Wang Zhong's small convoy raced across the wasteland of the Crimson Bright Wasteland.
The veteran driver floored the accelerator, wrenching the steering wheel back and forth to dodge the trenches and rocks.
The vehicle jolted so badly that their insides felt like they were being shaken loose, but no one complained. Every passenger stared intently behind them.
The pursuit lasted about fifteen minutes.
Just as the fourth vehicle's tire burst after being grazed by a flaming axe hurled by a Bloodletter, nearly tipping the vehicle over, the pursuit suddenly stopped.
The Fear Demons and Bloodletters came to a halt in unison, about twenty kilometers from the industrial zone.
They stood before an invisible boundary, roaring in frustration at the retreating convoy, but didn't take another step.
"The contamination zone's boundary."
The psyker player who had been speaking earlier, [Second Emperor of Holy Blood], panted. "Chaos corruption hasn't spread this far... yet."
The convoy drove another five kilometers and, after confirming no one was following them, stopped on a relatively flat patch of wasteland.
Wang Zhong's legs nearly gave out when he climbed out.
He checked the system clock. From the moment they realized they'd been spotted to their successful escape, twenty-five minutes had passed.
But under the effects of adrenaline, it had felt like half a century.
"Take stock of our losses," he said hoarsely.
"Vehicle Four's right rear tire is wrecked. We need to replace it with the spare."
"Vehicle Three's fuel tank was grazed by a stray shot. It's lost a third of its fuel."
"Personnel... no fatalities, but seven brothers were grazed by the aftereffects of the demons' sorcery while fighting back. The worst injury is a thigh burned through. We've stopped the bleeding with a medkit."
Wang Zhong nodded and was about to speak when [Have You Been Loyal Today] suddenly pointed into the distance. "Captain, look over there."
About two kilometers away stood a cluster of low buildings.
It looked like an abandoned mine: several rickety workers' sheds, a rusted elevator frame, and a mountain of discarded ore.
But now, figures were moving between the sheds.
Lots and lots of them.
"A scavenger settlement?"
[Second Emperor of Holy Blood] frowned. "But there are way too many..."
Wang Zhong picked up his binoculars.
The people were indeed wearing tattered clothes, but on closer inspection...
Their clothes were all the same color. They were filthy, but their original style was still recognizable.
They were the Alru Group's workers' uniforms.
"Could this be...?" Wang Zhong murmured.
The convoy cautiously approached the mine.
When they were five hundred meters away, Wang Zhong ordered the convoy to stop. He approached on foot with [Have You Been Loyal Today], [Second Emperor of Holy Blood], and [I Am Not The Regent I Am Guilliman].
They raised their hands to show they weren't carrying weapons, though all of them had laspistols at their waists.
A crude, low wall of discarded ore blocked the mine entrance.
Dozens of wary eyes watched them from behind it.
Then someone recognized Wang Zhong.
"I-Is that... you?"
A hoarse voice rang out.
A man gaunt to the point of looking like a skeleton emerged from behind the wall.
He was probably in his forties, with sunken cheeks and hollow eyes, but Wang Zhong recognized his face. This was the man who had held two children and repeatedly bowed to the players in thanks in the transport passageway in the industrial zone's northwest corner.
"You're... Aska?" Wang Zhong asked tentatively.
A glimmer appeared in the man's cloudy eyes. "You still remember my name..."
He turned and called to those behind the wall. "They're the ones who saved us! The kind people wearing helmets!"
A commotion rose behind the wall.
More workers came out.
Most leaned on one another as they walked, their steps unsteady.
Wang Zhong saw sores and bruises on much of their exposed skin, the result of prolonged malnutrition and harsh living conditions.
The children were in even worse shape.
The merchants' rules had never set an age limit for slaves. Even young children were sent into that wicked sweatshop.
Some children who looked to be in their early teens huddled in their mothers' arms, their bellies swollen—not because they'd eaten their fill, but because they suffered from severe edema.
Their eyes were huge against their tiny faces, and their gazes were vacant.
"How many people are here?" Wang Zhong asked.
"When we escaped, there were more than three thousand six hundred."
Aska's voice trembled. "Now... there are just over two thousand one hundred."
"More than four hundred died on the way here, and another nine hundred have died since we arrived..."
He pointed deeper into the mine.
There was a freshly dug shallow pit. More than a hundred bodies covered in rags lay piled beside it.
Some of the bodies were very small. They were clearly children.
Wang Zhong's Adam's apple bobbed. Even though he still believed this was a game, how could he not be moved by the sight of a mass grave like this?
Didn't they want to live happy lives, with full stomachs, warm clothes, and steady jobs?
Of course they did! But they'd been born in the Warhammer World...
A world where human lives were nothing more than currency in the Emperor's hands.
The kill line?
They'd been living on the brink of death since birth. What kill line could there be for them?
From the moment they were born, they were doomed to become expendable fodder. They had no choice in their own fate. Freedom? Wealth? Enough to eat and stay warm?
They didn't even dare to dream of such things.
He suppressed the ache in his heart and turned to speak over the regional channel. "Everyone, get out of the vehicles."
"Unload all the purified water and nutrient paste we have in reserve."
"Veteran driver, take a few people and find firewood nearby. It needs to be dry and burnable."
"Captain, after we exchanged currency for all that equipment, we only have enough food for ourselves for ten days," [Have You Been Loyal Today] reminded him softly.
"Carry out the order," Wang Zhong cut him off.
Wang Zhong went to a transport truck.
He opened the system shop and worked quickly.
[Exchange: Large Field Cooking Pot ×1, Cost: 20 Imperial Coins] [Exchange: Standard Nutrient Paste ×100 sticks, Cost: 30 Imperial Coins] [Exchange: Purified Water ×100 units (1 liter per unit), Cost: 30 coins]
A flash of white light, and a metal pot one and a half meters in diameter appeared on the truck. Sealed packs of nutrient paste and water pouches were piled beside it.
He called to several players standing by the truck.
"Carry all this out and get a fire going. We're making food."
"Understood, Captain."
The players had all undergone Type I enhancements. Carrying this little was nothing for them.
When the workers saw their benefactors, the people who had saved them before, starting to prepare food, they froze.
Aska opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but no words came out.
"Don't just stand there."
Wang Zhong gestured to the players. "Help build a stove and boil some water."
"Holy Blood, take the people from the Crimson Spirit and check the wounded. Anyone with medical knowledge, get to work. Exchange for medkits if you need to, and I'll reimburse you later."
The players sprang into action.
Some carried stones to build a stove, others dismantled wooden parts from an abandoned mine cart for firewood, and still others took medkits from the vehicles.
They'd bought those with Imperial Coins and were reluctant to use them themselves.
But now [Forever Loyal to the Emperor] wanted to do this, and they couldn't very well object. They'd just treat it as playing a charity simulator.
The players set the iron pot over the fire and poured in water. They tore open the nutrient paste and dropped it into the boiling water.
The gray-brown, viscous mash dissolved in the heat, giving off a smell of grains mixed with synthetic protein.
For Hive City workers, it was a familiar smell. Most of the food they'd eaten in their lives had been nutrient paste.
But to them now, it was the smell of salvation.
Wang Zhong personally held a wooden ladle and served the workers waiting in line.
Each person got half a ladle of mush and a small piece of compressed biscuit, broken off from the supplies the players had bought at the shop.
The first to take a bowl was a woman nearing fifty.
Her hands trembled, and the mush in her bowl nearly spilled.
She didn't rush to eat. Instead, she turned and handed the bowl to a girl of about eleven or twelve behind her.
The girl gulped it down greedily, mush running from the corner of her mouth.
The woman crouched beside her, watching, her cloudy eyes filled with tenderness.
Wang Zhong turned his face away. That was a mother's love. No matter how hungry she was, her first thought was still of her child.
"Why didn't you go to Red Rainbow Town or the nearby Hive Cities?"
Before you continue