I Want to Report

For some time now, heading to Sun-Eroding Island to mine has become a hot topic among players.

Players frequently share and boast about their mining yields on the forums, which truly makes those who haven't obtained mining qualifications green with envy.

This has also led to the brawls on the beach growing larger and larger in scale.

As for this, no one is happier than the White Ape King.

With this group of bizarre neighbors around, the Hunter has never come to his territory again.

Although he doesn't understand why these strange neighbors want to go to the Sun-Eroding Island mining area to throw their lives away, when he thinks of their eccentric hobbies, the White Ape King feels it doesn't seem wrong.

To repay these lovely neighbors, in the days that followed, the White Ape King led his clansmen to deliver "gifts" even more diligently.

Unknowingly, under the leadership of the White Ape King, the White Ape tribe has become the laborers for the players building their main city.

Meanwhile, over at the Sun-Eroding Island mining area.

As the number of players continues to increase, problems that were not originally obvious have gradually surfaced.

The overseers of several mining areas have been summoned by higher-ups during this period and questioned as to why the ore output from the mines is decreasing, and whether the laborers in the mines are slacking off.

To this question, the overseers simply cannot provide an answer.

The reason is simple: the overseers' duty is to supervise the laborers as they mine, but they never handle the mined ore themselves.

After digging up the ore, the laborers pile it in the central area of the mine, and then laborers responsible for transport haul this batch of ore out to be handed over to the clan's specialized agency responsible for calculating the quantity and value of the ore.

Therefore, when faced with the questioning, the overseers can only bite the bullet and answer.

The result, naturally, is a round of reprimands and a significant deduction of their resource subsidies from the clan.

Upon returning to the mining areas under their jurisdiction, these overseers, whose resource subsidies were docked, feel nothing but irritation.

At this moment, the laborers in the mining area become the targets for their venting.

At this time, the laborers in each mining area are gathered in the central area, and after a round of angry scolding, the overseers signal their subordinates to begin corporal punishment.

Subsequently, bursts of whipping sounds ring out, and the laborers struck by the whips immediately howl in pain, rolling on the ground.

As the whipping proceeds one by one, it soon reaches the players.

At this moment, the overseers of all the mining areas, without exception, choose to intervene.

In their view, the recent decrease in ore output must be related to the laborers slacking off while mining.

But only the human laborers have absolutely no possibility of being lazy.

For these human members who rely on their lives to mine, the overseers truly cannot find any fault.

From the moment each batch of human laborers enters and lifts their mining shovels, they never put them down again.

There is only one reason to make these human laborers put down their shovels, and that is death!

Therefore, for such dedicated laborers, it would be truly unreasonable to punish them further.

Thus, all the players, in a state of bewilderment, receive a special pardon from the overseers, sparing them from physical suffering.

In the following days, all the laborers in the mining area face incredibly grueling days.

Meal times are cut in half, and sleep time is reduced by a third.

All this squeezed-out time is scheduled for mining.

While mining, all laborers are watched closely by the overseers; if their movements are even slightly slow, they receive a whip.

Only the players are not specially monitored by the overseers.

Because in their eyes, the players are true "model laborers" who mine very conscientiously and do not need supervision at all.

Moreover, they even take the initiative to ask for overtime.

At night, when all the other miners go to sleep, only the players remain in the mining area, continuing to dig through the night; even when on the verge of death, they have eyes only for the pickaxes in their hands and the ore in front of them.

Although their strength is a bit weak and their mining efficiency doesn't seem high, their attitude toward mining is impeccable in the eyes of all the overseers.

Therefore, the consensus among all overseers is that no matter what, the human laborers must not be punished.

After this kind of life continues for two days, many laborers finally can't take it anymore.

This day.

After finishing a day of toil, the laborers drag their exhausted bodies back to the living area outside the mine.

After all the overseers leave, one laborer opens his eyes and wakes the fellow worker beside him.

"What's wrong?" Opening his bloodshot eyes, the fellow worker asks in confusion.

"I've had enough of this life; let's find a way to escape!"

"Are you tired of living? You know how strict the supervision is here!"

"It is precisely because I know how strict the supervision is here that we have a chance to escape. If we continue to stay here, we will lose our lives sooner or later, so we might as well take a gamble!"

Hearing these words, the fellow miner remains silent for a long time, then hesitates:

"What is your plan?"

"Create a disturbance, pull in as many laborers as possible, and we'll use them as cover to escape!"

"Can it work?"

"Don't forget what we used to do. With our knowledge of the mining area, I'm forty percent sure we can pull this off!"

The fellow miner's face twisted with struggle upon hearing this.

They were once members of the Faceless Tribe, and specifically, overseers responsible for managing a section of the mines.

The reason they had been reduced to laborers was that they had grown greedy back then and hoarded several high-grade ores.

After the incident was exposed, they were stripped of their overseer positions and their status as members of the Faceless Tribe, then sent into the mines to serve as laborers.

Besides them, many other overseers were discovered to have been hoarding spirit ores during the subsequent series of investigations, and they were all dealt with accordingly.

Following this, the mining area underwent a series of institutional reforms; from then on, overseers only had the authority to supervise laborers and no longer held the responsibility of counting ores.

The higher-ups of the Faceless Tribe knew clearly that giving overseers too much power would only fuel their greed.

The best way to put an end to such situations was to divide the labor, stripping away part of the overseers' authority and establishing a specialized agency to count the spirit ores.

From that day on, no more incidents of overseers hoarding ores occurred in the mining area.

Although they were now reduced to laborers, their past experience as overseers meant they were intimately familiar with the terrain and the surveillance situation of the mines.

A forty percent chance of escape was already quite high.

After hesitating for a moment, the laborer finally made up his mind and nodded heavily.

That very night, many sleeping miners were awakened, and in the end, all of them joined the escape camp.

This news quickly reached the ears of the players.

During lunch the next day, a laborer quietly approached them, attempting to recruit them into the escape camp as well.

Upon hearing this, the players' expressions were priceless.

I went through so much trouble to get in here, and you want to drag me into an escape?

Do you know how many punches I took to the face just to get in here?

Consequently, the players refused without hesitation, and a plan began to form in their minds.

That day, the exhausting labor finally ended.

Under the watchful eyes of the overseers, all the laborers headed toward the edge of the mining area to rest.

Once all the laborers had left, the overseers glanced at the players who were still mining. Long since accustomed to this, they were about to walk away.

At this moment, the players suddenly turned around and called out to the group of departing overseers.

Under the confused gazes of the overseers, one player asked with a solemn expression:

"If a large-scale escape of laborers were to occur, how would you respond?"

If these words had come from any other laborer, they would have certainly earned a few lashes. However, since this was asked by the "model laborers," the overseer who was questioned smiled after a brief silence and replied:

"Naturally, we would seal off the mining area and resolve the situation before reopening it."

Hearing the overseer mention sealing off the mining area, the players' expressions shifted, and they spoke in unison:

"I want to report a crime! A group of laborers is planning to escape!"