In the cavern outside the train, all the slaves had finished their dinner. But tonight, instead of immediately returning to their sleeping quarters on the train, they were gathered around, watching the commotion.
In the center of the crowd, a slave knelt on the ground, his face a mask of terror. He wasn't bound, but he didn't dare move.
A circle of armed guards maintained order.
Behind the kneeling slave, Li Shiji hefted a police baton. He leaned down, his head close to the man's ear, and whispered.
"Enjoying my iron ore?"
"Karma always comes around; it's just a matter of timing."
"Remember this."
"My name is Li Shiji." 【TN: "Shiji" sounds like "right time" in Chinese, creating wordplay with his previous statement about timing. 】
The next second—
Li Shiji's eyes filled with rage. He swung the baton with more force than he had ever used for mining, bringing it down hard on the kneeling slave's back. He didn't utter a single curse, just clenched his jaw.Like a storm, he rained down blow after blow, not holding back in the slightest.
It was clear he was trying to beat the man to death.
"Uncle Li."
In the crowd of watching slaves, a young man turned to the man beside him. "Look at that guy," he whispered. "He got promoted so easily, and he's just a Tier 3 slave who recently joined the train."
"You've been here since the beginning, old man. You're practically a veteran, and you've got Tier 1 status."
"How come you haven't gotten ahead yet?"
"Have you thought of a new plan?"
"Can you shut the hell up?!"
Uncle Li turned, his face flushed with anger and embarrassment. "Are you some kind of nag? Can you stop pressuring me every day? I'm under a lot of stress too, you know."
"Are you trying to live vicariously through me or something?"
"Well... I can't exactly count on myself, can I? I'm not the reliable type."
"Shut up! I'll think of something!"
"Of course. I've always believed in you, Uncle Li."
...
In the inner circle of the crowd.
Biao stood with his arms crossed, a cigarette dangling from his lips. A smile played on his face as he watched the scene. "Chief Zhu, I guarantee you that kid reported him on purpose."
"No shit."
Lao Zhu's face was grim. "You think I can't see that? The kid's a cunning little bastard. I don't like him."
"Boss Mang seems to like him though."
"Of course, Boss Mang likes him. I don't like the kid, but he's got talent."
Lao Zhu hesitated, then added reluctantly, "That kid can take an incredibly complex rectangular maze and mentally stretch it into a straight line. Can you even do that? I tried for a while, and my head almost exploded. When I closed my eyes, I kept seeing endless lines floating in front of me."
"I almost started hallucinating, but I still couldn't do it."
"I'm just a brute, Chief Zhu. If I had that kind of skill, do you think I would have been a small-time construction foreman?"
"With your brain, that's all you're good for. If the work dried up, you'd be screwed."
"I'm a brute, Chief Zhu."
"So what?"
Biao grinned, his eyes crinkling. "A brute collecting debts is a perfect match. There's no debt I can't collect. Otherwise, you think I could have been the boss back then?"
Lao Zhu snorted in disdain.
"Give it a rest. You were almost killed by that black rat. Don't brag about it. By the way, you were a Level 2 Train Captain before. Do you know of any situation that would require a massive maze capable of trapping a robot?"
"No idea."
Biao shook his head, his face serious. "Is that what Boss Mang wants this kid for?"
"Don't look at me. I don't know. It's not that I'm holding back; it's just that my old train and Boss Mang's operation are completely different things. To say they're worlds apart is an understatement."
"But..."
"I have to give you some advice. Boss Mang didn't tell you to beat the man to death. That kid is going too far. The slave looks like he's about to stop breathing."
"And don't get into a power struggle with this kid. Boss Mang is just using him to build a maze. After that, he'll be useless."
"You're still the second-in-command on this train, Chief Zhu. Don't make things ugly. You'll be the one who loses out."
"I know that."
Lao Zhu sighed. "Of course I'm not stupid enough to get into a pissing contest with him. It's just... It's the first time I've been reported over someone's head, and I'm a little pissed off. He didn't come to me; he went straight to Boss Mang. I don't know what Boss Mang will think. Maybe he'll think I'm oppressing the slaves all day, so they don't dare come to me with their problems."
"Don't worry about it. It was your oversight. You can't solve a problem until it's exposed. Relax."
Lao Zhu said no more, just took a step forward, his voice deep.
"That's enough."
He then looked at the half-dead slave on the ground. "Take him to the train for medical treatment."
"Carriage Chief Zhu."
Seeing Lao Zhu approach, Li Shiji immediately handed over the baton and bowed respectfully.
"Mm."
Lao Zhu took the baton, his facial expressionless. He looked at the crowd of slaves and pointed to the nearby iron mine. "All of you, back to the train to sleep. If you're not tired, you can go over there and keep digging with Duo Ba."
The slaves instinctively turned to look at the hundred-plus goblin slaves still digging in the iron mine. A shiver ran down their spines, and they scrambled for the carriages.
Those goblins...
They were absolute lunatics!
They had witnessed the goblins' madness these past few days. The slaves would go to sleep, and the goblins would still be digging. They would wake up, and the goblins would still be digging, as if they didn't need rest at all.
They were like cold-blooded machines, working around the clock.
Especially that Duo Ba.
He had dominated the daily mining leaderboard for days, completely undefeated.
At first, they had looked forward to the daily mining rankings.
But after the goblins swept the top hundred every single day, they had lost interest. The competition was too intense, so intense it scared them. The goblins were like a bunch of supermen.
Initially...
Many of them were seeing goblins for the first time and were curious. They would try to strike up conversations during breaks.
But after being cursed at several times—"Foolish humans, don't disturb the great goblins' mining!"—no one bothered to approach them anymore.
"That Duo Ba seems to spend his whole life trying to prove his greatness."
As the slaves scrambled for the carriages, Lao Zhu stayed behind, watching Duo Ba dig with relentless determination. He let out a sigh, a touch of something like admiration in his voice.
"To be honest, that guy has serious stamina."
"Yeah," Biao said, nodding. "He's strong."
Then Biao glanced toward the giantess among the short goblins, his expression shifting. "But that woman’s strong, too. Looks like she’s picked a fight with the goblins—determined to see who can dig more."
"I heard she went up to talk to Duo Ba today. Got cursed at."
"She seemed furious. Now, she’s dead set on out-digging them all."