Black Coal Mine

Strangely, Li Wei was not assigned any work at all until lunchtime.

Zhang Ling took him into a Coal Mine Field. This place had the most laborers, and the conditions looked like the worst.

Every breath here felt gritty. Everyone around them was covered in coal dust, as though every inch of space was filthy.

"Something happened down in Mine Shaft No. 7, which was already short-staffed. Work can't start until this afternoon."

Zhang Ling brought Li Wei and Feng Zi to the cafeteria.

"You got lucky. Wait here after you eat. When work can start, I'll come take you down into the mine and walk you through the process."

After casually making arrangements for Li Wei, Zhang Ling left the cafeteria with a cigarette between his teeth and his hands in his pockets.

The moment he reached the door, Yan Li looked at him with obvious displeasure.

"Why are you in such a hurry? Under our usual procedure, he should work here for at least ten days or half a month. We wait until the people around him recognize him before making a move. It's only his first day!"

Zhang Ling looked utterly disdainful.

"If we wanted compensation, then of course we'd follow the procedure. But this time, we're not using his life to make money. No one will notice him at all."

Yan Li merely stared into Zhang Ling's eyes. He knew this "old partner" of his all too well.

"How much do you owe this time?"

"Thirty thousand."

"Gambling every damn day! Sooner or later, you'll gamble your own life away!"

Squatting on the ground and smoking, Zhang Ling merely grinned, exposing his yellow teeth.

"I asked Tian the Broker yesterday. Do you know how much a girl can sell for as long as she's reasonably pretty?"

Yan Li had only ever made money off human lives before. He had never dealt in human trafficking, so naturally, he had no idea what the prices were.

Zhang Ling smugly held out five fingers, then curled them together.

"Seventy thousand! Seventy thousand at the very least. If she looks better, the ceiling is one hundred and twenty thousand!"

Yan Li could not help holding his breath when he heard that number.

How much compensation could the families of those stinking laborers possibly get? After cut after cut, it was already remarkable if ten or twenty thousand reached their hands.

Now, a single little girl could be sold for seventy thousand!

"Of course, he said the prerequisite is that she has to look decent. Tian got lucky and connected with some lord in Radiance District. The people he takes from down here are all sold up there, and his buyers are exceptionally generous!"

Yan Li fell silent. After two or three seconds of silence, he finally spoke again.

"How do you want to split it?"

Zhang Ling narrowed his eyes and smiled.

"I brought them here, and I found the channel. That kid looks fairly sturdy. When he goes down into the mine at dusk, give me a hand. No matter how much we get for them in the end, seventy-thirty."

This was obviously different from their usual fifty-fifty split, but Yan Li still agreed at once.

"Fine!"

The food at the Coal Mine Field was terrible.

It was a mush made from who knew whether rice or flour, carrying a heavy salty, sour stench. Its only redeeming feature was that there was no limit on portions.

Having gone a whole day without food, Li Wei and Feng Zi each wolfed down three bowls.

"Those two foremen want to kill me."

Just after filling her stomach, Feng Zi was contentedly narrowing her eyes and taking a sip of water when Li Wei's offhand remark nearly made her spray it everywhere.

Her azure eyes widened.

"Why?"

"A coal mine, a place where we don't know anyone, foremen who are mysteriously eager to help, and plenty of workers' families demanding death compensation. All the signs are there."

Li Wei spoke calmly.

He had no evidence, but he did not need any. It was already as obvious as it could be.

That foreman called Zhang Ling had completely taken him for a gullible greenhorn. After bringing him into the worksite, he could not even be bothered to keep up appearances.

Feng Zi was clearly no naïve fool. She understood Li Wei's meaning and clutched the hem of her clothes tightly in both hands.

"They're all living such hard lives. Why would they still hurt their own people?"

"Because people are like that."

As Li Wei spoke, he looked outside the cafeteria.

The laborers' families who had come to demand compensation were driven out of the grounds by security guards wielding batons.

Yet they still refused to leave. Instead, they wept and screamed as they knelt on the coal-cinder-covered ground, repeatedly kowtowing toward what seemed to be the manager's office.

But the manager surnamed Xie, who was round as a ball and dressed in a clean, neat suit, merely cast them a contemptuous glance and cursed.

"You lazy trash, always looking for trouble! Do you know how much work I have to deal with every day? You actually dare come to the site to cause trouble and demand money! Never mind that the higher-ups haven't approved it! With that attitude, even if they did approve it, I still wouldn't give you a thing! Worthless scum!"

After spitting and cursing, he turned around and never looked at the people kneeling on the ground again.

The laborers passing by and witnessing the scene also stopped. Their expressions held some shared sorrow, some indignation, but mostly numbness.

Feng Zi saw it too, and her hands were trembling.

Li Wei, however, inwardly marveled at how realistic this game was. It was not just the visuals and sensory experience; even the NPCs' behavioral logic had been executed to perfection.

But realism did not make money in fantasy works, and it did not make them any more likable either.

Li Wei really disliked it, especially this city.

Feng Zi tried her best to look away from the people kneeling in the coal cinders. Lowering her head, she asked,

"Should we leave before they make their move?"

Li Wei did not answer immediately. His gaze remained on that group of downtrodden people, as if he were thinking about something.

"No rush. Don't they just want money and our lives?"

As he spoke softly, he also looked at the player panel in his mind.

[Advancement method: Your class advancement will convert into experience points for leveling up. You can advance every 10 levels. (Current method of gaining experience: accumulating money. Legal channels 1:1, illegal channels 100,000:1.)]

[Level: 1 (16.4/1000)]

Li Wei had originally thought the game had designed this leveling method to give players two paths to choose from.

One was legitimate business: time-consuming and labor-intensive, but every cent counted.

The other was to go on a killing spree.

And neither of those paths was something Li Wei could consider in his current circumstances.

But at that moment, a different idea suddenly emerged in his mind.

If he wanted to speedrun the main storyline, leveling up quickly naturally became crucial.

Zhang Ling had arranged for Li Wei to go down into the mine at dusk. With the night dark and the wind high, it was naturally the best time to get things done.

That also meant Li Wei still had the afternoon free.

He had Feng Zi stay in the cafeteria while he wandered alone toward the entrance of the worksite.

The people demanding compensation were still kneeling there. Since they were no longer trying to enter the grounds, the security guards seemed too lazy to meddle and did not continue beating them.

During the lunch break, people had still watched the spectacle from afar. But once working hours began, the place grew deserted, and the laborers' families kneeling there seemed as though everyone had abandoned them.

So when Li Wei approached, those dirty-faced people, their faces a miserable mess of tears and coal dust, all noticed him.

In this world, aside from Feng Zi, Li Wei wore a smile whenever he spoke to anyone, even when facing these miserable people.

"Everyone, I only joined this place today. May I ask, if someone dies while working here, how much compensation does their family normally receive?"