Time was like a wild donkey—once it started running, it never stopped.
In the blink of an eye, the players had been at the Refinery for over a week.
All 4,961 players now had a hundred-odd Imperial Coins in their pockets.
In the real world, that amount wouldn't even buy you a decent hot pot meal.
But here, in the living hell of the Alru No. 3 Refinery, it meant hope, weapons, and... the means to stir up trouble.
Wang Zhong, Tax Brother, and Xue Brother had each pocketed a little extra as the final investors when they split the spoils on the first day.
After all their hard work over the past few days, their average balance had climbed to 221.6 Imperial Coins.
But none of them had gone on a spending spree.
They were waiting.
Waiting for a storm, waiting for a chance to turn this steel hell upside down.
The refinery's ore output remained dismally low, like the most stubborn athlete's foot in Nurgle's Garden—no treatment seemed to help.
The One-Eyed Overseer was under mounting pressure. His one good eye was bloodshot, and he found fault with everyone he looked at.
Every day before work, he would stalk up and down in front of the line, Power Whip in hand, like an irritable rabid hound of Khorne, lashing some unlucky worker now and then to vent his anger.
"Scum! Useless trash! You can't even sort ore properly!"
"The supplier's inspection report says there's nothing wrong with the ore! So where's the problem, huh?!"
"Have you maggots been slacking off?!"
The players lowered their heads, cursing furiously in their minds:
"The problem's in our pockets, dumbass!"
"We steal so much ore from you every day. How could the output not be down?"
"By the Emperor, that overseer's got to have had his brain put through a mixer by Tzeentch."
But outwardly, every one of them looked utterly aggrieved: "Sir, we're innocent! We work so hard we can barely get enough to eat. How would we have the strength to steal ore?"
After a week of practice, their acting had reached perfection.
Even the genuine NPC workers sometimes glanced over and thought these new arrivals were such poor wretches, bullied mercilessly by everyone.
Though it was a little strange how they were always huddled together, grinning and making faces at the air.
The players had later found out the name of the young NPC worker who had approached Wang Zhong: Ren.
These past few days, Ren had been dropping by at irregular intervals. Sometimes he sought out Wang Zhong, sometimes another player who still had a spark in his eyes, and they would chat about seemingly trivial things.
"The overseer's been getting meaner lately."
"I heard they dragged another group off to the cleanup zone last month."
"Do you miss home?"
The players all stuck to the same story, showing just the right amount of anger and resentment, while acting as if they were afraid to say so outright.
"Who doesn't want to leave? But how?"
"This life... isn't fit for human beings."
"Damn it, if they push us too far, we'll fight them!"
This half-veiled attitude seemed to gradually put Ren at ease.
That day, after work.
The players didn't rush to log off. Instead, they gathered in a corner of the break area.
Wang Zhong spoke in the regional channel:
[ Loyal to the Emperor Forever ]: "Brothers, looks like they're going to make a move soon."
"When Ren talked to me today, he seemed different. He kept starting to say something, then stopping."
"I'd guess their resistance group can't hold out much longer."
[ Soul of Cadia ]: "They've been holding it in for a week. About time they let it out!"
"If they don't, I'm gonna get hemorrhoids. Does the Emperor sell hemorrhoid cream?"
[ Tau-kun, you are right, but Bolter is righter ]: "They must be eager to recruit us. There are over four thousand of us. Sure, we're all miners, but we could still bury a few overseers under sheer numbers."
[ Mechanicus Oil-Lover on the Run ]: "From the perspective of organizational behavior, using a sudden external destabilizing factor to disrupt the existing balance is a common strategy in resistance movements."
"In their eyes, we're the perfect destabilizing factor."
[ Schrodinger's Loyalist ]: "So are we pawns? Or players?"
[ Loyal to the Emperor Forever ]: "Pawns first, players later."
"My plan is this: when they approach us, we pretend to agree."
"Then, once they make their move and chaos breaks out, we start redeeming equipment and get to work!"
He paused, his tone growing more emphatic:
"Remember, brothers, our top priority isn't escaping!"
"It's looting!!"
"How much good stuff is there in this refinery?"
"The ore, the equipment, the transport vehicles... See that big Promethium smelter in the northwest corner?"
"I secretly scanned it with the system. Its resale value is 80,000 Imperial Coins!"
The channel instantly flooded with "holy shit."
[ Did White Scars speed today ]: "Eighty thousand?! How many guns could that buy?!"
[ Want Silent King's Crown but cannot afford ]: "I'm suddenly starting to think... maybe the refinery isn't so bad after all?"
[ Slaanesh Chosen Reserve ]: "The joy of robbery... is a kind of ultimate delight, too..."
[ Nurgle Loving Father Loves All ]: "Accept this gift, though the delivery may be a little rough."
[ Loyal to the Emperor Forever ]: "Exactly! We'll hit the jackpot! Even if we die and lose everything, as long as we manage to recover one or two big machines, we'll make a killing!"
"Dying and coming back costs only five coins. One machine is worth tens of thousands. It's a great deal!"
"So get yourselves ready!"
"When the time comes, don't panic. Stick to the groups we planned in advance: Group One causes a disturbance and draws fire, Group Two picks locks and dismantles equipment, and Group Three hauls it away and turns it in!"
"Got it?!"
"Got it!!!"
The channel rang with their shouts. In reality, they were only crouching quietly in the corner, but every one of them had a gleam in their eyes.
It was a yearning for Imperial Coins, an eagerness for revenge, and an unbounded enthusiasm for causing trouble.
The next day, not long after work began.
An urgent message suddenly appeared in the regional channel from [Soul of Cadia]:
"Northeast corner! By the abandoned warehouse! A few NPC workers just sneaked inside! They don't look like overseers!"
"What's going on?" [Did White Scars speed today] immediately asked.
"I don't know. The door's closed. I circled around back and heard muffled voices inside. Sounds like they're arguing about something."
[Soul of Cadia] replied.
"Need backup?"
[Tau-kun, you are right, but Bolter is righter] was raring to go.
"No! Too many of us will draw attention. Keep working. White Scar and I will watch them."
[Soul of Cadia] was being cautious.
Wang Zhong's heart stirred.
The players had noticed the abandoned warehouse in the northeast corner long ago.
Its doors were secured with rusted chains, and the windows were nailed shut with metal sheets. They had always assumed it was used to store useless scrap.
And now NPCs were sneaking inside?
He thought of Ren.
"Could be the resistance group, or... something else."
He told Tax Brother and Xue Brother in the team channel, "Keep an eye on that area. Something might be happening."
About half a standard hour later, [Soul of Cadia] and [Did White Scars speed today] came back, looking excited but puzzled.
"How'd it go?" Wang Zhong edged closer to them while the overseer wasn't looking.
[Soul of Cadia] lowered his voice. "There were more than just a few workers inside!"
"We waited for them to come out, then quietly followed them for a while. They split up and blended into different work areas, but guess who one of them was?"
"Who?"
"Ren!" [Did White Scars speed today] cut in.
Just as expected!
Wang Zhong understood. Ren really was a member of some kind of organization.
"What were they doing in there? What did they say?" Tax Brother asked.
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