group. "You said that it's not true that nothing had happened," he echoed her words, looking directly in the girl's hesitant eyes. "Now, tell me. If what the others said was not true, then what's the truth?" 

For a moment, the girl hesitated. Despite being the strongest in her group, it was clear that she was unwilling to face the dissatisfaction of the others. 

"I promise, whatever they threatened you with, does not have any power anymore. If they threatened you," Tom said," I will protect you. If they used some other methods of blackmailing you into keeping silent, I will make sure they won't be able to go through with their threats," he said bit by bit. 

Right now, what was the most important, was to weed out the black seeds from every last group. 

If any of the leaders turned out to be abusing his power-given status, Tom would either have to discipline, punish or outright kill them. 

Not because Tom aspired to be the hero of justice in this foreign and hostile world. 

'If I don't get rid of troublemakers now, who knows how much harm they could do once they would become trusted cooperators of the cause,' he thought, looking sternly into the girl's eyes. 

"Can you come a bit closer?" the girl asked in a weak voice, clearly troubled with the topic that she had on mind. 

"Speak your mind," Tom whispered, leaning over the girl's ear. 

"Those guys... They threw that woman's husband to the monsters," the girl whispered in Tom's ear. "While not for no reason... I was busy fighting the boss when a host of monsters attacked them in the corridor. Before I managed to retreat to help them, they forced him to be the sacrifice," the girl explained in a weak voice. 

Tom took a step back and looked at the girl's face. Her eyes were tearing up, her expression showing just how guilty she felt about the situation. 

'It's not easy to judge situations like that,' Tom thought, gnashing his teeth. 

The young man moved his chin up and closed his eyes. For a moment, he just remained like that, refusing to buckle even for an inch. 

Then, instead of addressing the issue, Tom opened his eyes and moved on to the next group. 

With the corner of his eyes, he could see the surprise on the girl's face. But right now, Tom wasn't ready to pass any judgments yet. While this was his responsibility as the current leader of the family, he opted to get the general feel of the situation first. 

After going bit by bit through all seven groups, Tom realized just how messed up the situation was. 

In the total of thirty-three people and seven leaders, two leaders turned out to abuse their power, while one more group had another problem. 

'Out of seven groups, four are messed up,' Tom thought, greatly disappointed with the performance of his people. 

The only three groups that managed to go through the sixty floors without any major hiccup were all led by the second line of the family. Whether it was the military-like disciple of their leaders or the general greater feel for the family's unity, Tom had yet to decide. 

But right now, he had no time to think about this topic. Because rather than pondering over the good sides of the part of his family, he had to take care of the black sheep first. 

"Marvin, are you with me?" Tom asked when he finally came to terms with what he had to do. 

"What? No," Marvin quickly rebuked. "I'm not homo, brother," he explained his sudden outburst before patting Tom on his shoulder. "But in terms of what happened..." 

Given how Marvin followed Tom during the inspection, he had a general feel of what happened. As such, it was clear that in two cases of the leader's abuse, he no longer considered those people a part of their family. 

"Do you want to do the honors?" Cleo asked, her face frozen in a hateful expression. 

"Honors?" Tom looked at the girl with a confused expression on his face. "Do you really consider it an honor?" he asked, brandishing his spear.

"Not really," Cleo shrugged her shoulders. "But I guess this is the dog's duty of yours, now," she added, her face softening up a bit. "Come to me once you are done. While I can't help you now, I will help you get over it later," she said. 

For a moment, Tom turned silent. The spear in his hand menacingly reflected the dim light produced by the dungeon. 

He then turned around and walked calmly towards the group where he first found out about the drastic abuse of the leader's power. 

Tom stopped his tracks right before the face of a middle-aged man. From what he heard, he had some kind of berserker-like skills, making him a formidable fighter for someone of his level. 

"You stand accused on repeated rapes and killing of your companion," Tom said, looking coldly at the confident expression on the man's face. "How do you plead?"