The Cesspool

Kirk and Little Fatty woke up.

The two of them were tied up tightly, carried by several burly men with glistening muscles, who walked with a swagger.

Little Fatty peed himself in fear. "Big brother! Why is this plot so intense right from the start? Muscles and men everywhere, what is this all about?"

Kirk was also in a panic, but his hands were tied so tightly he couldn't break free.

The leader of the men was a black man with shiny black skin. He smiled, revealing a mouthful of pearly white teeth, perfect for endorsing toothpaste.

"You are very lucky. Bartitas doesn't want to lose any more slaves today, so as punishment for your attempted escape, you will simply go there to reflect. You'll go hungry for a day, but there will be food if you want it. Thank Jupiter, your treatment is something every slave in Rome dreams of!"

Then, he had someone throw Kirk and Little Fatty into a large hole!

Kirk and Little Fatty screamed and fell.

With a "plop," like a cannonball hitting a cesspool, it stirred up immense public outrage.

But this really was a cesspool!

Cesspool, check the dictionary: a place where human excrement is collected.

Instantly, Kirk and Little Fatty were covered in feces and urine, the stench so foul they couldn't open their eyes. Kirk struggled desperately. If they drowned in a cesspool right at the start of the plot, they'd be furious even in death. Little Fatty, with his round belly, rolled around in the cesspool like a little white pig. After struggling for a while, he choked down a mouthful of filth.

Kirk couldn't stand it and threw up. The place was too disgusting.

Little Fatty, ignoring the filth in his mouth, cursed, "Space, you bastard, can't you do anything but torment the protagonist?!"

He kicked a clump of feces and urine towards the sky. As a result, the filth rained down, giving the two of them another shower of fertilizer. Little Fatty couldn't help but laugh at himself and sat down in the cesspool.

Kirk, however, stared intently at the cesspool, as if it weren't a foul-smelling cesspool but a treasure trove of gold and jade.

In the cesspool, disgusting white maggots slowly wriggled, forming the following Chinese characters:

"Contractor No. 4444, the specific information for the plot world you are about to enter is as follows:

[Main Plot]: Blood and Sand! Spartacus.

[Scene Nature]: [Arena Mode].

[Arena Mode] Specific Rules: Contractors' killings are not punished. Dropped blood-red room card keys have a 20% bonus reward, but cannot be opened or used until leaving the world. [Valuable Item] [Soul Crystal] (fragment) issued in Arena Mode has been placed in your personal Space Mark. Kills will inevitably drop them, and rewards will be given based on the quantity of [Valuable Item] during the plot summary!

[Scene Difficulty]: C+.

[Timeline]: 100 BC

[Location]: Roman Republic, Thrace

[Personal Attribute Adjustment]: Attribute Enhancement 30%. After adjustment, Contractor No. 4444 will have: Strength 19 (14), Agility 19 (14), Stamina 20 (15), Intelligence 6 (8), Wisdom 5 (6), Charisma 2 (2) (numbers in parentheses are the original newbie values, already adjusted and enhanced).

[Pain Suppression]: 50%.

[Main Mission]: Survive! Keep living until you are teleported back to Space.

[Advice] Beware of what's behind you.

Kirk and Little Fatty looked at each other. Space was still its usual "no foreplay, no protection, no responsibility, no negotiation, no condom, no accountability" rogue self. As the saying goes, "Not afraid of death, just afraid it's not dramatic enough. If you have a law, use it; if not, go die."

Little Fatty crawled up. "Besides the survival mission, can Space give us any other tasks?"

Kirk: "Probably the designer's imagination is limited, and they have no other tricks to torment us brothers."

Just then, a male voice from nearby said, "If I were you, I'd get out of there quickly."

"Why..." Little Fatty hadn't finished speaking instinctively when a large, fresh, steaming pile of excrement landed on his head!

Little Fatty's eyes immediately turned red. He looked up angrily as a light drizzle began again. Little Fatty accidentally swallowed a few drops. It was the "immortal water" that the Deer Horn Immortal, Goat Horn Immortal, and Tiger Power Immortal from the Three Pure Ones Taoist temple often talked about, from Monkey Brother!

Kirk looked up. Several bare buttocks swayed as they moved away. The brothers glanced at each other, their eyes filled with fierce hostility. Who dared treat them like this? If they didn't get revenge, could they still call themselves gentlemen?

Another basin of feces and urine poured down, and the two gentlemen were once again bathed in natural fertilizer.

They were in a sorry state, while someone nearby was laughing so hard they couldn't stand up straight.

Kirk and Little Fatty glared menacingly, but the figures were two handsome young men. Their commonality was their well-developed muscles, their biceps gleaming with a bronze luster in the sun. Their symmetrical bodies were as perfect as Roman sculptures, and their healthy physiques contained immense and dangerous power. One had short black hair, the other curly yellow hair. Seeing Kirk and Little Fatty's displeased expressions, they both smiled knowingly, appearing relaxed, as if they didn't take their anger seriously. The young man with curly yellow hair shrugged, "I kindly warned you..."

"Your grandpa..." Little Fatty was about to curse when Kirk stopped him. Kirk saw their relaxed expressions, then looked at the calluses on their hands and their well-built physiques. Thinking about this ridiculous cesspool setting, something came to mind!

These two men, as strong as leopards, were the protagonists of this world: Spartacus and Vero!

To want to fight the protagonists, especially Spartacus, who was undefeated throughout the Roman Empire, was like an old woman hanging herself, thinking her life was too long!

However, to have a chance encounter in a cesspool with these men among men, the most handsome of men, the protagonist Spartacus, who was incredibly powerful both personally and historically, Kirk couldn't help but think this was a historically infamous meeting that would be remembered for ages!

Shouldn't they have met in the fragrant, pleasant restroom of a five-star hotel, with both men in suits, conversing gracefully?

However, since they knew that such powerful protagonists were also squatting in a cesspool and getting rained on with fertilizer, Kirk and Little Fatty were speechless. They could only move aside and stand by the wall.

Kirk observed carefully. The one with short black hair should be the protagonist Spartacus. He was a Thracian warrior who voluntarily joined the Roman auxiliary forces to fight against the common enemies of Rome and Thrace. As punishment for openly defying the Roman second-in-command, Claudius Glaber, he was sentenced to death in a gladiatorial arena. He killed four swordsmen and survived, then was demoted to a slave, taken by Bartitas, and trained to be a gladiator in the training grounds. Bartitas used his wife Sura, whom he found, to tempt him, forcing him to fight for him.

As for the handsome blond guy next to him, that was Vero. He was a Roman citizen who sold himself into slavery here to pay off gambling debts and provide for his wife and children. He was a disciplined and steadfast warrior. He got along well with other gladiators. He respected Spartacus for his legendary performance of fighting four opponents at once in the arena. Although Spartacus was impulsive, Vero was more cautious. Despite this, he was Spartacus's only true friend in the training camp.

A moment later, Little Fatty's stomach rumbled. Kirk gave him a speechless look. Little Fatty sheepishly said, "Hidden talent, I get hungry fast!" Kirk wailed, "Brother, you can still think about food in a cesspool? What kind of powerful talent and metabolism does that require!"

Vero smiled and said, "You don't have to worry about food. Someone will bring it soon."

Watching Vero's casual demeanor in the cesspool, Kirk and Little Fatty exchanged glances. The calm guy, what a legend.

"Big brother, are you familiar with this place?" Little Fatty asked cautiously.

"Spartacus and I are regulars here. This is your first time, how many days have you been here?" Vero said casually.

"We just came in today..." Kirk answered for Little Fatty, afraid he'd spout nonsense.

"No wonder. You just came in, and they didn't kill you when you tried to escape, so you're quite lucky. It seems Bartitas's financial crisis is quite severe." Vero glanced at Spartacus. Spartacus still had a cool expression, his chiseled features as unyielding as carved stone.

Clearly, Kirk's 2 points of Charisma, which could instantly kill any plot character, had worked its magic again. However, Vero didn't seem to mind their conversation, so Kirk and Little Fatty could continue to probe for information.

"Why would they kill us? We haven't done anything wrong," Little Fatty said indignantly.

"That's just how the rules are in this gladiator training camp. Escapees get their heads chopped off, thieves get their hands chopped off, losers get whipped, the injured get executed, and disobedient ones get thrown into the cesspool..." Vero chuckled at his own words, and even Spartacus couldn't help but show a slight smile.

"That strict?" Little Fatty's jaw dropped. This was a serious violation of human rights!

"I'm talking about the gladiators. For you raw materials, Bartitas and Dochet are even less forgiving. They'll execute you without hesitation if you try to escape. The fact that you're alive and were thrown into the cesspool is probably because of the economic crisis; the camp is short on money, so they didn't have the heart to let Barka slaughter you!" Vero's words were always shocking.

"What!" Kirk and Little Fatty exclaimed in unison. "What do you mean, raw materials?"

"Raw materials..." Vero was struggling to explain when the cool guy, Spartacus, interjected expressionlessly, "We gladiators use them as sparring partners and targets during training. Every gladiator must spill the blood of nine men to earn the title of gladiator and qualify for the main arena!" After speaking, he turned towards the rocks, clearly uninterested in these two 'raw materials' who wouldn't live much longer.

Kirk and Little Fatty fell silent. Their situation was far more difficult and dangerous than they had imagined. Kirk had watched Spartacus: Blood and Sand. The training camp was filled with incredibly strong, fearless elite gladiators: desperate retired soldiers, bankrupt citizens who sold themselves into slavery, vicious death row inmates, and strong slaves from all over the Mediterranean world. Spartacus and Vero were initially considered losers among them! It was similar to their status in the newcomer team in their previous world, where they were bullied and discriminated against. Otherwise, they wouldn't be stuck in this stinking cesspool!

The devilish coach Dochet, the gladiators Cress and Barka – none of them were easy to deal with!

No wonder it was another survival mission. As long as they survived, everything else would be fine.

How long the two of them could last was probably known only to heaven.

"Big brother, I suddenly feel like this cesspool is quite lovely. At least we don't have to attend training classes!" Little Fatty, who had been complaining earlier, changed his tune. He happily stared at the maggots, as if a little girl were gazing at a tank of goldfish.

Just then, another basin of slop was poured down. Kirk and Little Fatty's faces turned green as they looked at the rotten bread and putrid black meat mixed with excrement and urine in the cesspool. However, Spartacus and Vero walked over expressionlessly, picked through the bread and black meat, ate whatever was edible, and then walked back expressionlessly to sit down, not wasting a single bit of Stamina.

"Little Fatty, we brothers are in trouble," Kirk said, word by word. "This training camp is definitely testing our survival abilities to the limit. We need to be careful."